Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Zeppo - S03E13 Review

 
THE ZEPPO 
SEASON 3 EPISODE 13 

The Zeppo is one of my favorite episodes of Buffy. Ever! I'm a sucker for the Xander-centric episodes, and this just might be the best of the bunch. It's especially good because it's pretty much completely from Xander's point of view, making it a gem... well, it's a gem if you like Xander. If you don't, then I imagine you'd find it quite annoying. But then again, if you don't like Xander, you're likely a heartless being incapable of enjoying anything. Just kidding. Sort of.

We start out in a cave with Buffy, Faith, Willow, Giles and Xander preparing to ambush these blue demon women. They get the last one and Faith rams it through with a sword. Then Xander emerges from a big pile of garbage, having been discarded early in the fight. The whole gang worries about Xander and suggests that he should sit out the fights from now on. He makes a joke about how he's Jimmy Olsen (which is a pretty great comparison; also the second Superman reference in as many episodes).

Later, at school, Xander's attempting to pass the football with some guys, but bumps into a bully named Jack who threatens to beat him to death. Xand walks away with little dignity and Cordy, who saw the whole thing, lambastes him for it. She makes note that all of his friends have superpowers (except for Giles, but I guess he's smart enough to make up for it or something) but he's a nobody. At lunch, he has a pretty hilarious conversation with Oz about how to be cool. These two characters go great together; it's a shame they don't get as much time alone as some of the others.

Meanwhile at the library, it's apocalypse time. The blue demon women, the Sisterhood of Jhe, are attempting to open the Hellmouth and let all the demons pour out, thus ending the world. Also Oz comes into the library, locks himself up, and wolfs out. That'll come into play later. Later on, Buffy and Willow talk about the demons that live in the Hellmouth, and mention that the tentacled spawn thing from Season 1 will be the first thing out, and that many more Old Ones are sure to follow. Don't get too excited, Cthulhu fans!

 Xander pulls up in sweet new ride that he borrowed from his Uncle Rory in an attempt to somehow get this elusive coolness factor. He says that he'll do anything to help the Buffster, and cut to him getting donuts for the gang. Unlucky for him, Cordy shows up again to mock him to no end. Just then, a pretty girl who happens to be a car freak shows up and flirts with Xander as he gives her a ride. Turns out though, at the Bronze, all she wants to do is talk about cars. So much so that when Angel shows up, Xander runs to him for conversation; and those two aren't the best friends, ya know. Angel says he needs to stay out of danger and heads to the library to help Buffy.

At the library, Buff and Willow do research while Giles decides to go speak with a spirit guide who can see the future. Why have we never seen this guide before? So Xander gets stuck again with car girl, and accidentally wrecks it while pulling out of the Bronze. Unfortunately, in the car is Jack the bully, and he instigates a fight in the parking lot. A cop shows up to break up the ruckus and Xander proves himself by not ratting out Jack. Therefore, Jack decides to make Xander his buddy, much to Xand's dismay. Jack takes Xander and car girl to pick up his zombie friends, eventually scaring off car girl. He sees Giles in the cemetery and Giles blows him off like everyone else has been.

Meanwhile, Buffy tends to an injured Willy, who had his place trashed by the Sisterhood. Willy tells Buffy that they plan on opening the Hellmouth before the next day. As that's going on, Xander drives Jack and the zombies around and basically acts as their very reluctant wheelman as they break into a hardware store and steal a ton of supplies. While they're inside, Xand spots Willow leaving the magic shop, and of course, she too blows him off. But they do get to share a moment when Will hugs him and tells her she loves him. They're definitely one of my favorite characters to put together, once you get past the weird tryst storyline, of course.

Jack comes out and tries to initiate Xander into the gang by killing him and raising him from the dead. Turns out, Jack is also dead; he just wasn't dead long enough to get all gross. Xander bails and drives by Faith fighting with one of the Sisterhood. He runs over the demon and grabs Faith as they make a run for it back to her apartment. Faith doesn't wait too long before she jumps his bones. Yay, Xander is the second in the group to lose his virginity (besides Oz, but it happened before the show started so it doesn't count) and Faith immediately kicks him out afterwards.

Back in his car, Xander checks the supplies that the zombies left in his car and sees that they planned on creating a bomb (which they confusingly called a cake). He then decides to head to Buffy for advice. Cue a really melodramatic Buffy/Angel scene before Xander walks in. It's pretty intentionally hilarious because it pokes a lot of fun of the sillier aspects of the Buffy/Angel romance. I love the two together, but they do get a little over-dramatic at times. Xander totally breaks the tension though and is blown off by the two, unsurprisingly.

Giles and Will prepare a binding spell in the library, and they move werewolf Oz to the basement to make room. Meanwhile, Jack and his gang plant a bomb in the school's basement. On Xander's way to the school, he runs into the zombies on the street and takes one hostage. He gets the info that the bomb is at the school and rushes to diffuse it. While this is going on, the rest of the group is fighting the hellspawn and we get to see it in its multi-headed glory.

Outside in the hallways, Xander does battle with the two remaining lackey zombies. He kills one with the vending machine and one gets torn apart by the Sisterhood. He finally makes it to the boiler room with only a couple minutes before the bomb goes off. Jack shows up to stop him from disarming it and the two fight it out for a minute before Xander tries a different technique: bomb chicken. Xander seems content to blow up but Jack rethinks it and decides to disarm it, leaving Xander victorious. It's a huge moment for Xander and it really shows off Nick Brendon's acting chops. And just as Jack swears his revenge, wolf Oz pops out of the closet and eats him for extra laughs.

The next day, Buffy, Oz, Willow and Giles all quietly discuss their slight victory and aversion of the apocalypse as Xander comes up to check on them. Afterwards, he's again confronted by Cordy. This time, though, he completely ignores her, making her powerless. It's Xander's biggest win yet; he's defeated the dreaded Cordelia. This is one of my favorite episodes in the season, and I think it's a really important episode for Xander as a character. He's had some serious moments here and there, but this is the first time that he really emerges as a three dimensional character and we root for him completely all along the way. It's a brilliantly handled episode, and definitely one in which my favorite character gets to shine.

*****