Diary of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Virgin – Dru may get healed, but what about Ted?

(Season 2, Episodes 9-11)

The plan is to do two three-episode installments in the middle of these 22-episode seasons. That way we don’t have to have an awkward two-episode one at the end of each season. I don’t want to run two seasons together, because I want to feel the dramatic pause the creators intend at those finales. So it’s three this week and three next week.

It actually works out pretty well, because these three episodes take us up to the 1997 holiday break for the series. I guess I need to break out the eggnog for this week. Anybody know where you can find some in June?

2.9/10 – “What’s My Line, Parts One & Two”
(Original Air Date: November 17/24, 1997) This was an interesting pair of episodes. The first half had a lot of slower parts for me, but when all was said and done, there were a lot of nice things that happened. Relationships were mended, and I mean a lot of relationships, and Buffy found out she wasn’t alone.

What a brilliantly clever move it was bringing in Kendra the Vampire Slayer, so called up on Buffy’s temporary death last season. I should think the Watchers should immediately concoct a plan whereby they kill the Slayers over and over again, albeit temporarily, to amass an army. Or find some other way around this “there can be only one” mantra.

It was also great to see Oz finally get fully into the series, and start his courtship with Willow, which couldn’t be more adorable if someone was walking behind them sprinkling powdered sugar on them. A little more alarming was Xander and Cordelia.

I know I’ve been bitching that I wanted a more plausible reason for Cordy to get more into the Scooby Gang (Hey, someone in the show finally called it that!), but I never expected it to be like this. Bonus points for the corny swell of music each time just before they started kissing.

And Giles and Ms. Calendar are mending their fences, too. Nothing brings people closer together than a staking in the park. And shooting an arrow through your man’s side. Thank goodness for the protective power of tweed.

The Buffy wiki for this episode says that Whedon and co. originally intended on killing Spike at the end of the episode. I don’t even know what’s in store for the character but I’m so glad they didn’t. I like Dru’, but I like Spike a lot better. Maybe she’ll grow on me now that she appears to be sane again.

So now there is a manual for Slayers, Giles? Don’t think I forgot that you said there wasn’t. Liar. Probably just trying to protect Buffy’s feelings. All that … reading (yech!).

2.11 – “Ted”
(Original Air Date: December 8, 1997) I was so excited about what’s going to happen now that Drusilla is healed that I was pretty disappointed to find that this was going to be a done-in-one. But then the late, great John Ritter smiled and I was hooked.

Ritter is one of those celebrities, like Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and Betty White that I just like. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but they seem to touch a “happy spot” in my brain. Even better, Ritter was in a role far more sinister than his most famous comedic work.

In fact, Ritter was awesome as Ted.1, as I like to call him. After all, Ted.0 was the creator who died long ago. It was just brilliance the way his personality shifted so menacingly from threatening to saccharine at the turn of a hip. Though in his defense, Buffy was totally trying to cheat at mini golf and rules are rules!

This is the second time that we’ve had technology and robots as the primary villain on this show. Again, it seems a little out of place, like this is a sci-fi short story from the 1950s, where Ted.0 probably read it. Luckily, Ritter pulled it out and made it entertaining anyway.

On a bizarre parting note, when Buffy suggested to her mother that it looked like it was another Thelma & Loise night, suddenly it struck me that her mother looks like a younger Susan Sarandon … in the right light. And Buffy looks a lot like a blonde Daphne from Scooby-Doo.

Previously on Diary of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Virgin
Now you can just click the show title under TV Shows over there on the right for all our previous installments. Handy, isn’t it?

Clacked by Jason Hughes
on Jun 30, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT