Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Doppelgangland - S03E16 Review

 
DOPPELGANGLAND
SEASON 3 EPISODE 16

Now it's time for a fun episode again after two fairly weighty episodes.  This one is sort of a pseudo-sequel to The Wish from several episodes back, except much funnier and less urgent.  Actually, this might be one of the funniest episodes of the series.  And it's an odd one because it's written by none other than Joss Whedon himself, despite it being a very unimportant episode in the grand scheme of things.

We open up in some blank void-like area where a demon with some sweet facial is scolding Anya from The Wish who has lost her powers due to alternate Giles destroying her pendant.  Anya vows to get her powers back and that she'll get someone powerful to help her, and cut to Willow floating a CGI pencil at school.  Ooh, looks as good as Chronicle did!  Willow is adorable, Buffy is still feeling the betrayal from Faith, etc etc.  Willow loses control of the pencil and drives it into a tree.   I... was not aware that pencils were that durable.

Later, Snyder forces Willow to tutor a stupid athlete named Percy, in a very similar turn in Go Fish.   Meanwhile, at the library, Faith and Wesley come in from training.   Obviously no one knows about the whole double agent thing Faith has going on yet.  She spills to the Mayor that the gang (namely Willow) is trying to break through his Internet security and we see the odd Faith/Mayor relationship start to bloom.   It's very father/daughter, and at times can be kind of sweet, actually.   But what isn't sweet is that the Mayor wants Willow dead.

Now we focus on Will for awhile.  I've never really thought about it, but this is kind of her version of The Zeppo.  Oz shows up, for like the first time in several episodes.   I think he was in the others, but he might not have had any lines.   Then she talks with the jock Percy, who basically tells her to do all his work for him.   And she's feeling all dumped on; it's actually very similar to the first act of The Zeppo as well.  As she storms off from a funny conversation with Buffy and Xander, she runs into Anya, who is trying to get her power back and asks her to do a spell.  Willow hastily accepts because her self-esteem is in the toilet right now.

They begin to do the spell, but like all plot-related spells, it goes slightly awry.  Willow gets a glimpse of the Wishverse and instead of bringing the pendant back to Anya, it grabs vampire Willow from the Wishverse and brings her instead, as she appears in the factory of normal Sunnydale.  Willow gets freaked out from the vision of the Wishverse and bolts.  Vamp Willow, decked out in sexy leather, strolls through the streets of Sunnydale, both confused and maybe a little excited at the prospect of so much food.

Vamp Willow heads to the Bronze to find it also populated with people.  There's also one of the more memorable songs playing; it's not very good at all, but for some reason, I still remember just about all the words and the melody.  I'm sure the lyrics of that stupid song pushed something important out of my head.   Percy shows up and mocks her for awhile before she starts to beat him up.  Then Xand shows up, throws Percy to the side and asks Willow if she's okay.  She's ecstatic to see him until she realizes that it's human Xander.  Then Buffy shows up, surprised by leather Will as well.  Vamp Willow bears her fangs and leaves, leaving Buffy and Xand thinking that she's dead.

Vamp Willow intercepts the vampires that the Mayor sent to kill regular Willow, beats them up, and recruits them to take over the Bronze.   Meanwhile, Buffy and Xander go to the library and the three all mourn about Willow's death.  Then Willow shows up, being just fine, and everyone comes to the conclusion that something is amiss.   The scene of their relief is pretty adorable though, especially Giles's monster hug on Willow followed by a shy 'putting his hands in his pocket' moment afterwards.

Meanwhile, at the Bronze, Angel shows up and asks Oz if he's seen Buffy.   This is odd because it might be the first time that the two have spoken.   They get one episode on Angel, but other than that, their relationship is extremely underused.  They're both the strong and silent type, though, so they might not have much to say to each other.   Willow and her new vamps show up to take over the Bronze.   Oz sees Vamp Willow and tells Angel to go get Buffy now.   It's always weird to see Oz emote.   Meanwhile, Willow kills a girl named Sandy.  She actually comes back in an episode of Season 5 (although no mention of this episode is named), but she's a vampire, which is weird, because she's pretty clearly dead and she didn't feed on Vamp Willow.

Angel shows up at the library and gets the rest of the gang to go to the Bronze.  Willow tells the rest to go, and she'll catch up later.  Of course, now that she's alone, she's attacked by Vamp Willow in some primitive green screening (not as bad as Sliders's, though).  Vamp Willow wants regular Willow to do the spell to send her and Anya back to the Wishverse.  Willow manages to shoot Vamp Willow with a tranq gun and gets the guys back to lock her up in the library's cage.  Willow makes an observation that Vamp Willow seems kind of gay.  Remember that, Pete.  Remember that.

They decide to send regular Willow into the Bronze to diffuse the situation, wearing the sexy leather. So she gets in, and quickly becomes as conspicuous as possible, though she does manage to send a few vamps outside to be picked off by the gang, evening the odds a bit.  There's also a lot of Willow getting over her 'being a doormat' issues while doing this little charade.   Meanwhile, back at the library, Vamp Willow wakes up in her cage as Cordy comes in.  Cordy almost lets her out, but decides to leave her locked up while the two talk about Will and Xander's tryst.  She eventually does let her out, and a chase through the school ensues.  Wesley finally hears her screaming and comes to her rescue, chasing Vamp Willow.  And somehow Cordy is really turned on by his cowardice (I guess he DID save her life) and asks him to hang out.

Back at the Bronze, Willow is found out by Anya and gives the signal, and the rest bust in to take care of the rest of the vamps.  Willow even gets to punch Anya right in her annoying face (she does get better later, admittedly).   Vamp Willow joins the mix as well, and Buffy almost kills her before regular Willow yells for her to stop.  Then, for some inexplicable reason, they decide to do the spell to send Vamp Willow home, rather than kill her.   I get that Willow doesn't want to kill her, but it doesn't make any sense why everyone goes along with it.  Although it hardly matters, as she's sent back immediately to the moment that she's killed by Oz in the Wishverse.

Afterwards, at school, Willow decides to be a good little girl all the time, because she can see where her being evil ends up.  Then Percy shows up, having been scared into shape by Vamp Will.   Willow then realizes that maybe she doesn't have to be perfect all the time.  Overall, this is one of the best episodes of the season, along with The Zeppo.   It's a hilarious one, and it may not be as impactful as The Zeppo, it's still a worthwhile standalone character episode.

****1/2