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3.4 Beauty and the Beasts

Faith: "All men are beasts, Buffy."

Buffy's complex (to say the least) relationship with Angel takes another turn as they move involuntarily into B and D.

We had three (count 'em) three monster boyfriends in this episode, and three strung out and worried girlfriends. Someone's monster boyfriend is killing people -- but which one? It certainly did appear to be Oz, and then it certainly did appear to be Angel. Of course, it was neither one.

BtVS tends to do social issues in a way I particularly like. Here we have a fairly typical abusive relationship; the abuser, Pete, blaming the abused, Debbie, for his behavior ("you know you shouldn't make me mad, you know what happens"), Debbie making excuses for Pete ("it's me -- I make him crazy") but then we have that extra added touch, because Pete has been drinking something fluorescent that has made him Mr. Hyde. Or at least that's how he started, because we learn that now he can become a monster anytime he likes. Like some people we know who don't need fluorescence in jars to be monsters.

Lots of particularly good scenes in this one. I loved Giles getting Oz's dart in the ass; Buffy sneaking up on Faith and inadvertently scaring her; Buffy's scenes with her new but literally short-lived shrink ("Buffy Summers, reporting for sanity"); Xander babysitting Oz; and the totally romantic Buffy/Angel ending.

Bits and pieces:

-- As mentioned in "Anne," time moved at a different pace in Angel's hell dimension, and he suffered hundreds of years of torture. Bleah.

-- Obligatory dog reference: Mr. Platt: "You can't stay lost. Sooner or later you have to get back to yourself... If you can't, love becomes your master, and you're just its dog." Plus, there was a lot about "Call of the Wild."

Inconsistencies:

-- Giles says that no one returns from a demon dimension. But Buffy and Lily did in "Anne."

-- Angel has magically acquired pants so that the show will continue to be PG instead of NC17. At the same time, Oz managed to completely lose his clothing when he wolfed out.

-- If Pete could pull the gate off the library cage, why couldn't Oz?

Quotes:

Oz: "Oh, can't take the pressure. It's not the music that's hard, it's the marching."
Buffy: "We have a marching jazz band?"
Oz: "Yeah, but, you know, since the best jazz is improvisational, we'd be going off in all directions, banging into floats... Scary."

Giles: "It's good to see you. Um, no need to panic."
Oz: "Just a thought. Poker? Not your game."

Buffy: "Oh, he definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer. Actually, I think he makes his own drums."

Oz: "Debbie. Well, victim number one, Jeff. He was in jazz band with us. They used to horse around."
Faith: "They were screwing?"
Oz: "I don't think so, but he hid her music comp book once."

Willow: "It's all over school, what happened with Debbie and Pete. Except for the Pete-was-a-monster part."
Oz: "Yeah. A freshman told me that Pete had eight iced cafe mochas and just lost it."
Buffy: "That's better than the estrogen theory. I heard he took all of his mother's birth control pills."

Three out of four stakes. This was another really good episode.

Billie





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