BTVS: 'Earshot'
Oct. 31st, 2014 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI thought that, as this was the reason I bought this DVD boxset, I'd write up my detailed thoughts of this episode (I probably built it up too much and kept putting off watching it as a result.)
It's funny-bleak, and for all that the previouslies bang on about the Day of Ascension and Buffy-Angel-Faith angst, it ties more into the Buffy and her classmates are graduating and what kind of people they are strand of season 3.
My question from the beginning is that if the aspect of demon was to read thoughts, why couldn't it read Buffy's thoughts and forestall her fighting moves? Maybe it's only intraspecies telepathy.
Anyway, that felt like one of the quicker pre-title set-up scenes.
Before Buffy realises that the itchy hand is because she's been contaminated by 'aspect of demon' etc, she's already moping, which felt like a step back from her ultimatum to Angel, full of thematically useful insecurity about whether Angel enjoyed playing Angelus/kissing Faith a little too much.
So then she discovers that she can read minds. At first she thinks it's a gift, but then all the obvious problems come up, pushing the Scoobies away and forcing her to tune into the insecurities of all her fellow students, and because this is Sunnydale, she 'overhears' a credible threat to kill everyone in the cafeteria the next day. There are plenty of suspects, although I thought the misanthropic school newspaper boy (he had a TYPEWRITER <3) was a bit pathetic considering the lineage of teen reporters, even allowing for the Sunnydale convenient amnesia effect. No way would Lynda Day or Chloe Sullivan be letting the Scoobies run off without wanting to know exactly what was going on). I wondered if the Scoobies' attempt to quiz all the possible suspects was a lift from Heathers.
It was interesting that the show, which normally uses paranormal figures as metaphors for emotional states, dangles the real-life figure of the teenager who turns up to school one day loaded with guns and shoots and shoots in front of us. In an episode where Buffy's sanity is threatened by hearing everyone's thoughts because she got some demon goo on her hand.
Of course, that turns out to be a red herring: mixed-up Jonathan wants to kill himself (with a shotgun!?) and, as in OMWF, the real menace is revealed quite early on in a throwoaway quip.
Buffy is healed in time, by the good offices of Angel, to use the insight she's gained to talk down Jonathan, and show another aspect of her heroism. (I mean the last phrase sincerely.) Her speech, looking down at all these kids, is pretty heartbreaking.
Espenson is one of the writers who really loves Giles, I think.
The way that Oz totally accepts the Mindreader!Buffy premise and then goes on to have Deep Thoughts about it fed into all my Buffy/Oz would have been a great couple feels.
Meanwhile, towards the end of the episode, Willow wore a top that screamed Slytherin to me so hard that I actually went and checked if Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone had been published by this point (it had). She also wore a hat (what was it with her hat thing?) and once again, Buffy wore a gorgeous coat.
It's funny-bleak, and for all that the previouslies bang on about the Day of Ascension and Buffy-Angel-Faith angst, it ties more into the Buffy and her classmates are graduating and what kind of people they are strand of season 3.
My question from the beginning is that if the aspect of demon was to read thoughts, why couldn't it read Buffy's thoughts and forestall her fighting moves? Maybe it's only intraspecies telepathy.
Anyway, that felt like one of the quicker pre-title set-up scenes.
Before Buffy realises that the itchy hand is because she's been contaminated by 'aspect of demon' etc, she's already moping, which felt like a step back from her ultimatum to Angel, full of thematically useful insecurity about whether Angel enjoyed playing Angelus/kissing Faith a little too much.
So then she discovers that she can read minds. At first she thinks it's a gift, but then all the obvious problems come up, pushing the Scoobies away and forcing her to tune into the insecurities of all her fellow students, and because this is Sunnydale, she 'overhears' a credible threat to kill everyone in the cafeteria the next day. There are plenty of suspects, although I thought the misanthropic school newspaper boy (he had a TYPEWRITER <3) was a bit pathetic considering the lineage of teen reporters, even allowing for the Sunnydale convenient amnesia effect. No way would Lynda Day or Chloe Sullivan be letting the Scoobies run off without wanting to know exactly what was going on). I wondered if the Scoobies' attempt to quiz all the possible suspects was a lift from Heathers.
It was interesting that the show, which normally uses paranormal figures as metaphors for emotional states, dangles the real-life figure of the teenager who turns up to school one day loaded with guns and shoots and shoots in front of us. In an episode where Buffy's sanity is threatened by hearing everyone's thoughts because she got some demon goo on her hand.
Of course, that turns out to be a red herring: mixed-up Jonathan wants to kill himself (with a shotgun!?) and, as in OMWF, the real menace is revealed quite early on in a throwoaway quip.
Buffy is healed in time, by the good offices of Angel, to use the insight she's gained to talk down Jonathan, and show another aspect of her heroism. (I mean the last phrase sincerely.) Her speech, looking down at all these kids, is pretty heartbreaking.
Espenson is one of the writers who really loves Giles, I think.
The way that Oz totally accepts the Mindreader!Buffy premise and then goes on to have Deep Thoughts about it fed into all my Buffy/Oz would have been a great couple feels.
Meanwhile, towards the end of the episode, Willow wore a top that screamed Slytherin to me so hard that I actually went and checked if Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone had been published by this point (it had). She also wore a hat (what was it with her hat thing?) and once again, Buffy wore a gorgeous coat.
