This is Buffy the Vampire Slayer's finest year. It's
doesn't have the strongest story arc; that was in season two. It doesn't have
the best individual episodes; "Hush" and "Once More With Feeling"
are yet to come. It doesn't have the strongest cast; Angel, Cordelia, and
Oz are great, but their fourth season replacements (Spike, Riley, Anya, and
Tara) are even more satisfying.
What the third season has is astonishingly solid work by everyone involved.
It has Eliza Dushku's Faith and Harry Groener's Mayor, who are written and
played to perfection. It has only one of the show's weakest episodes. It doesn't
have glaring missteps in its main arc; for all that I love seasons four and
five, they have points at which the writers forget plot points or change them
hoping desperately that viewers won't notice.
In many ways, season three is the perfect conclusion of the story of Buffy
the Vampire Slayer. It builds to Buffy's graduation, as a high school student
and as a student of the Watchers. It even builds to an appropriate graduation
from first love. If you want to stop watching Buffy at its artistic peak,
stop here. But if you want to keep having fun, you've got at least two more
seasons to go.
I'm not going to go into much depth about this season. Here are episode summaries
to remind you how good this season is, or to convince you that I don't have
the slightest idea of what I'm talking about:
Creator/producer Joss Whedon writes and directs "Anne," which asks
and answers the question, "Who is Buffy?" Watch for Buffy as the
worker's hero, armed with hammer and sickle. It starts with Depressing Buffy,
who quickly gives way to the Girl-Power Buffy we know and love. Note regarding
season six: Buffy has worked as a waitress. Those skills would get her a better-paying
and more flexible job than working the counter at a burger chain.
Marti Noxon writes "Dead Man's Party." A Nigerian mask raises the
dead, and Buffy must make a new life for herself. There's a wonderful moment
when Giles is alone in his kitchen, accepting that Buffy's returned. Notes
regarding season six: When Snyder makes a joke about Buffy in a costume at
Hotdog On A Stick, the disdain for people working minimum-pay jobs is appropriate;
it's coming from a bad guy. When the Scoobs argue and Xander is the one who
sees things clearly, it's a nice moment for Xander because it rarely happens
and he quickly hands the Brains of the Outfit hat back to Giles, Willow, and
Buffy. But mishandling either of these elements will make it look like the
show's creators despise minimum-wage workers (see the staff of the Doublemeat
Palace) and that girls need guys to solve their problems (see the resolution
of season six).
David Greenwalt writes "Faith, Hope & Trick," an amazing episode
that introduces Faith the Slayer and Mr. Trick. There are too many fine moments
to mention. From a writer's point of view, Giles' final comment on the binding
spell for Acathla is perfection.
Noxon's "Beauty and the Beasts" must've sounded fine in theory:
Oz is suspected of killing a student as a werewolf, then it looks as if Angel
did it, then it turns out that the story is actually a Jekyll-Hyde tale about
an abusive boyfriend. Unfortunately, the execution is simple-minded and heavy-handed.
There's "Angel-in-chains" for bondage fans, and the story ends with
Angel saving Buffy rather than Buffy saving herself.
Greenwalt's "Homecoming" is classic Buffy. It introduces the Mayor,
brings back the surviving Gortch brother with his new bride, and gives Cordelia
a grand moment when she shows that arrogance is a superpower.
Jane Espenson's "Band Candy" has the adults in Buffy's life acting
like the teenagers they were. The only flaw in this episode is an insufficient
number of babies at risk in the end: if the whole town was affected by the
spell; the whole town's supply of babies should've been endangered.
Douglas Petrie's "Revelations" may be the first BtVS to veer
firmly into soap opera. But it's great soap opera, as almost every friendship
is tested. And unlike later BtVS soap opera episodes, here, every misunderstanding
ends in a nicely choreographed fight.
Dan Vebber's "Lovers Walk" continues the soap opera: the focus is
entirely on young people's sexual relationships. There's no examination of
the Watcher-Slayer relationship, or the mother-daughter. But it's more great
soap opera, relieved by lots of humor. Spike wants Drusilla back; he figures
Willow can cast a love spell to achieve that. He gets one of the great romantic
lines of the series: "I may be love's bitch, but I'm man enough to admit
it." Season two made us suspect that vampires could love. This episode
confirms it. Angel took one path to morality by being cursed with a soul,
whatever that meant. Until it's undone in season six, Spike seems to be taking
another, one in which the company of Buffy and her friends makes him question
the accepted relationship between vampires and humans.
Noxon's "The Wish" introduces Anya the Vengeance Demon. The final
scene hints at the Anya we come to know and love. It also gives us a look
at a world where Buffy had not come to Sunnydale, and the Master rules the
town, and Evil Willow rules our hearts. You can tell this is a Noxon offering:
there's more S&M fun with Angel. It's appropriate here, in one of my favorite
episodes.
Whedon writes and directs "Amends." The First Evil makes its first
appearance. The final scene takes an interesting turn, in an attempt to do
a classic Christmas tale. It's simultaneously wonderful and wrong: Buffy shouldn't
benefit from miracles, even on Christmas. Her job is to be the miracle. It
makes the ending feel unresolved: the First Evil seems to have been forgotten
rather than thwarted. Yet it's a sweet ending, and it's nice to see Faith
and Buffy become friends again, after several episodes of being separated
by events and misunderstandings.
Espenson's "Gingerbread" is the story behind the story of Hansel
and Gretel. Joyce Summers decides to start M.O.O., Mothers Opposing the Occult,
and witches are her first target. It's a slight episode, but as one expects
from Espenson, fun.
David Fury's "Helpless" is another of the show's finest episodes:
Buffy discovers that the Watchers are manipulative creeps, and Giles is torn
between his love for Buffy and his duty to his job. This features the scariest
vampire in the show -- but he's another vampire who suggests that the official
story about vampires isn't true, because he, like the Gortches, has stayed
the person he was before he became a vampire.
Vebber's "The Zeppo" finally tells us what Jimmy Olsen does while
Superman saves the universe. This is Xander's story. And it's nice to be reminded
that sidekicks have their stories, too. The episode is both wildly funny and,
at the end, very moving, in the tradition of BtVS writing at its best.
Petrie's "Bad Girls" introduces Wesley Wyndam-Pryce and kicks the
Buffy-Faith story into high gear. From here to the end of the season, the
show comes closer to perfection than any television fantasy series ever. Noxon's
"Consequences" looks at what happens when a Slayer goes very, very
bad.
Whedon writes and directs "Doppelgangland" and Alison Hannigan shines.
It's a sequel to "The Wish." It makes you love the idea of an Evil
Willow. It's a shame that season six didn't embrace the possibilities that
this episode offers.
Petrie's "Enemies" focuses on the Mayor's plan to set Angel against
Buffy, and hints at the still-unexplored past of John Constan-- I mean, Rupert
Giles, who I love, however derivatve his past may be.
Espenson's "Earshot" is one of my top ten Buffys. The list may be
longer or shorter than ten, but this one is on it. It should be mandatory
viewing for every thirteen-year-old. This episode does what BtVS has
always done better than any other fantasy or science fiction television show:
illuminate real life by approaching it as fantasy.
Fury's "Choices" has a heavy-handed title that's nicely explored,
and Cordelia's life takes a turn in a new direction.
Noxon's "The Prom" is just about perfect. Ditto for "Graduation
Day, Parts One and Two," written and directed by Whedon. Characters we've
come to love, both good and bad, make their farewells. But all of those farewells
are flawless.
Part of the perfection of "The Prom" is that it has the series's
validation scene, the moment when the hero is formally recognized as a hero
by the community. Usually that scene occurs after the climax. When it's not
done right, it feels tacked-on. "The Prom" sidesteps that by having
Buffy's validation come before her greatest contest. Part of the perfection
of "Graduation Day" is that it completes Buffy's arc as a hero.
In the first season, she grows to accept that she is the Slayer. In the second,
she learns what that means: even though she becomes part of a group, the Scoobies,
the Slayer ultimately must be ready to stand alone and make the hard choices.
But in the third season, she transcends the traditional Slayer role itself.
She discovers what no one can teach her, what no previous Slayer managed to
learn: Other people's definition of the Slayer don't have to apply. By rejecting
the authority of the Watchers Council and rallying the community (her high
school class) to join her in fighting evil, Buffy becomes, not just the lone
Slayer, but the leader who transforms the victimized into victors. That Worker's
Hero motif in the first episode of the season wasn't just a joke, after all.
Some fans say BtVS is about empowering girls, but that's only half
true. In "Graduation Day," every student of Sunnydale High's graduating
class becomes part of the victory. While parents and teachers cower before
the unknown, Buffy's peers prove that they've learned the truth of their world,
thanks to her. They now know that they have the power to make the world better.
Everyone who sees what's wrong and dares to change it will graduate.
I should quibble more, I know. I could wish the show had had a bigger special
effects budget, but writing and acting will always overcome the shortcomings
of special effects. Now I only have to decide whether to write reviews of
the following seasons, because if I do that, I will quibble more.
For now, bask in the glow of a glorious piece of fantastical art.
