Buffy Episode Guide

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April April 25, 2000 Only 5 Flushes for this uninspired episode of Buffy that had no plot, no adventure, and bad writing. Indeed, the show had lots of Xander and Anya, but the writing was so bad that I just didn't care. The only good to this show was that the writers recognized their unoriginality by having Xander ask, "Is every frat on this campus haunted? and if so, then why do people keep coming to these parties?" OK, so this week, Buffy and Riley have learned the pleasure of sex. During a routine evening of slaying, Riley and Buffy split up who will kill which monster. Buffy says, "OK, you get Fang. I'll get horny." She was referring to a demon with horns, but I think we understand a second meaning. On the other hand, Xander and Anya went a night without sex. Anya thinks that no sex means the end of their relationship. She tells Xander: "I'm pretty, I'm young, why don't you take advantage of me." Anya is so upset that she does not show up with Xander to a party at Riley's dormitory, Lowell House. Anya goes to the Bronze where she sees Spike. Spike and Anya bond and discuss the good old days when they both had their powers. They decide that they should go to the party. Spike goes to the party even though the Initiative (a place where he was held as Hostile 17) is based below Lowell House. The whole gang is at the party: Buffy and Riley go up to Riley's room to have sex. Anya and Xander decide that they are in a major fight. Xander goes off to play a game of spin the bottle (yes! spin the bottle at a college party...you knew you weren't the only ones doing it). He starts to kiss this one girl, but then she begins to almost rape him only to repel from him a minute later. She runs into a closet and starts cutting the hair off of her head. Other strange things are happening at the party. Everytime someone touches a particular wall, they have an orgasmic feeling. Willow and Tara are hanging out. Willow puts her hand on Tara's thigh and Tara jumps away. She says that this is naughty and that she cannot do "this." I'm not sure if this is a reference to the implied lesbianic affair the two are considering embarking on. Someone sees a boy drowning in the bathtub, but the boy is a ghost. There is definite ghost presence in this house. The entire house begins to shake and everyone leaves the house. Riley and Buffy, however, are still having sex and don't notice the chaos around them. Xander tries to get these two out of the house but can't. Xander, Anya, Willow, and Tara decide to go find Giles and get his help with this ghost. They find Giles at a coffee shop. Giles is wearing an earring and playing his guitar. The girls think Giles sexy, but Xander is disgusted. Giles does some research on Lowell house and discovers that the house used to be an orphanage. The director of the orphanage, Genevieve Holt, used to torture the children who acted lustfully or violently. Apparently, Buffy and Riley's sex games have set off the pent up sexual aggression in the house. Giles says that the house has an apparition or poltergeist, but Xander remarks that it is more like a "poltergasm." Giles, Tara, and Willow conjure spirits; Xander and Anya find Buffy and Riley. Once the two stop having sex, the poltergeist is gone. The end. One other thing of interest this week. In the beginning of my summary, I mentioned Buffy's comment about "fang and horny." Buffy notices that demons and vampires do not get along, yet these two were defending each other. Giles, Buffy, and Riley realize that someone must be unifying the underworld. This someone is Adam. A Buffy-Adam confrontation is hopefully in the future. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: I wish I'd appreciated it [my powers] more. Stopped and smelled the corpses. --Spike on not being an evil vampire. NEXT WEEK: Oz comes back to Sunnydale. The Initiative captures him. April 18, 2000 Rerun. April 11, 2000 Rerun. April 4, 2000 This fantasy episode of Buffy earns only 8 Flushes as opposed to 9 because although the episode was wonderful in every aspect I experienced no significant emotions at the end of the show. However, at the beginning of the episode, my emotions ran high. The show opens with Buffy slaying a bunch of vampires. Unfortunately, she cannot slay all of them by herself so she goes to Jonathan for help. You may be wondering who Jonathan is. The only thing I'll tell you is that Jonathan Levinson was last seen in the episode where he tried to kill himself in the high school's clock tower (this episode was the one where Buffy heard people's thoughts; she feared that Jonathan was going to kill everyone at the school instead of just himself). Suffice it to say, Jonathan did not kill himself, but now Buffy has turned to him for help. I wondered whether or not he had become a main character without my knowing it, because the opening credits included a number of scenes with him; including a scene where he walked in a black trench coat a lá Angel. Anyway, Jonathan helps Buffy kill the vampires. As it turns out, Jonathan is the real savior of the world. He received the Class Protector Award at the prom, and he killed the Master (of the vampires). He is all: an acclaimed author, brilliant musician, and popular guy. He fits right in with the Scooby gang. This is why I call the episode a fantasy episode. Jonathan gets to enter the world of Buffy and become one of the characters. However, one night a girl gets attacked by a demon. Jonathan says that he will take care of the demon, but Buffy does not believe him. Later that night, Tara (the witch friend of Willow) is attacked by the same demon. Buffy begins to wonder why Jonathan did not attack the demon. At this point, we see a scene with Adam. Adam says that Jonathan is using mindgames to trick the world into believing that he is cool. Adam is the only person/demon that is not prey to Jonathan's spell, because he understands himself fully and can escape human weakness. But not too much weakness: apparently, Jonathan also helps out the military. He tells Riley and gang that Adam does not eat anything and that Adam is probably living off of a supply of Uranium-237 that is stored inside of him. Jonathan concludes that the only way to destroy Adam is total annihilation...do I smell another nuclear assault? Anyway, Buffy challenges Jonathan's power, and she wants to find this demon that is attacking everyone. Jonathan does not want to go after the monster at first but then agrees to go with Buffy. While Buffy and Jonathan are off to fight the monster, the Scooby gang does some research and discovers that there is a spell which can create alternate realities in which false things are true, i.e. Jonathan is popular. Jonathan used an augmentation spell which makes a person paragon, but is doing this, he creates an equal evil, i.e. the monster that has been attacking people. Will Jonathan destroy his own creation and return to the real universe? The answer is...yes! During the fight between Buffy, Jonathan, and the monster, Jonathan has some realization, and he helps destroy the monster. Jonathan is now unpopular and dorky again. One good thing did come out of Jonathan's popularity. While he was cool, he gave advice to Riley and Buffy which brought their relationship back together despite Riley's affair with the Faith-that-looked-like-Buffy!! As I've said, I enjoyed the beginning of the episode in which Jonathan suddenly entered the Scooby gang and understood all of their conflicts...it is a dream of mine to do the same thing, but Jonathan's turn to good guy at the end of the show was not that satisfactory...maybe I just don't want my own fantasy about hanging out with the Buff-ster to end. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books. -- Giles to Xander after some Latin words caused a book to go on fire. QUOTE 2: People don't like being the actors in your sock puppet theater. -- Buffy explaining to Jonathan why some people are angry with him in the after effects of his coolness NEXT WEEK: Rerun.