Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

Never Kill a Boy on the First Date
Written by Robin DesHotel and Dean Batai
Directed by David Semel

Original Airdate: March 31, 1997

Plot: When a classmate asks her out, Buffy is forced to choose between her sacred duty as the Slayer and an evening of fun. Meanwhile, the Master takes steps to find the Annointed One.

Review

Warning: I've consulted the ancient texts and they all agree--major SPOILERS for Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" are just ahead...

In short: A fair effort.

I believe I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again. I'm an opening credits reader. And I'm one of those people who can usually tell based on who wrote an episode and who directed it whether or not I'm going to love it, just enjoy it, or loath it. And as hard as I try, sometimes certain writers will fall into my category of "Oh not, not them again" and have a hard time working their way out of it.

Rob DesHotel and Dean Batai are two such writers. My main gripe with them is they served up this year's really horrific, Killed by Death, which in case you were wondering, I rewatched it and I still hate it. So, when I saw their names flash on screen last night, a few random thoughts ran through my head. The first was they wrote Killed By Death. Another was they wrote Phases, that was actually pretty good. Finally, part of figured that during the first season of the show, they might have shown some more glimmers of greatness than we saw in season two.

So, I went into Never Kill a Boy on the First Date with an open mind.

And was sort of disappointed.

Don't get me wrong--I'm not here to condemn the episode, just to say it's not as strong as I'd hoped. Honestly, the A and B plots, while both interesting in their own right never meshed well enough together to be that interesting. I found myself drawing comparions to School Hard with Buffy being forced to have her life as the slayer impose on her attempt to have a normal life as a high school student. And I think School Hard di it better because, frankly, the people in jeopardy were recurring characters such as Joyce and Prinpal Snyder, whom we have a bit more of an emotional inventment in and who also have a lot more characte depth to draw from. Owen, while intersting at times, didn't hold my interest. I guess part of me found his wanting to flirt with death and dead bodies a bit two-dimensional. His overzealousness at getting to go the funeral home and chasing Buffy seemed a bit too over the top for me. I think a large part of it was that in high school if I'd come on that strongly to a girl, to the point of following her around as Owen did in the final stages that it would be a cause of being more alarmed than appearing cute.

The episode also brings up a theme that will be heavily examined in the second season--that of Buffy's have to acept the responsibility of being the slayer and how it affects her life. I like that we see some of the seeds that will later grow into a great disatisfaction being sown here. And once again while School Hard will later deal with a lot of these issues in greater detail later, it's nice to see how they begin to emerge here.

For the most part, the Buffy and Owen scenes were nicely done. I liked seeing Buffy a little bit less sure of herself when faced with Owen's flirting. Her attempt to find a copy of Emily Dickinson to impress him really rang true as did most of her conversations with Willow, Xander, and Giles. I think the best scene of the entire episode was the closing one between Giles and Buffy about her role and responsibilities. I really enjoyed that since it echoed a few of my favorite season two closing scenes such as Lie to Me or Innocence. And for me, that's lofty company.

What really didn't work was the whole prophecy issue. I'm sure that a large part of it was knowing just who the Annointed One (or as Spike calls him the Annoying One) would turn out to be took a lot of the drama and tension out of it. And maybe kept the ending from being quite so jaw dropping as I'm sure they intended it to be. But, I have to say that I tried to dismiss all of these and really watch the story for the story's sake and enjoy it. And I never really came together. I think part of it is that the plotline was secondary to the Buffy/Owen plot. Both stories were important and interesting and could have been developed equally. It seemed that the cuts to the Master and his horrde of vamps were just there to push the plot forward a bit, rather than giving me the suspense that plotline needed. It would have made for a lot for supsense had we known how the plan was proceeding rather than just hearing about it at the beginning, seeing Buffy and the crew trying to deal with it in the dark, and then seeing it wrapped up at the end. Not a strong plot, but one I can live with a bit. Also, the entire idea of why the Annointed One was so powerful and so feared was never really made clear. He's got some really special powers, but OK, what are they? He can set the Master free. OK, how? I guess part of my problem is you had a lot of good ideas here, but so few of them were fully developed enough that in the end I was left with some big frustrations.

But, I guess I will have to just wait and see if these things play out. I remember at times during season two wondering where all of this was going and then having Joss show me and go, "Cool." I honestly hope that Never Kill a Boy on the First Date makes a whole lot more sense and plays better after seeing the rest of the season one episodes. Until then, it's just going to rank as an above average episode.

So, I guess that about wraps it it for now.

Final Rating: 6.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Tuesday night--Somebody want's Cordy's body....and next Monday, Xander's acting strange...well, at least stranger than usual.

"The ear flaps bring out your eyes..."

--Xander