Episode 4 - Beauty and the Beasts
23 February 2012
Synopsis: It's the full moon and the gang take turns to watch Oz. When a boy is killed and mauled they all fear the worst. Buffy is out patrolling and finds a feral Angel which gives her a new suspect. Scott's friends Debbie and Pete seem to be having troubles too and when the school councillor is murdered too suspicion falls on Pete. He attacks Oz for talking to Debbie just as Oz becomes a werewolf. Faith and Willow recapture Oz as Buffy fights Pete. Angel appears to help her out and she realises that he hasn't lost his humanity.
The Good: The way Buffy explained her emotions about Angel to Mr Platt (while alive and dead) were good scenes. It's one of those scenes which outlines the whole concept of Buffy as a show. The use of the word 'demons' as a euphemism for psychological problems, addictions and bad relationships is the core of a show where those demons become actual physical ones that Buffy the super hero can fight. I like the way he was able to sum up Buffy's relationship with Angel in simple terms and conclude that she lost herself in love.
Then later she returns desperate to find someone she can share the news of Angel's return with. You can see why Platt was a necessary character for this episode. As Buffy hints at, if she told her friends that Angel was back you can quite imagine Xander, Giles and Faith rushing out to kill him again. She is now back struggling with an Angel-related problem that she can share with no one just as she was getting over the last one. It aint easy being Buffy that's for sure.
To be fair to the production team Oz looked a lot more wolf like here than he did last season (215).
The Bad: The business that I complained about last episode was still present here and blocked this episode from ever reaching its potential.
The details of Angel's story here reinforce my feeling that his return is not necessarily a great thing for the show. On the most basic level seeing him again does cheapen my memories of "Passion" and "Becoming." The great sacrifices that Buffy made to get rid of him do seem less significant now that he is back hugging her as he was (from our perspective) five episodes ago.
I also didn't like the way his return was handled. I think far more should have been made of the moment when Buffy saw him. Yes she is used to people turning into vampires and thus returning from the dead but this was different. I think an even more dramatic scene could have been built around the earth shaking discovery that Angel was back on Earth. We did then see Buffy struggling to interact normally with her friends and confess her feelings to Platt but to some extent none of that could compensate for the sheer level of shock she would be feeling. Her discussion with Giles was a nice moment but it wasn't enough to satisfy me. Again I think about the amazing moments of TV I sat through last season and this episode just didn't reflect the true impact that Angel's return should have had.
Of course the problem for Angel was that he was competing with a monster of the week story. The attempt to tie together Oz, Angel and Pete in a story about the darkness inside men was just too much. Pete's story suffered the most from congestion because he and Debbie appeared out of nowhere into Buffy's lives and so knowledgeable viewers were already waiting for them to be the true source of any problems. Then even more out of nowhere they go to make out in a school room and suddenly we learn that Pete is taking some kind of chemical cocktail that gives him strength and then rage. This revelation came after half the episode was over and so struggled to not feel contrived. In the final moments of the episode Willow gives us the info dump that normally would have come earlier to explain exactly what had gone on between them.
The rushed nature of Pete and Debbie's story wasn't helped by what a blatant domestic abuse analogy it was. Debbie getting a black eye and claiming she fell was the most predictable bit of scripting you could imagine and Pete's rage had no subtlety to it. Angel then appears to save the day in a way that didn't feel satisfying. Especially as those torturous hell demons were so careful not to mess up his perfectly styled hair.
On a smaller note the opening scene was good as Willow explained all the precautions she had taken to lock Oz carefully in his cage for the night. However the whole gang looked foolish for what followed. I would have thought for only three nights a month they could organise a proper schedule where at least someone could be awake at all times. But no. Xander irresponsibly falls asleep and really should have been yelled at more than he was. Yet Buffy then falls asleep and gets a gentle wake up with no reprimand. It all felt very lazy for a gang who have fought so hard to save people's lives.
The Unknown: It was episodes like this where I began to diverge from mainstream opinion about Oz. He gets a lot of screen time here but I don't think his personality is established in a relatable way. He is clearly a nice guy and he clearly loves Willow. But his combination of sarcasm and blunt honesty doesn't actually tell me much about his emotions. He is upset about the thought of killing people but never elaborates on how being a werewolf makes him feel. I would have thought he would be more upset with Xander and the others for not staying awake and keeping a watch on him. I would like to have seen more panic from him when Pete threatened him too. Not just for his own safety but for the worry that he might turn and go on a killing rampage. I'm not asking for Oz to become emotionally expressive in the same way as everyone else but I don't relate to him as well as I do to even new characters like Scott and that lack of emotion is the reason why. ÂÂ
Best Moment: The initial meeting between Buffy and Platt.
The Bottom Line: With Oz, Angel and Pete competing for air time I thought everything about this was rushed or congested.
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Beauty and the Beasts
Season 3, Episode 4
Original airing: 10/20/1998
My Rating: 46
The Good: There's not too much good here, unfortunately. This episode was, overall, a pretty dramatic backslide into some Season One crappiness. However, some Scoobie moments continued to shine. The scene at the morgue with Willow, Xander and Cordelia was amusing despite the grim setting. They work well as a comedy trio. In fact, Xander's reactions throughout the episode are consistently funny, though he's mainly just here for humor this week.
But, there were only really two highlights in this episode: Oz and Buffy. We really got to see some emotion from Oz over his frustration at his condition and his fear that he might hurt someone. He even coldly tells Willow to stay away from him at one point, just before his change. It's nice to see a bit of depth and emotion from this character who has been nothing but snarky and laid-back. There's a real person under some of that! Kudos. Unfortunately, the werewolf transformation still looks terrible.
The only other part of this episode I really enjoyed was Sarah Michelle Gellar's facial expressions. She went through a heck of an emotional rollercoaster in this episode when she violently learned Angel had returned. She even studied about it! She spends a good amount of time here silently watching Angel and wondering. The audience can only really imagine her thoughts and feelings at this stage. Is she even happy? Is she too confused and bewildered to feel anything else? The moment when Angel speaks her name and hugs her stomach, she doesn't even respond. She stands tall and wooden as he collapses at her feet. It's nice to have something understated and underacted in this episode in a way that feels marginally real.
The Bad: I don't think the show could hit the audience over the head more with the Big Message - Abusive Relationships Are Bad. The almost obnoxiously obvious Jekyll/Hyde reference of the story was underscored at the end when Willow specifically said it was a Jekyll/Hyde scenario. Was that necessary? The newly introduced character Pete beats his girlfriend, blames it on her (which she believes), and does so after having ingested a green, glowing liquid that turns him into a nasty monster version of himself. Thanks, Willow. I think we got the idea.
The show has always taken high school and real life scenarios and tried to blend them with a supernatural bent. That's nothing new. But it's never been quite so poorly done as this. The episode felt like it was someone's very first attempt at the script without any refining.
On top of the obvious were some glaring Angel issues. It's disappointing that he went from snarling animal that attacks Buffy on-site to weepy guy capable of speech in one episode. And we saw no reason for that to happen. How did he know Buffy was in trouble when she was at school and he was in the mansion (presumably far away on the outskirts of town?) How did he know exactly which room to go to? Why did he suddenly defend Buffy when he'd tried to kill her earlier? Where in the world did he find pants when he was still barely capable of standing upright and could only snarl?
The main problem here was everything felt rushed and two-dimensional. Pete and Debbie's characters were complete stereotypes with absolutely no depth. Even Scott's mourning over them at the end felt empty despite the fact that he's supposedly known them for about 15 years. He even says to Buffy "I'll be fine". Two of his best friends died brutal deaths the day before with no clue as to why and he's fine? Absurd.
Favorite Moment: My favorite moment of this episode was truly a moment, when Buffy cries a single tear after Angel has broken Pete's neck and collapses at her feet. She doesn't say anything or try to hug him back. She just stands there and tries not to completely lose it.
The Bottom Line: This felt like a season one episode, and not one of the good ones. The show has progressed so far beyond this type of writing and poor characterization. Very disappointing.
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