Season Three Episode Reviews

3X1    Anne 
Plot:  Buffy lives another life as Anne in L.A. and finds hobos dying mysteriously of old age.

While it was necessary to show Buffy as a runaway, it just really tedious viewing.  Especially all the blatant morals about run-aways, poor urban life, etc, etc.  Lily was pretty anoying too.  Even the big demon fight was tedious!  Another wierd thing, as I understand it this was the hell dimension, the same one Angel was sent to last episode, so why the hell didn't Buffy look for Angel in there?!  Also, this would mean that for three months in hell Angel would have really spent 90,000 days in Hell!!  Yikes!  The Sunnydale subplot was much much better, particularly the gang's ineffectual vampire slaying and Giles searching for Buffy.  And how funny was Willow's Buffy impression "that's right big boy come and get it!" along with Oz throwing the stake like a knife which fails misterably.  And Xander-Cordy were, uh, strange.  Another extremely annoying thing; Angel is a regular character!  What a lame follow up to Buffy's tragically killing him!  Plus since he's a regular he must make this cheesy one scene dream sequence, which feels really out of place.  And also, Oz not getting failed for senior year is really a very big deal which is glossed over in dialogue, and which Willow is shockingly cool about; maybe she just wants him in her classes...  Okay after actually seeing the episode, it improved greatly.  The production values are awsome as are the fights!

3X2    Dead Man's Party 
Plot:  Buffy returns to Sunnydale just as some zombies attack.

Adecent stand-alone episode with some really great character stuff.  The zombies made for a nice bare bones plot, and a nice 'Night of the Living Dead' riff in Buffy's house.  The best stuff is the gang dealing with Buffy's return and absence, particularly Willow saying how she didn't have anyone to talk to about the changes in her life.  I wish Giles displayed more affection to Buffy though.  And I really wish Buffy didn't think about running away again, this is just ridiculous.  Some more funny inept Slayerette slaying with walkie-talkies and Cordy calling Xander "Nighthawk".  The gang insisting on refering to the zombie cat as Giles' and Giles' impersonation of Joyce ("Do you like my mask?  Isn't it pretty?  It raises the dead!  Americans!") are hilarious.  The action was pretty nice, nice to see Giles threaten Synder.

3X3    Faith, Hope, and Trick 
Plot:  Faith, the new Slayer, arrives in town and some powerful vampires come after her.

Good episode, really lame ending.  I really like Faith but even more I like the new character dynamic with her around; everyone loves her and Buffy is jealous.  I like Buffy dealing with and saying goodbye to Angel, just as he returns (talk about irony!).  I like Giles secretly helping Buffy deal with her guilt about killing Angel, and not being invited to the Watcher's summit.  Apparantly he isn't very popular, yet as the Watcher for THE Slayer isn't he like the most important person in the Council...?  I like Mr. Trick, a vampire for the '90s with his internet/technology riff.  He's funny and smart!  The 'ancient' vampire on the other hand was incredibly lame.  All this build up, he's so old his hands are cloven (what?!!  The Master wasn't like this so he must be even stronger than the Master, wow!) yet he has no special powers like the Master did and gets killed all too easily.  Really lame!  It's annoying how Cordy has become nothing more than an audience exposition machine.  Buffy gloating over Synder was funny, Joyce going 'neh neh' was NOT.  Funny line, Willow tells Buffy to "do that thing with your mouth that boys like".  But Willow being worried to leave campus for lunch, that was one of the few times that Willow's cuteness got really annoying.

3X4    Beauty and the Beasts 
Plot:  Angel returns a mindless savage, Oz is a werewolf, and people are getting killed.

Nice episode, great mix of three monster plots in one!  I love how they all interact.  Nice to finally see Oz as a werewolf again and Angel not allright after his Hell experience.  Nice to also see Faith in a normal episode.  Maybe the Jekel/Hyde plot was a little silly and blatant on the 'men are beasts' metaphor, but I really liked Pete duking it out with were-Oz and Angel!  Also fun was Faith and Willow versus were-Oz.  And it was really touching when Angel came to and recognized Buffy then started crying.

3X5    Homecoming 
Plot:  Buffy and Cordelia run against each other for Homecoming Queen and get hunted in "Slayerfest".

Pretty good episode, but Buffy beat the bad guys WAY too easily and the early Buffy-Cordy campaigning stuff was just annoying.  I don't really buy the Buffy and the queen thing, and all that was tedious.  I really like the idea of one mastermind villain sending a collection of various enemies at Buffy, but this concept was really mangled here.  First of all, they didn't work together, second of all, they acted really stupid which allowed Buffy to defeat them.  Like the two Germans, pro terrorists, they or their overseer never notice they were gonna shoot each other through a wall?  This is just stupid.  And this opens a big can of worms, why doesn't Trick just do this every week or something until Buffy dies?  Nice to see Faith around (the episode would have been much more interesting if it was her instead of Cordy in the hunt).  This is the big introduction to The Mayor, and I love this guy, he's this jolly politican obsessed with clean hands who is plotting death and destruction, not to mention his control of the local authorities.  Cool!  Also look forward to seeing him and Trick work together.  Willow and Xander kissing absolutely blew me away; one of those shocking plot twists I did not see coming.  It was a really touching scene to boot.

3X6    Band Candy 
Plot:  Magic candy makes the Sunnydale adults act immature.

A mildly successful comedy with some nice recurring villains.  The immature adults thing was mainly stupid and annoying, especially Synder and Joyce, but it worked pretty well with Giles.  Nice seeing The Mayor (more of his background, his power comes from demons), Trick, and good ole Ethan Rayne who doesn't get enough to do.  Buffy defeated the big snake demon a tad too easily.  Particularly funny was Buffy's inept driving, and the fact that Giles and Joyce had sex.  Giles gets a funny line to Buffy "because it is your destiny, and because I just bought 20 cocorific candy bars".  Where's Faith?!!  For that matter why isn't she a regular since she's so important to the season?  She's certainly getting a hell of a lot more to do than Oz, who essentially has a non-speaking role in the series unless it's a werewolf episode.  And Angel once again gets one pointless scene to do, why is he still a regular?!  After seeing this ep, it's pretty damn funny!  Much better than I thought!

3X7    Revelations 
Plot:  Faith's new Watcher, a glove of power, and Angel's return becoming general knowledge.

Pretty good, semi-interesting villain, Buffy and Faith fight, the gang learns Angel is back, but nothing stellar.  Nice to see the Watchers get some screentime as they're the most underutilized aspect of the series, I like Giles being an outcast, but it's a big plot hole that Giles never confirmed Post's appointment with the Council.  Post turning out evil was a nice plot twist, here I thought she would be a new recurring character.  Nice to see Angel FINALLY getting to do something, the Xander-Willow agnst continues.  It was stupidly funny how Post kept on knocking people out.  Buffy killing Post was pretty clever, that glove was pretty cool.  Cordy gets a hilarious line "Xander why are you giving me a lap dance?".  Xander's betrayal to Buffy (getting Faith to kill Angel) goes strangely unaddressed.  I also am confused why everyone is so adversarial to Angel since they know Willow cured him (he could say thanks Willow for god's sake!), maybe its the millenia in hell thing.

3X8    Lovers Walk 
Plot:  A Dru-less Spike comes to Sunnydale, and recruits Willow to make a love spell.

Spike is back!  Great episode, big shocks and turns in the character relationships, fun action and humor with Spike, what more could you ask for?  Spike has really become pathetic, I like how he kidnaps Willow and Xander for a love spell.  We got two major twist scenes in a row; Cordy and Oz find Xander and Willow kissing, then Cordy gets impaled on a pipe!  Yikes!  Cordy getting impaled really shocked me.  And how hilarious was that cut to a funeral after Cordy passes out, what a hilarious mislead!  Once again the character dynamic changes and it makes me look forward to see where it goes from here; how will Willow win back Oz, will Xander win back Cordy, etc.  Also Buffy breaks up with Angel so to speak after Spike's biting commentary on them.  Spike was hilarious and intelligent through out.  The SATs stuff and talk of Buffy going to college was nice.  Where's Faith?!!  Why wouldn't she look for Xander and Willow or help Buffy or whatever!

3X9    The Wish 
Plot:  A demon grants Cordelia's wish of a Buffy-less Sunnydale, which is under vampire domination.

Ah, the classic alternate reality story.  Done pretty well, particularly a Faith-like Buffy, the return of The Master, and vampire Xander and Willow.  Xander and Willow killing Cordy really threw me; I assume she would be the main character in the story!  Actually it might have been better if she was...  The Master's blood factory thing was disgusting but also kind of dumb.  I like the idea that Buffy the best Slayer because of her family and friends in Sunnydale.  Of course it's nice to see regular characters get killed!  That opening demon fight was pretty neat.  I like that Angel was waiting in Sunnydale for Buffy to arrive ("Becoming").  I'm glad they didn't throw Faith in the alternate reality, that would have been too much particularly since she shouldn't be a Slayer.  I don't like Cordy walking around so quickly after almost dying last episode though.  This episode is much better after actually seeing it, particularly the ending sequence in slo-mo.

3X10    Amends 
Plot:  Angel is haunted by ghosts of the pasts, driving him to evil.

A very touching episode!  Great use of Angel, and hints of major new enemies and allies.  Angel being haunted by the ghosts of his kills (especially Jenny!) was very painful, especially its effect on Buffy.  Oz making up with Willow was very touching, as was Willow ineptly trying to seduce Oz to makeup for her trangression, and him saying not until they're both ready.  I also liked Faith being invited to Christmas dinner with Buffy and Joyce.  But the best thing of all was Buffy talking Angel out of suicide, man that was a great scene, especially the ending 'miracle' of snow which saves his life.  Now, this episode introduced The First, an absolute evil made before demons and man, which sounds like a really big thing.  But this freak snowstorm suggests that there is an ancient good entity out there too, that maybe it's they who freed Angel from Hell (we never found out who/why/what did this!).  All really good stuff.  The eye-less priests were neat, too bad they were such a pushover in the fighting department.  Also like Giles' casual distrust of Angel.

3X11    Gingerbread 
Plot:  The death of children turns the parents into a witch-hunting group.

This was episode was just painfully annoying, with over the top morals about the wrongs of killing children and witch cults and so on.  Like in "Band Candy" the wierd adults/parents are extremely annoying, only here the episode stars them.  Things like Buffy not believing someone with a soul could kill children and Joyce saying murdering isn't cool just makes my teeth hurt its so stilted.  At least we had the excuse of a demon making them act like this (I think!) and there's a reset button at the end.  I wonder if The Mayor had anything to do with this?  About the only neat things were Amy turning herself into a rat (and then being stuck like that), and Buffy's witch threat to the parents:  "You will all be turned into vermin, and some of you will be fish!  Yeah, you in the back will be fish!".  Painful to watch, but not in a good way.

3X12    Helpless 
Plot:  Buffy looses her powers as a Watcher test.

It's too dark and the villain is lame, but despite that this is a good episode.  It does great things with the Buffy-Giles relationship.  Buffy sees him as a father figure so feels betrayed when he takes part in this Watcher test.  Giles loves her like a daughter so soon rebels against the test and gets fired for it.  I was surprized that the Watcher were behind it, but Giles getting fired really shocked me.  Big plot twist!  It's nice to finally see an emphasis on the Watchers Council, and they come off as crusty old bastards.  These are the people who save the world?!  While the villains are lame, there is added terror because of Buffy being helpless, though I think they overplayed this too much since Xander, Oz, and Willow are all 'helpless' yet they fight vamps just fine.  And what was up with the insane vamp needing pills?!  Very freaky.  Interesting to hear that Faith is shirking her duties.  Funny stuff: Oz and Xander debate kryptonite, Buffy idly plays with a phallic crystal. Ever since Cordy broke up with Xander she has had NOTHING to do, why is she even a regular anymore?

3X13    The Zeppo 
Plot:  Xander tries to be cool and hangs out with the dead; demons reopen the Hellmouth.

A nice change of pace, the episode is essentially told from Xander's perspective as he tries to be cool.  Plus we've got two plots sandwitched together, dead boys and the Hellmouth reopening.  I like the combining of the two plots (not to mention were-Oz!), unfortunately the Hellmouth plot was a major MAJOR deal and it really got the short shrift here.  This really demanded a whole episode damnit!  Still funny as hell, full of good one liners.  I didn't like how out of the blue the gang is distancing Xander after two years of him being in battle, but it is an interesting point that he is the only 'normal' one of them now.  The dead boys plot was a tad annoying too, but I did like Xander's bravery at the end.  Particularly funny was Buffy, Willow, and Giles bickering over doughnuts!  Also sweet is Willow telling Xander she loves him.  And whoah Faith screwed Xander!  This is certainly something to be expected but nonetheless really shocking.

3X14    Bad Girls 
Plot:  Buffy goes bad fighting a demon and vampire cult tied to The Mayor; the new Watcher arrives.

This was a big episode, really good.  Lots of cool fights with Buffy, Faith, and Angel (he gets something to do!).  Major plots move; The Mayor becomes invincible, Wesley arrives, Faith becomes a killer, etc.  I really like the subtle and well written way that Buffy starts to become like Faith more and more, until Faith kills Allan (this was one of those shocking plot twists!) and snaps right back to herself.  I particularly liked her total dismissal of Wesley and the caring she and Giles show for each other.  The demon guy was cool with that TK power, nice to see a demon and vamps working together.  Big hints on the truth about The Mayor (love him saying he could eat up those cute boy scouts and checking "become invincible" off his planner).  Giles' treatment of Wesley is also funny.  Faith's fall to evil begins here and it's laid out very well.  She's always been horny and carefree, so it makes sense that when she accidently kills a human she tries to blow it off and ignore it.  It's a shame Allan is dead, the trio of The Mayor, Trick, and Allan was very funny.

3X15    Consequences 
Plot:  The gang tries to help an uncaring Faith deal with murdering an innocent as the police and The Mayor investigate.

More character-heavy than action packed, still a great episode with a believable evolution of Faith into evil.  At times the gang got a little preachy to Faith, but I guess that was necessary.  Nice to Wesley taking action against Faith and Angel get something to do.  I think Faith was right when she said Buffy is freaked because she is just a step away from Faith.  Interesting to learn that Slayers have killed innocents before, which once again shows Buffy is the best Slayer because Giles let her keep family, friends, and school.  More Council involvement, more dirty dealings with them.  Buffy FINALLY learns The Mayor is evil!  I think killing Trick was really lame though, if he's such a player why oh why would he personally get in the fight when he's avoided fights every other time?  Answer: the writers needed The Mayor without any evil aides so Faith could join him.  I'm surprized that Faith joined The Mayor considering she knows he's evil and still wants to fight evil, unless everything she said to Buffy was a lie.  Interesting that Allan was actually going to rat out The Mayor to Buffy, it's a real shame we didn't get to see that.  I like when Buffy confesses to Willow who was just about to chew her out for abandoning her.

3X16    Dopplegangerland 
Plot:  Anya accidently brings vamp-Willow to this reality, hijinks ensue.

This is one of the funniest episodes ever, not to mention the best Willow episode ever.  Just about everything with Willow and vamp-Willow was just hilarious, not mention the very witty Anya.  Everyone's reaction to seeing vamp-Willow then real Willow (especially Giles hugging her and Angel's delayed double take).  That classic exchange about gay vamp-Willow (Willow "and I think I'm kinda gay", Buffy "a vamp's personality has nothing to do wtih the person it was", Angel "well actually- that's a good point") which suggests Willow has some lesbian tendencies (this seems a smidgen out of the blue, but hell it's hilarious!).  Willow masquerading as vamp-Willow in her leather outfight ("Gosh, look at those" she says looking at her cleavage), politely ordering around vamps waving hi to Oz and getting her fingers caught in a girl's hair trying to act seductive.  Cordy chewing out vamp-Willow for stealing Xander.  Anya and the vamps' dumb reaction to Willow's scream for help.  And of course vamp-Willow getting staked by Oz the moment she returns.  All pretty damn funny!  It's a shame the Faith situation was blown over though, the gang seems much cooler about than they were last week.  I'm also surprized that Faith is still with the gang and the Coucil, I had assumed that she ran away to be with The Mayor, but this double life is very interesting.  We see Oz in the first time for a while.

3X17    Enemies 
Plot:  Faith and The Mayor conspire to steal Angel's soul.

Good arc episode, however seeing it a second time it plummets in quality.  I really though that Angelus was back, and I wasn't happy about it because it would have been so redundant, so it was quite a shock for me to learn it was all a ruse.  It made for a very suspenseful episode, of course once you know it's all a fake the episode isn't very exciting.  Very clever planning on the part of Buffy, Angel, and Giles.  Plus we learn lots of really cool facts about The Mayor; he made Sunnydale to be a demon feeding ground (this is really huge and I love this fact, it explains so much) and on Graduation Day he'll become something and eat all the kids.  Yikes!  Also really wierd is his paternal treatment of Faith, telling her to drink milk, wear her hair back, taking her mini-golfing, it's all really freaky in a good way.  Really sick/funny line, Buffy talking to Angel about how they can't have sex "Just don't like to rub your nose in it- Suddenly wondering where that expression comes from".  Hah!

3X18    Earshot 
Plot:  Buffy gets telepathy and hears a threat to kill all the students.

A very hilarious episode with some nice dramatic turns, and probably the record for hilarious one-liners.  Buffy getting telepathy was a really great concept handled great both for comedy and for drama.  Also cool how she tries to use it, to ace english class and find out about Angel and Faith.  And how funny was Cordelia saying exactly what she thought?  Or Oz thinking wierdo philosophy, Xander about naked Buffy?  Or the gang interviewing potential murders?  Particularly Willow grilling a clueless Jonothan and Cordy asking hers if he's gonna kill anybody.  We got a classic misdirection with the brooding paper guy, Jonothan really was a shocking plot twist for me, I always took him as background comic relief.  Buffy's speech to Jonothan was really very touching, then another twist where he was just gonna kill himself.  Here's a list of the great one liners:  Buffy getting demon blood by "a good touch not a bad touch", Willow wondering if she'll get a body part from a boy demon, Oz saying "I always go straight for the obits", Angel saying "I'm a funny guy", after Willow running out Oz saying "I'm gonna follow the redhead", Buffy asking Joyce "You had sex with Giles?!  TWICE?!!", and of course to Giles "that is if you're not having sex with my mother!".

3X19    Choices 
Plot:  The gang plans a raid on The Mayor as he recieves an important artifact.

Like "Enemies", this episode has no villains aside from Faith and The Mayor, which is a tad strange but still good.  I really like the gang breaking into City Hall and the subsequent trade off with The Mayor.  Willow staking a vamp with her floating pencil and being the brave prisoner was pretty cool.  Synder finds out his beloved Mayor is some kind of demon, I wonder if this will go anywhere.  There are lots of subplots to this episode, mainly about the gang's college future.  Buffy decides she's stuck in Sunnydale which is all nice but I really like Willow's decision to stay here too, because she wants to spend her life fighting evil like she does now.  It's very sweet.  We also learn Cordy is working at a dress shop and isn't happy about it- hunh?!  Apparantly her family ran out of money.  This thing is just out of the blue and underused, pretty blatant lead-in to the ANGEL spinoff series coming next season.  This episode also brings the revelation (from The Mayor of all people) that Buffy and Angel can't have a future together, and they both start thinking about this...

3X20    The Prom 
Plot:  The senior prom is complicated by hellhounds; Angel breaks up with Buffy.

Sure the hellhound plot is weak and underutlitized, but the character subplots are so very involving it more than makes up for it.  Angel breaking up with Buffy was almost as painful to watch as Buffy killing Angel, particularly when Buffy breaks down in front of Willow.  I like that it was Joyce who told Angel he needs to be the responsible one.  But perhaps even more touching was Jonothan presenting to Buffy the Class Protector medal.  I couldn't believe how the entire class thanked Buffy for saving their lives, it's really a perfect moment (also funny that her secret identity isn't that secret).  Anya asking out Xander was hilarious.  Cordy's money situation is underused and just thrown in for a couple scenes, pretty blatant lead-in to the ANGEL spinoff series.  Those hellhounds looked pretty cool, too bad they were so lameo in the fight.  I really wonder how in the hell this kid got them!  It was funny that his grand reason for it was a girl saying to no when he asks her out.  And of course there's the whole sadness to the end of high school/prom theme.

3X21    The Graduation I (part 1 of 2) 
Plot:  High school ends, The Mayor prepares to ascend, Buffy and Faith have a showdown.

Why do I feel like nothing happened in this episode?  Buffy stabs Faith, Angel is poisoned, yet nothing really seemed to advance, it was all setup.  But good setup!  More bittersweet end of high school moments.  Anya displays affection for Xander and helps out the gang, Willow and Oz made sweet sweet love.  Interesting but not exactly shocking event, Buffy quits the Council.  This was coming since "Helpless"!  Angel's poisoning is strangely unaffecting, maybe because we all know he'll be fine at the start of next season for his spinoff series.  More strangely tender Mayor-Faith father/daughter scenes.

3X22    The Graduation II (part 2 of 2) 
Plot:  Buffy must cure Angel; The Mayor ascends at the Graduation ceremony.

Spectactular episode, though it could have been SO much better.  The final battle was absolutely amazing, the way all the students fought The Mayor and the vamps like that and how some got killed, the Mayor, blowing up the school, it was all amazing.  However it was only 5 minutes!!  This battle should have been at least half the episode, as it was it was incredibly rushed.  Things happen so quickly you don't know what's going on or who's getting killed unless you read the script.  We should have seen a whole lot more fighting, like every high school kid we ever met on the series (as it was we got quite a few), and what about the parents, particularly Joyce?  Did she go or not, and if she did, did she fight anybody?  That would have been cool.  And plus, after all the buildup to The Mayor, he got killed pretty easily.  Anywho... all the preperation scenes were really good, there was a real sense of foreboding.  Angel drinking Buffy was... kinda involving.  I liked Angel confronting The Mayor at the hospital, and The Mayor's affection for Faith.  Nice to see Xander's military memories used again.  Wes and Cordy finally get it on, but screw up horribly.  I guess that's the end to that attraction!  Speaking of Cordy, she got ZERO closure considering she's leaving the goddamn series, the gang didn't even say goodbye to her!!!  The Mayor's speech was absolutely perfect, it reflected both his Ascension and the gang leaving High School.  Plus Synder finally gets killed!  I also wonder why Angel didnt try staking vamps, instead he just pummeled them.  Great episode, ends high school great, but it could have been so much more.