Band Candy

Perri's Review | SunSpeak

Buffy has already found trouble, in the form of the midlife-crisised adults who have taken over the Bronze. The final wig occurs when Principal Snyder bounces up, greets them as buds, and tells them to call him"just Snyder", before going off to chase chicks. Across town, Trick supervises the loading of chocolate boxes with the help of a very familiar face -- Giles' old enemy from his school days, magical scourge of Halloween, all-around pain in the neck (tattoo, remember < g >) and child of Chaos, Ethan Rayne.

Oz's band leaves the stage and it's taken over by grownups lacking clothing, sense and anything resembling rhythm. The three escape to the car to look for Giles, with Snyder tagging along. Buffy and Willow realize they've got another problem, having a good idea what Giles was like at 16 (Rebel without a Cause, but with Lots of Attitude and Magic), but they're distracted by the two drag racing minivans that intersect on the car. Giles and Joyce, meanwhile, are having way too much fun looting, stealing, assaulting police officers and making out.

At the scene of the accident, Buffy realizes that the city is currently full of helpless Happy Meals on Legs, but there are no vampires capitalizing on it. As a stranger steals Snyder's candy bar, Buffy realizes that the candy is cursed. She pins Snyder to a car and gets the location of the warehouse, after sending Oz and Willow off to round upteh other two and start research.

There's a riot outside the warehouse, but more important to Buffy is the sight of Giles and Joyce snogging in the middle of the street. Bubble-Brain Joyce is a rebellious teenager, fully capable of ignoring the damage to her car, which is harder for Buffy to deal with than Attitude-Problem Ripper. Snapping orders right and left, Buffy leads her new Slayerettes into the warehouse and finds Ethan on the phone, telling the rest of the bad guys to go into action. Taking in the sight of a pissed-off Slayer and Ripper, Ethan wisely runs for it.

He doesn't manage to escape, to no one's surprise; Buffy, with the enthusiastic ("You're my Slayer, knock his teeth down his throat!") support of Ripper, interrogates him and finds out about the tribute to the demon, Lurconis (while Snyder puts the moves on a disgusted Joyce outside, bringing another chorus of "Ewwww!"s from the audience). Ethan doesn't know what the tribute is, so Buffy calls on her research team of Sleyerettes, who track it down while Buffy keeps Ripper from killing Ethan. Willow gets the details and Joyce produces handcuffs for Ethan. "Never tell me," Buffy says very seriously.

Buffy's not in time, though; a team of vampires has already invaded Sunnydale General Hospital -- and stolen the babies from the nursery. Ripper's initial suggestions are less than helpful, but the first signs of Giles start poking out -- he remembers that Lurconis will be found in the sewers. A formerly-enthusiastic Snyder chickens out and Buffy shames him and Giles into acting like adults. And then has to break up another makeout session.

in the sewers, the tribute ritual is in progress, hooded participants and all. The mayor looks on while leaving a voice mail for his secretary about speaking to the Sewer Commissions. Buffy and Giles make a rude entrance an the fighting begins. Joyce gets the babies out of the line of fire, Buffy dusts vampires, and Lurconis gets tired of waiting for the check and sticks his reptilian head out. Trick decides to go after Buffy pesonally, but has to take on Giles instead.While they do the male bonding thing (okay, while Giles gets thrown into a wall and Trick escapes), Buffy turns a gas pipe into a blow torch and disposes of Lurconis.

Trick tells the mayor he paid Ethan, since Ethan kept his part of the deal, but Trick himself is deeply in the doghouse with a massively displeased major. At school the next day, Snyder retaliates against the Slayerette's teasing by volunteering them to erase graffitti left as a result of the previous night's activities. Giles commiserates with Buffy over the SATs, then has to face Joyce, who is making Buffy pay for the repairs to the car. They stutter and stammer, then hastily escape.

Continuity:
Not much. Angel is slowly improving -- he's coherent and physically stronger.

Ethan is still around, and fairly well-known in a certain community, apparently.

Trick and the mayor continue to work together. The major apparently makes a habit of paying tribute to several demons, possibly how he keeps getting reelected.

Relationships:
Willow and Xander continue to flirt with disaster, between playing footsie, brushes of hands and meaningful glances. So far, their respective boyfriend/girlfriend haven't noticed. How long do we think that's gonna last?

Buffy and Angel have not yet rediscovered the art of conversation.

Joyce and Giles were snogging all over the place, but that was because they were under the influence. Right? Before that, they were also talking about Buffy and going parental in unison, which interaction worries me lots more than the tonsil hockey.

Characters:
As usual, Buffy is having a rough couple of days. The normal teenage problems like SATs and forced participation in school activities, on top of the stress of dealing with teh stressed-out Joyce and Giles, on top of hiding Angel and therefore leaving herself as the only person who can help him -- and then Ethan has to show up in town. Getting caught in the lies is not going to help her stock with Joyce and Giles, but I gotta go with her choice on this one, especially considering the next episode's preview. And she gets the unique experience of getting to deal with her mother and her Watcher as teenagers. She aquits herself pretty well as the sole adult in the party, keeping everyone on track, not strangling Snyder (who deserved it even more desperately than usual), keeping Ripper under control through sheer force of will, and keeping her mother in line without once resorting to "Because I said so!". Impressive. We've gotta talk about the driving, though....

Her interactions with Angel continue to be a study in pain, as he recovers his sense of himself, and both of them start becoming aware of how much they've lost. I remain unsurprised that Angel knows tai chi -- I've been saying for years he studied martial arts at some point. Angel's apparent acceptance of Scott is.. either a good sign or a bad one, I haven't decided. His desire to be able to take care of himself is definitely a good sign, although I know Buffy doesn't see it that way. Still, he only gets the two scenes -- but all hell breaks loose next week, so what the hell.... Oh, and Angelus apparently took back custody rights to the sense of humor.

Giles was not an impressive teenager. Oh, sexy as all hell, the kind of guy your mom warned you to stay away from despite the fact that you ignored her (if you were lucky). But Buffy described him pretty well -- he was an accident waiting to happen. Tony Head did superb job -- juvenile delinquent and seriously scary about it (love the mutating accent!), but he jumps up and down at Ethan getting hit, snogs relentlessly with Joyce (with not a little actual feeling at times), and handles a gun far too well for my comfort. The glimpse we got of The Ripper in The Dark Age was scarier than this, yes, because it was an adult, in control and still dangerous as hell Giles, with a menace that the teenaged Giles couldn't quite match (another kudo to ASH there). But if I met the teenaged Ripper in a dark alley, I'd head in the other direction. Unless he was wearing those jeans and that T-shirt. Jeez louise! Hormonal much?!?

The adult Giles, what we saw of him, is moving more and more towards being Buffy's father than merely her Watcher. Instead of focusing on slaying to the exclusion of everything else, as he was initially wont to do, he's making her study for her SATs in the middle of a stakeout, telling her to think about her future, buying her chocolate, and teaming up with her mom to take care of her (i.e., run her life). Hell, he sent her to bed! It's going to be interesting to see where they go with this.

Joyce is taking caring protectiveness a little too far. Yes, I understand she's trying to exert what control she can in a situation that's way out of her control, but constantly throwing Buffy's running away in her face, essentially telling her that she can never again be trusted, is perhaps not the best way to go about repairing their relationship. She's right about the driving, though (< snerk >).

16-year-old Joyce, on the other hand, was interesting. Fairly innocent for the age, easily fascinated by danger, easily broken up by the plight of the babies and willing to help Buffy save them. In short, I imagine she was very much what Buffy -- without the Slaying and SoCal influence -- would have been at the same age. And the experience, depending on how much of it Joyce remembers, should give both her and Buffy an new, interesting perspective.

Not nearly enough Ethan, is all I have to say. He's his usual self-preservationally charming and deranged self -- next to the mayor and Trick, the man almost looks harmless. I love him as a subcontractor, and I'm very grateful for Trick's casual reference to using him again, but I wanted more!

Trick continues to impress me for his sheer common sense. Where The Master was making it on ego and Spike was getting by on attitude and a certain amount of tactical smarts, Trick is judging everyone around him and acting accordingly. He doesn't go after Ethan when the plan falls apart, which either Spike or The Master would have done in a heartbeat, and he's smart enough (after a quick, mercifully short attack of machismo (vampismo?)) to get the hell out of Dodge after the Slayer shows up. On the other hand, he is letting a mere human boss him around.

But even then, that's pretty sensible, given that the mayor is a pretty damn scary human. This is the first chance I've really had to comment on the mayor and I gotta say, he wigs me. A incredibly ordinary guy who terrifies every one around him for no easily apparent reason (aside from the closet of occult paraphanalia and the routine demon sacrifices, of course). How would you ike to run opposite this guy in an election? Kinda gives kissing babies a whole new definition.... He also continues to give Oz a run for his money in the 'Unflappable' category, which is fine with me -- I don't want to see him blow!

Snyder was not a surprise as a teenager. Desperate to fit in to the point that he shoved himself into everyone else's business, making himself obnoxious and thereby more of an outcast. So he grew up and got power over the teenagers and is revelling in it. < g > He was a pretty entertaining teenager, though.

The four Slayerettes are themselves for the most part -- Cordelia and Oz continue to be clueless about Xander and Willow's growing involvement. Willow is overcompensating massively by bragging on Oz and generally trying to be the world's most perfect girlfriend -- when she's not playing footsie with Xander. This is going to be so very beyond ugly....

Best Moments:
Giles and Buffy studying together, right up to where Giles calmly hands her the new pencil. Such cute interaction, that would have been utterly unbelieveable two seasons ago.

The mayor and Trick in his office. "Campaign promises" indeed. < shudder >

Oz's "She's always cute." Not as cute as you, dear.

Giles and Buffy at practice. Not only is Giles caving and buying the chocolate adorable (such the daddy), but the expression on his face when she beans him with the ball is priceless!

Willow and Xander in Study Hall -- painful watching them slip further into a mess, hilarious watching them almost get caught.

Buffy and Angel. Pain, pain, pain, but well-written and performed pain!

Any scene with teenage Snyder. Someone let Armin Shimerman loose, and he delivered massively! Utterly hilarious, and exactly like what teenaged Snyder must have been. way too much fun!

Joyce and Giles listening to the tunes, and later on the street. Kristine does the teenage-routine perfectly, and Tony Head is beyond adorable -- and sexy -- throughout. Lovely performances from all of the reverted adults.

Buffy trying to reason with the reverted adults. She gets more and more frustrated (and starts sounding more and more like her mother), but it's complicated with the wigging and the urgency of the situation. And Ripper is so not helpful!

Ethan confronted with Buffy and Ripper. I love the man -- finishes business, then runs like hell.

Buffy interrogating Giles. Not for Sarah or Robin, although both were lovely, but for Ripper in the background, exulting, urging on and generally being an obnoxious 16-year-old. Far too funny!

Snyder putting the moves on Joyce. The look on her face spoke a thousand put-downs.

Joyce pulling out the handcuffs.

The mayor in the sewers. In the middle of an evil ritual, he makes notes for civic improvment. At least he's focused....

Giles and Joyce scurrying away from each other at the end. Wonderful scene; I will admit that these two work very well together on screen. But that's all I'm admitting.

Questions and Comments:
The big one, of course, being 'Did they or didn't they?' I'm remaining firmly in the 'They didn't' school of denial personally, regardless of all evidence to the contrary (including the writer); not enough clothing disarranged, not enough time, out of character for 16-year-old Joyce, and it's just far too gross of a thought to pursue any futher (geez, I'm starting to think like a sixteen-year-old again). I'm reasonably sure I'm going to be proven wrong, but allow me my delusions.

Remember way back in The Witch, when Joyce was asked if she'd ever like to be sixteen again, and her response was "Oh, what a frightful notion!" Joyce, on the Hellmouth, be careful what you don't wish for.

The fantastic Robin Sachs was horrendously underutilized through the entire episode -- he got a total of three scenes, as near as I can tell, but still delivered the goods with his usual impressively smarmy and highly entertaining (in a "smash his face in" kinda way) manner. But his involvement was more or less cancelled out by Demon Snake and the mayor -- while I love the concept of him subcontracting, this was such a waste of an awesome actor. On the other hand, we got him in two back-to-back episodes of 'Babylon 5' a few weeks ago, so I'll shut up. Eventually.

Where was Faith during all of this?

And once against amused by the sheer amount of British profanity slipping past the censors. Nothing too horrible, but I have to wonder if they had any clue what most of those words actually mean.

And, speaking as a former seller of candy bars for the Spring Trip (hi, Mr. Storey! Hi Ms. Walker!), let me just say that I always knew there was something evil about those ^&*%$ things!

Willow, get with it. I do not count as an adult, and I love Billy Joel (November 22, Rosemont Horizon Auditorium! Can we say, "counting the days"?). So there!

Rating: 3.75 stars out of five. Not long on plot and a little villain heavy (and Ethan-light!!!). but a nice hour of loony fun. The extra .25 points is for Giles in jeans and t-shirt; it goes away if we get proof Joyce actually slept with him. Or didn't sleep. Or whatever. < shudder >

Back to Episodes.