Buffy: When She Was Bad

Cordelia: "You're really campaigning for bitch-of-the-year, aren't you?"
Buffy: "As defending champion, you nervous?"

The nursery rhyme goes, "When she was good, she was very, very good; but when she was bad, she was horrid." There was a fun takeoff by Mae West: "But when I'm bad, I'm better." Both meanings apply, to some extent.

Buffy isn't really bad; she's just suffering from a little post-death trauma. She's distant, revved up, and shopping too much -- and can you say pent-up rage expressing itself in negative behavior? She also expresses a lot of anger specifically toward Angel. Buffy has realized that vampires are Not Good, and she doesn't want to be in love with one. Who can blame her? Buffy is indeed badder in the sense of sexier, as she does a slow, sexy dance with Xander in a deliberate attempt to hurt Angel. This is not the nicest thing to do to two guys you know are crazy about you, and which by the way really hurts Willow, as well.

Fortunately, Buffy manages to work through her rage while simultaneously thwarting the Anointed One's attempts to revive the Master. Who needs psychotherapy when you can smash your enemy's bones into powder with a sledgehammer? Her friends, who are at first understandably pissed off, manage to forgive her outrageous behavior and move on, even after Buffy's 'tude nearly gets them sacrificed. After all, it's just your average week in Sunnydale.

This episode allowed Buffy to become more of a three-dimensional character. She gets cranky, she has issues, she can even be a bitca at times.

Bits and pieces:

-- David Boreanaz is now in the cast. Thousands cheer. And there is no "Into each generation" introduction this time.

-- Time has elapsed during the show's hiatus, paralleling summer vacation.

-- The dream Buffy has about the Master in Giles' clothing is a shocker, because it is completely unexpected. Excellent writing there.

-- Cordelia still doesn't know that Angel is a vampire.

-- Cordelia continues her slow integration into the Slayerettes. Sure, there are still insults being slung, but Cordelia now knows the score. She's even the one to tell Buffy to get over it. (It sounds like Charisma Carpenter has a cold here. Or maybe it's just too much character.)

-- Buffy coldly tortures a vampire woman who was left as a decoy. This is new behavior for Buffy.

-- Xander and Willow are close to kissing in the opening scene, but as soon as Buffy returns, Xander is once again obsessed with Buffy. That's sort of sad.

-- Giles has developed a crush on Jenny Calendar; their conversation about what they did during the summer illustrates perfectly that they may both be teachers, but they are extremely different people.

-- The music we hear when Joyce driving Buffy to school goes, "It doesn't matter what I want / It doesn't matter what I need." Very appropriate for a girl who is angry about the life that has been forced upon her.

-- In this season's hair report, Xander's is shorter, Joyce's is longer, Cordelia's is lighter, and Willow's is redder and a couple of inches shorter. Buffy's is now shoulder-length and blonder, and her makeup has also changed. And her new clothes, purchased by her father in L.A., are better suited to the character: sexier and less juvenile.

Quotable quotes:

Xander: "Hey, did you guys hear that Cibo Matto is going to be at the Bronze tonight?"
Willow: "Cibo Matto? They're playing?"
Xander: "No, Will, they're going to be clog dancing."
Willow: "Cibo Matto can clog dance?"

Cordelia: "Oh, look, it's the Three Musketeers."
Buffy: "Was that an insult?"
Xander: "Kinda lacked punch."
Willow: "The Three Musketeers were cool."
Cordelia: "I see your point."
Xander: "I would have gone with Stooges."

Buffy: "Cordelia, your mouth is open. Sound is coming from it. This is never good."

Cordelia: "Whatever is causing the Joan Collins 'tude, deal with it. Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever, but get over it. 'Cause pretty soon you're not even gonna have the loser friends you've got now."

Willow: "That's what it was! I mean, why else would she be acting like such a b-i-t-c-h?"
Giles: "Willow, I think we're all a little too old to be spelling things out."
Xander: "A bitca?"

Willow: "What would somebody want with Master bones?"
Xander: "A trophy? A horrible conversation piece?"

Snyder: "There're some things I can just smell. It's like a sixth sense."
Giles: "No, actually that would be one of the five."
Snyder: "That Summers girl. I smell trouble. I smell expulsion, and just the faintest aroma of jail."

Buffy: "Because I don't trust you. You're a vampire. Oh, I'm sorry, was that an offensive term? Should I say undead American?"

Cordelia: "It stays with you forever. No matter what they tell you, none of that rust and blood and grime comes out. I mean, you can dry clean till judgment day, you are living with those stains."
Jenny: "Yeah that's the worst part of being hung upside down by a vampire who wants to slit your throat. The stains."

Giles: "What are you going to do? Crawl inside a cave for the rest of your life?"
Buffy: "Would it have cable?"

Xander: "Well, we could grind our enemies into talcum powder with a sledgehammer, but, gosh, we did that last night."

Three out of four stakes,

Billie