Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Living Conditions Rewatch
July 29, 2015 10:14 PM - Season 4, Episode 2 - Subscribe
Buffy's convinced her irritating roommate Kathy is a demon. She's right.
I actually quite like this episode. Again it's hitting on a recognizable fact of life outside of home, the irritating room mate. My favourite thing about this episode is how awful a room mate Buffy is. As I mentioned in the previous thread, Buffy has clearly been an only child for such a long time that she would be an utter pain to live with: no wonder Willow will spend so much time at Tara's.
There isn't a great deal to talk about with this episode really. It's a tight, cute episode about one aspect of life that has very few long term ramifications. There are lots of fun bits: Oz and Buffy hanging out is great (I'd actually forgotten how great Oz was until a rewatch, he's just a lovely character all the way through), and I love how Willow manages to be quiet about her own terrible living conditions.
-We meet Parker, who is probably the most charming of the vanilla mortals we meet (Parker doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, but we'll get to that)
-"She irons her jeans, she's evil!"
-"On the plus side you killed the bench, which was looking shifty"
-Verruca is introduced (note, apparently Verruca always goes wolf at full moon. Um. How has this not been an issue until now. Also, the initiative....)
-Buffy left her gum on the table. Urgh.
-Willow starts wearing awesome outfits this season
-Giles remembers empathy this episode!
-"Not only does she take my sweater, now she's honing on on my dreams!"
-"Evil toenails!"
-Xander and Oz trying to hold Buffy captive are brilliant. I'd like to watch a show of Oz and Xander singularly failing to save the day, getting lost and pratfalling into the room, only to find that Buffy has already dealt with it.
-Parker chatting up Kathy is a bit of a sign here
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:12 AM on July 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
There isn't a great deal to talk about with this episode really. It's a tight, cute episode about one aspect of life that has very few long term ramifications. There are lots of fun bits: Oz and Buffy hanging out is great (I'd actually forgotten how great Oz was until a rewatch, he's just a lovely character all the way through), and I love how Willow manages to be quiet about her own terrible living conditions.
-We meet Parker, who is probably the most charming of the vanilla mortals we meet (Parker doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, but we'll get to that)
-"She irons her jeans, she's evil!"
-"On the plus side you killed the bench, which was looking shifty"
-Verruca is introduced (note, apparently Verruca always goes wolf at full moon. Um. How has this not been an issue until now. Also, the initiative....)
-Buffy left her gum on the table. Urgh.
-Willow starts wearing awesome outfits this season
-Giles remembers empathy this episode!
-"Not only does she take my sweater, now she's honing on on my dreams!"
-"Evil toenails!"
-Xander and Oz trying to hold Buffy captive are brilliant. I'd like to watch a show of Oz and Xander singularly failing to save the day, getting lost and pratfalling into the room, only to find that Buffy has already dealt with it.
-Parker chatting up Kathy is a bit of a sign here
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:12 AM on July 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I don't mind this one either. I think of the flossing pretty much once or twice a week while I'm flossing (which I do every night, in the bathroom - who flosses in bed? That's just weird). I'd forgotten the toenail clippings but also hilarious.
I think I must also have been a very bad roommate because I completely understand where Buffy's coming from. Not an only child, but I like my space. I've had various Australian friends ask me, really disbelieving, if it's true that you share a single room at US college, and I can confirm from personal experience that yes, yes you do and yes, it is hellacious. (The usual system here is to share a house or flat, but everyone has their own room even if it's just a shoebox. It makes the lust-ridden uni experience much more comfortable for all concerned.)
Oh, and those demons? Bloody creepy, with their scorpions and soul-sucking.
posted by Athanassiel at 5:10 AM on July 30, 2015
I think I must also have been a very bad roommate because I completely understand where Buffy's coming from. Not an only child, but I like my space. I've had various Australian friends ask me, really disbelieving, if it's true that you share a single room at US college, and I can confirm from personal experience that yes, yes you do and yes, it is hellacious. (The usual system here is to share a house or flat, but everyone has their own room even if it's just a shoebox. It makes the lust-ridden uni experience much more comfortable for all concerned.)
Oh, and those demons? Bloody creepy, with their scorpions and soul-sucking.
posted by Athanassiel at 5:10 AM on July 30, 2015
. I've had various Australian friends ask me, really disbelieving, if it's true that you share a single room at US college, and I can confirm from personal experience that yes, yes you do and yes, it is hellacious. (The usual system here is to share a house or flat, but everyone has their own room even if it's just a shoebox. It makes the lust-ridden uni experience much more comfortable for all concerned.)
Yeah I find that a super baffling US tradition. I wonder how it got started, was there some kind of puritanical thing going on behind it? It can't be a spacing issue: if the cramped UK can manage a room per student, so can the US! You're not wrong that living like that would be a complete strain for me, but Buffy does seem very bad at it. Seriously, gum on the table Buffy!
Incidentally one wonders how the Buffy who had a sister coped with this situation. Probably with something along the lines of "she's even worse than Dawn!"
posted by Cannon Fodder at 6:11 AM on July 30, 2015
Yeah I find that a super baffling US tradition. I wonder how it got started, was there some kind of puritanical thing going on behind it? It can't be a spacing issue: if the cramped UK can manage a room per student, so can the US! You're not wrong that living like that would be a complete strain for me, but Buffy does seem very bad at it. Seriously, gum on the table Buffy!
Incidentally one wonders how the Buffy who had a sister coped with this situation. Probably with something along the lines of "she's even worse than Dawn!"
posted by Cannon Fodder at 6:11 AM on July 30, 2015
As an only child myself, this is the horror I can really identify with! (I avoided having a roommate in college by writing on the housing form that I loved staying up until 5am and singing Broadway musicals - perhaps not simultaneously, but they didn't need to know that - and they put me in a single by myself.)
This is another instance of everyone doubting Buffy completely, but she's right. Of course, she does threaten to murder her roommate, so I guess I understand the doubt.
Buffy has clearly been an only child for such a long time that she would be an utter pain to live with
There are actually a lot of only children on this show. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Also, I wonder if Buffy gets retconned into a better roommate after Dawn appears :) (Talk about a nightmare - I definitely never wanted a sibling.)
The Sid the Wily Dairy Gnome part both makes me laugh and cringe at how incredibly passive-aggressive that scene is. Obviously they didn't have any control over housing assignments, as I really can't believe anyone thought it would be a good idea to stick someone vaguely trying to keep a secret identity with a roommate (unless they figured that, well, the high school already knows, so...) Buffy obviously has gnomes on the brain (gum gnome).
Giles is a mod jogger! (Deleted scene DVD extra request: Giles frolicking, as promised)
Stupid Parker and his stupid Parker face. (Yes, I'm feeling especially analytical this week).
The bench line is one of Oz's best.
This show really treats knocking people unconscious cavalierly. Slamming your friends' heads together so hard they black out is kind of weird comic relief, if you think about it too much.
Willow: Giles, I-I just talked to Buffy and, yeah, I think she's feeling a little... insane. No, n-not bitchy crazy, more like homicidal maniac crazy. So I told her to come to you. Kay?
posted by ilana at 8:01 AM on July 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
This is another instance of everyone doubting Buffy completely, but she's right. Of course, she does threaten to murder her roommate, so I guess I understand the doubt.
Buffy has clearly been an only child for such a long time that she would be an utter pain to live with
There are actually a lot of only children on this show. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Also, I wonder if Buffy gets retconned into a better roommate after Dawn appears :) (Talk about a nightmare - I definitely never wanted a sibling.)
The Sid the Wily Dairy Gnome part both makes me laugh and cringe at how incredibly passive-aggressive that scene is. Obviously they didn't have any control over housing assignments, as I really can't believe anyone thought it would be a good idea to stick someone vaguely trying to keep a secret identity with a roommate (unless they figured that, well, the high school already knows, so...) Buffy obviously has gnomes on the brain (gum gnome).
Giles is a mod jogger! (Deleted scene DVD extra request: Giles frolicking, as promised)
Stupid Parker and his stupid Parker face. (Yes, I'm feeling especially analytical this week).
The bench line is one of Oz's best.
This show really treats knocking people unconscious cavalierly. Slamming your friends' heads together so hard they black out is kind of weird comic relief, if you think about it too much.
Willow: Giles, I-I just talked to Buffy and, yeah, I think she's feeling a little... insane. No, n-not bitchy crazy, more like homicidal maniac crazy. So I told her to come to you. Kay?
posted by ilana at 8:01 AM on July 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
The fucking DVD menu for this episode gives away that Buffy was right all along. It's quite annoying.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:03 AM on July 30, 2015
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:03 AM on July 30, 2015
Also, I wonder if Buffy gets retconned into a better roommate after Dawn appears
Has anyone taken up the insane mission to "Dawnify" the series in some fashion or another? (e.g., editing transcripts) I can imagine having every scene in the Summers house over the first four seasons featuring Dawn walking into the room and Buffy immediately saying "Go away, Dawn, this is big-kid stuff" and Dawn flouncing out.
posted by Etrigan at 12:02 PM on July 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Has anyone taken up the insane mission to "Dawnify" the series in some fashion or another? (e.g., editing transcripts) I can imagine having every scene in the Summers house over the first four seasons featuring Dawn walking into the room and Buffy immediately saying "Go away, Dawn, this is big-kid stuff" and Dawn flouncing out.
posted by Etrigan at 12:02 PM on July 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah I find that a super baffling US tradition.
Try going to college in China. Six to a room no bigger than a standard US dorm room - two triple bunk beds.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:34 PM on July 30, 2015
Try going to college in China. Six to a room no bigger than a standard US dorm room - two triple bunk beds.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:34 PM on July 30, 2015
Oh god that sounds like the ninth circle of hell. The really really super bad one.
And yes Cannon Fodder, there's no excuse for leaving gum on the table. Gross.
posted by Athanassiel at 9:08 PM on July 30, 2015
And yes Cannon Fodder, there's no excuse for leaving gum on the table. Gross.
posted by Athanassiel at 9:08 PM on July 30, 2015
I think the college era suffered a bit because the experiences are less universal. Everybody goes through high school hell, but college roommates problems are for a relatively privileged few. (This is not to indulge in that "first world problems" shame-y stuff, just to point out that hating your chirpy weirdo dorm mate isn't as universally relatable as the horrors of high school.)
it's true that you share a single room at US college, and I can confirm from personal experience that yes, yes you do and yes, it is hellacious.
I've heard that Americans who stay with large families in India have a REALLY hard time getting used to the attitudes toward privacy and sleeping. Supposedly the idea that you would be quiet when people are asleep just isn't a thing. If you need to make noise you make noise, and sleepers be damned! (I have never been to India or experienced this myself. But as an only child and a chronic insomniac the description of this painted such a nightmarish picture I never forgot it!)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:45 PM on July 30, 2015
it's true that you share a single room at US college, and I can confirm from personal experience that yes, yes you do and yes, it is hellacious.
I've heard that Americans who stay with large families in India have a REALLY hard time getting used to the attitudes toward privacy and sleeping. Supposedly the idea that you would be quiet when people are asleep just isn't a thing. If you need to make noise you make noise, and sleepers be damned! (I have never been to India or experienced this myself. But as an only child and a chronic insomniac the description of this painted such a nightmarish picture I never forgot it!)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:45 PM on July 30, 2015
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posted by wabbittwax at 10:20 PM on July 29, 2015