I’m not sure. According to the translator its either an aphrodisiac or a floor wax. I can’t decide if it’s worth the risk or not.” -Garibaldi
Plot Synopsis:Alien artifacts mutate a man into a living weapon wreaks havoc on Babylon 5.
This episode opens with Garibaldi talking with an irritated lady in a purple suit. She looks upset and frankly, comes off like she’s got a stick up her butt. But then again, she’s having a tough time getting her job done…which is doing an interview with Sinclair (who has been avoiding her attempts to get the interview done). Apparently she is there to interview him on the 2nd anniversary of Babylon 5 going online, and given what happened to the other Babylon stations, that probably is a huge occasion to celebrate.
Dr. Franklin is sitting in his lab when he is surprised by his old archaeology teacher, Dr. Vance Hendricks. Dr. Hendricks is there, he says, to offer Dr. Franklin an adventure…possibly the biggest adventure he’s ever had (hmm…superlative much?). I don’t know what it is about this guy, but between his beady little eyes, stern look, and doom-inspiring British accent…I can’t help but think he is up to no good. Don’t do it Stephen! Whatever he wants, don’t do it!! He just looks like he’s up to no good, although I bet at the end I bet we’ll find out he sells pretty flowers for orphans and he’s really the sweetest guy who ever lived. Okay no, I don’t really think that.
Next, its off to the customs check area of the station where a “red shirt” is inspecting some cargo. Okay, so he’s not actually wearing a red shirt, but you know nothing good will happen to this guy, so we’ll call him Mr. Red-Shirt-Not-In-A-Red-Shirt. First off, he is inspecting the cargo alone, second he notices a false bottom in the case he’s inspecting and mentions to the guy it looks like he may be smuggling something, and third, he turns his back!!! Poor Mr. Red-Shirt-Not-In-A-Red-Shirt, we hardly knew ye. He’s electrocuted or something, but its made to look like a heart attack. Of course Mr. Garibaldi knows better. This type of thing really get his hackles up. And we know that when Mr. Garibaldi’s hackles are up, somebody is going down.
Back to Med Lab: Dr. Hendricks introduces Dr. Franklin to his partner, Nelson, which is of course it’s the same guy who just killed Mr. Red-Shirt-Not-In-A-Red-Shirt. Ooh….I told you not to talk with this guy Stephen!!! Apparently they found something on a dig at Ikkara 7 and they smuggled out some artifacts. They brought them to Babylon 5 to ask Dr. Franklin to help analyze them since they artifacts are made up of living technology. Oh uh! I’ve seen enough scifi movies to know that this won’t turn out well. Dr. Hendricks appeals to Dr. Franklin’s desire to be famous and his thirst for knowledge to get him to overlook anything that doesn’t look right. Oh Dr. Franklin….why won’t you listen to me?!
I was right.. this won’t turn out good. The guy who killed Mr. Red-Shirt-Not-In-A-Red-Shirt touches one of the artifacts and it zaps him…knocks him clear across the room. And then his skin start to get really icky…like skin turning gray and falling off type of icky. You know something is going terribly wrong when your skin suddenly starts to turn gray and fall off. In fact, I can absolutely recommend making an appointment right away with your doctor if this happens. If Nelson had been smart, he would have taken my advice before putting an odd brainy thing from the artifacts to his neck and turning into Mutant Nelson (and really, the only thing worse than being known as Nelson, is being known as Mutant Nelson).
Finally Dr. Hendricks comes clean and explains that the technology is organic with limited energy. In order to gain mobility they have to graft themselves to another life form and its possible they did this to Nelson. Whoa?! Holdup!! Graft themselves to another life form?! Um, that would have been enough for me to leave them wherever I found them. You know blow them to bits, bury the parts on different planets, and put up a sign that says “Keep off the grass!” Apparently the artifacts are programmed to protect something, but they aren’t sure what its trying to protect. In the meantime Mutant Nelson is on the loose in the station. Oh no! Help! Mutant Nelson is on the attack!
After a bit more research, they find out that the artifacts are actually weapons. The Ikkarins were invaded many times over the centuries, so they programmed organic weapons capable of independent thought and included the brain wave patterns of one of their researchers to make sure they weren’t fooled by anyone who wasn’t pure Ikkaran. The parameters of what makes up a “pure” Ikkaran was done by religious fanatics and military extremists and they based the parameters on ideology, not science (I’m sure I could say something topical here, but I’m not that deep). During the next invasion, the weapons did their job and eradicated the invaders, however it wasn’t long until the machines turned on their creators killing anything that deviated in the slightest way from the “pure” race. And since no one is perfect (not even me, I know…a shock), none of them survived. Now one of these weapons is loose on Babylon 5 protecting a civilization that has been dead for 1000 years. Deep stuffs.
Garibaldi goes after Mutant Nelson, so of course Sinclair has to go too. Will we ever see commanders doing what they are supposed to do and NOT put themselves into harms way? Isn’t that why they have people who are paid to do these things for them?! If it were me, I’d be safely ensconced in the command center doing what I’m supposed to do like, I don’t know, commanding! Anyways, Sinclair has a plan…he’ll just make Mutant Nelson mad, get it to follow him to the airlock and blow him out. Easy, peasy! And to get him mad, Sinclair insults his manhood (okay Ikkaraness or whatever), and just like with any man, the plan works. They get trapped in the airlock and Sinclair continues to berate poor Mutant Nelson, until in his dispair, Mutant Nelson rips the odd brainy thing out of his neck leaving poor Un-Mutant Nelson lying on the cold floor with no clothes on….brrr.
In the end, Dr. Franklin finds out that it was Un-Mutant Nelson who killed the security guard and that he was acting under the orders of Dr. Hendricks the whole time. The doctor finally fesses up that the company that financed his expedition to Ikkara 7 is actually a front. In truth it deals in bioweapons. He could have turned in the artifacts for his regular commission, but he suspected they were actually weapons. He wanted Dr.Franklin to help prove it so he could make millions more, the safety of everyone around him be damned.
Moral of this story is…if you need someone to help you with your own dirty work that might possibly get everyone around you killed…don’t choose a squeaky clean guy like Dr. Franklin or you may find yourself all alone in the pokey with a very angry (although completely Un-Mutant) Nelson.
FUN FACT ALERT:During the medical scan of the alien artifacts, the screen shows that one of the contents is called “Okudazin”. This is likely a reference to the Michael Okuda, a Star Trek technical consultant who designed the computer displays first seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation (otherwise known as LCARS).
I know both of my readers (and that includes the hubby and me) will be happy to know that Episode of the Geek will be back in action starting his week, reviewing your favorite geeky tv shows. Between working 2 jobs, starting my other 2 blogs (Of Gnomes and Rogues and Pyxia’s Pensive Ponderings) and a laptop malfunction, this site was put on the backburner for a while, however, I miss geeking out to my favorite shows.
I will be posting a bit of B5 and Buffy, as well as starting a new show this week…if only I could decide which one. I’m thinking either starting Hercules: The Legendary Journeys/Xena: Warrior Princess, Firefly or Battlestar Galactica. *Sigh*…so much geeky television, so little time.
I don’t like spiders, okay? Their furry bodies and their sticky webs and what do they need all those legs for anyway? I’ll tell you! For crawling across your face in the middle of the night. Ewww!” – Willow
Plot Synopsis: A young boy in a coma is causing the world of nightmares to leak into Sunnydale.
It’s all dark and creepy…Buffy enters the Master’s lair; she looks scared and not at all confident. She is confronted by the Master and immediately drops her stake. She looks up at him petrified as he starts to close in on her and then…..suddenly, her mom wakes her up in her nice, happy, sunny bedroom (you didn’t think the Master would actually kill her, did you?). It was just a nightmare and her mom is telling her it’s time to get up for school. This is probably the most relieved I’ve ever seen Buffy face the prospect of going to school. She is also a bit excited since her dad is coming to pick her up after school so Buffy can spend the weekend with him.
At school, we see Buffy talking with Willow and we learn a bit more information about Buffy’s parental background. Her parent’s divorce was finalized the previous year, but they were separated well before that. Willow, trying to be as helpful as always, sympathizes by saying that her parents don’t bicker…but sometimes they glare (oooh, that awful glare!). Buffy says she doesn’t really know the reason for the divorce, but she is sure that her slaying and the trouble that stems from that didn’t help. Deep down, however, she completely blames herself for the divorce.
Later in class, Buffy sees a young boy standing in the doorway of her classroom. At first I thought it was Collin, the Master’s pet or sidekick, or whatever he is, but it just turns out he’s a completely different creepy looking kid. Almost as soon as she sees him, she hears the scream of one of her classmates, Wendell. She turns to find that there are spiders (and I mean BIG spiders) are crawling out of his textbook. He’s screaming for help when she looks back at the boy, he says “Sorry about that” and is gone. I’d have to say if I had a nightmare scenario happen, there would definitely be spiders in it. Or maybe that time when I was 8 and I had a nightmare that I was being chased by the Abominable Snowman from that Scooby Doo episode and he was riding a motorcycle with a saw blade for a wheel…I still shudder to this day to think about that.
Willow is still upset about the spider thing the next day and can’t stop talking about it. Giles suggests that they speak to Wendell about it since he can’t find anything useful in his books. Wendell tells them that he has had the exact same thing happen to him before in his nightmares. He actually likes spiders, its just that they hate him. Um…super weirdo alert!! First of all, NO ONE should actually like spiders…and second of all, NO ONE should actually like spiders! He says he used to have the best spider collection in the tri-county area. His parents sent him to wilderness camp and his brother killed them by leaving the heat lamp on for a week. He feels like the spiders blame him for their deaths and that is when the nightmares started…he’s in class, opens a book and the spiders come back to get revenge.
Then Cordelia comes by and tells Buffy she’d better get to history class for the test…Buffy freaks since she didn’t know there was a test and hasn’t studied. Now who hasn’t had this dream? In mine it was usually for math class…a subject that I did poorly in even if I did study. Buffy doesn’t know where the classroom is and when she does find it, she doesn’t know any of the answers on the test. Her pencil breaks and in the time it takes to sharpen it, the class is over. As the bell rings, she sees the same little boy and knows something is seriously wrong.
Weird stuff keeps happening throughout the day….cool kids getting embarrassed by their moms in the school hallway, Cordelia’s hair going frizzy and suddenly being a member of the chess team and Xander, whos been poo-pooing the whole thing, walks into his classroom and suddenly he’s in nothing but boxers. Buffy & Giles are discussing everything in the library when they stumble across a picture in the newspaper of a boy named Billy. He was found in a coma after a baseball game and has been in the hospital for days. Buffy swears this is the kid she has been seeing before each of the weird nightmare events, but that couldn’t be since he’s been in a coma the whole time. Giles posits it could be Billy’s astral projection that Buffy has been seeing around the school.
They are interrupted by Buffy’s dad coming to pick her up early. Buffy’s feeling that she was the cause of her parent’s divorce is confirmed in her own nightmare – her dad tells her unequivocally it was her fault…having her, raising her, seeing her everyday…she embarrasses him with all the stunts she pulls. He tells her she is rude and not nearly as bright as he thought she would be. He claims he doesn’t get anything out of their weekends together, so he suggests not doing them anymore. He leaves Buffy in tears, but then she spies the boy, Billy, again and follows him. When she catches up to him, he can’t remember what happened after his game. As he starts trying to remember, this really ugly guy with an arm that looks like a big block of meatloaf that has been left to harden on the counter for a few years, attacks them. Buffy is unable to defeat him, but she and Billy are able to escape. They start looking for a place to hide, but instead end up in a graveyard at night.
In the meantime, the nightmares continue….Willow is forced to sing opera on stage in front of a huge audience and Xander follows a trail of candy bars that lead him to a clown (of which he has been deathly afraid since his 6th birthday party). I mean come on Xander, you seriously follow candy bar trails in nightmare bizarro world?! Even I wouldn’t do that and I’m a complete chocoholic! The clown (who totally reminds me of Pennywise from Stephen King’s “It”) chases him with a knife until Xander, tired of it all, deicdes to fight back and puches him squarely in the jaw. Yay Xander!!
Back in the graveyard, Buffy comes face to face with the Master for the first time outside of her dreams. Buffy tries to tell him that he isn’t real, but he counters by saying that he is real because she fears it. He overpowers her and buries her alive. The rest of the gang (who are now frantically looking for Buffy) get to the graveyard only to find Giles’ worst nightmare come true…a fresh grave with a tombstone for Buffy. He starts to despair when all of a sudden she emerges from the grave. They look at her and discover she isn’t technically alive anymore, she is a vampire. Buffy freaks and is embarrassed to let everyone know that she fears becoming that which she hunts. I will admit that seeing Buffy in vamp face is a little disconcerting. Later on when we see other characters show up in vamp face, its not so bad – some of them even have this cool factor going for them. On Buffy, maybe because she is so ingrained as the Slayer in my mind, it doesn’t sit so well with me.
They go to the hospital to find Bobby to try and rouse him from his coma. Giles is sure if they can wake Billy up, the nightmare world will end and everything will go back to normal…including Buffy. The meatloaf man shows up again, but with her extra vamp powers, Buffy is now strong enough to totally kick some ugly man booty. After his defeat, Astral Billy goes over to the dead creature and unmasks him…before we can see his face, everything is back to normal and Bobby is awake in his hospital bed. At that moment his coach shows up to see him and it is then we discover it was his coach that beat him into a coma after the game because he blamed Billy for losing it. Sad really.
At the end, Buffy’s dad shows up and takes off to have a great weekend, and we know all is well in Sunnydale…at least until the next episode.
FUN FACT ALERT: This episode features the only time in the series Buffy appears in vamp makeup.
I know Principal Flutie would have said ‘Kids need understanding…kids are human beings’. It’s that kind of wooly-headed liberal thinking that leads to getting eaten.” – Principal Snyder
Plot Synopsis: Giles is forced by the new principal at Sunnydale High to run the annual talent show. A murder during the talent show rehearsals pit Buffy against a wooden dummy.
Now I’ve never liked this episode, mostly because of the creepy puppet in it. They freak me out. Go ahead and blame that one on my parents! When I was little, Poltergeist used to show on HBO all the time, but no matter how I begged, my folks just wouldn’t let me watch it (I think I was about 8 or something). Well, I snuck into their bedroom one afternoon and turned on their tv to watch it – big mistake! It was the scene where the little boy is being dragged under the bed by the possessed puppet. I still shudder when I think of it. It’s one of those memories that sticks with you…kind of like the time I saw “The Blob” and it scarred me for life. To this day I still can’t eat jelly….but that’s a story for another time.
This episode opens with some Sunnydale students practicing for the talent show…including Cordelia, who is singing very badly (oh! If I could only hear what Simon would say to her!!). Now I don’t know about you, but I feel like I missed out…I didn’t have a talent show in high school! At least not that I remember. It’s quite likely that they did have them, but I spent so much time hanging out in the band room that I didn’t know it. No…on second thought, I’m sure we didn’t have them. Anyway, here we meet Principal Flutie’s (may he rest in peace) successor…Principal Snyder.
Now, Principal Snyder is a piece of work. He definitely has no love for kids and none for himself apparently, since he decided to take a job…as a high school principal! He’s very strict and no fun at all…the complete opposite of our dearly departed Principal Flutie. Not only does he make Giles run the talent show, but he makes Buffy, Willow and Xander perform in the talent show. Honestly, this guy could not have thought of a better punishment for our Scooby gang. (As an aside, the actor who plays Principal Snyder is the same guy that played Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and I keep expecting Odo to show up and try to arrest him.)
Back to the talent show, we see a young man named Morgan and his ventriloquist dummy, Sid. At first the jokes being told are horrible, but suddenly, Sid seems to take on a life of his own and the jokes get funnier (albeit racier)….but you just know something creepy is going on. Not everything is as it seems. Enter Emily, a young ballet dancer, all alone in the dark locker room….I’m sorry kids of Sunnydale, if you’ve lived there that long and you still hang out in dark locker rooms all by yourself, you deserve to die. I’m just sayin! Later the girl is found dead (big surprise!) in the locker room with no heart. No heart?! Eww… When they find a knife next to the body, Giles thinks it’s quite possible a person (and not a demon) did it, so the gang goes out and questions some of the talent show kids.
After questioning the other participants, everything seems to point to that creepy Morgan kid. And he doesn’t help matters by acting like a complete and total weirdo. While Buffy is talking to him, his dummy seems to take on a life of its own. Couple that with the extreme headaches and jumpiness he seems to be experiencing and it’s total creeptown. That night Buffy goes to sleep and wakes up to something small & creepy crawling around in her room (can anyone say Poltergeist?!). She tells Giles & the gang next the next morning that Sid the puppet attacked her…and they all think she’s seeing things and that she must have had a nightmare. By now you’d think they’d trust Buffy on this type of stuff…this is the Hellmouth, after all.
Giles finds a book (big surprise!), that gives him insight into what might be going on: there is a brotherhood of seven demons who take the form of humans, but every 7 years they need a heart & brain to maintain their humanity, otherwise they revert back to their other form, which, as Giles explains it, is slightly less appealing. Willow suggests the demon might be Morgan, but Giles says that it couldn’t be because demons are very strong and Morgan seems to be getting weaker by the day. Oh well, back to square one for the gang – they still don’t know what is going on. Willow helps Giles do some more research and discovers a passage in a book that tells them sometimes inanimate objects of human quality, such as dolls & mannequins, have acted upon their desire to become human by harvesting human organs. Uh oh…the dummy!
Buffy goes to find Morgan. She finds him all right, but instead of a nice, live, albeit creepy Morgan, she finds a nice, dead, albeit creepy Morgan, with an added bonus of having no brain…double eww! Immediately after this she is attacked and almost killed by, you guessed it, the dummy. They fight and eventually discover that they are on the same side. It turns out the dummy is actually a demon hunter who was cursed years ago and became a living dummy. So far he has managed to kill six of the seven demons he was after, but needs to kill the 7th one to be free of his dummy curse (and by free, we mean dead). He thought Buffy was the 7th demon, not realizing she was actually the Slayer. Luckily for Sid, Morgan’s brain was cancerous, so there is still a chance to find that 7th demon and get his “freedom” after all.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…uh, I mean talent show, we see Giles voluntarily sticking his head into a guillotine that is going to chop his freakin’ scalp off!! Not exactly the brightest crayon in the box, is he? In his defense, he thought he was helping with a magic trick, but come on Giles, putting your head in a guillotine?! How long have you lived on the Hellmouth? Of course Buffy & the gang come in at the last minute and save him with the help of Sid. Sid plunges his knife into the demon’s heart and he is finally free from his curse and dies. For one moment, I actually thought I felt a little sympathy and sadness for the little puppet…nope, they still give me the creeps!
Fun Fact Alert: According to Joss Whedon, the closing credit scene of Buffy, Willow and Xander doing their dramatic scene took longer to film than anything else they ever did because no one could stop laughing.
Okay, I can also say I’m an elderly Dutch woman. Get me? I mean who’s to say I’m not if I’m in the elderly Dutch chat room?” – Xander
Plot Synopsis: A demon, trapped for hundreds of years in a book, is accidentally released into the internet and starts flirting with Willow.
This episode opens in Cortona Italy, in the year 1418, and a man named Carlo pledging his love to a green, scaly, horned demon. When will people learn never to pledge their love to a green, scaly, horned demon? Nothing good will come of it, I tell you and poor Carlo learned it the hard way…he had his neck snapped. Well, at least it was quick. Next we see a monk (well, he looks like a monk type) saying that more and more people are falling under this demon’s powers and he means to stop him…by the power of Greyskull…uh, I mean by the power of the Circle of Kayless! And with that he traps him in a book and sticks the book in a crate. A book? What kind of trap is that anyway? And for goodness sake people, if you do decide to trap a demon in a book, don’t pack the book away in a crate for safe keeping…destroy it!!
Next we see Buffy opening up that crate with the book in it…who would have guessed it would end up in Sunnydale? How the heck did Giles get a hold of that book in the first place…he certainly didn’t order it off of Amazon.com. I mean, who even sells books like that?! I can see it now:
Advertisement: For sale, one slightly used book with a freaking DEMON in it. Cheap!
Apparently the computer science teacher, Ms. Calendar, has set as a class project the scanning of the library collection into the computer, or as Giles thinks of it, getting his books “skimmed” into that “idiot box”. Willow scans the above mentioned book into the computer, which releases the demon into the computer. What did I tell you about burning the book when you’re done entrapping the demon in it?! Now we have an entity trapped in the internet – great, just what the Hellmouth needs.
A week later at school Willow is all puppy dog eyes, and when Buffy asks why she couldn’t get a hold of her the previous evening, she says she was talking to a boy named Malcolm on a computer. Gosh…dial up! I remember those days on AOL with my 2800bps modem zipping around at the “speed of light”. Hey, just cause you had to wait 10 minutes for a webpage to load, doesn’t mean you’re not on the cusp of technology. At the same time there are also some creepy teens in the computer lab (Dave and Fritz) also talking to someone on the computer – someone who doesn’t like Buffy (gee, a demon who doesn’t like Buffy…big surprise!). And this Fritz guy is just major freaky…if I were a teacher I wouldn’t let him anywhere near a computer.
Buffy & Xander are concerned with Willow’s new “boyfriend”, but when she starts blowing off school, Buffy really starts to get worried. I mean, Willow skipping school is like, um….Willow skipping school! She is so desperate that she asks one of those geeky guys in the computer lab, Dave, for his help. Dave tells her to leave Willow alone – Buffy thinks he might be Malcolm, but soon realizes its something else…something majorly creepy. Dave catches up to Buffy the next day and apologizes to her. He says that Willow is waiting to talk to her in the girls locker room, but really it’s just a set up since Fritz is the one in the locker room and he’s there to kill her. Dave has second thoughts and shows up at the last minute to warn her and keep her from getting eletrocuted in the showers. I mean seriously, why did she need to be warned? The locker room is empty and dark…suddenly a shower turns on and she thinks its a good idea to walk in there and turn it off?
Upon discovery of the now blank and demonless book, Giles is able to figure out what is going on. In the Dark Ages, souls of demons were locked in books and there they remained, harmless, unless the books were read aloud (so once again I must ask why they didn’t destroy the darn thing). Apparently the scanner “read” the book and allowed the demon out. They try to “delete” him from the computer, but it doesn’t work. They need more help – someone with more knowledge of computers, so they call in Ms. Calendar. Giles tries to explain things to her, but she already knows – she is a “techno pagan”. She calls him snobby and chastises him for thinking that knowledge of the occult can only be found in books.
Willow goes to meet Malcolm (okay, knocked out and dragged there by Fritz), so Buffy & Xander rush to her rescue. In the meantime, Giles & Ms. Calendar use the Circle of Kayless to purge the demon out of the internet. So yay, happy ending! Except for the fact that none of them are ever likely to have a normal healthy relationship…I mean, Buffy is in love with a vampire, Xander fell in love with a praying mantis teacher and Willow was in love with a computer demon. They’re doomed!
Fun Fact Alert: This episode features the first appearance of Jenny Calendar. Although her first name was not mentioned, the script called her Nicki. However, the name was then changed to avoid confusion on the set, where the cast and crew called Nicholas Brendon by his nickname, “Nicky”.
All right Lieutenant Gremlin, this time your butt is mine. – Garibaldi
Plot Synopsis: A pretty, young Centauri woman is forced to steal sensitive files from Londo for her master. Garibaldi tries to track down the person responsible for accessing the Gold Channel without permission.
The first scene opens with Londo in his “native” habitat…in a bar, drunk and watching scantily clad women dancing on stage. But Londo isn’t there just to watch any scantily clad dancer, rather he is there to watch a specific scantily clad dancer – a beautiful young Centauri woman named Adira. Apparently they know each other well…if you know what I mean. No matter anything else that happens in this episode, she seems to genuinely care for Londo and I found it a truly odd (if not disturbing) relationship.
Of course we can’t think that this woman is there only for the love of Londo, and it turns out our suspicions are correct. She is actually a slave to a man named Trakis (well, I’m not sure what species he is, so I use the term “man” loosely). He orders her to get something called the “purple files” from Londo and in return she is to get her freedom. These purple files are a collection of all the information that Londo (and his family) have collected over the years – you know, the dirt on all the other Centauri families – and it is what keeps him in such a powerful position in Centauri society. By gaining this information, Trakis hopes to sell it for a high price to the Narns, who would gladly use it to their advantage in their on-going hostilities with the Centauri. But as I mentioned before, for whatever reason she really like Londo, so she has been resisting carrying out this task.
In the meantime, Garibaldi picks up an unauthorized transmission to Earth on the Gold Channel. Now its just this kind of thing that sticks in Garibaldi’s craw….he doesn’t like anything unauthorized happening on his watch. The Gold Channel is a line that is reserved for emergency communications only and requires express permission of Sinclair to use. Perplexed, Garibaldi goes to see Ivanova who offers many different explanations on what else it could be, including “gremlins” in the system. Ooh gremlins…that’s a great movie, but I guess that’s a topic for another blog.
Throughout all of this, there are some treaty negotiations going on between the Centauri (represented by Londo) and the Narn (represented by G’Kar). The main reason I bring this up is because I think Vir is hilarious. While the rest of the parties involved in the treaty negotiations are sitting impatiently around the table waiting for Londo to get his big-haired self there, Vir is patiently sitting and playing a handheld video game (although I’m sure it was far more sophisticated than the Mario Bros. I used to play on my friend’s gameboy back in the day). At one point he even got G’kar to play the game, which in my opinion is absolutely hilarious. But, I digress…
Londo asks Sinclair for his help to get back the purple files, who agrees if Londo agrees to his compromise in the treaty negotiations. They are soon set upon by Trakis’ men…who, by the way remind me of you’re stereotypical 80’s Miami Vice type toughmen (I was laughing so hard at the leather jackets and the big sunglasses, but maybe that’s just me). To me, Londo and Sinclair are an odd pairing…I would have thought that Londo would’ve turned to Garibaldi first (and I’m certain he would have kept it on the down low). Garibaldi just seems better suited to the task as well as having a knack for handling Londo’s personality with flair.
In the end, Sinclair gets G’Kar to help recover Londo’s files and save Adira. I assume that they didn’t tell him exactly what the “merchandise” he was recovering contained, or else he never would have agreed. After the data crystal is retrieved, Londo thanks G’Kar for saving his career and the honor of the Centauri republic. G’Kar is understandably upset…after all, he would have jumped at the chance to ruin Londo’s career. It makes you wonder exactly what they told G’Kar to get him to cooperate in the first place. Adira, now free, tells Londo she still has feelings for him (I swear, I don’t understand this chick), but that she can’t be with him right now.
While all this is going on, Garibaldi tracks down the “gremlin” who is using the Gold Channel without authorization. He manages to patch into the communication channel and finds Ivanova speaking with her father, who is very sick and about to die. It is a very touching scene, and I admit I got teary eyed (but then again, I tend to get emotionally invested in stuff like this). This scene really shows what a rough time of it that Ivanova has had all her life and explains why most of the time she is a bit hard nosed and detached. We find that not only did she lose her mother to suicide (after the PsiCorps put her on the drugs), but her brother lost his life in the war and her father was so despondent that he no longer paid attention to her needs. Even though she joined Earth Corps against his wishes, he wanted her to know that he is proud of her. Her father then dies in front of her, and for the first time, we see Ivanova get really emotional. Garibaldi, of course, doesn’t want to bring this up, but lets her know he tracked down the Gold Channel gremlin only to find it was a computer malfunction strongly suggests that it will never happen again. Very sweet of him to do that.
Fun Fact: In the scene where Londo wakes up in bed beside Adira after an amorous liaison, they thought about letting his hair look all limp. In the end they decided against it.
You’re in love with a vampire?! What are you, out of your mind? – Xander
Plot Synopsis: As Buffy & Angel get closer, Buffy discovers the dark secret Angel has been hiding from her. This not only threatens to end their relationship, but also puts Buffy’s mother in danger.
This episode opens with a scene between The Master and Collin, The Annointed One. I must say that I think Collin is a rather silly name for a vampire leader and savior. You’d think an evil vampire kid would be named something like Vlad or Damien or Meanie Evil Doo Doo Head, but no, they choose a really nice, boy-next-door type of name that would strike fear into the hearts of nobody. But still, this kid creeps me out big time. Anyways, Darla requests permission to take care of Angel, but The Master decides to send “The Three” after her instead (oh no! Not “The Three!”).
Next is the annual “Prefumigation Party” at the Bronze. Once a year they the Bronze closes up to fumigate and the night before everyone parties and the Bronze gives out free drinks to any patron that catches a renegade cockroach. Um….ewwww. Hilarious as this concept is, my first thoughts were more like: “People still want to go there?! ” and ”Where is the board of health?!”. At a table in the midst of all this are Buffy & Willow talking boys…Buffy thinking about Angel and Willow looks lovingly at Xander dancing so *sigh* geekily. Unfortunately for Willow, Xander is still all puppy dog eyes for Buffy.
Buffy decides to leave the Bronze early and “The Three” catch up to her. Now these guys look like they smell really, really bad. Eww….when was the last time they took a shower? But then again, if you’re that evil, it’s probably en vogue to be all stinky and smelly. As they start to overpower Buffy, Angel *sigh* comes in and saves her but he gets injured in the process. With “The Three” in pursuit, Buffy & Angel run to Buffy’s house. As they enter Buffy invites him by yelling ”Come on!” and Angel runs in. See what they did there? They got around the whole “vampires have to be invited in” thing without revealing Angel’s identity. Angel takes his shirt off so Buffy can tend to his wound and all I can say is…wowzer! Angel ends up spending the night in *gasp* Buffy’s room (On the floor – get your mind out of the gutter!).
The next day Giles tells Buffy that the Master wouldn’t send “The Three” after just anyone (gee, what an honor!). Willow calls Giles out saying that he always knows what’s gong on (probably cause the audience is thinking the same thing), but he gets out of it easily by saying he was in the library from midnight to 6am researching it. Hmm….how did he know to research it ? I didn’t see Buffy call him in the middle of the night or anything (I’m fairly sure she was focused only on Angel) and I don’t think Giles is psychic. Very perplexing, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. Giles says that since ”The Three” failed, they would offer their own lives in penance, which is kind of a stupid policy if you ask me. I mean how tough is that? I made a mistake, so…uh you should kill me now.
Angel tells Buffy that he can’t be around her because when he is, all he wants to do is kiss her (awww). So whats the problem?! Angel tells Buffy he’s older than her (doesn’t exactly mention HOW old)…and yowzers, they kiss and he turns into a vampire. Now I knew that Angel was a vampire when I first started watching Buffy, so I’m not quite sure exactly how shoking that was the first time it aired…but I imagine most people didn’t see it coming. I think that was probably one of the more disappointing aspects of not watching the show when it first aired – I already knew many of the surprises (but not all of them thankfully).
Soon we find that Angel and Darla used to know each other; in fact, she is the one who sired him. They traveled the world bringing down a reign of terror on anyone in their path, but for the last 80 years or so Angel has been quiet. Darla decides she wants him back on The Master’s side and decides to do that through Buffy. She pretends to be a classmate of Buffy and ends up attacking her mother and blaming it on Angel. Buffy thinks that Angel is the one that attacked her mom – after all she does find Angel in vamp face holding her mom with a bloody hole in her neck and looking all snarly – talk about lousy timing!.
Buffy goes looking for Angel to kill him and they have a battle, but Buffy just can’t kill Angel…she still loves him, after all. Angel explains that many years ago he fed on a girl, about her age, and her family (gypsies) exacted the perfect revenge – they restored his soul. It was the perfect punishment: “When you become a vampire, the demon takes your body, but it doesn’t get your soul…that’s gone. No conscience, no remose…it’s an easy way to live. You’ve no idea what it’s like to have done the things I’ve done…and care. Darla shows up to kill Buffy and, low and behold, she brings guns. Um, she brings guns?! Come on! That just looks ridiculous, however, it is quite effective against a Slayer I guess. As she closes in on Buffy, Angel stakes Darla in the back. Oh and the Master is upset! She was the Master’s favorite for 400 years.
Finally (I know, its about time – but there is a lot of material here people!), there is a very touching scene at the end. They both know it can’t work, but can’t pull themselves away. They share a tender kiss. *Sigh*…nothing sweeter than a Slayer and her vampire sharing a tender moment. When Buffy pulls away and says goodbye, we see her necklace has burned a cross into Angel’s skin.
Buffy Fun Fact: Sarah (Buffy) & David (Angel) had a “breath-off” before the kiss scene was filled. They ate as many horrible things as they could before they kissed, just for fun.
It’s devastating…he’s turned into a 16 year old boy. Of course you’ll have to kill him. – Giles
Plot Synopsis: During a field trip to the zoo, Xander is possessed by the evil spirit of a hyena.
Our episode opens with the gang on a field trip to the zoo. You know, I’m a little jealous…I never got a field trip to the zoo when I was in high school (although I did get a class trip to the beach in junior high – so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much). Anyway, four of the “cool” kids show up and start making trouble for anyone they see (including Buffy). Now these kids aren’t cool because they are the best looking or the most athletic or the most talented…they are “cool” because they are so mean and nasty that no one has the guts to tell them they aren’t “cool” – you’re basic bully types.
When Buffy, Willow & Xander notice these aforementioned “cool” kids taking class nerd Lance into the closed hyena exhibit, Xander pops in after them to stop any kind of trouble. Xander posits that this doesn’t need actual slaying, so he can handle it…although if the “cool” kids wanted a fight, Xander is not exactly well equipped to do anything. But hey, you gotta give credit where credit is due – he goes in there to help someone less cool than he is, even with the distinct possibility of bodily harm hanging over his head. Right now, I heart Xander.
As soon as Xander enters the exhibit, he stops the “cool” kids from dumping Lance into the cage with the mean and hungry looking hyenas. Suddenly the hyena’s eyes go all freaky yellow and glowing and stuff and then everyone else’s eyes (minus Lance cause he ran away) go all freaky yellow and glowing and stuff. Now, you know nothing good can come of your eyes suddenly going all freaky yellow and glowing and stuff…mark my words!
Now Xander’s eyes don’t stay all freaky yellow and glowing, but he does start taking on some hyena characteristics - hanging around in a pack, being irritable, sniffing Buffy’s hair and craving raw meat. Even the school’s baby pig mascot Herbert…uh, I mean the razorback (grrr!) is afraid of Xander when he walks by. You know its never a good sign when a school’s baby pig mascot (uh, razorback…grr!) is afraid of you. Xander starts being plain old mean to just about everyone with the exception of Buffy, but that’s cause he’s got some serious hormones going on in her direction…well that and her hair smells really good.
The height of Xander’s cruelty comes in the form of eating Herbert the school’s baby pig mascot (uh, razorback…grrr!). It’s not like he cooked him up & fried him in oil or anything, but Xander and the rest of his human/hyena hybrid pack just walk into the room with Herbert the school’s baby pig mascot (uh, razorback…grrr!) and eat him raw. Ewwww!
Giles, Buffy & Willow discover that Xander & company have actually been possessed by the hyenas. It goes back to a ritual from an African tribe, The Primals, who believed that animals were pure and actually wanted to be possessed by them. Somehow this happened to Xander, so the gang decides they need to do a reverse transpossession thingee with the help of the zoo keeper in charge of the hyenas. This transpossession works in the sense that Xander is no longer possessed, but the zoo keeper (who is actually evil zoo keeper) becomes possessed instead. Luckily baddies are not often loved in this show, so evil zoo keeper gets pushed into the hyena pen and is eaten alive. Yum, yum!
*RIP Principal Flutie* This is our last Principal Flutie sighting…sniff, sniff. All Principal Flutie wanted to do was help kids everywhere to learn and do their best and where did that get him? Half eaten on the floor of his office by 4 human/hyena hybrid high school students (thankfully Xander was locked in a cage at the time and could not participate). Words cannot express my sadness at this turn of events. Being eaten by human/hyena hybrid high school students, during the school day mind you, is just no way for a principal to go.
Fun Fact Alert: Nicholas Brendan won the role of Xander after 4 days of auditioning, even though he had no prior acting experience. I read somewhere that the actor who played Jonathan (from the 2nd season onwards) was also considered for the role, but I’m glad they went for Nicholas….he’s geeky but in a cute, endearing way.
It doesn’t matter. If we lived 200 years, we’d still be human; we’d still make the same mistakes. – Ivanova
Plot Synopsis: A Soul Hunter arrives at Babylon 5 and tries to add Delenn to his collection by force.
At the beginning of this episode we meet another character, Dr. Stephen Franklin, who heads up the MedLab in Babylon 5. I’ve always liked the character of Dr. Franklin – he is a logical man who tends to only believe that which he can see. He certainly has his heart in the right place when it comes to saving lives, be they human or alien, but sometimes this causes moral and ethical dilemmas…but hey, what would Babylon 5 be without those?
Right after the arrival of Dr. Franklin, a mysterious ship comes out of the jumpgate…and it contains Dr. Franklin’s first patient on B5. It is an alien he is unfamiliar with, so Delenn offers to help identify his species. Upon seeing him, she screams, tries to kill him and begs Sinclair to get rid of him because he is a Soul Hunter. She explains that Mimbari children are told at a young age to be careful lest a Soul Hunter comes in the night to steal their soul. The Mimbari do not know anything of their origins, but they do know they are drawn to death “like insects to the light”. They have the ability to steal your soul at the very instant of death…but they only take those souls they consider to be of sufficient value.
Now all this soul hunting stuff sounds kinda creepy, and the Soul Hunter sitting in MedLab is doing nothing to dispel this belief…he is definately a top-notch, A-number one creepozoid. He talks in weird cryptic sentence fragments and goes on to describe a death he is feeling while he is there…”feeling the death…gone now, gone.” And that chant he does ad naseum…”see toe, re cho”…creepy to the max! I certainly would not want to be anywhere near this loon.
When Sinclair questions him later, the Soul Hunter says that he is not a thief, but a preserver and that he is acting for the greater good. He takes the souls and enshires, worships, talks and learns from them….and of course he keeps them in little glass containers that resemble the balls you put hamsters in so they can run around your living room without getting lost behind the sofa. If I were a Soul Hunter (and I’m not, in case you were wondering), I’d probably keep them in something a little more secure. But hey, each to his own I suppose.
The Soul Hunter finds out that Ambassador Delenn is actually Satai Delenn (an honorific title used for those on the Mimbari Grey Council), and he goes all evil…he decides that he was sent there to specifiacally get her soul, even if he has to kill her himself to get it. He sets up his soul stealing machine (which kinda looks like a mini-version of the Death Star death ray) and starts to slowly drain the life out of her. Sinclair finds them and is able to turn the machine back on the Soul Hunter at the last minute…quite just desserts, don’t you think?
At the end of the episode we see Delenn setting all the trapped souls free. One has to wonder if she did the same for the Soul Hunter or if she decided to let him rot for an eternity in his hamster ball…I vote for the hamster ball.
Fun Fact Alert: The actor who played Dr. Stephen Franklin, Richard Biggs, was completely deaf in one ear and partially deaf in the other since the age of 13. He often used his celebrity status to help raise money for a private school in California that serves hearing impaired children.
Buffy, when I said you could slay vampires and have a social life, I didn’t mean at the same time. – Giles
Plot Synopsis: Buffy finally gets a date…unfortunately it interferes with her Slayer duties as she must stop The Master from finding The Anointed One on the same night.
In this episode, we are introduced to a theme seen often throughout the seasons – the fact that being a Slayer can really make normal activities, like dating, almost impossible. As a teen, its tough enough to date (heck, its tough even when you’re older), but Buffy has a huge concern above and beyond that of a normal person – keeping her identity as the Slayer a secret. This proves difficult since she never knows when the next apocalypse is coming…and on the Hellmouth, they happen fairly regularly.
We begin with Buffy slaying a vampire and Giles critiquing her efforts. After he grades her down for taking too long (hey, it takes time to be snarky right before you stake someone!), they discover a ring that indicates that this was no ordinary vampire. Of course Giles must consult his books, and it is during this research session that we first meet Owen. He is a quiet, sensitive type of guy who tends to keep to himself, however when Buffy sees him she turns to jelly. I find it ironic that a girl who doesn’t flinch at the sight of vampires, demons and ghouls, turns to a pile of jabbering blubber in the company of a cute boy. The blubbering pays off, however, since he asks her out later that day…much to the shock and dismay of Cordelia, who is also trying to get Owen’s attention.
Now, while all those hormones are flying around, we see The Master in his lair reading a prophesy from a dusty old tome:
And there will be a time of crisis,
Of worlds hanging in the balance.
And in this time shall come The Anointed,
The Master’s great warrior.
The Slayer will not know Him, will not stop Him,
And He will lead her into Hell.
You know…the typical end of the world type prophesy stuff. It is interesting that he owns a book of prophesy that is so accurate – I mean, didn’t it tell him that he would be trapped in his lair the first time he tried to take over the world? or that Buffy would give him the ultimate smackdown when he tried it again? Why can’t books of prophesy tell you the stuff you really need to know? But, I digress…
Giles is adamant that Buffy track down this Anointed One, but she is just as adamant that she go on her date. Reluctantly Giles gives in and goes to the funeral home to investigate it himself….which of course results in him being trapped inside it and being hunted by the vampires from the Order of Aurelius. Of course Buffy has to leave her date early to rush to the funeral home to save Giles and it doesn’t help that Owen follows her there anyway- talk about awkward! Now not only does she have to keep him safe, she also needs to try and keep him from asking too many questions about what she is doing.
After a fight with a big, ugly vampire (whom everyone assumes is The Anointed One), during which Buffy thought that Owen was killed, Buffy struggles with the fact that dating for her will be a huge challenge at best. It doesn’t help that the next day at school Owen is excited about going out again and doing more scary & dangerous stuff (it’s always the quiet ones, isn’t it?). It is at this point that Buffy realizes she doesn’t want to date someone who is only interested in the thrill of danger, but someone that wants to be with her for who she is – which is easier said than done when you have a secret identity. She doesn’t want to have to constantly worry about keeping someone safe, especially when that person doesn’t really understand what they are getting themselves into.
At the end of the episode, we discover that Buffy & the gang did not kill The Anointed One, but just a run of the mill vampire. It turns out that it was true when the prophesy said that The Slayer would not know or stop The Anointed One, since he is (or was) nothing more than a little boy – majorly creepy in my book.
*Gilesmobile Sighting* We get to see Giles’ car once again as he races to the funeral home to find The Anointed One. Hmmm…come to think of it, I’ve never seen Principal Flutie and the Gilesmobile in the same episode. Could it be….? Nah!
Fun Fact Alert: In this episode we find out that Giles was 10-years old when he found out he was to be a Watcher, as his father and grandmother before him. Turns out that Giles wasn’t terribly excited about it since he had dreams of becoming a fighter pilot…or possibly a grocer.
