Act
Three
24KK)
She has a teddy bear backpack. FUN N' GAMES: "Cordy
and her stuffed bear. More symbolic goodness: with Cordy and Xander in hormone
overload and just starting to grips with the responsibilities of a relationship,
she's another Scoobie dealing with the leap from childhood to adulthood."--cjl,
Thurs, 02/27/03 at 00:11:46
24LL) "Then I thought, hey, I'm the one who started this nationwide craze! What am I ashamed of?" CORDY THE TRENDSETTER: See 9A.
24MM) "Okay, Soliloquy Girl..." TO BE OR NOT TO BE: A soliloquy, according to Dictionary.com is "a dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener." Soliloquies (used a lot by Shakespeare) are also notoriously long. Buffy is implying that Cordy is (a) going on and on and (b) talking to herself!
24NN) "...a day without an autopsy...is like a day without sunshine." POP CULTURE TIME: "A variation of the 1970s Minute Maid orange juice ad campaign, the one with Anita Bryant as spokeswoman: 'A day without Minute Maid orange juice is like a day without sunshine.'"--cjl, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:17:57
24OO) "Capeesh?" WORDY XANDER: "Capeesh is a variation of the Italian capisce, which means 'understand.'"--cjl, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:17:57
24PP) "Maybe the offspring simply used him to return to the mother bezoar." WHAT'S A BEZOAR?: "In our universe a bezoar is a hard mass formed of hair or food particles found in the stomach of cud-chewing animals or occasionally other animals. Hair bezoars are sometimes found in the stomachs of people who habitually chew their own hair. The word is also sometimes used to refer to hard stones or tumours found in other organs. In medieval medicine a bezoar was considered an infallible antidote to poison, either consumed as a treatment or dropped into the suspectedly-poisoned food or drink as a precaution."--KdS, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:55:02
24QQ) "Uh, actually I kind of *do* want to say 'burden'!" ISN'T IT IRONIC?: "There's a dramatic irony here. Joyce is complaining about her minor problems with Buffy, while Willow and Cordelia's 'children' are halfway to killing the school population."--Tchaikovsky, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:50:41
PARENTAL MUCH?: "Joyce unloads on Giles on the difficulties of raising a child, and Giles is very sympathetic. In a way, he's the Dad to Joyce's Mom, raising the Scoobs in the absence of a strong father figure. It's also interesting to note how much he resists the idea of fatherhood--even while he's possessed by the Bezoar..."--cjl, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 00:11:46
24RR) "'Bristow's Demon Index', 'Hell's Offspring'?" FORESHADOWY GOODNESS: Interestingly, in the third season's Gingerbread, the Hansel-and-Gretel-demon-infected Joyce will have the Sunnydale Police confiscate all of Giles' occult volumes, presumably including these as well.
24SS)
Giles takes a hatchling out of the card catalog drawer and sets it on Joyce's
back. METAPHORICAL GOODNESS: "Bezoar - or the mother
that creates the eggs is an extension of ME's sick parent idea. Through the
eggs - evil mother earth controls the humans. And both Buffy's parents: Joyce
(who is forbidding Buffy from going out and upset with her for not reporting
in) and Giles (who is responsible for Buffy going against Mom's wishes) are
grabbed by the parasite. It is ironically Giles who subjugates Joyce to the
parasite.
Giles finds the parasite in a book. A great metaphor by the way. The egg is
behind his books. Giles who almost smashes Buffy's egg in one scene - representative
of his reluctance to be the parent, or her parent as well as foreshadowing for
how he deals with Dawn. (Remember it is Giles who suggests she kill Dawn in
The Gift.) Then unexpectedly the egg grabs Giles, subjugating him to
it's will - whether he wants to be a parent or not - he can't control the fact
that the kids have made him one. He in turn grabs Joyce. Joyce was visiting
him to find out about Buffy - she is being the good mother. Trying to take care
of her child, while Giles keeps putting the child in danger. It is Giles who
places the parasite on Joyce and makes her a host."--shadowkat, Thurs,
02/27/03 at 09:33:35
Act Four
24TT) "Bad now." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: In the original script, this is followed by an amusing exchange:
Buffy sees 'em too. Grabs a heavy tool chest and slams it down on top of them. BLUE GOO OOZES out from under the chest.
XANDER: (schwarzeneggar) You're scrambled.He gets up as Buffy moves back to the door.
XANDER: See, we make a great team. You kill, I pun.
24UU) ...and shows the pink-fleshed mother bezoar's body as it moves and throbs. SYMBOLISM: "After all the phallic symbolism in Buffy (see 17MMM for an example), let's hear it for a bit of vaginal symbolism!"--KdS, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:55:02
FORESHADOWY GOODNESS: "...the idea of menace incubating in the basement of Sunnydale High would be picked up as a main theme in Season 7 with the Seal of Danthazar and the First Evil."--cjl, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 00:11:46
24VV)
"The offspring then attach themselves to a host, taking control of
their motor functions through neural clamping." BUFFYVERSE
MYTHOLOGY: "The Bezoars are one of the more unique baddies on
the show because there does not seem to be anything supernatural about them
at all (they are fictional, but that is another matter). The mother Bezoar is
a disk-shaped, non-mobile, tentacled life-form that lives underground laying
eggs. The baby Bezoar is an intelligent parasite (a creature who performs some
function necessary to its survival--typically eating, although not in the case
of the Bezoar--by direct use of another creature)…
The role of the human host in the Bezoar life-cycle is to spread the eggs, and
thus the offspring, to other human hosts. Although baby Bezoars are highly mobile
upon hatching, humans are more mobile. By spreading the offspring over a wider
area, there is a greater chance that some will survive to the age in which the
females will find a place to hibernate and procreate. Human hosts are also used
to uncover the mother at the time of egg dissemination. The resemblance of Bezoar
eggs to chicken eggs provides camouflage. All these adaptations enable the Bezoar
to spread their offspring farther and faster before they are slaughtered by
humans, and make sense from an evolutionary standpoint.
'Neural clamping': Bezoars clamp their bodies onto the spines or the base of
the neck of the human host. From this position, they can insert tentacles into
the nervous system and send electro-chemical impulses to the brain, blocking
the host's ability to make use of higher-level cognitive functions (e.g., decision-making),
and allowing the Bezoar to send their own instructions to the motor cortex (the
part of the brain that controls movement). Since Giles, Willow, and Cordelia
appear to be speaking and interacting in a more or less natural way while under
the influence of the Bezoars, the mama Bezoar might not call on their services
until they're needed. However, both Giles and Willow also act like themselves
at some points while they are carrying out mama's bidding, so it is safe to
say that the Bezoars take control of the host's cognitive functions as well.
Since the host does not control their mind or their body while under the influence,
it makes sense that the students and faculty were left confused after the incident
and did not remember what happened while they were under the influence of the
Bezoar...There is nothing truly evil about the Bezoar; she's just trying to
procreate. What is undesirable from a human perspective is that she uses human
beings to do it, and does so by putting them in a robotic servile state of mind.
The Bezoar is therefore an example of Evil-as-Order. "--Masquerade,
"Bad Eggs" Analysis, from http://www.atpobtvs.com
SCI-FI
CHESTNUTS: Although the concept of this episode reminds many of Invasion
of the Body Snatchers, "this was actually originally [Robert] Heinlein's
idea in [his book] The Puppet Masters. And the parasites are far closer
to the concept related in Robert Heinlein's work. There was also a very cheesy,
bad science fiction film starring Donald Sutherland called The Puppet Masters
which was based on Heinlein's work.
In the book - parasites are placed on the person's spine right underneath their
neck and the person becomes a slave to the parasites whims. They are almost
like a zombie in a way. The parasite operates all their motor functions. Once
a parasite gets in this position it uses the person to get more hosts. The parasites
come in egg-like cartons and are removed from boxes. The only way to kill them
without killing the host - is to somehow fry it near the neck. But you have
to be careful - or you'll kill the host as well. In The Puppet Masters
- parasites that use humans as puppets - the parasites came from outer space
with a mother ship. Here they came from the hellmouth - the same spot that the
Danthazar seal is in this season - oddly enough. Outside of that - the parasites
look and act pretty much the same as the ones in The Puppet Masters.
Invasion of The Body Snatchers was written by Jack Finney and published
I believe a few years after Heinlein's Puppet Masters. I remember a
friend of mine accusing Finney of stealing Heinlein's idea. (Uhm...ideas aren't
copyrightable and that one is pretty common in sci-fi.) In Invasion of The
Body Snatchers - the person is killed. A copy of that person is made and
before the person dies - the plant copying it takes all it's characteristics.
(Sort of like Buffy's concept of what a vampire is a la Giles. See ). Not at
all like Bad Eggs. Bad Eggs is actually closer to The
Puppet Masters in how it’s done (The scene in the basement where
they unpack the eggs? And the scene with Giles placing the parasite on Joyce's
back?--see --That's taken directly from The Puppet Masters. Marti must
have either seen the movie or read the novel.)."--shadowkat, Thurs,
02/27/03 at 09:33:35
Both of these sources were referenced in another film, 1998's The Faculty, which was a take-off on both of them.
RESEARCH PARTY: "Buffy and Xander in research mode. They're not very comfortable, what with Willow and Giles carrying the load in most situations. But they're the brains here, and they do a pretty good job digging up information about the Bazoar."--cjl, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 00:11:46
24WW) "Somebody help me!" CONTINUITY CHECK: "Jonathan sighting! And he's in trouble again--what a shock (See 16Dx4, 17XXX, 22TT, 32M, 36VVV, 39SSS, and 43Y.)."--cjl, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 00:11:46
24XX) "Kill them." DARK WILLOW: "It's interesting that Willow appears to be taking on a leadership role among the other possessed humans, rather than Giles say." This can perhaps be taken as another early hint as to Willow's capacity for darkness, which the Bezoar's dark energy is taking advantage of.--KdS, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:55:02
24YY) "Cordelia! I don't wanna hurt ya. Some of the time." DARK HUMOR: "Like some of Willow's darker jokes, this line, and the whole argument between Xander and Cordelia at the beginning, appears much darker after the revelations of Season 6."--KdS, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:55:02
24ZZ) He begins to choke as he struggles not to get pulled in. VAMP STRANGULATION: "Technically, vampires shouldn't be strangle-able (see Angel and Darla in Offspring, but also see Spike and Dru in Becoming II)."--KdS, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:55:02 See 11DDD.
BUT...: "...when Spike wrapped his arm around Dru's neck, [in Becoming II] he was not constricting her non-existent breathing, but cutting off the blood flow to her brain, and thus she fell unconscious (sigiil, 29 Feb 2000 12:04)."--Posted by Masquerade in "Vampires in the Buffyverse: Can Vampires Breath?", from http://www.atpobtvs.com See 34YYY.
24AAA) "TECTOR!" BROTHERLY LOVE: Another clue that former human lives can dictate the lives and personality of the vamp version of those people. Soul or no soul, Lyle still loved (as much as a vamp can) and protected his brother all those years.
24BBB) He turns and hightails it out of there. YELLOW OR SMART?: An interesting question is, for running away, is Lyle "a despicable coward, or should he be admired as a rare example of a vamp who can walk away from a fight and survive?"--KdS, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:55:02 See 37Ox4.
24CCC) "Yes, yes, uh, i-i-it was a-a, a gas leak, everyone." YEAH, RIGHT: "Another ludicrous explanation for the unexplainable in Sunnydale. These people will believe anything."--cjl, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 00:11:46
24DDD) They start kissing again as the camera continues to pull back. EVER AFTER?: "Smoochies after curfew. Buffy, as usual, finds a way around the rules. Final shot: closing out the ep 'on theme,' we get Buffy and Angel liplocking in the background (budding sexuality), with her stuffed toys in the foreground (childhood) (a). With Surprise and Innocence coming, Joss was practically smacking us in the face with: 'Childhood is over (b).'"--cjl, Thurs, 02/27/03 at (a) 00:11:46 (b) 14:30:19
"Buffy and Angel's constant kissing in this episode sets up the growing physical attraction between them ready for next week's sturm und drang."--KdS, Thurs, 02/27/03 at 07:55:02