I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU
SEASON 2 EPISODE 19
We open up on the Bronze yet again with a female pop-ish band playing, before panning to the Buffster. Sounds like many openers before it, but the unique thing is that Buffy is at the railing of the second floor watching, which is sort of new, I suppose. She gets hit on by a guy named Ben (no relation to Ben from Season 5) and this guy could take some fashion lessons from Xander. That shirt is Goodwill-worthy. Despite him seeming like a nice guy and legitimately interested in going to the Sadie Hawkins dance, she pretty much blows him off. She then meets Willow downstairs, who is pushing awfully hard for Buffy to get into "date mode" before Buffy recaps the Angel incident. But Willow retorts that love can be nice...
And we see two random teens in the empty Sunnydale halls and the love there does not seem to be nice at all. They're in the middle of a big argument in which the girl is breaking up with the guy, but as the girl walks away, the guy pulls out a gun. But before he can shoot, Buffy comes in on her way to the library, and flips the guy to the ground. As she interrogates the guy, a janitor comes up to see what the commotion is, and the couple seems to be utterly confused. Interestingly, the gun also seems to have disappeared. I really like this setup; we see this scene a few times throughout the episode and it's really cool to see it portrayed differently by different actors. Buffy gets called to Snyder's office the next day, and he of course lays the blame completely on her. Or he tries to, despite having no proof whatsoever. You've gotta love to hate Snyder; he's such a little rat. He steps out for a moment and a book fall off the shelf in the room, but Buffy doesn't seem to think too much of it at first.
Meanwhile, after computer lab, Giles comes to check on Willow, who is really loving teaching in Mrs. Calendar's old position. She even gets the class laughing with a presumably funny programming joke. The very mention of Jenny visibly hurts Giles, and while we're at it...I find it funny that Angel destroyed only the monitor in Passion. He didn't actually get the computer; so in theory, those resurrection files should be fine. Willow also explains that she found lots of sites about Paganism and magic, and this is where Willow's interest in the dark arts is first peaked. This is seemingly small thing now, but will have a lasting effect on her character for the rest of the series. Also it's amusing to note that in the background, Willow seems to be abusing her ability to give detention; the little Nazi gave it to like four kids!
While in history, a subject that Buffy has repeatedly expressed hate for, she slips into a dream-like state where suddenly she's in the 50s. And her grandpa almost hits her with a car, then her mom falls in love with her...okay she's just in class. And of course they have to shoehorn in the word 'dreamy' because that's the easiest way to tell if you're in the 50s. She sees a rather inappropriately tender conversations between a jock James (keep in mind that he's a 50s jock though, who reads Hemingway) and the teacher, Grace. But as soon as she's taken there, she wakes up back in the 90s. Although she knows something's a bit off as the teacher accidentally writes "Don't walk away from me, bitch" on the chalkboard instead of the boring mumbo jumbo he's spouting. I like the guy in class who goes "Do you see what he wrote?" No. No I didn't.
That night, the janitor from earlier gets possessed by one of the spirits and the lovers arguments scene happens again. Only this time the role of the female lover is played by a middle aged teacher who barely even knows the janitor. This time we get to see the scene in its entirety, and we find out that it doesn't end well for the woman. Giles hears the commotion of the two fighting as well as a whisper saying "I need you", thus concluding that it must be the ghost of Jenny. He arrives just in time to see the janitor shoot the poor teacher to fall over the balcony to her death. Giles tackles the guy, who ends up just as confused as the kids from the first encounter. Personally, I think this iteration of the scene is the worst; neither of the actors are really convincing enough to pull off the emotion of the scene.
Meanwhile, since Giles burned the factory up, Angel, Spike, and Dru have been forced to relocate, this time to an old mansion. It actually reminds me of the mansion in Jumanji, after it gets merged with the jungle. Dru loves it but Spike is not amused; he's also not a fan of Angel's endless number of wheelchair puns. The next day at school, Giles explains to the rest of the gang that the poltergeist is Jenny. It's obvious that Giles is wrong from the get-go, and they all pretty much call him out on it. But he rejects their arguments, even though he probably knows on some level that they're right. He just really wants to be able to put Jenny at rest; when in reality she already is. Willow does some investigating, finding the newspaper article detailing the murder/suicide of the couple from the 50s. Buffy shows more contempt for James while Willow is a bit sympathetic; presumably this is because she feels guilty that Angel is out there killing people largely because of her.
Later at lunch, it's spaghetti day! How is that relevant? The spaghetti turns into snakes! That's a neat trick, I guess. It'd be funny one, maybe two times. Cordy even gets bitten on the face, though it doesn't seem to be a poisonous bite or anything too awful, though it does leave a mark on her perfect face! Snyder has a conversation with a cop and it's obvious this time that Snyder is fully aware of the Hellmouth, and quivers at the thought of a meeting with a Mayor. I like that the mayor is being built up so early. At Buffy's the gang goes over a ritual to bind the spirit, which involves each of them standing in a different spot around the school to form a triangle. When they get into the school, all the doors lock behind them. The ghost means business!
Wandering the school, Willow runs into Giles, who is too obsessed with contacting Jenny that he doesn't even question why she's there. Then the spirit starts to mess with all of them. Buffy sees James's rotting face, Cordy's face gets all scarred up, and Willow starts getting sucked into the floor, though Giles comes and saves her just in time. This finally makes Giles admit that the spirit isn't Jenny, as the group performs the ritual. It doesn't quite work, and instead summons a giant horde of wasps (I never quite understood why) and the gang narrowly escapes being stung to death.
Buffy starts to interact the scene and Angel mocks her until he's pulled in as well. Although interestingly enough, James sees Buffy as the relatable one, and he possesses her, with Angel ending up in the female role. Sarah and David are stellar in this scene; they channel the parts so well, it's definitely the best rendition of the scene. It's also funny to hear Buffy call Angel a bitch, and to see Angel act so femininely. Buffy shoots Angel and he topples over the balcony, and Buffy goes to kill herself, but she's stopped by Angel (who of course didn't die). And so the endless cycle is broken, and the spirits are put to rest; then Buffy and Angel realize they're kissing and Angel bolts.
Afterwards, everything seems normal, and Buffy is confounded at how Grace could forgive James for killing her. This is the only thing I don't really like about the episode; it doesn't really resolve anything for Buffy. But that's a rather small gripe. Meanwhile at Angel's, he's washing all of the "love" out of himself. He takes Dru to go kill someone, leaving Spike back at the mansion. Once they're gone, Spike rises from his wheelchair, revealing he's been faking for some time and that he's got some revenge in store.
Overall, this is a pretty great standalone episode with some fantastic acting by Sarah and David. It also sort of wraps up Jenny's character; or she at least isn't mentioned as much past this point. It also brings the tension of Angel and Spike to an all time high, providing some great foreshadowing to the finale.
****
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