Geoff's Comments about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 3

Last updated: 5 February 2004

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3.1 Anne (6)

This is Buffy's least memorable season opener. It's entirely necessary to show what Buffy's been up to in her self-imposed exile, and it therefore forms, with the following episode, a postlude to the preceding season; however, separating Buffy from her friends works against it and the ending is ultimately a relief. And some explanation for all that underground-lair subplot would be nice.

3.2 Dead Man's Party (6)

A bit better, but horribly unbalanced; the dramatic potential of the emotional conflict during the reunion of Buffy and her friends is promisingly set up, only to be steamrollered by the entirely redundant zombie attack. And since Angel has yet to return, his presence in the regular credits requires some otherwise superfluous dream sequences.

3.3 Faith, Hope and Trick (8)

The season proper starts in fine style with this action-filled episode which introduces the wonderful Faith - surely one of the most intriguing characters ever to appear on Buffy, and played with astonishing energy by the then 17-year-old Eliza Dushku. The deliciously suave Mr. Trick is another good example of how Buffy fleshes out the characters of its villains

3.4 Beauty and the Beasts (7)

This episode is strangely paced and lets itself down slightly in its unwillingness to tackle its subtext of domestic abuse properly. The ending, however, is one of Buffy's most viscerally cathartic.

3.5 Homecoming (8)

With its successor, the funniest episode of this period. An enjoyable romp through a bitchy Homecoming battle which gets mixed up in Mr. Trick's inimitable "Slayerfest '98" to great effect, combining the momentum of the preceding episodes with plenty of humour and cleverly recycling the brief "Long story... apparently not that long" exchange from 3.3 Faith, Hope and Trick. And we get our first looks at the Mayor - such a nice guy, but clearly scaring everyone he meets, and yet another in the grand Buffy tradition of great villians.

3.6 Band Candy (8)

Less frenetic than 3.5 Homecoming but just as funny, so full of choice scenes that the subplot about the babies seems beside the point. One of the best bits is the role-reversal scene where Buffy tries to talk sense to Joyce and Giles; other contenders include such gems as Joyce with the handcuffs and Snyder trying vainly to be cool. Characterisations as good as these are among the ingredients which make Buffy what it is.

3.7 Revelations (7)

An important episode for the main story-arc, mainly since it's where Faith begins to drift apart from the others; her final scene is particularly poignant. Serena Scott Thomas guests in a wonderfully stuffy role, there's more fighting than usual, and it works well as a rather painful example of the effects of various acts of deception, but it's let down a bit by the fact that the Glove of Mynhegon is essentially another random McGuffin.

3.8 Lover's Walk (8)

Despite starting out as something of a filler, Spike's guest feature this season by the end has turned into a rather pointed look at relationships, especially when after a big fight the one revelation not revealed in the preceding episode is brought to light. The moving montage of sad Scooby Gang members is subverted brilliantly by Spike leaving Sunnydale singing "My Way", which is a great contrast to his pathetic-yet-amusing moping after Drusilla.

3.9 The Wish (9)

The climax of an impressive run of episodes, the best episode of the first half of the season, and the first to feature Anya. The alternate-reality Sunnydale - a terrifying place with half-empty classrooms and vampires running wild - provides Marti Noxon with an opportunity to present genuinely shocking alternate versions of the main characters. The vampire versions of Xander and Willow are upsetting enough, especially the way Willow's usual sweetness is replaced by derangement, but the most disturbing is the hard-boiled cynical Buffy, bereft of the influence of her friends and ignorant of Angel's significance. And the setting allows things to happen which normally can't, reaching a climax in the the slow-motion deaths of most of the regulars near the end. A gut-wrenching episode which transcends its standalone status to be a showcase for everything which is great about Buffy.

3.10 Amends (5)

Faith's absence - aside from a few low-key scenes here - ultimately leads to the season losing its way in the middle. This episode is about Angel's redemption and putting other things back together, but for one written and directed by Joss it's a disappointment. "The First" - a regrettably unimaginative name for what should be a fearsome adversary - is abandoned halfway through, and the overly sentimental Christmas schmaltz isn't rescued by the emotional scenes between Buffy and Angel, nor by the snow ex machina at the end. And Cordelia, in this and the next few episodes, is reduced to walk-on bitching. Nonetheless, Faith's Christmas lights are touchingly pathetic, and a sad portent of what happens to her later.

3.11 Gingerbread (7)

A great idea for an episode, and a point well made; it's an angry and perceptive study of paranoia, censorship, parental neglect and mob hysteria. Unfortunately it's undermined by Buffy's raison-d'être, which requires a supernatural explanation for the events; in this case it would have been more powerful if the good intentions which lead to bad ends were the result of exclusively human causes.

[Trivia time: the authentic-looking woodcut from 1649 has some very unauthentic-looking German text: "ich, eine Geistlicher von nahe die Schwarz Wälder, tat finden das körper von das kinder meine selbst. eine wurde von die junge, die anderen von und mädchen. darauf meine eigene erforschen ich lernte". This looks like someone translated something beginning "I, a ghost from near the Black Forest, did find the bodies of the children my self. One was of the boy, the other of a girl" by looking the words up in the dictionary!]

3.12 Helpless (6)

The second Birthday Episode is a rather unnecessary filler which treads more conventional horror-film territory. The only really significant thing to come out of it is Giles being fired from the Watchers' Council.

3.13 The Zeppo (7)

A bizarre way to exorcise the recent lack of focus. It's actually very clever once you get the joke - yet another apocalypse, 1.12 Prophecy Girl all over again, is merely the backdrop for Xander's attempts to find something to do. Funny as it is, however, it feels oddly lop-sided and requires an ending which leaves the viewer short-changed.

3.14 3.15 Bad Girls (8) / Consequences (7)

The Faith episodes par excellence, and the pivotal point of the season; this is where she parts company with the Scooby Gang, setting in motion the season's most important plot-thread. 3.14 Bad Girls recaptures the adrenalin rush of the early part of the season very well; Balthazar is one of Buffy's most disgusting baddies, and new watcher Wesley is both (intentionally) irritating and genuinely funny. 3.15 Consequences is the necessary comedown from Buffy's walk on the wild side; it's dark and gloomy and veers towards the preachy, but makes its points. It's a pity Mr. Trick couldn't have been kept around for longer; he hasn't actually done much besides Slayerfest.

[Trivia time: watch Willow's French doors when Buffy comes to her for help; someone forgets which half she opened first, and which way.]

3.16 Doppelgängland (8)

The first of three Special Sixteenth Episodes Written And Directed By Joss. Essentially a sequel to 3.9 The Wish, it's a sumptuous treat for fans of Alyson Hannigan, who magnificently plays what amounts to four separate characters and clearly had a lot of fun in the process. This rubs off onto the viewer, making for one of Buffy's funniest episodes; it's also - in Vamp Willow's ultimate fate - rather sad. And, as with 2.16 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, the writing is streamlined enough to work in a reference to the main story-arc; in this case a surprisingly touching illustration of the paternal relationship between Faith and the Mayor.

3.17 Enemies (7)

A game of bluff and double-bluff which in parts seems to have confused the writers (exactly who knows what, and when?) Some good humour, such the demon doing Giles a favour in return for being introduced to his wife, but ultimately more puzzling than anything else.

3.18 Earshot (9)

Probably Jane Espenson's finest hour. Apparently starting out life as a story about a test, this wonderfully lyrical tale of loneliness and isolation has hardly a scene out of place, and shows that being able to read everybody's thoughts would actually be more of a curse than anything else. Buffy's speech to the suicidal Johnathon is the icing on the cake, and should be required viewing for any lonely teenagers. Ironic, then, that the episode was pulled just after the Columbine massacre.

3.19 Choices (7)

A solid episode, if not a particularly memorable one; it characterises the Mayor very well and sets up the ending.

3.20 The Prom (8)

A breathing-space before the finale which gets some hitherto unspoken emotions out into the open, notably Xander's feelings for Cordelia; it's unusually warm and fuzzy, which caused this reviewer to fall in love with Buffy one tired and emotional Friday night. Johnathan's "Class Protector" award speech to Buffy is touching, particularly in view of the effects of 3.18 Earshot, and hits just the right balance between cheese and genuine feeling. Only the unusually perfunctory monster sideline spoils this; as Yawpmag suggests, an attack by Faith on the Prom may have been a better idea.

3.21 3.22 Graduation Day (7 and 9)

Not quite the finale that the preceding season had, mainly because - like the season in general - it goes for the visceral rather than the emotional. It takes a while to get going; the first part in particular simmers uneasily until finally boiling over at the end with the fight between Buffy and Faith. But the climax is something to savour; once the tension breaks it's one hell of a catharsis, erupting in some thrilling battle scenes and climaxing in fine style with Buffy being chased through the school by the Mayor-turned-giant-snake. Blowing the school up at the end is nothing less than appropriate.

The DVDs

A rather disappointing selection of extras; three rather short featurettes and four commentaries, none by Joss. The best is Doug Petrie's for 3.14 Bad Girls - there can be few viewers who disagree with his comments on Faith and Buffy's dancing - and Jane Espenson's 3.18 Earshot is also satisfactory. But David Fury doesn't make 3.12 Helpless any more exciting, and the commentary for 3.15 Consequences is entirely inessential.