Post by stargazer1682 on Jun 14, 2020 22:55:45 GMT
This episode should really just be called “Welcome to the Hellmouth Part 2”. I’m pretty sure I never caught the original airing of the series premier, or if I did, it’s been too long to remember; so I double checked and both episodes did air the same night. So I’d assume they didn’t even bother breaking it up and aired it in one long format. Not that really matters.
I love how this continues to the build on momentum and world building of the first episode; and since the two were delivered in some sort of contiguous narrative, the fact that this is technically the second episode is beside the point. The point is that when people sat down for their first venture into the Buffyverse, by the end of that first exposure, they knew the vast majority of the important facts for the story moving forward. They didn’t get everything of course, but the important parts, the quintessential nature of the series is there within the first two hours. Meanwhile shows now spend the first five or six episodes still introducing new main characters; and doing whatever they can to run out the clock.
Whenever I watch this episode, it always stands out to me when Buffy and Xander are discussing vampire tactics and garlic gets mentioned; because it never actually comes into play through the rest of Buffy or Angel. There might be one or two instances where someone drapes themselves in garlic or you see it hanging somewhere, but it’s usually an afterthought and playing more to the vampire genre convention; and as far as I recall, it’s never in the presence of any actual vampire. You never see someone like Spike or Angel react to garlic, at all, much less negatively. It seems like a missed opportunity. How does it affect them? Does it burn them for some reason, like holy water? Do they not like the smell, on account of their heightened senses? Can vampires talk to garlic and garlic is actually super offensive, even by vampire standards? So many questions.
The thing that perhaps plays with my imagination most with this episode is, I think, the implication from what we see in “The Wish”. We know in the alternate timeline where Buffy never came to Sunnydale that Xander and Willow got turned at some point between “Welcome to the Hellmouth” and “The Wish”. I don’t believe we’re given an actual timeframe, but the assumption is that, without Buffy around, Xander and Willow probably got turned during the events of “The Harvest”, which isn’t entirely unreasonable; though there are some variables at play here. For one, Jesse, rather than Xander, was the one who was taken from the bronze at the end of the first episode; along with Willow, who we’re given the impression only really went with the guy (actually vampire) who was chatting her up, because Buffy’s word of encouragement. So would Willow have been targeted had she not decide to seize the moment just then; or did the vamp see her before and single because she was largely sitting alone? The latter seems reasonable enough; and if Willow did in turn get turned, it’s plausible that even if Xander didn’t get nabbed at the Bronze, that Vamp-Willow would have sought him out to turn him.
The other puzzle I ponder is Cordelia in the Wishverse; because she leads a somewhat different life in the post Harvest/sans-Buffy timeline, but it kind of happens in a vacumm. Of all the “It’s a Wonderful Life”-esque looks at various characters’ lives during “The Wish,” we get virtually nothing about how Cordelia is different in this timeline, other than her friends hadn’t turned away from her for dating Xander and she didn’t become a social pariah. Cordelia was admitted not all that deep at that time, and some of it is probably necessitated by the wish that got her there – after all, it was the prime timeline Cordelia and not the Wish Cordelia that we saw; so it stands to reason that she’d be impervious to any of the changes that other Cordy might have faced. But as it pertains to this episode, I think about how things were playing out between her and Jesse at the Bronze; and Cordelia would have been there during the Harvest whether Buffy was there or not, yet in the Wishverse she apparently survived. So for one, it seems like at the very least she might have ended up a sacrifice to help release the Master; and quite possibly be turned by Jesse, if the Harvest hadn’t been interrupted. Since the conceit is that she did survive and wasn’t turned, circumstances apparently still played out in her favor somehow. But it does make me wonder, what would vamp-Cordelia Chase have been like? Especially 16 year old vamp-Cordelia? Another missed opportunity, I think.
It’s weird watching Cordelia and Harmony doing anything along the lines of computer programming, given how where we see either of them a few years later. Obviously it was a high school class that they probably had to take and only paid enough attention to pass and then promptly forgot, but it’s still weird.
And Willow is stone cold with her “deliver” line. Don’t get me wrong, they pretty much deserve it, but she didn’t even have to think about how to get even with them. It’s still a little bit of a wonder how much of a leap she would make during this same timeframe in the Wishverse; where, unrepressed, she’d become vamp-Willow with so much ease. I’ve often argued that this just goes to show that it wasn’t the magic or her personal development between season 1 and season 6 that allowed Willow to become “Dark-Willow,” that it was already there, somewhere just below the surface; and all of that quickly came out as vamp-Willow at just 16 or thereabouts.
It’s truly a shame that this show never brings Jesse up again. I know they originally wanted him to be Xander’s counterpart in “Conversations with Dead People,” which would have been awesome, but the actor wasn’t available. I kind of think they could have recast him; it would have sucked, but if they thought using Cassie in place of Tara, which I think was kind of stupid, they could have used a different actor to play Jesse; maybe having him vamped and play it in low-light to add to the creepiness. I mean, they wouldn’t have had to go full Faux-Crispin Glover, like they did in the Back to the Future sequels and try to pretend it really was the actor or try to fool the audience into thinking it wasn’t a replacement. Plus, because of that, that was became the first and only episode Xander wasn’t in the entire series; which, despite whatever might have been going behind the scenes with Nicholas Brandon, cutting the character out of an episode for the first time during the final season seems like a bad idea if it can be avoided. I’ve often been curious how that might have effected the other stories, but each time I watch that episode now, the less I’m impressed with how it turned out; especially given how the rest of the season plays, but I’ll get to those gripes once I get to that episode.
And for the record, I know Amber Benson didn’t want to come back and play someone who looks like Tara, who encourages Willow to kill herself, because she was concerned about how that might play with some fans; and I respect that and don’t disagree with her reason for not doing it. I just think having a random character Willow never actually met before talk to her and try to convince her she was conveying a message from Tara was stupid; and there must have been a better way to do it. Like they could have had it be Warren or something. But once again, I digress…
You know, I don’t think I’ve thought about the Master’s arc in the normal timeline verses the Wishverse. The Master returned, presumably during the Harvest, since it would have gone uninterrupted, yet he clearly didn’t open the hellmouth in the Wishverse. Instead he just seemed to cool his heels the next two years, eventually embarking on the factory plan. Sure, he took over the Bronze and struck enough fear in the city to impose a curfew and other restrictions in direct response, but in contrast to his original plans to open the hellmouth and bring back the Old Ones, he must have encountered some appreciable level of resistance that forced him to temper his plans.
I have often envisioned that in the alternate timeline, there must have been a confrontation between the Master and the Mayor, who imagine were rivals going back to the founding of Sunnydale and the Master coming to Sunnydale to open the hellmouth. Wilkens probably wasn’t entirely opposed, per se, to wreaking havoc and bringing back demons, but probably wanted it to happen on his own timetable – specifically so he could become one. But the Master wouldn’t give a damn or let mayor Wilkens stand in his way; and given how much power he had over the city in The Wish, it stands to reason he came out on top in any confrontation with Wilkens. It’s also plausible Wilkens managed to strike some type of blow to the Master’s plans to open the hellmouth, that forced the Master to change his focus.
I gotta admit, as far as “demons as a metaphor for high school” goes, Buffy not being about to go out being “the end of the world” is pretty great. Plus, Joyce. I mean, come on, Joyce and Buffy must have one of the best mother/daughter dynamics, and it’s right from the start of the series. And while she manages to overlook a lot of the questionable things going on in town (though arguably no more than anyone else in Sunnydale), the writers didn’t do what a lot of other shows do; they didn’t try to make her hip or edgy or try too hard to be Buffy’s best friend – she was her mom. And from her perspective, not knowing the truth about what was happening, she had every right to be concerned when Buffy starts missing classes, again, and wants to go out on a school night, again; especially after what happened at her last school.
And for the audience’s part, being in on Buffy’s secret and what the stakes are (so to speak), we also understand Buffy’s angst.
Okay, I do not, nor have I ever truly understand how The Bronze worked. I’ve never been somebody who goes to clubs or went to clubs in my youth, but I’m not sure what might be the closest comparison in my area that would be quite like it, in terms of having live music regularly, they definitely serve alcohol, yet people who are underage frequent it often and without issue or need for fake idea to enter. Supposedly a minor has to wear a wristband, which we saw Dawn wear one time, but as far as I can tell, at no other time did any of the other characters when they were underage, where one at the Bronze.
And here we have the bouncer outside the door, telling Darla and her crew he needs to see id – I guess to wristband the underage people?
How dumb does Luke have to be to forget that dawn is still hours away, if the sun only just went down a short while ago?
“The Earth is domed.” How great is Giles?
I love how this continues to the build on momentum and world building of the first episode; and since the two were delivered in some sort of contiguous narrative, the fact that this is technically the second episode is beside the point. The point is that when people sat down for their first venture into the Buffyverse, by the end of that first exposure, they knew the vast majority of the important facts for the story moving forward. They didn’t get everything of course, but the important parts, the quintessential nature of the series is there within the first two hours. Meanwhile shows now spend the first five or six episodes still introducing new main characters; and doing whatever they can to run out the clock.
Whenever I watch this episode, it always stands out to me when Buffy and Xander are discussing vampire tactics and garlic gets mentioned; because it never actually comes into play through the rest of Buffy or Angel. There might be one or two instances where someone drapes themselves in garlic or you see it hanging somewhere, but it’s usually an afterthought and playing more to the vampire genre convention; and as far as I recall, it’s never in the presence of any actual vampire. You never see someone like Spike or Angel react to garlic, at all, much less negatively. It seems like a missed opportunity. How does it affect them? Does it burn them for some reason, like holy water? Do they not like the smell, on account of their heightened senses? Can vampires talk to garlic and garlic is actually super offensive, even by vampire standards? So many questions.
The thing that perhaps plays with my imagination most with this episode is, I think, the implication from what we see in “The Wish”. We know in the alternate timeline where Buffy never came to Sunnydale that Xander and Willow got turned at some point between “Welcome to the Hellmouth” and “The Wish”. I don’t believe we’re given an actual timeframe, but the assumption is that, without Buffy around, Xander and Willow probably got turned during the events of “The Harvest”, which isn’t entirely unreasonable; though there are some variables at play here. For one, Jesse, rather than Xander, was the one who was taken from the bronze at the end of the first episode; along with Willow, who we’re given the impression only really went with the guy (actually vampire) who was chatting her up, because Buffy’s word of encouragement. So would Willow have been targeted had she not decide to seize the moment just then; or did the vamp see her before and single because she was largely sitting alone? The latter seems reasonable enough; and if Willow did in turn get turned, it’s plausible that even if Xander didn’t get nabbed at the Bronze, that Vamp-Willow would have sought him out to turn him.
The other puzzle I ponder is Cordelia in the Wishverse; because she leads a somewhat different life in the post Harvest/sans-Buffy timeline, but it kind of happens in a vacumm. Of all the “It’s a Wonderful Life”-esque looks at various characters’ lives during “The Wish,” we get virtually nothing about how Cordelia is different in this timeline, other than her friends hadn’t turned away from her for dating Xander and she didn’t become a social pariah. Cordelia was admitted not all that deep at that time, and some of it is probably necessitated by the wish that got her there – after all, it was the prime timeline Cordelia and not the Wish Cordelia that we saw; so it stands to reason that she’d be impervious to any of the changes that other Cordy might have faced. But as it pertains to this episode, I think about how things were playing out between her and Jesse at the Bronze; and Cordelia would have been there during the Harvest whether Buffy was there or not, yet in the Wishverse she apparently survived. So for one, it seems like at the very least she might have ended up a sacrifice to help release the Master; and quite possibly be turned by Jesse, if the Harvest hadn’t been interrupted. Since the conceit is that she did survive and wasn’t turned, circumstances apparently still played out in her favor somehow. But it does make me wonder, what would vamp-Cordelia Chase have been like? Especially 16 year old vamp-Cordelia? Another missed opportunity, I think.
It’s weird watching Cordelia and Harmony doing anything along the lines of computer programming, given how where we see either of them a few years later. Obviously it was a high school class that they probably had to take and only paid enough attention to pass and then promptly forgot, but it’s still weird.
And Willow is stone cold with her “deliver” line. Don’t get me wrong, they pretty much deserve it, but she didn’t even have to think about how to get even with them. It’s still a little bit of a wonder how much of a leap she would make during this same timeframe in the Wishverse; where, unrepressed, she’d become vamp-Willow with so much ease. I’ve often argued that this just goes to show that it wasn’t the magic or her personal development between season 1 and season 6 that allowed Willow to become “Dark-Willow,” that it was already there, somewhere just below the surface; and all of that quickly came out as vamp-Willow at just 16 or thereabouts.
It’s truly a shame that this show never brings Jesse up again. I know they originally wanted him to be Xander’s counterpart in “Conversations with Dead People,” which would have been awesome, but the actor wasn’t available. I kind of think they could have recast him; it would have sucked, but if they thought using Cassie in place of Tara, which I think was kind of stupid, they could have used a different actor to play Jesse; maybe having him vamped and play it in low-light to add to the creepiness. I mean, they wouldn’t have had to go full Faux-Crispin Glover, like they did in the Back to the Future sequels and try to pretend it really was the actor or try to fool the audience into thinking it wasn’t a replacement. Plus, because of that, that was became the first and only episode Xander wasn’t in the entire series; which, despite whatever might have been going behind the scenes with Nicholas Brandon, cutting the character out of an episode for the first time during the final season seems like a bad idea if it can be avoided. I’ve often been curious how that might have effected the other stories, but each time I watch that episode now, the less I’m impressed with how it turned out; especially given how the rest of the season plays, but I’ll get to those gripes once I get to that episode.
And for the record, I know Amber Benson didn’t want to come back and play someone who looks like Tara, who encourages Willow to kill herself, because she was concerned about how that might play with some fans; and I respect that and don’t disagree with her reason for not doing it. I just think having a random character Willow never actually met before talk to her and try to convince her she was conveying a message from Tara was stupid; and there must have been a better way to do it. Like they could have had it be Warren or something. But once again, I digress…
You know, I don’t think I’ve thought about the Master’s arc in the normal timeline verses the Wishverse. The Master returned, presumably during the Harvest, since it would have gone uninterrupted, yet he clearly didn’t open the hellmouth in the Wishverse. Instead he just seemed to cool his heels the next two years, eventually embarking on the factory plan. Sure, he took over the Bronze and struck enough fear in the city to impose a curfew and other restrictions in direct response, but in contrast to his original plans to open the hellmouth and bring back the Old Ones, he must have encountered some appreciable level of resistance that forced him to temper his plans.
I have often envisioned that in the alternate timeline, there must have been a confrontation between the Master and the Mayor, who imagine were rivals going back to the founding of Sunnydale and the Master coming to Sunnydale to open the hellmouth. Wilkens probably wasn’t entirely opposed, per se, to wreaking havoc and bringing back demons, but probably wanted it to happen on his own timetable – specifically so he could become one. But the Master wouldn’t give a damn or let mayor Wilkens stand in his way; and given how much power he had over the city in The Wish, it stands to reason he came out on top in any confrontation with Wilkens. It’s also plausible Wilkens managed to strike some type of blow to the Master’s plans to open the hellmouth, that forced the Master to change his focus.
I gotta admit, as far as “demons as a metaphor for high school” goes, Buffy not being about to go out being “the end of the world” is pretty great. Plus, Joyce. I mean, come on, Joyce and Buffy must have one of the best mother/daughter dynamics, and it’s right from the start of the series. And while she manages to overlook a lot of the questionable things going on in town (though arguably no more than anyone else in Sunnydale), the writers didn’t do what a lot of other shows do; they didn’t try to make her hip or edgy or try too hard to be Buffy’s best friend – she was her mom. And from her perspective, not knowing the truth about what was happening, she had every right to be concerned when Buffy starts missing classes, again, and wants to go out on a school night, again; especially after what happened at her last school.
And for the audience’s part, being in on Buffy’s secret and what the stakes are (so to speak), we also understand Buffy’s angst.
Okay, I do not, nor have I ever truly understand how The Bronze worked. I’ve never been somebody who goes to clubs or went to clubs in my youth, but I’m not sure what might be the closest comparison in my area that would be quite like it, in terms of having live music regularly, they definitely serve alcohol, yet people who are underage frequent it often and without issue or need for fake idea to enter. Supposedly a minor has to wear a wristband, which we saw Dawn wear one time, but as far as I can tell, at no other time did any of the other characters when they were underage, where one at the Bronze.
And here we have the bouncer outside the door, telling Darla and her crew he needs to see id – I guess to wristband the underage people?
How dumb does Luke have to be to forget that dawn is still hours away, if the sun only just went down a short while ago?
“The Earth is domed.” How great is Giles?
