40A) Jane Espenson. AND SO IT BEGINS: "The beginning of a legend. Jane Espenson's first episode, and richly indicative of the humour that would come to be her trademark."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
Teaser
40B) "And on that tragic day, an era came to its inevitable end." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "BUFFY kneels, elbows resting on a platform-style headstone, chin propped on her hands. GILES PACES and reads from a large book. It appears he is making with the vampire lore."--"Band Candy" by Jane Espenson, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Three, Volume 1
SIGNIFICANCE: This line is of course funny because we at first assume Giles is "making with the vampire lore" but is actually only quizzing Buffy on her S.A.T.'s (another similar "switcheroo"-type joke of which appears at the end of the episode-- see 40Zx4), but it can also be seen as commenting on the main plot of the episode. The "era that came to its inevitable end" could be youth, which the adult characters are able to recapture in this episode.
40C) "A) Violence breeds violence, B) All things must end, C)..." THEMES FROM SEASON THREE: "The connection of these predictions with later events in the season is left as an exercise for the reader."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
"The multiple choices given by Giles seem to have a relationship with the seasons as follows:
A. Violence breeds violence--season 4. The Adam arc involves a military organization (violent by definition) headed by Maggie Walch who tried to get Buffy killed,created Adam 'I exist to destroy life wherever I find it.' To which end planned to use an army of soldiers created from bits and pieces left over from a battle between humans and demons.
B. All things end--season 5. Even Buffy. Even Glory who has been around longer then 'just this side of forever.' Even BTVS hence Buffy's interruption "B, I pick B." Joss's gentle hint that he did not expect to be around after season 5. Reminiscent of the shrinking 'Executive Producer Joss Whedon' at the end of Prophesy Girl. Like season 1, season 5 wasn't the end. Joss was prepared.
C. All systems tend toward chaos--season 6. The appropriateness of this phrase has been discussed with dizzying thoroughness elsewhere on this board. I'll just mention Tara's 'things fall apart' and the episode title, Entropy.
D. None of the above--season 7. This is supplied by Buffy in the next scene and assumes I'm not fandangling over a cliff of coincidence or selective perception. She also uses the phrase in the next episode Revelations in case we didn't get it the first time."--tost, Fri, 01/16/04 at 20:51:04
You can also interpret them as follows:
"Violence breeds violence--the corruption of Faith
All things end--graduation coming up, also Buffy/Angel.
All systems tend towards chaos--the revelation of the WC's heartless and pointless order, and Buffy and Giles break from it in the second half of the season."--KdS, Sat, 01/17/04 at 03:35:25
MULTIPLE CHOICE: "I think it is probable the use of multiple choice originated in America in the 50's and became widespread in the 60's, becoming common in the UK in the late 60's and 70's. I know when I briefly went to school in Corning in 1965 the multiple choice tests were a pleasing novelty to me, coming from England, where even the '11 plus' (a SAT precursor) used the older intelligence test format with 'fill in the answer' type questions. Teachers on the board will know more about this. I can remember teachers (by which I mean mainly my dad) being rather scathing about multiple choice tests when they first came in.
Multiple choice has also become a staple of popular magazines, using a series of questions with differently scored answers which add up to give the reader an answer to such questions as 'Are you a party animal or a shrinking violet'. As the reader does not know the weighting of the choices (in theory), the answer seems more authoritative than it would be if the reader just answered the question.
From http://webusers.xula.edu/jsevenai/objective/overview.html:
'The multiple choice format has several significant strengths associated with its use.
* Ease of grading. This is the main reason why instructors with large lecture sections can't resist multiple choice.
* Coverage of a wide range of cognitive domains. Instructors can tap a very wide range of cognitive skills from rote recall to evaluations, conclusions and judging evidence.
* Coverage of a wide range of material. Students can answer questions rapidly in the multiple choice format because their writing time is minimized. This means that instructors can ask questions on a wider range of material than can be covered on traditional examinations.
* Correlation with course objectives. Most multiple choice items have a narrow focus. This makes possible a one-to-one correlation with chapter/course objectives. Then you can use statistical analysis for easy measurement of learning outcomes on each specific objective, providing information on the strengths and weaknesses of the class as a whole...
* Feedback on your coverage of the material. This point can be best illustrated by example. Your workshop coordinator once gave a test in organic chemistry which contained some items on the chemistry of a certain family of compounds. Even students who scored well on the rest of the exam missed most ofthese items. This result suggested that I had done a poor job covering this topic in class. An extra session on the topic followed by a retest gave normal results.
* Feedback on the quality of your questions. If the good students and the poor students perform equally well (or equally badly) on a question, this may mean that the question is poorly constructed or conceived. Standard examination agencies use this interpretation frequently.
* Comparison of performance from class to class, year to year. Are the students doing better this year? If you have a large, reliable multiple choice question bank you can find out.Multiple choice examinations also have weak points.
* They're difficult to construct. Constructing multiple choice questions that discriminate levels of understanding and have appropriate levels of difficulty isn't easy. Inexperienced question-writers can need as much as 30 minutes to write and edit each item.
* Real-world cognition differs. It is a different process to propose a solution to a given problem than it is to select a solution from a set of alternatives.
* Lack of feedback on individual thought processes. This is a serious concern to the conscientious instructor. Statistical feedback is global rather than individual. The thought processes that lead individual students to incorrect responses are not evident, and for this reason it is difficult to redirect these processes.'"--MsGiles, Thurs, 01/15/04 at 07:50:09
40D) "'B'. I'm going with 'B'. We haven't had 'B' in forever." NARROWING DOWN: "The variations in results caused by students using elementary statistical analysis to predict the likely choice."--MsGiles, Thurs, 01/15/04 at 07:50:09
40E) "This is the SATs, Buffy, not connect-the-dots. Please pay attention. A low score could seriously harm your chances of getting into college." THE DREADED S.A.T.s: "From http://educationusa.state.gov/undergrad/testing/tests.htm:
'U.S. standardized admissions tests are primarily multiple-choice aptitude tests that are intended to measure the skills necessary for undergraduate study. American colleges and universities use admissions tests as a means of assessing all applicants (from the United States and other countries) against the same standard. Keep in mind that secondary school diplomas and examinations are not an equivalent to admissions tests, and that tests are only one part of the application — good test scores alone do not guarantee admission to the schools of your choice.
There are three main undergraduate admissions tests:* Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT I)
* SAT II Subject Tests
* American College Testing (ACT) Assessment''The SAT I is primarily a multiple-choice test that measures verbal and mathematical reasoning abilities. The test is divided into seven half-hour sections: three verbal; three mathematical; and one additional section, the equating section, which is either verbal or mathematical. This last portion is used to ensure the same level of difficulty from year to year and does not count toward your score.
The SAT II Subject Tests are also primarily multiple choice, but are only one hour long. They measure knowledge in specific subject areas.'"--MsGiles, Thurs, 01/15/04 at 07:50:09
40F) Seeing an opening, Buffy takes her pencil and stabs him cleanly in the chest. VAMPIRE METAPHYSICS: "A significant demonstration of the extreme vulnerability of vampires to wooden objects in BtVS (other people without Slayer strength will kill vampires with pencils in Choices and All the Way)."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
40G) "I broke my No. 2 pencil." TEST-TAKING: For whatever reason, Scan-Trons (computerized machines that scan the S.A.T. answer sheets on which the students have filled in the bubbles corresponding to their answers) can only read marks done with a Number 2 pencil. The number of the pencil refers to the hardness of its "core," which is made of a mixture of graphite and clay; the numbers increase with hardness. The lower numbers are usually used for regular writing, while the high ones are useful in sketching and other artistic pursuits.
40H) "C) All systems tend towards chaos." THEME FROM "BAND CANDY": "Precognitive Giles perhaps? Using SAT questions as a form of I Ching or Tarot in some obscure Jungian experiment? Co-incidence? Whatever the reason for its inclusion this line is unquestionably predictive of the consequences of the return of the wizard we love to hate, Ethan Rayne."--Celebaelin, Sun, 01/11/04 at 03:10:24
40I) The shelves are full of occult paraphernalia: skulls, a fetus preserved in a bottle, various urns and chests, a shrunken head, the bones of a forearm and hand, and various tools of the trade. Trick looks uneasily at all of it from his vantage point by the Mayor's desk. LINKAGE: "The objects here are close to the science class paraphernalia in the opening episode, in the classroom where Darla bites a male student, reprising a constant theme in Buffy: the archaisms of gothic horror juxtaposed with representations of contemporary evil, just as the gothic Victorian-style cemetery sits next to the 90's Californian town (see 1A). The Mayor, thoroughly modern in dress and demeanor, hides objects associated with the mediaeval alchemist-cum-antiquarian, and via Crowley, with the Victorian occult revival, in his cupboard." And it says something as to how powerful and dark the magicks the Mayor uses are, that Trick, a vampire, seems uneasy.--MsGiles, Thurs, 01/15/04 at 07:50:09
40J) "I *keep* my campaign promises." TRUSTY DICK: An example of the divide in the Mayor's psyche: his commitment to fulfilling his duties and serving his people versus the fact that he is planning on eating them.
Act One
40K) "And then I was being chased by an improperly filled-in answer bubble screaming, 'none of the above!'" CONTINUITY CHECK: We saw a previous test-related dream of Buffy's in Nightmares (see 10Z-10BB).
UNDER PRESSURE: "There's a lot of pressure on the teenagers, at the start of this ep. They're all under pressure, to different degrees, from the incipient exams. Buffy is also under pressure from her mother because of her summer departure to LA, from Giles as a Slayer, and because she is hiding Angel. The sudden retreat of the adults into irresponsibility will lift some of this pressure, but instead the teenagers will find themselves responsible for the adults, something they conclude is far worse."--MsGiles, Mon, 01/19/04 at 07:39:36
40L) "Wow. I hope that wasn't one of your prophecy dreams." CONTINUITY CHECK: "Buffy's prophecy dreams, notably in Nightmares (see 10A) and Surprise (see 25A-25H), foretell parts of what is in store for her as a Slayer."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
40M) "There's this whole trick to antonyms..." MNEMONIC DEVICE: An antonym is "a word of opposite meaning." Oz's trick to remember this might be that "'antonym' is antonomous with 'synonym'."--MsGiles, Thurs, 01/15/04 at 07:50:09
40N) "Oz is the highest-scoring person ever to fail to graduate." CONTINUITY CHECK: See 21DDD and 35AA.
40O) "She's always cute." GUILTY WILLOW: Willow is undoubtedly feeling secretly awful, after her betrayal of him--the "clothes fluke"---in Homecoming (see 39HHH).
40P) "I hate they make us take that thing. It's totally fascist, and personally, I think it, uh, discriminates against the uninformed." UNFAIR: "This is of course what exams are supposed to do!"--MsGiles, Thurs, 01/15/04 at 07:50:09
PHILOSOPHY: "Xander attempts to object to the SAT as a political libertarian who sees the test as 'fascist', and simultaneously an egalitarian campaigning for the rights of the 'uninformed'--presumably their rights not to have their self-esteem lowered or their futures determined by scoring poorly on standardized tests."--MaeveRigan, Tues, 01/13/04 at 14:27:52
40Q) "What? I can't have layers?" CORDY, WITH DEPTH: "As well as being another little milestone on the road between Cordy as social queen and Cordelia as saint, Cordelia's comment here is actually truthful: she ends up doing very well on her SATs, only to be scuppered from her college hopes by her father's tax evasion."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
CONTINUITY CHECK: Cordy in fact has always been smarter than her popular-girl-act would have one believe. In Out of Mind, Out of Sight, we were impressed not only with Cordy's keen perceptiveness at her role in the world (see 11UU), but also at her intelligence when it came to analyzing Shakespeare in class (see 11J-11L).
40R) "I'm putting in Mom time. She's been drastic ever since I got back. And Giles is even worse. I'm supervised 24-7." RESPONSIBILITY: "Theme of the episode - that adults spend a lot of time supervising Buffy, that they are restricting her, a nearly 18 year old. Only when the candy kicks in does the theme of responsibility and parenting take on a more double-edged topography."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
IDIOM TIME: 24-7 means "24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is a late 20th Century phrase indicating intense concentration on a project. The internet is silent on its origins, though some suggest rap music and some, hospital notes."--MsGiles, Thurs, 01/15/04 at 07:50:09
40S) "It's like being in the Real World house, only real." POP CULTURE TIME: "The Real World may be the first 'reality' series, debuting on MTV in 1992. According to TVtome.com, 'MTV originally wanted to make a soap opera, but the costs were too high, so they thought "what if we could get rid of writers, and scripts, and sets?". That resulted on the first Real World, set in NY neighborhood of SoHo, Manhattan, where 7 people that had never met before had to live in a house together for some time.' In the following 13 seasons, Real World households have been set up in New York (again), Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Miami, Boston, Seattle, Hawaii, New Orleans, Chicago, Las Vegas, Paris and now San Diego (2004)." Like all 'reality' TV, it's not exactly real, since events are edited and commentary by the participants is added. It's not actually scripted, either, though it seems that producers choose participants who are guaranteed to come into conflict with each other or who have personal issues in order to make the show interesting."--MaeveRigan, Tues, 01/13/04 at 14:27:52
40T) "You weren't visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, by any chance?" LITERATURE CORNER: "Xander's allusion is of course to Charles Dickens' [classic short novel,] A Christmas Carol, where the miser, Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by four ghosts: Joseph Marley, his one-time business partner; and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and yet to come. The images they show of him lead him to revise his tight-fistedness. Xander is hoping, somewhat over-optimistically for an analogous change in the grumpy Snyder. Snyder does indeed change in the episode, but if anything becomes even less good company."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33 See 40GGG.
40U) "You will sell it to raise money for the marching band. They need new uniforms." LINKAGE: The fact that this candy is meant as a fundraiser for the band is another link this episode has to Out of Mind, Out of Sight. Marcie, you will recall, played flute in the band. See 11II.
40V) "I'm sure we love the idea of going all Willy Loman, but we're not in the band." THE PLAY'S THE THING: "Willy Loman is the eponymous vendor in Arthur Miller's [classic play] Death of A Salesman. His dreams of a successful company co-incide thematically with the American Dream, and the ultimate death of his belief raises some hard questions about the philosophy of the United States. This perhaps suggests how seriously wrong Snyder's episode is to go. Death of A Salesman is enacted, (Riley gets there early, 'so he gets to be Cowboy Guy') in Restless, although not strictly to the script."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
40W) "Honey, you failed the written test." OUCH!: "Don't know about the USA, but failing the UK written driving test is pretty much proof that you shouldn't be allowed on the road, ever."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08 [Editor's Note: Very true for the U.S. as well. Buffy must have been having a very stressful day. ;o)--Rob]
40X) "And I don't test well...she said, two days before the SATs." CONTINUITY CHECK: "Not only will Buffy...[do well on] the SATs, she will make a 1430, a score that will qualify her for any number of respectable schools (Lovers' Walk)." She never gives herself any credit for how smart she really is.--MaeveRigan, Tues, 01/13/04 at 14:27:52, with addition by Rob
40Y) "I can't believe you. I'm *not* taking off again...Besides, if I wanted to, I could just get on a bus." OLD WOUNDS: "The residual tension between Buffy and Joyce, occurring after Buffy's disappearance after Becoming II (see 34Kx4), comes out here - Joyce still not letting her scathing comments in Dead Man's Party (see 36WWW) serve as sufficient notice of her disapproval."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
40Z) ...takes a bite... FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: The shooting script (not the filmed episode) has a funny little blooper: at the start of the scene, Espenson writes that Joyce and Buffy are eating Chinese food (as happened in the episode) and yet before she leaves, Buffy "eats her last bite of pizza"!--"Band Candy" by Jane Espenson, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Three, Volume 1
40AA) "Slay-study double feature." POP CULTURE TIME: A reference to the practice that some movie theatres have of airing two films in a row, for the price of one. Double Features aren't as common today as they once were.
40BB) "Because it is your destiny...and because I just bought twenty 'cocorific' candy bars." WATCHER/SLAYER: "A perfect double-hander about the Buffy/Giles relationship. He's still the fussy Watcher in there somewhere- but his affection for Buffy makes the relationship more familial, a trait to be highlighted in Helpless."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
40CC) "I'm doing it to test your awareness of an opponent's location during a fight in total darkness." BUFFY'S YODA: "A recurring theme in the Buffy/Giles relationship revolves around his efforts to train her in martial arts techniques at which she is manifestly more skilled, as well as faster and stronger than him. Much humour is gained from his attempts to be Yoda to her Luke Skywalker, but it seems strange that they both persist with her 'training', even progressing to setting up a proper training hall after leaving the school, when her real fighting training is 'on the job', fighting vampires every night. Giles' main strengths, the qualities that are presumably qualify him to be a watcher, lie in his extensive knowledge of the supernatural, in practice and from text sources.
It may be that he constructs this more physical role for himself in response to Buffy's antipathy to books and desk-bound study. His mentoring role cannot be enforced, even through his role as school librarian, so he relies on her willing co-operation. She enjoys physical training (former cheerleader, after all), so perhaps he provides this as a means of keeping her interested and in regular contact with him, so he can at least attempt to impart some of the wider knowledge to her. He can also help her in her non-Slaying activities: the start of this episode is one of the few times when Giles the school librarian is shown actually doing something related to schoolwork. Most of the rest of the time he seems to spend investing school resources in an vast collection of magic-related esoterica for the library."--MsGiles, Mon, 01/19/04 at 07:39:36
[Editor's Note: Although the Luke Skywalker/Yoda analogy, from "Star Wars" is certainly applicable, this situation in particular is closer to Obi-Wan (or Ben) Kenobi. It very closely echoes the classic scene from the first film of the original trilogy, in which Ben has Luke wear a helmet over his eyes as a small floating robot shoots painful shocks at him. He has to block the sparks with his lightsaber by anticipating the robot's movements, in much the same way that Giles wants Buffy to do here.--Rob]
40DD) The ball bumps him in the side of the head. SHE'S GOT THE MOVES: "Anticipates the similar scene in Checkpoint, where Buffy again passes the test with contemptuous ease [at least for a time, in that case]."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
40EE) "I can't. Mom's in hyperdrive." SCIENCE FICTIONALLY SPEAKING: "The Star Wars version of 'spacewarp.'"--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
40FF) Soon a shirtless Angel is in view, practicing the slow, elegant forms of T'ai Chi. SYMBIOSIS: "Tai Chi is a series of movements that constitute a basic martial arts training, but is often practised for health and for meditation as well. There is a contrast here between Angel's mastery of a genuine traditional martial arts form, and Giles' amateurish efforts with the blindfold and the ball (see 40CC). Angel in his resouled and returned incarnation seems to be much more serious and reflective than he was before he went bad, and the Tai Chi practise implies that he is aiming for spiritual as well as physical control."--MsGiles, Mon, 01/19/04 at 07:39:36 See 41Z.
40GG) "I didn't know you could do that." CONTINUITY CHECK: This is the first time we see Angel focusing on the more spiritual side of being a warrior. We will see him get more into this on his own series.
40HH) He can't maintain his posture, and bends back over... CONTINUITY CHECK: A visual sign that, while he is certainly improving, Angel isn't back at 100% capacity yet. He still has many psychological issues to deal with since his return, issues that he won't fully come to grips with until Amends.
40II) "I'm joking. No garbage. Smell me." MR. COMEDY: "(a) Buffy forgets that Angel never did have much of a sense of humor, even at his best. Angelus, on the other hand, has a very twisted sense of the ridiculous. (b) Buffy forgets for a moment that she mostly smells delicious to Angel, even at his best. Dating vampires is difficult. Good thing she brought him dinner."--MaeveRigan, Tues, 01/13/04 at 14:27:52
40JJ) "Scott? Oh, um...boyfriend Scott. Uh...A-actually, he's not...He's fine." LIES: After lying to Giles and Joyce and her friends, she is now lying to Angel, too, all in the hopes of being able to control the strange new things that are happening in her life.
40KK) I-it's fresh from the butcher." CONTINUITY CHECK: In Homecoming, Buffy brought Angel blood but where it came from wasn't explicitly stated (see 39J). In this episode, it is confirmed that it does indeed come from the butcher.
40LL) "I worry about you." PATERNAL ANGEL: "And as if Buffy didn't feel parented enough with Joyce and Giles, Angel joins in on the action. The fact that they all have her best interests at heart is scant consolation at this stage."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33"
40MM) "That'll be better." SURE...: One wonders who Angel is trying to convince, Buffy, himself, or both.
40NN) "Buffy, you lied to us. And you made us into your alibis. That's...playing us against each other, and that's not fair." TEEN JOYCE: The first, extremely subtle clue as to the change that Giles and Joyce are undergoing. Giles' "freak out" is more overtly strange (see 40PP), but interestingly, "'That's not fair' becomes a refrain for the adults-regressed-to-teenagers."--MsGiles, Mon, 01/19/04 at 07:39:36
40OO) "I called Willow...You also lied to her about your whereabouts. We were all concerned." BUFFY BAD LIAR: Buffy is not so great at on-the-spot lying (see 5S), but as we see here, when it is planned in advance, she can be semi-convincing. Except even in this situation, she made a mistake by lying to Willow as well. Of course, at this point she doesn't feel like she can reveal the truth about Angel to Willow, so she may not have had another choice, short of (a) telling the truth to Willow or (b) telling Willow a convincing lie herself, perhaps saying she was on a date and to please cover for her if her mom or Giles calls.
40PP) "'Freak out'?" CHOICE OF WORDS: "The first sign of the Band Candy taking hold."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
40QQ) "Uh, I think you should go to bed...Um, we're all tired." PARENTAL ADVISORY WARNING: Interestingly, in Giles' attempt to sound more adult (we are not sure just how much influence the candy has had at this point, but it obviously isn't at its full effectiveness yet), he ends up taking the role of parent even more prominently than he usually does. He suggests Buffy go to bed, as if he were her father, and as if she were his daughter, she listens.
40RR) "Yeah." HMM...: "As well as 'freak out', the 'yeah' is a warning sign."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
40SS) "Trust me. You don't want to eat that." CONTINUITY CHECK: "A harbinger of chaos, we have already seen Ethan realising the costumes of children in Halloween (see 18UU), and unleashing Eyghon in The Dark Age (see 20F)."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
LINKAGE: "The fact is that Band Candy owes a lot to Halloween. In the earlier episode Ethan uses costumes to change people into things they are not. In Band Candy, he uses the candy to strip away the inhibitions of adulthood."--Cactus Watcher, Sat, 01/10/04 at 09:40:38
Act Two
40TT) "I heard that there was a secret rule that if a teacher's more than ten minutes late, we can all leave." THE RULES: A rule that I have acted upon, with fellow classmates, many times throughout middle school, high school and college.
40UU) "B.X.? Before Xander." YEARS OF OUR LIVES: "B.X." is a parody of the division the Christian calendar implented between the years before Jesus was born, and afterwards. "B.C." abbreviates "Before Christ," and "A.D." abbreviates "Anno Domini," Latin for "the years of Our Lord." In more recent times, the abbreviations are sometimes changed to the non-denominational B.C.E. ("Before the Common Era") and C.E. (Common Era).
40VV) "These things are selling like hot cakes...which is ironic, 'cause the hot cakes really aren't moving..." SUBVERTING CLICHES: "If you look carefully at a lot of the scripts of the best Buffy writers, you'll find that they manage to almost entirely resist cliche. And when they do hop on the stale train, they very often subvert the saying."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
40WW) "E-e-except with music instead of bullets, and...usually no one dies." THIS ONE TIME AT BAND CAMP...: "'Usually no one dies,' but when the high school goes completely chaotic in the seventh season's Storyteller, the marching band may have taken revenge, since among the slogans painted on the lockers are 'DIE CHEERLEADERS' and 'MARCHING BAND RULES.'"--MaeveRigan, Tues, 01/13/04 at 14:27:52
40XX) They rub their shoes against each other with their legs still crossed." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "Xander inches his foot over to nudge Willow's. She crosses her foot over his...twining ankles. Ankle sex."--"Band Candy" by Jane Espenson, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Three, Volume 1 See 39FFF-39III.
40YY) He turns to face her. A cigarette dangles from his lips. He lights his lighter. SMOKING KILLS: Although teenage Giles is not evil, the fact that he smokes comments on his dark/rebellious streak. See 15F and 16Z.
40ZZ) He's lying on his back on the floor, coat and tie gone, shirt unbuttoned to reveal his undershirt, getting ready to light a pair of cigarettes as he grooves to the sound of Cream singing "Tales of Brave Ulysses" on vinyl playing on his record player. TRANSFORMATION: "Giles is somewhat disheveled compared to his normal, stiff, neat (in the English sense) appearance and, horror of horrors, no tie! Not quite the full deal Ripper costume yet but certainly getting there (see 18Ex4). There is a suspicion that, bearing in mind the revelations of Earshot, Giles and Joyce may already have been 'playing mummy and daddy' in a more hands on manner than the scheduling story suggests. Not yet a post coital cigarette I suspect but concerned parties should be on 'GropeCon 3' at least (see 40ZZZ)."--Celebaelin, Sun, 01/11/04 at 03:10:24
CONTINUITY CHECK: "In one of the most affecting scenes of Forever, Giles, after Joyce's death, listens to this song alone in his apartment."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
40AAA) "Yeah, they're okay." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "Giles' accent is more working class than we are used to."--"Band Candy" by Jane Espenson, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Three, Volume 1
LINKAGE: Giles' Ripper persona has a great deal of similarities with Spike, which makes their belief that they are father and son in Tabula Rasa, when their memories have been wiped clean, even more amusing. Both have working class accents, and both have tough-guy personas to escape or hide their softer, more genteel sides from the world. See 18Ex4.
40BBB) "Do you like Seals and Croft?" MUSICALLY SPEAKING: "Soft rock band from the early seventies, despised by male hard rockers like Giles."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
40CCC) "Yeah, me neither." POP CULTURE TIME: With her references to Seals and Croft (see 40BBB), Juice Newton (see 40SSS), and Burt Reynolds (see 40YYY), Joyce was obviously a "pop culture teen," which makes her a nice counterpoint to the "edgy Ripper." And much like many a teenage girl who wants to stay on the cutting edge of what is cool, she completely disavows liking her music when another teen indicates that it isn't cool.--MaeveRigan, Tues, 01/13/04 at 14:27:52, paraphrasing and additions by Rob
40DDD) "So how come they, uh, call you Ripper?" CONTINUITY CHECK: "A reminder to the viewer that Giles' teenage self wasn't the most responsible and well-balanced creature to walk the earth."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33 See 20JJJ.
40EEE) "Let's do the time warp again." POP CULTURE TIME: "A quotation from The Rocky Horror Show [a sci-fi horror/comedy musical that has developed a huge cult following, thanks in great deal to the film version starring Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon], which is arguably before Buffy's generation and not a subject matter she'd approve of."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08 [Editor's Note: Although Buffy herself might not approve of 'Rocky Horror,' the show actually remains very popular with outsider-types, up to today, myself included.--Rob]
Anthony Stewart Head, in fact, played the lead role, the transvestite mad scientist, Dr. Frank N. Furter, for a long run in London for the 1990 West End revival at the Picadilly Theatre, and again for July and August 1995 at the Duke of York's Theatre.--Thanks to Celebaelin for the info!
40*1)"Maybe there's a reunion in town, or, or a Billy Joel tour or something." MUSICALLY SPEAKING: Billy Joel is a pop musician who reached the height of the popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and who is most famous for his piano-driven rock music. His biggest hit albums were '77's The Stranger and 1983's An Innocent Man.
40FFF) "Yeah, uh, uh, are there any nachos in here, little tree?" LIKE A ROLLING STONE: "Snyder's line 'Hey, did you see Ms. Barton? I think she's wasted' must count as one of the great understatements of our time. Ms. Barton has hopped on the train to gonzoland and is currently playing shove ha'penny with the pixies who live in the rainbow. The term 'wasted' could equally well mean drunk rather than 'ripped off her face' but the dialogue suggests that she is spliffed up to the eyeballs. The nacho line even goes so far as to imply, without being definitive, that she has the munchies (cannabis induced hunger). Ms. Barton is alone amongst the adults in the nature of her reverie, perhaps she is reliving her experience of the sixties and all that that entailed for her."--Celebaelin, Sun, 01/11/04 at 03:10:24
40GGG) "Call me Snyder. Just a last name, like...Barbarino." POP CULTURE TIME: "Vinnie Barbarino - a 'supercool' character played by John Travolta in the 1970s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
SNYDER THE YOUNGER: "He was the kid that everybody was constantly trying to ditch. He was the nerd who was eager to be friends with everybody and was constantly snubbed. And that made it clear how he became the child-hating martinet that we had so much fun with (Joss Whedon, March 15, 2000)."--Masquerade, "Band Candy" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com
40HHH) An older, shirtless man jumps up onto the stage, pushes Devon away from the microphone stand and yells out into the crowd. DOCTOR DOCTOR: This is of course a follow-up to Buffy suggesting that "maybe there's a doctor here." Willow will reveal after watching this man jump into the "moshpit," that he is her doctor! "There is a convention that at every public event there will be a sober doctor, ready to rush from the crowd to treat an emergency case, overturned here by Willow's doctor. It reinforces for the Scoobies the realization that the restrictions imposed by adults are mitigated by the support they provide. Especially for Willow, who isn't that bothered by the restrictions anyway (see 37B)."--MsGiles, Mon, 01/19/04 at 07:39:36
40III) "I don't act like this." MY SO-CALLED LIFE?: "All of which makes you wonder just where are the grown-ups who were shy like Willow in childhood? Presumably at home, acting normally."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
"I think the point is that the adults aren't behaving as they actually would as teenagers, but rather as extreme versions of their younger selves. Real teens are partly adults. The band candy 'teens' are more the irresponsible and rebellious side of teens. I doubt Ripper actually beat up policemen as a teen, and I doubt Joyce was a groupie. I even doubt the nerdy, teen Snyder would have been brave enough to force his way into the action as he does with the Scoobies. Whoever had the self restraining Willow traits as teens, probably would have had them stripped away by the candy. So who knows what they'd be like? Why the 'real' teens in Band Candy aren't affected like this, I can't say."--Cactus Watcher, Sat, 01/10/04 at 09:40:38
It "isn't clear is whether the adults are simply acting like irresponsible adolescents in general, or whether each is showing his or her own teen-aged persona at its worst. Since we do not know much about the teen-aged years of any of the adult characters on the show, this is hard to judge. Giles said in The Dark Age that he went through a period of rebellion from his calling as a watcher at the age of 21, and we know from the same episode that he was in a band. In Becoming II, Principal Snyder admitted to having no dates in high school, which is consistent with the geeky hanger-on personality he displays. However, the drug also takes away their sense of responsibility. While irresponsibility is part of the teen-aged persona, as Willow points out, it is not typical of all teenagers. But it is necessary here in order to make sure that the adults don't feel any obligation to protect their homes and their children."--Masquerade, "Band Candy" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com
"The teenagers do seem less affected by the chocolate than the adults, either because the sight of all the stoned adults sobers them, as Oz suggests, or because, as Xander implies, they're there already. They actually seem more responsible than the drugged adults, however, implying that their normal irresponsible state is at least partly cultural rather than a natural result of puberty. Since in many cultures people progress from childhood to adulthood without a 'teenage rebellion' stage, this seems like a possibility. The teenagers here end up seeing the irresponsibility of teenagerdom as a privilege rather than a pain, one they wish urgently to regain, even at the cost of, say, being allowed to drive."--MsGiles, Mon, 01/19/04 at 07:39:36 See 40Bx4.
40JJJ) "That's the reason I love this country. You make a good product, and the people will come to you. Of course, a lot of them are gonna die, but that's the other reason I love this country." TRICKSY: See 37M.
40LLL) "I don't. Now I know no one else will." SETTING AN EXAMPLE: For someone who claims to be a capitalist, Trick behaves a great deal like Stalin in this situation.
40MMM) "Louie Louie" MUSICALLY SPEAKING: "The most famous version of Louie Louie, by the Kingsmen, was a hit in 1963 (so the age of these men is slightly exaggerated). In a famous example of paranoia over rock music, false rumours that its lyrics were obscene were investigated by the FBI, who described the recording 'incomprehensible at any speed.'"-- KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
40NNN) "Wait up, you guys!" SNYDER THE YOUNGER: "Snyder (one word, like 'Barbarino') eagerly tags along with the gang--whom he has no respect for in his normal state--as they fight evil. Although he is under the influence, his behavior implies that he is rather clueless about the depth of evil he is part of; he helps Buffy fight the Mayor's plan in his own ineffectual way. Still, there is a lot Snyder does seem to know. When he talks about how the candy got distributed, he says, 'It came through the school board. If you knew that crowd...' He obviously does not know she's the force for good in town, although this should have made him a bit wiser about her (it doesn't)."--Masquerade, "Band Candy" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com
40OOO) "Whoa, Summers! You drive like a spaz!" SLANGY-NESS: "Lest we have too much sympathy for the juvenile Snyder, he uses the offensive playground insult 'spaz', a shortening of 'spastic'. Literally 'subject to spasms', this term used to be used of people suffering cerebral palsy."--MsGiles, Mon, 01/19/04 at 07:39:36
40PPP) "Giles at sixteen? Less Together Guy, more Bad-Magic-Hates-The-World-Ticking-Time-Bomb Guy." CONTINUITY CHECK: We learned all of this in detail in The Dark Age (see 20F).
40QQQ) "Must be exciting being from England." CHEERIO, OLD CHAP: "Oh, the joys of the exotic unknown. As I write, it's clammy, cloud-enveloped and drizzly. No, you're right, this isn't an annotation, it's a whinge."--Tchaikovsky, Sat, 01/10/04 at 07:28:33
40RRR) "Yeah, like, uh, getting married and having a kid and everything was just a dream, and now things are back like they're supposed to be." MEMORY: Interestingly, while the spell does cause the adults to revert to a teenage-like state, it doesn't erase their memories of their adult lives. See 40Vx4.
40SSS) "Very Juice Newton." POP CULTURE TIME: "Juice Newton still has a music career: http://www.juicenewton.com. But she's best known for her pop hit, Angel of the Morning (1981)."--MaeveRigan, Tues, 01/13/04 at 14:27:52
40TTT) Giles takes a final drag from his cigarette, then tosses it aside. He grabs a trashcan and idly swings it toward the store's display window. LINKAGE: "There's an awful lot of burglary as the epitome of irresponsible behaviour in this season. Compare The Zeppo and Bad Girls."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
40UUU) "Oh, Ripper! Wow, that was sooo brave!" POP CULTURE TIME: "Giles as Ripper is a really good reflection of the self image of a generation of teenage tough guys; the tee-shirt with a cigarette pack rolled up in the sleeve, the nervous sweep of the hand over hair, the blue jeans, the tough talk even at inopportune moments. It was all summed up in by Hollywood in the early 1950's by James Dean. His roles were modeled after a type that already existed, but in turn he became the model for a solid decade of would-be macho teens."--Cactus Watcher, Sat, 01/10/04 at 09:40:38
40VVV) "Let's do doughnuts in the football field, huh?" IDIOM TIME: "It may be worth noting for British readers that "doughnut" is the American term for what is known in Britain as a 'handbrake turn'."--KdS, Mon, 01/12/04 at 03:38:08
40WWW) The other Jeep hits them hard on the left rear door and back panel, making them spin around a quarter turn. ISN'T IT IRONIC?: The great irony in this situation is that while Buffy did get the car involved in an accident, it was not her fault for having driven without a license, but the fault of an adult who, under the influence of the band candy, plowed into her car.