Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Go Fish - S02E20 Review

GO FISH
SEASON 2 EPISODE 20

Ooh time for another Xander episode! Well, sort of. He's the focus, but he doesn't really get to do as much as I'd like in this one, and quite frankly this is one of the more sub par Xander eps. We get a little variety in this one though, as it opens up with the gang at a beach-side victory party for the Sunnydale swim team. Xander makes a good point right out of the gate: in what Bizarro world does the swim team matter? Well, I guess the same Bizarro world where said team turns into fish monsters. But while Xander, Willow, and Cordelia are being friends by the fire, Buffy is off by herself. And she's moping. Surprisingly. Much like the last episode, a random guy comes up to hit on her, except this time she falls for it because he's...on the swim team, I guess?

As Buffy mulls over hanging out with swim team guy named Cameron, she sees wimpy Jonathan getting picked on by the other swim team guys, and pulls one guy named Dodd off of him, making fun of his tattoo. Dodd and this other swim guy named Gage (and yes, that's the main character from Prison Break; thankfully his acting...greatly improved in between roles) go to cool off down by the beach, away from everyone else. Which means they die. Or Dodd supposedly does anyway, when Gage smells something funny and leaves, not seeing Dodd's skin (and nothing else) and a monster walking away into the sewers. I've gotta say, even though the skin suits are really fake-looking, it's still a pretty gross idea.

Meanwhile at school, Willow is teaching computer lab and all of a sudden Gage is in her class, and failing while he's at is. After class, Snyder stops by to basically tell Willow to pass him even though he doesn't do any work, because the swim team has a shot at the state championship and it's THAT vital to the school's morale. But he does ask Willow to finish teaching for the rest of the school year, so that's an upside. Willow reports this to Xander and Cordy in the hall, and they have a talk, with Cordy on the side of "winners get special privileges". I only bring it up because there's a really bad dub when Cordy says "kept slaves, remember?". I just like pointing those out.

Meanwhile, Buffy is being bored to tears by Cameron in his car, when he makes his move and turns on the creep switch. When he threatens to basically rape her, she rightfully twists his arm and breaks his nose, getting her in trouble with Snyder. They all head to the nurse's office (and yes, the nurse is the maid from Two and a Half Men. Her acting...remains the same) and the swim coach comes in, telling Cameron to hit the steam room. Later on in the library, Buffy is ranting to Giles, Will, and Xand, who are investigating Dodd's eviscerated body. Buffy even indulges in on Xander's jokes, which is a rare thing for her to do; usually she seems annoyed.

That night Xander runs into Cameron in the hallway on his way to get a snack, and the two share some insults before Cameron heads into the cafeteria. Xander then hears a scream and runs in the cafe, finding Cameron's skin and a giant fish monster. Later on in the library, he's getting Cordy to draw what it looks like. Cordy can draw? That's the first time it's mentioned, and I do believe the last as well. Buff and Will come in and say they think someone is picking off the best swimmers on the swim team, meaning Gage is next in line. There's also a really forced line about how Buffy is starting to speak more technically, like Giles. It's weird and out of place. Willow also gets the idea that Jonathan is maybe the perpetrator since the swim team always picks on him. She questions him and he admits to peeing in the pool, but not the whole summoning fish demons part (ironically, he WILL become friends with a demon summoner later on in the series).

We get a scene where Buffy is really poorly spying on Gage. This is the second time Buffy's tried to do spy work, the first time being in I Robot, You Jane. Suffice to say, she is awful at covert ops and gets spotted almost immediately at the Bronze. She first tries to pass her off as a groupie, but when that fails she tells him he's in danger. That doesn't work, so he heads outside, running into Angel. Why is Angel there? He really has nothing better to do than occasionally stalk Buffy. He bites Gage but spits him out because he seems to taste bad, and then Buffy storms by to save the day, pulling her...hair pin out to use as a stake? Is that thing really made of wood? Angel retreats and Gage finally accepts Buffy's protection.

The next day Buffy and Willow are at Gage's swim meet, and for some reason Gage is really childishly infatuated with her now, waving to her in the stands. Buffy seems to think that Gage had steroids in his blood and Angel didn't like that very much. Then Cordy gets distracted by a studly young man who just made the swim team, and then she realizes it's Xander. I guess his face wasn't the first thing she saw. He explains that he's undercover, and is going to figure out what's going on from the inside. Later on he heads out of the steam room into the hall where Buffy is waiting, saying Gage is right behind him. Then there's a pointless yet cute little scene where he "tags" her. Improv, maybe? I don't know. She hears Gage scream and rushes into the locker room and she actually sees what's really going on. Gage rips his skin off, becoming one of the creatures from the black lagoon. She fights for a minute, before getting saved by the coach as the monsters escape.

At the nurse's office, Buffy and Giles ask the coach what's going on, and he says he has no idea. Not very convincingly, if you ask me. But they seem to buy it, and the Buffster asks Xander to do some recon and see what they're taking. He might be worse than spying than Buffy is; he's the most conspicuous person ever! But somehow they don't catch on, and tell him that the drugs are in the steam. The steam that he's currently soaking in. Meanwhile the nurse and coach are arguing, and it's obvious that they're both in on it. He leads her into the back room, where he pushes her into the monster pit, and they eat her.

Back at the library, Xander is freaking out at the thought of turning into a fish man. Buffy then heads to interrogate the coach and he flips his evil switch. He's one of the worst and nonsensical villains in the whole series...or maybe I just never had any school spirit. He pulls out a gun and makes Buffy get into the monster pit where they're going to...rape her? That's a little dark, but I guess if they were pervs as humans they'd be pervs a fish men too. Meanwhile Cordy mistakes one of the fish monsters for Xander at the pool and has a really silly speech about how she'll stay with him even though he's a fish. Of course, she's an idiot and he's not a fish. The two head back to the library to find that Buffy hasn't come back yet, so Xander heads to the coach's to find her.

Buffy fights the fish men in the monster pool in a reeeeeally badly shot fight scene. You can't make a fight in water look good; fights in water have never looked good. Above the pool, Xander wrestles the coach for his gun, actually showing some fighting skill. I mean it can't be too hard to fight off a 60 year old, but still, good on him. He reaches down and grabs Buffy, pulling her up from the pit. He's been saving her quite a bit, lately! The coach comes up from behind them and cracks Xand on the head but Buffy sweep kicks him and he falls into the pit. And the fish guys eat him...or rape him, as it's sort of implied. Either way can't be fun.

During the wrap-up, Xander explains that he and the rest of the swimmers who aren't monsters are getting plasma transfusions, and that should clear the whole thing right up. It's also interesting to note that they're either sitting in a weird spot that they don't usually sit, or the set is dressed up differently for some reason, I can't quite tell. Giles comes by to say that all of the fish monsters escaped and Buffy says they're probably headed home (i.e. the ocean). Then there's a really weird scene of them frolicking in the water with a really creepy score in the background.

Overall, while this isn't really a bad episode, it's probably my least favorite of the season. There's just not much here, really. The plot is fairly dull, there's basically no character development, and for a Xander episode there really aren't many standout Xander lines. I get it though, they wanted a silly episode before the big two-parter season finale. Get ready, we're going to get pretty dark again.

**