Episode 5: Homecoming

Season Three, Episode Five

"Homecoming"

We open with the gang discussing plans for the homecoming dance and I'm starting to get bored. Buffy seems out of it and, when Scott shows up, Cordelia bluntly says “did Scott not ask her to the homecoming yet?” If there's one thing we can count on from this show, it's Cordelia not being able to control what comes out of her mouth.

Buffy leaves the Bronze after Scott "asks" her to the dance. Actually, it's sort of a back and forth deal but Oz says the judge will take that as a yes and no one argues with him. After this, Buffy goes to to go and meet Angel who, since coming back from Hell, Angel has a strong distaste for wearing shirts.

"I told you, Buffy. Hell was really hot and made me dislike wearing/buttoning shirts..."

And because this show was created by Joss Whedon, Buffy tells Angel she's involved with someone else the night before Scott breaks up with her. Apparently, he's doing this because she seems “distracted.” Well, I’ll say, her ex-boyfriend just came back from Hell!

We see a top secret van that is keeping tabs on Buffy. Weird stuff appears to be going on and then finally we hear Mr. Trick say that that’s “the target” referring to Buffy and we learn that Buffy is in danger it’s a day that ends in y.

And now we finally get to meet the mayor! He’s OCD about cleanliness...

 "We must clean ALL the things!"

Yearbook pictures make me giggle.

Most Likely To Be Blunt                   Most Likely To Be a Jerk

Most Likely To Be Adorable                 Most Likely To Be Stoic

Cordelia tells everyone she’ll go let Buffy know about the yearbook pictures because she wasn’t there the day they announced it. Faith tells Buffy they should go together to the dance and I begin shipping Faith/Buffy.

Buffy goes to talk to a teacher asking for a letter of recommendation. She asks her favorite teacher and she has no idea of who she is. Buffy has a sad. After this difficult conversation, Buffy starts complaining about how she owned the yearbook at her old school and this year she’ll just be one small picture and AX lets her down easily by saying “no, you won’t.” Way to be gentle, jerkface.

Buffy is mad at Cordelia for not telling her about the pictures since the gang told her that she agreed to inform Buffy about them. She goes to Cordelia and tells her that she’s running for homecoming queen. This episode is about to get real intense now.

Back to Mr. Trick, we see him talking about competition. We see a whole group of vampires and demons who apparently have paid money to enter “Slayer Fest 98” to try and kill Buffy and Faith.

Now Willow and Xander are trying on outfits together for Homecoming. Willow does Xander’s bowtie for him and my fears are being realized. Xander asks Willow how far she's gone with Oz and she adorably answers “that’s none of your business, Alexander Harris.” The banter continues until Willow becomes worried about not being able to dance. Xander takes her hands and they begin to dance and then...

They kiss!

Rant time. First, a disclaimerL I really, really hate Xander/Willow as anything more than friends. I believe it's a very realistic thing that would happen if they were all real people but that doesn't stop me from disliking it greatly. Willow and Xander have always been unpopular and for most teenagers their cure for everything is to start a romantic relationship. Lucky for these two that their best friend just so happens to be the opposite sex, making it so very easy just to become more than friends and solve all of their issues. The reason why I dislike this ship is because I hate that part of high school and how teenagers act about relationships irritates me to no end. Both of these two are in good relationships but Xander, being a jerk, decides to explore his possible feelings for Willow while with Cordelia. Willow, loving Xander for years prior, obviously will take any opportunity to be with him even if the timing is bad for her because she's with Oz now. I blame Xander mostly for this, but Willow has some fault to. You have no idea how much it took for me to write that sentence, I feel like I can never accuse Willow of doing anything wrong ever. Sort of like my dog, he can never do anything wrong and even when I know he does something wrong I'll blame anyone else for his actions because he's too adorable.

Just because I can! Blog readers, meet Noah.

Um, back to the show, I guess...

Buffy makes charts in order to work on her Queen campaign. This makes me giggle a lot. We’ve never seen Buffy take initiative in research or making charts or writing things down on large white boards and suddenly she’s all over everything. However, poor her, Cordelia gets everyone because:

Xander: "She’s my girlfriend”

Willow: “It’s just she needs it so much more than you…”

Oz: “As Willow goes, so does my nation.” I really love Oz.

“Or the number of times that I’ve saved your life” “what do you want?” lolz Buffy works Willow into letting her look at her database. And thus begins the montage of Buffy and Cordelia each sabotaging each other and bribing students in order to gain votes. High schools politics is funny.

“Your brain isn’t even connected to your mouth, is it?” –Buffy. I don't remember why I put this in my notes, but it's something funny Buffy says to Cordelia

“How do you get from chick fight to our fault?” –Willow freaks the hell out and somehow believes that her having a crush on Xander and then kissing him caused all of this stuff to go on between Buffy and Cordelia. Willow’s adorable. But in order to solve their issues, they come up with a plan...

Buffy gets in the limo and only Cordelia is in there. They have a note saying that they’re riding alone to work out their issues.

They both have been lead to the site of Slayer Fest, though, because the stupid vampires believe that both Slayers were in the limo. I like that they took the time to edit a video and add a title animation to the end of it. Vampires should become youtubers.

Back at the dance, two of the best quotes ever are said:

“We have to find Buffy, something terrible has happened! Just kidding, just thought I’d give you all a scare. Are those finger sandwiches?” –Giles LOL

“Scott honey, good news! The Doctor said the itching and the swelling should clear up, you just have to keep using the ointment.” I am beginning to like Faith a lot.

Now back to Slayer Fest, Cordelia begins to feel normal human emotions and discusses her fears about not winning queen, graduating high school, or learning if she really loves Xander and telling him if it is real. D’awww

Buffy tries to get Cordelia angry in order to keep her fighting and it's beginning to work. Buffy then asks if Cordelia really thinks she loves Xander to which she responds:“well, he kind of grows on you like a chia pet.” (Favorite line)

In the little cabin place, Cordelia picks up a useless weapon because apparently there was only that and a phone. Buffy stares at Buffy like she’s a moron until Cordelia understands that the phone could come in handy a bit in their current situation.

Cordelia and Buffy argue and Cordelia asks Buffy why she wants to be queen when she has “this” meaning slaying. She says to Cordelia, "I thought, Homecoming Queen, I could open a yearbook someday and say, 'I was there, I went to high school and had friends and for just one minute I got to live in the world.' And there'd be proof. Proof I was chosen for something other than this. Besides, I look cute in a tiara."

The building goes kaboom and oh my god, we learn they’re doing all this in heels! They each deserve a medal or something. Buffy says they have to go to the library before fleeing and then we see the skanky redneck couple in the library with a knocked out Giles. I have a sad. Buffy stakes the the female redneck and Cordelia becomes amazing with her words and talks tough to the remaining redneck until he runs away.

Buffy and Cordelia realizes their “free corsages” are their trackers. They epicly plan to backfire the whole tracker idea by placing them strategically in order to cause both bad guys to shoot each other instead of Buffy and Cordelia.

The mayor calls Mr. Trick into his office to apparently talk his ear off. By the end, he ends up offering Mr. Trick a spot on his team. What the heck is going on with this dude? Only time will tell....

And now onto the results of Homecoming Queen! Buffy and Cordelia have a moment where they realize that, after all they've just been through, this title is really...

Buffy:“Damn important” Cordelia:“Oh yeah”

And, surprisingly, they have a tie! It’s—not Buffy or Cordelia. Who saw that coming? It's as if Joss doesn't want any of these characters to be happy or something!

-Sarah

Kali's Notes:

- I'm pretty sure that the Mayor is my favorite Big Bad of the show. For an "evil" guy, he's extremely polite and clean. Boy, do I love manners. We aren't even sure he's evil upon first introduction, then we learn he's out to kill the Slayer, but just the way he talks about doesn't seem "evil". It's more like he's a politician talking about a gang problem. And come on, who other than Joss Whedon would design a bad guy that is a germaphobe plus an old-fashioned kinda guy?
- Fun Fact: The cowboy vampire is from "Bad Eggs" where Buffy killed his brother. Well actually that "bezoar" thing did, but you get the point.
- Everything involving "Slayerfest '98" reminds of Rat Race, which Seth Green is also in.
- I like how this episode is mostly about Buffy trying to connect to her high school life instead of all about the slaying.
- Cordelia actually turns into a bit of a bad-ass at the end of this episode. One, I feel bad for her when she tells Buffy she loves Xander shortly after he was a cheating scumbag. And two, she uses the only weapon that she has and does it well- her big mouth and bitchy personality. While Buffy resorts to violence to solve most problems, Cordelia resorts to being as toxic as possible, but this actually works when she tells a vampire off and makes him run away.
- It's ok Sarah, I'm kinda shipping Buffy/Faith right now too. Faith is barely in this episode but when she is, she is freaking awesome. We see how she is now trying to bond and become friends with Buffy. And as her friend, she is defensive when she feels that Buffy has been wronged by Scott. Awesomesauce.
- My Willow/Xander rant will be in a few episodes because I am less upset about them getting together as I am about how they inevitabley will be torn apart. For now I just want to say again that JOSS WHEDON HATES LOVE. We've had over 2 seasons of build-up towards a Xander/Willow relationship and usually when these things finally do happen all the viewers rejoice. Instead, both are in relationships that are becoming more serious so all we can feel is sad and tense about what happened. Thanks, Joss.
- Favorite Line is Oz: "As Willow goes, so goes my nation." He's so devoted to her and this is shortly after she kissed Xander. :( In addition, this episode has some great 90's music, but anytime I see Buffy in her dress my brain sings "Lady in Red".