Overall Rating: 4.0
Some seriously BAD romantic dialogue - I could swear the writer of this episode has never had a good relationship...not even for a few weeks, because DAYAM! That's some bad dialogue. The plot is not all that interesting either, though I do enjoy Willow deciding to grow some assertiveness in her innocent cute little way. :)
Plot Synopsis:
Cordelia has had it with high school boys. She has decided that she's ready for something more mature and thinks college guys are more mature (oh you silly...silly girl), so they're her new mission in life. She manages to get herself invited to a frat party - with a catch. She has to convince Buffy to tag along. Confused by their desire to include the Slayer freak (LOL), Cordelia does her best to get Buffy sucked into her little adventure. Giles will have none of it and doesn't want Buffy straying from the path of the chosen one. Angel doesn't like the idea either. The two of them have a bit of a fight over whether they should be dating (which...um...were they dating already? Because the last time I checked, they were avoiding each other because their feelings were too strong and nothing good could come of it), and Buffy is pushed over the edge by her conflict with her undead crush. She decides she's had it with her life and wants one night of normal fun with normal (read: alive) boys.
Unfortunately, these boys aren't normal (what is normal anyway?)...and they plan to raise a snake-demon and offer Cordy and Buffy as human sacrifices to appease him and earn money and power (explaining the frat's high status on campus). Giles has been doing research on this annual event and the scoobies soon realize the trap that awaits Buffy. Unfortunately, theyu're too late to stop her from going and she and Cordelia are drugged and bound to a wall to await their fate. The scoobies barge in just as Buffy's about to get turned into snack food and break up the ritual. Giles scolds Buffy rather severely for stepping out of line, for lying, for drinking, and nearly getting herself killed. This episode stands as the monstervision fable portraying the dangers of underaged drinking and of taking a drink from a guy you don't know very well, but is otherwise only significant to the continuity of the series in that Buffy decides Angel isn't so bad after all and agrees to go out for coffee with him some day soon.
Writing: 2.0
Apart from some cute lines from Willow (highlighted below), this episode is HORRIBLY written and clunky. I've never seen anyone so badly misunderstand Buffy and Angel and how they interact with each other as David Greenwalt (author). There are several lines that stand out as particularly mind-bending in their painful bluntness and stupidity (sorry Mr. Greenwalt, but "No, when we kiss, I just wanna die" is among the worst lines EVER...right up there with the Babylon 5 classic: "I should have boffed him once before he left."), and whole scenes that just should never have been written and don't make sense with the rest of the franchise to date. Making matters worse...this episode, apart from Willow moments, is boring. Really...really...boring. Immaturity and total lack of subtlety plus uninteresting plot equals pain. Pain equals panning in this blog. Even the title is lame. Not that I usually care about such things, but c'mon...Reptile Boy? You were playing with an Indian theme...you couldn't do something in that area?
Acting: 5.0
Giles loses his humanity a bit in this episode. I think this is partly Greenwalt's fault and more character assassination for which he should take the heat, but Tony Head played things way WAY too gruffly for my tastes. It doesn't match with his usual treatment of Buffy when she starts to stray from the straight and narrow. On top of that, Boreanez (who I don't much care for to begin with) has a really awful night here...I'm sorry, but there was absolutely ZEEERRROO chemistry between he and Sarah Michelle Geller in this episode, and that's unusual (this coming from someone who was never a big Buffy/Angel shipper). The rest of the cast is fine...though the extras were, by in large par at best. But if this show was supposed to pass on an important moral for Buffy, it did so in a rather inhumane way...and if this was supposed to launch us into a full blown romance between Buffy and Angel, it did so in a painfully unattractive way. That's a major FAIL.
Message: 5.0
I do enjoy the way BtVS takes ordinary life lessons that the staff wants to pass on to its teenage audience - in this episode, the parable focuses on underage drinking and the real dangers associated with it - and turns it into a graphic story with a monsterific worst case scenario in living color. But this week's message wasn't delivered with Whedon's usual flare (no wonder, since Whedon didn't have anything to do with it...no writing credit, no directing credit, and only a supervisory producing credit), and I think the value of the message is undercut by Willow scolding Giles as to his "never letting Buffy do anything except train and patrol!" Are we supposed to conclude that Giles is a mean hard-ass who pushed Buffy into making this kind of mistake? Are we saying that parents who are heavily involved in keeping their kids out of trouble are just going to push their kids INTO trouble? If so...I'll pass on that claim, kthx.
Highlights:
BUFFY: (referring to the Hindi woman appearing on their TV set) I think she's singing.
XANDER: To a telephone in Hindi. Now that's entertainment! Why is she singing?
WILLOW: She's sad because her lover gave her twelve gold coins, but then the wizard cut open the bag of salt, and now the dancing minions have nowhere to put their big maypole... fish thing. (ROTFL)
XANDER: Uh-huh. Why is she singing?
BUFFY: Her lover? I thought that was her chiropractor. (LOL)
Willow: Because of that thing he did with her feet? No, that was personal. (Aw...that was a cute way to put that, Willow. :) )
BUFFY: I haven't let my guard down.
GILES: Oh, really? You yawned your way through weapons training last week, you, you, you, you skipped hand-to-hand entirely... Are you gonna be prepared if a demon springs up behind you and does this?
(He swings his arm over her shoulder from behind, but she grabs it and pulls it behind his back, forcing him to bend over and wince in pain. She has a bored look on her face.)
GILES: (in pain) Yeah, well, I'm, I'm not a demon. Which is why you should let go now. (she let's him go) Thank you.
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