Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Choices Rewatch

July 15, 2015 11:55 PM - Season 3, Episode 19

As post high school life looms, Buffy steps up her efforts to take down the Mayor. Faith gets a loses a pretty knife, Willow makes a questionable educational decision, and the Mayor wants his spider box.
posted by yellowbinder (9 comments total)

[Fanfare Talk re: Angel]
posted by yellowbinder at 12:08 AM on July 16, 2015

This episode is one of the standard "plotty" episodes that Buffy uses more and more from now on. Other than concluding episodes, it's actually a very good one. While the artifact in question appears pretty much just for this episode, it's quite nice to see the Scoobies actually taking action, executing a plan, and even having it work quite well, with the notable exception of Willow abduction.

This episode gets to be a nice showcase for Willow, who responds to her situation admirably, managing to crib a page from the books of ascension (why didn't the major just burn them? I guess he respects the craft too much) and reprimand Faith. I'm never sure quite what Faith is looking back at in the canteen scene: the knife, or everyone else. I think the fact that she's so attached to the knife indicates how desperate Faith is for affection: she treats it as a symbol of her bosses love, and hates it when it's gone. And of course, Willow makes a strong choice to fight evil, and makes clear to Buffy that while Buffy feels like she has no choice, she really does. It's just she knows what the right decision is. Buffy could leave, and in fact has, but for her slaying will always be her life, and that doesn't have to be a bad thing when she has good friends to support her. [Not sure why Oz needs to go to the same university of course, but at least they make the effort to explain why Willow and Buffy will both go to the same place]. Incidentally, I imagine Willow's mother's reaction to her decision must have been priceless.

This episode also marks the beginning of the end for Angel and Buffy. Honestly, while the conclusion Angel is coming to here is correct, he probably should have come to it much earlier. I guess it takes an immortal warlock/demon to really show you what's hiding in plain sight.

-Pencil based staking!
-50 billion spiders? If Father Christmas can't visit 6 billion houses in one night, I don't think the mayor can eat 50 billion spiders
-The subplot of Cordelia stuck working in the shop is a bit odd, in that it's so separate from the rest of the plot (other than Xander being unclassy again). Also, apparently she's got tons of offers but isn't very smart... Oh well.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 4:56 AM on July 16, 2015

Yeah, on the whole this one works nicely. Things move along, groundwork is laid for Angel's split, the Mayor gets some great quips in as usual, and Willow wears a pink fake velvet dress which instantly catapults me back to a certain time in my twenties where I longed to do that myself. Green though, not pink. And after she frees herself with a floating pencil (which, to be pedantic, would not have gotten through to his heart) she heads straight for the Mayor's office, finds his cabinet of curiosities and sits right down with the Books of Ascension. That's my girl!

Cannon Fodder, I don't think the Mayor necessarily has to eat all 50 billion at once. It's always good to have some leftovers. And yeah, I wondered too about Faith. I think she missed the knife more than the others though.
posted by Athanassiel at 6:24 AM on July 16, 2015

I know I've already said this, but the scene where Willow tells Buffy what school she's chosen to go to and why ("say, isn't that where you're going?"), and Buffy's reaction, is one of my favourites in the series (despite my disappointment that she didn't go to Oxford where they make Gileses, I did want her to continue to be on the show). This is a great episode for Willow, and it continues the progress she's made since and during Doppelgangland. I cheer every time she makes the "way too late" speech to Faith, and also when she produces the pages.

I'm not sure if immortality is worth 50 billion spiders.

A PlayStation AND a knife? The Mayor sure knows how to give presents.

I like that Buffy's version of being "proactive" is pep, and in the next scene Faith's version of "initiative" is killing a guy. Let's emphasize some differences!

The scene where they're all talking over Wesley shows what a well-oiled machine the group has become (although that obviously doesn't guarantee success, even with stick-figure diagrams). Oz wordlessly smashing the pot with the box-destroying stuff is both unexpected and very much in character.

Mayor: Guess you kind of just have strange taste in women.
Angel: Well, what can I say? I like them sane.
(Insert joke about Drusilla here)

I think this is when Snyder finally realizes how in over his head he is. Of course, I guess he won't have his head for much longer.

Anyway, it's a good name for the episode, with pretty much every major character discussing or having to think about a huge upcoming choice, and making them, for better or worse.
posted by ilana at 10:06 AM on July 16, 2015

I think Wes steps up here, in a major way, in the discussion after Willow is captured. I'm not sure that trading the Box for Willow was wrong, exactly, but I think someone had to raise the issue. Honestly, I think he did Giles a favor here, because it's the Watcher's duty to ask the hard questions, suggest the heartbreaking choices. If Wes hadn't done it, i suspect Giles probably would have, even though the prospect of Willow dying is very upsetting as we saw in Doppelgangland. Instead Giles gets to avoid that conversation until the end of Season 5 and Dawn.

Unfortunately, Wes's failings as a Watcher, and his spectacular talent for antagonizing everyone else, means that no one is really willing to entertain a discussion of finding another way to get Willow back. It's too bad, because the Mayor's Ascension was not bloodless (Larry was killed, Harmony was turned). It would have been great if they'd been able to prevent the Ascension and save Willow.
posted by creepygirl at 9:28 PM on July 16, 2015

I think Wes steps up here, in a major way, in the discussion after Willow is captured. I'm not sure that trading the Box for Willow was wrong, exactly, but I think someone had to raise the issue. Honestly, I think he did Giles a favor here, because it's the Watcher's duty to ask the hard questions, suggest the heartbreaking choices.

Oh absolutely, although making such a speech inevitably marks one out as a villain on a Whedon show. Giles will make exactly this argument come Season 5 regarding Dawn. But Whedon rejects this attitude, as he does in most of his work, notably Cabin in the Woods. It's a very old school, heroic outlook, that completely defies the logical calculus of utilitarianism. I'm a big fan of this kind of thinking, especially as a lot of shows have recently headed towards the moral realism that is more popular these days. The reason such thinking is dangerous is that it always presumes there's two options. Either kill Willow, or stop the ascension. But maybe the ascension could be stopped another way? Maybe Buffy can stop Glory's plans without sacrificing her sister?
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:04 AM on July 17, 2015

The reason such thinking is dangerous is that it always presumes there's two options. Either kill Willow, or stop the ascension. But maybe the ascension could be stopped another way?

Well, "another way" meant Larry and Principal Snyder were killed, and Harmony lost her human life (and maybe more people were killed, it's been a while since I saw Graduation Day.). I get that to Whedon and the Scoobies, Willow's life is worth a lot more than a recurring character's; the show made that abundantly clear. But I don't think Wes is villainous for thinking otherwise.

And why couldn't they at least think about "another way" to rescue Willow, and hold onto the box? Why must the creative thinking be restricted to what to do after they give up the box?
posted by creepygirl at 6:45 AM on July 17, 2015

I dunno, Cannon Fodder. It's essentially the decision Mal makes without much of a thought at the beginning of Serenity, tossing the screaming Dennis Reynolds from the cargo cruiser to be devoured by reavers. Of course, even there, Zoe has to mention that while she agrees with each specific point of his logic, it doesn't feel right, and Mal will spend the rest of that movie trying to get back to a point where he can feel morally upright.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:26 AM on October 16, 2015

That's a good point, I discount Firefly at my peril, which was more about being put in a position of having to make difficult choices. That said, I think if you follow both the show and the film, Mal isn't meant to be the hero. He's someone who was a hero, back in Serenity Ridge, but losing the war has made him give in to a more cynical philosophy. Basically it's a show about a man struggling with his better instincts, and Shepherd is there to tell him that he shouldn't be fighting his angels.

Mal was very specifically created as an anti hero, and his journey is very much one of learning to be that hero; similar to Han Solo, essentially. So in other words he's fallen from Buffy to Giles, but needs to build himself back up to that level of heroism.

I think it's interesting talking about how much shows reflect their runner's personalities. Clearly a Whedon show has his sensibilities, but he's not the only writer. He won't be directly involved in Buffy or Angel for seasons of both, so you can wonder if their espousing his philosophy, of the philosophies of Tim Minear and Marti Noxon instead.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 1:32 AM on October 16, 2015 [1 favorite]