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4.8 Pangs

Giles: "Buffy, Xander is in real danger. Are you sure the solution is pie?"

Thanksgiving episodes on series TV tend to be a tad too heartwarming for my taste, because a part of me is always aware of the 'ritual sacrifice of an animal to celebrate the slaughter of indigenous peoples' aspect of the holiday. Finally, a Thanksgiving episode for me (she said joyously) as poor, alienated, new-to-college, post-Angel Buffy is compelled to create her own version of a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, all the while being attacked by perhaps justifiably homicidal Native American spirits.

Whedon et al. continued to make Spike more sympathetic, starting with that hilarious Dickensian scene of Spike, frozen and starving, peering into a window at vampires feasting (I thought I'd bust a gut laughing at that one) and secondly, having him tied to a chair and hit with arrows during the second half of the episode. Poor Spike may be suffering because of his "little trip to the vet," but he was always a lot more fun when he was forced to work with the gang and this whole defanging business works for me. I'm sure James Marsters doesn't mind being a series regular now, either.

It was also a lot of fun to see Angel stalking Buffy again. Ah, memories.

Bits and pieces:

-- It struck me this time that the commandos are the Sunnydale version of the ROTC. I'm wondering how long it will take for Buffy and Riley to run into each other in the dark. (Or did they already during "Wild at Heart"?)

-- I really do like former demon Anya. She's sort of like Cordelia in "Earshot;" she says what she thinks, all the time, and there's something delightful about a character who does that. (Also sort of like the Estelle Getty character on "Golden Girls;" didn't she always get the best lines?)

-- Sarah Michelle Gellar was simply wonderful in this episode. Light comic touch, pathos, total cuteness -- she has it all.

Quotes:

Willow: "Thanksgiving isn't about blending of two cultures. It's about one culture wiping out another. And then they make animated specials about the part where, with the maize and the big, big belt buckles. They don't show you the next scene, where all the bison die and Squanto takes a musket ball in the stomach."
Buffy: "Okay. Now, for some of that, you were channeling your mother?"

Willow: "Buffy, earlier you agreed with me about Thanksgiving. It's a sham. It's all about death."
Buffy: "It is a sham, but it's a sham with yams. It's a yam sham."
Willow: "You're not gonna jokey-rhyme your way out of this one."

Buffy: "Do you even own a turkey pan?"
Giles: "Tell me again why we're not doing this at your house."
Buffy: "Giles, if you would like to get by in American society, then you are going to have to follow our traditions. You're the patriarch. You have to host the festivities, or it's all meaningless."
Giles: "And this is in no way an elaborate scheme to stick me with the cleanup?"
Buffy: "How about that ceremonial knife, huh? Pretty juicy piece of clueage, don't you think?"

Willow: "But you have whipped cream. I saw it in Giles' fridge."
Buffy: "But that's whipped cream in a canister. It's only right if you whip it yourself."
Willow: "Hey, and then later, we can churn our own butter and make sweaters out of sheep."

Riley: "That sounds so great, but I'm outta here tonight. I caught a last-minute flight back to Iowa."
Buffy: "Iowa. That's one of the ones in the middle, right?"

Buffy: "And the thing is, I like my evil like I like my men: evil. You know, straight up, black hat, tied to the train tracks, soon my electro-ray will destroy Metropolis bad. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an indigenous culture."
This is an interesting thing to say about men. Taken literally, it means she likes bad boys.

Buffy: "You don't have a ricer? What do you mean? How could someone not have a ricer?"
Giles: "Well, do you have one at home?"
Buffy: "I don't know. What's a ricer?"
Giles: "We'll mash them with forks, much as the pilgrims must have."

Giles: "Well, that's good, but this is why I think we should all keep a level head in this."
Willow: "And I happen to think mine is the level head, and yours is the one things would roll off of."

Willow: "Sarcasm accomplishes nothing, Giles."
Giles: "It's sort of an end in itself."

Spike: "I just can't take all this mamby-pamby boo-hooing about the bloody Indians."
Buffy: "Uh, the preferred term..."
Spike: "You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do. It's what Caesar did, and he's not going around saying, I came, I conquered, I feel really bad about it."

Xander: "I think he thought we were crazy."
Willow: "Maybe if Anya hadn't opened the conversation with, Everybody got both ears?"

Buffy: "Wasn't exactly a perfect Thanksgiving."
Xander: "I don't know. Seemed kinda right to me. A bunch of anticipation, a big fight, and now we're all sleepy."

We have another winner here. Four out of four stakes,

Billie





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