Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Passion - S02E17 Review

PASSION
SEASON 2 EPISODE 17

You knew this one was coming; this is probably the darkest episode of the season, and that's including the already dark Surprise and Innocence. Luckily this is also one of the best of season as well. Open up at the Bronze on a hypnotic song and a narration by none other than Angelus. He's talking about passion while stalking a fun-having Buffy (who is dancing with Xander again, but not in a sexy way this time). Somehow the gang walks right by Angel biting a girl, but doesn't see him, which is kind of sloppy of them. He follows Buffy home, waits until she goes to bed, and sneaks in like a creeper before spouting some more about being a slave to passion.

Buffy awakes in the morning to find a pretty well-drawn picture of her sleeping. He must have been in there for awhile, and did he bring his own art supplies or just mooch off of Buffy's? This wigs her out considerably so she asks Giles if it's possible to find a spell to reverse Angel's invitation to her house. Then Jonathan and a random girl walk into the library looking for books. This is like only the second time in the series that people have actually come to the library looking for a book. I guess no one ever has book reports to do at Sunnydale. They continue the talk outside and Cordy brings up a good point: why not just kill her? Giles correctly assumes that Angel's just trying to hurt her as much as possible and Buffy starts to worry about her mom.

In computer class, Jenny asks Willow to cover her class since she's going to be late the next day and Willow geeks out with joy. Then Buffy and Giles show up, and Buffy ignores Jenny once again even though Jenny tries to be nice this time. Once the two girls leave, Giles comes into to talk to Jenny and it just so happens that she might have a spell to keep Angel out of the house. Then the two finally have it out about Jenny's betrayal, and Jenny lets it slip that she's in love with Giles. This seems to perk him up a bit, but he still says she needs to apologize to Buffy. At night, Buffy finally admits that she was dating Angel but that they broke up and to stay away from him. And she takes it surprisingly well, considering her usual overreactions. Later Willow's on the phone to Buffy and she finds that Angel's been into her room and killed all her fish. Then she hightails it over to Buffy's house and the two stay up all night with stakes and there's even a chain of garlic in the background. I don't think garlic is ever actually addressed on the show, so I'm not sure what it actually does.

At Spike's, Dru and Angel are patronizing Spike yet again. I sense a revolution a'coming. I really like this stuff; they do such a good job making Spike sympathetic even though he's a douchebag. Dru has a vision about "someone" restoring Angel's soul, and then we see Jenny walk into a magic store. She asks the somewhat phony owner for an Orb of Thesulah, which she plans to use to act as a container for Angel's soul. It's also revealed that she's working on a computer program to translate the Angel Soul Restoration Ritual (that's not the actual name, sadly) into English. Man, 90s computers can do anything!

The next day, Buffy, Xand, and Willow are walking and they see Jenny show up, to Willow's disappointment. She's was obviously looking forward to the whole teaching thing. Buffy finally goes over to address Jenny, and says that Giles misses her, and that she doesn't want him to be lonely. Other than that, she's still kind of mean to her, but it's progress I guess. That night, Buff, Willow, and Cordy are doing the uninviting ritual on Willow's house and Willow makes an offhand comment about seeing Xander do the Snoopy dance every Christmas. Keep that in mind for WAY later, it's worth it! Then they find another picture on the bed, this time of Buffy's mom.

Joyce arrives at home from getting groceries with Angel waiting in the yard. He acts super creepy, though not aggressive...just really stalkery. As Joyce gets in the house, Angel says he hasn't been able to sleep since the night they had sex. Busted! But Angel was a little too cocky, and Buffy's inside just having finished the ritual, slamming the door in his face. Meanwhile at school, Jenny is working on that re-souling ritual when Giles comes in. She asks to see Giles later and he invites her to his house, and it seems like all is well. It's interesting to note that the program is called TranslatorPRO. I have nothing to add to that.

The program actually does work, and she prints it out, as well as saves it to a floppy on her desk. But then she looks up to see Angel sitting in the room with her. She asks how Angel got in which is sort of weird, because he's been in the school several times before. It's clearly established he can go in. He takes the Orb of Thesulah and hurls it against the wall, shattering it as well as smashing the computer and burning the printout. Then he sets his sights on Jenny, who takes off running. She almost gets away, but somehow through vampire super speed, he appears ahead of her. And instead of biting her he callously snaps her neck like she's nothing. It's a really brutal moment, and the first instance of a main character getting killed.

Then at Buffy's there's a jarringly comical scene involving Willow and Giles, and then the big sex talk between Buffy and Joyce. My favorite part of the talk is how Buffy just waves away the spell with Angel being really superstitious. Oh and there's an actual sweet moment between the two after it's done. When Giles gets home, he finds a rose on his door, a bottle of champagne, and opera music blaring loudly from upstairs. This scene is perfect; we know what's going to happen, but seeing Giles get all excited and checking his hair all smiley makes it so much worse. He follows candles and rose petals up the stairs to find a dead Jenny lifeless on the bed and the look on his face is torture.

He calls Buffy's house to tell everyone the news as Angel makes another narration. We wisely don't hear any of it; we watch from Angel's POV sitting outside. Watching him revel in everyone's breakdown is so great, and a real testament to how despicable David Boreanaz is playing him. The gang decides to head to Giles to see if he's alright, while we see Giles preparing some weapons to take on Angel himself. The gang sneaks in afterwards, looking for Giles, and they deduce that he's gone after Angel.

At Spike's, the villains are arguing once again when Giles tosses a Molotov, setting the place on fire, shooting Angel in the shoulder with a crossbow, and then taking a baseball bat, setting it on fire, and beating Angel about the face. Needless to say, it's an amazing Giles moment. Dru tries to help Angel, but Spike pulls her back just because he likes to see Angel get beaten up. Eventually Angel does get the upper hand and knocks Giles out, but luckily Buffy's there to help out. She fights Angel for awhile and then lets him get away, opting to save Giles from the fire instead. Giles turns his frustrations on Buffy after she saves him, so she socks him right in the face. Then they both have a good cry together. Finally, the last Angel narration plays as Giles visits Jenny's grave. Willow is asked to fill in for Jenny in the computer class and as she goes to her desk, she unknowingly hits the floppy disk with the translation, causing it to fall off the desk through a crack.

Overall this is a great episode, but quite the downer. It's definitely one of David Boreanaz's best performances of the season, as well as Anthony Head's. It firmly establishes Angelus as the most evil thing ever and takes a big risk in killing off a major character of the series. It's another must see, but lacks the typical lightheartedness of other early episodes in the series.

*****