Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Homecoming - S03E05 Review

HOMECOMING
SEASON 3 EPISODE 5

This episode starts off mid-conversation at the Bronze with the whole gang talking about the logistics of going to the big homecoming dance.  Buffy stares off into the distance, not really listening.  Surely she has other things on her mind, like her un-undead boyfriend coming back from hell as a wild animal.  For instance.  She contemplates not going but then Scott comes in and we're reminded that she already has a boyfriend; nice boring old Scott (who we'll hear way later in Season 7 wasn't so nice after all).  Scott asks if she wants to go and she acquiesces, but then splits.  She heads to the mansion to check on Angel, who has upgraded to wearing shirts.  That's a plus, even if it's all the way unbuttoned.  He's also back to pretty much normal; still in pain, obviously.  I also like that he shows immediate remorse for what he did to Giles.  The whole torture aspect has been played down, but it's nice that it's still being acknowledged, even subtly.  She mentions that she's dating someone new and says he's a "nice, solid guy".  But in the ol' cut to something ironic fashion, he dumps her at school.  He says she's gotten distant and cold, and hey, he's right.  Although that relationship was going nowhere anyway; there was pretty much zero chemistry.  But as Scott walks away, Mr. Trick and some others (including an old guy and some male-model types) watch Buffy and claim her as the "target".

After that we're introduced to two fairly important characters: Mayor Richard Wilkins III and his nervous deputy mayor Allan Finch.  The first things that you'll notice about the Mayor are that he seems to be a nice guy and he hates germs.  After the quick introduction, we go back to school on picture day as Cordy explains her competition for the title of homecoming queen to Xander and Willow.  I thought her character had grown beyond this kind of thing.  Buffy apparently missed the whole picture day announcements and Cordy volunteers to go tell her at the library, but of course gets sidetracked by some friends in the hallway.  Later on, Buffy goes up to a teacher to get her letter of recommendation (cleverly, Snyder specified that it couldn't be written by Giles) only to find that the teacher doesn't even remember her, which has got to be a bummer.  Surely she would know the name Buffy though, it's not like she's ever had a kid with that name before.

So naturally Buffy is moping around, but when she finds out that she missed the pictures and won't be remembered at all, she goes straight for Cordy.  The two get into quite an argument; I don't get why Cordy reverts back to bitch here.  Buffy and Cordy seemed to be pretty friendly, but not here.  Buffy decides to run against Cordy for homecoming queen to teach her a lesson.  Then we get Mr. Trick talking about competition to a bunch of villains not cool enough for their own episode.  We've got the twin model assassins, some hunter guy, a yellow spiny guy, and even Lyle Gorch from Bad Eggs (and his new wife Candy).  They make annoying chit-chat for awhile and I don't like any of these guys except for Trick.  Everyone else ranges from forgettable to annoying, so I'll gloss over them as much as I can.  Basically they've all gathered for Trick's "most dangerous game" called SlayerFest98, in which the goal is to kill both Buffy and Faith. Man those crazies sure know how to have fun.

At Willow's house that night, Xand and Will are trying on their homecoming clothes while a sweet acoustic track plays in the background. Sweet acoustic tracks are always bad news!  The two share some vague flirtation and sharing past experiences.  They also lightly poke fun at how far they've gotten in their relationships; you really feel the love they have for each other here.  But...it's not entirely platonic as the dancing and kiss that follows suggests.  Whew they're playing off the infidelity pretty lightly here!  No big deal!

At school, Buffy has already gotten way too into this competition thing; no one else is really feeling it, but she just keeps going anyway.  She even got a big dry erase board and made up little profiles for her competition; the details on there are pretty funny to read actually.  But just as Buffy assigns things for Xand, Will, and Oz, Cordy comes in and steals them away.  At least they all seem pretty guilty about it.  And of course, Buffy's all alone again, except for Giles.  The guy is her rock!  Then we get a montage of the campaigning and also the bad guys preparing for the game.  It's worth mentioning because of the cool song that scores it; a very 90s alternative Third Eye Blind-esque track.

After the montage, we get another Jonathan cameo, and then Buffy and Cordy finally have it out.  It was tense before, but all bets are off here.  They start fairly intelligently but eventually devolve into some pretty mean name-calling before the rest of the gang pulls them back.  Later on, Xander and Willow try to fix the situation while also dealing with their attraction to each other.  They decide to let Cordy and Buffy ride alone together to the dance in their limo so they can work out their issues once and for all.  But now one of the assassins is the limo driver and drives them to the hunting grounds.  They find a tape made by Mr. Trick that explains the game and then, mistaking Cordy for Faith, the villains begin their hunt.

At the dance, Xander and Willow continue to act all mopey while the Dingos play.  Faith also ruins Scott's chance at this new girl he's talking to.  My favorite part is Giles, who is oddly hyper here.  I don't know why he's so excited to be at this dance, but I love sense-of-humor-Giles.  And he loves finger sandwiches.  In the woods, the two hole up in a shack and barricade the doors.  They have a little talk, but the most important thing that comes out of it is that Cordy thinks she's in love with Xander.  They find a phone and leave a message for Giles, who hears it after going back to the library.  Then Buffy explains why she wanted to win homecoming so badly; it's a nice tender moment, but then they get attacked by the yellow spiny guy.  A fairly amusing fight scene later, they dive out of the shack just as the twins fire grenades in there, accidentally blowing up the spiny guy.

The two make their way to the library, which has been taken over by Lyle and his wife, while Mr. Trick gets taken to the Mayor.  Buffy arrives and stakes Candy while Lyle runs away after Cordy scares him, thankfully never to be seen again.  After the fight, the two have finally made up and it seems all is well until they realize that their corsages are actually being used to track them.  Those trackers are pretty big, it'd be pretty easy to notice those, really.  Buffy devises a plan and sticks the trackers to each twin, making them kill each other.  That's what the two get for shooting through the walls I guess.

Meanwhile, at the Mayor's office, he and Trick talk it out.  The Mayor basically sets up Mr. Trick as his right-hand man, going as far as admiring Trick's SlayerFest idea.  This pretty much solidifies the Mayor's place as a bad guy; I mean you knew it was coming after all the build-up he's received, but this proves he's a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Buffy and Cordy finally show up at the coronation to find out which one of them won.  It's actually a tie...between the two girls that got like ten seconds of screen-time earlier.  Well that was a little cheap, especially making it a tie.  It also doesn't make sense because those girls' campaigns were complete crap.  Buffy and Cordy's faces make it worth it though as they leave, totally disgusted.

Overall this is a pretty good episode, especially the first half.  Where it falters is the pretty terrible villains, but that's kind of a recurring theme so far this season.  While the villains do get better (and I do like the Mayor and Mr. Trick), this season really isn't the best as far as bad guys go.  The episode itself is quite good and does a good job of balancing the Buffy/Cordy plot and the Xander/Willow tryst, which we'll see more of a little bit later.

***1/2