What's My Line, Part Two
Written by Martin Noxon. Directed by David Semel

Original Airdate: November 24, 1997

Plot: Buffy and company race against time to stop the ritual and save Angel.

Review

Warning: If my previous misspelling of the Order of Teraka's name made you want to hurl small objects, I can only assume that seeing SPOILERS for the conclusion of What's My Line will put you in an even worse mood, especially if you haven't seen it. If you don't want it to be spoiled, I suggest you turn back now. :-)

In short: Dissapointing.

One of Buffy's greatest strengths is the fact that when we get a two part story, part two builds on the events set up in part one in interesting, unique ways. It's almost like a chess board where Joss and company use part one to put all the pieces into play and then in part two yank the board out from under you, scattering the pieces all over the place. And it usually works.
What's My Line, Part Two is the exception to that rule.
Don't get me wrong here. It's not a bad episode, really. It's just that given how intriguing part one was, that part two ultimately comes off as a major disappointment.
I think the biggest part of this comes from the plotline concerning Angel and the ritual. Bascially, the pacing is so off on this story that it's hard to watch at time. After spending close to an hour and forty five minutes (including commercial time!) to build up to this riutal, the final battle in the church was somewhat of a dissapointment. Yes, we had the standard Buffy kicks vampire butt fight and she did get some help from Kendra, but the biggest problem is that we saw no repreicussions from the fight or what had happened. It just ended. And this is very un-Buffy like. In Innocence, we see the resolution to the action in the story but we also begin to see some of the consequences of the actions Buffy has taken. Same thing in the Becoming, Part Two. Here we only get a tacked on scene saying that Spike might be alive and leaving us to assume that Dru has been restored. I say cut down a bit of the time with Angel being tortured, trying to avoid the sunlight and give me a minute or two of explanation at the end and I'm a happy camper.
However, it just didn't come to fruition. And that's ultimately where a large portion of my disappointment lies.
The other major portion is with Kendra. It's not that it wasn't a good idea to have another Slayer step into the breach after Buffy's death last year in Prophecy Girl. And the idea behidn Kendra was good and she could have been a pretty good character. I liked that fact that she was a major contrast to Buffy's style of slaying and her reaction to Buffy dating Angel was absolutely dead-on good. But what really annoyed me about Kendra was her accent. I feel that the Jamacian accent was so annoying at times that it really took away from what Joss and company were trying to do here and that's create a character we can all care about. It also made her seem less intelligent and resourceful than she might have come across. I'm not saying that anyone with an accent like that is a bad person and not intelligent. I'm just saying that for this character it was so glaring and out of place that it really took away from taking her seriously. And since a large portion of the story revolved around her, that was ultimately a major disappointment.
But, it's not like What's My Line didn't have some good stuff to it.
First of all, I have to admit that while the coda was a bit off, I did like the scene with Oz and his diatribe on the animal cookie animals. That was classic. I don't consider that a waste of time scene because it actually does what I wanted--showed some pay off to a long standing, long term building plotline. And anytime you can have a line like, "I mock you with monkey pants" in a show, it's a good thing.
Secondly, I really, really did like the contrast between Buffy and Kendra. It was a nice touch and good to see Kendra's reaction to the world Buffy lives in. But Kendra brings up some interesting questions. First of all, does her whole village know she's the slayer? Secondly, do her parents know? Finally, why did she train so far away from the forces of evil and why has she waited until now to come in and take action? Surely when they found out that Buffy was dead and the Master had risen, shouldn't she have been on the next flight out?
So, that's about it for now, I guess. Overall, What's My Line was a good effort that fell short of what it was trying to be--a major two night event. However, it's still enjoyable in parts to watch.
So, that about wraps it up for now, except for a few small things...
--Is the death threat cancelled? Yes, Buffy has defeated the three assassins who came to kill her here but does that mean the order will stop trying?
--Xander and Cordy. The first time the kissed it was funny. The second time, not so much. I'm not sure if I like how this has developed or not. I think there was tension before they kissed but after they actually got into kissing, it felt like bricks colliding. But that's just me.
--So is Spike now not healed? I hate that we don't know. And does anyone but me wonder if that scene was an add-on at the end. I'd heard originally Spike and Dru signed on for five episodes and the end of this one would be five. It makes me wonder if they weren't originally planned to have been done away with in this story and then were added back in later when they proved to be popular among fandom.
Well, that's about it for now. I've watched this story at least three times now, hoping that it will click for me and it hasn't. All in all, it's a disappointing hour of Buffy and that's a shame. It could have been so good.

My rating: 6.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: What a Buffy two night event should be...from January an encore performance of Surpise and Innocence in which the Buffyverse changes forever...

"I mock you with monkey pants."

--Oz

Review Copyright 1998 by Michael T. Hickerson. All Rights Reserved.

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