13A) When She Was Bad. MOTHER GOOSE TIME: The title of this episode comes from the following, famous Mother Goose nursery rhyme:
"There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good, she was very very good
And when she was bad, she was horrid."--Rahael, Mon, 11/18/02 at 06:13:25
Teaser
13B) "It's a madhouse! A mad..." POP CULTURE TIME: Oz repeated this line in the fourth season premiere, The Freshman.--paraphrased by Rob, from an e-mail submission by Peter James
13C) "Use the Force, Luke!" POP CULTURE TIME: The movie this line comes from is "not even dignified with a response" by Xander because it is such a well-known reference. For those of you who have been living under a rock since the late 1970s, it is one of the main catchphrases of the amazingly successful Star Wars series. It was uttered by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master, to his Padawan apprentice, Luke Skywalker, in the first film, A New Hope. For another Star Wars reference in this episode, see 13U.
13D) "We already played rock, paper, scissors." GAME THEORY: "Rock, paper, scissors" is a hand game, played between two people. They each hold a fist out and shake it, while saying, "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" On the final word, each person will either keep their fist intact, as a symbol for "rock," open their fist and hold out their palm, as a sign for "paper," or move their index and pointer fingers into a "v" shape, as a sign for "scissors." Whoever has the dominant symbol wins. "Rock" beats "scissors" (it "breaks " them), "scissors" beats "paper" (they "cut" it), and "paper" beats "rock" (it "covers" it).
13E) "...this has been the most boring summer ever." THE SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT: "The ‘boring summer’ Xander refers to is most probably the result of The Master’s death, causing a mass exodus of vampires from Sunnydale. The first season certainly contained evidence that the Master operated a patriarchal system over the town’s vamp population, and through his death and the Hellmouth being sealed up again in Prophecy Girl, the mystic energy that drew evil to the town was probably dissipated for a while."--submitted by Peter James, partly paraphrased by Rob
13F) "I'm just so restless!" GRATUITOUS FORESHADOWY GOODNESS ALERT!: Did you honestly think I could pass by the word "restless" without making a note about it? ;o) For those of you not in the know, Restless was the name of the dream sequence extravaganza season four finale.
13G) "Your nose looks so tasty." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "He daubs it with a napkin (he has the only one or she would). And again, yeah, they're pretty close, her arm on his shoulder, looking at each other, then less looking than gazing...CLOSE UP: THEIR FACES...Come pretty close, right into the awkward almost-kiss-zone. A moment, and they stop, their heads separating. There is a vampire right between them. Leering, ravenous, and practically in the kiss zone himself."--"When She Was Bad" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One
THE XANDER/WILLOW SAGA: This is the first clue we get that the idea of Xander and Willow ever becoming romantically involved isn't so far fetched, and further that Xander might have some (more deeply buried) romantic feelings for Willow himself.
I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM: The ice-cream equals romance metaphor returns again (see 5QQ). Perhaps the fact that this time the characters actually get to eat the ice cream (all the other ice cream plans got derailed) indicates that this is not an isolated incident--what begins as an almost-moment-of-romance in this episode will later continue to develop, primarily in the third season.
13H) "Willow, go!" XANDER IN A NUTSHELL: This short scene is a perfect example, in microcosm, of the split in Xander's personality. In his heart of hearts, he is heroic, and we see this when he immediately attempts to protect Willow. He bravely stands between Will and the vamp, and punches it in the face in a burst of heroism. However, despite his desire to be the hero, he ends up almost succumbing to the vamp and has to be rescued by Buffy, an example of his Zeppo side. What is most important, however, is that his first instinct is to protect Willow (see 13XX) and fight the vampire, whether he loses his life or not.
13I) "Miss me?" BUFFY'S ABSENCE: This line is "as much said to the viewer as to Xander and Willow. Very meta[narrative] (see 9*2)...The entire conversation leading up to her arrival circled around her absence. The hero is absent from the picture, until she arrives, signaling her arrival with some action hero-y Vamp ass kicking. But Buffy continues to be emotionally absent for most of the episode. Her coming back is not only from LA, but from death. The ‘miss me’ is even more poignant because it is a question, not a statement, and because we might never have got[ten] Buffy back. Throughout the episode, we get reminders of Buffy 'not being there'. Xander tells Buffy she should have been there when they buried the Master. But Buffy went away, she absented herself from the closure of burial."--Rahael, Mon, 11/18/02 at 06:13:25
Act One
13J) "And I figured you two losers would be getting into some kind of trouble." BUFFY BITCHY: Still very early in the episode, this line is spoken before Willow and Xander truly start to question Buffy's frame of mind. Her "losers" line goes ignored for the moment, and although it could be seen (and at this point is probably written off) as a humorous jibe, it is hard to ignore how cutting the implications of her statement really are, when taken in the context of Buffy's current state.
13K) "It's like they knew I was coming back." IS IT BUFFY'S FAULT?: There has been a great deal of discussion among Buffy fandom about whether Buffy herself is to blame for the constant threats to the world. In other words, does she go about causing problems, albeit inadvertently, that she then has to fix? If she had never come to Sunnydale, would the vampire problem be as bad? True, we know that she is partially to blame for at least two of the apocalypses on the show. In Prophecy Girl, her blood aided the Master in breaking free from his mystical prison (see 12EEE), and, later in this season, in Surprise, her night of passion with Angel ends up costing him his soul, thus unleashing Angelus, who, by the end of the season, attempts to destroy the world, as well. Still, this theory is directly challenged in The Wish, when we learn that true disaster would have indeed happened had Buffy not been in Sunnydale, although the world in that episode did survive intact. Maybe, then, this does imply Buffy's necessity for the world to end. Buffy's blood caused the Hellmouth to open upon the Master's breaking free; perhaps the human blood from The Harvest (which is how the Master rose in this alternate universe) was only strong enough to release the Master and not open the Hellmouth. Even with all of this said, Buffy is not meant to be perceived as someone who just cleans up her own messes. She saves lives on an everyday basis and has more than once given her life to save others. Although some might argue that the reason so many evil beings flock to Sunnydale is not just the Hellmouth but in order to challenge the Slayer (meaning that her presence causes more demons to come than would have otherwise occurred), this statement is disproved by the events of Bargaining, when a gang of demons rides into Sunnydale with the knowledge that the Slayer is dead and gleefully attept to dismantle the town and turn it into their personal demony playground. This strongly implies that were she not there, true evil would go unchecked, which is especially not good, being on the Hellmouth and all. The most likely explanation for the "most boring summer ever" is the fact that, in the first season, The Master was the ruler of all of the vamps in Sunnydale. The loss of his leadership probably caused many to panic and flee, or at the very least, to no longer be a mobilized "army," as they were early in the season. For the next two months, they were weak and ineffectual. The Anointed One, over the summer, slowly gained strength and by this episode's resurrection ritual, planned to reunite all the vamps once more.
13L) "I did kinda wail on him, didn't I?" TAKING HER TIME: Buffy rarely beats a vamp down so much before finally going in for the kill. The only other prevalent time was in the second season's Ted, when she takes her aggression about her dislike of her mother's new boyfriend out on a vampire. Her actions here are much closer to the type of slayage Faith does. In Faith, Hope & Trick, Buffy is very disturbed that Faith gets so involved in the bloodying-up of the vamp, enjoying it on a sexual level, to such an extent that she puts Buffy, and potentially herself, in danger (see 37Ax4). Buffy will act like Faith a variety of times throughout this episode. See 13S.
13M) "She was, um... you know, great." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "There isn't much GREAT! In his 'great'. Joyce stops unpacking."--"When She Was Bad" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One
13N) "The more time we spent together, the more I felt like she was nowhere to be seen." LIVING IN AN INVISIBLE WORLD: "This is both an ironic metanarrative point - Buffy is invisible to Hank during the Summer, because she only lives during the TV season - [and a comment regarding the fact that s]he's lost inside herself, and she's disconnected herself from everyone, both physically and emotionally. Here's another metaphor of invisibility as alienation (see 11NN)."--Rahael, Mon, 11/18/02 at 06:13:25
THE BUFFY/HANK RELATIONSHIP: This is the last time we see ["the real"] Hank on the show, and the last time we hear a reference to him taking Buffy for a vacation or the weekend. In fact, on Buffy's birthday in Helpless, he fails to show up to take her to the Ice Capades. Much later on in the show, he is referred to as having, for all intents and purposes, abandoned Buffy, and doesn't even come to Joyce's funeral in Forever. For speculation on the disintegration of Buffy's relationship with her father, see 10D, 10MM, and 35K.
13O) "I'll just be happy if she makes it through the school year." ISN'T IT IRONIC?: "The irony here is, of course, that she doesn't...," due to the events of the season finale, Becoming, Parts 1 and 2.--Rook, Sun, 11/17/02 at 23:36:44 For more Becoming foreshadowing, see 13RR and 13WW.
13*2) "I mean, they promised me they'd take me to St. Croix, and then they just decide to go to Tuscany...Art and buildings? I was totally beachless for a month and a half. No one has suffered like I have." SUFFERIN' SUCOTASH!: Cordy will have similar complaints about her next summer vacation as well (see 35X). One can be pretty much assured that she does it this year. If a vacation to Tuscany is what Cordy sees as "true suffering," the idea of what it must feel like to her when her family loses their money near the end of the third season, boggles the mind.
13P) "You see the way these kids gaze at each other...all moony." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "Giles and Jenny gaze at each other, all moony."--"When She Was Bad" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One
13Q) "Naked?" GILES SEXY?: Joss Whedon has commented on the fact that one of the most important aspects of the Giles character is that he defies the "stuffy, British, exposition guy" stereotype by, at the same time, being sexy and youthful in his own way. Although on the surface, he seems to be the British professor/demon expert guy from all of the old horror movies, Giles has a rebellious, headstrong streak that usually remains under the surface but was part of his defining characteristics, during his younger "Ripper" days. This sentence is a perfect example of the two sides of Giles. He starts off sounding just as proper and uptight as ever, commenting on why he wouldn't have enjoyed this festival, but then veers off at the end when he finds himself entranced by the "naked" thing. In his heart, he can be just as fascinated by sex as a teenage boy.
13R) "...it's closed, but not gone." CLARIFICATION: This line is a very important one, in that it establishes, once and for all, that the Hellmouth is still very dangerous for the remainder of the series, even though it has been closed again. Just as it drew evil to Sunnydale when it was closed the first time, so does it continue to do so.
13S) "Buffy, that's enough." THE FAITHINESS OF BUFFY: Compare this scene and Giles' trying to get Buffy to stop beating up the dummy to the previously mentioned scene in the third season's Faith, Hope, & Trick (see 13L).
13T) "We have been put down, kinsmen." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "It's a dark brick building, old machines and rusted hooks and chains making up its décor. A group of vampires, including TARA (girl vampire) stands on the balconies and rafters, listening to someone on the floor below...ABSALOM is long -- long in the face, the body, the fingers. His face, like those around him, is vampiric. He is too old and powerful to bother assuming a human visage. He moves with grace and authority, and speaks with same."--"When She Was Bad" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One
WHAT'S IN A NAME?: "The name 'Absalom' has both literary and biblical references. Absalom, Absalom! is the name of the Southern Gothic novel by William Faulkner, reputedly one of his greatest and most difficult books. The source of his title was the biblical figure Absalom, a son of King David (a)." "The name 'Absalom' means 'father of peace,' but the biblical Absalom hardly lived up to it. He rebelled against his father more literally than most sons, making war on him...[and] even capturing Jerusalem. (b)." "Absalom was killed in battle and upon hearing of his death David said: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Sam. 18:33. Comp. Ex. 32:32; Rom.9:3), quote from dictionary.com (a)" "Handsome and spoiled, Absalom had always been the favorite of David, who said the words quoted above after his son's death in spite of his betrayal. (b)."--(a) ponygirl, Sun, 11/17/02 at 20:51:56; (b) anom, Mon, 11/18/02 at 08:31:30
ISN'T IT IRONIC?: The girl vampire's name is never mentioned on-screen, but it is interesting to note that her name, in the shooting script, is Tara, considering that perhaps the kindest person in the Buffyverse, named Tara, will be introduced in the fourth season's Hush. This is not the first unintentional foreshadowing of Tara's arrival. See 3I.
13U) "Within three days a New Hope will arise." POP CULTURE TIME: This is the second Star Wars reference in this episode (see 13C), and this time it is an ironic one. The name of the first-produced film in the series (however, the fourth episode in the story's chronology) is A New Hope, and it refers to Luke Skywalker, who renews faith that the evil Empire can be defeated. Here, however, the "new hope" is that of the evil characters' and their latest scheme to take over the world.
THE MAGIC NUMBER: Yet again, we see importance of the number three. See 12F for more details.
Act Two
13V) "Nothing." KEEPING SECRETS: "She doesn't bother telling them [about what's bothering her], because they won't understand. Which is kind of ironic because this is actually a dream she is having and this particular Willow and Xander are parts of her."--Rahael, Mon, 11/18/02 at 06:13:25
13W) "The other night I dreamt that Xander..." WILLOW BAD LIAR?: This is our first clue that this is a dream. Willow, under normal conditions, can think fast on her feet, and is a good liar (see 5S). She never would have, even by accident, made a casual remark about dreaming about Xander, if he was anywhere in her presence, and if she had slipped by accident, she wouldn't have tried to cover it up so weakly. The fact that Willow reveals her feelings for Xander stands as an ironic counterpoint to the fact that even in her own dream, Buffy won't reveal the truth to her friends.
13X) "...suddenly pulls off a mask, revealing the Master underneath." DADDY DEAREST: "Quite obviously, Buffy is harbouring resentful feelings toward[s Giles]...The father who let her down, who didn't protect her. This is signalled by the fact that Giles is the outer covering for the Master in her dream. A sign that to her, all men are monsters underneath, even the good ones. A viewpoint hammered home by Angel, a beautiful man with a monster underneath. Perhaps Xander, too contains a monster. Buffy hasn't found out yet - perhaps the sexy dance was her taunting him, testing the boundaries (see 13HH). In fact, she punishes all the men in this ep - her father, by being distant (see 13N); Xander, through sex; Angel through coldness (see 13Z). But underneath even that is the worry that all these men act this way to her because she is the real monster. The one who deserves to be sent out to die. The one who deserves to be killed, to be reproached, to be ignored. Her acting this way is an expression of how she feels she is treated, and also her internalization of her low opinion of herself."--Rahael, Mon, 11/18/02 at 06:13:25
SET APART: "Buffy's dream of being attacked by Giles depicts Xander and Willow seemingly unconcerned or unaware of the life and death struggle Buffy is facing. They are removed from her problems, whatever they have seen and done for Buffy it just doesn't compare to her experiences…[The] Slayer negotiates the border between different worlds: human/demon, night/day, good/evil. Nothing underscores this more than the fact that Buffy has died and yet still lives. It has changed her, set her apart. The detachment she feels from ordinary life after this brief death is magnified a hundredfold after her second death, and her struggle to find meaning in a life that is undefined by death will inform all of season 6."--Ponygirl, Sun, 11/17/02 at 20:51:56
THE SLAYER/WATCHER DYNAMIC: This scene illustrates an underlying theme of the show, namely that the Watcher is, in all likelihood, training his Slayer to fight until her eventual but (in all other cases) inevitable death at the hands of a monster. When viewed in this way, one could say that the Watcher leads his charge to her death, just as surely as the Anointed One did to Buffy in Prophecy Girl (see 12PP). This ties into Buffy's comment that Giles watches, and she just works there. In other words, she puts her life in danger, while he stands back and watches from a safe distance. Buffy is, of course, completely ignoring the fact that Giles is not like other Watchers. He has developed a paternal attachment to Buffy that the Council frowns upon to the point that it becomes the basis for his being fired in the third season's Helpless. Interestingly, this occurs after he refuses to continue administering drugs to Buffy that rob her of her strength. This scene of Buffy dreaming that Giles is attacking her can be seen as foreshadowing his temporary betrayal of her in that episode.
13Y) "Mind if I come in?" ANGEL POLITE: Angel again proves what a good person he is here, in asking permission to come in to Buffy's bedroom. This is a gesture of politeness, and not a mystical necessity; he will later abuse this ability to enter her bedroom, as the evil Angelus in Passions. See 7E.
13Z) "I missed you..." TOO LATE: This episode "ties in excellently to Conversations with Dead People, and Buffy's superiority/inferiority complex (see 12OOO). None of the others can understand what she goes through. It's 'her' fight. The prophecy is all about her. She's the person who has to go and fight danger. She puts everyone in danger by assuming it's all about her. But at the same time, she feels like dirt. She acts out what she feels she is. When Angel visits her, he tells her that he missed her. But she hesitates too long with her much emotionally softer 'missed...[you]?'. She had been harsh with him until he admitted it. But he had gone by then - he missed her comment. And Buffy's echoing of her earlier question, 'miss me?' (see 13I) shows that her deepest worry was that she is of no consequence at all. She is beneath them, dead, buried. Part of her was killed, and hasn't woken up to new life yet."--Rahael, Mon, 11/18/02 at 06:13:25
13AA) "The Three Musketeers were cool." LITERATURE CORNER: The Three Musketeers is a literary classic, written by Alexandre Dumas in 1844, about a team of three sword-swinging, swash-buckling heroes whose famous motto is "All for one, and one for all!" They protect the king of France from villainous attempts on his life, and are champions of swordplay and romance. This is why, when Cordy calls the Scooby Gang "the Three Musketeers," she is actually (accidentally) complimenting them. Perhaps this is a result of Cordy suffering an identity crisis now that Buffy has coopted her position as Queen Bitca of Sunnydale.
13BB) "I woulda gone with Stooges." POP CULTURE TIME: This is a reference to the Three Stooges, which was a famous comedy team of the mid-1930s through the late 1950s, and whose short films were all set-ups for comedy sequences of the three idiotic characters slapping and hitting each other. Larry and Moe, two of the characters, were featured in every film, while the third spot was usually taken by Curly, but sometimes by Shemp, each of them Moe's real-life brothers.
13CC) "With all the vampires. " THE HONESTY OF CORDELIA: Again, we see Cordy's honesty, in action. She doesn't see any need to hide the truth from any listening ears. She doesn't censor her thoughts, whether they be about fashion victims or vampires! See 11UU.
13DD) "...and I won't tell anyone you're a moron." BUFFY BITCHY: One of the major clues that Buffy truly has gone too far is that she actually managed to not only insult Cordelia, but do it so cuttingly that she actually hurts her. Very few people have the power to actually get Cordy where it hurts. The fact that Buffy can is perhaps meant as another indication to the bond that Cordy and Buffy share. Had Buffy never been approached by Merrick (see 1J), she probably would still be the way Cordy is at this point in the story.
13EE) "You got somethin' on your nose." MRS. CELLOPHANE: Of course, as soon as Buffy is back, Xander goes back to ignoring Willow, as per usual.
13FF) "Dig." THE ANNOYING ONE AS FIGUREHEAD: Note that the Anointed One gives orders, but does no actual work himself. He is like a cult leader, masquerading as a spiritual leader. The vamps will follow his every command and will look to him for guidance, but he himself has no true power, either physical or mental. His only power is in his title. And yet at this point in Buffyverse history, the vampires of Sunnydale are still very tradition-based and respect the old orders. This will all change in two episodes, however, in School Hard, when the leadership changes hands and a new set of vamps, Spike and Drusilla, who are not so respectful of authority or tradition, forever change the face of Sunnydale vampirism.
13GG) "I moved on. To the living." BUFFY LIAR: This line is "horribly ironic given...Buffy's emotional arrest over Angel," which continues even up to the seventh season, at which time the two had been apart for over three years. This causes her great pain over the years; ironically, she probably " should have taken her own advice".--KdS, Sun, 11/17/02 at 06:14:48
13HH) "Let's dance." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "Buffy's moves are a little too close, a little too hot. It's pure bad girl, and Xander doesn't know whether to be suspicious, aroused, or panicked...ANGLE: WILLOW...Looking on, unhappy...ANGLE: ANGEL...Unhappy...Hell, even Xander is looking a little upset. Buffy smiles at him."--"When She Was Bad" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One
DANSE MACABRE: "Xander gets the dance he asked for in Prophecy Girl (see 12K). It's as sensuous as Xander could have wanted for a first dance. But, it's not the private moment of happiness he'd hoped for."--Cactus Watcher, Sun, 11/17/02 at 18:37:00
"Her dance with Xander isn't flirtation or romance; it's about sex, and power. Buffy uses her sexuality as a weapon: to make Angel jealous, to hurt Willow, to prove her power over Xander. Interestingly enough this seems to mark the beginning of the end of Xander's crush on Buffy. Up until their bump and grind, he had been unwilling to discuss Buffy's questionable behaviour. Afterwards it seemed that his idealized vision of Buffy had been seriously tarnished by her casual use of him -- he's very quick to turn on her throughout the rest of the episode. And she never did thank him for saving her life..."--Ponygirl, Sun, 11/17/02 at 20:51:56
13II) "Did I ever thank you...for saving my life?" THE SLAYER'S DEATH WISH: "Well, no. Because she's not thankful. Even from the moment she regains consciousness in Prophecy Girl, she seems harder, emotionless (see 12MMM and 12OOO). Being killed had a deep effect on her. I think it scared her at a very deep level. How could she face slaying again if she let herself feel that fear? And Xander put her in the situation that caused her to feel that way. OK, ultimately the Master was responsible for that, but if she'd stayed dead, she wouldn't have had to feel it."--anom, Mon, 11/18/02 at 08:31:30
MORE ON THAT: "I think in this ep, Buffy, having escaped death, longs for oblivion. Throughout the First Season, the Master's presence, lay seething underground, the hidden shadow behind all the eps. In this ep, the Master again lies undergound, and his influence is just as baleful. He 'rises' in Buffy's dream, which is an ironic counterpoint to the fact that Colin is trying to resurrect him. In fact, just as in Season 1, it is Buffy who allows him to escape. She is the one who is so affected by him, that she allows his influence to be felt long after his death. In fact, Colin's attempt at resurrecting the Master is simply a metaphoric statement of Buffy's continuing fight with him.
"I think Buffy's reaction to Giles' interpretation of the Latin text of the prophecy is really interesting. She says that the Master must feel close to her, because he tried to kill her. But what it really reveals is that she is projecting. She feels close to the Master, who lies dead and buried. She feels that she too is dead. Dead inside, disconnected. Unmissed. In fact, Xander even suggest this: "Hey, maybe when the Master killed her some mystical bad guy transference thing happened." In fact this does seem to be what happened, but only emotionally, not physically.
"So her comment to Xander, that she hadn't thanked him yet for bringing her back to life had suppressed anger in it, an anger expressed in the aggressiveness and meanness of her sexuality in that dance with him. Thank Xander? She wants to punish him! She says to Angel that she's moved on to the living. But she hasn't really. She's lying in that grave, that space between life and death. Buffy makes the point in the Bronze by creating a hugely tense, dramatic sitaution, where she gets to control everything, and leaves Xander, Willow and Angel, rooted to the spot, hurt, controlled by her - and then she leaves. Expressing her feeling both of absence, but also expressing all the tense, unresolved feelings she has."--Rahael, Mon, 11/18/02 at 06:13:25
COUNTERPOINT: "My point of view is the opposite. I don't think at this point Buffy viewed death as anything but a horror. I believe her 'nasty act' was a way to isolate all of her friends from horrid helpless deaths [like] she suffered in Prophecy Girl. What Buffy discovered in When She Was Bad was that her being isolated protected no one. It just made it that much harder for her to protect people when they needed her. And it in no way eased the burden of facing death every night. It was only after [the fifth season's] Fool for Love and especially after her noble death in [that season's finale,] The Gift, that the oblivion of death actually began to look attractive to Buffy."--Cactus Watcher, Mon, 11/18/02 at 07:32:27
POINT AGAIN: "But didn't Fool for Love suggest that there was a secret wish in every Slayer for the thing they dealt out? Also, maybe I'm projecting here but it is totally possible to view death as a horror, and yet to long for it. Buffy takes risks all the time. She walks the fine line. Sometimes, when you come too close it starts to haunt you. I mean, this is a girl whose natural home is the graveyard. Who kills every night. Who has experienced death twice. Who sleeps with the undead. Repeatedly. And because she finds death a horror, she repulses herself. But she is totally enmeshed in it. But I think we just view her nasty act quite differently. I don't think she's merely protecting her friends."--Rahael, Mon, 11/18/02 at 08:02:46
The idea that Buffy may resent her friends for bringing her back to life was explored to its fullest extent in the major story arcs of the sixth season. In this episode, however, it seems to be more subconscious than when she is resurrected in Bargaining II.
13JJ) "Don't you wish I would?" FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "And with that, she leaves. Leaves the floor, leaves The Bronze, leaves a wake of unhappiness behind her."--"When She Was Bad" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One
13KK) "You're really campaigning for bitch-of-the-year, aren't you?" CLOSING OFF: "One of the most important themes of the Buffyverse is that of consequences. Buffy had, by any measure, won in Prophecy Girl (she'd defied prophecy, defeated the Master, and got to go to the dance), yet there was a price. Buffy's brief death affected her far more than she would ever admit. It is the start of her isolation from those closest to her. She had been practiced in concealing things from her parents before, but now there is an emotional detachment. It's present in her dealings with everyone in this episode, as she deals with an internal struggle by closing herself off. A pattern that seemed to reach its apotheosis in season 6, but still seems to be ongoing in season 7."--Ponygirl, Sun, 11/17/02 at 20:51:56
13LL) "I'm going to give you some advice. Get over it." THE HONESTY OF CORDELIA: It is very fitting that Cordelia is the one to chastise Buffy for her rotten behavior, because as self-absorbed, mean, and cold that Cordy can be, she's also arguably the most perceptive character on the show (see 11UU). She does not hold back anything; she is utterly and completely honest. And let's face it, if Cordelia Chase reaches out to you and tells you that you should stop being a bitch and make sure you don't lose your friends for your own sake, it really would be best to listen!
13MM) "Whatever is causing the Joan Collins 'tude, deal with it..." POP CULTURE TIME: Joan Collins, a famous British actress, is perhaps best known in the United States for her role as Alexis Morrell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan on the hit 1980s nighttime soap opera, Dynasty. Her character was well-known as a "vicious bitch," and general opinion is that Collins herself has similar attributes. Whether that is true or not, this is the 'tude to which Cordy refers.
13NN) "I'll just go see if Angel feels like dancing." ANGEL & CORDY: Buffy getting Angel has been a sore spot for Cordy ever since she first uttered "Hello, salty goodness! (see 5GG)" Ironically, by the end of the third season of Angel, it is clear that Angel and Cordelia have fallen in love.