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"'Effect' is a noun, and 'affect' is a verb," reprimanded the schoolteacher. The students merely looked on with dull affect, bearing no genuine desire to effect change in their own vocabularies.
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I think the Buffy wiki is, on balance, a pretty useful resource in a lot of ways. But (other than being a Fandom wiki, which is the primary reason I try not to link to it), it has a few annoying quirks which make me wish there was some competitor I could use instead.
In no particular order:
Articles are (by default) written from an in-universe perspective and take the post Season 7 Dark Horse comics (and some, but not all, of the tie-novels) as canon. So it can sometimes be a bit unclear whether an article is describing something that was established as fact within the show or something that is comic- or novel-only. (There are also articles on the Boom! era comics, which take place in a completely different continuity again, but those are usually flagged as such.)
The commitment to the in-universe perspective also makes it very hard for the wiki to describe retcons or places where the show's lore appears to contradict itself. (What is the name of Buffy's aunt, for example? And who are the Order of Aurelius?) That's the right perspective in some cases but can be very frustrating if you're trying to answer a question like "when exactly did the writers decide to make [idea] canon?".
Relatedly, the wiki is quite often very bad at properly citing sources: it will reliably give some kind of source, but often on inspection that source doesn't provide any evidence for the assertion it's supposed to be backing up. Just off the top of my head, the wiki cites Welcome to the Hellmouth when describing the Master as the leader of the Order of Aurelius (but the name 'Aurelius' is not spoken once during that episode; I don't think it was until years later that anybody decided this was the name of the collective group of vampires who followed the Master and it's only used as such in flashbacks on Angel) and cites Grave when claiming that Spike had his soul restored by "Lloyd" in Uganda (the episode Grave does not name "Lloyd", crediting him only as "Cave Demon", and does not give a location for where Spike has his soul restored beyond "a cave in Africa").
Reading the linked article, the name "Lloyd" seems to come only from the Season 7 episode Selfless, when D'Hoffryn offhandedly mentions somebody by that name when talking to Willow, and the suggestion that this is the name of the specific individual who restored Spike's soul seems to be pure fanon. (Indeed I've never even seen it suggested outside of the wiki.)
For yet another example of this sort of thing: the article on The Gift claims that this episode was "originally written to serve as the series finale, and several ideas that were used in the real finale were originally written for this episode" and only then cites a single source (Joss Whedon's audio commentary for Chosen). It's not clear at all which of these two quite distinct claims that source is meant to be supporting (in fact I've checked that audio commentary track and I don't think it supports either one). In general the show's discussion of behind the scenes facts or the real world development of the show is noticeably lacking, at least in part because that's not something the wiki contributors seem to care about as much.
As I've complained about before, the wiki is old enough that it's gained some deeply-embedded pedantic conventions that simply don't make sense to outsiders (which is why there is an article called "Jennifer Calendar" despite no character with that name existing on the show: the wiki adopts a convention that favors 'full names' and somebody has unilaterally decided that 'Jenny' must be a nickname, even though nobody uses it that way and it's never hinted as being short for anything until we get a single shot of Ms Calendar's grave).
Sometimes, as you'd expect from a wiki, information provided is just wrong: for example, the wiki claims that Joyce Summers is not mentioned in the Season 5 episode Family but if you go and watch the episode or read a transcript you'll quickly see that's not true (Buffy explains her decision to move out of the dorms by saying that "with Mom not being well, I'm hardly ever here" and later says of her father that "I called him when Mom got sick": these are both very clearly mentions of Joyce Summers even if she isn't explicitly named, and indeed some of the episodes she is listed as being mentioned in don't have her mentioned by name). I think this is also true for some of the show's claims about when particular scenes were added to the opening credits, as these claims offer differ from what I can see on my own DVD copies and from how they were described by people watching the show when it originally aired.
Anyone else want to weigh in here? (S2EO3, part 3)
Unlike a lot of episodes of the show I don't enjoy, I do think there's a Good Version of Dead Man's Party lurking somewhere not too far below the surface. Looking at the big picture, it's good that things between Buffy and her friends don't magically go back to normal. It was worth taking an episode to show the fallout from the Season 2 finale, and it's surely correct that this includes some awkwardness and some evasiveness and some fairly ugly emotions.
@badwolfwho1 has already mentioned one previous episode that handled this sort of thing well: Season 2's When She Was Bad. And looking into the future, I'd nominate Season 6's After Life as another entry in the loose "Buffy comes back to Sunnydale after a summer Away and things are awkward and uncomfortable when she returns" trilogy (for increasingly escalating interpretations of the word 'Away'...).
For reasons I've already gone into -- and I think everyone else rewatching the episode has talked about -- both those episodes work in a way this one doesn't. But I do think the problem is fundamentally one of execution, as opposed to (for example) something like Teacher's Pet or Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered, where the central premise of the episode is just obviously not salvageable. I think this episode should be better, but I don't think it shouldn't exist.
Anyway, as threatened, here's my summary of how I'd have rewritten Dead Man's Party.
No zombies (or any other supernatural problems at all, except a few background vampires that we don't particularly need to see). No evil mask of dubious origin. The focus of the episode is purely on Buffy (eventually) reconciling with her friends and resuming her duties as the Slayer. (Obviously this means renaming the episode.) I think it might be a bit early in the show's run for an episode (almost) entirely devoid of any supernatural metaphor or menace, but on the other hand I don't think the metaphor we got works, so it feels like it would have been worth the try to experiment. (I would probably keep the impromptu cat funeral scene, which I think works quite well in its own right, but nothing more.)
Beyond that, the main thing I'd try to do is to flip the perspectives: have the episode follow mostly the POV of Giles and Joyce and Willow and Xander. Buffy can be present in scenes with them, of course, but when she makes her excuses and leaves, which she keeps doing, we should exclusively follow them, not her. We never see Buffy alone (until nearly the end of the episode). Buffy puts on a brave face and doesn't seem to want to talk about what happened over the last three months, and her friends and family try (but fail) to reconnect with her. (And at the very least, if you want the theme to be "Buffy's friends are put out that Buffy doesn't seem to care what the last few months were like for them", then obviously you cut out lines like Buffy asking Xander exactly that only for him not to answer...)
Instead of having Willow stand Buffy up, play it the other way around. We see Willow at the Espresso Pump waiting to meet Buffy, who's late. Amy Madison (who can play a Pat like role, in the sense of voicing unpleasant things that Buffy can assume Willow agrees with even if she doesn't) comes over and talks to her a bit. Despite herself, Willow lets herself be coaxed into talking about magic and their plans to do more spells together over the weekend. Then, in the background, we see (but Willow doesn't) a brief shot of Buffy standing outside looking hurt; a car drives past and, when Willow turns around to look, Buffy is gone again. Buffy can start to convince herself that Willow's moved on and found a new best friend even though Willow never says this (and, indeed, would never say it because it's not true). Meanwhile from Willow's perspective Buffy just didn't show up, just like she didn't try to stay in touch or worry how Willow was coping over the summer.
Similarly, I think this should be the episode where we actually get to see a day in the life of Joyce Summers. We see her working late in the gallery, where Pat or [her never seen on screen assistant] Carol can ask her what it's like having her daughter back. We see her driving home, the streets dark, Joyce looking around nervously at the shadows now that she knows about vampires. She gets home and calls out for Buffy, apologizing for being late. No answer. She goes upstairs and knocks on her door. Still nothing. Opens the door: no sign of her. Increasingly frantic, she's about to pick up the phone when the kitchen door opens and Buffy -- who (we can infer, but didn't see!) went Slaying after bailing on her catch-up with Willow and lost track of time -- tries to sneak back in. Then we can have Joyce blow up at Buffy (deliberately mirroring the Becoming scene) and complain about her "taking off whenever she feels like it", because we've set things up so the audience (who already know and like Buffy) have been shown why Joyce might be worried about her daughter leaving again and how her first reaction was to be afraid.
Have Giles say something about Kendra (the dead Slayer whose body the police -- the same police who have already questioned him about more than one strange death! -- found in his library!). Have him mention Mr Zabuto, or the funeral Kendra presumably had. Have him be the one who talks to Buffy about the police dropping their murder investigation (you can chalk that up to the work of the Council, even: this helps set up later plot threads this season). Have him say something sympathetic and well-meaning, but which Buffy just isn't ready to talk about. Then (largely as in the episode), we can follow Giles to the kitchen where he smiles and looks relieved while he makes them both tea. When he comes back out of the kitchen, he sees Buffy has left without saying goodbye.
You can have the big party nobody really wants at Buffy's house, if you must. But make it clearer that all of the gang think / have managed to persuade themselves they're doing it For Buffy, not to spite her (which is very much how it comes off in the actual filmed episode). And make Buffy be more clearly the one who's avoiding talking to them: don't have them avoid talking to her and then get mad at her for not asking them questions!
As I mentioned last week, I'd have liked to see Buffy following up on her promise to check in with Anne. And seeing that from somebody else's perspective would work as a way of furthering setting up the idea that the Buffy who came back to Sunnydale isn't quite the same girl who left. And from Willow's perspective, Buffy's got a new friend who she laughs with and has been through things together with and who she doesn't want to discuss with Willow. In fact I'd have this conversation be happening in Buffy's room when Willow finds her during the party: I think Buffy literally being in the middle of packing to leave again is a bit too dramatic, but Buffy on the phone talking ambiguously about arrangements to pay the rent or whatever (with Anne, but Willow and Joyce don't know that) works better. You can have Willow assume Buffy is thinking of leaving again even if she isn't.
And at (and indeed before) the party, have somebody ask Buffy about Angel! Buffy doesn't have to say anything in response: maybe it's better if she doesn't until the big climatic confrontation. Maybe you can get away with them talking about this behind her back and concluding that she'd prefer them not to ask. But I think you have to have them raise the idea on screen, at least. Have Cordelia ask, if you need it to be tactless. And then, instead of the big zombie attack, have the key moment come when Buffy admits she killed Angel. (You can set it up by having the various party guests speculate about the rumors that Buffy killed somebody last year, with none of them quite agreeing whether it was a girl in the library or her mom's boyfriend or the computer science she attached in front of her class one day....)
Xander Harris is simply not allowed to speak this episode.
(I do think it would have been good to eventually have some sort of resolution to Xander's Lie, which -- like Kendra' death -- is a cloud that hangs unspoken over the episode, but I don't think it should happen until after the gang find out Angel isn't as dead as Buffy thinks. Sometime between Revelations and Amends, ideally? Obviously if it isn't addressed in Season 3 it would be absurd to bring it up again later, especially in a throwaway comment four years later that never gets any further follow-up, so I'm glad that never happens.)
There are a couple of things I rather like about the First, at least in theory.
The fact it/she can take the appearance of dead characters (which, as we see in Lessons when she takes the appearance of Drusilla, includes "merely" undead vampires who are still walking around and talking somewhere in the world) has a lot of (largely untapped) potential. In particular, it provides the show with a lot of (mostly unrealized) opportunities for Buffy to be confronted by the people she blames herself for not saving, whether that's Joyce or Jenny or Kendra or anyone else. Plus, it's a nice change of pace to have a Big Bad that can't be defeated just by punching it hard enough or frequently enough.
On the other hand, there's a lot I don't like about the First Evil. Starting with ... well, the claim (largely unchallenged by anyone on the show) that she actually is somehow the 'first evil'. To me that's just too grandiose an idea; it makes her scope too great to be credible, and (like the very literal Powers That Be over on Angel) has implications for the show's wider world-building that I don't like. To be unkind, it feels a little bit lazy and it makes the use of the First Evil in Season 7 feel like the show is desperately trying to one-up the stakes of Season 5. It's not really compatible with the show's wider morality, as I understand it. Aesthetically, I just don't like it.
So, here's my counter-proposal for the First's origins.
The First is a very old, very powerful demon (using the word 'demon' to mean 'an entity roughly comparable with Glory / Jasmine / Illyria', not the humanoids with bumps and green skin that the show also calls 'demons'). The reason she can't touch anything physically is because she's not incarnated in a mortal body the way that those characters were. She left our reality a very long time ago, not by choice, and isn't able to return. She's not as old as her worshipers claim she is, and she's certainly not the original source of evil, but she is the source of a specific type of evil. A type of evil of particular relevance to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Season 7 is (or starts off being) a kind of Buffy: Year Zero. Back to high school and "back to the beginning ... the true beginning" as the First itself tells us in Lessons.
Well, if we go back (almost) to the beginning, we have this quote by Giles from Season 1's The Harvest:
"This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their Hell. But in time they lost their purchase on this reality. [...]
"The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth, feeding… Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return."
This bit of world-building never really gets brought up again. Starting in Season 2 the show increasingly moves away from this kind of cosmic horror. Indeed, in Season 4, the writers come up with the rather bizarre retcon that vampires and demons are somehow natural enemies who don't get along. But, if we're going back to the start of the show for our lore, I think there are worst places we could look than this.
What if the self-described First Evil is, in fact, the Last Demon that Giles talks about here? The origin not of something as "nebulous and ill-defined" as Evil (to quote Giles again), as such, but specifically the origin of vampires. What if the First Evil is the last of the Old Ones that lost their purchase on this reality and that the Master and other true believers are waiting to return?
Wouldn't this explain the "First"'s specific interests in vampires in general (and specific animosity towards ensouled vampires like Angel in Amends or Spike in Season 7) and in the vampire slayer line in particular? "Evil" in general probably has bigger concerns than a line of teenage girls who fight vampires, but if the First is in fact a kind of vampire progenitor then that particular focus makes a lot more sense to me. And wouldn't this explain why the First never seems to manifest very far from the Hellmouth and is so interested in opening it? The First can project itself near the Hellmouth because she's not too far away -- on the other side of the Hellmouth, waiting for the animals to die out.
Separating this from my main post about the episode cause I couldn't figure out a place to slot it in, but something I've never wondered about that I started pondering after watching Dead Man's Party is what is the deal with Snyder's relation to the Mayor? He's powerful in local circles but how did he really accomplish that? Like yeah he's an easy pawn to authority higher than him I get that, I mean more how did he get so entrenched so quickly that he's actually in on stuff? His debut in The Puppet Show very much feels like he's entirely newly arrived not that he was promoted from within Sunnydale High School. And yet by School Hard he's already entrenched enough that he's got a line to the Mayor and at least vaguely knows about what's going on, by I Only Have Eyes For You he even knows that the school is built on a Hellmouth. The dialogue immediately following that "The city council was told that you could handle this job. If you feel that you can't, perhaps you'd like to take that up… with the Mayor," does suggest he was brought in specifically by the Mayor to keep things under control but if so, I am curious what is the history there? And why did a hundred plus year old sorcerer with such a heavy influence over local politics and such wait until so close to his planned Ascension to get somebody who could 'handle the job' rather than Flutie who presumably was much more lacking in this regard.
Generously the Hellmouth only really started acting up a month before Flutie died and I guess maybe he didn't think he needed someone to, but less generously by the time the Mayor is really a character we're fairly far past that idea and Sunnydale is just always weird not something that just happened recently.
I dunno I just wonder how they came across each other in a way that the Mayor not only knew he'd be a useful patsy (easily believable that he'd have sufficient references of his character) but also trusted enough to be told fairly early on, yeah part of the job is to suppress supernatural news getting out good luck. He doesn't feel like he knew what was going on from the beginning but maybe he's good at keeping a lid on it, we only really see indications that he does when he's talking to other people in the know after all as it were.
Is there anything in the first half of Season 1 that rules out the idea that Principal Flutie also knew that his high school was on a Hellmouth? By which I mean: I don't think there's anything in the first six episodes of the show to suggest that he did, but given that Snyder clearly does know surely the most parsimonious explanation is that this is just something every Sunnydale High Principal gets told sooner or later?
(I mean, as you say, in the early episodes the idea that Sunnydale was generally a weird and dangerous place and had been for some time hadn't really been established yet. But retroactively, once that becomes the revised history of the setting, I think the implication must be that Snyder's predecessors' were also in on the secret. There doesn't seem to be anything special that the Mayor wants or needs Snyder to do.)
As for where Snyder came from and who vouched on his behalf that he could "handle this job", I'd note that Snyder's line about the school being on "a" (as opposed to "the") Hellmouth is at least suggestive that he's aware of other Hellmouths, something that the show hadn't really made explicit before that episode. (Though I think there are one or two references to "a" rather than "the" Hellmouth in Season 1, I'm inclined to write them off as unintended.)
That is to say: maybe before coming to Sunnydale, Snyder was a Principal (or Vice Principal?) at some other high school on or near a Hellmouth? Maybe the Mayor got in touch with the Cleveland City Council and they recommended him?
The show itself doesn't seem sure how much personal authority Snyder is, or just how highly he ranks in the conspiracy. In School Hard he's practically giving the Chief of Police orders, but by I Only Have Eyes For You their power dynamic seems to have reversed. In Becoming he's making calls to the Mayor about Buffy's expulsion; by Band Candy the Mayor's become somebody he's met a couple of times ("[he] shook my hand! twice!") and then by Choices the Mayor doesn't even bother to tell him he'll be visiting the school after dark so Snyder should stay away. So perhaps Snyder's power in what Giles calls "local circles" comes partly from being appointed directly by the Mayor and partly by dropping vague hints to other people who are also in on the town's big secret that imply he knows more about what's going on than he actually does?
That would explain why, over time, people like the Chief of Police realize that actually Snyder's just all bluster and stop listening to him, but earlier on they're much more solicitous of his opinions. And by the second half of Season 3 he seems to be barely in the loop at all; certainly he doesn't know enough to avoid the graduation ceremony.
(Obviously this is mostly the writers just puzzling out what was going on with Snyder as they went, but I think the resulting picture is more or less consistent if you want it to be.)
I have seen a young lady with her table loaded with volumes loaded of fictitious trash, poring day after day and night after night over highly wrought scenes and skillfully portrayed pictures of romance, until her cheeks grew pale, her eyes became wild and reckless, and her mind wandered and was lost — the light of intelligence passed behind a cloud, and her soul was forever benighted. She was insane, incurably insane from reading novels.
-- an anonymous pastor in 1864, on the greatest threat to young women
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one time a guy friend told me he was quitting league of legends and literally two weeks later she was on estrogen. these events are intrinsically connected in my mind.
What are your favorite Giles moments? What is a 'missing scene' or something you'd like to have seen Giles do or say and didn't?
I think my favorite Giles moments are the obvious ones, really.
His reaction to Buffy coming back to Sunnydale in Dead Man's Party: not just the fact he's the only person not to give her a hard time about being gone but because he's so obviously happy that she's returned but tries to hide that delight from her. He understands her in a way her friends and her mother can't -- he too struggled with his supernatural calling when he was young, and tried running away from it, after all -- but he thinks his affection for her is something to be ashamed of.
His speech to her in Innocence ("if it's guilt you're looking for [...] I'm not your man. All you will get from me is my support and my respect"). Not only is this a nice moment in itself (albeit one later undercut a little by the events of Helpless), it also -- together with Joyce looking at Buffy and telling her that "you look the same to me" in the very next scene -- strongly suggests that people who read Season 2 as the show somehow punishing Buffy for the "mistake" of sleeping with Angel have chosen a reading that the show is actively rejecting. Angel losing his soul is a metaphor for something that really happens -- you sleep with somebody and then they seem to become somebody a lot less pleasant -- but it's not the show's position that any of this is Buffy's fault.
His various moments sticking up for Buffy when she's not around to see it. Threatening Snyder in Dead Man's Party, of course ("would you like me to convince you?"), as well as more gently defending her earlier in the show, but also lots of his interactions with Wesley or other Watchers are also fun ("If you want to criticize my methods, fine. But you can keep your snide remarks to yourself. And while you're at it, don't criticize my methods").
Giles is pretty funny, actually; I think he gets some pretty good lines throughout the show. For example I like the scene in Intervention when he and Buffy are out in the desert for a ritual, she points out they don't have any food or water with them and wonders if the guide he's summoning for her will also "a week later" lead him to her "bleached bones", and he insists that won't happen: "it takes more than a week to bleach bones". Or his speech to the gang in I Only Have Eyes For You ("I appreciate your thoughts on the matter. In fact, well, I encourage you to always challenge me when you feel it's appropriate. You should never be cowed by authority. ... Except, of course, in this instance, when I am clearly right and you are clearly wrong.")
I don't really like fandom attempts to cast Giles as the Scooby Gang's unproblematic Team Dad, but I do like the very different ways Giles interacts with Buffy's friends, from his gentle support of Willow in the early seasons to his frequent irritation with Xander ("Am I right Giles?" "Almost certainly not, but to be fair I wasn't listening." or "Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books"). I like the fact that Dawn -- as the part of Buffy who gets to be a normal kid and not a Slayer -- quickly intuits that Giles doesn't really like her. I like the scene where Giles goes to kill Angelus in Passion and the scene in which he confronts Angel in Amends.
Oh, and of course "I believe the subtext here is rapidly becoming text", which I'm pretty sure I've quoted on this blog more than once.
Missing scene ... well, I've argued recently (and repeatedly) that we should have seen Giles trying to help Faith a bit more than we did if the show didn't want us to blame him for her changing sides, so let's go with something else. It would have been nice if we'd had a scene where Giles tried to get Buffy to talk about Kendra's death, I think (I mean in the same way he's able to get her to open up about how it felt to have to send Angel to hell). He wouldn't have to be successful -- you could contrast this with his own reluctance to talk about Jenny, even -- but it would make it much, much easier to read Buffy's ongoing silence about Kendra as a deliberate character choice, rather than -- as I strongly suspect it was -- the writers just never caring about Kendra at all and assuming the audience didn't either.
Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.
At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.
Stephen Guy, the chair of the Durham Miners’ Association, said that when it became apparent Durham Pride was under threat, he took it upon himself to “encourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community […] They not only raised funds for us, but came to our communities, uplifted our spirits when they were down, and showed their solidarity.”
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I've talked a little bit about why I don't think Dead Man's Party works as an episode, and in a subsequent post I'm going to outline the changes I'd make if it were in my power to rewrite the episode from the ground up.
Before that, though, I want to say a bit more about some of the specific details of the episode we actually got. I also want to talk a little bit about the shooting script for this episode (which, while still far from perfect, contains a number of lines that didn't make it to air and which I think the episode would have been stronger if it had kept)
As I said in the first post, one of the mistakes I think the episode makes is to spend so little time in the heads of characters other than Buffy, having them behave unpleasantly towards Buffy for reasons that aren't ever particularly well articulated, only to suddenly pivot to an ending where Buffy admits that everything is her fault and apologies unilaterally to everyone else. So maybe it's worth running through all the non-Buffy characters and trying to discuss what the episode tells us about them (or how badly out of character they're written).
In order of how much dialogue they get this episode:
(1) Joyce
Call me predictable, but I think Joyce is actually pretty sympathetic for most of this episode [if you ignore the whole 'taking exhibits home from the gallery to keep' thing, at least]. It helps, of course, that Joyce gets more screen time than anybody other than Buffy (by some distance, in fact: the gap in screen time between Buffy and Joyce is about as big as the gap between Joyce and any one of Willow, Xander and Giles). It's clear that Joyce is both glad Buffy is back and trying her best to do right by her (fighting to get her back into school, for example), but also unsure how to act around her and afraid Buffy might leave again (her visible discomfort about the idea of Buffy leaving the house to go and look for her friends is well acted and feels true to both characters, for example).
Before the party Buffy's only real (and repeated) complaint is that Joyce is pushing (as a back-up option!) for her to maybe go to a private all-girls school, but ... what are the alternatives supposed to be, if they can't work around Principal Snyder? Home-schooling is Buffy's suggestion, but that clearly isn't a reasonable option at all, because Joyce is the only person in the household with a job. (Also, Buffy: probably no boys if you're home-schooled either...) Sure, Joyce is being a little naive about things ("Superhero ... is that the right term? It's not offensive, is it?"; her suggestion that Buffy could tell a few trustworthy people like ... Principal Snyder) but Buffy is the only person in this conversation to actually say anything derogatory (with her unfortunate comment about 'riding the little bus to school').
Also, speaking of the party: rewatching I found myself kind of outraged by this plot development on Joyce's behalf. She invited "Willow and Mr Giles and the others" [which I think is a nice insight into how Joyce thinks of the Slayerettes] to have a nice fancy dinner at her house. An excuse to use the company plates (which we see Buffy setting out before Pat arrives). They then (without once consulting her!!) collectively decided to extend this to an invitation to dozens of other people, including a live band?? Call this an over-reaction if you like, but personally I think she should be allowed to hunt them for sport. Certainly I understand now why only Faith gets invited over for dinner at Christmas. At least Faith just pretends she has a fun party to go to: she doesn't decide she's now free to hold one at Joyce's house without asking.
Obviously Joyce shouldn't have said things were "worse" with Buffy home, which is the tipping point for Buffy to try to run away again. But (1) with the context of the rest of the conversation, which Buffy didn't hear, I think that's more understandable (things are 'worse' because Joyce spent the summer telling herself that when Buffy was back she'd be able to fix things with a simple gesture but now she knows she can't) and (2) Joyce obviously didn't mean for Buffy to hear any of that, and the episode is careful to establish that she's gotten used to Buffy not being around and that she's been drinking a little (which, again, is understandable when you realize she's had her plans for the evening entirely upended by some of the worst dinner guests imaginable).
In the aforementioned shooting script, Joyce's conversation with Pat during the party is a little big longer than it is in canon. There's also a bit more of a build-up to the part which Buffy overhears. Full quote below, with the cut lines in red.
"While Buffy was gone, all I could think about was getting her home. I just knew if I could put my arms around her, and tell her how much I loved her, then everything would be okay.
"[But] things are never that simple, are they? I mean, she's here. She's right in front of me … so now I can see how unhappy she is. And I still don't know what to say - what to do - to make things right.
"Having Buffy home - I thought it would make it all better. But in some ways, it's almost worse…"
I don't know why those lines didn't make it into the finished episode, but I think they help make Joyce's words here a lot more sympathetic: because she's explaining (to us, not Buffy) why Buffy being back is "almost worse" than it was when she was gone. And (again, modulo the fact Joyce should have been more careful about not being overheard), I think this is somewhat reasonable? I can see that seeing firsthand "how unhappy" Buffy still is, and not being able to do anything about, would in some way be worse for Joyce than only imagining Buffy's unhappiness and being able to convince herself she could magically fix it if only Buffy would come home.
In fact, the only time Joyce really loses my sympathy is when she talks about Buffy running away as something Buffy did to "punish" her mother. I do think it's fair for Joyce to feel a little aggrieved to have had Buffy's role as the Slayer suddenly revealed to her without warning or time to process it. I think it's understandable, if not especially admirable, that she's not talked about any of that with Buffy yet. But she's had time to think about it now, and surely after three months she can do better than "my daughter left the house she lived in and all her friends behind and ran away to parts unknown after being wrongly charged with murder and forced to send her ex-boyfriend to hell to make me feel bad".
(2) Willow
Rather to my surprise, on rewatching I realized that -- at least thirty minutes in -- Willow was probably the character whose behavior I found most irritating. Yes, including Xander. I know.
I mean, to clarify, Xander's behavior is gross and awful, but bluntly that's not the first time I've been able to say that during this rewatch. Being unpleasantly possessive about Buffy's sex life is just something you have to factor into how Xander is consistently written. WIllow's behavior is just more surprising, I think?
I mean, logically I get that Willow is hurt that her best friend left town without telling her anything and doesn't seem to care about any of Willow's recent life experiences, but I'm just not seeing that on screen. Surely if the show wants me to sympathize with Willow (which the ending of the episode must want me to do?), then it should be showing her in a far more favorable light? She genuinely doesn't seem to like Buffy very much this episode; and (unlike the others!) Buffy does repeatedly try to reach out to her only to be repeatedly rebuffed.
It just feels like we're missing a couple of key scenes showing us things from Willow's perspective. Why exactly does Willow stand Buffy up at the Espresso Pump? Was she really busy with "school work"? Really? Why does she seem so reluctant to even agree to meet her then? She can hardly resent the fact Buffy hasn't asked how she's doing, yet, because she hasn't given Buffy a chance to ask! She hardly gives her a chance when they next meet, either. Why include the line where Willow hopefully talks about Buffy showing up "like nothing's happened" if she's not going to be pleased when that does happen?
And -- while I think Willow, of all the Slayerettes, has the most reason to feel aggrieved Buffy never tried to contact her over the summer (she didn't lie to her like Xander or tell her not to come back like Joyce; she isn't, like Giles, responsible for her assuming the duties of a Slayer in the first place) -- the episode is just desperately reaching in trying to give her "scary life stuff" that's remotely comparable to Buffy's experiences. I mean, sure, she's dating a werewolf: but she was doing that last year! Buffy has talked to her about it! Buffy encouraged her into that relationship! What more is there to say?
Incidentally, in the confrontation in Buffy's bedroom, the filmed episode has Willow say "I'm studying witchcraft and killing vampires, and I didn't have anyone to talk to about all this scary life stuff. And you were my best friend." before we cut away to Giles's zombie misadventures.
The shooting script has the alternative (and, I feel, clearly superior?) version: "I've been studying witchcraft and killing vampires, and you were my best friend. I didn't have anyone to talk to about all this scary life stuff. Then you come back and you didn't even ask about me. You just worried about whether I was mad at you."
I wish we'd kept the original wording: I think the omission of the last lines in particular rather undermine the point the episode is (I think?) trying to make.
I also don't really like the final scene of the episode. I get what it's trying to do -- tell us more about Willow's new status as a witch, establish that things are back to normal post-zombie fight -- it just feels, as I said before, glaringly unearned. It almost feels like it was written by somebody who didn't watch the rest of the episode.
(3) Xander
Pros: Xander's stunned reaction to running into Buffy in the pre-credits sequence is genuinely quite charming. Some really good face acting going on there, I think. (Plus, in this scene we get our first of several -- coincidental, I'm almost sure -- bits of foreshadowing for Season 7, with Buffy warning Xander that fighting demons without superpowers is "all fun and games until somebody loses an eye".)
Cons: literally every other word that comes out of Xander's mouth makes my blood boil. Absolute worst moment is a three-way tie between his line about the "nice pimps" he assumes Buffy was hanging out with over the summer, his audition for the role of Buffy's shitty step-dad when Joyce admits to telling Buffy not to come back ("You should have seen what you put her through!", with an almost audible "young lady" at the end) -- I do not think this reaction is consistent with what we'll later learn about Xander's home life -- and his decision to double-down on his plan to trick Buffy into killing Angel rather than possibly sparing him by telling her (without even asking whether Angel is dead or not!) that "most girls don't hop on a Greyhound over boy troubles".
I've been rather critical of Mark Field on this blog recently, so for balance I'll just note that when it comes to his take on Xander in this episode ("Almost every single word he says to or about Buffy is utterly indefensible […] and 'boy troubles' is so inadequate a description of what Buffy went through that I would have cheered if she actually had punched him right then.") I couldn't possibly agree more.
Also, one change from the shooting script I do approve of: the originally written script had the credits roll right when Xander turned around (when it seemed that he was about to stake Buffy) only for the rest of the scene to play out just as it does in canon. A fairly pointless bit of non-tension; I'm glad that idea was dropped.
(4) Giles
On paper, Giles is the non-Buffy character who comes off the best this week. Like Joyce and (initially) Xander, and notably unlike Willow, he is clearly very happy to see Buffy back. And by skipping the party until the big zombie attack, he manages to avoid getting written saying anything particularly horrible then (very much unlike Xander). He also tries (and fails) to argue against the group's plan to turn Joyce's dinner into a massive house party.
On the other hand, it feels noteworthy that Giles's big show of emotion about Buffy's return happens somewhere where she can't see it. Maybe he could have dared to be a bit more open with Buffy about the fact he's glad she's alive and back in town? The stereotypical stiff upper lip and refusal to discuss his feelings isn't exactly giving her a reason not to run away again.
I think my biggest complaint about Giles this episode is that he's ... basically not involved in the story in any way that matters? He doesn't got to the party. He has some (not very compelling) adventures with zombies. He passes on a message to Buffy that she doesn't end up needing. He threatens Snyder into letting Buffy back into school, I guess, except ... does he?
I saw a screenshot of a bit of published Buffy analysis that annoyed me a few days ago, in which the authors praised Giles for getting Buffy back into school when her mom wasn't able to. But the thing is, as satisfying as it might be for us to see Giles cheerfully threaten Principal Snyder here, next week's episode will in fact confirm that it was Joyce who managed to get Buffy back into school. This bit of implicit physical violence didn't actually seem to help. Snyder doesn't, in fact, change his mind about admitting Buffy: he'll be still openly against her coming back next week, but he'll have been overruled by the school board, who Joyce appealed to and Giles didn't. (To be fair I should note that the shooting script for this episode implies differently, but, well, the version of the show that actually made it to air is pretty clear.)
And yes, as other people have noticed, it's a bit weird that the episode reminds us about Joyce blaming Giles for Buffy leaving only to ... not follow up on that at all. Why show her inviting him for dinner as if they've got no ongoing quarrel if he's not going to turn up anyway? And if they don't have any ongoing quarrel, why bother with that scene in the 'previously on...' section?
(5) Oz
Yes, Oz gets more speaking time this episode than Cordelia. No, I don't like it either. He doesn't say anything particular bad to Buffy (why would he, they don't have any sort of established relationship), but I will dock him significant points for being the leading voice behind the plan to unilaterally take over Joyce's dinner plans. I know you're having fun being a regular cast member now, Oz, but sometimes it is better to be quiet.
(Also, are Oz's band with the unfortunate name meant to actually be good or not? The show can't seem to decide.)
(6) Cordelia
Cordelia and Buffy don't interact much (because, spoiler: Cordelia and Buffy aren't friends). In fact Cordelia is barely in this episode.
I will note, for the record, that I don't think much of Cordelia's supposed "defense" of Buffy during the party scene. Yes, she tells Xander to stop and "put [him]self in Buffy's shoes". She then calls Buffy a "freak of nature", calls her dead boyfriend both "a freak" and "Mr Killing Spree" and then tells Buffy cheerfully that Angel's loss of soul and subsequent murderous rampage was "pretty much [Buffy's] fault".
It's not exactly a surprise that an indignant Buffy then tells Cordelia to "get out of my shoes!". The shooting script makes this slightly more explicit: rather than just replying that she's "just trying to help", Cordelia also adds "In case you hadn't noticed, Buffy, people aren't exactly lining up to give you props". You know, like a friend wouldn't.
(7) Principal Snyder
I enjoyed his opening scene this episode a lot! Unlike everyone else, his unpleasant treatment of Buffy is perfectly in character. (Notably the episode does not end with Buffy conceding the moral high ground to her high school principal.) His subsequent scene with Giles I am a bit less enthused by, but it's fine.
I am still a bit puzzled about the Mayor. Does he know Buffy is the Slayer? Does he care about her being expelled? I'm not sure I believe the writers know the answer to these questions yet.
(8) Pat
I'm sorry to say it, but I really don't like Pat. It's nice to see that Joyce has made a friend, I guess, but she's pretty awful to Buffy all episode and not in a particularly amusing way. I like the idea of giving Joyce somebody she can talk to Buffy about, and who will say rather insensitive things to and about Buffy without the writers having to worry about damaging any existing relationship, and whose presence in the house Buffy can be repeatedly put off by, I just .... really don't like Pat.
(If I have to return my Fictional Middle-Aged Women Defender badge over this, I'd understand blame Pat.)
That said, I do quite enjoy the awkward moment between Buffy and Pat at the bottom of the stairs. "Do you want to see my mom? MOM!!"
(9) Jonathan
Was glad to see my good friend Jonathan this week. No complaints about anything he does this episode. (He doesn't know nobody who actually lives in the house wanted to have a party, after all.)
Jonathan also has some fun lines in the shooting script that were excised from the final episode. Before the party gets interrupted, we'd have seen him attempting to chat up a girl with the line "I think you'll be impressed, it's like the Cadillac of mopeds". He'd have then teamed up with Devon to fight off some of the zombies. (The shooting script is generally clearer than the final episodes about the fact that some of the party guests survived; obviously we know Jonathan and Devon do, but I don't think that's at all clear from the episode alone.)
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