Buffy 4x01: The Freshman...

[fajrdrako]

Buffy goes to university. She's a big girl now.

After the high intensity of the last few episodes of season 3, this was a bit of a letdown. But that's true of every season, right?

Buffy: 'Introduction to the Modern Novel?' I'm guessing I'd probably have to read the modern novel.
Willow: Maybe more than one.
Buffy: I like books. I just don't want to take on too much. Do they have an introduction to the modern blurb?

Not for the first time, Buffy makes me smile.


1. ...The painful 'nowning' process. Seems to me that idea should have led somewhere, though I'm not sure where.
   
   
2. Cute sequence where they're talking and don't notice the vampire, who wanders away. At least the season starts with a sense of charm.
   
   
3. This made me laugh, too:

   Missionary-girl: Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?
   Buffy: Uh, you know I meant to and then I just got really busy.

   
   
4. Why are Willow and Buffy not rooming together?
   
   
5. Love the way Oz seems to know his way around and know everyone there already. Joe Cool, that's Oz.
   
   

6. Willow: Well, he says that he's enjoying being a gentleman of leisure.
   Buffy: Gentleman of leisure? Isn't that just British for unemployed?

   I want to call myself a Gentleman of leisure!
   
   
7. Willow and Buffy meet Riley. He doesn't seem exactly compelling. Friendly enough, but that's not exactly a good thing in this show.
   
   
8. Then we meet Kathy and get more of the college experience. And a professor picks on Buffy. (Ogre!)
   
   
9. I find myself wondering: if this university is in Sunnydale, how do all these people survive to young adulthood? Where'd they all come from? Do people migrate to Sunnydale U from all over California for the privilege of being killed by vampires before they graduate? With high schools, you're usually pretty much slotted into going to school where you live. But you get to choose where you go to university.
   
   
10. Riley says, "My head is fine, it just stung for a bit and I lost most of my basic motor functions." That's a really funny line, but it doesn't sound all that funny when he says it. Is it him? is it me? is it his delivery?
    
    
11. Professor Walsh's self-introduction is great.
    
    
12. Why would football players take geology? The stereotype is that football players take easy courses. I've never heard that geology was easy. Or is that an ironic joke?
    
    
13. Seems to me there's a sort of lack of tension here.
    
    
14. But this made me laugh out loud:

    Eddie: 'Of Human Bondage.' Have you ever read it?
    Buffy: Oh, I'm not really into porn...

15. Then the vampires get Eddie and try to cover with a good-bye note. Buffy is too smart to fall for this.
    
    
16. Wonderful line from Sunday, going through Eddie's stuff: "Astonishingly boring... we... we have to kill some cooler people."
    
    
17. Love the parody of student taste in poster art. Monet, Klimt. Some things never change. I had Mucha, myself.
    
    
18. Giles has a girlfriend visiting! Yes! And she calls him Ripper. Luckiest woman on the show yet.
    
    
19. And Giles wants Buffy to be self-reliant. Is this making her take the consequences of dropping Wesley? Giles didn't like Wesley either.
    
    
20. Buffy sees that Eddie is a vampire. Sunday sees that Buffy is there. "Slayer! Wow, I heard you might be coming here." Is the university a segregated zone? Do student vampires not wander into town? I thought Buffy dealt with all vampires anywhere in Sunnydale all along. I wouldn't have thought her presence on campus would mean all that much to most vampires... though I suppose Sunday and co. are used to thinking of this as their private turf.
    
    
21. Sunday: "You fight like a girl." Love it.
    
    
22. Buffy goes home and can't get into her room. That's one of the most realistic things to happen on this show yet.
    
    
23. We meet Xander again, and hear his adventures. Male strippers. Heh.
    
    
24. Love Buffy's line: "Thanks for the Dadaist pep talk, I feel much more abstract now." But really, Xander isn't the best person to go to for advice about the big issues in life. Xander doesn't see the big pictures. Xander wings it.
    
    
25. I don't understand the talk about "Betty Louise Plotnick of East Cupcake, Illinois". Is that a fictional or TV reference I don't know?
    
    
26. Xander says "nothing says thank you like dollars in the waistband." If he doesn't want to talk about his stripping experience, why does he keep mentioning it?
    
    
27. "Psi Theta fraternity house" = yet another disused property around Sunnydale that vampires can squat in.
    
    
28. Willow almost falls for Buffy's good-bye not? What's with that? That seems really out of character. I liked:

    Willow: How can you be so calm?
    Oz: Long, arduous hours of practice.

29. Am I missing a plot point somewhere - why is Buffy being wimpy? I'd like to think Buffy is all depressed and demoralized because she misses Angel, but that's not in the text.
    
    
30. Then Buffy stops being wimpy as mysteriously as she started. And beats Sunday.
    
    
31. I love it that she values her 'class protector' award.
    
    
32. And Giles makes a wonderful speech: "I know I'm supposed to teach you self-reliance, but I can't leave you out there to fight alone. To hell with what's right, I'm ready to back you up. Let's find the evil a-and fight it together." He's like a parent dealing with separation anxiety, and overcompensating.
    
    
33. And it ends with mysterious vampire-hunters who are not Buffy and company. Hmm.

Comments

[isagel.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen any of season four in ages, but as I remember it, it builds very slowly to something powerful.

I fully share Spike's view of Riley as "Captain Cardboard" and don't like him at all. Too boring for the context, and yes, I think a lot of that is in the acting. I know some people love him, but I suspect you'll remain unimpressed.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Riley just seems very bland. There's nothing wrong with him, but nothing much to be impressed by.

Buffy is good at building tension and emotion - I look forward to see what's coming up in season 4.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

After the high intensity of the last few episodes of season 3, this was a bit of a letdown. But that's true of every season, right?

Yup. Of course, when the show was running, there would be a gap of a couple of months at least between the high intensity finales and the reintroduction of the next series, so it wouldn't be as noticeable a change.

Cute sequence where they're talking and don't notice the vampire, who wanders away

I liked that they confirmed that Buffy does still slay a lot in the summer, so vampire activity doesn't just follow the school year.

Why are Willow and Buffy not rooming together?

Maybe you don't get to choose? I assume the room assignments are just random. Actually, given how close they both live to the campus anyway, if that was Britain they almost certainly would have had to fight to get into university accommodation at all. Where my parents live is about 16 miles from a big university - if I'd gone there, I would not have been given a room by the university. It was possible to get into the accommodation eventually but it involved hassling the housing people for most of the first term and hoping there were spaces left/given up. So maybe Buffy and Willow had to take what they were offered.

Willow's description of the university life makes me laugh:
'I can feel my mind just opening up, you know, letting the place just thrust into it and... spurt knowledge... into... that sentence ended up in a different place than it started out in.'

Willow and Buffy meet Riley. He doesn't seem exactly compelling

And the understatement of the year award goes to... Eh. Riley. *yawns*

Wonderful line from Sunday, going through Eddie's stuff: "Astonishingly boring... we... we have to kill some cooler people."

I liked:
random hench vampire: Does this sweater make me look fat?
Sunday: No, the fact that you're fat makes you look fat. The sweater makes you look purple.

Giles wants Buffy to be self-reliant. Is this making her take the consequences of dropping Wesley? Giles didn't like Wesley either.

No, Giles is just confused by being unemployed and thinking he's helping Buffy grow in a roundabout way. He occasionally does this and he always picks the wrong moments.

I don't understand the talk about "Betty Louise Plotnick of East Cupcake, Illinois". Is that a fictional or TV reference I don't know?

I always assumed it was an example of a total pathetic hick. I've no idea if it is actually a reference to something.

Am I missing a plot point somewhere - why is Buffy being wimpy? I'd like to think Buffy is all depressed and demoralized because she misses Angel, but that's not in the text.

Well, that is partially answered with 'yes, but you haven't seen it yet' plus the thing of Buffy losing confidence in the rest of her life means it affects her as a Slayer too. She's off balance, she feels like a nobody on campus, Riley remembered Willow and not her, Giles is being weird, her mom filled her room up with junk, everything is just wonky so so is her fighting.

Buffy stops being wimpy as mysteriously as she started. And beats Sunday

A little righteous anger certainly clears away the self-doubt, and the 'class protector' award probably helped remind her what she can do.

And it ends with mysterious vampire-hunters who are not Buffy and company. Hmm

Hmm indeed.

addendum

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Riley says, "My head is fine, it just stung for a bit and I lost most of my basic motor functions." That's a really funny line, but it doesn't sound all that funny when he says it. Is it him? is it me? is it his delivery?

It is totally him.

Re: addendum

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It is totally him.

What a shame!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I liked that they confirmed that Buffy does still slay a lot in the summer, so vampire activity doesn't just follow the school year.

After the events in the previous season-gap (between season 2 and 3) that was a good thing to mention.

Your suggestions regarding the room-sharing make sense. Especially since, clearly, the university is busy and there are a lot of students. As an undergraduate, I lived at home - the university was within walking distance of my parents' place.

that sentence ended up in a different place than it started out in.'

Cute.

And the understatement of the year award goes to... Eh. Riley. *yawns*

I was particularly noting the contrast between Riley and Oz in personality, impact, and... charisma. Beside Oz, Riley seems only half there.

the fact that you're fat makes you look fat. The sweater makes you look purple.

Which is absolutely brilliant.

Yeah, I can see that Buffy's having a bad week all round. And there's bound to be some post-traumatic let-down after what happened last season. It just didn't seem entirely clear to me why it was happening the way it was happening.

the 'class protector' award probably helped remind her what she can do.

As well it might.

[wiredblowfish.livejournal.com]

I'm just finishing Buffy Season 6. Oh, boy! It's a doozy! Riley makes an appearance in 6, too. I couldn't stand him.

12. There is a class people call Rocks for Jocks. It is like the easiest science class so all the jocks take it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Riley makes an appearance in 6, too. I couldn't stand him.

I'm glad it isn't just me. He'd bland enough on his own, but with the show so full of remarkable characters, he stands out for his mediocrity.

Easiest science class. Right.

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Oh, Riley has his moments - I just thought of him a a piece of white bread to sop up all the spicy gravy.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thats a nice way to look at him. I'm going to try to remember that.

(But where's my Spike? Whimper.)

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

I'm still annoyed that LJ ate that long post I wrote on one of your other entries. I can't reconstruct that. nm. Onto the next ep:

Buffy goes to university. She's a big girl now.

That has a lot to do with her insecurity. New place, new rules, new attitudes, new everything, and an overwhelming quantity of things, events, people, courses. I always thought it's a nice representation of how disorienting it is to be new at a University. And there's the breakup of the old familiar domains - home, watcher and group of friends. It takes time for people to regain the balance. That's a touch of reality that keeps cropping up in the show.

Buffy: I like books. I just don't want to take on too much. Do they have an introduction to the modern blurb?

Not to mention academics are not her strong suit.


In general, this is not a season I like, and I don't like the new characters introduced. Riley is a prime - hugely boring - example. And I generally resent the way Giles was treated by the writers. That said, there are good moments, scenes and eps.


18. Giles has a girlfriend visiting! Yes! And she calls him Ripper. Luckiest woman on the show yet.

I love that scene, I love its implications, I love the music in the background (early David; we so rarely get a glimpse of Giles' musical collection), I love Rupert telling Buffy off his private life. I don't particularly love Olivia herself, but I really have nothing against her.

19. And Giles wants Buffy to be self-reliant. Is this making her take the consequences of dropping Wesley? Giles didn't like Wesley either.

On the meta-level, this is to cut her off that line of support too. Everyone has their own lives and has moved on. She can't keep falling back on old faithfuls.
From Giles' POV, I think this is part of the consequences of her own demand for independence and self-reliance built into the break from the council. Partly, it's about this new beginning, since he will not be on campus to help and they can't keep running back and forth, so she has to learn to deal in situ. But its also partly to get her to go and stay off his private life.


Do student vampires not wander into town? I thought Buffy dealt with all vampires anywhere in Sunnydale all along. I wouldn't have thought her presence on campus would mean all that much to most vampires...

Again parts: a. Note Willow's quote: "Yeah, it's like, five miles away. It's uncharted territory."
b. She doesn't seem to know the layout of the campus, so chances are she didn't hang out there much.
c. Even if she did occasionally get there, if she's a student and living on campus, she'd be there much more and be much more aware and dangerous to campus after-life.

26. Xander says "nothing says thank you like dollars in the waistband." If he doesn't want to talk about his stripping experience, why does he keep mentioning it?

It's still exciting to him and fresh in his mind, and while he doesn't want to detail the story, he isn't good at keeping his thoughts out of his mouth.

33. And it ends with mysterious vampire-hunters who are not Buffy and company. Hmm.

I knwo this is a major thing in this season, but *yawn!*