Bad Eggs

Bad Eggs
Written by
Directed

Original Airdate: January 1998

Plot: For a class, the gnag is given eggs to care for as children. But the eggs harbor a deadly secret... Review

Warning: If this town ain't big enough for both you and SPOILERS, you might want to consider heading for the town limits now...

In short: As the Joker once said, "Focus, focus!"

One of the things that has really impressed me about Buffy as a whole is that typically the shows have several different plot threads running, all of them interesting enough, and each of them given enough screen time to be interesting without taking away from the other elements as whole. That is, at least, until I saw "Bad Eggs" last night. Don't get me wrong--the show had a few bright spots, but most of them were lost in the convulted mess that served as the plot.

The major problem was that you had the two lone drifter, wild west vampires wander into town, then you've the whole alien-ugly in the basement taking over the school plot (from which Principal Snyder was conspiciously absent). Each alone, these could have made for an interesting episode to be told about them in and of themselves. A few unresolved threads from the wild west vampires were their reactions to Buffy and Angel as well as a bit more depth in them. If they are not so bright, as Giles said, then how did they manage to surived this long. Also, how to do they react to the world now and wouldn't they be a bit more interesting with just a bit more character depth.

On the other hand, you've got the eggs with aliens inside that was kind of fun, a small homage to the Puppet Masters (the book, not the movie!). But there was little explanation of where this thing came from. Who discovered it in the basement? Was the teacher already infected when he gave the students the eggs? Why exactly did it want to take over the town and be free? A few of these questions, we can assume the answers and some we can only guess at. A few moments of quick dialogue would have made this plot that much better and really hum. I like to see a bit of motivation from the bad guys other than they are bad guys. (Which may be why I loved Lie to Me so darn much!) OK, it's a big ugly monster, but what purpose did it have? And wouldn't it have interesting if instead of the cowboy vampires happening to show up at the end, that the monster had taken advantage of their lack of intelligence and they were servants of the monster, able to tell us what the monster had in mind? That might have made it a bit more interesting and exciting overall.

My biggest problem with the episode is the rather hamfisted way the two plots came slamming together. The vampires just happen to show up in time to see this ugly monster so Buffy has to fight a two-front battle. It didn't really add that much tension to the end of the episode. In fact, it took away screen time from maybe discovering what the nasty in the basement was up to. At least with Reptile Boy, we knew why the lizard was going to eat Buffy and Cordy. But, I digress.

Usually Joss and company make the plots come together in a reasonable manner that works. It is like merging smoothly into traffic. This time, it was just a huge car crash and left me cold.

Now, what I did like that in between these two disparaging plotlines, we had some nice character moments and some interesting questions raised. I really liked the concept of the eggs and teaching our heroes responsibility for their actions. I kept wondering if the speech on the conseuqences of teens being sexually active wasn't supposed to be some kind of set up for next week with Buffy and Angel (notice she was absent from class, which may help us infer a few things!). I did like the fact the way each character handled the responsibility--though Xander's boiling his egg was a scream. I loved it. It begs the question of what did the "mother" of his egg think about this, but I guess there wasn't enough time.

Seeing each of them care for the egg was nice, but there wasn't enough time devoted to it. I thought there could have been some better moments mined here (such as Willow maybe forgetting her egg while searching for info on the Web, etc.) Or maybe even seeing Cordy caring for it and it interfering with her social life.

I liked the way it paralleled the discussions Joyce had with Buffy about Buffy needing to take responsibility. It's nice to see Buffy have to deal with the ordinary tasks of being sixteen--peer pressure, mom, school, guys, and then the whole slaying issue. It's nice to see that she's not always able to balance that and there are some consequences to those actions. It leads me to wonder if she will still be "grounded" next week when all of this with Angel begins. Of course, on Leave it to Beaver, the grounding never carried over week to week or else the Beav would never have left the house! :-)

More than anything else, this episode felt like set-up for next week. It seems as though most of the characters were in a holding pattern as far as development went. Yes, we had some cute moments between Buffy and Angel, but I feel as though all of this is there so that when the carpet is pulled out from under them, it will be that much more horrible to see happen. I feel as though their being content can't last and that something horrible is waiting to happen. We can only wait until next week to see what happens (and do a lot of speculation between now and then!).

I am just hoping next week turns out be a bit more focused than this week. I figure with two hours to tell the story, it should turn out a bit better.

Well, I guess that about wraps it up, except for a few small things....

--OK, I admit the whole Xander/Cordy thing seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's getting old. It reminds of the final season of Star Trek: TNG where the writers put Troi and Worf together in a parallel universe episode and fell in love with the idea and strung it along for the rest of the season. It didn't work much beyond a "what if" type of idea. Now maybe if we see Xander and Cordy move beyond making out in the closet (and IMHO that is ALL that is going. Mabye some petting, but definately not any kind of intimacy of the sexual nature, I think) it might be more fun. Or better yet, have Buffy figure out what is going on.

--Some have speculated that with all the evidence, Joyce should figure out what Buffy is the slayer. I say, nah. It's more fun this. It was kind of similar to Lois and Clark when for two years Lois couldn't get the clue that Clark equals Superman. It adds for some fun tension. Now, I say Joyce should find out eventually. Just not yet.

--OK, when the horrible monster first seems to break out of the egg and creeps up to Buffy, why does it have that long tenticle like arm and then later is shown as a compact, stubby little creature? It doesn't seem likely that it would have that long arm like that, but I could be wrong. After all, what exactly evidence to we have to show this isn't the case?

--Did anyone catch the announcement on the sign in the library sign saying "Web site coming soon"? Was it the first time that's been there or was it just the first time I saw it?

--We haven't seen Oz for some time. Or heard mention of him. Maybe with the sweeps coming up, he'll turn back up.

Well, I guess that about wraps it up. Overall, not a strong episode in terms of plot, but it had some nice, character moments. Not the season's best. I just wonder how much is set-up for next week. If that turns out to be true, this episode may move up a bit in my estimation.

Final score: 6.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Buffy's b'day leads to big changes...(if you don't want to know more than that, I suggest you stay away from TV Guide and their web site!)

"I honestly don't know where you get some of this stuff."

--Joyce