Classics: BtVS 2:2 - Some Assembly Required

Overall Rating: 6.0

Frankenstein with valley girl language and a cute romantic side plot. No creativity required to plan the script but still a mildly entertaining episode.

Plot Synopsis:

On a routine vampire patrol, Buffy finds recent grave sites dug up and bodies missing. At first, she assumes some vampires have risen, but later, most of those body parts are found in dumpsters near Sunnydale High. Someone is clearly digging up dead girls and taking parts, for what purpose, Buffy does not immediately deduce. Due to the close proximity of the body parts to the school, the Scoobies, back in full swing, figure that the grave robber has to be a student. While searching lockers in the science lab (this person has to be skilled enough to expertly dismember bodies, remember), Willow turns up two suspects. Chris Epps - younger brother to fallen football hero Daryl Epps (who was killed a year ago in a rock climbing accident), and Eric - a creepy science nerd who takes his hobbies a little too seriously. They find photographic evidence that the two are building a woman - it looks like photos of various girls at the school have been spliced together. What's worse, the audience becomes aware that Daryl - now reanimated - wants Cordelia's head to finish his macabre undead mate.

Buffy, following up on the clue, pays a visit to Chris's home and finds his mother lost in video footage of her dead son's football games. She also finds Cordelia's photo in the lab and realizes she may be their next target. She races back to the school just in time to stop Chris and Eric from killing Cordelia to harvest her head. Chris tells Buffy about Daryl and Buffy catches up to him at the football game, where he has taken Cordelia captive. They duke it out in the science lab and the place goes up in flames. Buffy gets pulled out of the fire by Angel, Xander rescues Cordelia from the smoke, and Daryl, refusing to give up on his dream of an end to his loneliness, goes down with the burning remains of his incomplete undead bride.

In other, far more interesting plot elements - as Willow puts it, love making our characters do the wacky, Angel and Buffy quarrel over Buffy's slutty dance with Xander from the previous week, leading them both to realize they probably can't go on pretending they don't have feelings for each other. As well, Giles attempts to ask out Ms. Calendar (and fails miserably, but because Jenny really likes him, she accepts his feeble attempt as an invitation to make her own invitation) and they go to the football game together, eventually leading to a second date plan and a lot of hilarious Giles scenes.

Writing: 6.0

I just can't be too generous with this episode - I'm sorry, but when you basically plagiarize from Mary Shelley and put a modern twist on the dialog, you don't win high praise from me. Granted, there is a lot ot like about the dialog, which is why the episode didn't get a 0 for lack of creative effort. Some of that dialog will be quoted in the highlights below and most of it comes from Giles. :) But on the whole, a rather uninteresting plot concept executed well gets a par score from me.

Acting: 7.0

Anthony Stewart Head = awesome. That is all. :) No seriously...other than some great interactions between Giles and Ms. Calendar, Buffy and Angel, and Giles and the Scoobies, the show is nothing remarkable on the acting front. Watching Giles rehearse how he's going to ask Ms. Calendar out, mock his overly British word choices, and then use them anyway when she arrives is worth a million bucks easily. Great TV, that. Otherwise...a pretty solidly "meh" episode.

Message: 5.0

Um...you can't cheat death...would I guess be one message here. And...love makes people do things they otherwise never could...for better or for worse? It's a fluff episode...there's not a lot of depth here. It's mostly being used to bridge to later developments between Giles and Ms. Calendar, Willow and Xander (and maybe Cordelia increasingly becoming a Scooby), and Buffy and Angel. If you're looking for depth...wait a bit...this season definitely will cover some ground in that regard.

Highlights:

GILES: (clears his throat) W-w-w-what I'm proposing is, um... and I-I don't mean to appear indecorous, is, is, um, a, a-a-a social engagement, um, a, a, a, a-a date, if you're amenable. (LOL...Giles...seriously...indecorous??)
(Buffy and Xander stop and listen to him. Giles is displeased with himself.)
GILES: You idiot!
BUFFY: Boy...I guess we never realized how much you like that chair.
GILES: I-I-I was just working on... (knocks over a few books)
BUFFY: Your pickup lines?
GILES: (bends down) Um, in a manner of speaking, yes.
BUFFY: Then if you wouldn't mind a little Gene and Roger...you might wanna leave off the 'idiot' part. Being called an idiot tends to take people out of the dating mood.
XANDER: Hmm, it actually kinda turns me on. (looks at Buffy)
BUFFY: (to Xander) I fear you. (goes to the table) You also might wanna avoid words like 'amenable' and 'indecorous', y'know. Speak English, not whatever they speak in, um...
GILES: England? (LOL!)
BUFFY: Yeah. You just say, 'Hey, I got a thing, you maybe have a thing, maybe we could have a thing.'
GILES: (sarcastically) Oh, thank you, Cyrano.
BUFFY: I'm not finished. Then you say, 'How do you feel about Mexican?'
GILES: About Mexicans?
BUFFY: Mexican. Food. You take her for food, for which you then pay.
GILES: Oh. Right.
XANDER: So this chair-woman. We are talking Ms. Calendar, right?
GILES: W-what makes you think that?
XANDER: Simple deduction. Ms. Calendar is reasonably dollsome, especially for someone in your age bracket. She already knows that you're a school librarian, so you don't have to worry about how to break that embarrassing news to her.
BUFFY: And she's the only woman we've actually ever seen speak to you. Add it all up and it all spells 'duh'.
XANDER: Now, is it time to have a talk about the facts of life?
GILES: You know, I'm suddenly deciding this is none of your business. (Hee!!)
XANDER: Y'know, because that whole stork thing is a smoke screen. (LOL! And boys have a penis and girls have a vagina...right Xander? :D)

What a great scene, ey? :)

JENNY: Good morning, Rupert. (continues walking past without stopping)
GILES: Uh, Ms. Calendar?
JENNY: (looks at him but keeps going) Oh, no, please call me Jenny. Ms. Calendar's my father.
GILES: (follows) Jenny, then. You know, uh, Jenny, um...
JENNY: Hmm?
GILES: Would it a-appear indecorous... Uh, no, not in-in-indecorous, um... (BWAHAHAHA!!!)
JENNY: Yeah...?
GILES: Well, um... Wha... (exhales) Ah, ah, um...
JENNY: Rupert, look, I've gotta get inside and set up the lab.
GILES: What, what I'm proposing is...
(The bell rings.)
JENNY: Ah! I gotta go! Sorry! (goes into her room)
GILES: (to himself) You idiot! (poor Giles...I can so relate!)
JENNY: (sticks her head back out) Hey! Listen, if it's important, why don't you just tell me at the game?
GILES: Game? Oh, uh, you're going to the football game?
JENNY: Yeah, you seem surprised. (smiles)
GILES: No! No, I-I-I-I-I-I just assumed that you, you, you spent your evenings downloading incantations and, and, and casting bones.
JENNY: On game night? Are you nuts? You're going, too, right?
GILES: Oh, of course. Always, always do.
JENNY: So, we should just go together! Look, I could pick you up after school, and we'll grab a bite to eat on the way if you like. How do you feel about Mexican? (Giles nods - I LOVE how the writers did this...harking back to Buffy's Mexican comment...that was perfect)
JENNY: Good! Okay! And whatever it is you wanna tell me, you can justtell me then. Okay?
GILES: Okay! Tonight, then.
(Jenny smiles and goes back into her classroom.)
GILES: (to himself) That went well. I think. (LOL...not really...but that's OK. :) )