Buffy may have missed out on being Homecoming queen years ago, but that pales in comparison to the welcome homecoming of the new season. With as much lack of subtlety as we saw the miseries of adulthood hammered home upon our heroes (so much so that they forgot to *be* heroes most of the time), so too was there no subtlety in letting the fans known that all is well (i.e., evil) in Sunnydale once again. Except in the latter case it could not have been more welcome.
The instant I heard there was a new principal, I thought, “Bet he’s black.” There hasn’t been an ongoing black character since Mr. Trick, and he was only in the first half of season 3. But that was the only truly predictable aspect of the episode. Spike’s return couldn’t have been more perfectly timed, all manner of plot threads were put into place, and I feel truly sorry for anyone who is a newcomer because they couldn’t begin to appreciate the cameo heaven of the last two minutes. Even the charming comic book injoke of Willow’s witch teacher being “Miss Harkness” (an impossible-to-ignore reference to Marvel’s witch in residence, Agatha Harkness) showed that Whedon’s sensibilities were firmly back in place.
Welcome home, Buffy and Co. We missed you last year. Glad you’re back.
PAD
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Hey Pad,
Just saw a few excerpts from this episode, and what I saw was really fun(just because I live in the other hemisphere – Brazil, if you ask – of the planet and we’ll have to wait till 2003 to have it officially broacasted here).
I am a big fan of last season, but hey, is great to have those funny parts back….
Simply put this episode rocked. Loved the Marvel in joke. Do have some thoughts about the cameo’s though, at first I didn’t know what was going on, by the end I figured it was all in Spike’s head, then it occured to me that it couldn’t be in Spike’s head because there was at least one character present who Spike never personally met, The Master. Then there was Spike’s earlier comment that the Zombie never come into his room and “the 3 of them were safe there”. Not sure what’s going on there but I really want to find out.
I was very shocked to see Spike, though I knew he’d be back, of course–it does make a sort of sense for him to reappear at the school, though.
What was most surprising was the last scene. Warren, Glory, Adam, Drusilla, the Master–all making appearances–before the very final shot. Looks like one interesting season ahead.
As for ongoing Black characters, what about Forrest in season 4. He lasted almost the entire season. Of course the new guy is both Black AND the the Principal of Sunnydale High, so I don’t think he should be making any long term plans 🙂
Also it looks like those two new kids are going to be Dawn’s Willow and Xander, or as my friend put it — The Scrappy Gang.
Yep, the Scrappies seems to be the meme for what to call Dawn’s group.
On a mailing list, Matt Duhan came up with a truly frightening bit after someone suggested a “Buffy&Friends” group to watch Buffy and Angel, Smallville, et al. Namely, what if Monica fights vampires with the help of Witch
Rachel, Ross the Bloody, Chandler, Former demon Phoebe, and watcher Joey?
Me, while I like the concept of Ross the Bloody Awful Poet, I think Joey’s just too darn dumb to be Giles. So I’d go with Ross the Watcher and Joey as Spike aka “How you doin’ Slayer?”
Tom, they already done a Buffy parody in Friends. Remember the time Phoebe discovered her sister had played in adult movies?
You know, you’re right, I clean forgot about Forrest. Which is odd considering I just finished watching the 4th season reruns.
PAD
There’s definitely a certain comfort level in being able to say aloud the final line of the show before the character does. I got to do that twice yesterday, with Buffy and Smallville. And yeah, I guess the Harkness in-joke was geek-cool in a rather bludgeony way.
The real question about Principal Wood is whether he will die or turn out to be evil as is par for the course for black characters on BUFFY. Kendra: Dead. That cool guidance counselor from one episode in season 3: Dead. Mr. Trick: Evil, then dead. Forrest: Dead, then evil.
And did you catch the lightning-quick reference to the Twilight Zone, when Dawn ended her list of dangers-to-be-faced
-on-the-first-day-of school with “To Serve Man is a cookbook”?
Yep, Joss is back, alright.
Any episode of Buffy wherein she is not moping is a good one.
Any episode of Buffy where I find myself having a really good time all that much more welcome.
And any night where I have this much fun from Buffy and from Smallville is a good one indeed.
There is no way that Principal Wood is all that he seems. At first I thought the name “Robin Wood” was just punny, but someone else suggested that, with a name like that, he’s one of the Fae. Possibly Puck.
PAD
Though I always love seeing Juliet Landau pay a visit as Drusilla, I would have loved to have seen Angelus as the representative of season 2’s Big Bads. Especially considering how much he tormented the wheelchair-bound Spike in the latter half of that season. Now that Spike is once again vulnerable it would have been apropos for Angelus/ “The First” to have some more fun at his expense. Darn those network contracts!
Side note: My boss and her 11-year-old daughter are making their way through my Buffy season 2 DVDs right now. They’re both in love with Angel, but they’ve yet to meet Angelus. It’s going to be immense fun to see their reactions when they hit that pivotal episode.
And to quote the great Columbo, “Just one more thing”: Harry Groener as The Mayor is my favorite of the Big Bads. It was great to see him again, too.
And a Harry Groener related note: Though we don’t have a whopping amount of culture here in Alabama, we are quite proud of our Alabama Shakespeare Festival. My wife and I were attending a performance of a new play a few months ago. While reading the cast bios, we discovered that one of the leads was Harry Groener’s wife! We had a geek-out moment and then fervently hoped that she would be one of the actresses who would take questions from the audience after the show. Alas, ’twas not to be.
RE: Spike never having met The Master…while literally true within the scope of the series, Spike could easily have met his great-great-grandsire when he was running around with Darla, Angelus and Drusilla back in the 19th Century. But he never met the Mayor, which does speak to the previous poster’s point.
Note the second: Halfrek clearly knows Spike (the “William?” line from “Older and Far Away”), but Spike seems not to have recognized her as Cecily, the object of his unrequited love in 1880. Last night, Halfrek made reference to competing with Anyanka during the Crimean War, which took place in the 1850s. Is Joss throwing away continuity? I think not. Rather, it appears Halfrek was in London on a vengeance mision, playing Cecily. Hence her comment at the time that William was “beneath her” takes on a double meaning — not only was William a mere human, but he was also a pathetic man who would never inspire a woman to call on a Vengeance Demon in the first place…I look forward to the moment Spike makes the mental leap.
According to the captions, Willow’s teacher is named Hartness, with a T.
That flower she pulled from Paraguay: Riley, in “As You Were,” told Buffy he’d been trailing the breeder demon from Paraguay to Sunnydale. Coincidence? Probably not in WhedonWorld.
Why a “new” principal at all? Surely the Sunnydale youth have been attending high school SOMEWHERE the last three years, with a principal and faculty.
Just a quick comment about the name “Harkness” or Hartness’: The captions may or may not be correct depending on how the captioning is done for Buffy. As I understand the system, some shows provide a script in advance to captioning services while others require captioners to figure out the spelling for themselves.
Based on Joss’s love of comics, it was probably supposed to be “Harkness.” Even if it is “Hartness” in the script, he certainly would have put in the similar name to perk up the reference radar of the comics fans.
I loved the episode, but why the continual bashing of last season? Am I the only one who thoroughly enjoyed last year’s misery loves everyone. Plus it gave rise to one of the best episodes of the Buffy pantheon with the musical “Once More With Feeling…”
You know it occurs to me that the mayor was also immortal so they could retcon a Spike/Mayor meeting in just as easily as they could a Spike/Master meeting.
The Mayor’s immortality probably wouldn’t be a factor, as it’s supposed he rarely if ever left Sunnydale (the town he built intentionally on the Hellmouth so demons could feed) and Spike (AFAIK) had never visited Sunnydale before Season Two. Maybe they had a quick grip-n-grin “Mayor wants to meet the new Big Bad” meeting off-camera during Season Two…but in “Lover’s Walk” it sure sounded like the Mayor had only HEARD of Spike’s “loose cannon” behavior.
Peter writes, “Spike’s return couldn’t have been more perfectly timed.” To which I return a heartfelt, “huh?” How did he get in the school’s basement? What was he doing there? What was he talking about as he badly overemoted in his scene with Buffy? (The similarly overemoting Spike in the “lovesick” episode in season 3 was my least favorite of his appearances.) All these questions were mine as I watched this. Didn’t like it at all. And the morphing Whatever at the end – well, great to see all those actors again, but real overkill in terms of the plotline.
As I read the ep’s final moments (with the Master’s references to returning to the beginning), I suspect that Joss is taking us to the basic idea of the Hellmouth: that all of the Big Bads we’ve seen are manifestations of the same festering evil that has always seeded Sunnydale. By returning to the actual physical center of this evil, Buffy and buds are closer to the source. So while the move back to high school may seem like a step into Lighter Territory, it has the potential to remain gratifyingly dark.
Oops. Should’ve read the more recent postings here: s’what I get entering this discussion through the Buffy Blogburst and not following further up . . .