TED
SEASON 2 EPISODE 11
We open up with Buffy, Willow, and Xander walking home, recapping the stuff that happened during the last episode. They get to Buffy's house to find the door open so Buffy goes in to check out the situation, walking in on her mom making out with a guy. This guy is Ted, played by the late great John Ritter. Everyone seems to love him but Buffy. He quickly wins over Xander with his great pizza-cooking, and Willow geeks out over some computer software that he's going to give to her. I like that even though Ted seems really nice, there is something just a LITTLE bit off about him that's not really called out in any way. It's very subtle little things in Ritter's performance.
Buffy insists that she's fine with the two of them dating, then immediately goes to take her passive aggression out on some vamps. Giles notices her rage and asks what's going on, to which she clams up. The next day at school, Xand and Willow come down on Ted's side, while Buffy still thinks something's fishy. Next thing you know, Ted shows up, having just installed new software at the school. My favorite thing is that he gives Willow the software in the form of floppy disks. Ahh I miss the 90s! He invites the gang to go miniature golfing, to which Xander sort of presumptuously agrees.
Giles goes to check on Jenny to see how she is, and she basically tells him that his worry is not necessary. Poor Giles; when are these crazy kids just going to get together? That night, Buffy is ranting about Ted to Angel as she doctors him up. She talks about how she wishes her dad would come back, and Angel...makes a pretty good psychiatrist actually. At the golf game, Ted really crosses a line and yells at Buffy for cheating, even going as far to threaten to slap her. But of course he reverts right back to happy Ted when everyone else shows up. What a slimeball! I love his term "beg to differ"; it seems really parental and douchey.
That night, Ted makes dinner for the women and Buff is fed up with him. He basically makes Buffy look like the bad guy by being super sweet when she's around. She ditches her house to go patrol but has no luck so she comes back to find Ted waiting in her room. He threatens to blackmail her, but when she refuses to cooperate he hits her, giving her reason to wail on him. Of course her mom only sees the part that Buffy inflicts. Then she knocks him down the stairs and kills him. They get called in by the police, who question Buffy. She can't catch a break! Actually, I always hate the "hero gets questioned by police" thing in movies and TV. It's handled okay here though I guess.
Buffy's obviously shaken by this and the people at school make no attempt to hide the fact that they're talking about her. Will and Xand are the only ones that seem to understand. They try to console her but she's pretty guilt-ridden. She also picked this day to wear overalls for perhaps the first time. No relevance there, just pointing it out. Meanwhile, the gang all tries to dig up some dirt on Ted to vindicate Buffy, while Giles decides to go on patrol in Buff's place. Xander finds some cookies in his bag and eats them, suddenly changing his whole attitude to super mellow, making Willow suspicious.
Buffy gets home and tries to talk to her mother, who is still upset. It's a great Sarah moment; her almost-crying face is brilliant. Gets me every time! Back at the lab, Willow finds a tranquilizer/ecstasy mixture in the cookies, explaining the zen-ness that everyone felt around Ted. Cordy actually does some good in this episode, finding Ted's address. This is probably the first time she's ever been useful!
Meanwhile Buffy's at home, she tries to escape through the window, and Ted comes up behind her. He tries to choke her but she stabs him in the arm, revealing a bunch of wires beneath. Then he starts hilariously short-circuiting, spouting off nonsensical things. He knocks out Buff and heads down to see Joyce. Xand, Willow, and Cordy break into Ted's place, finding the bodies of all his other wives stashed in a creepy hidden room. It's actually really effectively done by not showing the bodies; Xander's expression and the music really carry the moment and make it rather creepy. Color me impressed!
Ted reveals himself to Joyce, claiming that an intern found him at the morgue. She's at first overjoyed, but Ted then starts to get irrationally angry, losing his grip as he short-circuits. This is where Ritter really lets loose; sure the robot thing is silly, but he sells it for all it's worth and makes it pretty frightening. Ted knocks Joyce out (so she doesn't see Buffy kill him, presumably) while Buff breaks out of her room, sneaks up on him, and smashes him with a frying pan. Then he asks her to play Parcheesi, and she's so offended that she hits him again. I'm just kidding, I don't even know what Parcheesi is. But he's broken, either way, and it turns out that the real Ted was dying and created a super robo Ted that held women hostage. Then the Buffster catches Giles and Jenny making out in the library, bringing it all full-circle.
Overall this is a pretty effective episode because it mostly plays on the fear that a seemingly normal guy can turn out to be evil as well as touching on the idea of Buffy killing a human. Of course it does lose a little something when Ted's revealed to be a robot, but even that has it's creepiness. It's a pretty good episode; it's a little story-heavy, but it definitely has it's moments.
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