Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Wish - S03E09 Review

THE WISH
SEASON 3 EPISODE 9

This is a classic fan favorite standalone episode.  It opts for the often-used alternate reality plot, ala It's a Wonderful Life and every other hour long show ever made.  This one does it far, FAR better than most do, actually showing the characters in an interesting light and significantly altering past events without being unrealistic.

The episode starts off mid-fight between Buffy and some kind of tentacle monster in a bright park type of area.  Xander is on the ground, and Willow tosses a knife to Buffy, who slays the beast.  They make sort of a big deal about the demon not disappearing like vamps do, but they've fought a lot of demons that haven't gone "poof", not sure why they're complaining about this one.  They sit down and talk for a bit; you've got to love the classic Buffy, Willow, Xander talks.  It's so rare that they get time to themselves without other characters getting in the way (Giles is okay of course, he's one of the core four).  They talk about how Faith has been really distant lately as well as how Cordy won't talk to Xander.  There's a really sweet moment that sums up their friendship as a threesome...three-way?  Gang.  Sums up their friendship as a gang.  They can only deal with the things they're dealt because they have each other.  Isn't that just adorable?  But you know what's not adorable?  Cordy burning her pictures with Xander and the group.  I think we've lost her, guys.

The next day at school, Willow waits for Oz by his locker and talks to Buffy about Cordelia, who is apparently coming in.  She finally runs into Oz and he tells her to leave him alone, which she doesn't take well.  We then see a new sexified Cordy pull up in her fancy car, determined to revert to her old self.  She sees Harmony and her old friends and they seem to welcome her right back with open arms, along with a new girl named Anya.  Anya's less annoying than the others, and is actually far more important to the series as a whole than you might think at first.  Harmony offers to introduce Cordy to a new guy, and takes her over to another Jonathan cameo.  Hey Jonathan!  You'll be relevant before you know it!  So it turns out it was all a prank at Cordy's expense and she's all sad and stuff.  Interesting to note that she already went on a date with Jonathan in Reptile Boy.

Cordy talks to a hunky guy to make Xander jealous in the halls, and he's totally interested boning her, but doesn't want to be seen in public with her.  Classy!  She then runs into Anya, who actually tries being her friend and talking about Xander; Cordy comes to the conclusion that she needs to prove she's over him.  That night at the Bronze, both Xander and Cordy are trying to make each other jealous and some humorous moments later, Buffy sees Cord walking out of the Bronze to talk to her.  She gets jumped by a vamp and though Buffy takes care of it, Cordy rips her stitches and is embarrassed when her friends walk by, eventually concluding that her problem is Buffy.  The next day she talks to Anya and wishes that Buffy hadn't ever come to Sunnydale, to which a now vein-y Anya grants.  These things never work out well.

Cordy appears in the alternate Sunnydale, the one without Buffy, confused.  The place is run-down and everyone looks afraid, but Cordelia is really happy about the situation.  In this world her friends still respect her and the guys still love her, so she's feeling pretty good.  After class though, everyone rushes home, not wanting to miss curfew; people even do a double-take when Cordy suggests they go to the Bronze.  Harmony informs Cordelia that Xander and Willow are dead, though not QUITE dead, as she runs into them on her way home.  Xand and Will are two badass, leather-loving vamps; they actually remind me of Spike and Dru, because Vamp Willow is pretty off her rocker too.  Xand turns on the vamp face so Cordy runs off and they give chase.

Soon the vamps are scared off by Giles, Oz, Larry, and a random girl who call themselves the White Hats.  They grab Cordy and take her back to library to safety.  After the chase, Xander and Willow head to the Bronze, which has become the vampire hangout.  They head into the back room where they find their master, who coincidentally is The Master from Season 1.  Without Buffy there to stop him, he presumably rose during The Harvest.  The Master mentions some kind of "plant" that's going to start up and tells them to find Cordy and finish her off.  At the library, Cordelia almost gets through to Giles, but soon Xander and Willow show up, locking Giles in the library cage and killing Cordelia, both feeding on her.  That's what's so cool about this episode, the shifting perspective.  You would think Cordy would survive as the fish out of water of the story, but focus kind of shifts over to Giles.  Larry and Oz come back after the ambush, minus the random girl, who apparently died after having one line.  They take Cordy to the incinerator, but not before Giles takes a necklace that Anya gave her before the wish.

Giles makes some calls, trying to locate Buffy, and there's a little off-hand comment about there being a Hellmouth in Cleveland; this will become sort of a running joke, so watch out for it.  Meanwhile, having pleased the Master, Willow gets to "play with the puppy".  Of course play means torture, but who is the puppy?  Why none other than a beaten-down and helpless Angel, of course.  So she and Xander burn him with matches for awhile.  Don't get me wrong, that has to hurt, but surely Angel's had way worse done to him than that.  Back at the library, Giles finds out that the necklace is The Symbol of Anyanka, and she's a vengeance demon (though that term won't be used until later) who basically helps women that have been scorned by a lover.

While driving, Giles finds a group of people being attacked by a bunch of vamps and he almost gets it until Buffy steps in to to save him.  They go back to Giles's house and he figures out that he needs to destroys Anyanka's power center, but Buffy is pretty annoyed by the whole thing.  This is obviously a far more world-weary Buffy than we've ever seen.  Buffy hastily rushes off to the Bronze to kill the Master while Giles works on finding out what Anya's power source is.  She finds Angel locked up in the basement and he offers to take her to the Master's factory.

At the factory, it turns out the plant is some kind of mass production of blood and Oz and Larry have been captured.  Buffy and Angel storm the factory and all hell breaks loose, while Giles summons Anyanka at his house in an attempt to revert back to the normal reality.  Pretty much no one is spared at the factory; Xander kills Angel, Buffy kills Xander, Oz runs Willow into a wooden beam, killing her, it's a big massacre.  And it's scored with some haunting music to really hammer home the destruction.  Buffy and the Master have their big showdown but Buffy is quickly subdued and killed.  Luckily Giles saves the day, destroying Anyanka's pendant at the last moment.  Then we're sent back to when Cordy made the wish, Anya confused why her powers aren't working, and nobody else is the wiser.  Then we get some happy music to play us out after the depressing past half hour.

Overall this is a great and interesting episode.  It's far more serious in tone than most of the season and really has a disparate, hopeless vibe to it.  The protagonist bait and switch from Cordy to Giles is brilliant, and seeing how awful things would be without Buffy really leaves an impact.  Sure, nothing past the first 15 minutes really matters, but it's a really great what-if scenario, and as previously mentioned, Anya will be back shortly with a very extended role.  This is a must-see from this season, no doubt.

****1/2