Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Helpless - S03E12 Review

 
HELPLESS
SEASON 3 EPISODE 12

This is a big episode as far as characters go and there's a lot of stuff I really like about it.  At the same time, however, there are some very questionable choices made in this one too.  The good does outweigh the bad, I believe, but it's certainly an odd episode, if nothing else.

We open up with Buff and Angel sparring at the mansion and letting things get all hot and sweaty.  After the workout, Angel asks about Buffy's birthday plans (with a hint of jealousy in there) and Buffy explains that she's going to an ice show with her dad.  Nice callback from What's My Line to her enjoying ice skating.  Afterwords, at the library, she's studying crystals with Giles.  Hey, that's new!  While patrolling, Buffy suddenly starts to feel tired and powerless, almost getting herself killed by a common vamp.

The next day, Buffy asks Giles what's wrong with her and Giles suggests that she's sick and she shrugs it off.  The gang has a talk about Buffy and her birthday party and she decides to not have one, opting to have a quiet b-day instead (yeah right!).  When she gets home, she sees a card and her mom explains that basically her dad flaked on her and isn't taking her to the ice show thing, thus fueling her mopeyness.  Meanwhile, in a creepy manor, we see a suited older man staring at a locked coffin and talking about the 'slayer's preparation being almost complete'.  Very creepy!

Back at the library, Buffy tries to get Giles to go to the ice show with her, seeing as how he's pretty much her surrogate father.  He blows her off and tells her to study the crystals some more.  She does, and begins to fall into a hypnotic trance.  During this trance, Giles pulls out a menacing syringe and sticks her with it, before snapping her out of the trance and sending her home.  Giles?  Betrayal?  Surely that's not all there is to it.  Later on, Buffy sees Cordy getting accosted by a jock-ish type and she tries to teach him a lesson, but finds she has no strength at all.  She goes to Giles, really worried this time, and he basically dismisses it.

He goes to the creepy mansion and the older man describes what's going on.  The Watcher's Council forces slayers at the age of 18 to fight a vampire in the mansion without powers as a sort of test of skill.  Giles is extremely against the idea, but apparently it's tradition and can't be broken.  The vamp in the coffin starts yelling, so they open it to give him his pills.  This is Kralik, a crazy vampire, literally, and he's the one they plan on siccing on the Buffster.

At the library, the gang looks for a cure while Xander and Oz discuss the different properties of various colors of Kryptonite (apparently Oz is way nerdier than Xander, at least when it comes to Superman).  Back at Angel's, he gives her a book of sonnets; such a flowery and sweet thing to do!  She then mopes about possibly losing her powers and Angel tells her the story of how he first saw her which we saw in Becoming Part 1.  It's cute that he's loved her this whole time, but keep in mind that she was like 14 or 15 when he first saw her... a little on the creepy side.

Giles heads back to the manor to talk to Quentin, the older watcher, but finds that Kralik (played by an actor who will return in Season 6, playing a different character) has escaped and that one of his guards is dead.  As Buffy is walking home (in some serious Little Red Riding Hood imagery), she is attacked by Kralik and his new lackey made from the other guard, but is saved by Giles at the last minute, who takes her back to the library.  He finally comes clean and tells her about the drugs and the test and she understandably wigs out.  Before Buffy gets home, Kralik gets to the house first and kidnaps Joyce.  Buffy arms herself and decides to head to fight Kralik, sans powers.

At the manor, Kralik speechifies to Joyce.  He has a very serial killer-y vibe to him; he's a good villain of the week.  I think a lot of it is the actor, because he's very good in his Season 6 role as well.  Buffy makes it to the manor while Giles and Quentin talk at the library.  Quentin says the test has already begun and Giles heads off to try and help her.  Most of the remainder of the episode is a well-done cat and mouse game between Buffy and Kralik in the mansion.  Buffy gets beaten and bruised, but she eventually finds her mom tied up in the basement.  She notices Kralik's need for pills, and spikes his water with H2O of the holy variety, killing him.  It's a satisfying death; she completely outsmarts him.  She saves her mom and Giles shows up to take care of the other vamp.

Afterwords, Quentin tells Buffy that she's passed the council's test.  Quentin fires Giles from being a watcher due to him spilling the beans about the test.  Big plot point here!  This does change the dynamic between Buffy and Giles, as well as Giles's position in the group, but it doesn't change quite as much as you might think.  Giles tends to Buff's wounds and they have an incredibly quiet moment of reconciliation.  It's very subtle and well-done.  The gang then detoxes at Buffy's house and Xander makes a fool of himself while trying to open a jar, ending the episode.  Very silly.

Overall, this is a pretty good episode.  I do have some issues with it; the plot is pretty strangely paced.  I do think that the final act in the manor goes on a big too long and too much time is spent on Buffy's search for understanding her weakness (after we know that Giles is the culprit), but these are pretty minor complaints.  It's certainly not the best episode of the season, but it's a solid entry, albeit a bit dark.

***1/2