Pangs

Pangs
Written by Jane Esponson
Directed by

Original Airdate:

Plot: While breaking ground for a new building at Sunnydale University, an ancient Indian burial ground is discovered, letting loose a vengeful demon who wants to revenge for the atrocities commited against his people. Meanwhile, Buffy attempts to have the perfect Thanksgiving dinner for her friends and Angel comes back to Sunnydale...

Review

Warning: If reading SPOILERS for the latest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Pangs" will ruin your Thanksgiving dinner, please turn back now. Everyone deserves to enjoy their turkey.

In short: Good in parts.

As many of you who read my reviews of episodes each week know, I'm not as big a fan of Jane Esponson's work as I am of such writers as Joss or Marti Noxon. But she's started to win me over a bit this year. Certainly, "The Harsh Light of Day" showed sparkles of greatness and so it was that I entered into my viewing of "Pangs" with an open mind.

The idea, on paper, certainly had enough merit. While breaking ground on a new site for the archelogy department, an ancient native American burial ground is discovered. In this discovery, a vengeful demon is released that wants to avenge the brutalities commited to him and his people for centuries.

Oh yeah, and Angel shows up as well. To make sure Buffy can handle it.

Now, the whole Native American avenging spirit plotline was very well done and as a stand-alone episode, that worked fairly well. But as for the whole Angel comes back to Sunnydale plotline, this really didn't work.

Why?

Basically because while the spirit was vengeful and evil, it wasn't really anything we haven't seen Buffy be able to handle in the past. I could understand Angel showing up if the Mayor were to suddenly come back from beyond the grave or if Faith were to suddenly wake up from her coma. But to show up to help Buffy stop this evil spirit seemed a bit too much of a stretch--and almost of the point that the producers wanted to bring Angel to Sunnydale in order to give Buffy a reason to go after him to L.A. in the second half of the crossover. (More of that episode of Angel later in the Angel review...) And simply put, that's kind of disservice to the character of Angel. I wanted to see him come back, don't get me wrong. But it's got to be with a bit more purpose to it, otherwise it ends up being little more than a ratings stunt. And I think that Angel's return to Sunnydale needs to be more than an elaborate way to draw in viewers.

Part of my negative response to this is that the evil spirit didn't seem any more threatening than any of the other dangers Buffy has faced. Or at least any of the one-off dangers she's faced in the past. Certainly she's faced vengeful demons before and those based on the beliefs of ancient cultures (Inca Mummy Girl anyone?) and has defeated them. The only thing that really this one a bit more hostile is that it could become both animals and human form. Interesting but again not life-threatening.

And we have to remember that Buffy does have the Scooby gang to fall back on.

The other part of the plotline that really bothered me was Willow's sudden being politically correct to the extreme. I can understand that she had sympathies for the culture that was pretty much destroyed at the hands of the white man, but Willow seemed a bit too extreme here. It's almost as if the writers needed a voice for this side and tied it to Willow, regardless of whether or not it made sense or was in her character. And that's a disservice to Willow who had some very strong moments the past few episodes, especially with "Wild at Heart."

But even though there was some stuff that I didn't like, there were quite a few things that made the episode an enjoyable.

Despite my reservations of Angel coming to Sunnydale and his motivation for being there, it was certainly interesting to watch him react to how Buffy's life has changed and how she's moved on a bit. I liked seeing his reactions to Riley and to feeling as though he had to keep Buffy at arm's length. That worked overall for me and was interesting enough to see.

And also, the other facet I did like was Buffy serving as the mother figure in the Thanksgiving dinner drama. One of the arching themes since the show began has been Buffy's desire to have a "normal" life and it's certainly interesting the extremes she goes to here. Part of it is that fact that everything else in her life is so out of control and this dinner is the one thing she can control, even if she turns into the evil version of Martha Stewart. I loved seeing that side of her. I realize that Buffy's gotten older and matured, but there still needs to be a sense of that yearning for a "normal" non-Slayer type of life. And it was certainly greatly in evidence here.

And I also liked a bit of the progression in Spike's arc. Seeing him reduced to begging the Scooby gang for help was a nicely done turn of events. It could be interesting to see just how this develops over the coming weeks--assuming that it does develop.

Well, that's about it for now, except for a few small things...

--Anya. I love her but she's becoming one-dimensional. She's got potential, so let's use it!

--I loved Xander getting every form of disease that the white man inflicted on the Native Americans. That led to some comedy.

--Giles reaction to Willow's overreaction was nicely done.

All in all, Pangs had a lot going for it and for the most part it worked. In the long run, I will be interested to see how some events here begin to play out.

My rating: 7.0 (out of 10.0)