The Dark Age

Mark here... this next episode of Buffy is called, "The Dark Age".  This one delves a little into Giles' past.  Apparently, Giles and some friends from high school conjured a demon back in the day for kicks and now the demon is back for revenge.  The demon takes hold of dead or unconscious people. In the course of events he possesses Jenny Calendar.  In the end, Willow realizes the best way to defeat this demon is to have it possess Angel, who already has a demon inside him.

It's a fun episode I thought. We get a bit of Giles' past.  He dropped out of Oxford and abandoned his destiny as a Watcher for a time.  Falling into a crowd of rowdy occult-loving punks in London, as you do.  Also, he had the nickname "Ripper" during this time...a bit more punk rock than Rupert.

Otherwise, there's not too much else for me to say about the episode, except that I thought it would've made a better Halloween episode. The Halloween episode first introduced us to Giles' former friend Ethan Rayne as a villain, but here he shows up in a way that's much more integral to the plot. Also, he represents Giles' past as a bad boy.  In the episode, Ethan attempt to sic the demon on Buffy but fails and disappears...

Hey Laurel here..not much to add except about how much Jenni Calendar sucks.  Mark and I have talked about this at length, she is horribly miss-cast.  They really missed an opportunity here to cast a unique, smart, funny, off the beaten path woman, which is what Joss Whedon seems to be into, but instead we get Melrose place.  Her character could be so much more interesting, but alas, it is what is is.  Wah wah.

Overall, this episode gets 4 stakes, on the basis of fun Giles character development...

Lie To Me

Mark here... Laurel has made us dinner, keeping with our "bloodless" theme, she's made us an Eggplant Tagine that was really delicious! Seriously, this had nuts and dates and spices over couscous and was so amazing!

Anyway, on to the episode...Buffy's friend from LA, Ford, has moved to Sunnydale to attend Sunnyvale High.  Ford and Buffy were friends until she left LA and he has figured out she is the Slayer.  We never find out how but we see that he has a weird obsession with vampires.  Instantly Angel is suspicious of him, and we are too.  He's a little too obsessed and after pretending to kill a vampire, it turns out he let her get away.  Willow, Angel and Xander track down Ford later to a group of humans who are I guess worshipping vampires or at least infatuated with them. I guess they want to be like them or at least think they are misunderstood.  Angel calls them fools...  Ford, however, wants to be a vampire.  He ends up making a deal with Spike to trap Buffy, thereby providing the Slayer, if Spike turns him.

Buffy ends up trapped but questions why Ford would want this or trust Spike?  Turns out Ford is dying of brain cancer and wants to become immortal.  Buffy tries to explain that thats not really how it works, a vampire demon possesses  a vampire victim, but Ford doesn't care.  In the end Ford gets what he wants, but in the final act Buffy stakes him as he awakes from his grave.  The episode has a nice twist on Ford as the villain.  Also, the title comes from Buffy at Ford's grave (before staking him) asking Giles if life ever gets easier.  Giles says "Do you want the truth?" and Buffy says, "Lie to me".  I thought, while it wasn't an amazing episode, the dying twist with Ford made it a good episode.

Separately, still not buying the Angel-Buffy romance.  We do get a little insight into Angel's past though after Buffy questions him about seeing him with Drusilla.  In the past, Angel made Drusilla a vampire by turning her after driving her mad by killing her family in front of her first...

Hey Laurel here...not much to add about the episode.  No one really got to shine, especially not Angel who continues to be super boring.  When Mark and I were talking earlier he made a good point that they are trying to build suspense about Angel, so we are not supposed to know too much about him yet but geez, get a personality, 253 year old person.  I feel like it's a missed opportunity but Mark makes a good point about us not knowing too much about him too soon.

What I do want to add is holy moly this Tagine was super good.  I have been struggling (and I think Mark has too) to some up with vegetarian ideas that are fully satisfying as an indulgent weekend main meal, but this one really fit the bill.  It was actually a blue apron recipe that I will definitely save and make again.  Between the chickpeas, almonds, and "holland" eggplant that has an especially hearty texture it was super satisfying and we didn't miss the meat at all, even for a weekend meal.  I think this will inspire us for future bloodless episodes!

Over all we give this episode 3 stakes.  We would maybe consider 3 1/2 if we had a graphic for that, but we don't so 3 will have to do.

Halloween

Hey Laurel here.  So this episode is about...you guessed it...Halloween!

This episode was ok...I think it's actually a great idea but wasn't executed to the fullest.  the idea is that some evil kind of magical guy from Gile's past comes to town, opens a costume store, and casts a spell on everyone who has rented a costume from his store.  They all actually turn into what they are dressed up as.  In the case of our main characters Xander turns into a bad ass soldier, Willow turns into a ghost, and Buffy turns into an 18th century noble lady.  Great idea, right?  They didn't really run with it.  Xander is sort of awesome, but Willow is just herself but can walk through walls.  Buffy turns super annoying.  I feel like the show really missed an opportunity to show more people acting out their alter egos, and also they made Buffy extra annoying.  Instead of just being helpless, they actually gave her dialogue that beat us over the head with the fact that she was helpless.  something to the effect of "I was raised to believe that men should be in charge blah blah blah."  That is not how anyone from the time would have spoken, they just would have acted that way.  Also Sarah Michelle does a terrible job of it, showing her limited range.  She is good at being Buffy but not really anything  else.  How did she ever do I know what you did last summer?  Maybe that is going to require another viewing...

Haha...Mark here, and I agree with Laurel.  I won't blame it all on Sarah Michelle Gellar as the writing for the 18th century noble woman wasn't doing her any favors, but yeah she does go too over the top.  Really the stars of the episode are Xander, who finally gets to do some ass kicking, Cordelia, who doesn't change personalities (she bought her costume at a different shop), and Giles, because we get a little insight into his past.  As Laurel says, the villain who orchestrated events is an old acquaintance of Giles', Ethan Rayne.  Giles shows a more aggressive side than we've seen of him when he beats up Ethan.  Also, Ethan hints that Giles may have a past a little different from the tweed and earl grey persona we know.

We see a bit of Spike and Drusilla as they try to take advantage of the evening's events, but it doesn't amount to much, other than Drusilla's premonitions make them aware that Buffy will be weak.  On the vampire-demon front in general, Halloween is sort of a non-event we're told.

Separately, the Angel-Buffy romance is heating up, I guess... They had a coffee date.  It's kind of creepy that this 241 year old is attracted to a 16 year old if you think about it too much. Also, I'm not so sold on it at this point.  Far more interesting is Oz's (Seth Green) attraction to Willow..."Who IS that girl?"

All in all, we'd give this 3 stakes...

Reptile Boy

Mark here...We're on to our next episode of Buffy season 2, this one is called "Reptile Boy" and this one is also a bit of a blah one. The premise is that frat boys are abducting girls.  We know this from the show's opener but the gang does not.  So Cordelia takes a liking to some frat boys who in turn take a liking to Buffy.  They invite them to a frat party.  Buffy, feeling put off by Angel and overworked by Giles, decides to go along.  We sort of see it coming from a mile away that the 2 of them will be roofied by these frat boys.  When they are awakened they are chained in the basement to be fed to a reptile-y demon by the frat boys.  Later we find out the frat boys get riches in return for their "offering"

As I said the episode's really nothing special.  Xander tries to follow the girls in and embarrassingly gets turned into a frat pledge.  Cordelia's really the only one who gets to shine here.  She gets some real zingers in her dialogue as she's determined to impress the frat boys.

Hey Laurel here...Not much extra to say about this episodes except for a few snippets that I loved or hated.  I love that the episode opens with Buffy AND Zander braiding Willow's hair.  I love that Cordelia is extra sassy.  When she's making plans with Buffy for the frat party she tells her something like "go heavy on the make up and stick to the shadows.  It will be so fun it's like we are sisters!"  I hate that they didn't try harder to make it plausible that Buffy gets roofied.  I mean, you know Cordelia is going to, but Buffy?  They should have made it so that Zander gave her the drink in a round about way or something, we are really supposed to believe that some creepy frat guys give Buffy a drink and she just chugs it no questions asked?  Lame.

This episode is not terribly but its just meh.  We agree it's 2 stakes.

Inca Mummy Girl

Hey dudes Laurel here...

This episode was sort of a yawn except for the intro of Seth Green.  He has a terrible mustache and he's in a terrible band, but still, it's Seth Green and he obviously likes Willow so points for that.

Besides that so boring!  Some douchebag hoping to make a buck tries to steal an ancient seal from a mummy from olden times on display at a museum (obviously ti was Giles idea to go on this excursion)... but joke's on the douchebag!  She (the mummy) attacks him, sucks the life out of him to take as her own, and somehow she ends up with braces because of this exchange which is how the gang knows there's something fishy going on.

The reason she has braces is that the whole time she's been a mummy she keeps getting to live mini lives by making out with people and stealing the lives out of them.  She could have had Xander (our poor, naive, soulmate seeking boy) but she has an attack of conscious at the last minute because he is such a good guy she can't bear to steal his life.

Mark here... Laurel just did the thankless job of summing up this snorefest.  Really, this was the definition of a filler episode. After last episode, which was so exciting, this was a bit hard to pay attention to.   I don't know what else to say, except that the best thing about this episode was the introduction of Seth Green's Oz character.  I don't know if we know his band's name yet but I'm going to spill the beans...Dingoes Ate My Baby!

So, normally we'd give this episode 1 stake, but based on the introduction of Seth Green, we are giving it 2 stakes...barely!!

School Hard

Mark here... This episode was much better than the last 2.  We get our first introduction to Spike and Drusilla, two vampires who are really much better adversaries.  Spike in particular is so charismatic as a villain!  So the episode is basically some vampire threat is approaching at the same time as parent-teacher night.  Buffy and the gang get trapped in the school as the vampires attack, lead by Spike.  We see this coming as Spike comes to town and runs into Buffy.  As Giles finds out, Spike has killed 2 slayers previously.  Drusilla is portrayed as having been wounded and slightly weaker.  Laurel wasn't so into Drusilla but I think she's a bit creepy.  She's definitely not as threatening as Spike at this point.

Spike really blows into town and shakes up the plot at this point.  By the end of the episode he has killed the Anointed One, or the Annoying One as he called him...basically the little brat who seems like a plot idea that went nowhere.  Spike's killing him changes the game and gives us a clean slate in terms of villains.

The whole idea of the vampire invasion on parent-teacher night is really fun.  Buffy's mom Joyce is there and has been read the riot act about Buffy by Principal Snyder, but then Buffy takes charge in a crisis situation. Joyce isn't on to the vampires and slayers thing yet thanks to some dark lighting, but she knows her daughter showed courage and leadership while a "gang" attacked the school.

Hey Laurel here...The only thing I have to add is that we get our first glimpse of Buffy exposing to her mom how much of a bad ass she is!  Her mom thinks that she is just some troubled teen who is having a hard time adjusting to a new school.  This episode in addition to Buffy handling all of the arrangements for parent teacher night as a penance for being a bad student, we witness Joyce seeing her daughter totally handling a the super scary vampire situation like a champ.  Hopefully Buffy will start getting a little credit for all the work she is doing behind the scenes to save the whole town, and not just be labeled as a troubled teen going forward.

Also Spike is the best thing to happen to this show so far.  I love a likable, charismatic villain.  So far the villains (the master in particular) have just been totally gross and completely hate-able, Spike adds some complexity to the mix because we know he is bad yet he has so much charisma and personality.  Mark and me both love a bad boy.

In conclusion, we give this episode 4 stakes, really a great episode!

Some Assembly Required

Hey Laurel here...this episode is kind of a more gruesome take on weird science...Willow is friends with a smart kid a school, Chris, who's older brother, a HS football star,  has died tragically about a year earlier.  At the same time Buffy discovers an empty grave where a teenage girl has been dug up and taken.  When Angel creepily follows Cordelia in a dark parking lot, she gets sacred because she is being followed, fumbles her keys, and hops into a dumpster.  Why she doesn't realize by now that she shouldn't have her keys ready ahead of time before she wanders out into a dark parking lot is beyond me, but I digress.  In the dumpster she and Angel find a bunch of teen girl body parts.  It turns out they are all leftover parts from teenage girl grave robberies, with a few choice parts missing.

It turns out that Chris and his nerdy yearbook friend are trying to assemble the perfect girl body, out of dead girl body parts, so that Chris's brother who they brought back from the dead won't be lonely anymore.  But what will they do for the head?  They have to get a "fresh" head because formaldehyde kills brain cells.  The resurrected brother chooses Cordelia to be the head donor.

So at the big game on Friday, the boys try to abduct Cordelia in the deserted girl's locker room, where Cordelia inexplicably is hanging out by herself.  Buffy foils their abduction, but the boys don't give up easily and end up abducting Cordelia minutes later when she wanders into a dark corner under the bleachers at the big game.  How hard is it to not find yourself alone in a dark corner at a fucking high school football game Cordelia?!?  Anyway they haul her away to their weird secret laboratory where Buffy and the gang save the day again.  Chris's resurrected brother burns up in a fire that has started in the ruckus, and is dead again.  All is as it should be.  You shouldn't mess with the universe, teens!

Mark here...Laurel did a great job of summing up the episode.  It's sort of a teenage twist on the Frankenstein story.  It's not the most imaginative episode, although I will give them points for making it creepy and scary.  But yeah, why Cordelia, having grown up in Sunnydale, doesn't know at this point to watch her back?!?

There's also a subplot of Giles trying to work up the courage to ask Jenny Calendar out on a date.  She ends up doing the heavy lifting there.  I'm still not sold on Jenny Calendar but I think it plays out cute enough.  I guess my problem is more that the actress just doesn't fit the "technopagan" description.

Anyway, I think we both decided that this episode merits another 3 stakes.  It was actually a bit more entertaining than the last but still a fairly average monster-of-the-week episode.