Overall Rating: 5.8
You'd think an episode heavily featuring Xander would make me happy...but this one comes up a bit short. There are some nice exchanges, and it's not altogether uninteresting, but I'd have been much more impressed with the show if they had not chosen to make us suspicious of Ampata from the get-go.
Plot Synopsis:
Buffy's mother has decided to take in a foreign exchange student for the semester, and their guest of honor - named Ampata - is expected to be a young man. When a beautiful girl arrives and claims to be the person Buffy is looking for, they are surprised, but not unduly alarmed. The audience has, however, already witnessed this mummified beast killing two people - a bad boy wannabe from Sunnydale who attempted to steal the seal on "Ampata's" tomb and unwittingly unleashed her - and the real Ampata. We (the audience) know this can lead to no good. Unfortunately, Ampata is immediately attracted to Xander (and vice versa), and the two of them begin to get closer. The romantic scenes between them would be very charming if not for the fact that everyone knows poor Xander is about to get his heart crushed by an evil demon yet again.
Meanwhile, Willow is bumming hard over Xander once again choosing to pursue anyone besides her - he even goes so far as to give her to old "you're such a good FRIEND..." death blow and Willow resolves to move on with her life, with Buffy's approval. Buffy spends the episode working with Giles to try to decode a set of pictographs associated with a mummy that has disappeared - they have immediately latched on to the notion that this mummy is likely responsible for the death of which they're already aware. As Buffy and Giles hunt for the other pieces to Ampata's broken seal at the museum, Xander takes Ampata to the cultural exchange dance at the Bronze and Willow watches, heartbroken, while the two get very close. She is so distracted that she doesn't notice when the Dingos' (the band playing this gig) guitarist Oz starts flirting with her.
After finding the rest of the seal and breaking into Ampata's trunk to discover a mummified corpse concealed within, Buffy and Giles race to the Bronze to warn Xander about his demon girlfriend. Ampata is beginning to shrivel again and she tries to claim another victim to buy herself some time with Xander. Unfortunately, Xander walks in on the attempted kiss of death and the stranger runs off. Desperate for new life, Ampata nearly takes it from Xander, but can't bring herself to kill him. She really does have feelings for him! Instead, she races off to the school library to stop Giles from reassembling the seal. She pleads with Willow, Buffy and Giles (and Xander, who follows the gang to this scene, also hears), telling them a sad story of how she was senselessly sacrificed in a pagan ritual and denied a chance for a real life. Fair or not, the team can't allow her to keep killing innocent people. She tries to kiss Willow but Xander stops her and insists that if she's going to kill someone, it should be him. She struggles with the idea and ultimately can't bring herself to kill the one she loves just to survive. She dies at Xander's feet, leaving him to wonder why he keeps falling for demons.
Writing: 6.0
Here's the thing Mr. Kiene and Mr. Rinkemeyer...you can't have it both ways! We've already done the plot where everyone knows that Xander is being a hormonally stupid kid lusting after an obviously suspicious character. For this beautiful-disaster romance to work, we needed to LIKE Ampata from the start...we needed to be rooting for something good to come from Xander's flirtation with her. The script is written like a very sweet young "summer love" and they try to redeem Ampata by placing her in the victim role at the last minute, but we don't spend the episode cheering for Xander finally getting some attention from a cute girl...we spend it generally frustrated that they're torturing Willow and Xander for no good reason just to repeat a plot that's been done already less than a year ago within this same franchise.
Acting: 6.5
Another major problem with this show...Ara Celi (Ampata) is pretty unconvincing throughout this episode. I spent most of the episode trying to figure out if Ms. Celi was trying to play genuine affection or manipulative siren. And that's not good. This guest actress hasn't mastered the art of subtlety at ALL. The rest of the cast is solid - Nicholas Brendan has a few off-beat moments when interacting with Willow, but I think that has more to do with those parts of the script being shaky than with either his or Allyson Hannigan's acting. The episode kind of depended on the mummy being likable and she really wasn't; that just kills it for me.
Message: 5.0
On the one hand, you want to say that the message of the episode is a good one - get to know your potential mate before you kiss them, lest they suck the life right out of you! :) But that's not the message received by the viewer. Xander is just a hard luck loser in love - if the show's writers were polled, I'm betting that's all they would have to say about it. The show doesn't stand as a criticism against fast-acting romance as it probably should. Beyond that, there's not much to this episode thematically, and there could have been, had the writers spent more time focusing on the morality of self-preservation to defeat death. That bit about Ampata being an unfortunate victim and feeling she had a right to the life that was taken from her was kind of tacked on at the end and didn't really fit with the rest of the story very well.
Highlights:
GILES: You have responsibilities that other girls do not.
BUFFY: Oh! I know this one! Slaying entails certain sacrifices, blah, blah, bity blah, I'm so stuffy, gimme a scone. (LOL)
GILES: (sarcastically) It's as if you know me. (Heh!)
GILES: (looks at the seal) It's gonna take me weeks to... translate these pictograms. Well, we'll start tonight with...
BUFFY: Ampata!
GILES: I was gonna suggest hunting.
BUFFY: No, I'm late. I told my mom I'd pick him up.
XANDER: Uh-uh-uh, Buffy? Where are your priorities? Tracking down a mummifying killer or making time for some Latin lover whose stock in trade is the breakage of hearts?
BUFFY: Ampata's there alone. And I-I don't know how good his English is. He's here from South A... South America. Hey, y'know, maybe he could translate the seal.
XANDER: Oh, yeah. Fall for the old 'let me translate that ancient seal for ya' come on. Tsh. D'ya know how many times I've used that? (LOL...jealous Xander...)
CORDELIA: Devon, I told you I'd be at the dance tonight, but I am *not* one of your little groupies. I won't be all doe-eyed looking up at you, standing at the edge of the stage.
DEVON: Got it.
CORDELIA: So, I'll see you afterwards?
DEVON: Sure. Where do you wanna meet?
CORDELIA: I'll be standing at the edge of the stage. (LOL!!)
XANDER: And this (reaches into his satchel) is called a snack food. (holds up a Twinkie)
AMPATA: Snack food?
XANDER: Yeah. It's a delicious, spongy, golden cake stuffed with a delightful creamy, white substance of goodness. And here's how you eat it. (He stuffs the whole thing into his mouth. Ampata laughs at the sight.) Mm-hm.
AMPATA: Oh, but now I cannot try it.
XANDER: (with a full mouth) That's why you bring two. (He produces another one from his bag and hands it to her.)
AMPATA: Oh! (studies it) Here goes! (She pulls her windswept hair back from her face and proceeds to stuff most of the Twinkie into her mouth. She laughs with delight.)
XANDER: (mouth still full) Good, huh? And the exciting part is that they have no ingredients that a human can pronounce. So it doesn't leave you with that heavy... food feeling in your stomach. (LOL! Xander is very charming in his own weird way)
WILLOW: Yeah. And then Xander can find someone else who's not me to obsess about. At least with you I knew he didn't have a shot. Well, you know, I have a choice. I can spend my life waiting for Xander to go out with every other girl in the world until he notices me, or I can just get on with my life.
BUFFY: Good for you.
WILLOW: Well, I didn't choose yet. (LOL...aww...poor Willow)
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