Buffy 3x13 - The Zeppo

[fajrdrako]

Remember how I don't like Xander much? Well, this is a Xander episode, and I liked it, and I liked Xander in it, and I'm rather glad I did. I'd prefer to like him, I really would.

It all starts out with a fight against demons, and I liked this better than many of the demon fights. Maybe because it started with Willow and a spell. Maybe because it was nicely atmospheric.

1. Good lines:

   Buffy: Willow, you okay?
   Willow: Yeah, I'm fine. Th-the shaking is, is a side effect of the fear.

   Gotta love that girl. I can relate to her. And it occurs to me that one of the reasons I do like her, and one of the reasons I don't like Xander, is that they both have this sort of everyman character, they express fears and frustrations on a very human scale. Buffy doesn't get to quake at the monsters in the dark - they do. I can like and identify with that in Willow, but withZander - I want him to grow up. Perhaps because he's less witty. Perhaps because he's too masculine for me to identify and relate.
   
   
2. I've heard a lot about Buffyisms and the idioms that the show created. I take it that Faith's dialogue, which is sometimes ...idiosyncratic... is another example of this? Or do people in southern California talk like her?
   
   
3. Giles says "Most of my sources have dried up since the Council has relieved me of my duties. I was aware there was a nest here, but quite frankly, I expected it to be vampires. These, these are new." I like that on several counts: I like the sense of Giles as an independent agent, cut off from both the need to obey authority but also from the resources that authority could offer. I like it that he is discovering new things, even if they are new horrors.
   
   
4. Why does Xander say he is 'tip top'. Isn't that a British expression? Or is he saying it for Giles' sake?
   
   
5. Wonderful line from Buffy to Xander: "Maybe you shouldn't be leaping into the fray like that. M-maybe you should be...fray-adjacent." Which by a train of thought makes me think of JossWhedon's graphic novel, Fray. Hmm. Perhaps he just likes the word.
   
   
6. Oooh, Faith in snarky mode: "That was real manly how you shrieked and all." Heh. I like Faith in snarky mode.
   
   
7. Wonderful, wonderful Willow line: "Occasionally, I'm callous and strange."
   
   
8. Xander makes a DC comics joke. Sometimes I really wish this was a character I could love. Why doesn't Spike make DC comics jokes? I know, I know, he was born too early. And Mal Reynolds was born too late. Hmmph.
   
   
9. Xander has a ball-induced confrontation with Jack O'Toole, resident psychotic. Jack is quite... attractive. But not nice. Xander should learn not to make jokes when he's nervous. Let me rephrase that. Xander should learn to to make jokes when he is scared brainless.
   
   
10. Good Cordelia line:

    Xander: Why is it that I've come face-to-face with vampires, demons, the most hideous creatures Hell ever spit out, and I'm still afraid of a little bully like Jack O'Toole?
    Cordelia: Because, unlike all those creatures that you've come face-to-face with, Jack actually noticed you were there.

    This might look on the face of it like yet another Cordelia snark, but it's really rather insightful. Now, maybe Xander is trying to make light of his own fear, but he is surely not stupid enough to think Jack O'Toole is harmless.
    
    
11. I keep looking for special significance in Jack O'Toole's name.
    
    
12. So poor Xander feels the need to prove he's not the Zeppo of the group, not realizing that if you feel the need to prove it, you are the Zeppo of the group.
    
    
13. Oz is usually wonderful but he rises about himself with the cool factor here in trying to explain (or trying not to explain) to Xander what it is that makes him cool. Best bit:

    Xander: I know! You're in a band! That's like a business-class ticket to cool with complementarymojo after takeoff! I gotta learn an instrument. Is it hard to play guitar?
    Oz: Not the way I play it.

    
    
14. Sounds to me as if Giles' research, not for the first time, yields results that sound suspiciously like reading demons' minds. But that's okay. That's good. I like a resourceful Giles. I just wish I was as successful when I tried to research things.
    
    
15. Lovely bit of Venus-and-Mars-communication-gap talk:

    Xander: What do you mean, what is it? It's my*thing*.
    Willow: Your thing?
    Xander: My thing!
    Buffy: Is this a penis metaphor?

    Well, yes, Buffy, actually, it is...
    
    
16. Then Lysette bores Xander, proving (a) beware what you wish for and (b) not all women are interesting.
    
    
17. At least we get to see Angel briefly. On the whole, Xander instead of Angel is a bad trade.
    
    
18. Why was Giles trying to phone the Council? To ask them something, or to warn them? Maybe he should have tried phoning Ethan. Instead he tries the Spirit Guides. Well, why not? Someone should take his calls.
    
    
19. Jack calls his knife 'Katie'. Is this like Jayne calling his gun 'Vera'? Why does Whedon like giving girl's names to weapons? Is this a secret tradition I don't know about? I thought weapons had names like "Excalibur" and "Sting" and "Durandal".
    
    
20. Then Xander wins Jack's approval by not turning him in to the cop. Maybe if I was in Sunnydale, I'd want to lie to the cops too.
    
    
21. So Jack's buddies turn out to be zombies. Probably means Jack is one, too. So why does he go to school? I thought the undead didn't have to. I wouldn't go to school if I didn't have to.
    
    
22. I liked this dialogue:

    Bob: How long I been down?
    Jack: Eight months. I had to wait till the stars aligned.

    Have there been other references in Buffy to astrology? I know timing is often important....Hmm.
    
    
23. And I particularly loved:

    Bob: Whoa! Walker, Texas Ranger. You been taping 'em?
    Jack: Every ep.

    Now, that's friendship. Because I know if someone raised me from the dead and hadn't been recording Torchwood for me, I'd be mightily disappointed.
    
    
24. I also love the coda:

    Bob: All right. We're gonna get the guys together, and we're gonna PARTY, man! It's gonna be a nightto remember!
    Xander: I'm sensing that.

    
    
25. Giles showed very little interest in the zombies - I suppose because Xander was so calm. And didn't tell him.
    
    
26. Willy! I love Willy.
    
    
27. So they rob a store, Willow hugs Xander, and things just get more and more surreal. Xander seems to be growing up visibly. Not that he knows what to do, but he's ... thinking. But before he can come to any conclusions, they're going to initiate him into their zombie club by killing him. Wasn't this inevitable all along?
    
    
28. But Xander can run, and Xander has wheels. Xander rescues Faith. Things start looking good for Xander.
    
    
29. Seems that violence is highly sexualized for Faith. Things look even better for Xander.
    
    
30. Funny line:

    Faith: Just relax... And take your pants off.
    Xander: Those two concepts are antithetical.

    He has a point.
    
    
31. But Faith doesn't go for a lot of conversation afterwards.
    
    
32. Meanwhile Buffy and Angel reach an impasse in fighting over which has the right to be more protective of the other.
    
    
33. Xander has to save the day single-handed. And he does. Nice to see for a change. You understand, this doesn't suddenly turn me into a Xander fan. Hardly. But... it's good to see, and I wish he'd rise above himself more often.
    
    
34. Xander does talk to himself too much.
    
    
35. But I like the way out-talks and outmanoeuvres Jack. He makes a good distinction: "Being blowed up isn't walking around and drinking with your buddies dead. It's little bits being swept up by a janitor dead."
    
    
36. ...And Oz gets Jack. Woo. Oz is cool.
    
    
37. I really hate the tentacled demons. I don't mean 'hate' as in 'fear and horror' I mean 'hate' as in 'not again, this is just so silly'. Tentacled things are better for lunch than for causing creepiness.
    
    
38. I love it that Buffy calls Giles 'brave'.
    
    
39. I like it at the end Xander doesn't feel the need to spar with Cordelia. I wish I could think that the improvements in him will be permanent, but I fear he'll be back to his old self-conscious self next episode.
    

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Self-consciousness isn't something you really recover from. There are certain other diseases I could compare it to, in order to detail its chronic and semi-controllable nature, but then I'd sound like your opinion of Xander.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Self-consciousness isn't something you really recover from.

My point is not that Xander is a living being with a certain personality; he is a fictional creation whose personality is a reflection of whatever Joss Whedon wants him to be.

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

I do think this is an especially good moment for Xander - he goes out on his own and actually succeeds, and ends up being pretty mature about it - but it's also an episode that's more from his point of view. Usually we're getting Buffy's POV, or Giles's POV maybe, and Buffy cares about Xander but she doesn't respect him that much. And so whether it's a personal weakness or the perspective of the writing (I'm inclined to think both) he lives up to that most of the time.

2. Faith is supposed to be from Boston, though I can't remember if my Boston friends were very impressed with her accent. It was California people writing her lines. :)

4. I think maybe Xander has picked up some expressions from Giles, or he's just trying to be cute, the way teenagers in Joss Whedon's world speak.

19. John Crichton's in Farscape called his gun Winona. Maybe it's a modern thing?

23. That was one of the most memorable lines of the episode for me. Because that would have been one of my priorities too! ...I thought as I watched Buffy reruns and labeled my stacks of VHS tapes. *g*

"Sometimes I am callous and strange" is one of the Buffy quotes I have used most often, I think. :)

[flautopiccolo.livejournal.com]

'Faith is supposed to be from Boston, though I can't remember if my Boston friends were very impressed with her accent.'

Eliza Dushku is from Boston (Watertown actually) and her Boston accent is just fine. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it!

[babydraco.livejournal.com]

Faith is supposed to be from Boston, though I can't remember if my Boston friends were very impressed with her accent

Faith is supposed to be from South Boston *shrug* A lot of people I've talked to have been surprised to hear that because they don't think she sounds it. I mean, they hear the NE accent but they don't hear *South Boston*. ED's been gone for too long and one of the first things they try to make you do when you get into acting is "lose the regional accent or you'll be typecast". So, IMO, she sounds more like, I dunno, someone like me.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Faith's accent sounds a little strange to me but I thought it was just some type of Californian. Shows what I know!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I really like the way this show uses point of view, and this is a good example of it. Especially the way the Buffy-plot was handled. And that's a good point about Buffy liking Xander but not respecting him - as he realizes, she takes him for granted. He doesn't mind because it's what he expects and what he's used to - he doesn't respect himself, either, so it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I think that, just as Sunnydale has its Hellmouth and its Demon Mayor and its multiple cemeteries, it has developed a sort of English dialect all its own. People who go there (except Giles, Angel and Spike) are usually infected with it at once. Maybe it only hits those under 30. Which is kind of cool.

Were the writers of Farscape Joss Whedon fans? Sounds likely to me.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

The thing I loved best was the way the "A" plot, with Buffy's Team presiding, is utterly down-played and marginalized. You get little glimpses of high drama or exciting action-hero-ness, but it's always in passing.

I remember Xander would sometimes throw cliched British phrases at Giles, I suspect tip-top was meant to mock.

I think the tentacled demons from below was meant to be funny rather than be taken seriously. If I remember correctly, didn't it kinda look like the tentacled demon from the Our Love's In Jeopardy music video? Which is to say, not very convincing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAUMUSxAnW4

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like the way Buffy's part of the story was treated, too. Big deal, end of the world again, let's all look at Xander's pesonal problems - ! But, you know, I was really, really glad to see him get laid. Even if it was just Faith, who kicked him out afterwards. At least she didn't try to kill him.

Re the tentacled monster: LOL. Good catch.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

19. If one can take truth from movies, the drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket" required all the recruits to give their weapons a woman's name. I believe the Vincent D'Onofrio character called his Charlene.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So perhaps naming weapons with female names is a recent feature of American movies and TV shows?

Thank goodness Jack hasn't named his Webley! (At least, so far as I know... and if he did, what would he call it?)

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Full Metal Jacket was based on Gustav Hasford's 1979 novel "The Short Timers," which in turn was set in 1968. It won a screenplay Oscar in 1988. Hasford wrote the book after his experiences as a soldier in Viet Nam, so I suspect trainees at that time actually were told to name their weapons. 40 years isn't especially recent. I don't know if soldiers in the Korean war or earlier were told the same thing.
Joss Whedon would have been in his early 20s when the film was released - maybe it made a bit impression on him.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That could be. Interesting.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

In Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky, in which young people go on a final-exam trip to an unexplored alien planet and have to survive to reach the retrieval point, our hero had named his favorite knife Colonel Bowie, and his older sister, a professional soldier, had named hers Lady MacBeth. I thought Heinlein was just being... uh, silly. I don't know anyone who has named their favorite firearms or knives (and I know plenty of people who own and enjoy them), but I do know people who have named their vehicles.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Naming vehicles sounds more or less normal to me.... I know lots of people who've named their cars, and there's the precedent of naming horses and ships. And spacecraft.

Naming weapons is a little different. Seems a little more like anthropomorphizing to me. For instance, I know no one who names their kitchen knives.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Yay, more Buffy!

I'm now trying to remember if I had any thoughts when I watched this episode three months ago...

I take it that Faith's dialogue, which is sometimes ...idiosyncratic... is another example of this?

I honestly don't know about Faith's dialogue. I have a feeling it was also a writer thing rather than them using actual Boston slang but I don't know if that is true. Five by five seems to be a phrase they gave her, certainly.

Wonderful, wonderful Willow line: "Occasionally, I'm callous and strange."

It is a particularly good line.

maybe Xander is trying to make light of his own fear, but he is surely not stupid enough to think Jack O'Toole is harmless

I don't think that Xander thinks O'Toole is harmless, but he does kind of have a point - he faced down Angelus last season, he's got physical with supernaturally strong creatures, so why can't he stand up to a human bully? I'm guessing habit.

poor Xander feels the need to prove he's not the Zeppo of the group, not realizing that if you feel the need to prove it, you are the Zeppo of the group

Yeah. My only issue with the episode is Xander's quest is kind of pathetic. But I suppose that is the point because he is less pathetic and more centred by the end.

I really like Oz's line in response to "What do I have?":
An exciting new obsession - which I feel makes you very special

I also really like Willow talking about her nightmares about the Hellmouth demon:
Every nightmare I have that doesn't revolve around academic failure or public nudity is about that thing. In fact, one time I dreamed that it attacked me while I was late for a test and naked.

That's the kind of nightmares I have.

What I do like about this episode is that a good percentage of it is from Xander's POV rather than Buffy's. So we get these very serious doom and gloom conversations that don't include him and then later on we see little snippets that suddenly seem very OTT because Xander is waiting for an opening that never comes and trying to deal with a problem that we do see.

And the different perspective is amusing. Especially the Buffy/Angel moment that he interrupts - it just seems so melodramatic without the context.

Xander has to save the day single-handed

I like that he gets carried away and accidentally beheads one of the zombies. And I like the different ways the rest get taken out - soda machine, eaten by demons, eaten by Oz.

I like it at the end Xander doesn't feel the need to spar with Cordelia

Yeah, don't expect that to last... he may stay a little less self-conscious though.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yay, more Buffy!

Hopefully I'll keep up better for a while.

why can't he stand up to a human bully? I'm guessing habit.

Jack O'Toole does turn out not to be a human bully - perhaps Xander subconsciously realizes this. And it isn't as if he wasn't terrified when fighting vampires and demons, as well. He does it then because he wants to be part of Buffy's team. With an ordinary human, he's on his own - and feels outclassed by anyone with a strong personality.

My only issue with the episode is Xander's quest is kind of pathetic. But I suppose that is the point because he is less pathetic and more centred by the end.

That's the way I take it. Xander is only weak when/because he thinks he's weak.

one time I dreamed that it attacked me while I was late for a test and naked.

Beautiful!

I too loved the use of Xander's point of view. I think that's what made this episode a success - instead of seeing Xander through the eyes of others, we were seeing him (and his life) as he sees it.

Especially the Buffy/Angel moment that he interrupts - it just seems so melodramatic without the context.

Buffy and Angel are nothing if not melodramatic. But that's why I love them so.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

I keep looking for special significance in Jack O'Toole's name
You mean apart from the fact it sounds like an instruction/porn star name??

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, aside from that. And the fact that it reminds me of Groucho Marx. Besides, aren't people named 'Jack' supposed to be good guys?

[gillo]

Yay, another Buffy episode!

The Zeppo always feels like mid-season to me - a stand-alone episode rather than a build-up to the big season finale. It's good, though, and does show Xander growing up a lot.

Have you finished the entire show yet, really?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

another Buffy episode!

I hope to follow that up with another one a.s.a.p.

The Zeppo always feels like mid-season to me

Is is mid-season, isn't it? About as mid as it could be.

It's good, though, and does show Xander growing up a lot.

It's not any kind of a favourite, any more than it changes Xander from being my less-than-favourite character. But it was fun: a nice stand-along story with an interesting plot, and in it, Xander does change - in a couple of ways. If nothing else, he'll have to stop whimpering because he's the eternal virgin. All to the good.

No, I haven't seen anything past "Doomed" yet. (Not counting the bits and pieces I saw ten years ago and am trying not to remember.)

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I never managed to not be bothered by Xander, not in seven seasons. Moments here and there. Mostly, I wished he didn't exist. I think I might be a closet sexist. Did I dislike him because he was written as such a garden-variety guy? If so, I'm pretty shallow, eh?

If you were ever in eight months of limbo waiting to be raised from the dead, you betcha I'd be taping your favorite shows for you [g].

Faith's way of talking... she's basically the beatnik of the group. A total nihilist. I say that thoughtfully, not negatively, being sympathetic to the beatnik/fatalist/nihilist mindset. She looks like a Goth chick, but as far as I know the Goths don't act or talk as Faith did.

Jack O'Toole -- the name seemed to be just generic. "Jack," of course, being shorthand for "some guy" and the surname being vaguely Irish, those well-known outsiders and rebels, eh?

Back to Faith... yeah, she sexualizes violence. Seen any of the Buffy/Faith slashfic? But, here, I think she basically raped our guy Xander; that scene bothers me deeply. I think she had one mindset, while he had another (being inexperienced), and she seems not to have noticed, or possibly not to have cared. Bothered me. I like Faith too much for me to let that insensitivity slide!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

At my least tolerant, I find Xander sexist, stupid, self-absorbed, intrusive, stupid and immoral, in varying degrees. (Immoral in the sense that he'll lie to make himself look good or get himself out of trouble, or even just to look like less of a doofus. I don't think that's okay.) Yet I think we're supposed to like him rather than not, and since I don't want to be so annoyed by him I'm turned off the whole show, I try to turn a blind eye. He's there, I can live with it, but it's a relief when he isn't presenting me with problems.

Did I dislike him because he was written as such a garden-variety guy? If so, I'm pretty shallow, eh?

Are you saying you think all men are sexist, self-absorbed, etc. etc.? Surely not. I know Joss Whedon has been quoted as saying he identifies with Xander - that he modelled Xander on his young self - and this is probably true, yet obviously Joss is nicer, smarter, and has better values. So he's taking the worst traits of his teen self and exaggerating them subjectively for entertainment value - mostly comedy. Knowing this doesn't make Xander any more palatable, but maybe puts him in perspective. He's a sort of self-excoriating game played by the author. Especially when Xander manages to overcome his own deficiencies or still keep friends or do something brave it's a bit of a triumph.

Seen any of the Buffy/Faith slashfic?

No. Should I look for it? I've read very, very little Buffy fic of any type so far. A couple of Giles/other stories, mostly. There was a wonderful short piece by sparklebutch that had Xander fantasizing about Giles.

here, I think she basically raped our guy Xander; that scene bothers me deeply.

I would agree if I'd seen any sign of resistance on his part, but I think he was eager. Which is not to say I don't think she treated him badly: she used him like a living dildo, not a human being. Not nice. But not rape either. Just kind of mean and callous.

Why do you like Faith? I don't see anything there to like. She's a sort of bratty bitch who doesn't really like anyone and doesn't mind hurting (or killing) people when it's convenient. But I take it that she gets more humanized in later seasons, since a lot of fans seem to like her.

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

O'Toole is a real Irish surname. Leading to nicknames like "you tool" (an insult for us, don't know if it is for you).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I know the name; it just seemed to me that in context it ought to have implications that I wasn't picking up. I don't think it was meant to be insulting... was it?

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

Sorry, didn't mean to imply it was insulting. Because walkingowl said it was "vaguely" Irish, I was just pointing out that it was really Irish. Then I went off on a tangent, remembering an O'Toole that I went out with.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there are all sorts of references in Buffy that I'm just not getting - lacking the right cultural background, being the wrong age, living in the wrong (er, I mean different) country. Which is one reason I ask questions about so much of the dialogue all the time.

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

It's great. I love reading your write ups and the comments.

I also forgot to say in my previous comment that I hadn't noticed any implications in the name. But I generally reply on other people to point out those kind of things though :-)


BTW, is "you tool" insulting in north America?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love reading your write ups and the comments.

Big grin. I hope to do another very soon, like, maybe tonight. If I can find the time.

is "you tool" insulting in north America?

I've no idea... I suspect it just isn't used very much. I've only come across it in books and TV shows - no, wait, I have heard people say it, but it's people who might use British expressions anyway.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I re-watched this. I barely remembered it from the first time. I was impressed, this time, by how the yikes-save-the-world plot was totally in the background; it was almost treated as "gee, here we go again" and it all came across really ... wonky! Strange, but quite interestingly so. I did hate how Xander got nothing but negativity, even in his success; that just bothers me. I also did not like how Faith was excluded from the final gather-our-wits chat at the picnic table, at the very end -- even though Oz was included, despite his having been largely unconscious during their entire event? Just didn't like that. I know that Faith has been set up to the the anti-Buffy, the dark to her light, but this was taking it too far. It reminds me of how John (aka Pyro) is automatically excluded, while Bobby and Rogue are given center stage, in the second X-Men movie. No wonder the kid went with Magneto -- was he getting any kind of support from the supposed good guys? hell, no.

But I don't like how Faith gets subtly excluded, like this. The Christmas episode was a delightful exception to that. Um, Xander is excluded in a Faith-ish way, here, isn't he? Hm. Maybe their parallel energy drew them together for the, um, climactic scene (which I now edit myself from calling a rape of Xander; he was hesitant, but she didn't physically force him, and we know she could have, so... never mind).

I enjoy reading your comments, now that I've just seen the episode again. Very apt! And fun.

Then, last night, I watched "Serenity" and "The Train Job" -- the latter, for the first time all the way through (there are several Firefly episodes that I still have not seen, fyi -- I am saving them) and found myself loving Joss Whedon's creativity all the more. Such a wonderful show. Such characters, such stories. There has to be some universe where it didn't get cancelled because the universe at large went "meh"! Sigh.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was impressed, this time, by how the yikes-save-the-world plot was totally in the background; it was almost treated as "gee, here we go again" and it all came across really ... wonky!

Yeah. That was fun, though odd. And I did think it was strange how little attention Xander paid to the impending world destruction. But as you say, strange in an interesting way. My problem with Xander all along has been that he seems to be usually thinking about himself; it was no less true here.

I did hate how Xander got nothing but negativity

It's because he usually gives nothing but negativity. You get what you give.

As for Faith being excluded - doesn't she usually exclude herself? I don't remember that scene now, though. I did have the impression that Faith didn't like Buffy's friends.

No, Faith didn't force Xander. He was not in any way reluctant to have sex with her. But she wasn't very nice about it. I wasn't sure of the subtext there - I had a sense that Xander might have been more reluctant if she'd allowed some compassion, affection, or kindness to show. This way, because she wasn't treating him with kindness and respect, he didn't have to show kindness and respect to her, either. And that's always a problem for him.

I agree with your Firefly comments. That show is such fun.