Triangle

Triangle
Written by Jane Esponson
Directed by Christopher Hibler

Original Airdate: January 9, 2001

Plot: As Buffy continues to deal with Riley's departure, Giles heads to England to visit the Watcher's Council in the hopes of finding out more information on Glory. And an argument between Anya and Willow leads to the creation of a giant troll.

Review

Warning: No mixed up words or spells here. There are major SPOILERS ahead for the latest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Triangle." If you have not yet seen it and want to go into the story unawares, I strongly suggest you turn back now.

In short: A nice blend of comedy and serious moments.

During November and December, the majority of the Buffy episodes aired were not what I would call "light" episodes. If anything, they were dark--from Buffy's mom facing surgery to the departure of Riley to Spike's origins and dark past, the episodes all had a distinctive, dark flair to them. A lot of them were intense and left you emotionally drained when they were over.

Which is why I think that "Triangle" was such a breath of fresh air.

Don't get me wrong here--I like episodes that pack an emotional punch and I enjoy an episode that is willing to walk on the dark side as much as the next person. But there is also something nice about taking a moment out for a lighter episode.

"Triangle" is one of those rare episodes that achieves a good balance between the comedy and the drama. In a lot of ways, this episode reminded me of some of the early Vince Gilligan offerings on "The X-Files" (such as Small Potatoes or Bad Blood) where you had a serious plotline that kept the narrative going but you also had some good natured humor that worked because it was grounded and grew out of the history of the series. And that's a lot of what "Triangle" did for me.

I enjoyed this episode a lot more than I thought I would. Because on paper, the idea of a troll being released and going berserk in Sunnydale didn't sound that intriguing to me. But, leave it to Buffy to come up with a new way to make this plotline work.

First of all, I've got to give a lot of credit to Abraham Benrubi for his performance as the troll. He took a part that could easily have been played as too serious or too hammy and over the top and made it believable. Benrubi shown throughout the episode as the violent, destructive troll. Two scenes that really struck me as being nicely done were the scene in the Bronze where he is looking for both ale and babies to feed on (Benrubi did a wonderful job of carrying off the enthusiasm the troll had for his work) and then in the Magic Box where he forces Xander to choose between two of the more important women in his life. Every scene Benrubi was in worked so well. He brought such glee to his being a troll but he also made it believable that he was hurt by his past with Anya.

And I loved that we learned a bit more about Anya's past and how she became a vengeance demon. I also loved the parallels between Anya and Willow that were made here. We see that Anya became a vengeance demon after casting a spell to get back at a scorned lover and, well, we saw the consequences of a heart-broken Willow casting a spell in "Something Blue." I also liked the fact that we saw how both characters made choices that lead them in distinctly different directions. Indeed, I think this may be a large part of the friction that exists between Willow and Anya--that on a lot of levels they are similar people. There is nothing that personally bugs me more than a person who is too similar to myself.

I also liked the exploration of the conflict between the two characters--specifically over Xander. Anya's jealousy of Willow's long-term friendship with Xander was nicely done as was her concern that Willow would attempt to break them up as Willow did to Cordy and Xander. And Willow's concern about Xander being hurt by Anya was also nicely founded. Both had their reasons for not completely trusting each other and I liked that these feelings, which have simmered all season long were finally brought to a full bubble here and dealt with--at least on some levels. I don't think this should be one of those episodes were Anya and Willow have aired out their dirty laundry and suddenly become friends overnight. But I do think it could be like Cordelia and Buffy were--it was a long-term growth of a friendship. It may take time, but I think a bond can build up here. And that might take the show in some interesting new directions.

As for Xander, his season of maturity continues. Nicholas Brendon continues to deliver every time he's given a chance. He was superb in Buffy vs. Dracula, intense in Into the Woods and he did a great job here. His frustration at two of his best friends continually fighting and dragging him into it was nicely done. Also, I loved the scene where Xander is forced to choose between two people who mean a great deal to him--and being willing to sacrifice himself so that his friends could live. I picked up a copy of the Slayer Chronicles video set yesterday and I found myself thinking about it last night as I watched Triangle--simply how far as a character Xander has come since those early days. I love the work that Nicholas Brendon has done this year with Xander and I'm glad the writers have re-discovered what a great character Xander really is.

Another interesting duo in the story was Xander and Spike. Not to sound like a broken record here, but James Masters is just doing wonders this year. I really enjoyed seeing Spike's almost junior-high like approach to his crush on Buffy. From his scripting out entire conversations (and arguments) with Buffy to his talking to her friends to find out if she is talking about him to his attempts to win favor with her by not feeding on the accident victims, I enjoyed it. In the back of my mind, I found myself wondering if Spike would pass Buffy a note during study hall to see if she liked him....

Seriously though, I liked the fact that despite all of Spike's attempts to win Buffy's approval, every single once backfires. His latest attempt, bragging that he could feed off the accident victims but doesn't, and Buffy's being disgusted by it worked extremely well.

As did most of Buffy's plotline. I liked the mood swings that she had. Or the attempts to cover the moodiness she has. Buffy went from being calm and collected at times to taken out her anger over Riley's departure out on others around to her breaking down and sobbing on Tara's shoulder. (Which is an interesting character development. We've gone from Tara feeling as though she was an outcast to being accepted enough by Buffy to hear about the pain she is experiencing due to Riley's departure. Now whether this was a case of Buffy feeling closer to Tara after her official acceptance as part of the gang in Family or the fact that Buffy just needs a shoulder to cry and Tara is the closest one is something I wonder about). I also liked the at the end that Buffy's battle with the troll reaches new levels when he insinuates that Xander and Anya will break-up.

All of this worked very well.

As did the more serious plotline---Giles's trip to England to meet with the Watcher's Council. I found the final scene interesting for a number of reasons.

The first is that Giles acted strangely. There is more to what he told Buffy and Joyce than he revealed to them. I have a feeling he may have been hired back by the Council and now must convince Buffy to rejoin as the Slayer or else face the possibility of not getting the information they need to defeat Glory.

Secondly, Dawn now knows that a bit more about her fate and who she is. I am not surprised that she found out the way she did as it's been stated before the Dawn finds out things going on in the Summers's house by being "invisible" and picking up threads of conversations. It will be interesting to see how she reacts to this news--whether or not she forces a full confession out of Buffy or if she is distraught and runs away, somehow falling into Glory's hands. Or if she will retreat into herself and try to alienate Joyce and Buffy.

There are some distinct possibilities here.

And the ending had a huge emotional impact because of an earlier scene between Buffy and Dawn. We saw Dawn attempting to comfort Buffy in her time of need with Riley's departure. I really found the give and take between the two in the bedroom sequence to be nicely done and I have a feeling that sense of closeness and sister-ness is now broken because of Dawn's finding out the truth.

I really liked most of the aspects of this episode. But there was one that sort of bugged me.

Namely, the comments made about Willow's sexuality. Since the first time that we had hints that Willow and Tara's friendship being something more than friendship, this plotline has been handled with a great deal of tact and intelligence. In fact, in many ways, I found the Willow and Tara's relationship based on the fact that Willow fell in love with the person Tara was. And that's what lead to their relationship. I also felt that if Willow and Tara were to break-up at some point that Willow would fall in love with another person--irregardless of they were male or female. It was more of falling in love with the person--as her track record has shown. She has loved Xander, Oz and now Tara. I don't think the gender of the person really had anything to do to do with it.

That said, to have Willow's being with Tara reduced to a punchline to a joke--oh, I can't be attracted to Xander because I'm gay now--was a bit too much. I didn't like that it was handled so indelicately. Certainly misunderstandings about Willow's choice have been done in the past this season. But they were done better and weren't so blatant. Also it wasn't merely supposed to be a punchline. In many ways the two references to this reminded me of Three's Company when Mr. Roper was led to believe Jack was gay so he could live with Chrissie and Janet.

And, quite frankly, after the way that Willow and Tara have been so intelligently developed as a couple, it was a bit of shock to see it dealt with in this way here.

So, that's really my only major complaint about the episode.

But, for me, it's a big one.

Anyway, that about wraps it up for now, except a few small things...

--Joyce's appearance was nice. It was nice to see her getting better. I wonder when we'll find out about her follow-up visits to the doctor to make sure the surgery was 100% effective.

--Xander and Anya's scene in the beginning was nice and really stemmed out of his conversation with her at the end of Into the Woods.

Well, that's about it for now. All-in-all, an enjoyable episode with only one really major flaw to bring it down.

My rating: 8.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: A repeat of "No Place Like Home"

"You want credit for not feeding off of bleeding disaster victims?

"Well, yeah."
"You're disgusting!"

"What's it take?"