Author: Elwood Jones

Episode title: Lie To Me

Original air date: November 3, 1997

“Things used to be pretty simple. A hundred years, just hanging out, feeling guilty. I really honed by brooding skills. Then she comes along.” – Angel

Another underrated episode this week as Buffy’s duties as a slayer once again attract the wrong kind of attention, this time from her friend Ford who has recently transferred from L.A. to Sunnydale. Little does she know that Ford is also a member of group of vampire fantasists with Ford soon making a deal with Spike to hand him Buffy in exchange for Spike turning him into a vampire.

Continue reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer S:02 Ep:07

“I’m gonna do what any man would do about it: somethin’ damn manly” – Xander

Halloween has come to Sunnydale this week and while you might expect it to be a hotbed of supernatural activity, its actually the opposite it seems with Halloween seemingly being considered a holiday of sorts for the supernatural. This however doesn’t mean it’s an easy week for the Scoobies as this week they have to deal with a case of personality switching when they fall foul of their Halloween costumes changing their wearer into their costumed personas.

Continue reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer S:02 Ep:06

Episode title: Reptile Boy

Original air date: October 13, 1997

“One day I’ll have money. Prestige. Power. And on that day they’ll still have more.” – Xander

Kind of a weird episode this week as Buffy investigates a missing high school student, while struggling once more to balance a normal life outside of her slayer responsibilities. At the same time her confused feelings for Angel lead to her attending a frat party with Cordelia only to discover that the fraternity members hide more than a few secrets of their own.

Continue reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer S:02 Ep:05

Episode title: School Hard

Original air date: September 29, 1997

“You were my sire, man! You were my … YODA!” – Spike

For some reason I thought this episode came later in the season but this current rewatch only highlighted how early in this season the showrunners were working on their endgame for the season as this week we get the first appearance of Spike and Drusilla, two characters who would go on to play major roles in not only this series but “Angel” aswell. Not that we could have ever known this by this first appearance when they seemed like another villain of the week, but unquestionably here the duo certainly make their mark with their debut.

Unaware of the threat of Spike and Drusilla this week sees Buffy once more struggling to balance her slayer duties and school life and once more putting her in the sights of Principal Snyder, who pairs Buffy with fellow problem student Sheila to prepare the school lounge for the parent-teacher night or risk being expelled. Of course this event will serve for the climax of the episode with Spike launching an assault on the school. Continue reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer S:02 Ep:03

Episode title: When She Was Bad

Original air date: September 15, 1997

“Well, that works out great. You won’t tell anyone that I’m the Slayer, and I won’t tell anyone you’re a moron.”

After the surprise success of the first season it was of little surprise that the second season would get a significant boost in episodes with this season consisting of 22 episodes compared to the previous seasons 13 episodes.

Having vanquished “The Master” at the end of the first season, Sunnydale has been surprisingly free of vampire activity, while Buffy has spent the summer with her father in Los Angeles, leaving Xander and Willow to carry out her patrols. It’s of course not long before the pair encounters their first vampire of the series with Buffy perfectly timing her return to dust the vampire with her usual effortless cool. However it soon seems that not everything is fine with her as she continues to deal with the fallout from last season’s finale. Elsewhere the child like Anointed One and his followers plan to resurrect “The Master” using his skeletal remains.

Continue reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer S:02 Ep: 01

Episode title: Out of Mind, Out of Sight

Original air date: May 19, 1997

“Y’know, I really felt sorry for you. You’ve suffered. But there’s one thing I really didn’t factor into all this. You’re a thundering loony!” – Buffy

It’s hard to believe but next week is the season one finale and while this first season has just flown by, this revisit has served to highlight flaws I missed previously like just how little we saw of “The Master” which is only the more strange when he’s supposed to be the season big evil. This episode does little to change that status as this week Cordelia finds herself being stalked by an foe with the power of invisibility as she campaigns for May Queen, while leaving Buffy with the issue of how do you hunt a foe you can’t see?

Continue reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer S:01 Ep:11