Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Some Assembly Required (2x02)

[fajrdrako]

Beulah came over this evening and we watched "Some Assembly Required" and "School Hard".

I confess to a certain desire to skip over "Some Assembly Required" and talk about "School Hard", but I will... show a little self-control here. Dignity. Carrying on with the planned and organized procedure. Chronologically. Ignoring the fact that I am now TOTALLY BESOTTED WITH SPIKE.

Ahem. Right. Back to "Some Assembly Required", now that I've skipped to the Grand Reveal about the next episode. (But none of you expected otherwise, right?)

Putting Spike right out of my mind... for a moment...

"Some Assembly Required" - I like the title very much.

1. Once again, Angel and Buffy meet in a graveyard. This scene struck me as ... somewhat artificial. The "are you jealous" thing is sort of fun on the one hand, and sort of specious on the other. What kind of relationship do Angel and Buffy think they have? What do they expect? The obviously aren't going to kill each other, but they can hardly settle down to suburban domesticity together. Do they consider themselves friends? Lovers? What? Is he meeting her because he wants to help her fight vampires, or because he just wants to see her, or both? I'd like to think it was both.



2. This whole scene elucidates the above, somewhat: Angel wishes he could spend time with Buffy, and share her daylight hours. This... seemed psychologically true. I think Angel really doesn't know what to do, or how to handle this. One assumes that this falling in love with a living person thing doesn't happen to him every century.



3. Buffy: "Are you crazy? You don't just sneak up on people in a graveyard. You make noise when you walk. You stomp or... yodel." This made me rather desperately want to hear Angel yodel. He didn't. Spoilsport.



4. Good passage:

   Angel: When you first wake up it's a little disorienting. He'll show.
   Buffy: It's weird to think of you going through that.
   Angel: It's weird to go through.

5. Angel:Buffy: Well, I didn't come here to fight. [Stephan attacks.] Oh, right, I did.
   
   That was funny.



6. Buffy: What do you mean he's just a kid? Does that mean I'm just a kid, too?
   
   Well, yes. She already knows their age difference. She's just waaay too busy trying to pick a fight.



7. Giles asks the chair for a date: that's like Xander 'practising' with Willow. That's... silly. Giles is not at his best in this episode.



8. Buffy: Yeah. You just say, 'Hey, I got a thing, you maybe have a thing, maybe we could have a thing.'
   Giles: Oh, thank you, Cyrano.
   
   I loved that part. And really, given her recent conversation with Angel, Buffy is no one to be telling Giles or anyone else how to handle their relationships!
   
   
9. "Dollsome". Great word.



10. Xander and Buffy are treating Giles as if he's another teen - their contemporary, and not a teacher or an adult. He doesn't seem to mind. Funny interpersonal dynamics going on here that I don't entirely understand. In a way, I like Giles' informality. In a way, I don't know what he is or wants to be in relation to the others.



11. Chris: sort of creepy. Eric: sort of annoying.



12. I liked Chris's speech, though: "You know what the key is? If Dr. Clark doesn't understand your experiment he gives you higher marks so it looks like he understands your experiment. 'The Effects of Sub-Violet Light Spectrum Deprivation on the Development of Fruit Flies'? That should do the trick." That's just the kind of strategy I used to use in high school. It must have worked. I passed.



13. Buffy: "Sorry to interrupt, Willow, but it's the Bat Signal." I love lines like that.
    
    
14. Good line:

    Eric: Cordelia's so fine. Y'know, she'd be just perfect for us.
    Chris: Don't be an idiot. She's alive.

    Cue ominous music. So: who's stealing corpses, then? Bad boys.



15. Willow: "I'm probably the only girl in school who has the coroner's office bookmarked as a favorite place." That's my girl. Gotta love Willow. I also love the look on her face when Xander says, "People want the dream. What they can't have."



16. I liked this bit of dialogue, too:

    Cordelia: Hello! Can we deal with my pain, please?
    Giles: There, there.

    And he pats her shoulder. That is probably Giles' best moment of the episode. I like the way Giles handles Cordelia.



17. Good Xander line: "BYO shovel?"



18. Another good one:

    Cordelia: Darn, I have cheerleader practice tonight. Boy, I wish I knew we were gonna be digging up dead people sooner. I would've canceled.
    Xander: Alright, but if you come across the army of zombies, can you page us before they eat your flesh? [She leaves]
    Giles: Xander?
    Xander: Huh?
    Giles: Zombies don't eat the flesh of the living.
    Xander: Yeah, I knew that. But did you see the look on her face?

    
    Xander is perfecting the art of Cordelia-baiting. It's too easy, but I guess he has to start somewhere.
    
    Was Giles telling the truth? Do Zombies really not eat the living?



19. Buffy: "Sorry, but I'm an old-fashioned gal. I was raised to believe that men dig up the corpses and the women have the babies." Buffy, Buffy, Buffy. You disappoint me, girl. Pick up a shovel.



20. Giles' reluctance to open the coffin is another making-him-one-of-the-teens moments. He's never been this dorky before. Has his crush on Jenny Calendar really discombobulated him to the point of regression?



21. Good moment where Cordelia grabs the severed hand.



22. Cordelia: "Angel saved me from an arm." Heh.



23. Another good Xander moment:

    Cordelia: Why are these terrible things always happening to me?
    Xander: Karma!

    
    
    
24. Funny bit:

    Angel: Well, what I saw didn't add up to three whole girls. I think they kept some parts.
    Buffy: Could this get yuckier?
    Willow: They probably kept the other parts to eat.
    Buffy: Question answered.

    All the funnier because Buffy is the one being uncharacteristically squeamish and Willow isn't.



25. Another good bit:

    Giles: You understand, in my capacity as school official, this search is completely unauthorized, and I cannot condone it.
    Buffy: Fine, your butt's covered. Wanna grab a locker?

    
    
    
26. Xander: "Do I deconstruct your segues?" Y'know, he's getting too good. At this rate I won't be able to complain about any of his lines any more. How long has it been since he made a really lame pun? How long has it been since he was annoying? Nice change.



27. Giles tries to ask Jenny Calendar out. Giles acts like Xander. I don't really understand this. Boy stuff? I really don't much like Giles in this episode; he's too goofy.



28. I liked this:

    Buffy: God! What if it worked? What, what if that poor girl is walking around?
    Xander: Poor girls, technically.

    
    
    
29. So it turns out this is the Frankenstein episode: they've reanimated brother Daryl and he wants his Bride and it's going to be Cordelia.



30. Sometimes Willow seems to know just a little too much about this 'how to reanimate the dead and put them together again' business. I know she's supposed to be expository-research-girl, but it sounds as if she's been practising. Maybe she's just a Mary Shelley fan? And why does she say, "Don't be too hard on Chris. I mean, he's not a vampire." Does she think what he's doing is okay? Does she not realize he's going after Cordelia?



31. Chris's mother reminds me of The Smoking Man from "X-Files". She's good. Creepy in a convincing sort of way.



32. Interesting dialogue where Giles says what he thinks of American football and Jenny Calendar chides him for dissing her country's sports and he tries to get Willow and Xander to go away. (Interesting that they don't.) He's a step better in this scene but still not the Giles I want and love.



33. I wasn't sure I understood the logistics of the 'old lab' being an 'abandoned building' but that's okay. (I pictured abandoned science labs dotting the California countryside.)



34. Great line from Eric to Cordelia: "Don't worry. When you wake up, you'll have the body of a seventeen-year-old. In fact, you'll have the body of several." The fight was boring except for the first moment where Eric threw the knife at Buffy and she stopped it. That was cool.



35. I liked this bit:

    Jenny: It's okay. Although a good rule of thumb for a first date is don't do anything so exciting that it'll be hard to top on the second date.
    Giles: Believe it or not, since I've moved here to live on top of the Hellmouth, the events of this evening actually qualify as a slow night.

36. 
    
37. So Cordelia tries to thank Xander for saving her and he brushes her off rather rudely. I wasn't sure what was going on her; Xander isn't usually so gauche. Does he really dislike her so much? Why? Or is it supposed to be funny? If so, I don't quite get it.



38. Buffy: "He did do it all for his brother." Does that make it better? Doesn't that just make it even creepier?



39. Angel: "He gets to see you in the sunlight." That's really quite moving.

Altogether: this wasn't a great episode, but not a bad one either. Better in is details than its rather predictable and unimpressive situation and plot. I found Eric a much more interesting villain than Chris or Daryl. What happened to Eric, after he escaped the fire?

Best thing about the episode: Angel.
Worst thing about the episode: Giles.

Hmm. I guess I've become much more Angel-positive than I started out, haven't I?

Comments

Re: Some Assembly Required

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

*snorts* He inspires that in people.

I just can't help myself.