I've always loved Buffy. I'm rewatching it now so I can write about it here, but I've already seen it at least three times. All the series, I mean. One thing that I loved about the show is that clearly things were bad even before she came to town. It's not like those shows like 'Murder, she wrote' that wherever she is, something happens. No, from ep 1 we can see how big and close the graveyard is, because clearly there has always been an unusual amount of deaths in Sunnydale.
I love Buffy, struggling to be strong enough to do her duty, and I love her mother, always so nice, lovely and beautiful. Mr Giles was always my favourite, and he'll get better and better, if possible.
Eric Balfour is Jessie, and he has such a particular face that when I saw him again years later in other shows I immediately recognised him and went 'that's Jessie!' even if he did just this two-parts episode.
ep 1 - Welcome to the Hellmouth - It makes you immediately understand what kind of a show this is. It starts with a guy breaking into school at night, with a cute blondie that appeares to be scared "they might get caught", and in a moment you understand why, when she turns vampire on him and kills him.
We have Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) with the same enthusiasm at the prospect of going to school as a lot of us had (or have). Another hint at what we're getting ourself into is given by her mother(Kristine Sutherland), when she says "Honey, try not to get kicked out", before Buffy goes in. It was so funny when the Principal read her school history: "You burnt down the gym!", which should not surprise you if you've seen the movie. If you haven't don't worry, it's not worth much.
Funnily Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) is at first so very nice and friendly with her, at least until she thinks she's been attacked by Buffy with a stick. :lol: Willow (Alyson Hannigan) in this first episode was kind of too much, wasn't she? Those thick white collant?? All dressed in white and brown... I'm so not a Cordelia-type of person, but this is too much. Not even a touch of colour, she's not 'Carrie', come on, she has friends, she lives in the world!
Then we meet Mr. Giles! Oh Mr. Giles... He was my favourite. Even Willow says "the new librarian is really cool" :-) In this episode there was Jessie, the 'other' friend that got killed first round.
Soon enough a corpse if found in the shower lockers, and Buffy gets in to investigate. We also meet Angel (David Boreanaz), and he gives her the cross necklace. "I really didn't like thim" says Buffy, then she wears his gift all the time...
We meet the Master, although still weak. Strangely, I'm not a big Master-fan, I found it a bit boring, to tell you the truth.
Here Buffy can not sense vampires, yet, because she passes right in front of Darla (Julie Benz) and doesn't sense anything, since she was dressed ok :-/
Buffy manages to save Willow, but Jessie is retaken, and the episode ends when the big tough vampire Luke is about to kill her...
I always loved Willow's lines: "Aren't you hanging out with Cordelia?" "I can't do both?" "Not legally!" :lol:
and "We broke up" "how so?" "he stole my Barbie". :lol:
and Cordelia's line "the gym was cancelled due to the extremely dead guy in the locker"
and Buffy's philosophy: "seize the moment, 'cause tomorrow you might be dead" :-)
ep 2 - The harvest - so, Luke was about to kill Buffy, but she's wearing Angel's gift, and the cross helps her giving her enough time to escape.
Xander starts already being all annoying because since he's a guy he should be doing all the tough-protecting stuff, and a few minutes later we hear Angel replying to Buffy's question "why don't you stop it?" with "because I'm afraid", because he's older, and doesn't have to "pretend" to be grown-up. Anyway Xander goes go help her, and despite the annoying attitude, I admit he does try his best to help.
I LOVE how the scenes passes from the dark tunnel to the library, it looks so cool!!!
The harvest of the title is at the Bronze where Luke, linked to the master, is supposed to take enough victims to give him the strenght to free himself, but of course Buffy stopped him :-) I was kind of sorry that Luke died, he was cool, but I guess two big enemies the whole series is too much, right?
It all ends with
Giles "we may in fact stand between Earth and its total destruction"
Buffy "I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can get out of school"
Willow "Maybe you can blow something up. They're really strict about that"
Buffy "I was thinking of a more subtle approach, you know, like, excessive not studying"
and the final line is for Giles "The Earth is doomed"
Things I remembered well: Buffy asking Angel "do you know what it's like to have a friend?" and his expression which made her understand that no, he doesn't have one. poor thing...
ep 3 - Witch - Buffy wanting to be a cheerleader :lol: Giles was so funny: "you were chosen to destroy vampires, not to wave ponpons at people" :lol: love Mr Giles.
On the board you can read "welcome to 1996 cheerleading tryouts", although the ep is from 1997.
Finally Willow looks all pretty!! No need to dress like Cordelia, just dress like a normal 16 y. o. girl!
We meet Amy, a friend of Willow. This was sort of a creepy episode, where a mother would switch bodies with her own daughter to steal her youth, and also did very bad spells on other teenage girls because she wanted to be a cheerleader again! Poor Amy, here being trapped in her mother's body, and later in the show she'll get stuck in rat form!! At least her mother is young and beautiful! I didn't remember it was her, the screaming figure in the opening titles! The happy ending is that now her mother's gone, Amy is back with her dad, and she loves it. Although I don't remember ever seeing him or hearing talking about him again... we'll see.
I loved this lines:
Giles' : "That's the thrill of living on the Hellmouth! ... Well, pardon me for seeing the glass half full!"
Willow's : "you're the slayer, and we're the slayerettes!"
Xander's : "I laugh in the face of danger... and then hide until it goes away"
ep 4 - Teacher's pet - Let's just forget about Xander's dream, after all he's 16... of course he dreams to be strong, a hero, and a musician! Moving on, let's concentrate on the odd thing that Buffy finds a nice man in her teacher, a good one that might make her want to study and show him that he was right in saying that she can do it! Do these people really exists?? I've never found one, but I've found more than one that would make you loose any will you might have...
Is a surprise to anyone that he'll die before next class?? No, not to me either. Dr Gregory dies and new teacher Natalie French takes over, and she's this episode's monster!! She is a Praying Mantis, a she-Mantis!
This is the first time Angel comes to the Bronze, and gives her his jacket saying she looks cold (also, of course, the usual criptic information). It starts the big jealousy Xander will always have for Angel. That's what I never liked about him!
ep 5 - Never kill a boy on the first date - Buffy has a date with Owen, a cute guy that reads Emily Dickinson and ignores Cordelia! I'm pretty sure that in a shot of them dancing she was standing on something, because he's so much taller than her!
She wants to have a normal date, so Giles goes to the Morgue alone, and when there's trouble she goes to help him, and Owen follows too. He's not clear about what happens, but in the end he asks her out again because le 'liked the danger', so she says no.
ep 6 - The pack - This is when Xander and four others got in them hyena-spirit, and I remember that when I saw it first time back then, I was impressed at how different he was, just by changing attitude, but seeing it now it doesn't have the same effect :-) It's also when they ate the little pig mascot, although only the other four also ate the principal, while being possessed by the hyenas! Not Xander, because he's one of the gang, one of the good ones, and they couldn't have him kill a man, right?
However, sad-Willow was touching, but I was glad that he didn't fool her while in the cage, because for a second it looked like he could, but that would have angered me because she's smarter than that! She might very well be in love with him, but she's smart first! And, she ran into Giles' arms: see? Smart!!
The best thing of the episode was that as soon as he was normal again, Xander ran in Willow's defence!
-->"nobody mess with my Willow" was cute. Of course, after all he did he pretended to have memory-loss. He had been cruel to Willow, and phisically assaulted Buffy! Well, she knocked him out, hitted him with a desk, but still, he had tried!
ep 7 - Angel - Angel comes to her rescue when the master sends the Three after her, and of course when he gets injured she has to take care of him... and of course Xander finds nothing better to do than be obnoxiously annoying with his jealousy. She keeps him in her room, at home, and after an embarassing moment when she thinks he read her private diary, he tells her that he wants to kiss her, then they kiss... and she finds out he's a vampire! She screams, and he runs away through the window. Darla, looking all innocent in school uniform, gets invited in by her mother and then she bites her, so when Buffy comes in she sees Angel and thinks he did it; also, the fact that when they ask her mother she just says 'Buffy's friend'... then Angel tells his story, his curse. Buffy and Angel finally have their first showdown, interrupted by Darla coming to chat :-) but with guns :-) she talks a lot, wanting the two of them to kill one another, but she has a totally different impact, the silly vampire girl, silly silly silly. She starts saying how she was the one that made him a vampire, then goes on saying how lately he hasn't killed anyone, how he's trying to be good because he's in love with Buffy... her conclusion is how the two of them should hate each other, but you can clearly see how her judgement is faulty there... After he kills Darla, Buffy does not kill him, instead goes near him leaning over with her neck, to test him, and he keeps his place :-)
This is the first episode with the crossbow. I don't particularly love crossbows, I don't know why they all look excited around them. Maybe because it's like a gun for vampires, and Americans love guns. Maybe, but I still think crossbows are not all that efficient! This is also where they say that he's 240 years old, 224 older than her :-)
I so didn't like the vampire child near the Master!
ep 8 - I, robot... you, Jane - It starts in XV century Italy, with people trying to speak italian :lol: The demon speaks it so badly, and the priest doing the spell in a bit better italian, but still barely understandable. Then we meet Miss Calendar for the first time. I so didn't like her! What did Giles see in her?? Well, she's pretty, but aside from that! Anyway, it turns out that the guy Willow fell for after chatting with him on the computer turns out to be Moloch the Corruptor, who was trapped in a book since the XV century, and not innocent 18 years old Malcolm.
ep 9 - The puppet show - There's the school talent show, assigned to Mr Giles by Snider (Armin Shimerman), the new principal, or the new fuhrer, as Giles calls him. Snider forces our trio to take part in the show, and Giles can't suppress a smile :-) When Xander acts all shocked at this development, his comedy, his comic timing looks exactly the kind of physical one that Chandler had in Friends.
This Morgan guy tries out with a dummy called Sid, and at first he's so bad he's embarrassing, then the dummy starts talking by himself and everybody laughs thinking he's just a good, funny ventriloquist.
Armin Shimerman as the new principal, since the old one was killed by the hiena-guys. :-) I always thought it was so funny how he is immediately recognizable without the whole "Quark" make-up on, but he looks just the same, but with smaller ears of course :lol:
This is the episode when Giles uses the technique Xander told him to use to stop Cordelia: "your hair.." and she runs away worried :-) Xander plays stupid as always, I mean, why should a wood dummy that can move and talk be so different from any other kind of demon? I admit , they've been in it from, like, nine episodes, but still knowing all that should open your mind a bit.
The switch of the episode is that talking and moving wood dummy is not a bad guy, he's a hunter like Buffy. I liked the end, when they show their act at the show, because it was like, this is what we're really scared of, this is what we don't want to do. And they had just played a demon and helped save Giles from having his brain removed.
ep 10 - Nightmares - Last year Buffy's parents' divorce was finalized.
People's nightmares become real: in class, Wendell is attacked by spiders for revenge, because although he loves them he feels guilty for causing the deaths of those he had at home. Buffy's history test go tragically wrong when time goes really too quickly. A girl is attacked by a monster calling her "lucky 19".... A bully is embarrassed at school by his mother. Xander finds himself in class with no clothes on. Giles that can't read. I mean, is he adorable or what? :-)
Buffy's dad telling her that she's the reason he split up with her mom, that it was her fault, and a lot of really awful horrible things.
Cordelia with impossible hair :lol: Giles getting lost in the library. Cordelia as a nerd, Xander chased by a clown (btw, what kind of a dumb is he? Finds something around and eats it? Just like that?)
Willow is thrown on a stage to sing as a soprano. The Master is free, up and about. Buffy is buried alive, Buffy's grave (this is Giles' nightmare, failing to protect her... so sweet), Buffy as a vampire...
all caused by a poor little kid in a coma because his coach beaten him after his team lost, giving him all the fault. A big man with a little child. The world is full of these pathetic failures, who need to beat up someone smaller to feel powerful, all because they are pathetic loosers who will never accept their own faults and to be on the safe side they take it on someone physically weaker so they know they can win easily, the pathetic scum that they are.
ep 11 - Out of mind, out of sight - We meet Cordelia's friend Harmony.
Her boyfriend is attacked with a bat and her friend Harmony is pushed down the stairs. Buffy says she was the Queen at her school. Angel comes to Giles to help, and I loved their talk, both so embarrassed :-) and when Giles, Willow and Xander gets trapped in the basement filling with gas, luckily he comes bringing the codex book that Giles needed, saving them. Can't be a hero without being lucky, right?
To fight the invisible girl (that I understand only too well, having been an invisible girl myself) Buffy listens to her slayer instincts, I guess, for the first time.
ep 12 - Prophecy girl - Giles reads in the codex that the slayer will die.
Xander confesses to Buffy, asks her out on a date. I usually don't like these scenes, because they are boring and embarrassing to watch, but this one is not. I like this scene: Xander appears all fear and hope, she's looking for a way out without hurting him. " I don't wanna spoil our friendship" and he just gets to the poing that they usually omit in this kind of scenes. He says: "I don't wanna spoil it either, but that's not the point. You either feel the thing, or you don't" - "I don't".
Willow's wearing a black and white sweater that is really dreadful, and Buffy's mom is adorable as always, isn't she? At school, is it normal that they wear skirts so short? Is that allowed in high school?"
Buffy goes alone to face the Master, and that is what he wanted. This way he could use his power on her to bring her close and feed on her, to gain the strength to get out. Angel and Xander come to the rescue, because Angel has no breath and can't revive her, so Xander saves her, bringing her back to life.
Cordelia rescues Willow and Miss Calendar! It really is the apocalypse alright!
They take refuge in the library, but guess what? That's where the hell mouth is... but of course Buffy comes to kill the Master and stops it!
1997
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