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|August 1 2012, 06:06 AM
Rear Admiral
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
Discontinuity between the movie/the script and canon
Several things from the script and the movie that Joss changed for the TV show:
And now let's look at how this is resolved in The Origin.
The Origin comic revisted: canon version of Buffy's origin story
This 3-part comic, written by Christopher Golden and Brereton based on Whedon's script for the movie, restores most of Whedon's original script, attempts (for the most part, successfully, though there are a few problematic spots) to reconcile it with the show canon, and – unlike the movie, is very close to the tone and spirit of the TV show.
I reviewed The Origin comic before – in the very first post on this thread. A few words in addition to this:
The only big problem I have with the comic is with the artist drawing green, pointy-eared vampires. That aside, the art by Joe Bennett is very good. They obviously wanted to make a complete break with the movie, so none of the characters look like their movie counterparts. Of course, Buffy looks like Sarah Michelle Gellar rather than Kristy Swanson, Joyce and Hank look like they do on the show (in the movie, Buffy's parents both have dark hair and look ridiculously tanned and a bit trashy) while Merrick looks like Richard Riehle, who played him in the show flashback. But the other characters, who never appeared on the show, are all given a new look: Pike has white hair and a goatee and doesn't look like Luke Perry (in later, non-canon Dark Horse comics, he looked different and had brownish hair, but didn't look like Perry either); Lothos has long red hair and looks nothing like Rutger Hauer; Jeffrey is blond, while movie Jeffrey was dark-haired, each one of Buffy's friends has different hair color and hairstyle than their movie counterparts, etc.
I really like the way they portrayed Merrick in the comic – he is passionate, stern and determined, a very strong figure – completely different from Donald Sutherland's bland, sleepwalking through the role version. Pike is also a lot more animated and likeable. The vampires are scary and the fights are well drawn.
The comic restores most of Joss' best lines and moments from the script, and adds some new ones (Buffy: "Don't think of me as late – think of me as time-impaired!") though, unfortunately, they also added a really dumb joke (when Amilyn has his arm ripped off, he seems more concerned about his jacket – "This was real leather"). There's also one screw-up: the inscription on the newly sired vampire reads "1972-1990", even though it should be taking place in 1996. But this is nitpicking now.
Let's see what the writers of the comic did about the continuity issues:
she just says it's a story for another time.
Pike was clearly created as something of a Whedonian perfect guy – he's the only teenage boy in the movie/script/comic who isn't sexist (Pike's friend Benny is just as bad in that regard as the jocks Andy and a rather good fighter for someone with no superpowers, he has no problem accepting Buffy's strength and leadership – in fact, he accepts it and likes it much more readily than Buffy herself, which is a source of strife for a while. (Canon says nothing about the reasons why he and Buffy split, but in the comic Viva Las Buffy, he leaves because he realizes he's just a liability for Buffy. In another non-canon comic, Note from the Underground, he finds Buffy in Sunnydale a few years later, he helps her but is confused with all the things that have happened to Buffy since, and ends up telling her friends stories about Buffy's LA past.)
In my earlier review, I gave the comic 3-, which might have been too harsh – I now think it's closer to 3.5. One thing I really like about this early Buffy story is that the Slayer was still clearly portrayed as the underdog.The feelings that the Slayers were up against the odds was much stronger in the script and The Origin, when the vampires were not established as being weaker than Slayers. This kind of got lost as the show increasingly started making the Slayers look like almost invincible, unbeatable superwomen (culminating in the utterly ridiculous "Troll Hammer" moment in season 5) that almost all vampires (except for trill seekers) run from, which doesn't fit with the idea that they all die very young. And, it also takes something away from Buffy's heroism and the gravity of her story, IMO, if her task is portrayed as not being incredibly difficult and dangerous.
Last edited by DevilEyes; August 1 2012 at 06:25 AM.
|August 2 2012, 08:55 PM
Rear Admiral
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
|August 2 2012, 09:12 PM
Part-time poltergeist
Location: Ireland
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
"Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can." - Terry Pratchett.
|August 2 2012, 09:16 PM
Rear Admiral
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
|August 2 2012, 09:18 PM
Vice Admiral
Location: 1123 6536 5321
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
|August 2 2012, 09:22 PM
Part-time poltergeist
Location: Ireland
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
"Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can." - Terry Pratchett.
|September 9 2012, 11:37 PM
Rear Admiral
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
So, Ive finished my re-rewatch (!) of season 1. I expected it to go faster, but there were a lot of distractions from unexpected work, to the fact that, well, it was hot summer weather and most days were being spent on a beach, and a lot of nights out in the city. My impressions were mostly the same as the last time, which is no surprise since the last rewatch was just over a year ago. I took notes of the few things I didnt notice before or didnt include in my previous reviews, but most of it were fun minor things, from fashion choices to various details to mistakes you only notice after youve watched the show a few times.
You can check my previously posted reviews and ratings (out of 5 stars):
1.01. Welcome to the Hellmouth (3.5)
1.02. The Harvest (2.5)
1.03. Witch (3)
1.04. Teachers Pet (1.5)
1.05. Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (3)
1.06. The Pack (3.5)
1.07. Angel (4)
1.08. I, Robot, You Jane (2)*
1.09. The Puppet Show (3)
1.10. Nightmares (4)
1.11. Out of Mind, Out of Sight (4)
1.12 Prophecy Girl (4.5)
Season 1 overview (3.21)*revised rating
Its the weakest season of BtVS, but its still pretty good on its own and better than many people give it credit for. The two-part pilot is pretty strong, except for the very unsatisfying ending to The Harvest, with the lighthearted upbeat scene thats completely out of place since Xander has just lost out of his best friends. I still think that failing to ever reference the Jesse storyline and how it affected Xander was one of the shows biggest failings. The good news is that the comic season 9 has recently had a Jesse reference, with
which is one of the best things the otherwise unimpressive season 9 has done so far. Although its worth mentioning that Xander never actually brought himself to do it and stake Jesse he was spared that moment of decision since someone accidentally pushed Jesse onto his stake. Well never know if Xander actually wouldve been able to go through with it on his own.
Xander telling someone in a similar situation about the time he had to stake his best friend
There is a lot of cheesiness early on, and if someone saw episodes like Teachers Pet, they might have decided that BtVS is just a crappy, silly show and moved on. But the show gets notably better midway, with The Pack and Angel, and ends strongly with Nightmares, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, and the shows first great episode, the season finale Prophecy Girl. Sarah Michelle Gellar is really amazing in that episode, particularly in the very emotional scene in the library right after Buffy learns that shes supposed to face the Master and die. (I quit!... Giles, Im 16 years old. I dont wanna die.) (Such a difference to The Gift, when she well, I wouldnt go as far to say she wants to die, but she doesnt exactly not want to die.) I dont think Ive noticed before that Joyce even more explicitly, and unwittingly, inspires Buffy to fight the destiny when she says: Is it written somewhere that you cant go (to the school dance)?
One of the things I somehow used to miss before is a bit of personal info about Giles (there isn't a lot of that in the show), that he has a friend who went insane while researching the praying mantises from Teachers Pet, and that he calls to a lunatic asylum for advice. I wonder how common it is for Watchers to go insane.
Its almost painful to see how downtrodden and without confidence and self-belief Willow is these early episodes she often seems like she really feels she should get someones permission to exist, as Cordelia would say (Excuse me? Who gave you permission to exist?) This kind of inferiority complex doesnt happen just because youre bullied at school, it has to stem from the relationship with the parents; when we see her mother in season 3 and learn how much Willows parents actually ignore her (while at the same time being very strict about following the rules), it explains a lot. Theres a very telling moment in Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest, when Giles asks Buffy? as someone is entering the library, and Willow answers Its just me. She slowly starts gaining more confidence, but at first she seems only able to stand up to people when they speak ill of Buffy, as if she doesnt feel she has the right to protest when someone is disparaging and insulting her personally. An early sign of non-superpowered badassery happens in The Harvest, when Willow fights at the Bronze and actually confronts Darla to save Giles. She also shows hidden strengths in I Robot, You Jane, The Pack and Prophecy Girl but the biggest growth comes not in her fighting the vampires or confronting Moloch, but in rejecting Xanders offer to be his substitute date for the dance after Buffy turned him down, because its the first time she actually stands up for herself.
When Buffy mentions Giles to Willow in the pilot, Willow starts gushing about how cool and great he is, which, together with the fact she has a photo of herself and Giles in her locker door, gives credence to her revelation in season 4 that she used to have crush on him. Speaking of little details you notice only after seeing the episode a few times: Props on Willows locker door include a big logo of Nerf Herder, the band that provided the theme song for the show. Buffys locker door has a picture of Michelangelos David, a big picture of a smiley and a red rose. The funniest detail is that the text in Marcies textbook under the headline Chapter 1: Assassination and Infiltration Case Example 1: Radical Cult Leader as Intended Target actually consists of the lyrics to Happiness is a Warm Gun by The Beatles, written as prose. I usually dont notice mistakes in the show (such as boom mikes in the shot) but I notice this time that in Angel you can see the reflection of Darlas face on the bookshelf. Then there's Buffy's school file in I Robot, You Jane, which not only gives a different birth date than the one later displayed on her gravestone in Nightmares and The Gift, but lists her as a senior.
Anti-smoking moments abound (this seems to have been a thing in the 90s, think of The X-Files). In Nightmares, a girl goes to the boiler room to smoke, and gets attacked by the Ugly Man with the camera zooming on the poster Smoking kills. Fortunately, theres also some subversion in the same episode with Snyders line There are three things I I find it funny that the poster Buffy was using for target practice in Angel, when she was planning to kill Angel, was one with a hot, cool-looking dark-haired guy who smokes and an incription Smoking sucks. That must be the worst anti-smoking poster ever the message one is likely to get seems more like Smoking makes you cool, look at this guy!
Last year when I rewatched season 1, I was surprised to recognize Marcie Ross as Clea Duvall. This time, when I watched The Pack, I thought Hey, thats August from Once Upon a Time! Eion Bailey played Kyle, one of the group of bullies.
Some of the lines worth a mention:
For I am the king of cretins - all the lesser cretins bow before me! Xander in Witch (This line is, incidentally, the source of the username of one of the prominent members of Buffyforums.)
Can you vague it up for me? Youre like a textbook with legs Buffy snarking at Giles
Whats your childhood trauma? Cordelia to Buffy
Excuse you. Cordelia when she Buffy when they bump into each other.
Well, I know that I'll miss thee intellectual thrill of spelling words with my arms." - Amy on cheerleading
Hes gone binary on us. Buffy about Moloch the Destroyer in I, Robot, You Jane.
Buffy even uses the term pop culture reference:
Buffy: My spider sense is tingling.
Giles: Your spider sense?
Buffy: Pop culture reference, sorry.
Something I havent noticed before is that Giles used the term Slayerettes as a nickname for the non-Buffy Scoobies. The term Fang Gang is also used but its Buffy referring to the Three (the vampires sent by the Master to kill her in Angel.) Buffy makes up a couple of ironic nicknames for herself: Thats me, Destructo Girl, What am I, Knowledge Girl? Buffy also ironically asks if she should make Im a Slayer, ask me how buttons. I wonder if there was ever such a button either as official or fanmade merchandise? :-)
Xanders and Angels You were totally checking my neck! conversation in Prophecy Girl wasnt the only subtextual/funny slashy moment in season 1: it almost made me laugh to see how much the scene with Luke kneeling and sucking the Masters blood from his hand in The Harvest looked like a blow job even Joss commented on it in his DVD commentary.
Speaking of things that sound suspiciously like double entendres Giles lectures Buffy about slaying: Youre wasting too much time and energy. You should plunge and move on, plunge and move on Sounds like something Faith might say. Slaying really does seem phallic, what with the sharp stakes and penetration, which is an inversion since Slayers are women. Until Buffy gets hot for certain vampires and lets them penetrate her in a different way inversion of an inversion?
Its incredible how thin David Boreanaz was back then. SMG looked great with a more natural hair color than the uber-blondeness of seasons 2 and 3, and had a fuller figure compared to how thin she became in later seasons pretty much the opposite of Nicholas Brendon. Only Alyson Hannigan remained the same, except for her ever-changing hairstyles. During Xander's first shirtless scene, I was thinking that he's way too buff for a 16-year old geek... Not surprising, since the actor was 26 at the time. I wonder if a lot of fandom animosity towards Xander and anger at his immature behavior wouldnt be there if he had been played by a skinny, pimply teenager; it's easy of forget just how young hes supposed to be. Although all the actors are older than their character's age, as it's usually the case on teen shows, I think Brendon and Charisma Carpenter (both 26) are less convincing as 16-year olds than SMG (20 at the time) and Alyson Hannigan (who looked much younger than 23.
What particularly strikes me while watching season 1 is that and Buffy she seems much more mature than the Buffy we see in the current comics, which is largely because of Georges Jeantys habit of drawing her as a child-woman, but also to the current writing which makes her look like a pale shadow of Buffy, without her strength and spunk. Season 1 can switch between being a bubbly, ditzy-looking teenager one moment and being remarkably mature the next moment.
Fashion watch: They were sure trying to attract male viewers with those really short skirts and long boots Buffy is wearing in every episode. Her outfits certainly changed a lot throughout the seasons, whether it was the decision of Joss and co. or just SMG insisting on wearing less revealing clothes. But, to be fair, though I don't know Californian schools, I don't find those outfits outrageous as some fans do, since I remember how a lot of girls (me included) used to dress in my high school. It's still funny that she's always wearing those very short skirts and nothing underneath while Willow wears sweaters and tights. Makes you wonder, what season and what temperature is it supposed to be? However, Buffys outfits while slaying are practical - we don't get the ridiculous sight of her slaying in skirts and high heels, which tends to happen with many action heroines.
Xander and Willow tend to wear shirts with weird designs, such as Willows duck shirt, Xanders shirt with mushrooms and Xanders hypopothamus shirt. At one point, Willow wears a Scooby-Doo T-shirt. Buffy herself has a couple of T-shirt with what looks like cartoon drawings of women with 1950s hairstyles . Amy goes from standard valley girl clothes to a hippy look, with a baggy shirt with a peace sigh, by the end of Witch, when shes free of her mothers influence; shell switch to a Goth look by season 3.
Altered states: Buffy and Cordelia under Catherines spell in Witch; Catherine swapping her body with her daughter Amy in the same episode (the first body swap in the show the second one will lead to a much better storyline in season 4); Xander possessed by the hyena in The Pack; Buffy hypnotized by the Master in Prophecy Girl.
Noncon/dubcon/sexual assault: 2 so far and both involve Xander, but the first time as a victim and the second one as the perpetuator: the Insect Lady trying to mate with Xander (and having mated with others; Hyena!Xanders attempted rape of Buffy. Some even consider the Master biting Buffy as a metaphorical sexual assault, but I will stick just to non-metaphorical ones (or else wed have to count every vampire attack as sexual assault).
Sunnydale High body count: 10 students (Jesse [The Harvest], Dave and Fritz [I, Robot, You Jane], Emily and Morgan [The Puppet Show], Kevin and 4 other students [Prophecy Girl]; 1 teacher (Dr Gregory, the likeable biology teacher killed by the Insect Lady); 1 former student (the Extreme Dead Guy in the locker in the pilot). Out of these, Daves death was listed as suicide, and Jesse is probably listed under missing persons.
Giles gets knocked out: 3 times - Witch, Never Kill a Boy on the First Date, Prophecy Girl
Buffy figures it all out: The Harvest, Witch, Teacher's Pet, The Pack (where shes sure that somethings wrong with Xander long before Giles recognizes it), Nightmares. The only time Giles figures it out is in Out of Mind, Out of Sight.Ive noticed before that Buffy is most often the one that figures out the mystery or the solution, despite the commonly held view that Giles and Willow are supposed to be the clever ones (which even the characters in the show hold, see The Puppet Show where knowing the square root or other is regarded as the ultimate proof of intelligence); in fact, Giles mostly just provides knowledge and exposition.
Cordelia in distress: Welcome to the Hellmouth (saved by Buffy), The Harvest (saved by Xander), Witch (saved by Buffy), Out of Mind, Out of Sight (saved by Buffy again). Its only in Prophecy Girl that Cordy gets to be the savior for once saving Jenny and Willow by driving them in her car to the library. She and Willow do scream a lot in that episode, but they also kick ass when they need to. Bets Cordelia moment from season 1 is when she bites the vampires hand, saying: Lets see how you like it!
Bands at the Bronze: Dashboard Prophets in Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest, and Velvet Chain in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date.
The opening voiceover (In every generation, a Slayer is born ) made its debut in Angel, spoken by an unknown, cheesy-sounding male voice. I liked it much better when it was replaced with Giles voice in season 2, and even better than that when it was scrapped altogether. The picture quality isnt that great early on, and those early episode are incredibly dark literally. As the show got metaphorically darker as it went on, it also got literally lighter.
|September 9 2012, 11:40 PM
Rear Admiral
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
However, there are lots of things in BtVS portrayal of high school that are universal and do resonate a lot and make me think of my high school experience. The bullying, for starters; the way that certain students form cliques, and groups of students who bully others, like those in The Pack. Someone like Cordelia is also instantly recognizable (even though she's an exaggerated version, a lot of things she says are way OTT), the "cool" people ("popular" would be a misleading word - in fact, most people hate them, but they act like they're in charge) who are usually rich, dress up in expensive clothes and are considered sexy (partly due to looking older than their years - this is something that teenagers find appealing) and who have their cliques of friends/sycophants, and spend a lot of time mocking other people. There are also people like Willow, who could be called "nerds", though it's not the same stereotype - e.g. we don't have the cliche that liking SF or comics makes you a nerd - but people who are bookish, shy and tend to dress conservatively, like their parents are choosing their clothes (which they might be); boys who cover their insecurity with jokes and try to act the role of the class clown, since they don't think they can be the hot manly men; students that nobody notices (the "invisible" ones); and there are those that are considered crazy, weird or freaky due to their personality or attitude. When people assign a certain role to you, it's generally hard to get rid of it. And though there aren't any official popularity contest, you always knew that there was an unofficial hierarchy, such as, who are considered the hottest girls, or hottest boys. On my first week of high school (that's when we were 15-16), the boys in my class even had a vote between themselves for the Hottest Girl in Class, and one of them (the "class clown" boy) announced the results to the class during the break. There was a lot of competitiveness and jealousy between girls - things like Cordelia being jealous of Buffy and frustrated when boys would be more into Buffy (as in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date) because a "weirdo" isn't supposed to challenge and best her in hotness stakes, is something that mirrors my "relationship" with the Cordelia of my class, though in our cases it lasted much longer and was much worse and never got better.
Finally, here's a couple of songs used in BtVS season 1. See you next when I re-rewatch the first 11 episodes of season 2.
Dashboard Prophets - "Ballad for Dead Friends" (from The Harvest)
Velvet Chain - "Strong" (from Never Kill a Boy on the First Date)
|September 9 2012, 11:56 PM
Vice Admiral
Location: 1123 6536 5321
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
No offence but it's taken you 19 months to get that far?
If as you say in the opening post that you intend to watch all 144 eps of Buffy and 110 of Angel, at that rate you'll be done around... 2019?
|September 10 2012, 12:03 AM
Rear Admiral
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
I've already explained why I'm rewatching it again from the start. It's exactly because it's been so long and it feels like I've seen those season 1 and 2 episodes ages ago. I'm going to try to marathon season 2 and the first part of season 3 in the next weeks and then continue with the regular reviews. I'm hoping it will be at least 2 episodes a week.
|September 10 2012, 04:30 AM
Location: Tropical Minnesota
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
Do re mi, do re mi, fa mi re do.
---DS9 "Chrysalis"
|November 9 2012, 08:39 PM
Part-time poltergeist
Location: Ireland
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
Some of those are really good.
"Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can." - Terry Pratchett.
|January 31 2015, 01:02 AM
Rear Admiral
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
So... this is pretty embarrassing to say, but I started this rewatch a few years ago, believing I will post regularly and finish it within a year. But then, a lot of stuff was happening, I was moving, got a new job, was distracted by a lot of things and didn't find time to write my reviews (which always turned out to be pretty long and time-consuming)... And thus it was that, once upon a time, I made a long, long break, after I had posted the review of episode 3.10 Amends. Then I decided to rewatch the show once again, posted a review of the movie and overviews of seasons 1 and 2, again... and then another break happened, this time some 2.5 years long!
I almost lost hope I'd ever finish this rewatch... but I never give up on my projects, I just postpone them. It was just a matter of something making me get off my butt... or rather, making me get on my butt in front of my computer and forcing me to write. And finally, that something happened several months ago, when my dear friends and fellow Buffy fans on the Buffyforums.net forum started a collective Buffy rewatch, which I have been participating in, with each of us picking an episode, two or three each season to review, as a starting point for discussion.
If you want to join in, register, if you don't, you can lurk and read our reviews and discussions:
Buffy rewatch season 1: http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...watch-SEASON-1
Buffy rewatch season 2: http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...watch-SEASON-2
Buffy rewatch season 3: http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...watch-SEASON-3
This has given me the boost to get back to Buffy, rewatch it from the beginning, and try to continue where I've left.
There's no need to write new reviews for the episodes I've already covered - for most of them, the new rewatch did not change my opinion significantly. You can find the review of the Buffy movie, "The Origin" comic, all season 1 and 2 episodes as well as season overviews, as well as the first 10 episodes of season 3, in this thread, as well as on my Livejournal under the "Buffy rewatch" tag, and most of them are also on Dreamwidth under the "Buffy rewatch" tag.
I've also written several new and improved reviews for some of the season 2 and 3 episodes I've already reviewed here:
2.10 What's My Line, part 2 http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...008#post698008
2.19 I Only Have Eyes For You http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...008#post698008
2.22 Becoming, part 2 http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...l=1#post698722
3.04 Beauty and the Beasts http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...835#post699835
3.09 The Wish http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...835#post699835
3.10 Amends http://www.buffyforums.net/forums/sh...262#post701262
Now that I've caught up with where I was when I made this embarrassingly, shockingly long break, I intend to continue with my reviews. I've rewatched almost to the end of season 3, and I will be posting the reviews for the second part of Buffy (episodes 3.11 - 3.22) of season 3 over the next week or two. After that, I hope to settle into posting an episode review each week - a reasonably realistic schedule, and parallel with the Buffyforums group rewatch, which is also one episode a week. (Though I must say in advance that this may mean no episode for two weeks and then a couple in a row, for instance - since my job is such that I can have free time at times and then be terribly busy once I get the new translation task and a tight deadline - it's all unpredictable.)
Right - so, let's start, or rather continue, with episode 3.11.
|January 31 2015, 01:08 AM
Rear Admiral
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
Im not entirely sure how I feel about Gingerbread. There are lots of things I really like about this episode, but there also some aspects of it that severely bug me. I think my opinion of the episode is still mostly positive, but I can see why it has quite a few haters.
Jane Espensons first episode of Buffy is a pretty effective and biting satire. Granted, its satirizing of the conservative elements of society, such as the associations of concerned parents intent on censorship, about mass hysteria and witch hunts (and in this case, its even literally a witch hunt), complete with bullying of the outcasts by some students, and violations of privacy through the raids of pupils lockers by the police in search of drugs (in this case, witch stuff), organized by the student-hating, disciplinarian principal Snyder, is not terribly original but Id be lying if I said its not still enjoyable to watch. (And you have to laugh when you hear that Joyces concerned parents organization is called MOO Mothers Opposing the Occult worst acronym ever?)
But this episode also brings up an issue that I dont think Ive seen often dealt with (and this is what I like best about the episode) the phenomenon that nowadays the best way to manipulate the public through feelings of outrage and to cause irrational witch hunts is to use images of children specifically, cute, angelic-looking, white, and, preferably, blonde children which maximizes the outrage the public can feel about those who are alleged to have harmed them. (Recently, the excellent Danish film The Hunt also dealt with the irrational and terrifying behavior of a contemporary community when one of its members is falsely accused of sexually molesting children on really flimsy evidence, which doesnt prevent everyone from jumping to the conclusion that hes guilty.) Buffy herself is, at first, as outraged as her mother and everyone else by the murder of the children, but later, seeing the communitys behavior, starts wondering why everyone is this outraged this one time, even though people are being killed every day, and delivers my favorite line in the episode when Angel tries to explain the reasons behind peoples behavior (referencing another recent victim):
Angel: They were children. Innocent. It makes a difference.
Buffy: And Mr. Sanderson from the bank had it coming?
Espenson drives the point home through her fun reinterpretation of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale as a real life story which was really an example of an evil demon using an illusion to present himself as a couple of cute children, in order to cause mass hysteria in various communities, and make people turn on each other.
Theres also some harsh satire in the portrayal of Willows mother Sheila (who appears in the show for the first and the last time, though she will be mentioned later), a caricature of a liberal intellectual (probably a psychologist) whose abstract talk about adolescent behavior (apparently her area of expertise) is in sharp contrast to her complete neglect and lack of interest in her own daughter. (She takes several months to notice Willows change of hairstyle, and cant get the name of Willows best friend right, constantly calling her Bunny.) Willows lack of self-esteem certainly becomes easier to understand once weve met Sheila.
But while Sheila is portrayed as straight-up bad mother, Joyce is a more complicated case. She really cares about Buffy, wants to be a part of her life, and feels frustrated because shes excluded from a big part of Buffys life slaying. Its also understandable that Joyce doesnt like the fact that her teenage daughter is risking her life every night. And in this episode, she makes an effort a very brave, if also very ill-advised and clumsy effort to get closer to Buffy and understand her better, by visiting her while Buffy is doing her Slayer duty. However, after Joyce reacts very strongly to finding what seem to be dead bodies of the two unknown children, and feels compelled to do something about it, her behavior starts becoming more and more disturbing. The first moment where Joyce crosses the line is already at the meeting of her new organization, presided by the Mayor (who has a very small role in the episode, but once more proves to be a skillful and charming populist), when she warns the other citizens that the town is not a good place and what we have lost it (who is we? Normal people?), and that it belongs to the monsters and witches and Slayers. She lumps her daughter, whos fighting against evil, with the forces of evil. We later find out that she has probably been under the influence of the demon all along and the influence was probably growing and making her act more and more irrationally; but the influence didnt create those feelings in her, it seems to have only augmented them. Its unclear how strong the demons influence is at this point; its evidently really strong a bit later, when we see that Joyce doesnt blink twice at the fact that the two dead kids are talking to her and telling her what to do (and this seems to have been going on for a while). Despite the comedic tone of much of the episode, it becomes really dark by the time that Joyce, Sheila and a bunch of other parents are calmly and self-righteously preparing to burn Buffy, Willow and another witch (magic practitioner), Amy, at the stake behaving as if theyre just grounding them or delivering some other regular form of punishment. The most disturbing moment is when Joyce tells Buffy, whos tied up at the stake and begging her to stop doing it: I wanted a normal, happy daughter. Instead I got a Slayer. And you know that this is exactly how Joyce always feels, deep inside, even though she normally would not say it. (It becomes even more disturbing when you remember the Have you tried not being a Slayer? scene from the season 2 finale, which drew heavy parallels between Buffy revealing to her mother that shes a Slayer, and a teenager coming out of the closet to their parent.)
The way Gingerbread portrays the dark side of parenting is quite ballsy. Its suggesting that, for many, the care and protectiveness of abstract, dead, perfect children (who represent the ideal of the sweet and innocent Child which is helped by the lack of any information about them) is a compensation for the failures to accept their real, flesh and blood, living, imperfect, disobedient, abnormal children, who get labelled as bad.
Now, onto the problems I have with this episode. For one thing, I find the premise that there hasnt been a child murder in Sunnydale for a long time, despite the extremely high mortality rates and the abundance of supernatural monsters (in addition to the human ones theres no reason to think that theres less of them in Sunnydale compared to everywhere else) rather unrealistic. Buffys initial reaction is pretty naive she asks Giles, with outrage, Someone WITH A SOUL did this?! Come on, Buffy youve never heard of human serial killers, child molesters, child murderers?
Another, even bigger problem just how extreme the behavior of the parents gets specifically Joyce, and the way its eventually brushed aside as just a result of the demons influence. I dont know how to feel about Joyces characterization in this episode. On one hand, its good that the show was willing to reveal the dark side of Joyces middle class mom who wants a normal daughter and has trouble accepting her as she is but I feel that they may have gone too far with it. Burning your daughter on a stake and talking about it as an acceptable and desirable parental punishment, while chatting casually about dinner plans thats going a little bit too far. Watching this makes me think - this is why it was often so hard to like Joyce, before the show did its best to make her more likable in season 5. I think it should have been made clearer to what extent she was responsible or not responsible for her actions, and, most importantly, there should have been a follow-up scene of Buffy and Joyce talking about it. Even The Pack in season 1 had more follow-up to the Hyena!Xander storyline. Here, Willow just says that Sheila will do the selective memory thing that Joyce used to when ignoring all the supernatural things that have happened. But what about Joyce and her actions? (Sheilas actions would require more comments if it wasnt obvious that were supposed to dislike her.) We get no comment on that whatsoever, in this or any subsequent episode.
Other notes
Though it doesnt have much to do with the overall plot of season 3 (Faith is not in it, the Mayor has just a cameo), the episode fits in this season since its another one that deals with the theme of Sunnydale community, which season 3 focuses on much more than the previous two.
Theres another continuity nod to Band Candy, with the continued awkwardness and embarrassment between Giles and Joyce, because of their teenage-hormones-driven tryst; and some follow-up on the revelation about Willow/Xander, although Xanders awkwardness is a little OTT in the episode (something that often happens in Espenson episodes in order to heighten the comedic effect). However, Xander and Oz teaming up to try and save Willow and Buffy probably means that they have made up and put the clothes fluke behind. Cordelia is on the fringes of the group, but starts slowly coming back to the fold when she teams up with Giles.
Cordelia asking Giles how many times hes been knocked unconscious is a meta moment of the show acknowledging the silliness of this happening repeatedly. As Cordelia correctly points out, it wouldn't be surprising if he had brain damage by this point.
We find out that Willow has been doing a lot of magic lately together with her new friends, Amy and Michael a boy who is introduced in this episode, and will never be seen again in the show. Amy has now dyed her hair black and has a Gothic look, just like Michael. This is the first, and I believe the last time in the show that practicing magic is connected to the Goth subculture which is used in the scene in the school where Michael is bullied and suspected of murder by a group of boys; a clear case of attacking someone just for being different. Its not completely clear if the reason is just Michaels practice of magic, or even his Goth look or if its also because of his androgynous look. After all, Amy also practices magic and wears Goth clothes and makeup, but they are not attacking her.
Poor Amy unlike Willow, shes repeatedly portrayed as something of a screw-up when it comes to magic. In Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, her spell backfired; something even worse happens here, when she turns herself into a rat in order to escape the mob (its unclear if that was her intention, or if she wanted to turn the mob into rats) and then theres no one to turn her back into a human. (This is a call-back to her turning Buffy into a rat in BBB.) She will remain a rat for three years until season 6 episode Smashed (with a brief change back and forth during season 4 Something Blue) which is quite tragic, but will be treated as a running joke on the show.
Funniest lines:
Xander: Look, everyone expects me to mess up again. Like Oz. I see how he is around me. You know, that steely gaze... that pointed silence.
Buffy: 'Cause he's usually such a chatterbox.
Xander: No, but it's different now. It's more a verbal nonverbal. He speaks volumes with his eyes.
Xander: Wait, Hansel and Gretel? Breadcrumbs, ovens, gingerbread house?
Giles: Of course. It makes perfect sense.
Buffy: Yeah, it's all falling into place. Of course that place is nowhere near this place.
Buffy: Is she? Is Sunnydale any better than when I first came here? Okay, so I battle evil. But I don't really win. The bad keeps coming back and getting stronger. Like that kid in the story, the boy that stuck his finger in the duck.
Angel: Dike. (Buffy looks at him, shocked.) It's another word for dam.
Buffy: Oh. Okay, that story makes a lot more sense now.
Giles: We need to save Buffy from Hansel and Gretel.
Cordelia: Now, let's be clear. The brain damage happened *before* I hit you.
Cordelia (after seeing the demon in the form of the two cute little children morph into one huge, scary 7 foot demon) : Okay, I think I liked the two little ones more than the one big one.
Pop culture references: Apart from fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel and Jack and the Beanstalk, theres also a reference to Apocalypse Now by Snyder, who says I love the smell of desperate librarian in the morning (which is interesting, since Xander will have a dream about Snyder-as-Kurtz in season 4 finale Restless), as well as the 1960s TV show Mister Rogers: apparently, Sheila Rosenberg likes to discuss the patriarchal bias of that show with Willow, with King Friday lording it over all the lesser puppets. O-kay.
Destroying the English language: or, as I like to think, deconstructing it Buffy says: "My mom had said some things to me about being the slayer. That it's fruitless. No fruit for Buffy."
Foreshadowing: Angel (who has a one scene cameo in the episode) and Buffy have a nice conversation where he paraphrases what she told him in Amends: There's a lot I don't understand. But I do know it's important to keep fighting. I learned that from you. ( ) We never win. ( ) Not completely. But thats not why we fight. We do it because there are things worth fighting for. Those kids their parents It resonates with the themes of AtS and Angels famous speech from season 2 of AtS: If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do, as well as the series finale of AtS.
Cordelias funny line to Giles: One of these times, youre gonna wake up in a coma! becomes (unintentional) foreshadowing in hindsight, knowing what eventually happens to Cordelia on AtS.
Rating: 3
Next up: another "parental betrayal" episode, the second in a row - this time, Giles betrays Buffy by obeying his bosses and taking Buffy's powers away, in episode 3.12. Helpless.
|February 4 2015, 04:59 PM
Rear Admiral
Re: Once More, With Feeling: my big Buffy/Angel canon rewatch/reread/r
This isnt one of the very best BtVS season 3 episodes, but it can be argued its one of the most important ones, for several reasons: it completely changes our views on the Council of Watchers; it irrevocably changes Giles status/relationship with them, and therefore represents a crucial moment in his arc; and it also deals with an issue that may be at the heart of the shows themes: what would happen in Buffy lost her superstrength?
Its also worth mentioning that this is the second episode in the show where Buffy is celebrating her birthday, and its continuing the tradition started by Surprise/Innocence that something terrible must happen on Buffys birthday.
Non-superpowered Buffy
Even though its developed into something much more complex than that; Buffy the Vampire Slayer was conceived as a story of empowerment that reverses the usual gender dynamic in horror fiction: a girl who would be the typical victim of monsters in most horror films is the one who kills monsters. But theres one very legitimate criticism of BtVSs premise: if your heroine must have superhuman physical strength to be empowered, well, how does that help the empowerment of real life women, who do not have any such powers, and are usually significantly physically weaker than men? What does it say about our idea of empowerment in general, if it requires a person to be incredibly physically strong, or more powerful than normal people, and if the empowerment must be reflected in kicking, punching and killing?
This is why I like the fact that Helpless temporarily takes away Buffys powers and puts her in the position more similar to that of most women. It shows her being threatened, powerless, scared; but ultimately, she is not helpless, she just has to dig deeper, puts herself in more danger, and make more of an effort to defeat the monster. Her first shock is when she loses her strength in the middle of a fight with a vampire. Now, I think Buffy should still be able to use her training and martial art skills to a point, even without strength; and she does just that, head-butting the vampire and provoking him to impale himself on her stake. But, since the shots Giles is giving her are also messing with her coordination, she seems to be increasingly unable to use her skills as well. Not to mention that Buffy is actually physically weaker than most females, since shes very small and thin, her athleticism and dexterity is also hindered by the substances injected in her blood, and she needs time to adjust to the shock of such a huge change in strength level. When she tries to defend Cordelia from an asshole in school who was being very sexually aggressive with Cordelia and not taking no for an answer, Buffy gets easily punched out and in a reversal of roles, its Cordelias time to start protecting Buffy. Its painful to watch Buffy too scared to even talk back to a group of assholes in the street who are making offensive sexual remarks at her, but its realistic that, without superpowers, shed be terrified walking home alone at night and walking across several such men, as most women would be.
Its then really satisfying when she manages to kill the villain of the episode, insane psycho vampire Zachary Kralik, ultimately by using her wits and since he needs to take some kind of pills - tricking him into drinking them with holy water, which burns him inside. Now, this proof of Buffys intelligence, courage and resourcefulness is, in a way, something that was not necessary: weve seen Buffy use her intelligence and resourcefulness many times before, weve seen her courage, determination and responsibility. She used a clever trick to kill Luke, a vampire who was stronger than her, back in episode 1.02, and in most of the episodes shes been the one to figure out whats going on, even though Giles and Willow were the bookish ones, and therefore considered the clever ones by the characters in the show. Nevertheless, there are still fans who have this completely wrong idea that Buffy is a dumb blonde who relies just on her strength (and this is not far from how shes written in the comics), so its good to have it confirmed that she can kick ass even without superstrength.
Another reason why this episode is important is because Buffy wasnt always sure how she felt about being a Slayer and wished to be a normal girl. But here, she gets to be reminded what its like to be without Slayer powers, and she hates it. Shes not the same girl she was before she was called. Its not just because she hates being personally powerless and having to be scared of various assholes she also hates not being able to protect others.
An interesting What if?: what if Buffy had really lost her powers permanently, which she was scared would happen before she learned what was going on? I dont think she would be able to go back to normal life, knowing what she knows about monsters, Hellmouth and forces of darkness, and having been used to fighting them. She could be training others, using her experience. She could also participate in monster-killing activities as a part of a group with other Scoobies: in the season 3 opener Anne, the non-superpowered Scoobies (Xander, non-wolf Oz, Willow who was not practicing magic, and briefly Cordelia) were doing relatively well killing ordinary vampires (they were supposedly killing 6 out of 10) during the summer when Buffy was in LA. Willow, at least, isnt much physically stronger than non-superpowererd Buffy. It would be however much more effective if they had at least one superpowered person; I dont know how Buffy would take being second fiddle to Angel, and she certainly would not like being second or third fiddle to Faith.
The Council of Watchers and Cruciamentum
Theres another way in which the metaphor of Slayer powers = empowerment has become more complicated and questionable as the show progressed: as this episode emphasizes, Slayers are teenage girls fighting a war, risking their lives and dying young, while being supervised, trained and controlled by a patriarchal organization made up of a bunch of traditionalist middle-aged and old people who mostly dont have to risk their lives. Which is a lot like real life wars, if you replace teenage girls with (mostly) teenage boys/young men. Furthermore, the Council of Watchers pays salaries to their employees but not to Slayers, who are given huge responsibilities and required to perform, but are given no wages: I suppose theyre given food and accommodation if they are separated from their families and raised by their Watchers, like Kendra, but others are expected to make a living however they can; Buffy, so far, at least hasnt had problems with that, being from a middle-class family and living with her mother, but nobody seems to give a damn that Faith lives in some crappy motel room.
Theres an even darker aspect to the Council of Watchers, which we learn about in this episode: a traditional test/rite of passage for every Slayer on her 18th birthday, called the Cruciamentum (Latin for torment), which consists of taking the Slayers powers by secretly injecting her with muscle relaxants and adrenaline suppressors, and then locking her up in a building with a particularly dangerous and nasty vampire and expecting her to kill him without any help and all that without even telling her beforehand.
Well, thats obviously really messed up. And it also doesnt make sense, if the idea is to test Slayers abilities and prove that shes not just relying on strength since tests are normally something you are told about and get a chance to prepare for. It looks more like an archaic exercise in cruelty, as Giles calls it. Its often said that Slayers live short lives I wonder what percentage of them die during the Cruciamentum. Which, again, is not beneficial to the cause since it means losing a more experienced Slayer and having to train a new, young, inexperienced one. Trying to make sense of it, fans have speculated that the real reason is the Councils need to have an excuse to get rid of more mature Slayers who may have become too strong, experienced and independent. But that doesnt explain the lack of interest the Council has otherwise shown for Buffy and Faith, who are both quite unconventional Slayers.
Im not sure that the writers have really thought this one through, except as a plot device to create temporary conflict between Buffy and Giles, and permanent conflict between Giles and the Council. Its also the point in the show where the Council of Watchers stops being an organization that doesnt get involved in the story and serves as a butt of jokes, often referenced but never actually present, and becomes a much darker organization thats often antagonistic to our heroes, and pretty much stands for old-fashioned, patriarchal assholes in the show.
One thing remains the same, though: they still seem really incompetent. More about that below.
Little Red Buffy and Big Bad Kralik
For the second episode in a row, the fairy tale references are explicit. This time its "The Little Red Riding Hood" from Buffy wearing a red hooded cloak, to Zachary Kralik, the Big Bad Wolf figure, wrapping himself in Buffys cloak when he goes to kidnap her mother, and uttering lines directly referencing the fairy tale. Kralik kidnaps Joyce, leaves photos of himself and Joyce to threaten Buffy and lure her in, and Buffy goes inside the boardinghouse on her own (presumably out of fear he would kill Joyce if Buffy came with reinforcements) to save her mother. From that moment on, Helpless feels a lot like a slasher movie. It is one of the darkest episodes of the show, in the literal sense the boardinghouse is poorly lit, and Kralik is hunting Buffy through the dark rooms and corridors. Buffy is closer to the classic slasher heroine here without her superpowers, she is not super-confident as she usually is, she is the one who is physically much weaker and likely to be the victim; which is why this works even better than the rest of the show as the manifestation of Joss idea the show was based on: girl being chased by a monster, girl turning around and kicking the monsters ass.
Kralik is one of the most terrifying MOW on BtVS, largely thanks to guest star Jeff Kober, whos really great at playing villains and creepy guys. (Hell come back in season 6 to play Rack the recycling of the actor is a bit more acceptable since hes constantly in vampface in this episode.) Vampires generally seem to be metaphors for evil people serial killers, sexual predators, people who ruthlessly use others, psychopaths with no conscience but with Kralik, its all doubled as he was also an insane serial killer when he was human. As with the Gorch brothers previously (though they were a much more humorous example), we get more evidence that evil psychopathic murderers, when turned into vampires, practically dont change at all, just becoming immortal and super-strong versions of themselves. Kraliks personality, insanity and serial killer MO seem to be things he has carried over from when he was human; he also seems to have retained a dependency on pills. Its not clear if its physical or psychological the latter would make more sense, since we already know mental illness is something a vampire retains from the time they were human (Drusilla was another example), but you would expect physical ailments to be made non-existent through vampire superpowers/physical status.
This is particularly interesting because of its ramifications to the mythology of the show, as it further disproves the idea that vampires are nothing like the humans they were or that when you die, a demon sets shop in your body, and it walks and talks like you, but its not you, which is supposed to be the official Watcher stance, but seems like the BS that is used in order to make it easier for people to kill vampires, especially those they knew as humans or who were even their loved ones. That was, for instance, what Giles told Xander in episode 1.02. of the show, to make it easier for him to stake Jesse (remember, youre not looking at your friend, youre looking at the thing that killed him), but in season 2, he was describing how dangerous and bad the Gorch brothers were by talking about the crimes they had committed when they were human. It seems that the Watchers themselves may be perfectly aware that line of thinking is BS. In fact, the Council seems to have picked Kralik specifically not just because he was so nasty, but because of his pill addiction, believing they would be able to control him that way. Theyve proven themselves to be really incompetent, underestimating Kralik and leaving just two guys to guard him, in two shifts which practically means that hes guarded by just one guy at a time, which leads to Kralik killing and turning one of them (Blair, played by Dominic Keating, aka Malcolm Reed from Star Trek: Enterprise), and making him free him, help him kill the other Council employee, and become his minion.
Whats especially interesting is that Kralik is a serial killer who murdered and ate his mother, who had abused him in horrible ways when he was a child, perhaps even castrating him. What he wants to do with Buffy is not just to kill her but to turn her into a vampire, like himself, and let her kill and feed on her own mother. (In his own words: I have a problem with mothers. Im aware of that. At least no one can deny that hes a self-aware serial killer vampire.) The Big Bads of BtVS have often been an epitome of the dark side of some aspect of Buffy and the themes her arc was grappling with that season (this is most obvious with Faith, but we can also see it with the Master in season 1 tradition and father issues, Spike, Drusilla and of course Angel in season 2 - romance/sexuality, the Mayor community leader, or Glory family/home). In this light, its really interesting that this happens right after Gingerbread, the episode in which we saw Joyce act in a really disturbing way (granted, under the influence of a demon) and try to burn Buffy at the stake, telling her shes a bad girl and a disappointment; and that Buffy is now fighting to save her mother, putting herself in grave danger going against him on her own with no superpowers. This Red Riding Hood does not need a Huntsman to save her Giles does arrive in the end, but only to kill Blair; its after Buffy has already tricked Kralik into drinking the holy water.
Buffy and Giles
This is the second of the two back-to-back episodes where Buffy is betrayed by a parent figure. In Gingerbread, it was her mother, here it is her father figure, Giles. In addition, Buffy is previously let down by her biological father, Hank: she was looking forward to spending the day going to an ice skating show with him, but he cancels it, to Buffys deep disappointment. Hank is not actually seen in the episode, and will be completely absent from her life for the rest of the series (except as a part of a vision/alternate reality in season 6 Normal Again).
The relationship between Buffy and Giles, and Giles conflicted feelings between the demands of his job and his desire to protect Buffy, are central to this episode. Considering how awful the Cruciamentum is, and that it requires Giles to deceive Buffy and take her powers without her knowledge, his betrayal seems really bad. Giles hasnt always followed the Councils rules and has always been willing to give Buffy leeway, so why does he obey the Council in this, the worst of all of their rules, even though he thinks its wrong and openly criticizes the ritual to the representative/senior authority figure of the Council, Quentin Travers? The crucial difference seems to be that the ritual is a test for the Watcher, too, rather than just for the Slayer (which Travers explicitly confirms): apparently, Watchers are required to be cold, unfeeling and ruthless with their Slayers, loyal to the Council rather than to the Slayer. Giles previous history and his close relationship with Buffy as well as her unconventional behavior have been probably put him under particularly close scrutiny. And this time Giles has an authority figure from the Council, Quentin Travers, right there to inspect his behavior and decide if hes suitable for his job.
I dont know if this is enough to justify Giles going through with deceiving Buffy and giving her shots to take her powers away for the ritual, but at least he does at least partially redeem himself later by admitting the truth to Buffy only after he learns that Kralik has escaped, though. If it hadnt been for Councils extreme incompetence, which Giles could use to criticize them for, he may not have found the strength to make the decision to go against their orders. In his favor, he does feel really guilty. However, that doesnt help Buffy see him more favorably, at first she is shocked and rightfully feels betrayed. SMG is always great in poignant dramatic scenes, and she does some great acting in the scene where Giles comes clean, and Buffy is brought to tears: You?! ( ) You bastard! ( ) Liar! ( ) Who are you? How could you do this to me? (Ive always loved the fact that, while Buffy may be an action girl with witty lines, but she is also a heroine who cries for loss, grief and betrayal during big emotional moments.)
Although Giles does more to try to redeem himself, going into the building to help Buffy and killing vampire!Blair (which could also be seen as Giles metaphorically exorcizing his dark side, since Blair is a Council employee gone wrong who helped a vampire endanger a Slayer), what helps Buffy forgive Giles is that, in the end, the two of them present a united front against Quentin Travers. Giles tells it to Travers as it is when he points out that the Council is not fighting the war, as Travers claims: You're waging a war. She's fighting it. There is a difference. The real twist comes when Travers, after congratulating Buffy on passing the test and exhibiting courage and resourcefulness, announces that Giles has failed the test and will be fired because he cannot be impartial and clear-headed: You have a fathers love for the child. This is, ironically, what really helps mend the relationship between Giles and Buffy.
The perception of Giles and his status on the show has been quite contradictory: in season 1, he seemed to be the epitome of stuffy, old-fashioned, upper-middle-class Brit, but weve since gotten to see other layers to him, including his surprising Ripper past. In Buffys eyes he was old and stuffy, in Faiths he is young and cute especially compared to what shed expect from a Watcher, for Quentin Travers someone older, sterner and more traditional Giles is too emotional and personally attached to be a satisfactory employee (while some fans have a problem with him being too detached and Big Picture guy), and Gwendoline Post was able (like Maggie Walsh will in season 4) to really get under his skin by criticizing his intellectual abilities and knowledge. From now on, Giles position will be even vaguer, since hes not even employed by the Council anymore, but his status within the group will, at least for now, remain the same, due to the strong ties hes formed with Buffy and the other Scoobies.
In the subsequent season 3 episodes, it seems that their relationship is, if anything, even stronger than before. Still, I wonder if everything has been fully forgotten or forgiven. At the start of season 3, in Dead Mans Party, Giles was the only one who did not argue with Buffy or voice anger over her disappearance in the season 2, when she left Sunnydale to spend months in LA without telling anyone where she was. As Xander said in that episode: You cant just bury stuff, it will come right back to get you. Giles and Buffy tend to do just that with the resentments against each other; Giles just once voices his anger at Buffy over harboring Angel (in 3.07. Revelations), reminding her that Angel had tortured him sadistically for hours in season 2, and accusing her of having no respect for him or his job; but even then, he cant bring himself to bring up the death of Jenny Calendar. When the relationship between Buffy and her mentor broke down in a rather bad way in season 7 Lies My Parents Told Me, I wondered how much of it was due to buried resentments on both sides Giles over everything that happened with Angel, including Buffy not being able to kill him in Innocence, Jennys death, and Buffy skipping town after sending Angel to hell; Buffys over the events of Helpless, and Giles abandonment in season 6.
Since Giles gets fired in this episode, another Watcher is to come to Sunnydale to replace him a setup for the introduction of Wesley in two episodes time. Which makes me wonder, why the hell hasnt the Council bothered to send someone when they learned of Faiths Watchers death?
Speaking of Faith, its another episode without her, but this time at least a reason is provided why shes not here - she is conveniently on one of her walkabouts whatever these are. If Faith hadnt gone rogue, she would have also gone on to be subjected to the Cruciamentum, but she would have known about it beforehand, which Slayers are not supposed to. Its odd that the Council is not concerned about that. Then again, they dont seem to be giving Faith much thought at all, until she kills Alan Finch later and starts giving everyone trouble.
The Bangel of it
The Buffy/Angel scenes are the weakest part of this episode. This is the point where its starting to be obvious that the writers didnt really know what to do with Angel or the Bangel relationship in season 3, and that, instead of a well thought-out arc, its just threading water before Angel gets to leave in order to have his own show. Not that there havent been episodes that seriously dealt with the relationship in a poignant way, without ignoring what happened in season 2 or treating it as some abstract obstacle to the couples happiness (Beauty and the Beasts, Amends), but for most of the season, Buffy and Angels relationship is following the a step forward, a step back repetitive pattern of breaking up/telling each other its over because they can never be together (Lovers Walk) but then continuing as before a couple of episodes later, or Angel is just hovering in the background as Buffys supportive love interest who gets a scene or two where he and Buffy are either having some really cheesy scenes that are supposed to show sexual tension (the shirtless Tai Chi/training together in Band Candy and Revelations) or even cheesier scenes where Angel is giving Buffy an earnest/sensitive look and uttering the kind of lines that make little sense, but that a teenage girl in love would love to hear from her boyfriend.
Helpless features both kinds of scenes. The latter is especially bad: as Angel gives Buffy a birthday present the book of Victorian poetry (specifically, it is Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning; I know just one poem from it, the most famous one, How Do I Love Thee, which is IMO corny as hell), which I guess is supposed to confirm his old-fashioned-cultured-guy cred, even though I dont think the present is something Buffy would particularly enjoy; she asks him if he would like her if she wasnt a Slayer, pointing out that she was a rather shallow girl before she was called. Angel reassures her that she was already a very special and amazing person even before she became a Slayer and utters the worst lines in the episode:
Angel: I saw you before you became the Slayer.
Buffy: What?
Angel: I watched you, and I saw you called. It was a bright afternoon out in front of your school. You walked down the steps... and... and I loved you.
Buffy: Why?
Angel: Because I could see your heart. You held it before you for everyone to see. And I worried that it would be bruised or torn. And more than anything in my life I wanted to keep it safe... to warm it with my own.
Dude, what?! Not only is this love at first sight, I saw your heart right there on your face thing complete nonsense in itself, but it also comes off as both phony and creepy, because we saw that scene in a flashback in season 2 and what we saw was Angel watching the 15-year old Buffy sucking on a lollipop, gossiping with her friends, and being scared that shes been caught shoplifting for lipstick. If he had said he fell in love with her afterwards for her strong, brave and mature beyond her years personality that he got to know, or that he felt natural empathy and connection when he saw how lonely and sad she felt as an outcast after she was called, or even if he had said: I thought you were really hot and you kind of looked like Darla, so small and blonde and sassy that would have made some sense (well, that last one wouldnt have gone well with Buffy) but this is utter BS.
But, on the positive side, it leads right into the best lines in the episode:
Buffy (overwhelmed): That's beautiful. (Hugs him; then frowns: ) Or taken literally, incredibly gross.
Angel: (grimacing) I was just thinking that, too.
So, if Bangel is descending into parody at this point, at least the writers were aware of it. The next episode, The Zeppo, will openly treat it as parody.
On the positive side, theres some rather charming banter between the two (Angel commenting on Buffys lack of enthusiasm over her birthday present and referencing the Judge in Surprise: So why did you seem more excited last year when you got a severed arm in a box?) and a funny exchange in which Buffy teases Angel, referring to her planned quality time with her father: Actually I do have a date. Older man. Very handsome. Likes it when I call him Daddy (now, that sounds like something Faith would say while not referring to her father; and its also ironic since Angel is an older man who could be Buffys great-great-great grandfather) and Angel has a very dorky moment in which hes first startled, relieved: Oh, your father and then concerned: It is your father, right? Im not sure if thats enough to make up for the silliness of Angels lines above.
Also on the positive side, the unresolved sexual tension between Buffy and Angel leads to some amusing phallic symbolism, with Buffy being full of energy and distracted during her training, and playing with and stroking a particularly long crystal!
Recurring characters introduced: Quentin Travers, senior Watcher, played by Harris Yulin (known to fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for his amazing performance as Maritza from Duet), who will come back for one-off appearances in season 5 and season 7.
Ooh, kinky: Its not the first, nor the last time we see that particularly evil and dangerous vampires exhibiting certain degrees of masochism, but Kralik takes it to the next level. Most vampires are terrified of a crucifix, not for any psychological or religious reasons, but because, in Buffyverse, it burns their skin. The Master showed his badassery and ability to face fear by holding a crucifix and tolerating the pain without flinching or screaming; Angel in the eponymous season 1 episode didnt even notice the crucifix was burning him due to being wrapped up in kissing Buffy; Spike in season 7 Beneath Me in an extremely emotional scene will embrace a large crucifix without appearing to even notice the pain, for complex emotional reasons. Kralik, however? He just laughs when Buffy tries to scare him with one, grabs it and starts masturbating with it (or at least rubbing it against himself of course, we dont see the details, since the show was on WB).
Pop culture references: Buffy is once again compared to Superman Xander refers to whatever took away Buffys powers as Slayer Kryptonite, which leads to a super-nerdy debate between him and Oz on different types of kryptonite, which I wont even pretend to have been able to follow. There is also a lot of talk about ice skating (SMG is apparently a fan, which was incorporated into the story in season 2 Surprise as Buffys favorite hobby), something I know even less about. An ice skater is mentioned doing a version of Carmen, and Willow mentions Snoopy on Ice.
Rating: 4
|angel, buffy, buffy the vampire slayer, buffyverse, joss whedon
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Those are his mathematical certainties?
Move to a BUY, because there has to be other places this company can make money. Really?
How about it's trading at 625 times earnings. The price of the software has to drop to stay competitive. salesforce.com can't make money a $125 a seat what will happen now that the price is being driven to $44 a seat?
How can a financial company recommend such a stock with no reason what so ever?

subset: commoncrawl


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Submitted by Kari Smith
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Alek Alba:
August 25, 2015 at 8:47 am
this is bullshit**
CR Sujoy:
August 18, 2013 at 8:31 am
never depend on auto correction.
Diana Castro:
September 8, 2012 at 12:32 am
omg! can't stop laughing.
Bruce Farley:
July 12, 2012 at 3:20 pm
they are going to have some stupid fucking children.
Kraedi Ysolis:
July 12, 2012 at 5:49 pm
They already did!
Damn look at the size of their foreheads. Their frontal lobes are so big. They must be stupid as fk....
Fake breasts are not a hereditary trait of stupidity.
Shannon Miller:
July 12, 2012 at 3:01 pm
I was hoping the bought boobs was the autocorrect :-/
Stacie Jennifer:
July 12, 2012 at 3:04 pm
July 12, 2012 at 3:06 pm
I'm a tad confused by your question mark?
Jennifer Fera:
July 12, 2012 at 8:50 pm
Marshall Lewis:
June 13, 2013 at 3:03 am
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone is attracted to bowling ball-breasted cyborgs.
Jamie Zechel-McNaughton:
July 12, 2012 at 6:45 am
Lorena Johnson:
July 11, 2012 at 11:53 pm
Sure Chad, blame it on autocorrect. <3 you guys!
DeAnn Huff:
July 11, 2012 at 11:46 pm
This is funny!
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Infrastructure Stimulus Fund Guidelines
1. Introduction
2. Funding Allocation
3. Program Management and Delivery
4. Eligible Recipients
5. Eligible Projects
6. Eligible Project Categories
7. Eligible & Ineligible Costs
8. Cost-sharing
9. Expiration of Infrastructure Stimulus Fund
10. Reporting and Public Information
11. Environmental Assessment
12. Contact Information
The purpose of this program guide is to provide as much relevant program information as possible to support applicants to the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. Here you will find information on various topics, such as eligible project categories, mandatory criteria and other program documentation.
The Infrastructure Stimulus Fund is an important part of the Government of Canada's Economic Action Plan which provides a timely, targeted and temporary stimulus to the Canadian economy, creates jobs and protects Canadians during the global recession. The Province of Ontario will match the federal government's investments under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. Canada and Ontario have worked together to ensure the timeliness of funding under this program.
The 2009 Federal Budget establishes a new, $4-billion Infrastructure Stimulus Fund that provides funding towards the rehabilitation or construction of provincial, municipal and community infrastructure projects. The program provides $2-billion in 2009-10 and $2-billion in 2010-11 for projects that can begin construction quickly and be built during the 2009 and 2010 construction seasons. This initiative is structured to flow funding faster and get shovels in the ground quickly.
The Infrastructure Stimulus Fund will focus on the rehabilitation of existing assets and new infrastructure projects that can begin and be completed by March 31, 2011. Given the time-sensitive nature of the stimulus funding, the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund has been designed to ensure maximum flexibility. Funding allocations, project identification, selection and approval, have all been developed to provide the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario with the necessary flexibility to ensure the most efficient and effective delivery of the program, thus enabling the funds to flow quickly to construction-ready projects across Canada. The Infrastructure Stimulus Fund will generally work by having Canada and Ontario match contributions from eligible recipients towards eligible projects on an equal basis.
The $4 billion earmarked by the Government of Canada for the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund is notionally allocated on a per capita basis for projects in each province and territory. However, these notional allocations are subject to change in the event that project proponents in a given province or territory are unable to take up the available funding. Canada and Ontario are working together to ensure that Ontario's per capita allocation is taken up and injected into the economy.
3. Program Management and Delivery
Where the project recipient is the Province of Ontario, a single Infrastructure Stimulus Fund agreement will be signed between Canada and Ontario, where both parties are contributing to the project.
Where the project recipient is not Ontario, such as a municipality, an Infrastructure Stimulus Fund Contribution Agreement will be signed between Ontario and the recipient, where Ontario, Canada and the recipient are contributing to the project.
It is the intention of both Canada and Ontario to have these contribution agreements put in place quickly and efficiently so that available funds can flow to projects over the next two years. These contribution agreements are also an important part of the accountability framework for the funding that will be allocated out of the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund.
Applications are required for all projects that proponents wish to be considered for funding under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. These applications must be submitted using the online application form.
Infrastructure Stimulus Fund applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. EST on May 1, 2009. Given the need for immediate economic stimulus, priority will be given to those projects that are able to spend at least 50% of their funding by March 31, 2010.
Eligible Recipients under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund include:
a. The Province of Ontario, or a local regional government established by or under provincial statute;
b. A public sector body that is established by or under provincial statute or by regulation or is wholly owned by a province or local government;
c. A non-profit private sector entity; and
d. A for-profit private sector entity.
Eligible projects under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund are for the rehabilitation or retrofit of existing infrastructure assets, or the construction of new infrastructure assets, in eligible categories, that can be substantially completed before March 31, 2011. For the purposes of the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, a project is deemed to have been substantially completed once all major construction work has been completed and the infrastructure is ready to be used for its intended purpose. Upon completion of the project, and prior to the final payment by Canada, recipients will be required to provide a Solemn Declaration of Substantial Completion attested to by a registered professional or in a manner deemed satisfactory by Canada and Ontario.
To be eligible for funding under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, projects will be required to demonstrate the following:
a. Project incrementality - All eligible recipients will be required to attest, in conjunction with their project application, that the work to be undertaken is an incremental construction activity that would not otherwise have been constructed by March 31, 2011 were it not for funding from the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. Federal and provincial funding could be used to provide sufficient funding to allow a project to proceed that would not otherwise be built, or could be used to accelerate a project planned for future years so that it can be completed by March 2011.
b. Project readiness - All eligible recipients will be required to provide information necessary to determine if the project is construction-ready and likely to be substantially completed by March 31, 2011.
c. Project merit - As part of the online application form, all eligible recipients will be required to provide a description of the project benefits, which may inform the evaluation and selection of projects under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. For projects involving the rehabilitation of existing assets, such benefits could include: public health and safety, energy efficiency, accessibility, and/or extending the economic life of the asset consistent with sound asset management principles. For projects involving new construction, these benefits could include: adding new public infrastructure for which there is a demonstrable need, replacing an existing asset that has reached the end of its useful life, but is still needed to provide public services, or improving the energy efficiency, accessibility, safety or quality of public infrastructure in a community.
d. Financial leverage - The Government of Canada is seeking to leverage additional funds from either the province, municipality, not-for profit sector or the private sector to provide additional economic stimulus. The ability for a given project to leverage additional capital will be considered when making project decisions as well.
e. Endorsement - Prior to final approval of funding, projects must be duly authorized or endorsed by, as applicable:
(i) In the case of a Local Government submission, a resolution of its council; or
(ii) In the case of a non-profit or private sector body submission, a resolution of its board of directors
(iii) In the case of i) or ii), the resolution must be submitted before a contribution agreement is signed.
Municipalities in excess of 100,000 people may submit an unlimited number of applications for consideration under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. Municipalities and communities with a population less than 100,000 will be restricted to three project submissions, as these municipalities also have access to other funding under the Communities Component of the Building Canada Fund. For greater clarity, projects cannot be "bundled" or grouped in any instance. A separate application is required for each and every project.
6. Eligible Project Categories
Projects must fall within the following eligible project categories to be eligible for the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund:
a. Provincial Assets
The following are eligible project categories for provincial/ territorial assets:
- Highway Infrastructure
- Local Road Infrastructure
- Regional Transit Infrastructure
- Disaster Mitigation Infrastructure
- Brownfield Redevelopment Infrastructure
- Cultural Infrastructure
- Port and Cruiseship Infrastructure
- Parks and Trails
Provincial Asset means an asset that is owned, or will be owned, by Ontario or by a public sector body that is established by or under Ontario statute or by regulation or is wholly owned by Ontario or local government.
b. Local Government Asset
The following are eligible project categories for Local Government Assets:
- Water and Waste Water Infrastructure
- Public Transit Infrastructure
- Local Road Infrastructure
- Disaster Mitigation Infrastructure
- Solid Waste Management Infrastructure
- Brownfield Redevelopment Infrastructure
- Cultural Infrastructure
- Airport Infrastructure
- Port and Cruiseship Infrastructure
- Municipal Buildings
- Parks and Trails
A Local Government Asset means an asset that is owned, or will be owned, by local or regional government established by or under Ontario statute.
c. Not-For-Profit Sector Assets
The following are eligible project categories for Not-For-Profit Sector Assets:
- Temporary Housing Shelters
- Community Centers and Community Services Infrastructure
- Brownfield Redevelopment Infrastructure
- Cultural Infrastructure
- Port and Cruiseship Infrastructure
Not-for-profit Sector Asset means an asset that is owned, or will be owned, by an incorporated, not-for-profit sector entity.
d. Private Sector Assets
The following are eligible project categories for Private Sector Assets:
- Short-line Rail Infrastructure
- Port and Cruiseship Infrastructure
Private Sector Asset means an asset that is owned, or will be owned, by an incorporated, for-profit entity.
a. Eligible Costs
Eligible costs are costs considered to be direct and necessary for the successful implementation of an eligible project, excluding those explicitly identified in Ineligible Costs.
All eligible costs outlined above can only be reimbursed to the recipient following the signing of a contribution agreement.
b. Ineligible Costs
Ineligible costs associated with a project will not be reimbursed under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund and include the following:
- costs incurred prior to the date of approval of a project, as indicated in writing to the applicant by the federal and provincial minister;
- costs incurred for projects that are intended to be substantially completed after March 31, 2011;
- land acquisition, leasing land, buildings, equipment and other facilities, real estate fees and related costs;
- financing charges, legal fees and loan interest payments (including those related to easements (e.g. surveys);
- any goods and services costs which are received through donations or in-kind;
- employee wages and benefits, overhead costs as well as other direct or indirect operating, maintenance and administrative costs incurred by the ultimate recipient for the eligible project(s), and more specifically costs relating to services delivered directly by permanent employees of the ultimate recipient, or a Crown corporation or corporation owned and controlled by the ultimate recipient; and
- provincial sales tax and Goods and Services tax, for which the ultimate recipient is eligible for a rebate, and any other costs eligible for rebates.
There is no cap to the amount of federal or provincial funding that could be made available to an individual project funded under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. The federal government will provide a share of the eligible costs of an infrastructure project as follows:
a. Cost Sharing for Provincial Assets
Federal funding for Provincial Assets, from all federal sources, will not exceed a maximum of 50 percent (50%) of the total eligible costs of the project.
b. Cost Sharing for Local Government or Non-Profit Sector Assets
Federal funding for local government and non-profit sector assets will be one-third (33.3%) of total eligible project costs. On an exceptional basis, the federal share of funding may be up to 50 percent (50%) of total eligible project costs. The federal share of the project, from all federal sources (for example, Gas Tax) cannot exceed 50 percent (50%) of the total eligible project costs.
c. Cost Sharing for Private Sector Assets
The maximum share of funding for private sector assets, from all federal sources, will be 25 percent (25%) of total eligible costs.
d. Ontario's Contribution
Ontario will contribute an amount equal to that contributed by Canada. The "stacking" or combination of provincial funds from different sources for an individual project is permitted, unless doing so would cause the project proponent to violate the terms of an existing agreement.
9. Expiration of Infrastructure Stimulus Fund
All projects are required to begin and materially end construction prior to March 31, 2011. Should this condition of funding not be met, Canada and Ontario shall have the right to cancel funding in whole or in part, and further, Canada and Ontario shall have the right to be repaid any funding advanced, in whole or in part, for any project that is not completed by the end of the program.
The Federal (Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities) and Provincial (Minister of Energy and Infrastructure) Ministers, pending consultation with funding recipients, may cancel funding for any project that has not begun construction within sixty (60) days of its start date.
10. Reporting and Public Information
All recipients of funding for a project, funded under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, will be required to submit progress reports every three months until project completion, or more frequently if requested in writing. The progress report should detail progress on the implementation of the project, amounts received from Canada and Ontario through the agreement, amounts expended on approved projects, and an overall update on the project status. Further information on the details of this reporting will be provided to funding recipients in the future.
Projects receiving federal and provincial funding may require federal and provincial environmental assessment requirements to tbe met, including the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The information requested in the project will help to determine whether an assessment is required. Construction should not begin on the project pending this review.
Note: Prospective applicants must contact the Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Secretariat at 1-866 306-7827 with questions about how to access the online application system in Ontario.
All other correspondence, queries and notices regarding the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund can be sent to:
Infrastructure Stimulus Fund Office
90-606 Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Telephone: 613-948-1148
Telephone Toll free: 1 800 O-Canada (1 800 622-6232)
Email: email@example.com


text:
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Technical Advisory 1029 (PDF) If a learn cycle is not completed, the RAID controller or RAID module firmware log can show that the RMFBU is in a 0x804 (charging) status. See the Technical Advisory for controllers and modules affected, root cause, and corrective action.
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Recent auditions for the upcoming spring musical: MY FAVORITE YEAR, resulted in a huge turnout. Director Michael Crum (Theatre) and Music Director Sheryl Monkelien (Music) have always enjoyed large turnouts for auditions but this season is one of the largest yet.
The resulting cast for MY FAVORITE YEAR is one of the largest ones yet as well. The cast of over 20 principles along with over 30 chorus and company members bring the total to close to 60 cast members!
Join the cast below when MANSFIELD UNIVERSITY MUSICAL THEATRE presents the exciting musical comedy: MY FAVORITE YEAR, spring semester 2010.
Theatre Director Michael Crum takes Dennis Miller on a tour of the set of the latest Mansfield University production, MY FAVORITE YEAR. Crum gives us a behind the scene look at how he chooses a musical, builds scenery and props and gets it all done in a short amount of time.
Dean Abraham
Kim Bodhorn
Breona Crouse
Josh Hartman
Noah Kane
Stephanie Lathey
Brydon Lidle
John Miller
Kyle Niskala
Ethan Sherman
Diana Allan
Mark Bower
Hanako Henty
Derek Keifer
Laura LeBlanc
Rebecca Martz
Eudene Parson
Heather Sitek
Ben Anderton
Lindsay Brown
Chris Fallon
Ashley Jackson
Andrea Kuntz
Deanna Lemmon
Ashley Mulhollem
Alex Slaughter
Erika VanGorden
Stephanie Williams
Anthony Yeager
Book by Joseph Dougherty
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Based on the Motion Picture
'My Favorite Year'
Courtesy of Turner Entertainment Co.
Screenplay by Norma Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo
Story by Dennis Palumbo
My Favorite Year is produced through special arrangement with MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL New York, NY
Thur, Feb 25th 2010 @ 8:00pm
Fri, Feb 26th 2010 @ 8:00pm
Sat, Feb 27th 2010 @ 8:00pm
Sun, Feb 28th 2010 @ 2:00pm
Straughn Auditorium
General Admission - $10
MU Students with ID - FREE
Directed & Designed by Michael Crum
Musically Directed by Dr. Sheryl Monkelien
Scenic Artist Brian Rance (Tower House Studios)
Choreography by Jocelyn Raychel
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