Continuing my viewing and reviewing of season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
***SPOILERS***
Episodes 2: Dead Man's Party
Synopsis: A Nigerian mask that Buffy's mother has acquired from the gallery has the unique power of resurrecting the dead. (written by Marti Noxon, airdate 10/6/98)
Buffy returns home and finds her friends have picked up the slaying duties. Despite their attempts, she shows them how it is done - a bit more efficiently, but she still is slightly out of practice. When they all go see Giles, we have a great moment when he is in the kitchen - he nearly tears up at her return (very British, can't allow others to see that). In fact, he has a number of great moments in this episode - his hot-wiring the car, his threatening Principal Snyder to get Buffy back in school. All good stuff.
Interesting how the group turns the welcome home party into a "hooten-naney", per Oz's descriptions. Unfortunately, that's not what Buffy wanted or needed. It just helps to emphasize the distance between her and her friends as Buffy still doesn't feel all right about being home. Only after the attack of the undead and a good talk with best-friend Willow does things clear up a bit. And that's good - you could really feel the distance between everyone as Buffy came to terms with being home and her coming to terms that life did move on without her while she was gone.
Loved the tribute to zombies in this episode. Lots of great lines as well.
1 comment:
VERY happy with this ep. Yes, there were zombies (and a stinky zombie cat), but that was almost incidental to all the character stuff. The emotional set-up of last episode was paid off brilliantly here with everyone's reactions to Buffy returning. That unspoken, guilty resentment that no one wanted to verbalize. Buffy's having to deal with how things have changed, and her own feelings about being back in her old life when she's changed so much inside after things with Angel. I loved how everything stayed under the surface and finally (and in an ultimately healthy way) came to a boil. Awesome character stuff for everyone, including the usually out-of-the-loop Joyce. So happy that the secret ID thing is over so they can explore the possibilities of having her involved. Makes her a much more interesting character.
I agree that my favorite character in the ep, too, was Giles. Loved the scene in the kitchen - him emoting that sense of relief that we ALL felt at her finally being back. And the hot-wiring (go, Ripper, go!). And yes, the manhandling of of Snyder (even MORE go, Ripper, go!). Sweet! Fantastically written ep (thanks, Marti!) and so well-acted. And really loved the final scene with her and Willow, with Willow being able to get all that stuff off her chest that she's been holding inside, because her best friend hadn't been around to let her vent. Great bonding for all. And yes...another scene with Jonathan! Love that guy and his occasional one or two lines. :)
Very happy that they took these two eps to address the aftermath of such a huge event in all their lives. And now, with that out of the way...on with season 3! Let the big arc begin!
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