Episode 18: Earshot

Season Three, Episode Eighteen

"Earshot"

Before we start this episode, I should note that this wasn't actually the 18th episode to air for the season. It was actually the last episode to air a few weeks before season 4 started, 2 months after season three ended. The reason for this is because it was originally slated to air a week after Columbine. For reasons that are readily apparent after watching the episode, they pulled it from airing as originally intended because of the issue of school shootings/killings. Anyways, now onto the episode.

We open as we do many episodes with Buffy slaying a demon. This demon is really ugly though and has no mouth. She kills one and the other flees. Before cutting to the opening credits, we see some of his blood absorb into her skin. What could this mean?

Buffy goes to the library and asks what they've all found out about the ascension. Instead of getting into all of what was said, I'll let Oz sum the scene up for us:

“That was kind of an anti-climax”

Giles says a lot but then ends up admitting that he basically knows nothing, as does Wesley. This obviously hurts Buffy because she feels that her and Angel's act was all for not. This clearly isn't true since knowing that it happens on graduation day and that Faith isn't on their side anymore is better than knowing nothing , but I can see how she feels this way. However, despite really getting no information, this scene is made worth it by Wesley's joke. He comes in after Giles tells everyone what he has found out and asks what he missed. Giles tells him what they were discussing and he says "oh, and what took up the rest of the minute?" Did you guys see that?! Wesley made a joke, and a funny one at that!

Willow and Percy are talking in the hallway about studying and their relationship is hilarious! From this conversation though, Buffy learns that Willow's going to the game. Willow ends up saying that "everyone's going" and lists Xander and Oz. Buffy has a sad and says “everybody who isn’t currently Buffy” is going to the game. I really don't quite get why Buffy is so upset. I mean, I get it but it's childish. She's having a sad because she has to slay instead of hanging out with her friends and she's used to at least having Faith around to slay with. However, before Faith came into the picture, she slayed by herself and grew used to the idea of not always getting to hang out with her friends. It just seems really silly. Everyone spends time away from their friends and things they'd like to do because of their responsibilities, and it's a basketball (or football? I have no idea, it involves a ball) game that she will barely be able to talk during. [/rant]

After this scene, we see Buffy look down at her hand and the shot turns to Giles and Buffy looking up what her rash could be and he discovers that they can infect the host with an aspect of the demon. Buffy hopes it’s not the outside part. And I agree, I mean look how ugly.

Gross

And now there's a pep rally! Buffy and Willow are talking and Buffy again feels distant from her because she ends up interrupting the conversation to cheer for Percy. However, she quickly gets back into the conversation and tells Buffy that she is paying attention to her. The awesomenes of this scene is reached when Willow looks very worried and asks “was it a boy demon?” I lol.

Back with our men, Xander is very strange asking Oz why he ever wasted his time with Cordelia since she's no hotter than the other cheerleaders. He then changes his mind and gets mad at Wesley for looking at her. This gets Oz to say“you’re a very complex man, aren’t ya?” Have I mentioned how much I love Oz yet this episode? Because I do.

After the game in the cafeteria, the gang minus Buffy are talking about the game. Apparently it was so good, Oz almost made an expression!

“I felt one coming on, I won’t lie”

She then joins the conversation and learns about her aspect of the demon: she can read minds! She discovers this by saying "Wesley and Cordelia really bug you, huh?" and he says yes and then thinks "it's like she read my mind." This is going to be awesome!

Some of the thoughts are hilarious, my favorite is some guy saying “someday my pants are gonna fall right off” I practically die laughing. I literally had to pause my disc until I finished laughing and was able to focus on the rest of the episode.

Buffy goes to Giles and they think about what she could do. Giles thoughts “you can know your opponents every move.” Buffy's thoughts: learning the right answers from her classmates and sounding more intelligent. She even reads the teacher’s thoughts; she just happened to write her dissertation about the story they’re reading.

Buffy goes to Angel to try and read his mind. However, she can’t because he’s a vampire is immune to mind reading. Sucks to be her.

"ha ha you can't read my mind, sucka!"

Everyone’s thoughts are awesome:

Cordelia:(thought) I don't see what this has to do with me. I don't see what this has to do with me. (thought) Whatever. I wonder when I can go. Whatever. Can I go?

Willow: (thought) She's hardly even human anymore. How can I be her friend now? She doesn't need me. She knows so much. She knows what Oz is thinking. I never know that. Before long, she'll know him better than I do

Xander: (thought) What am I gonna do? I think about sex all the time! Sex! Help! 4 times 5 is thirty. 5 times 6 is 32. Naked girls. Naked Women! Naked Buffy! Oh stop me! Buffy: God Xander! Is that all you think about? Xander: Actually... bye. (He runs from the library.) LOL

Oz: (thought) I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything that is me and she becomes me. I cease to exist. Hmm... No one else exists either. Buffy is all of us. We think. Therefore, she is.

Wesley: Xander has just illustrated something. Chances are, you're all going to be thinking whatever you least want Buffy to hear. It's a question, of course, of mental discipline. (thought) Look at Cordelia. No! Don't look at Cordelia! She's a student! Oh I am a bad man. I'm a bad, bad man! (Buffy gazes intently at him.) Excuse me. (Wesley exits into Giles' office.)

Favorite Line comes from Wesley:  (sticks his head out of the office) Excuse me. Can you hear me thinking in here? I could go out into the hall.

Giles looks up to see if this has happened before and it has. The person it happened to is in complete isolation now because he can’t shut it off. Uh oh....

In the cafeteria, Buffy hears someone say “this time tomorrow, I’ll kill you all." She then tries desperately to figure out who it is only to end up covering her ears and passing out from all of the voices in her head. Apart from this scene being pretty intense, I laughed when Buffy dropped her food and everyone started applauding. It reminded me of this one time at a meet up Kali and I were both at with the Vegas HP fandom. We went to CiCi's and this waiter dropped a tray and we all broke out into applause and embarrassed her, it was awesome. [/tangent]

Buffy reawakens outside with everyone surrounding her. Cordelia, always the helpful one, begins talking first “I told them not to move you; they probably severed your spinal cord." She tells them what she heard and Xander makes a joke about the lunch lady. More on this later...They all start thinking about how to figure out how to stop the plan and Buffy yells at them to stop thinking so loud. Giles ends up offering to take her home and she asks him if she’ll be okay and he lies. She hears the truth though “if it won’t go away, she’ll go insane.” Uh oh...

Joyce is hilarious, she won’t sit with Buffy and she has no idea why. She soon learns though:  

“YOU HAD SEX WITH GILES...ON THE HOOD OF A POLICE CAR...TWICE?!”

OMG everyone questioning the students is hilarious:

Oz- Oz: Sure. Do you ever feel that you've created a false persona for yourself, 'the guy who does everything right,' - and how much of a strain does it put on you to maintain it? Hogan: Uh, wow, I guess... Moderate strain. Is that a good answer? I want to get this right. Oz: Yeah, that's good. 

Cordelia- Hi Mr. Beech! I was just wondering, were you planning on killing a bunch of people tomorrow? (smiles) Oh, it's for the yearbook!

Xander- Okay, so turnoff's include smoking, insensitive men, and burkenstocks. Now, your idea of a perfect evening? Katie, let's start with you.

Willow- Willow: Fantasy's are fun, aren't they Jonathan? Jonathan: Uh... I guess. Willow: We all have fantasies that we're powerful, more respected. Where people pay attention to us. Jonathan: Uh... maybe. Willow: But sometimes the fantasy isn't enough, is it Jonathan? Sometimes we have to make it so people don't ignore us. Make them pay attention. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Jonathan: Um, you... Want me to pay attention?

During this time, Angel, Giles, and Wesley work on a cure for Buffy.

Xander cautiously interviews Larry as if he's going to catch homosexuality from him. Larry is awesome though and, still thinking Xander is one with a gay agenda, suggests he ask Freddie, the newspaper guy, to put out a tasteful coming out announcement. This is probably one of the most hysterical ideas I have ever heard.

Shit stops being funny though when Jonathan is up in the clock tower of the school with a gun.

I make shit stop being funny

The gang find Freddie and think he’s the murderer, since he's the only one they couldn't question. Apparently, he was just hiding because he thought Oz was going to hurt him over the bad review he gave his band. However, Cordelia finds a write up Jonathan sent in talking about death. Cordelia complains that no one talks about the cheerleaders and everyone else goes looking for Jonathan (except Xander who gets distracted and instead goes to get some jello because he's a dumbass)

Buffy sees Jonathan first and does some pretty amazing stunts to jump up to the clock tower to stop him. Nancy is awesome; after watching her she says "I could have done that"

I like you...

Buffy goes up to Jonathan and they have a good conversation:

Jonathan: Get away from me!
(Buffy slowly stands up.)
Buffy: Ok Jonathan, you wanna point that somewhere else?
(He points the rifle slightly to the side.)
Jonathan: Don't you try and stop me!
Buffy: (puts her hands up but takes a step forward) No, no no stopping. Just here for view. Hey, look, City Hall.
Jonathan: (frazzled and sweating) Go away!
Buffy: Never gonna happen.
Jonathan: You think I won't use this?
Buffy: I don't know Jonathan. (takes a step forward) I just-
Jonathan: (Lurches back from her, aims the gun straight at her) Stop doing that!
Buffy: Doing what?
Jonathan: Stop saying my name like we're friends! We're not friends! You all think I'm an idiot! A short idiot! Buffy: (matter-of-factly) I don't. I don't think about you much at all. Nobody here really does. Bugs you, doesn't it. You have all this pain, and all these feelings and nobody's really paying attention.
Jonathan: You think I just want attention?
Buffy: No. I think you're up in the clock tower with a high-powered rifle because you wanna blend in. Believe it or not, Jonathan, I understand about the pain.
Jonathan: Oh right. Cuz the burden of being beautiful and athletic, that's a crippler.
Buffy: You know what? I was wrong. You are an idiot. My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own. (Jonathan lowers the rifle more. Buffy steps toward the window. She looks down at the Quad below.) The beautiful ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on you. Everyone. (Jonathan slowly moves up behind her to see what she sees. He steps up right next to her.) If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It's not. It's deafening. (She turns to face him.) You know, I could've taken that by now.
Jonathan: I know.
Buffy: (holds her hand out) I'd rather do it this way.
(He thinks a moment, then hands her the rifle. She turns and pulls the bolt back, ejecting the bullet. She sets the gun down, then turns back to him.)
Jonathan: I just wanted it to stop.
Buffy: Yeah, well, mass-murder, not really doctor recommended for that type of pain. Besides, prison, you know, it's a lot like high school, only instead of noogies-
Jonathan: What are you talking about?
Buffy: Actions having consequences. You know, stuff like that.
Jonathan: I, I, I wouldn't ever hurt anybody. (Buffy has a 'huh' expression on her face.) I came up here to kill myself.

I can't even begin to say how intense and epic this speech is. It was written by Jane Espenson who, in my opinion, is the best writer on the team apart from Joss. This is classic high school and frankly every day live in general. Every one has pain and feels unheard, misunderstood, abandoned, unloved, etc. and it sucks but no one cares. Your friends can care, but they're going through the exact same things. Your best hope with getting them to care is hoping that they are in a comfortable place within themselves when you're most desparate. This is probably one of my favorite speeches in the series but it still leaves us guessing...

Who's going to kill the students...?

Before we move on, does anyone else think it’s weird Jonathan was going to kill himself with that large of a gun? It's a freakin rifle!

Moving on, it turns out Xander’s short attention span came in handy because he picks up some jello to eat just as the lunch lady is pouring rat poison into the vat.

She probably wanted to be a florist

Buffy and the lunch lady fight and obviously Buffy wins. I mean, she could have beaten this woman without any Slayer strength!

This episode then comes to a close with Buffy and Giles having a conversation about Jonathan. Giles mentions it might be nice if she goes with him to Prom and she says "oh come on! What am I, Saint Buffy? He's like three feet tall!" Giles responds saying "I'm glad to see you've recovered from your psychic encounter more or less intact. Feel up to some training?" To which she (epicly) answers "sure. We can work out after school. You know, if you're not too busy having sex with my MOTHER!" And then Giles walks into a tree.

LOL

-Sarah

Kali’s Notes:

- Wesley is actually a pretty funny guy (and the actor that plays him is absolutely hilarious). I like that he is becoming comfortable enough to kid around with the group.

-The arc of the episode is "be careful what you wish for". Buffy wanted to know what Angel was thinking and feels isolated from other people.  With her new ability she can hear everyone's thoughts. However, she can't hear Angel's but this does finally open up dialogue between them. With her friends though, it drives them further away because who would want their closest friends to hear their inner thoughts?

- I like how they use connecting metaphors in the dialogue to show how things change with Buffy saying how it's "opened new doors" to later in the episode when she says “it’s invasion of my head - strangers walking around in there.” The doors are open now, but the downside is everyone can get in.

-I love how with a completely straight face Angel says, "I'm a funny guy."

-Favorite Line is Oz's thoughts, "I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything that is me, and she becomes me. I cease to exist." I love how much of a deep thinker he is. Totally a Ravenclaw.

-Some people apparently weren't sure what happened between Joyce and Giles so they wrote this part in to explain. Now Buffy (and the audience) know that they had sex twice on the hood of the police car. Giles, you stud.

- Willow interrogates Jonathan again like she did in Go Fish. I love callbacks to previous episodes!

- Second favorite line is Buffy: Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own. So very true and thought-provoking.