Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are
Written by
Directed by

Original Airdate: April 25, 2000

Plot: Riley throws a party for the Initiative to release the stress of dealing with Adam. However, it goes awry when the spirits of several children take over and begin acting our their aggression on the group...

Review

Warning: If reading SPOILERS for the latest episode of Buffy, "Where the Wild Things Are" will make you feel dirty, please turn back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead...

In short: A nice warm-up for what's to come.

Finally, after seven weeks with only one new episode, the WB has finally decided to treat us to five new episodes of Buffy in a row (supposing that somehow this year's final run of episode don't mirror real world events too vividly...and unless there's a demon boy who is seized by the Sunnydale police in a pre-dawn raid, I seriously doubt that will happen...). "Superstar" certainly served to rev up the motor a bit a few weeks ago in term of my anticipation for new Buffy and it only made me that much more eager to see the final run of five than I'd been before.

And, at long last, it's finally started.

I've got to admit that I was really, really looking forward to "Where the Wild Things Are," On paper, it certainly had the potential to be good.

And for the most part it was.

But, again as I do every year coming out of the long spring repeat spell, I feel as though we were only given the appetizer of what's to come. And while I'm the first to say I love a good opening round of chips and salsa, it usually only served to stimulate my appetite even more for what is to come.

But, I'm getting way ahead of myself here.

"Where the Wild Things Are" was certainly an interesting episode overall. There was a lot that I liked, but there was also a bit that I didn't like.

What I really, really liked was how, for the first time this year, we got some emphasis on some of the other supporting cast besides Willow and Riley. Yes, they were there, but it's about darn time that Xander and Giles got a bit more of a showcase (Yes, I know "A New Man" was a Giles-driven episode, but it just wasn't enough!).

The early scenes with Xander rang really true. It was easy to see his frustration mount in the early sequences, especially in his job as ice cream truck man. I loved watching the interplay between Xander and Anya, especially as a lot of what Xander said could have carried over to his entire life at this point. Nicholas Brendan did a great job of portraying the overall frustration that Xander must feel at this point becasue, let's face it, all of his other friends seem to be doing well and having a great life outside of high school while he has, to this point, been seen in several jobs that aren't exactly what I'd called dream jobs. And seeing that carry over into frustration with Anya about the direction of their relationship (or in this case the complete lack of direction) really, really worked out well. And, of course, the whole Xander-Anya "let's-have-sex-right-now" moment was hilariously funny, even if it was a bit predictable.

Also, seeing an episode that focuses a bit more on Xander as the "hero" for the storyline worked pretty well. And "Where the Wild Thing Are" certainly stands head and shoulders above last year's Xander-driven effort, the disappointing "The Zeppo." Watching Xander's whip-them-into-a-frezny monologue outside the frat house was nicely done and it was certainly humorous to see Spike get so into the speech. Enough so that he'd actually jump at the chance to fight for (as he said) his worst enemies. We're finally seeing a bit more of the mature, wise Xander that was so evident in "The Freshman" but has been so ignored the rest of the year. I'm hoping this Xander will continue to be in evidence the rest of this year and all of next season, becasue his growth as a character from sarcastic and funny sidekick to a mature, intelligent person who still retains his sarcastic wit has been a lot of fun.

But in addition to seeing Xander get some signifiant screen time, we also got to see a bit more exploration of his relationship (or lack thereof) with Anya. I liked seeing their fight in the van and I also enjoyed the fact that Anya has such a limited view of relationships. Her seeing that the only way that a couple can show the fact that they're together is by sleeping together every night was interesting. Also, her quick reaction to the alleged end of her relationship with Xander and his willingness to work on their relationship made a nice dynamic. And to see Xander reacting by being flirtatious at the party certainly worked well, though a part of me feared it might become like the infamous "Friends" episodes a few years ago when Ross rebounded with the copy-shop girl because he and Rachel were "on a break." Certainly, that might have been interesting to see, but I don't think there was really time here for it. Maybe in a future episode this might come back to huant Xander and Anya, but I'm glad that it didn't go too far here.

Again, on the supporting cast that needs more depth side, it was nice to see Anya get some significant screen time without just being Xander's wacky-ex-demon girlfriend. To see her actually having to adjust to having emotions and feelings about things was extremely well done and Emma Caulfield certainly pulled it off rather well.

And, at long last, we got to see a bit more of Giles. Heaven help me, but Anthony Stewart Head was a riot last night. His singing in the coffee shop at open mic night had me literally on the floor laughing. And it was certainly a side of Giles that we haven't seen a lot of. It's interesting to see how Giles wants to connect with people who are closer to his own age and how he does that by his actions at the coffee shop is nicely done. And his song was simply hysterical. I've got to give major thumbs up to the writers for coming up with the lyrics for it.

Also, ASH deserves special recognition for his reactions to the Scooby gang before they barge in the coffee shop. Certainly we suspected Giles was up to something, but I honestly thought for a long period of time that we'd find out Giles was working there and not just simply there for open mic night. Maybe we'll see something of that in the future.

Finally, we got to some really interesting interaction between Spike and Anya. Certainly that pairing was interesting to watch on screen and it would be interesting to see the two join forces for more mayhem than they caused in this episode. It would be interesting to see the Scooby gang have to battle both of them in a future episode, should this turn of events go forward.

But it did raise an interesting question. Since Anya is an ex-demon, does that mean that Spike could harm her? In the most technical sense of the word, she's not human. And since it's been shown Spike can harm demons and not humans it seems to make sense that Anya would have to fear physical harm from him.

It's just a thought...

So, on the character level for several of the minor players, "Where the Wild Things Are" really, really worked.

But, on the overall plot level, there were parts that didn't work.

First of all, I never really found the plotline of the children acting out on the horrors comitted against them to be that compelling. Namely because there were some giant holes left in the story.

In the party scenes, we saw people act out of character, namely due to the influence of the children. Indeed, the whole that brought a great deal of pleasure to everyone showed this as did Tara's reaction to Willow trying to touch her. So, while I could buy that Buffy and Riley are caught up in each other enough to want to be together several times a day, part of me wondered if it wasn't partly the influence of the spirits that made their desire that much more insatiable for each other. There were certainly hints of it in portions of the plotline, but there was nothing specifically said about it. And it would have made portions of that plotline a lot more interesting and convincing.

So, while there was a lot of good character growth, it was shackled with a main plotline that left me a bit cold.

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

--Willow's reaction to Giles' singing and her crush on him were nice touches.

--Seeing Giles in the student lounge was a nice touch and certainly harkened back to the early days of the show when they sat in the student lounge at Sunnydale and talked about the forces of evil.

--The old woman was chilling and certainly effective. But there is a part of me that wishes every time religious faith is brought up that it didn't have to have a negative effect...

--Where was Colonel Haviland?

--It's interesting to see that Buffy is causing a rift between Riley and the rest of the Initiative. Based on speculation I've heard this may all come to a head very soon...

Well, that's about it for now. Overall, "Where the Wild Things Are" wasn't the strongest way to start out, but it certainly had some good points. There may be plotpoints introduced here that have an affect on episodes to come. If so, the episode could go up in my estimation...

My rating: 6.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Oz is back and he's in touch with his inner werewolf....