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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Spoiler alert: There's a new Big Bad in town. Three of them, in fact. And if you thought Spike was upset last week, wait till you see who's angry now.
Episode 6.04, "Flooded"
Directed by Douglas Petrie
Written by Douglas Petrie & Jane Espenson
Two major events this week, the first being - Yay! It's fun again! After the exposition-laden season premier and the ultra-serious episode last week, Buffy returns full force to what makes it great: humor, a perfect balance between drama and comedy, hilarious dialog, compelling characters, and the absurd juxtaposition of the magical and the mundane. Did I mention the comedy?
Of course, it's not all fun and games. Buffy is slowly getting back to the routine of normal life - household repair, worrying about money, fighting demons (well, this is Sunnydale). Anya suggests Buffy solve one problem with the other, and start charging for slaying - hey, sounded sensible to me. But for some reason no one else agrees.
Somebody else has been having money troubles, too, and they've decided to solve them the old-fashioned way - by stealing it. This being Sunnydale, a demon is involved. And of course the thieves hit the local bank just as Buffy is making a bid for a loan. She and the demon fight it out to a draw while his unseen accomplices clean out the cashier drawers.
And who are the demon's accomplices? Get ready for three of the scariest characters ever to walk the streets of Sunnydale. Scary because they're real - they are NERDS! They quote technobabble from Star Trek! They obsess over girls and collect action figures! They suspect one of their number is a Jedi! They're hopeless dorks, and they have banded together to take over Sunnydale.
In a nice touch of continuity, we've seen two of them before. Remember Jonathan, the short little guy who's been hanging around since season 2? Or Warren, so unable to deal with a real girlfriend that he created a robot one? Newcomer Andrew has some backstory, too - it was his brother who released the hell-hounds at Buffy's Senior prom.
This Dufus Patrol, or Dweeb Team, or (my favorite) Dork Squad is wonderful. The problem with Jonathan was that, by himself, he was always a little pathetic. Every smirk at his utter loser-dom came with guilt for laughing at such a sad little person. At one point he was so lonely he was suicidal - definitely not funny. But now that he has equally pathetic buddies, the guilt is gone and you're free to fall out of your chair giggling at their sheer awfulness.
Of course, Buffy and crew don't know that there's a whole new gang in town. They're holed up at the Magic Shop, still trying to identify the M'whatever demon, when suddenly Giles walks in the door.
Remember I mentioned two big developments? The second one isn't funny - it's powerful. Giles has a touching reunion with his surrogate- daughter Buffy, and then in a scene both brilliantly written and acted, privately confronts Willow about the resurrection spell. The young witch is very pleased with herself, and expects Giles to be full of compliments and praise. He's not. He's furious. Furious at her recklessness, and horrified by what he recognizes as experimentation with dark, dangerous forces.
These are two fully developed characters, having a serious, heated disagreement about an extremely important subject: power. Giles has always been more than just the shy, gentle librarian/advisor. He's also the kind of guy who is a hero because he doesn't flinch from taking an uncomfortable stand or making the hard choices (remember last season's finale?). He could have kept his doubts to himself rather than so harshly confront a dear friend and protégé, but he's not going to take the easy way out.
The scene is made all the more powerful by the fact that Giles doesn't talk to Willow as though she were a child in over her head, but instead he confronts her as an equal, another grown-up fully responsible for her own choices. Which was wise, because Willow is no longer the sweet little teenager reduced to awkward stuttering under stress. Her voice actually gets calmer as she pushes right back at the outraged older man. At one point she even subtly threatens him. ("You're right. The magics I used are very powerful. I'm very powerful. And maybe it's not such a good idea for you to piss me off." Uh, oh.) Before he can react to that alarming new attitude, though, she backs off, and promises to consider what he said if he'll "try to be happy Buffy's back." In other words, she wasn't even listening.
One other thing about Giles. He's perceptive enough that he doesn't entirely buy the story about Buffy being in Hell. In his confrontation with Willow he let's something slip - " We still don't know where she was. Or what happened to her. And I'm far from convinced that she's come out of all this undamaged."
It's not hard to share in his doubts. Buffy still isn't back to her old self, and it's not just worry about bills and stray demons. She's withdrawing from her friends, her sleep is disrupted, and she's zoning out at inappropriate ties. And she confesses to Giles that she has been trying hard to appear normal but that it is taking up all her energy. This girl isn't just unhappy, she's seriously depressed. Hopefully, it will help having Giles around (sadly, only temporarily). She might also be cheered up by a visit with Angel that she arranges at the end of the episode. (It won't be in Sunnydale or LA, but somewhere in between, she says. Fox network, maybe?)
So, what's the verdict? A near perfect blend of silliness and drama, old friends and fresh new characters, and one flat-out awesome scene in the middle. (My only complaint - I'm going to miss Giles when he goes for good.) It's episodes like this that make me scared of using the 1-10 scale - the new season is only three weeks old, and I'm already trashing the curve.
Episode rating: 9 out of 10.
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