2.01 When She Was Bad
A very enjoyable start to season 2. Buffy returns to Sunnydale after a summer away, but her fight and death by the Master is still haunting her. I think the strength of the episode is that Buffy never verbalises her feelings about the Master but puts into action first by acting bitchy to her friends and then crushing the Master's bones; too often shows seem to feel that unless the character verbalises everything they are feeling, it isn't going to come across for the audience. I think Buffy's behaviour in this episode spoke volumes, especially on a re-watch.
Another bit I really liked in the episode was Willow and Xander forgiving Buffy without an apology from her. They won't always of course and they shouldn't, but here I feel like it was deserved. (8/10)
2.02 Some Assembly Required
A fairly standard monster of the week storyline this episode. Boy brought back from the dead and now they're looking for the perfect girl head for a female mate. This story had some sympathy however, Chris was obviously very troubled by his brother's death, and his mother's overwhelming grief obviously helped to fuel his fiendish plan. The plot was easily foiled, and the ending with Darryl crying over his unmade female 'bride' was a bit Romeo and Juliet I thought.
I liked the Giles/Jenny storyline; Giles stuttering to ask her out before she did it quick and easy was cute as was their first date. The Buffy Angel stuff was a tad odd, I get him being jealous of Xander but when did they start seemingly dating?? It feels like their relationship skipped a beat in between episodes and we missed it. Also liked the Angel/Cordy scenes; given their future relationship I thought it was sweet! (7.5/10)
2.03 School Hard
Spike and Drusilla's premiere episode and it does a good job of introducing them with only a few mythology discrepancies with later episodes. Seeing Buffy's world's all colliding was very enjoyable, she handled it well but I'm surprised no one really questioned what she was doing. Spike killing the Annointed One, and it being revealed that Snyder knows about vampires all added to the enjoyment of this episode. (8/10)
2.04 Inca Mummy Girl
Not the most original title, but it was a fairly decent episode. Poor Xander he again falls in love with a supernatural female predator- at least this one didn't want to kill him! Poor Willow as she again gets sidelined. However at least this episode sees the first appearance of Dingoes Ate My Baby and most importantly Oz. My favourite moment from the episode came from when Oz sees Willow for the first time- so adorable! Also with his first appearance is Jonathan who later becomes more important in the show. Buffy again struggles to have a normal life, this is still quite an early episode so its not quite grinding yet and it played well against the mummy's own tale. (7/10)
2 comments:
When She Was Bad and School Hard are great but the other two episodes are very poor.
These reviews are great to read.
Thanks Shawn! Glad you're enjoying them. I quite like doing them tbh. Makes you think about an episode if you have to write about it afterwards!!
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