As the SAT tests loom on the horizon, Buffy gets more and more frustrated with her mother and Giles trying to run her life. The situation isn't helped when she is given the task of selling 40 candy bars by Principal Snyder, especially when these bars make all the adults act like teenagers...
After the high levels of teen angst over the last few episodes, it's good to get an episode like Band Candy, which raises the comedy level again; in fact it's very well written by first time Buffy scribe Espenson. What makes this work exceptionally though is the effective way all the plot strands are built upon (the Mayor and Mr Trick scheming, Xander and Willow's held-in-check romance, Angel returning to his former self) without overwhelming the episode. It even gives Giles and Joyce Summers a chance to get to know one another, something that should aid their characters immensely, coupled with the sheer joy of seeing Giles as a Brit thug, Snyder as the kid no-one wants anything to do with, and the retrun of Ethan, Giles' old 'friend'. My only real disappointment is that we still haven't been told exactly what has passed between them previously. Hopefully, Ethan will be back to explain.
Buffy has always worked best when it can throw the viewer from a hilarious sequence straight into high drama without missing a beat, and despite a slightly anticlimactic ending (but with a great closing scene), Band Candy works brilliantly on every level.
*****
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