Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Dark Age - S02E08 Review

THE DARK AGE
SEASON 2 EPISODE 8

Here's a pretty important episode, mythos wise! We open up on a guy in a suit frantically looking for Giles around school...at night. But before he can get to Giles, he's killed by the monster of the week. This monster is actually by far one of the most creepy in the show, the makeup on it is really great and degenerative looking. Then the monster turns into a puddle, because...scary!

Giles has a nightmare about some kind of ritual, and it's obvious that this is a Giles episode; perhaps the first real one of the series. At school, the gang is wondering what Giles was like when was little, before Giles talks about the new mission; he and Buffy have to stop a hospital transport carrying blood because they've vampire targets. It's really a cool idea, kind of like an armored car robbery for the undead. Jenny also ropes Xander and Willow into helping out the computer class on the weekend, at Xander's reluctance. The best part of the scene is when the gang is reveling at how cute Jenny and Giles are until they start thinking about them "getting together", then everyone's face turns to disgust. It's a lot like that moment where they go from laughing to depressed at the end of I Robot, You Jane; little callbacks like that are the best!

So Jenny and Giles flirt some more and Giles gets a big date; although honestly Jenny here comes off a little creepy. It's the eyes I think, she's going for bedroom eyes but they're a little crazy. Giles gets to the library and the police are waiting for him to take him to identify his friend, who turns out to be an old friend from London. Meanwhile at the hospital, takes on the three vamps at the dropoff, and gets rid of two of them (while one escapes) with help from Angel. The Buffster's worried about Giles so she goes to see him and it looks like he hasn't shaved or showered in like a week. Apparently his manners have rotted off as well as he pretty much blows her off. Inside he's finding out that all his old friends are dying off and only he and Ethan Rayne remain. I'd also like to point out that all the music from the awful Season 2 menu are from this episode; good music, but man oh man does it get old after awhile.

Giles's friend awakens in the morgue as the yellow-eyed demon, kills the orderly, and escapes. Meanwhile, Xander and Cordy are complaining in computer class. You just know Willow's loving it. This scene leads to the funniest line in the episode, as Buffy shows up. She's come to warn Jenny about Giles, as she's been wigging out the whole time.

Jenny: Alright guys, the first thing we're gonna do is...Buffy?
Xander: Huh? Did I fall asleep already?

Buff checks out the library in the back; somewhere that we almost never see. She finds Ethan snooping around back there and easily subdues him, and presumably pumps him for info. She calls Giles and asks what the Mark of Eyegon is, and Giles tells her to get out of there, right about when Giles's dead friend attacks. The rest of the group arrives to restrain Ethan while Buffy locks the zombie-ish guy in the library cage. Giles shows up soon after, and has to live crazy close to the school. Or he's the fastest man in existence.

Giles and Ethan have a little spat until the zombie breaks out, knocking Jenny unconscious. Buffy wails on him a little bit until he turns to jelly like the one from the beginning. It infects Jenny, but somehow nobody notices. No one even sees her do her crazy eyes thing. Ethan escapes during the struggle and Buffy gets all confrontational with Giles before he decides to take Jenny home to rest at his place. They find out that Eyegon is a demon that can possess unconscious and dead people, and that Jenny is probably the recipient of the possession. At Giles's place, Jenny/Eyegon starts to come onto him, and once he rejects it, it comes clean. This is by far the creepiest part; the voice is actually pretty well-done, and the makeup is great.

Buffy shows up and tussles with it before it escapes. It IS kind of dumb that it jumps headlong out the window though. Giles then tells Buffy of how he fell in with a bad crowd in England that practiced occult magic. They summoned Eyegon to get high, and one of them ended up getting killed. It's a great speech; it really shows how much of a wall Giles put up in order to escape his old life. Buffy shows up at Ethan's old shop to protect him, but he gets the drop on her, tranquilizing her. He tattoos her with the Mark of Eyegon to throw it off his scent. Classy guy!

Willow, Cordy, and Xander are trying to find ways to stop Eyegon, and Cordy and Xander start to argue. One of the weirdest lines ever: Cordy says that Xander needs a "year's supply of acne cream". There's not a single zit on Xander, not even a fake one! It's a really baffling line. Willow puts her foot down and gets all mad again. Showing some stones, Will; she then figures out a solution and conveniently doesn't explain it. Eyegon shows up at Ethan's shop, tossing Ethan out of the way and heading for Buffy, then Giles shows up, attempting to sacrifice himself.

Then Angel shows up, choking Eyegon out of Jenny, forcing it into his own body. Then Eyegon and Angel's inner demon have a little battle, with Angelus winning, of course. Ethan escapes again, the little rat, but all seems to be well. Until the next day, Giles tries to comfort Jenny, but she kind of turns him down. She definitely seems rattled by the whole experience. Giles and Buff have a heart to heart about how Giles is a real boy, after all. It's a sweet exchange; their father/daughter relationship really drives a lot of the show.

Overall this is an effective episode, one that develops Giles a lot beyond his exposition-giving caricature that he was initially stamped with, and also manages to be a little creepy.. Thanks to Anthony Head's great portrayal and episodes like this, Giles quickly becomes one of the most enduring and sympathetic characters in the series. It's a good character-building episode, and it sets up a foundation for darker Giles-related stuff in the future.

****