Buffy the Vampire Slayer Re-Watch: When She Was Bad (Season 2 Episode 1)

Buffy’s back and bitchier than ever before.

After a long summer away from Sunnydale, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is finally home and ready for a new year.

Or is she?

While on the surface she looks like Buffy, sounds like Buffy, and fights like Buffy, the girl who returned from a summer with her dad sure isn’t acting like the Buffy we know and love.

She’s bad. She’s cruel. She’s uncaring, empty, and hollow.

It’s not surprising, when you think about it. Buffy died. There’s obviously going to be some residual effects from that. Her life ACTUALLY ended. It’s obviously something she’s thought about day and night ever since it happened.

Every time she closes her eyes, she probably sees the Master’s face. When she sleeps, he is the star of her nightmares.

Buffy: We were close. We killed each other. It really promotes togetherness.

So Buffy acts out. It’s normal. It’s completely understandable. But it’s also uncomfortable to watch.

The ways that Buffy takes out her aggression, physically, seem really normal. She’s fighting vampires with the same ferocity that she always has. Her training is still intense, just angrier.

It’s the emotional ways that she takes her aggression out that worry those around her.

Buffy’s detachment from her friends, Willow, Xander, Angel, and even Giles is obvious. But it’s what she does with that emotional detachment that threatens to destroy all of the relationships she built since arriving in Sunnydale.

From the way she blows off Giles to her cruel, seemingly flirtatious, dance with Xander, Buffy seems hellbent on taking a jab at everyone who has cared about her, backed her up, and stuck by her side since the day they met her.

Her dance with Xander is not only hard to watch for his own feelings, but the cuts to Willow’s and Angel’s faces throughout it show that Buffy knows EXACTLY what she’s doing, and that she couldn’t care less about it.

Willow, who Buffy knows is in love with Xander, has been enjoying her solo time with Xander all summer in the Slayer’s absence. They’ve been flirtatious and moving toward a possible romance, in fact. So the look of deep sadness on her face cuts right to the heart of viewers. As for the hurt look on Angel’s face? Buffy did tell him that she’d moved on…to the living.

Buffy’s actions are horrible. This awful person is not the Slayer that we fell in love with, not even a shell of that girl.

That’s when Cordelia arrives, for the win, and gives Buffy a heart-to-heart.

Cordelia: You’re really campaigning for ‘bitch of the year,’ aren’t you?

Cordelia is beginning to show that she cares an awful lot about the ‘Three Musketeers’ far more than she’s ever let on before. Maybe it’s because she knows what they’re doing behind the scenes now, and respects them more for it. Or, following up on what she told Buffy last season, she realizes that her ‘friends’ aren’t really friends at all to her, and she sees an opportunity to be a part of something bigger.

Whatever Cordelia’s motivation is, the most important thing is this: she’s becoming one of them. We’re slowly seeing her integrated into the Scooby Gang, not as a villain, as a friend.

The Master’s lackeys (and that annoying Anointed One,) are taking advantage of Buffy’s bad mood to try and resurrect their deceased leader. They kidnap everyone who was closest to the Master when he was killed, Giles, Jenny, Cordelia, and Willow. Buffy’s in such a state of cocky rebellion that she completely misses the trap set for them, and isn’t there to protect them.

That’s when Xander steps in to save the day, for the second episode in a row.

Xander’s love for Buffy has always been lingering between them, even more after she dirty-dances up on him. But with Willow in jeopardy, Xander comes to his senses and gives Buffy the stern warning that she ignored from Cordelia.

Xander: I don’t know what your problem is, what your issues are. But as of now, I officially don’t care. If you’d worked with us for five seconds, you coulda stopped this.
Buffy: We, we just have to think. Where would they have taken them?
Xander: If they hurt Willow, I’ll kill you.

And that’s all it takes. Buffy is snaps back into place and does what she does best; she kills the vampires and saves the day.

It’s what happens next that truly helps Buffy begin to heal. She takes a mallet to the Master’s bones, smashing every last piece that remains of him, until she falls into Angel’s open arms, finally breaking down in tears.

Despite Buffy doing her best to push Angel away, he still stays by her, knowing that eventually she’ll come around.

Angel cares more about Buffy than he likes, and we sense that his feelings for her are becoming uncomfortable for him. But he never leaves her side, he doesn’t shy away from her. He knows she can’t do things alone. Or, he knows that she can, but doesn’t want to see her do it alone, fearing what will happen if she fails.

Their romance is slow. There are many feelings there, but they fall to the background so that the bigger story can be told, at least in this episode.

Buffy is back to being…well, Buffy.

All is forgiven, because her friends are understanding and much more patient than I, myself, would be in their shoes.

And together, they are ready to embark on another year of fighting vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness – together.

Pop Into Pop-Culture:

• The Three Musketeers is a well-known story
• The Three Stooges is a well-known series of films
• Xander and Willow’s “dumb game” has mis-quotes from Star Wars and Terminator

Cordeliaisms:

• “I was totally beachless for a month and a half. No one has suffered like I have!”
• “I already have a lot of character. Is it possible to have too much character?”
• “Are you nuts? Do you think I would tell people that I spent the whole evening with you?”
• “Whatever is causing the Joan Collins ‘tude, deal with it. Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever, but get over it. ‘Cause pretty soon you’re not even gonna have the loser friends you’ve got now.”
•  “It stays with you forever. No matter what they tell you, none of that rust and blood and grime comes out. I mean, you can dry clean till judgment day, you are living with those stains.”

Today’s Music Was Brought to You By:

• “It Doesn’t Matter” by Alison Krauss and Union Station
• “Spoon” and “Sugar Water” both by Cibo Matto featuring Sean Lennon

Stay tuned for our next installment of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Re-Watch when we discuss, “Some Assembly Required!”