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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Triangle

Buffy: "You want credit for not feeding off bleeding disaster victims?"
Spike: "Well, yeah."
Buffy: "You're disgusting."
Spike: "What's it take?"

So we have Buffy moping over Riley's departure, Anya and Willow bickering with Xander in the middle, and Giles discovering that he can't leave any of the Scoobies in charge of the shop for more than a few hours. *yawn*

Maybe that's unfair. There were definitely several things I liked about this episode:

1. I love Spike. Practicing his apology on the Buffy dummy was hilarious. I also liked Spike trying to pump Xander for any info on how Buffy was taking her breakup with Riley. And copping a Buffy feel during the fight scene. And telling the troll that he could probably find babies to eat in the hospital.


2. Anya never really has been part of the gang, and this episode finally addresses her ex-demon-not-really-one-of-us status. It makes sense that Willow is concerned that Anya is eventually going to hurt Xander in a big way. And it also makes sense that Anya feels threatened by Xander's friends. But we knew all that already.

3. The Buffy and the nun thing at the beginning was cute.

4. Is it me, or does Buffy not seem all that broken up about Riley? I mean, she's teary-eyed and she's upset about the possibility of anyone else breaking up, but it's not anything like her breakup with Angel. Right?

Bits and pieces:

— Marc Blucas is no longer in the opening credits. Guess he really is gone... although I'll bet he shows up sooner or later as a guest star.

— "Hello, gay now."

— What's with the nun in the opening scene having a lock of hair hanging out of her wimple? And do nuns even wear those all encompassing wimples any more?

— Why did Giles have to go all the way to England to check with the Watchers Council about Glory? Or was that just a plot device to get him out of the way so that we could see his reaction when he came back and found the shop destroyed?

— If Dawn didn't know before that something is going on, she sure does now.

Quotes:

Buffy: "So, um, about being a nun... you know, um, with the whole abjuring the company of men... you know, how's that working for you? The abjuring."
Nun: "Um ... good."
Buffy: "Do you have to be like super-religious?"
Nun: "Well, uh..."
Buffy: "How's the food?"

Giles: "The resources that the Watchers Council has at their disposal... I mean the Central Library alone is just..."
Buffy: "Don't talk about the books again. You get all ... and sometimes there's drool."

Willow: "We can come by between classes. Usually I use that time to copy over my class notes with a system of different colored pens, but it's been pointed out to me that that's, you know, insane."
Tara: "I said 'quirky'."
(I myself was obsessive about class notes and I quote this one a lot.)

Giles: "Anya, while I completely trust you to take care of the inventory and the money, um ... dealing with people requires a certain, uh ... finesse."
Anya: "I have finesse! I have finesse coming out of my bottom!"

Willow: "I'm not stealing. I'm just taking things without paying for them. In what twisted dictionary is that stealing?"

Tara: "Willow says that things always happen for a reason."
Buffy: "But you ever notice people only say that about bad things?"

Olaf: "Barmaid! Bring me stronger ale, and some plump, succulent babies to eat."
Xander: "I'm gonna run and get Buffy. Or maybe you could fight him."
Spike: "Yeah, I could do that, but I'm paralyzed with not caring very much."
Olaf: "You there! Do you know where there are babies?"
Spike: (to Xander) "What do you think, the hospital?"


Willow: "I wish Buffy was here."
Buffy: (comes in) "I'm here."
Willow: "I wish I had a million dollars. (The others look at her) Just checking."

Anya: "I would never hurt Xander! You really think I would do that?"
Willow: "Anya, it's what you do. You spent what, a thousand years hurting men? You got your 'thousand years of hurting men' gold watch?"
Anya: "How can I help?"
Willow: "Distract him from Buffy. Piss him off."
Anya: "I don't know how."
Willow: "Anya, I have faith in you. There is no one you cannot piss off."

Anya: "Hey Olaf! You're as inadequate a troll as you were a boyfriend. You're hairy, and unattractive, and even women trolls are put off by your various odors. Your menacing stance is merely alarming. And your roar is less than full-throated."

Giles: "I cringe to think what the place would have looked like if I'd been away for longer than three days."
Buffy: "Well, maybe we would have had time to clean it up. You know, if Willow used some magicks to help."
Giles: "Yes, 'cause nothing could possibly go wrong with that."

Two out of a possible four stakes,

Billie
---
Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.

18 comments:

  1. hey billie, I think that you're review of triangle is slightly unfair. The plot is hilarious with all the odd pairings and the troll. Spike is fantastic in this episode with the practising the apology and helping the disaster victims for buffy! Admittedly I am a HUGE Spike fan and love the whole awkwardness thing between him and Buffy. Sarah Michelle Gellar is also excellent in her acting with the breaking down in tears so easily and the scene with her and Tara is brilliant. Just thought you should know and personally I would give it 4/4 stakes. Love almost all your reviews and am a huge fan.

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  2. I liked this one too, in large part because of the troll. He was a nice (and very amusing) change of pace from the usual run of scowling demons and vampires. The scene with Xander where the troll tries to get him to "choose" was hilarious and scary at the same time. The troll really meant business, but he was endearingly amiable about it.

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  3. Notice how Anya, near the end, offers her life in order to save Xander. She really does love him.

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  4. This is indeed a boring episode. And I don't like how they on the one hand pretend that Buffy is really broken up about Riley, and on the other hand play her grief for laughs. Maybe they should just have admitted that Buffy/Riley didn't really work and have Buffy come to a surprising revelation that she really doesn't care all that much that he's gone.

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  5. How can you guys not love this episode? It's hilarious. Troll humor, Buffy crying over the possibility of Xander and Anya's breakup? Quality Anya time. Willow: I wish Buffy were here Buffy: I'm here!

    It's just such a cutie patootie episode. Filler, certainly, but good filler. And I'm happy they didn't let Buffy be all wallowy and angsty over Riley's departure. Comedically depressed Buffy is much more entertaining. I met a nun and she let me try on her wimple.

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  6. I liked the choice to play it for laughs as well, sunbunny. We've seen enough Buffy relationship angst for several lifetimes!

    I like this episode. It sort of highlights the double standard the gang always seem to apply to Spike and Anya (no one seems to care about all the people Anya murdered over the centuries) while at the same time pointing out the differences between them (Anya loves Xander and would sacrifice herself for him - though it's still pretty Xander-specific and how is that really different from Spike?).

    Also, ysy for Jerry from ER!

    When I watched this and taped it on VHS, I missed the beginning. Somehow I have never got around to catching up outside of my old VHS video, so the nun scene is one of the only scenes in the whole of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (along with all of 'Hell's Bells' and 'Seeing Red' from season 6, which I won't discuss here because spoilers) that I haven't ever seen!

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  7. I LOVED this episode for all the reasons sunbunny said above. My only criticism would be - whose bright idea was Buffy's awful lopsided pigtail hairdo?

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  8. The blonde lock escaping from the nun's wimple was supposed to make us momentarily think it was Buffy HERSELF.....so broken up about Riley that she joined a convent.

    And yes, some orders still wear more traditional habits like this--but that errant lock of hair would be a definite no-no. Maybe this nun wasn't so ready, after all, to abjure the company of her hairdresser. ;-)

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  9. Troll!

    Olaf makes this episode perfect. I always smile when Abraham Benrubi is onscreen in anything.

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  10. I enjoyed this one too. Anya is a favorite of mine. I like her unfiltered look at the world. Its a perfect way to poke at the Scoobies and their foibles kind of indirectly.

    I'm too happy Riley has gone to have any patience with sad Buffy moping over him so I'm very glad they played it for laughs. Her sudden and inappropriate investment in Xander & Anya's relationship was perfect.

    Ren - I think Buffy's pigtails were a nod to Riley's departure. That was a break-up hairdo if I've ever seen one.

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  11. I like this one as well, simply because of the scene with Spike and the Buffy dummy. When he starts again, I always laugh out loud.

    Jane -- break-up hairdo? LOL

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  12. One of my favorite bits of this episode was the chatter between Xander and Spike about women. We always see women talking about the men in their lives in a serious way but men, not so much. I also admire how they manage to balance the comedy, pathos and danger that is Spike.

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  13. There's so much fun in this episode, I agree with the general consensus of comments. My personal favorite moment, as usual, comes from Spike. It's when he suggests the hospital as a place to get babies, its just too funny!

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  14. Just popping in to say I was starting Season 4 Episode 20 Yoko Factor and saw "previously on Buffy", then "previously on Angel". Argh! Now iI realize I have to go back and watch all of Angel. See you guys next year, lol.

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  15. Still don't like it. There is some weird overacting, especially on Gellar's part. Her hysterics about Anya and Xander breaking up was so fake. And Olaf is just dumb. Compared to most of Angel's flashbacks I thought all of Anya's backstory unconvincing and lame.

    Best scene goes again to Spike. His rehearsal is hilarious.

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  16. I think this episode is hilarious. The car scene when Willow gets accidentally spell-less always makes me lolling.

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  17. This is one of my favorites. So funny and highlights how great Emma Caulfield is as Anya. Four out of four baby eating trolls from me.

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  18. Buffy getting comically overemotional made me think something went wrong with that spell Willow was performing with Anya's interruptions, it only hit me near the end of the episode when it never comes up again that it was really Buffy herself lol. It's kinda funny, and pretty cute to think on it now but it definitely didn't feel like her.
    I hated her pigtails and wish she stuck with the hairstyle she had at the beginning of Fool For Love when she got staked. So pretty there

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