Everybody Loves Saturday Night

Best News EVER!

Attention, all Buffy fans!

The world is *thismuch* closer to Ripper.

It better come to BBCA.

Buffy 4:3 It's like we're back in high school; Angel 1:3 Crossover! Yay!

Buffy: Wow, with Harmony, Spike and Anya all reappearing, it's like we're back in senior year all over again.  The first sighting of Buffy's neck scar. So cool, and the hilarity of blaming it (and Willow's bite) on an "angry puppy." ;)   Parker plays the "Dead Father" card, Buffy falls for it....only to find out he's no Angel, he's a jerk!  Oh!  Buffy: "So I am wondering, does this always happen? Sleep with a guy and he goes all evil?"

Great Anya quote: "You're funny and you're nicely shaped and frankly it's ludicrous to have these interlocking bodies and not interlock. Please remove your clothing now."

Angel: OK I am not sure I have ever loved a scene more than Spike up on the roof doing the old Kung Fu/mystery science theater commentary:  "Evil's still afoot and I"m almost out of that nancy boy hair gel I love so much..."  Ouch! Spike tells Angel about Parker using Buffy!  Ouch! Torture! Ouch, catching on fire!!! 

Loved both of these!!!!!!!!!!!  They really fooled me tho!  I totally thought that Buffy finding that ring, and then sending it to Angel would be the way they would have him get around LA in the sun: using the ring as the excuse.  But no!  :)

Buffy 4:2, Angel 1:2: Moving on.

Love when these shows don't just battle demons/vamps/etc., but when they make the evil come in the form of something everyone fears in real life:  Buffy - college roommates (uck!).  Angel - singles bars (double uck!).

Buffy 4:1, Angel 1:1: And Life Goes On.

Wow these episodes have really amazing symmetry. Both Buffy & Angel at a loss in their new lives, doubting their strengths, feeling deserted, getting the shit kicked out of them. Nice touch w/ the phone call.

Willow & Oz = finally coming into their own. But of course, college is when the smart kids finally get to shine!

Buffy: And it's a bitter end to Season 3 (Eps 20-22)

Certainly three of the hardest episodes to watch. All sturm-und-drang and misery.  But, you know, with all the typical Buffy comic relief thrown in.  Saving the world and losing your vampire lover has never been so awesome.

Buffy: Season 3: Eps 17-19

So my thoughts on these episodes may be a little more stream of consciousness than previously...  Holy crapperola did some of this take me by surprise.

Only three Season 3 episodes left...before I move on to simultaneously watching Season 4 of Buffy & Season 1 of Angel.  Damn, I can't wait!!

Buffy: Season 3: Eps 12-16

The season 3 DVDs = not set up as well as season 2!!  For example, on season 2, a disc might have an interview with Josh, that would be about an episode on that disc.  On season 3, you can't watch any of the special features on the individual discs as you get to them...because they all have spoilers!  They all cover the ENTIRE season not just the current episode!  Hello, bad planning and ANNOYING.  Not that I'm not still super fucking obsessed and loving every minute of it, but hello. 

Buffy: Season 3: Eps 9-11

Ep 9 (The Wish): Sunnydale without Buffy: not a good thing!

• Cordelia's back in school / new character = Anya
• A world where the master wasn't defeated and Xander/Willow are a vampire couple: Cordelia: "No way! I wish us into bizarroland and you guys are still together! I cannot win!"
• Willow torturing Angel: "That's right, Puppy. Willow's gonna make you bark."
• What a relief that Angel, Giles and Oz are still on the right side in this nightmare...
• A much more butch, fatalistic Buffy when she finally arrives.
• A very dark episode. Xander kills Angel and the Master kills Buffy, but fortunately that's just as Giles smashes the amulet and returns us to reality.

Ep 10 (Amends): Haunted by the Past.

• Oz's speech to Willow was amazing. "I miss you like every second. it's like i lost an arm, or worse: a torso."
• A spectre resembling Miss Calendar to Angel: "Cruelty's the only thing you ever had a true talent for. You mistake it for a curse, but it's not. It's your destiny."
• Willow using Barry White to try to seduce Oz: hilarious
• The Buffy/Angel confrontation on the hill was amazing. Don't think that romance is ever topped in the later seasons.
• "While most of Southern California is enjoying a balmy christmas..." snow & no sun in Sunnydale!!

Loved this exchange:

Giles: "Hello."

Angel: 'I'm sorry to bother you."

Giles: [chuckling] "Sorry, coming from you that phrase strikes me as rather funny...sorry to bother you..."

Angel: "I need your help."

Giles: "And the funny just keeps on coming."

Ep 11 (Gingerbread): Hansel & Gretel and the Salem witches all jumbled together.

• Very dark icky stuff going on here particularly with all the parental betrayal! (Willow's mom disinvolvement is pretty disturbing as well.)
• Buffy's mom brings a snack out to patrol = hilarious.
• Willow does tonguetwisters: "A doodle. I do doodle. You too. You do doodle too."
• Buffy goes to Angel for reassurance and he reminds her of her argument in the last episode...

Buffy: Season 3: Eps 5-8

Ep 5 (Homecoming): A time for keeping secrets. 

• Buffy tells Angel she's involved with "a nice solid guy who makes me happy. someone i can count on." only to have Scott break up with her in the next scene! 
• Slayerfest '98 in conjunction with Prom Queen wars ("You've awakened the prom queen within!") = this should be fun.
• The cowboy vampire from 2:12 is back. And married.
• Uh oh Willow & Xander just kissed!!!: "It's a clothes fluke!"
• Cordelia's speech to the cowboy vampire is a riot!
• The mayor appears in person for first time / and "hires" Mr. Trick.

Buffy: You really love Xander?
Cordelia: Well, he kind of grows on you. Like a chia pet.

Ep 6 (Band Candy): Buffy/Angel & Willow/Xander secrets continue

• The look on buffy's face when she finds angel doing tai chi shirtless. yum, me too.
• Buffy lying on all counts on where she is: to her mom, Giles, Willow. And lying to angel about scott
• Ethan is back (Giles' old "friend" from 2:8).
• Xander & Willow footsy under their lab table was just perfectly done.
• LOVE LOVE LOVE Giles' performance here. "Oooo, coppie's got a gun..."

Ep 7 (Revelations):  From the title of the episode, I think we know what's going to happen...

• Synchronized slaying!
• Faith's scary new prissy watcher arrives....only to prove to be a fraud!
• The gang stages an "intervention": "What is this? Demons anonymous?"
• Xander playing the Miss Calendar card again. ouch!
• Faith & Buffy's fight = awesome. ALMOST as good as buffy vs. angel in 2:22.
• Xander: "As long as she and angel don't get pelvic, we'll be OK i guess."

And I finally looked up Faith's "five by five" (or "everything's fine") phrase as I really don't think I had ever heard it before this show.  If there are any other idiots out there like me, its original meaning was "loud and clear" in two-way radio communication.  Interesting!

Ep 8 (Lover's Walk):  Spike as Catalyst.

• Just as Cordelia says "What kind of moron would ever want to come back here?" wham bang into the Sunnydale sign, here comes Spike! in a drunken fumbling reenactment of his first arrival!
• First time we've really seen Willow doing spells since last season
• Hilarious scene when Spike starts confiding in Willow about Drusilla: "She wouldn't even kill me. She just left. She didn't even care enough to cut off my head or set me on fire.  I mean, is that too much to ask? "
• Even though his truce with buffy is what made Drusilla leave him, he once again needs buffy's help
• Spike's arrival is ultimately what reveals the Willow/Xander secret, as well as forcing Buffy/Angel to realize that they DO really still love each other no matter how much they pretend they don't or pretend they can handle just being friends.
• Oz/Cordelia walking in on Willow/Xander and then Cordelia falling through the steps to get impaled = horrible horrible to watch!
• Buffy tells Angel she won't be back / saying goodbye yet again.  "I can't fool myself. or Spike for some reason." Given what I know happens later on in the series, very nice touch of foretelling, no?

Great speech from Spike:  You're not friends, you'll never be friends. You'll be in love until it kills you both. You'll fight and you'll shag and you'll hate each other until it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brain, children, it's blood. Blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.

Buffy: Season 3: Eps 1-4

Ep 1:  As bleak as season 2 ended, season 3 does not start out much brighter.  The evil in this episode was really yucky.  Yucky yucky.  And the desperate sadness of Buffy.  So sad.  But love the slaying team of Willow/Oz/Xander (and later Cordelia), total comic relief.  Willow trying out Slayer punning = hilarious.  Oz is back in school, ha.  Cordy and Xander are so excited to see each other!!  Outlook for the sports' teams:  Good..."if we can focus, have discipline, and not have quite as many mysterious deaths..."  So plenty of humorous moments.  But then again, the evil?  Yucky!  First Angel dream = so lovely yet so bittersweet.

Ep 2:  You know if Buffy would tell people what happened (Angel getting his soul back in the split second that she had to kill him anyway) maybe they wouldn't be so upset with her on her return!  She's mad they won't cut her any slack...but she doesn't exactly give them a reason to.  Then there's also Willow's point (her speech in the bedroom is soooo good!):  Buffy's isn't the only one who had things to go through!  The spooky Nigerian zombie mask = Ew!!!  Another episode of really icky evil.  I'd rather have the vampires (OK, yes, there were SOME vampires)! On a lighter note: love the walkies!  Second Angel dream = more ouch.  Love the name calling at the end!  "Runaway." "Quitter." "Whiner." "Bailer." "Harpie." "Delinquent." "Tramp." "Bad seed." "Witch." "Freak."

Ep 3: OK now that Buffy et company are all back on the same page: time for some new characters!  Faith, Mr. Trick and shy boy Scott Hope all introduced in this episode.  Ouch, another Angel dream but this one is very painful.  Loved the mechanics of this episode: Giles pretend to need the details of killing Angel for a binding spell: knows that whatever it is Buffy isn't telling him everything and that she NEEDS to.  And then after finally admitting that Willow's spell worked, she tries for the ultimate goodbye:  leaving her claddagh ring in the mansion / at the spot where she killed him.  Oh shit! Angel tumbles back into this reality! 

Ep 4: One of the "have to introduce people to get rid of" episodes as the new school counselor and Scott's two friends (also jazz band comrades of Oz) all come into the picture only to be killed off.  Loved Willow reading "Call of the Wild" to Oz in his werewolf state.  Xander and Scott are the only "boyfriends" in this episode that don't have a raging animal component to them.  Yet the human inside poor tortured demented Angel unconsciously drives him to save Buffy...and finally bring him back from that place.

Favorite exchange:

School counselor: Lots of people lose themselves in love, it's no shame; they write songs about it. The hitch is you can't stay lost. sooner or later you have to get back to yourself.

Buffy: And if you can't?

SC: If you can't, love becomes your master and you're just its dog.