Real Me
Written by David Fury
Directed by
Original Airdate: October 3, 2000
Plot: Buffy and the Scooby gang find the owner of the magic shop murdered by vampires. The vamps turn out to be a gang, led by Harmony who want to kill the Slayer. Meanwhile, tensions rise and tempers flare between Buffy and Dawn...
Review
Warning: If your plan is to avoid SPOILERS for the latest episode of Buffy "Real Me", then I strongly suggest you turn back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead....
In short: Interesting. Very interesting.
The second episode of the season has always been an interesting beast for Buffy. In season two, we got the rather pedestrian "Some Assembly Required" while in season three we got the underrated "Dead Man's Party" and last year we got the hit-or-miss episode "Living Conditions." All three of these episodes are very similar in that I can sum up my feelings for them in one or two lines. Namely a lot to recommend in each episode but each story had some points that gave me great reservation.
So, going into this year's second episode, especially based on the strong opening Buffy had last week, I had high hopes for the story. After last week's season premiere kicked it up a notch, I was hoping to see that continue into this week's episode (and hopefully far into the season).
And I've got to admit, that for the most part, they did just that.
Certainly David Fury roared back with a vengeance in the writing department. After last year's rather disappointing effort to wrap-up the season arc in "Primevil" (which I can't really put all of the blame at his doorstep since he had so much to tie up in an hour that no script could EVER have really done it justice), he came up with a solid effort here. Certainly there were a lot of interesting choices made in the script and they were, for the most part, successful.
The biggest thing that I think worked was the introduction to the character of Dawn. Fury's choosing to have the story related through Dawn's eyes to us, through her entries in the diary, worked very well. On that point, the episode did what it absolutely had to do--give us some idea of who this character is. I really enjoyed her reaction as being the sister of the Slayer, her thoughts on Willow, her crush on Xander. I also liked that at several points when she was off-screen but being "talked" about that she got to either hear the conversation or react to it--such as when Buffy and Joyce are arguing about Dawn's seeing the dead body at the magic shop or who should baby-sit her. I also enjoyed her comments about Buffy and Riley in which she says they kiss too much and she wonders if they've had sex yet. Those were quite funny and really worked for the perspective of a little sister.
I also liked the fact that Riley actually got something to contribute to the plotline. Namely, they seemed to remember that this guy was a teacher's assistant for a psychology class. It was nice to see him offer some of that background as he counseled Buffy on their patrol and then defended Dawn on several occasions to Buffy by asking her to see it from where Dawn is coming from. It was certainly the best work Riley has done in quite some time and it made his character a bit more likeable and integral to the overall plot for the week. And with the Initiative gone, giving Riley something important to do is critical lest he become little more than the standard boyfriend of the show's star.
Another factor that was critical to the success of the show was the fact the sibling rivalry between Buffy and Dawn and how natural that felt. I credit this both to Fury and to Sarah Michelle Gellar and Michelle Trachensburg. Each actress did a superb job with the role as the older or younger sister. Both got their moments to shine. I also loved the exasperation both brought to the role in dealing with each other and Joyce's reaction to them.
Also, Trachensburg's puppy eyes at the thought that Xander could baby-sit and then her reaction to him once he got there was absolutely perfect. I think my favorite scene of the sequence was when she said how Xander was the only one who understood her because of his smiling at her when she had ice cream on her face. I like the fact that Xander is, at this point, completely oblivious to how Dawn feels. That whole scene worked because, for me at least, it rang true. Having experienced something similar to it (having a crush on someone who has no clue but taking any small thing they say as a clue they MUST feel something for you), I can sympathize with Dawn and see the humor in the situation.
And the ending in which we saw a bit of a sisterly bond between Buffy and Dawn to keep Joyce from knowing that Dawn had been kidnapped by Harmony worked fairly well. It should be interesting to see if this omission will catch up to haunt them in future weeks.
As for Harmony, I've got to admit that seeing her with minions was a riot. Most of what we saw from Harmony worked well. Her pep-talk to the minions was a riot as was her plan to "call Buffy out." Seeing her as a leader of this group worked fairly well, even if I didn't understand the reason they most of them followed her. I could see why the guy she'd rejected in high school still would, but beyond that I wasn't sure about the rest of them.
I think the pivotal scene of the show for Harmony was her confrontation with Spike. Certainly we saw that she had some conflictions there within herself. You could see that she wanted to go back to Spike but also knew he was the wrong guy for her. Also, her getting the idea for her plan from Spike was nicely done and then her execution of it. I many ways, she seemed to try and be Spike-like in her leadership. Namely she felt that just because she told her vamp crew to do something that they should do it. But I think while Spike had the leadership inspired by fear, I'm not sure what inspirited the vamps to follow Harmony here.
And seeing everyone's reaction to Harmony having her own gang was nicely done. I can't put a finger on which one I liked the best since they were all good in their own way.
And I have to admit that Fury did a great job of meshing the two plotlines together. Neither felt as if it got underdeveloped at the expense of the other and I liked that.
But, while I liked the episode as a whole, there were some points that struck me as odd.
First of all, at the end of the first act, Dawn in confronted by the disshelved man and told she shouldn't be there. Then, he is summarily dropped at the beginning of Act 2. I'm not sure why or if maybe there were some scenes left on the cutting room floor for time, but this was too jarring to not notice it.
Second of all, last week Joyce knew nothing about Willow and Tara being together romantically. However this week in one of Dawn's voice-overs she refers to saying that she wanted to be like Willow and Tara and her mom not being thrilled with that idea. Of course, it could be that Joyce doesn't want her to practice the dark arts, but the way I took the scene was that Joyce knew about Willow and Tara's relationship and didn't like the idea of Dawn having a romantic relationship with a woman. I guess you could chalk it up to the fact that it's a universe that is a bit different because of Dawn's presence, but I don't buy it.
And while those seem rather minor, they are still problems that should have been addressed by the episode.
And it's problems like that that keep this week's episode from rating as highly as "Buffy vs. Dracula" did.
So, I guess that about wraps it up for now, except a few small things...
--Finally, Anya gets something interesting to do. I loved the scenes with her in them from her wanting to sell the Life kids for more money to her overprotective nature with Dawn.
--I like seeing Buffy's new commitment to being the Slayer. I liked that she's reorganized her class structure around training and is willing to do what it takes to get better and understand herself and her power. Also, seeing Willow's reaction to Buffy's new attitude and then being upset that Buffy dropped out of drama was nicely done.
--Tara worked fairly well. Her feeling like an outside is interesting. I'm not sure quite where this is leading but I'm willing to give them time to develop it.
--Giles' taking over the magic shop feels right. Also, the line of "How bored were you last year?" and his reaction about watching Passions with Spike was a riot.
--Spike. He was only in two scenes but they worked a great deal. I loved his reaction to the idea that Harmony was going to kill the Slayer. At some point, we've got to go back and address the chip in his head. Simply put, that's got to come out at some point.
--Do you realize that with just two appearances this year, Joyce has done more as a character than she did all last year?
Well, that about wraps it up for now. All in all, a solid effort that was enjoyable enough to watch. It certainly look to get a more interesting from here...
My rating: 8.0 (out of 10.0)
Next up: There are two Xanders.....
"I'm telling Mom you slayed in front of me."
--Dawn
Review Copyright 2000 by Michael T. Hickerson. All Rights Reserved.
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