Act Three
8II) "With a little help from my friends?" (00:28:25) WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF I SANG OUT OF TUNE?: This is a reference to the classic song of the same name by The Beatles, a band from the 1960s widely regarded even today as the greatest band in rock n' roll history. The song is on what most consider to be their finest album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. On an interesting side note, it is sung by Ringo Starr, who, like Xander in the Scooby Gang, many believe to be the "Zeppo" of the group.--Matching Mole, Mon, 07/22/02 at 14:51:00, paraphrased by Rob
8JJ) "I know." (00:30:58) KEEN OBSERVERS: This is not the only time a Scoobie will be surprised to find another person in Sunnydale unsurprised by the fact that the occult lives in Sunnydale. When Willow first tells Oz that vampires and demons are real in the second season's Surprise, he calmly says, "Actually, it explains a lot." See 25XX.
8KK) "Come on, there've been portents for days." (00:31:44) WHICH WICCA IS WHICH?: Although Jenny Calendar is not a witch per se, she is the first woman on Buffy who we seeing using magic as a positive force (Catherine Madison from The Witch would definitely be in the opposite boat.). Although she does not seem to have any inborn powers, she does have some capability with some lesser magicks, and her research in the subject will, in the second season, be the basis of Willow's first true experimentation with witchcraft and spellcasting.
8LL) "That bad old science made the magic go away?" (00:32:25) BRAVE NEW WORLD: This quote is possibly a reference to the short story by the acclaimed science-fiction writer, Larry Niven, entitled The Magic Goes Away, in which the last sorceror realizes that mana, the energy behind magic, is a nonrenewable resource...[and] is running out.--Anom, Tues, 07/23/02 at 15:07:54, partially paraphrased by Rob
Act Four
8MM) "to touch...to kill..." (00:34:42) SEE ME, FEEL ME: Ironically, Moloch's ideas of knowledge seem to be akin to Giles's. Here, Moloch emphasizes "the 'sensuality' of knowledge...[Later in the episode] Giles...underlines the quality of texture and smell, the fleshlike quality of a book...Moloch seems to agree that knowledge shouldn't be disembodied." Being disembodied information is nothing, Moloch says, in comparison to the ability to touch, feel, and breathe in the real world.--Etrangere, Mon, 7/27/02 at 13:57:46 See 8I.
Of course, at the same time, Moloch isn't in the "real" world, because he is still jacked in, at this point, to the information superhighway. His tune changes when he is booted off the Internet and must again deal with the physical limitations of having a body.--Anom, Tues, 07/23/02 at 15:07:54, paraphrased by Rob
These words are later echoed by Adam, the demon/human/computer hybrid created in the fourth season. He was "another 'created' man, who was intensely interested in life, in knowledge....Adam was also obsessed with his 'mother' just as Moloch is."--Rahael, Wed, 07/24/02 at 08:09:32, partly paraphrased by Rob See 8A.
8NN) "The first thing we have to do is form the Circle of Kayless..." (00:35:22) TECHNO-SLAYING: "...[W]hen Moloch was disembodied, and he encompassed the totality of the world (he...[was] everywhere...[could] affect all sorts of crucial events), he...[wa]s unbeatable. He's made vulnerable by his own deepest desire...[to have a body and form again.] And the way...[he is beaten?] By a literal virtual circle. Jenny and her fellow techno pagans form a 'circle' on the web, and 'break'..." him. One advantage that computers have over books, or boundless information has over bound books, is that books (and bodies) are temporary and breakable. As a computer, Moloch was undefeatable; disconnected from the web, he did not last very long at all. Even Giles had to succumb to the necessity of making his books eternal by having Willow scan them in. Just as a mix of the old (the pagan ritual) and the new (Internet) worked together to defeat Moloch, this episode implies that books and computers both have their advantages, and can be used together to make knowledge last forever.--Rahael, 07/24/02 at 08:09:32, additions and some parphrasing by Rob
The message of this episode is "that knowledge frees mankind - what Moloch tries to do is to take it all for himself, restricting, holding captive people and knowledge. And as Jenny Calendar and Giles prove, through knowledge, both books and the internet gives the means to defeating him."--Rahael, Wed, 07/24/02 at 11:07:58
8OO) "You created me." (00:35:46) WOULDN'T IT BE LOVERLY?: In many ways, I, Robot...You, Jane is the Pygmalion story, told backwards. Pygmalion was a classic myth, later updated in a play by George Bernard Shaw in the early 20th century, which, in its turn, became a highly successful musical in 1956 entitled My Fair Lady, by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner. Pygmalion was, in short, the story of a sculptor who falls in love with the female sculpture he is creating, so the goddess Venus turns it into a living woman. In this Buffy episode, instead of the creator falling in love with his creation, the creation falls in love with his creator. Further, this theme of a robot trying to possess the woman he loves will reoccur in the second season's Ted (see 23Bx5). Pygmalion originally created the sculpture, because he had shunned all other women as being unworthy and untrustworthy. The sculpture was his attempt to make the perfect female for himself. We will see this happen again on Buffy in the fifth season's I Was Made To Love You, when the character, Warren, dumped by his girlfriend, Katrina, creates his own robot version of her, April, who will love him wholeheartedly and follow his every wish and command.--Etrangere, Mon, 07/22/02 at 13:57:46, paraphrased and additions made by Rob
8PP) "You've seen way too many movies." (00:37:15) POP CULTURE TIME: The movie to which Jenny is referring is the 1997 blockbuster hit, Independence Day, in which an evil alien race is defeated when the humans upload a virus into their mothership's main computer system. Jenny scoffs at this notion, as many moviegoers did, since it is beyond unlikely that the humans would have been able to construct a virus compatible with an alien computer system.
8QQ) "Remember me? Your girlfriend?" (00:40:28) DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?: "...Willow pounds him with the fire extinguisher, much like angry citizens might break down the statues of those who seduced them with false and empty promises, and then led them into slavery. This of course is a very timely connection with the internet and freedom - because so many persecuted people can use it, crossing the boundaries of oppression and power. Of course, unsavoury elements use it too..."--Rahael, Wed, 07/24/02 at 09:46:11
8RR) "Well, it was your book that started the trouble, not a computer." (00:41:58) COMPUTERS BAD?: By the end of this episode, Buffy's stance on the books vs. computer, old vs. new debate is clear, namely, that they are both equally valuable, each with their own strengths and limitations. They both work for the same goal--the spreading of knowledge. They can both best be used together to solve problems; they do not need to oppose each other. Jenny, a technopagan, is the living embodiment of this philosophy. And in the above quote, Jenny reminds Giles that, in this case, a book caused the problem. Knowledge, in any shape or form, can be used for either good or bad intentions.--Etrangere, Mon, 7/27/02 at 13:57:46, paraphrased by Rob
8SS) "...it should be, um...smelly." (00:42:45) THE BOOKS VS. COMPUTERS DEBATE: "In the late 90s the library community felt the same way. There were many articles on how the computer would never replace print, people were worried about the advent of e-books and how this would revolutionize reading. Ironic fear, considering that e-books never took off, most print on demand and electronic book companies have been forced out of business and print is alive and well. But this fear was prevalent at the time of..." this episode.--Shadowkat, Mon, 07/22/02 at 13:06:27 See 8I.
8TT) "Let's face it: none of us are ever gonna have a happy, normal relationship." (00:43:52) HAPPILY EVER AFTER?: "I always liked the interplay and contrast between fantasy and reality, printed text and electronic, and intellect and passion...[in this episode.] It's worthy to note that with all the talk of logos and debates about the transmutation of knowledge in an electronic era, the spine of the plot is all about love, love, love. Willow going to the computer when she can't get it from Xander; Xander panicking when his status as the king of Willow's universe is threatened; Giles and Jenny starting what will be a long and tortured relationship; and the capper at the end, with our three teenaged heroes bemoaning their potentially hopeless love lives. Speaking of Giles and Jenny, was their badinage in this episode cute or what? It's obvious even this early that they have a great deal of intellectual respect for each other, and once they see past their surface differences, the emotional connection percolates to the top. In many ways, their communication is the exact opposite of Willow's with Malcolm...[which was] an immediate, irrational emotional attachment to a figure without a face."--cjl, Tues, 07/23/02 at 13:10:04
FORESHADOWY GOODNESS: The characters don't know at this point, and probably thankfully so, just how accurate this prediction will turn out to be. "Happy, normal" relationships never last long (if at all) in the Buffyverse.