"When She Was Bad"

Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon


In which Buffy deals with the aftershocks of her confrontation with the Master, with serious consequences to her friends when she comes back to Sunnydale changed...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->






Synopsis

As the episode begins, Xander and Willow walk down the street next to one of the many cemeteries in Sunnydale. They have obviously been spending a great deal of time together over the summer, and Willow is just as obviously smitten with her Xander. In fact, when Xander playfully smears ice cream on her nose, they come very close to kissing…until the requisite vampire shows up to spoil the fun.

Xander tells Willow to run, and he gamely tries to fight off the demon. Before he can become a midnight snack, someone reaches out and grabs the vampire, making short work of it before revealing herself to be Buffy. Willow and Xander are happy to see her, since she spent the summer in Los Angeles with her father, and didn’t exactly keep in touch.

After noting that Buffy had just slayed the first vampire to surface since the Master was killed back in May (“Prophecy Girl”), Willow and Xander mention that the most exciting thing they did was bury the Master’s bones, sprinkling the ground with holy water while Giles performed the necessary ritual. They ask if Buffy has seen Giles, but Buffy shrugs that question off.

Back at the Summers house, Joyce and Hank quibble over the amount of clothing that Buffy collected over the summer. But Hank also mentions how distant Buffy seemed to be. Joyce seems to echo his worries, thinking that it would be a miracle if Buffy made it through the school year.

At Sunnydale High, Synder bemoans the return of the student body, while Giles listens on to the droning. His spirits rise when he sees Jenny Calendar, especially when she teases him with visions of naked mud dancing. The gang catches up with them, and Giles is happy to see Buffy again. They are a little surprised to hear about the return of vampires, especially with the Hellmouth being closed. Though he notes that the Hellmouth still attracts evil to town, Giles wonders if the vampires have come back for a particular purpose.

After school, Buffy resumes her training with Giles, and it’s clear that her memories of her encounter with the Master are weighing on her mind. She pushes herself way too hard, professing to be ready for anything that might be coming. Meanwhile, across town, a group of vampires is led through a sermon praising Collin, the Anointed One, and the new hope that is to arise in three days.

Sometime later, in the student lounge, Xander and Willow find Buffy staring into space, caught up in her own worries. Giles arrives and informs Buffy that he knows what the vampires are up to…and then he proceeds to choke her to death, while the others look on with disinterest. As she rips away the mask of Giles’ face, revealing the Master, she awakens…and finds Angel at her window.

He comes into her room at her invitation, only to deliver more bad news, as usual. Angel informs her that the Anointed One is gathering forces in town, but she waves off the danger. Angel is confused at her cavalier attitude, but makes a point to tell her that he missed her.

The next morning, Joyce tries to get Buffy to open up, but it doesn’t work. On the way to class, Buffy mentions that Angel stopped by, but doesn’t let the usual speculation about their relationship get very far. Cordelia runs into them, and proceeds with the usual insults. Buffy, however, strikes back with better-than-usual material, leaving everyone else wondering what her problem really is.

Later, at the Bronze, Willow and Xander discuss Buffy’s odd behavior. Willow tries to restore the sense of togetherness that she had with Xander over the summer, but Xander is clearly back to obsessing over Buffy. As Collin’s followers begin unearthing the Master’s bones, Buffy walks into the Bronze, wearing a sexy dress.

Angel sees her and tries to find out why Buffy is putting him at a distance. Buffy denies that there is anything between them, and brushes him off. Instead, she grabs Xander and pulls him onto the dance floor, slithering around him and taunting him about his desire for her. Just when she has him worked up and confused, she turns and walks off, leaving him standing on his own, unsure how to react.

As Buffy leaves, Cordelia runs out after her, and demands to know what the deal is. Cordelia tells Buffy to get over whatever it is that she’s dealing with, because she’s losing all of her friends. Buffy walks off without taking Cordy’s words at even face value, and doesn’t see two vampires run out of the shadows and drag Cordelia away. Cordelia is taken into the basement of a nearby building, where Jenny is also being held.

As Buffy comes across the open grave of the Master, Willow and Xander try to convince Giles that Buffy is possessed. Giles, on the other hand, thinks that Buffy is just dealing with the trauma of having been dead for a short time after the Master’s attack. Buffy walks in and promptly informs the gang that the Master is no longer buried, and that she’s convinced that the vampires are going to bring him back. She rails at Giles for not taking care of the situation properly, and then snaps at the others when they dare to comment.

The conversation is interrupted by Snyder, however, so the gang reconvenes after school. Giles determines that in order to revive the Master, the vampires would the blood of the closest person to the vampire. Buffy is convinced that it means her, and that feeling is reinforced when a rock bearing Cordy’s bracelet is tossed into the library, along with instructions for Buffy to go to the Bronze. Buffy insists on going alone, claiming to be tired of looking after the others while fighting, even as they try to tell her it’s a trap.

Outside the Bronze, Angel tries to convince Buffy to let him watch her back. But she doesn’t want to have anything to do with him, and even tries to get him to attack her. When Angel comes anyway, she walks into the empty Bronze, and instead of Cordelia, finds a young female vampire. As Buffy realizes that something is wrong, the others at the library realize that the vampires really need those who were in proximity to the Master at the moment of his death…and that the vampires were just luring Buffy away so they could capture the rest of the gang.

Leaving the bait in Angel’s hands, Buffy rushes back to the library, and finds Xander recovering from the attack. Unfortunately, Giles and Willow have been captured. Xander is clearly out of patience with Buffy, but he isn’t going to turn his back on the others. Buffy interrogates her prisoner, and finds out where the others were taken. By the time Buffy, Xander, and Angel arrive, the others are already hung upside-down over the reassembled bones of the Master, in preparation for the ritual.

As the vampires are about to begin the ritual, Buffy launches her offensive. As the fight begins, Angel and Xander save the others. Angel ends up fighting one of the vampires himself, and Buffy finally faces Collin’s “high priest”, a vampire named Absalom. He attacks her with a sledgehammer, but she eventually manages to take him down. Using the sledgehammer, Buffy smashes the Master’s bones into powder, bursting into tears.

The next morning, as everyone tries to get over the experience in their own way, Buffy hesitates at meeting with her friends again. She understands now what she was doing, and she doesn’t know if they will accept her again. Of course, she shouldn’t have feared, because when she finally gets the courage to join them, they welcome her with open arms.

Meanwhile, back at the warehouse, the Anointed One looks on the ruin of his plan to restore the Master, and considers how much he hates Buffy Summers.


Analysis

This episode represents the beginning of a trend for Mutant Enemy, one that is the inevitable and forgivable result of the strong seasonal arcs that are the hallmark of the franchise. As would happen with every subsequent season, the first episode of the second season is more about resetting the stage and reminding the audience where things left off. And that means sitting through whatever odd version of a semi-pilot Joss and company have managed to concoct.

Considering that this is the first attempt, it’s not too hard to excuse some of the contrived elements that are tossed into the mix. Certainly it makes sense that Buffy would have some issues after her traumatic experience with the Master, but one wonders why some of the other characters act foolishly at the same time. Xander and Willow seem almost ditzy in this episode, which might just be a case for why they shouldn’t spend too much time alone with one another.

While the season arc itself doesn’t start with this episode, there are some hints regarding the future. Snyder’s general comments on Buffy’s future foreshadow the events of the season finale, and Buffy’s denial of a relationship with Angel serve as a nice bookend to her emotional state at the very end of “Becoming, Part II”. In the same way, Buffy’s attempts to isolate everything in her world seem ironic in light of the consequences of her decisions at the end of the season.

This episode also emphasizes a slightly darker side to the series, signaling the turn towards deeper themes than the first season. The first season was mostly centered on character introduction and the more campy side of the series concept, with the limitations of time and budget playing an inevitable factor. The second season, however, marked an opportunity to bring the series to a new level, exploring all the facets of the series more thoroughly.

Unfortunately, much of the episode is relatively self-contained. This is really a quick and easy way to address the effects of Buffy’s brief demise, while not letting it become the focus of the early part of the season. As a result, that recovery process comes across as being far too quick and easy, especially when Buffy takes much longer to deal with equally traumatic events in her life later in the season. (Oddly, the other extreme dominates the sixth season, where every character’s emotional issues drag out to the point of repetition.)

As a result, this episode serves as a coda to the first season, rather than a proper introduction to the second season. This is the antithesis of the standard “season cliffhanger” approach of most series in the genre. Instead of leaving some major situation at the height of crisis at the end of every season, Joss Whedon and company have chosen to make each season more or less self-contained. This is certainly an intelligent move in the modern era of quick cancellation, since it makes a somewhat satisfying series conclusion more realistic.

On the other hand, it means that the following season needs to start fresh, or worse, cover the denouement of the previous season, before delving into the next concept. While this might help new viewers catch up to the concept in relatively short order, it just doesn’t lend itself to anything too extensive. Too many basics have to be covered, and in this case, too much of the first season was left unresolved to give this episode much room to breathe.

The result is a competent but ultimately lacking episode. Considering that Buffy is the central character, she is certainly hard to admire or even like in this episode, and that might have been off-putting to the new audience that Mutant Enemy was presumably searching for. It works in the overall concept for the season, but as a season premiere, it just hit the wrong buttons.


Memorable Quotes

WILLOW: “I think we had the upper hand. In a subtle way…”

GILES: “Have you ever considered, given your abhorrence of children, school’s principal was not, perhaps, your true vocation?”

GILES: “I can’t imagine finding any redeeming…uh…naked?”

XANDER: “Yo! G-Man! What’s up?”
GILES: “Nice to see you. And don’t ever call me that.”

XANDER: “Oh, come on, you can tell us. We’re your bosom friends! The friends of your bosom!”

WILLOW: “Cibo Matto can clog dance? Oh…sarcasm, right…”

BUFFY: “Cordelia, your mouth is open and sound is coming from it. This is never good.”

XANDER: “Are we overlooking the idea that she may be very attracted to me? (pause) She’s possessed.”

SNYDER: “There’re some things I can just smell. It’s like a sixth sense.”
GILES: “No, actually, that would be one of the five.”

SNYDER: “You really have faith in those kids, don’t you?”
GILES: “Yes, I do.”
SNYDER: “Weird…”


Observations

- Is it me, or does Xander look a bit more manly in this episode?

- They may love the hair, but I don’t. I liked it better when it was longer and a bit more wild and sexy...

- New regular cast member: David Boreanaz!

- What’s with that bizarre poster hanging on the wall behind Giles and Snyder?

- Again with the hair...only this time, Jenny’s been infected!

- Nice touch with the Cibo Matto posters in the school...good continuity, considering how much they’re talked up in the rest of the episode...

- Love the music during the training session!

- From Willow to Cordelia, people aren’t exactly doing a great job of the “secret mission” thing...

- Whatever else one might say about Buffy at the end of act 2, she certainly knows how to work that dress and that dance floor!

- I’m surprised Xander could still walk after that...

- Interesting how Cordy’s comments to Buffy are actually a reaction to her treatment of Xander...an easy sign of her later interest in him!

- It makes sense that the vampires wouldn’t take Xander...but why did they leave him alive?

- Nice bit with the cross in the mouth...

- Awfully convenient for Absalom to show up with a sledgehammer!

- However, Absalom did die rather well...

Overall, this episode was a bit of a disappointment, but one that is tempered by the hints and seeds of future character and plot development. It was a bit weak in terms of an introduction for new viewers, thanks to Buffy’s attitude throughout, but it was serviceable in all other respects.

I give it a 6/10.


< -------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Next Episode

Back to Season 2

Back to Sunnydale

Email: entil2001@yahoo.com