Doublemeat Palace

Doublemeat Palace
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Nick Marck

Original Airdate: January 29, 2002

Plot:Getting increasingly desperate for a source of income, Buffy takes a job at a fast food restaurant, the Doublemeat Palace. But the Slayer soon suspects there's something sinister about the secret ingredient used to enhance the flavor of the food. Meanwhile, Willow goes through severe magic withdrawals and an old vengeance demon friend of Anya's drops in for a visit.

Review

Warning: If you are horribly addicted to SPOILER and have gone cold turkey on them, you might want to turn back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead for the latest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Doublemeat Palace."

In short: The subplots were a lot more compelling than the main plot.

In every good to great season of television show, there has to be at least one episode that makes you scratch your head and go, "Huh?"

In season two, we got "Killed by Death", in season four, we got "Bad Beer." And this year, the episode that had me scratching my head and going, "Huh?" was the latest one "Doublemeat Palace."

Not that it was nearly as bad as "Killed by Death" or "Bad Beer", but I've got to admit that on a lot of levels "Doublemeat Palace" was the first really big misfire of season six.

I think the main problem I had with it was that I wasn't overly compelled by the main plot--Buffy going to work at the Doublemeat Palace. Perhaps it's because the X-Files did something similar last year with the early season eight episode, "Hungry" or perhaps it was just because the eventual secret turned out to be rather lackluster, I'm not quite sure. In the end, I was left with the feeling that I'd watched an hour of Buffy and while I wasn't ready to throw things at my TV in disgust, I wasn't overly compelled by it either. It's eerily similar to how I felt about the December episode of Angel, "Dad." It wasn't that it was really good or really bad--it was just sort of there.

And certainly, part of the problem may have been that it had potential to be so much more than it was.

Certainly "Gone" emphasized that Buffy and Dawn are being watched by the authorities and that it was about time that Buffy faced the harsh reality that she has to have some source of income if she wants to support Dawn and keep her family together. And the idea that Buffy would take a quick job is interesting--though in a lot of ways, her decision to come clock-in at the Doublemeat Palace comes about three or four episodes later than it should. After the events of "Life Serial" it would seem as though Buffy needed to look into finding a real job immediately as I'm sure we all assumed that the money from Giles wouldn't last forever--I even took that gift from Giles as a way for Buffy to get out of a dire circumstance she was currently facing and not intended to be there so Buffy could just sit by and watch the bank account dwindle again. And even if we'd have a few moments between then and now of Buffy looking for a job or perhaps some dialogue about a job search that was going unsuccessfully, then this episode might have been a better fit at this time and place.

And if there's one thing that Buffy is usually very good at, it's making sure that events happen for reasons and that they occur in some kind of sensible order. And I never really got that feeling with Buffy's starting to work at the Doublemeat Palace. Again, we had the set-up in "Gone" but it felt as though it was coming out of left-field a bit too much.

But once we got to the Doublemeat Palace, things didn't get much better. We had some nice attempts at humor with the status of working at the Doublemeat Palace for life--stuck in a dead-end job. I liked Manny the Manager a good deal because he really was the type of soulless person that you would, stereotypically expect to find in such a role. Also, seeing Buffy's confusion about her new role, her less that thrilled attitude about running the grill and the way in which she tried to bring some soul to the soulless job she had (I did notice that Buffy had bright red lipstick on while it seemed as though all the other women were drably made-up by comparison). But overall, the entire plotline never really gelled much. The drama of "there might be something more in the secret sauce then we're letting on" was a bit too obvious and while I did like that Jane tried to twist it, I felt it worked too hard. Yes, there is some humor in the fact that a chain built on burger service would serve basically an enhanced veggie burger with the special seasoning being, well, meat, but I didn't like the entire idea of the little old lady being a demon that much.

It raised so many issues that were never resolved or even addressed. For one thing, why did she pick on certain employees and not others? What exactly was her criteria for the attacks? From what I saw, it appeared she liked the younger employees a good deal, but I can't be certain. Also, how was she able to gain access to the Doublemeat Palace late at night and what exactly did she want there? Also, how did Buffy know she had a wig? I may have missed something but I never saw a point at which it was obvious that the woman was wearing a wig. (Of course, this is also from the guy who never figured out William Shatner wore a toupee for the entire run of the original series until I read it in several of the Star Trek kiss and tell books years later).

The ending of the plotline about the demon at the Doublemeat Palace reminded me a lot of early Marti Noxon episodes--you had some interesting ideas going in terms of the events and situations the characters found themselves in, but with a demon plotline badly tacked on in the end. I guess part of this is having seen "Dead Man's Party" repeated recently on FX, but I think the argument still has a great deal of merit. (Marti Noxon has come light years since that point IMHO and is easily one of the best writers on the show now...and Jane was making great strides this year as well. It's just a shame that after giving us some great episodes early-on that she stumbled a bit with this one.)

Despite the fact that the Doublemeat Palace plotline failed to really resonate, there was some nice moments in there. And there were certainly some small, isolated things to like in there. If anything, I'd have to say the subplots were far more compelling than the main plot.

The biggest thing I liked subplot wise--Xander finally had something to bring to the show. For the first time in a while, Xander was in there and while he was cracking jokes and being sarcastic Scooby, it felt as though he was bringing something more to the table than the past few episodes have seen. Again, any time you can give Nicholas Brendon more to do, I'm all for it because Xander is probably my favorite character. (And watching season one again on DVD just points out how sharp a decline in screen-time we've seen this character get over the past two or three years). I liked seeing Xander come and offer Buffy support on her menial job--if there's anyone who would understand the rigors of what you have to go through to get a job and having to take a job you don't necessarily love to survive, it would be Xander. Also seeing his reaction at the thought that he might have eaten human flesh was superb. (At that point, I was honestly wondering if there wasn't some come of addictive chemical in the food since Xander ate one early on and immediately consumed the other, almost without thinking). And we got to see some of Xander's reaction to the wedding, which was interesting. I think we had some seeds laid here for future installments--including Xander's reluctance at seeing what Anya might have looked like in true demon form.

The other subplot that worked well as the entire Willow's coming to terms with her addiction and going cold turkey. Seeing Willow struggle with it and then be given her birthday present by Amy was interesting. I liked seeing how hard Willow has worked and how she was so tempted to fall off the wagon. Allyson Hannigan is just doing wonders this year because the withdrawals were conveyed through body language more than my telling the audience--"Boy, withdrawal stinks." Hannigan convinced us through how Willow moved and acted and through her voice. Again, this woman deserves an Emmy nod. (I keep telling myself to not beat that dead horse, but I just can't help it when the performance is this darn good!)

And in another plot development, we see the continuation of the Spike and Buffy relationship. Seeing Spike come into the Doublemeat Palace was interesting and the banter between Spike and Buffy worked well. However, it did bring up something interesting--and I'm not sure if wasn't a continuity error. At what point did Buffy know that Spike could attack her but not other human beings. I don't think we saw this, but again, I have been known to be wrong before.

Also, it was interesting in the scene with Buffy and Spike in the alleyway behind the Doublemeat Palace, the apparently look of disinterest on Buffy's face. Seeing her focus on anything else except Spike was interesting and might be some bit of foreshadowing that Buffy's interest in this relationship is starting to wane a bit. I suspect it could be something that now that Buffy has had her conquest of Spike she's grown bored or unsure of where the relationship would or should go from there. Or if that it's just based on a physical nature that she's grown bored because she wants more. This could be interesting to see if and how this develops.

So, I guess that's about it for now, except a few small things....

--I am so glad they addressed the fact that now that Willow knows where the Legion of Doom lives that they had to go over there. I was worried they'd leave this unadressed.

--The stash of things they found were absolutely hysterical. "...and pictures of the new Vulcan girl on Enterprise." A great line and I wonder if that was a bit of a "Thanks for picking us up UPN" moment.

--I wonder how Amy will react to Willow's dismissing her so. We've seen that Amy isn't always the most stable or reliable friend...and that she's a bit selfish. You've got to wonder how long it will be before she really comes after Willow because of Willow's inability to de-rat her sooner.

--The scene with the vengeance demon and Xander was superbly funny and nicely done.

--Anya's tirade about counting on Willow to speed things up for the wedding and zap a good reception was nicely done. I like how Anya still continues to lack tact--sort of like Cordy used to bring to the show.

Well, that's about it for now. Overall, not a good episode, not a bad episode. The side plots brought it up a bit, but overall, this is the biggest Buffy disappointment so far this year.

My rating: 5.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: The Legion of Doom strikes and frames the Slayer for a crime she didn't commit (gee, is one of them going to be one armed now? ;-) )