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Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Wacky "Buffy" and the geek trio

By STEPHANIE McGRATH -- AllPop

SPOILER ALERT!

Hip hip hoorraaay! Funny "Buffy" is back...oops...now it's sad again...then YAY! it's back and then...uh-oh, Willow really is going crazy...but that Anya is so funny...oh dear...Buffy misses heaven...it's sad.

Last night's episode of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" opened the way many, many of its episodes do: with Buffy lurking in a dark basement/cave environment. But this time it's no vampire she's staking! Nope, Buffy's in her own basement, trying to fix a leaky pipe. It doesn't work, and her basement gets flooded. Yay, it's wacky Buffy time. We were all getting a little tired of the mopey "I liked it better in heaven" Buffy.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is Buffy

So Buffy and Dawn are super broke, which means our brave demon-hunter needs cash, fast.

Buffy makes a hilarious joke that she could burn the house down and collect the insurance, "plus, fire? Pretty," she says. (It sounded a lot funnier on TV last night.)

Anya suggests that Buffy start charging for killing demons. Everyone else thinks that's a bad idea (why? isn't that what Angel does?) and Anya huffs off after Xander shoots down her idea, too, explaining that for other superheroes, like Spiderman, "action is his reward". Ahhh, jokes are funny.

Then there's a short "Why won't you tell them we're engaged", "Because it's not the right time, it's a big step" conversation between Xander and Anya.

Earth to Anya: We know you used to be a demon and everything, but really now, get some human perspective. If your boyfriend makes you keep your engagement ring in your purse so no one will know you're engaged, that's a really, really bad sign.

Annnyway...Buffy heads out to apply for a loan. No luck. She has no job. Just then, a big ugly demon bursts in and wreaks havoc. Buffy saves the loan officer (after cutting up her skirt to make face-kicking go more smoothly), but the bank is robbed, so still no loan.

The demon heads back to the basement home of three lovable but troublesome geeks: the weird geek who makes girlfriend robots for people (remember the Buffybot?), the short geek who cast a spell once to make him the most important person in the universe, and some other geek who seems familiar. (AllPop readers are free to write in with his identity if they know it).

The three geeks have hatched a plan to take over Sunnydale, and the demon's bank-robbing skills is part of the plan. But the demon is mad, he wants to kill Buffy. The Buffybot-making geek slips the demon her address without his geeky pals noticing.

(Note: These geeks are very funny. If they turn out to be the evil that Buffy must fight this year, this season is going to rock. Philosophical note: Does anyone who posts reviews of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" on the Internet really have the right to refer to anyone else as a geek? Discuss.)

Back at the Magic Box, Buffy is mad. There's no money coming in. She is in serious trouble. But, hoooraaay!, Giles has returned.

Giles and Buffy share a touching hug. When they go off to talk alone, Buffy learns that Giles isn't exactly thrilled about having to come back to Sunnydale from England suddenly. Ahhhh, clever...just like Buffy herself isn't thrilled about having to come back from heaven to Sunnydale, either. (But she doesn't tell him that).

Buffy is melancholy, she misses heaven again.

Giles decides to crash on Buffy's couch on what looks like a set if Strawberry Shortcake sheets. They talk some more about the money situation. Buffy continues to look melancholy before leaving the room.

Now for the best part of the whole episode! It's time for this week's Willow Is Turning Evil moment.

Giles heads into the kitchen where he finds Willow eating cereal. Willow starts babbling about the spell she did to bring Buffy back and how scary and cool it was. Then Giles cuts her off with a very cranky sounding:

"You rank, stupid girl".

Willow looks hurt and tries to explain herself, but Giles just keeps going on and on about how she's an amateur and how the magic she used to awaken Buffy is very, very dark and dangerous and how she was messing with nature and la la la la into the land of foreshadowing we go.

Now it's Willow's turn to be super mad.

"It was a powerful spell and I'm powerful so maybe it's not such a good idea for you to piss me off," she hisses at him. Okay, that was a bigger clue that old Willow is turning evil than the deer-slashing incident in the season premiere.

But as quickly as Willow loses her cheerful demeanour, she slaps it back on and tries to make nice with Giles.

Meanwhile, Buffy has been sitting outside with Spike and has heard the whole conversation. There's more talk about the hardships she's going through and the trouble she's having being around crowds. Spike offers to "thin" out her crowd of friends, even though it would give him a "nasty headache".

Back inside the house, Dawn is trying to convince Giles to have a bowl of cereal with her when the big, mean demon sent by the geek trio barges in.

Buffy rushes in and starts fighting, but gets upset when she realizes the demon is trashing her house. She and Spike force him into the basement where he can't damage any more furniture, and Buffy finishes him off.

Back in geek-dom, the three less-than-cool characters are still plotting their take-over of Sunnydale. So far, their plan includes taking over Sunnydale, making Buffy their sex-slave, and girls, girls, girls.

At the Summers' residence, Buffy and friends are trying to repair the demon's damage. Buffy is sad again. It's all so overwhelming. Giles tries to comfort her by telling her Willow managed everything "without superpowers". Great, telling someone they should be able to handle things because their best friend always does such a fantastic job at everything is a fantastic motivational tool.

Just then, the phone rings. It's Angel. Buffy takes off to go see him while Dawn and Giles look confused and concerned.

So what did we get from this week's episode? Well, there were some good "Buffy"-style jokes, a standard demon-slaying, the introduction of a possible new enemy (the geek trio), some more shots of melancholy Buffy, and another hint that Willow is going bad, bad, bad.

This week's episode deserves three stakes for great jokes and Willow-is-evil hints, but loses a few points for too much jumping between sad Buffy and wacky "Buffy", and for not enough Spike time.

Next week:
"What's up? Are Tara and Willow even paying rent? With the Slayer and Dawn's financial situation in the proverbial toilet, Buffy will decide either to go back to school or pursue a normal job. To her surprise, the real world packs quite a punch. You would be a complete freakin' Zeppo to miss this fist-pummelling episode with more gore than America's ex-Vice President. Slam your crucifix into 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', airing Tuesday, October 23rd," says the official Buffy website.

Chat about this episode of Buffy, or anything else Buffy-related, right here.