Once again, sorry for the lateness! However, I think this post is pretty good so I hope it makes up for it's tardiness. Enjoy!
Season Three, Episode Twelve
"Helpless"
Buffy and Angel fight to help Buffy train and they end with Buffy, on top of Angel, with a stake to his heart. Saying the absolute wrong thing at the wrong time, Buffy asks Angel if he's "satisfied." Awkwardness is Awkward.
After the moment of time they both wish they could erase, Buffy and Angel talk about her upcoming birthday plans! Angel oh so smoothly asks if she has a date to which Buffy jokily says yes with someone who likes it when she calls him daddy.
“Your father, it is your father, right?” lolz
Buffy tells him how every year he takes her to an ice show and she loves it. I question why this has never come up before. Buffy has had at least one birthday on this series (season two, season one never had a birthday episode so we can't say it happened during the first shortened season) and there was no mention of her father's ice show date. This isn't that big of a deal, this episode deals with a lot and this issue is very minor but it still deserves to be looked at which is why I've now spent a whole paragraph discussing it.
Buffy leaves to go slay and, right in the middle of fighting, she gets dizzy and the vampire takes her stake and points it at her heart while laying on top of her; I get nervous >.>
This looks more dirty than it is
And then Buffy isn't able to get away and he kills her and the show ends right there. Thanks everyone for reading and we'll see you again soon!
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Wait, Buffy doesn't die. Whoops, I guess my memory's a bit faulty. Let's move on and discuss how Buffy ends up surviving. She head butts him and is able to stake him before he has another chance to get at her. I guess this is possible, she is the Slayer after all.
Buffy tells Giles that something’s wrong; she’s completely off her game. Our second clue is her target practice which looks even worse than how I would have done, which is definitely saying something.
I could have done better than Buffy! What the hell is going on?!
We interrupt this important episode to have an amazingly awesome conversation and ice shows. Apparently, Willow has seen Snoopy on ice and went back stage only to become so excited that she threw up. Oz thinks ice is awesome, too. “It’s water, but it’s not” truer words have never been spoken. Also, Willow talks about the importance of Buffy's eighteenth birthday:
“18’s the big one. You can vote, you can be drafted, you can vote not to be drafted” (This picture needs to be used to point out how FREAKING ADORABLE WILLOW ALWAYS IS!)
Back to the important business of this episode. Buffy goes home and Joyce tells her about how her father wrote a letter saying that he can’t make it but they’ll do it another time. Buffy has a sad. After having her sad, Buffy moves onto plan two: get someone else to take her. She goes over to the library and talks about how awesome the ice show is with Giles. She then explains how, if you're free, it's a great place to go and “take [your] daughters, or [your] student, or [your] slayer…”
Very smooth, Buffy
Giles pretty much ignores her and gets her to look into a weird looking object. She does so and zones out, allowing Giles time to--GIVE HER AN INJECTION! What the hell is going on?!?!
Buffy is walking with Willow (while she wears an adorable hat) and they're talking about her weakness. They end up witnessing an argument between Cordelia and some dude who shall now be known as Douche Bag, DB for short. Cordelia and DB are arguing because Cordelia stood him up and Cordelia totally blows him off saying she shouldn't be trusted under her conditions of being in rebound land. She goes to walk away and DB grabs her arm. Buffy goes to save her and DB ends up taking her down! Cordelia ends up attacking DB and saving Buffy. What the freaking hell!
Giles goes to see the brick wall builders from a few scenes ago that was not mentioned because nothing happened of note. However, from this visit, we learn about some “exercise” that the council put slayers through on their 18th birthday. They weaken the Slayer and put her into a secure place, trapped with a excessively violent vampire. If she survives, apparently she’ll be stronger for having gone through it. We never see much of the council, but I feel I have enough evidence right here to say that they kind of suck.
The Watcher's Council: They Do Nothing to Decrease World Suck
Willow questions Buffy about what she’ll do if she doesn’t get her powers back and Buffy says she’ll deal. Willow is about to go into all the good things about being “normal” when Giles comes back in and Buffy jumps on him asking if he found out about anything. So much of Buffy’s identity lies within being the Slayer that the idea of not getting her powers back is terrifying to her. I have another sad.
We once again interrupt this epic episode for a brief fangirling moment.
OMG Always?! Angel gives Buffy and book and he wrote Always on the first page! ALWAYS, GUYS! LIKE FROM HARRY POTTER!!!! [/fangirlish freak out]
Besides this epic HP connection, this scene does have another point. Buffy is concerned that “there’s a chance that [her] calling’s the wrong number." She tells Angel that she’s not sure if she can go back because she’s seen too much and knows what goes bump in the night. She’s also afraid that if she isn’t the Slayer, she won’t have anything to offer. She even compares herself to Cor--I mean, some made up person she is calling Spordelia-- saying she looks like a classical philosopher next to the pre-Slayer version of her.
To cheer her up, Angel gives her an adorable speech letting her know that he saw her before she was chosen and how he knows her heart and how he wants to warm it with his own. They hug and say what everyone is thinking during this scene and while reading many of the "romantic" parts within Twilight:
Buffy: “that’s beautiful. Or taken literally, incredibly gross” Angel: "Yeah, I was just thinking that"
The vampire tells one of the council helpers that he just turned a few scenes ago (I'm AWESOME at discussing this whole council challenge storyline!) how “it’s a game” and even though they aren’t going to play by their, meaning the council’s, rules doesn’t mean they aren’t going to play.
Giles goes to the exercise location and finds the leftovers from dinner. Both vamps, evil and newly turned, apparently forgot to clean up the remains of their meal.
They really should have at least soaked the area or it'll never get clean!
Buffy runs into a vampire and starts screaming for somebody to help her. It gives me yet another sad. Giles ends up driving by and giving Buffy a ride at just the right time. Upon reaching the library, Buffy tells Giles how she can’t be helpless and asks for help figuring out what’s happening to her. He ends up showing her the syringe he used and telling her what the injection was, saying it's temporary and the effects will wear off in a few days.
Buffy throws the syringe and calls Giles a bastard and starts crying ;_; Giles tells her how he had no choice and he had to listen to the council and follow their orders. Buffy asks who he is and how he could do that to her. Giles tries to apologize and tells her that now that she knows the plans, the exercise can no longer happen and he says he’ll deal with the consequences and do anything to win back Buffy’s trust. At just the right moment, Cordelia comes in. She asks if the world is ending and Buffy walks past her and an extremely sad/awesome conversation is had:
Giles: You can’t walk home alone Buffy, it isn’t safe
Buffy: *crying* I don’t know you
Cordelia: *to Giles* Did something take her memory? *to Buffy* He’s Giles. Gi-uls. He hangs out here a lot.
Buffy: Cordelia, can you take me home?
Cordelia: Of course. But if the world doesn’t end, I’m gonna need a note.
In the italics, Cordelia’s showing such genuine concern on her face that it wants to make me cry. She is never nice and hardly ever thinks about people other than herself but her tone and words show that she’s really looking out to help Buffy right now because she can tell she needs it. Placing Cordelia within this scene was the absolute best thing that could have been done to show just how intense and severe everything is between Giles and Buffy right now. Also, the underlined part is awesome because it reminds us that, while she's acting kindly, she still is Cordelia and can't stray far from her normal way of speaking and acting.
Back at Casa de Summers, Joyce opens the door to find “Buffy” curled up on the floor wearing her jacket. However, “she rolls over and we learn that it’s the vampire! OH NOES! Buffy goes home and sees a Polaroid (OMG A POLAROID! LOL) of her mother with the vampire hanging up by the door. She flips it over and the word COME is written in ALL CAPS which means they must be SERIOUS.
We get our first glimpse into how psychotic this vampire is while he is talking to Joyce, who is all tied up.
“(Talking about his own mother) But she’s dead to me now, mostly because I killed and ate her but also because I know we won’t be alone much longer. I’ll have your daughter, I won’t kill her, I’ll make her just like me, different. She’ll go to sleep and when she wakes up your face will be the first thing she sees and eats. I have a problem with mothers, I’m aware of that”
Buffy takes the bait and goes with a has a bag full of weapons save her mommy. Buffy leaves a stake in the door so it wouldn’t close and she could get out. She starts to walk into the house and hears a noise; the noise turns out to be the vampire removing the stake and the door closing. Uh oh...
Quentin is a dick and speaking matter-of-factly about how Buffy entered the arena and how Giles mustn’t interfere. In my head, the conversation goes like this:
Quentin: The girl is probably going to die within about 10 minutes because we made her so weak. After she dies, we’ll go over to my place and have some tea and discuss why our accents are so awesome.
Giles: THE GIRL HAS A NAME, IT’S BUFFY! I AM GOING OVER THERE RIGHT NOW TO SAVE HER EVEN THOUGH IT WILL PROBABLY ONLY GET BOTH OF US KILLED! IF BY SOME CHANCE WE SURVIVE, WE’LL GO OVER TO YOUR PLACE TO BRAG ABOUT HOW WE WON AND YOU LOST AND DRINK COFFEE JUST IN SPITE OF YOU AND ALL OF ENGLAND!
Back at the vamp house, Buffy is distantly fighting. Too weak for hand to hand combat, she’s instead throwing book cases at him and hitting him with other heavy objects. The vamp grabs her and chokes her and she holds up a cross to him in her shaky hand. The psychotic vampire takes the cross and puts in on his stomach and asks for more.
Buffy looks for any unlocked door she can and ends up finding one covered in Polaroids of her mother. The vamp breaks the wall down but then panics and goes to get some pills. Buffy grabs them from him and runs. She ends up falling into the room Joyce is locked in. The vamp breaks the door and grabs the pills from Buffy’s hand and downs the bottle. Calmly, the vampire then goes and beings lecturing Buffy. He then notices something’s wrong and questions what she did with them. She holds up an empty bottle of holy water and the vampire begins dying. While watching him, she says my favorite line of the episode:
“If I was at full slayer power, I’d be punning right now”
Buffy goes to her mom but can’t get the ropes off. Another vampire comes and Buffy can’t fight it. Lucky for her, Giles comes and stakes him because he “[doesn't] give a rat’s ass about the council’s orders.”
Kali's Notes:
Just a few notes because Sarah did a supermegafoxyawesomehot job on writing up this episode. And because I'm sleepy.
- At first I was angry with Giles for drugging Buffy. He didn't want to to it and is very upset about the results and the test, so why not stand up to The Council and not do it? But the answer to that is revealed at the end of the episode when Giles is fired. Had he stood up to them, he would have been fired earlier, and it's not the being fired that bothers him; it's not being able to protect Buffy which is his ultimate goal. I really love Giles and Buffy's relationship. They truly care and depend on each other. That's why Buffy was so hurt in this episode and Giles was so hurt in Revelations; they broke their trust of each other. I feel like the only people that they REALLY trust is each other.
- We see throughout this episode Buffy's further disappointment in her father figures. First her real father continues his estrangement with her by being too busy to see his own daughter for her birthday. Next Giles betrays her trust, but luckily they are able to resolve their issues by the end.
- I dislike The Council very much and would not at all be upset if something bad happens to every single one of them... ;)
- I was very seriously considering getting "Always" as my next tattoo and now I absolutely have to because of this episode. Also, this episode's song is definitely Ministry of Magic's The Bravest Man I Ever Knew. "Always...always... there's so much in one word..."
- Favorite Line because my friends and I have arguments like this ALL the time:
Xander: You know, maybe we're on the wrong track with the whole spell, curse and whammy thing. Maybe what we should be looking for is something like... Slayer kryptonite.
Oz: Faulty metaphor. Kryptonite kills.
Xander: You're assuming I was talking about the green kryptonite. I was referring, of course, to the red kryptonite, which drains Superman of all his powers.
Oz: Wrong. The gold kryptonite's the power-sucker. The red kryptonite mutates Superman into some sort of weird --
Buffy: Guys, reality!
Quentin congratulates Buffy on her success in the challenge and tells her how she passed and Giles didn’t because he interfered; both Buffy and Giles are assholes to him which is basically beyond awesome. Quentin fires Giles because he has a “father’s love” for Buffy and is therefore useless as a Watcher. He asks Giles to not be in contact with her but, obviously, he refuses. As he leaves, Buffy leaves him with some parting words:
(GIF fail; click to see the awesomeness)
Giles cautiously helps clean Buffy’s wounds; I die of adorable overload. So from this we learn part of what makes Buffy so special and also what makes their relationship together so adorable work so well. Buffy isn't all about strength. Even though she got super scared when she found herself to be without her Slayer strength, she was still about to beat the vampire using her innovativeness and ceasing whatever opportunity comes her way. She saw he needs those pills, so she tampered with them. And what makes Giles and Buffy work so well is that he understands her and treats her as more than just a Slayer. He earned her trust and they respect each other. Buffy isn't one to take orders easily so having Giles is perfect for her because it isn't taking orders, it's just listening to and respecting what her father figure asks of her. And on the count of three now: One. Two. Three. Awwwwwwwww <3
We close this episode in Buffy's kitchen with Willow freaking out over Giles getting fired and being unemployed; she tells Buffy that she’s writing an angry letter. Buffy then tries opening a jar and says how she can’t wait to have her strength back. Enter Xander with some doucheness help:
Xander: Give you a hand with that, little lady?
Buffy: You are loving this way to much
Xander: Sometimes you just need a big strong man.
However, Xander struggles with opening the jar and as the credits role we hear overhead him asking Willow for help. I lol a lot.
-Sarah
Kali's Notes:
Just a few notes because Sarah did a supermegafoxyawesomehot job on writing up this episode. And because I'm sleepy.
- At first I was angry with Giles for drugging Buffy. He didn't want to to it and is very upset about the results and the test, so why not stand up to The Council and not do it? But the answer to that is revealed at the end of the episode when Giles is fired. Had he stood up to them, he would have been fired earlier, and it's not the being fired that bothers him; it's not being able to protect Buffy which is his ultimate goal. I really love Giles and Buffy's relationship. They truly care and depend on each other. That's why Buffy was so hurt in this episode and Giles was so hurt in Revelations; they broke their trust of each other. I feel like the only people that they REALLY trust is each other.
- We see throughout this episode Buffy's further disappointment in her father figures. First her real father continues his estrangement with her by being too busy to see his own daughter for her birthday. Next Giles betrays her trust, but luckily they are able to resolve their issues by the end.
- I dislike The Council very much and would not at all be upset if something bad happens to every single one of them... ;)
- I was very seriously considering getting "Always" as my next tattoo and now I absolutely have to because of this episode. Also, this episode's song is definitely Ministry of Magic's The Bravest Man I Ever Knew. "Always...always... there's so much in one word..."
- Favorite Line because my friends and I have arguments like this ALL the time:
Xander: You know, maybe we're on the wrong track with the whole spell, curse and whammy thing. Maybe what we should be looking for is something like... Slayer kryptonite.
Oz: Faulty metaphor. Kryptonite kills.
Xander: You're assuming I was talking about the green kryptonite. I was referring, of course, to the red kryptonite, which drains Superman of all his powers.
Oz: Wrong. The gold kryptonite's the power-sucker. The red kryptonite mutates Superman into some sort of weird --
Buffy: Guys, reality!
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