Buffy 3x18: Earshot...

[fajrdrako]

Did you think I'd never talk about Buffy again? I was worried, myself. But here I am, with "Earshot".

A bit of a letdown after "Enemies", which I loved so much; and I don't like the growing rift between Angel and Buffy. But otherwise... fun. Definitely many good bits.

1. Willow says, "I don't like this whole no mouth thing. It's disquieting." Makes me think how seldom we hear the word "disquiteting" on television.
   
   
2. I like Giles admitting he doesn't know what's going on with the Mayor and his Ascension. Too often it's only too easy for him (or Willow) to pull whatever arcane lore they need out of his books. Over three seasons they've gone through so many books they must practically have his library memorized by now. No wonder Willow knows a lot.
   
   
3. Good line:

   XANDER: Hogan Martin thinks he's sooooo hot. Like we should all be awed by him cuz he can put a ball in the net.
   HOGAN: Hey Xander.
   XANDER: He said my name! He knows my name!

   One of the cases where Xander really is funny.
   
   
4. And I like Hogan's line to Willow: "I don't know what you're doing to him. I actually heard him complete a sentence. It had a clause and everything."
   
   
5. And I enjoyed this interesting exchange:

   BUFFY: You're going to the game? I didn't know you liked basketball.
   WILLOW I didn't either. But I really started getting into it. Especially now that we're in the championship. It's so exciting.

   On the one hand I love Willow's enthusiasm about every new thing that comes her way. On the other hand, she seems so scattered - her attention unfocussed and spread anywhere. Reminds me a little of Kaylee.
   
   
6. Love Buffy's horror that she may be infected by an aspect of the demon. Uh-oh, sounds like bad news. All the creepier that they don't know what it is.
   
   
7. I enjoyed this, too:

   WILLOW: Well, according to Freddy's latest editorial, 'the pep rally is a place for psuedo-prostitues to provoke men into a sexual frenzy which, when thwarted, results in pointless athletic competition.'
   XANDER: And the downside being?

   What, two Xander quotes in a row that I find really funny? Is he slipping, or am I?
   
   
8. Why does Oz go straight to the obits? Is that an editorial comment on their lifestyle?
   
   
9. So Willow lacks faith in Giles. Bad Willow, bad.
   
   
10. Xander sees Wesley looking at Cordelia and says, "He's got his filthy adult Pierce Brosny eyes all over my Cordy." Love the description of Wesley, though not the attitude.
    
    
11. Love it when Buffy says to Angel, "I didn't see you so I should have known you were there."
    
    
12. Another great moment:

    ANGEL: Hey, I won't let anything happen to you if I can help it. No matter what, I'll always be with you. Hey, I'll love you even if you're covered with slime.
    BUFFY: I liked everything until that part.

    Okay, I like it that Angel is protective. I like it that he says he'll love her if she's covered in slime. I like her rejoinder. And I love it that he says he'll always be with her - very romantic. But I happen to know, because I've seen to the end of the seasons already, that Angel is going to leave her. So is he fickle? Lying? What's with that? Making promises he can't keep? I see that on TV all the time, and don't much like it. It's in the trailer to the new Nicholas Cage movie I saw today, where Cage tells the kid, "I promise you won't die." Seems so shallow to me: "I promise to protect you" is a fair thing to say, but that kid's going to die someday and no promise is going to change that. Giles does it later in this episode when he says to Buffy, "You'll be fine. I promise." How does he know? How can he promise something he can't control?
    
    Anyway, I just wish Angel hadn't said that; it make me even grumpier than I would otherwise be about his departure.
    
    
13. So Buffy can read thoughts. This never comes to good.
    
    
14. Buffy tells Giles, "Principal Snyder has Walk Like an Egyption stuck in his head." That strikes me as very funny.
    
    
15. I like the English class, with Willow's incredulity: "Buffy did the reading? Buffy understood the reading?" and Xander: "When did she study? Was I supposed to study?" I like the whole 'dark half of Othello' conversation.
    
    
16. Conversation between Angel and Buffy:

    ANGEL: You can't get into my mind.
    BUFFY: How did you...why not?

    Not apropos of Buffy but apropos of Torchwood, this reminds me of Toshiko trying to read Jack's mind in "Greeks Bearing Gifts", and failing. Mary had the same problem. I guess it makes sense that there are similarities between immortal humans and vampires. Jack does, however, have a reflection. There aren't a lot of things I love about vampires, but their lack of reflection is one thing I think is terrific.
    
    
17. Angel: "In two-hundred-forty-three years, I've loved exactly one person." I like that.
    
    
18. I love the way Cordelia thinks something, then says it. That's so Cordelia-like.
    
    
19. I love Wesley's Cordelia obsession.
    
    
20. So of course Buffy hears someone with murderous intent. What are the odds?
    
    
21. Good bit:

    XANDER: I'm still having trouble with the fact that one of us is just gonna gun everybody down for no reason.
    CORDY: Yeah, because that never happens in American High Schools.
    OZ: It's bordering on trendy at this point.

    Have I mentioned lately how much I like Oz? I even like his existentialist thoughts.
    
    
22. Okay, the "You had sex with Giles" conversation between Buffy and her mother is fun. So why doesn't Joyce want him when she's in her right mind? She must be out of her mind. 'Course, I don't think she's good enough for him.
    
    
23. Willow's conversation with Jonathan is kind of cute.
    
    
24. Jonathan is the killer? I was incredulous. It wasn't impossible, of course, it just seemed... off. And his conversation with Buffy was odd. I was relieved when we learned the truth - that his intent was suicide not homicide.
    
    
25. I really like the part of the conversation that goes:

    BUFFY: No. I think you're up in the clock tower with a high-powered rifle because you want to blend in. Believe it or not, Jonathan, I understand about the pain.
    JONATHAN: Oh right. Cause the burden of being beautiful and athletic, that's a crippler.
    BUFFY: You know what? I was wrong. You are an idiot. My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own... If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It's not. It's deafening.

    I'm with Buffy on this one.
    
    
26. So it turns out to be the grumpy lunch lady who's the killer. Just a little cheap in the plotting department, I think. We'd only glimpsed her before.
    
    
27. I like the ending, where Buffy makes Giles walk into a tree.
    
    
28. No Spike still. Insert pitiful sigh.

Comments

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Ooh, good. Nice to remember this episode, which I haven't seen for literally a dog's age. Interesting parallels with Tosh in Torchwood. I think it would be fun to compare every Torchwood episode with a Buffy or Angel ep with a similar theme (and there are so many).

There aren't a lot of things I love about vampires, but their lack of reflection is one thing I think is terrific.

And yet, in the Jossverse, they all have such great hair.

XANDER is my funny man. I adore him.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think it would be fun to compare every Torchwood episode with a Buffy or Angel ep with a similar theme (and there are so many).

It would be fun to compile the similarities. It would be a long list. My favourite is not a Buffy reference but a Firefly reference, when Gwen is invited by Captain John to call him 'Vera' - and does so.

in the Jossverse, they all have such great hair.

Spike has the best hair ever.

I find Xander funny and annoying by turns. I'm afraid I like to be snarky about him.

[jackarono.livejournal.com]

Spike, I mean John Hart, makes several Buffy references (like asking the mugger which artery he'll go for, and then "Thirsty Now" like doppelganger!Willow saying, "Bored now"). I get the idea the TW creator has watched a lot of Whedonverse.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

A guy has to learn about the time he's moving into - might as well do it in a way that's fun!

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

It's been awhile seen I've seen Buffy, but the scene that sticks out from this episode is the scene where Xander and the Lunch Lady stare at each other while she's dumping a big box of rat poison into the soup and Xander running around screaming RAT POISON!! and knocking the soup off of everyone's trays.

Okay, that and Joy and Giles watching over Buffy, and Joy saying that she hates the idea that her thoughts are hurting her daughter, and Giles saying it doesn't matter because [Joy's thoughts] is just a drop in a maestrom.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Joy saying that she hates the idea that her thoughts are hurting her daughter, and Giles saying it doesn't matter because [Joy's thoughts] is just a drop in a maestrom.

I loved that, too. I tend to like good Giles moments.

What is your icon?

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

It's the picture of the ISS ( and the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which I cropped out ) making a solar transit with some screwing around with a medieval portrayal of stars and color filters making it a little less stark.

The main picture is here: http://www.astrosurf.com/legault/iss_atlantis_transit.html

it also gives a good depiction of how huge the Sun actually is.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful picture! (I guessed it would be something fascinating.) Thanks for explaining.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Interesting note about Earshot: it was pulled from television and Band Candy was shown in its place because the Columbine High School massacre occurred one week before it was originally suppose to be shown. Jonathan with the rifle was too much for the network to take. It was months before they showed it!

Like most of fandom, I got a bootleg copy, of course!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

the Columbine High School massacre occurred one week before it was originally suppose to be shown.

Woo. Scary synchronicity.

Like most of fandom, I got a bootleg copy, of course!

Glad to hear it!

[jackarono.livejournal.com]

It's always that way with Angel-- he always romantically swears that he'll always be with her, and then he leaves.

Wait till My Favorite Episode Evuh-- Superstar. Jonathan totally rules. I met the actor at a screenwriting seminar (he then wrote the tv film Recount, not that I'm saying that precisely happened because he met me :), and he was very nice to my young son (who was also there), and of course I gushed, "Superstar is my favorite episode ever, and it doesn't even feature Spike!" I got the idea he hears that a lot. :) But anyway, Jonathan returns, and it's a great episode. But Spike's in it too, looking Very Fine. VERY Fine. So you have that to look forward too!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's always that way with Angel-- he always romantically swears that he'll always be with her, and then he leaves.

Hmmph. I Do Not Approve. Angel's an idiot.

What season is "Superstar" in?

[flautopiccolo.livejournal.com]

Superstar is Season 4, Episode 17.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ah - the season I'm already in. Almost. Well, sort of. Okay, I'll get there soon.

[(Anonymous)]

It's in the middle of S4, and S4 has LOTS of Spike! I think he's at his loveliest in S4, though he's sort of ethereally gorgeous in S7.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ooh - okay, I look forward to that.

[atheneunknown.livejournal.com]

I loved this episode when I first saw it. Still do. I love that Buffy points out how high school really was for most kids. Your heads so squirlly that you don't know up or down, none the less that the boy next to you is depressed, or that their failing or whatever. Teens are very self centered, I think its the hormones, and all the fussing about grades doesn't help either.

I personally, would've loved to see Joyce and Giles get together in the long term. I loved Joyce, her relationship with Buffy is a great comparison to how every teenage girl of my generation felt toward their parents. That they were a whole seperate world to them, from what really matters. Most girls its boys, clothes, and school. Buffy just has vampires and saving the world thrown in. I loved Joyces character a lot, even when I was going thru the same 'double life' feeling with my mom. And I didn't even realize the comparison.

Johnathan, is a character. The mention of Superstar makes me want to pull up that episode now, because I'm not remembering why its so brill, but I remember thinking it was at the time as well.

And Spike should be in every episode, but alas he isn't. Would take too much focus off the plot at this point I think.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Teens are very self centered, I think its the hormones, and all the fussing about grades doesn't help either.

Hormones are part of it, but I think it's mostly the coming of adult awareness. Everything in life has to be figured out. Teens are not just hyper-aware of themselves, but of those around them.

I sometimes have mixed feelings about Joyce: mostly she's great, but sometimes she's so stupid I want to shake her.

I take it that "Superstar" is something yet to come?

More Spike - I want more Spike.

[gillo]

I love that episode - Giles walking into teh tree is priceless - wonderful comic timing from both of them. And I adore the scoobies scurrying around trying to play detective - Willow is particularly funny. The dinner lady poison may be a touch lame but hey, whoever has had school food and not suspected it at some point?

Yes, we need Spike, but that's why you have to rush on to S4. And

Superstar

is worth the wait, though I think I love

Something Blue

more...

I'm really glad you're getting back to these - I really enjoy your take on them.

[grimorie.livejournal.com]

I don't often comment but I love reading your thoughts on Buffy.

I happen to know, because I've seen to the end of the seasons already, that Angel is going to leave her. So is he fickle? Lying? What's with that? Making promises he can't keep?

I think at this time Angel really meant it. At this point he can't see any world or time without Buffy even if he couldn't be with her I think he thought he would always be close to her.

...which I always found tragic considering everything to come. I hope you'll also start watching Angel: The Series. The show had its up and downs but I really enjoyed it!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love reading your thoughts on Buffy.

Thank you! I'm happy to hear it. There's no point writing my thoughts if no one cares, or if I'm just boring people. Sometimes I wonder.

At this point he can't see any world or time without Buffy

Yes. When I first watched this, not knowing what was coming, it delighted me. But it made his departure harder for me to take.

I will start watcing Angel though I haven't quite decided whether to watch it chronologically alongside Buffy or to watch all of Buffy and then go back to Angel. I'd been advised to watch them together, but I started doing that and it didn't work very well.