If you’re following our series of Blowing the Hatch posts, then you saw last week that Keith talked about Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The fun part of the Blow the Hatch moments is that they make for great debates. Keith thought that when Angelus popped back onto the scene in season two of Buffy the show took off, and my Blow the Hatch moment isn’t too different.
I think even the most ardent of Buffy fans will admit that the series really came into its own during the second season. I certainly have a fondness in my heart for a lot of the episodes from the first season (I still think I’m the only person who likes “The Puppet Show”), but the show kicked into gear during season two.
I was always a huge fan of the Jenny Calendar character. She was the typical Buffy female character: a smart, funny, and strong woman. She also was a great foil for Giles, and I think she really brought him out of his shell and made him the well-rounded character that we all got to love, instead of the uptight Watcher from season one.
The episode that really cemented my love of this show was “Passion.” I still get chills running up my spine when I think of Angelus chasing poor Jenny through the hallways of the high school. Of course, it didn’t end well for Ms. Calendar. Indeed, Angelus caught up with her and snapped her neck with relish and cruelty. I think it was the first of many gasp-worthy moments on the show, for me. Jenny was such a great character, I never thought that the writers would actually kill her, but in doing so they raised the stakes on the show.
Of course, to add insult to injury, Angelus set up Jenny’s corpse in Giles’s house, making him believe that Jenny had planned a romantic evening for them. This was a truly heartbreaking moment, and it set up some great drama between the rest of the group and Buffy, and certainly illustrated just how much of a monster Angelus was.
Oh Jenny, poor sweet Jenny. I still miss her.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jul 03, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
On the last blog about when Buffy Blew The Hatch, i commented that Passion is the episode that did it in for me. You’re so right….absolute chills when i watch that episode. Great post, i totally agree.
Hm.
Might sound silly but for me it was when Willow and Xander got together. I enjoyed the earlier Seasons for different reasons I guess :-)
The big irony for me, is Angelus killing Jenny is what made me give up on Buffy. I say irony because of how big of a fan of the show (and the whole canon universe) later on.
I just couldn’t, at the time, be involved with a show that would so easily kill off one of my favorite characters. As retribution for my lack of faith in Joss, he will eventually kill every one of my favorite characters throughout the course of seven seasons of Buffy and five season of Angel.
Wow Ivey – same here.
Back then my ex-gf loved Buffy and I hated it because of this death, just to re-visit the show later on on DVD when we weren’t living together anymore. So you’re not alone, trust me. I was so totally pissed about Giles not having a mate anymore…