Didn’t they delay airing of the finale, too? Not until the next season, but by a few months.
And for the same reason, if “Earshoot” is the episode I think it is.
Buffy can read minds and overhears that someone is going to kill the students. It’s a fake out with Jonathon, who was only going to kill himself (with a sniper rifle though? How the fuck does THAT work?) and then it’s the lunchlady…
Both this and “Graduation” were delayed because of Columbine, right?
“Doublemeat Palace”. Why did you have to remind me of that, Ellis? I just remember watching that episode with my mouth agape, wondering whose idea this was and why no one stopped them.
olives, just a heads-up: When you get to “Earshot,” think back to “Band Candy” before you watch it.
Mmmmm…band candy.
It may be a goofy filler episode, but I think “Band Candy” may be my favorite episode of S3. It’s just really funny and entertaining. I love it, possibly irrationally.
Willow: Kiss Rocks? Why would anyone want to kiss… Oh wait, I get it.
That’s the first episode I ever saw, I came into it 20 minutes late, and it hooked me to the series anyway. I think that episode is an excellent entrypoint to the series and was going to mention it earlier in the thread but decided not to.
I really liked the ocean of backstory I picked up in pieces here and there from starting midway into season 3. By the time the series hit syndication on FX I was enamored enough to slog through the wretched season 1, then impressed by season 2 and the start of season 3.
Good times.
Well, Doublemeat Palace is one of my least favorite eps too, but I don’t know if I’d go that far.
This thread also inspired me to watch Buffy (via Netflix streaming, woo!) and I just finished season 2, and (unboxed spoilers since the OP is past this point)
I can’t believe how dumb everyone was in “Becoming: Part 1.” They decide to do the spell…the spell that Willow still needed a little bit of time to understand…the spell that takes a while to case…in the middle of the library. The library that’s in the school they all know every vampire in existence can just waltz right into at their leisure. Is it any wonder Kendra died and half of them went to the hospital?
You’d think at some point, one of them would go, “hey, you know those vampires? Those ones that just come in here all the time and fuck us over? How about we do this spell at Giles’s house so they can’t do that.”
Band Candy has one of my favorite lines ever. When they see all the adults at the Bronze and they wonder what’s going on, Willow says " Maybe there’s a reunion in town or, or a Billy Joel tour or something." Cracks me up every time.
Oh, I had forgotten this episode already. This was a great one too. If only for the incredibly sexy bad-boy version of Giles.
Alright, I’m joining the camp of those that loved Season 6.
My order is 6, 5, 3, 2, 4, 7, 1
Though 5 & 3 are so close, that it really is a dead-heat.
The problem, in my opinion, with S4 is the over-all season arc was weak, bordering on bad. BUT (and this is an important “but”) it also contained some wonderful episodes. It remains my most conflicted season. S7, on the other hand, had a strong over-all season arc, but weak(er) individual episodes.
The Body remains as one of the single most heart-breaking episodes of television ever (which wasn’t helped by the fact I was still grieving my own mother’s death.) But I think even if it weren’t for that, it would still be as brilliant.
Even though I own all 7 seasons, I have been watching random episodes when I catch them on Logo - it’s amazing how this show can still rip my heart out. Which is the highest compliment I can pay it. And the worst episodes/seasons are still some of the best television out there. With the exception of “Anne” - I don’t know why, but I’ve never liked that episode. 
Me too! I think it’s because the strongest drama of that episode, what was going on with Buffy, got obscured by the relatively meh-ish sub-plot, the old people thing. The two threads did not weave well together and overall I find watching that episode something of a chore. I think the arc was also a little bit weak; Buffy goes from relatively independent but struggling, to all I’m-going-home, kind of unconvincingly. Very first drafty, shoulda had some more work done on it before it was shot.
Principal Snyder’s “Summers, you drive like a spaz!” is my favorite.
Band Candy proves that ASH has the acting chops, just as Doppelgangland proves about AH. And the freaky friday one, I forget the ep title, proves that SMG was capable of way more than coasting through as Buffy, which unfortunately is mostly what she did IMO.
To be fair, they do pretty much* everything *in the library, and it rarely seems to come back to bite them in the ass. The school library is like the bridge of the Enterprise - a big, expensive, and permanent set that acts as a “home base” not just to the characters but to the viewers. IIRC, at this point in the show, we’ve seen Giles’s apartment, but we (as the viewers) aren’t familiar enough with it to really feel “safe” there.
Okay, I just watched ‘‘Enemies’’ Season 3, Episode 17,
and HOLY SHIT that was EPIC!
[SPOILER]
We had no idea, not even a clue, that Angel and Buffy were faking. It’s funny, when ‘‘Angelus’’ punched Xander, I remember thinking, ‘‘Huh. Why didn’t he kill him?’’ but then I just assumed ‘‘Angelus’’ couldn’t deign to waste his time on what was the equivalent of a bug on his shoe. So, I let it go.
Beautifully executed. Season 3 officially surpasses Season 2.
And… it figures Angel got the shaft again. As Buffy walked away, my husband remarked, ‘‘Well, that ought to secure his soul for a while.’’
Question though. How did Buffy figure out what Faith was up to? She seemed to get some clue in the apartment of the murdered demon, but it wasn’t clear. I assume when she went to talk to Angel he told her that Faith had tried to seduce him. I never trusted that bitch anyway. It was pretty clear she’s a psycho killer. I don’t know why they gave her so much slack for so long.
But this redeems it.
Oh, another question–why this assumption that avoiding sex is all that needs to be done to protect Angel from desouling? It’s not like there aren’t other ways he could theoretically be happy. I suppose if you accept that the trapped demon within has to be happy too, it makes more sense. Although, hell, couldn’t Angel punching Xander be such a true moment?[/SPOILER]
It is problematic that characters keep insisting sex=true happiness, but they acknowledge that doesn’t make any sense on AtS. Angel even explicitly says that he can have sex if he wants to (he gets touchy when people imply he’s a eunuch). But Angel is full of so much self-loathing he could probably bang Buffy on every flat surface in Sunnydale and not lose his soul again.
I don’t think it’s explicitly clear when Buffy figures out what Faith is up to. But I had the same reaction when Angel punches Xander, only I went the other direction “Angel’s faking. Angelus would have snapped Xander’s neck.”
I think Enemies is my favorite episode in S3. It’s so wonderfully executed, and all of the performances were great. It’s even got a classic line the end, “I introduced him to his wife.”
The key is “perfect happiness.” This apparently can only happen with his “true love.”
Spoilers for AtS
[spoiler]No, it’s not about his “true love.” Think about when Angel lost his soul in S4. The entire episode was about his moment of perfect happiness. He reconciled with Wesley, Connor forgave and accepted him, he acted like Indiana Jones to solve the riddle to unlock the secret of killing the beast, then he killed the beast, then the sun came back and then he finally had sex with Cordelia. Clearing banging his one true love is not enough for him to lose his soul after the unfortunate incident with Buffy. In order for Angel to be perfectly happy, he has to have a perfect existence and be recognized as the biggest hero in all the land.
Of course, it makes sense that the final act in his elaborate fantasy must be sex. He’s so full of self-loathing and he put both Buffy and Cordy on such pedestals that the fact they let him touch them at all must be a huge deal.[/spoiler]
OK, not only about his “true love.” That’s just what set him off the first time. There are some comments in Season 5 of AtS that address that very issue.