Episode 9 - The Puppet Show
11 January 2011
Synopsis: New school principal Mr Snyder puts Giles in charge of the annual talent show. To their horror he then insists that Buffy, Xander and Willow join in too. A girl is killed in the locker rooms and her heart is cut out. Suspicion falls on Morgan and his dummy Sid who seem a little too convincing an act. Giles looks into the alternative explanation: demons who harvest organs to maintain a human appearance. When Morgan is found dead Buffy confronts Sid who turns out to be a demon hunter and they try to discover who the real killer is before he takes anyone else's brain.
The Good: The twist that Sid the dummy was actually a demon hunter kept this from being as straightforward as it might otherwise have been.
The Bad: Otherwise this was awful.
The writers have done an admirable job so far of keeping a level of subtlety and reality to a show about the supernatural. However that all goes out of the window here. The first problem is the complete lack of reaction to a girl being killed and having her heart cut out. Imagine if that actually happened in a school. Not only would classes be cancelled but the police would be investigating a potential serial killer. Instead the students of Sunnydale seem blissfully unconcerned, continuing their preparations for a frivolous talent show without any concern for the brutal murder. I imagine I may need to get used to this attitude on a show where death is an ever present threat. But in previous episodes there was more of an effort to deal with the practical results of death such as the grief counselling which followed the death of Dr Gregory (104). An example of how this weakened the plot came later when Joyce asks Buffy if anything else is wrong beside nerves surrounding the talent show and neither think to mention the girl who was so horrifically killed.
Then there was the portrayal of Morgan and Sid. Sid's sentience was telegraphed instantly and Morgan was poorly scripted to blatantly acknowledge this in a way that made Buffy look stupid for not recognising it. Morgan played his anxiety and headaches with no subtlety either. His constant fretting made a mockery of the history teacher who enquired politely whether he was ok as he practically had a nervous breakdown. As with last week's computer geeks Morgan was an undeveloped character which undermined the show's attempts to make the viewer take the plot seriously.
Which of course brings us to Sid. It was tough to take the dummy seriously even though I had no particular problems with the way he was animated. The misdirection about his true motives probably went too far and seemed too obvious to be enjoyable. I felt like I was just waiting and waiting and waiting for him to try and kill Buffy and be defeated. The scene where Xander held Sid and taunted Buffy about her fears was clumsily written. It seemed out of character for Xander to be so cocky and it was clearly engineered just to make us fear the dummy would slice him up any second even though that would obviously not happen. The revelation that Sid was a cursed demon hunter rather stole all the interest from the actual demon threat. When Marc the magician was revealed as the true culprit it was a complete anti-climax.
Another poor line came early on when Buffy almost admitted to Snyder that she was out fighting demons. There seemed no reason for her to slip up in such a blatant way. It added to the sense that the writers just weren't switched on during the production of this episode.
The Unknown: Principal Snyder seems like a nice contrast to his predecessor Mr Flutie. He seems to be more of a nemesis for the Slayerettes and may provide plausible problems for them to overcome. However it seems like there's something off about him. Giles comes across him loitering around the backstage area for no good reason and he seems to follow Buffy around. When he finds her alone around the changing rooms he says "I'm not sure how safe it is for a girl like yourself to be here...alone." It was a statement which had really creepy undertones to it. I'm not sure that was intended, at least I hope it wasn't.
Apparently there was a Korean Slayer in the 1930s which is an interesting bit of trivia.
Best Moment: Cordelia is badgering Giles about the placement of her song in the talent show. Losing patience with her he stairs intently at her till she asks "What?" He plays dumb but then mentions her hair in a vague way. She becomes instantly paranoid and rushes off to check it. "Xander was right" he says "worked like a charm."
The Bottom Line: As the season has gone on these monster-of-the-week episodes have got progressively more tiresome. It's a formula which needs a lot of attention from the creative team to make it work and there wasn't nearly enough here.
Cordia's Second Look
The Puppet Show
Season 1, Episode 9
Original airing: May 1, 1997
My Rating: 56
The Good: This is actually an interesting twist on the possessed puppet horror cliché. The story starts off very basic and bland, but having Sid turn out to be a good guy trapped as a puppet was clever. The introduction of a demon who looks human made Morgan an excellent red herring. Even Snyder creepily following Buffy everywhere makes him suspect. For these reasons, the story actually stays fresh and surprising.
For the actors, I felt like Anthony Head as Giles was the only one shining of the core group. The rest of the team did they're usual (Buffy was strong, Xander was funny, Willlow was smart) but Giles being forced to interact with the rest of the students. He played the frustration, stress, and lack of enthusiasm wonderfully. Especially when he was able to scare off Cordelia by making a vague comment about her hair. However, I don't put too much blame on the actors here. They had to act across from a dummy, after all (See The Bad).
Principal Snyder is an excellent new character. He is a complete opposite from Principal Flutie and even considers Flutie's untimely end to be the fault of his own caring nature. Snyder comes across strong in this episode as a controlling personality. He definitely dislikes Buffy, to the point of physically grabbing her arm at one point and apparently following her all over the school to keep her from causing trouble. He's set up well to be another thorn in Buffy's side.
In addition to Snyder, the other secondary characters mostly had real motivations again. Sid is a demon hunter, therefore he's hunting the demon. He even has reason to suspect Buffy since he knows he's looking for someone who appears human and is preternaturally strong. Marc is a demon who needs a human heart and a human brain every seven years to maintain his human appearance. So he goes for someone with dedication and someone who's smart. Morgan is confused and scared and torn between his debilitating brain cancer and the fact that a wooden dummy is talking to him. He doesn't want to hurt people and he's scared of losing control of Sid.
The Bad: It must be difficult to act across from a piece of wood sitting on someone's hand. The downside to this episode is the kitschy-ness of a dummy as a major character. The idea of his character is well done and strong, but he's still an inanimate object. The other actors all come across as silly playing against him, except for Morgan. When Buffy pins Sid against the wall during their fight, it's easy to see there's no pressure in her arm and she doesn't really seem to be looking at him. In the end, it was impossible for me to ever suspend my disbelief and imagine the dummy was real.
And again, we have a silly looking demon. When Marc reverts to his demon form, he looks like a flabby naked guy in body paint. It doesn't play well on screen and takes away from the drama of the moment.
Another major flaw right at the end of the episode is when the curtain opens on the post-fight scene revealing a full audience. The show expects me to believe that some two hundred people didn't hear the fighting, screaming, yelling, and growling coming from behind the curtain for the preceding five minutes? I would expect a bigger fall-out from this situation.
Favorite Moment: Snyder's second introduction is a wonderful summation of the show so far. As he walks down the auditorium aisle with Giles, Snyder comments on the previous happenings of the school, including Principal Flutie's dismemberment, cheerleader combustion, suicides, and disappearances. Snyder plans to correct all of this by keeping an eye on the 'bad element' in the student body; namely, Buffy and her friends. One has to wonder if he knows how close he is to the mark.
The Bottom Line: There's the potential for a really good episode here. The characterization is strong in the main and secondary characters. The main issue here was the silliness of the physical manifestations. Both the dummy and the demon aren't scary or realistic. They look B-movie quality and that detracted from the episode as a whole.
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