"The Dark Age" [2x08] Review by Mikelangelo "MikeJer" Marinaro Posted by MikeJer on October 23, 2005 Writer: Rob Des Hotel and Dean BataliDirector: Bruce Seth Green Quick Links Spoiler Warning! This is a retrospective review and may contain spoilers from anywhere in the series. Read at your own peril. Review This is the first episode in the series entirely focused on Giles. We learn about his turbulent history and some depth is added to this already charming character. It's just really unfortunate that the episode is only mediocre. The pacing and execution of the plot was pretty poorly handled, and the demon came across as incredibly one-dimensional and surprisingly inconsistent. There's about as much bad as there is good here. Well, I might as well begin with the good. The episode begins with an amusing scene involving Buffy listening to those annoying aerobic workout tapes while excercising. Giles calls it 'noise' while Buffy calls it 'music.' While I agree with Giles that 'noise' is the appropiate term, Buffy makes a good point that you need a beat when doing synchronized excercise. Later on Jenny gets to poke fun at Giles by telling him she spilt a drink all over his ancient textbook and then follows it up with "I'm lying, Rupert. The book's fine. I just love to see you squirm." Their relationship appears to be approaching a new level, but that of course comes to a screeching halt by the happenings later on when Jenny gets possessed by the demon Giles helped create when he was a rebellious teen. It's really nice to see her not just "get over it." This experience has affected her and she understandably needs time away from Giles. I also loved seeing Willow keeping some of the confidence she gained in "Halloween" (2x06) during the scene where Cordelia and Xander are bickering to no end. Willow breaks up their quarrel and yells at them both saying, "HEY! We don't have time for this! Our friends are in trouble! Now, we have to put our heads together and, and get them out of it! And if you two aren't with me a hundred and ten percent, then get the hell out of my library!" Go Willow! Also, cheers for character development that actually stays with the characters beyond the episode they had the growth in! That's where all the good ends, though. There are several things that really grated on me during this episode. One is the inconsistency of the demon iteself. When it had Possessed Phillip, the bearded guy, it never talked to anyone and pretty much just wandered around groaning. Then when Jenny gets possessed she's talking up a boring storm to Giles in his apartment. What's the deal? Another annoyance with the demon I had is how, for some unexplained reason, nobody simply runs away from it. They all just stand there waiting to be killed, like Phillip in the opening scene. Buffy fought it just fine, so once again, what's the deal? Another serious flaw is the often slow pace. The scene where the possessed Philip awakens in the morgue could have been completely cut, for example. Also, Buffy's strength is basically completely gone in this episode. She punches Ethan Rayne hard in the mouth yet he doesn't get knocked down and there is no noticable sore on his mouth. An even more grotesque offense of this is seeing Ethan knock Buffy out with one blow to the head. No way that would ever happen! In the end, like "Reptile Boy" (2x05), this episode is a mixed bag. There's a handful of great stuff, but there's an equal amount of crappy stuff. This is an even bigger disappointment than "Reptile Boy" (2x05), though, because the plot is centered around Giles' dark past instead of a bunch of college frat boys. You expect the latter to be poor but not the same of the former. Minor Pros/Cons (+/-)
Foreshadowing
Quotes JENNY:Well, Cordelia's gonna meet us.XANDER:Ooo, gang, did ya hear that? A bonus day of class plus Cordelia! Mix in a little rectal surgery, and it's my best day ever! JENNY:Did anyone ever tell you you're kind of a fuddy-duddy? GILES:Nobody ever seems to tell me anything else. JENNY:Did anyone ever tell you you're kind of a sexy fuddy-duddy? GILES:Well, no. Actually that, that part usually gets left out. I c-can't imagine why. JENNY:Alright, guys. The first thing we're gonna do is... Buffy! XANDER:Huh? Did I fall asleep already? ETHAN:Now, this may sting a little just at first. But don't worry, that'll go away once the searing pain kicks in.
Screencaps
Comments (21) All Comments | Link2 | robgnowApr 9, 2007 I agree with jun on the 'talking vs. no talking issue'. Really though I wanted to add another minus to this episode for the ending (pre-Giles). Buffy is complaining about having to remove that tattoo before her mom sees it... so why is she wearing a low collared top that exposes the back of her neck?? She looks a little dumb. All Comments | Link3 | buffyholicOct 10, 2007 This is a very average episode. I agree that this one has pacing problems and the demon is kinda poor but this is always good to rewatch because of the wonderful dialogue and character interaction. All Comments | Link4 | AndrewJan 7, 2008 Actually I think you're being a good bit harsh on this episode. It's definitely better than reptile boy. Count me as a third explaining the behaviour of the demon by the difference between how it acts while possessing a corpse versus how it acts while possessing a living person. Re: Buffy hitting Ethan- consider that perhaps Buffy didn't really wan't to knock him down with blow- after all she wasn't trying to kill him, just get him to tell her what the hell he was doing there. She was pulling her punch, in other words. Re: Ethan hitting Buffy- she *really* wasn't expecting to be hit (perhaps she should have been, but Buffy is from time to time a bit naive), and Ethan has (for whatever reason) made a practice of knocking people out. Had she been facing him and spoiling for a fight, I'd agree, that would have made no sense at all, but I didn't find it particularly unlikely. I would agree with the more general observation that Buffy's strength and resiliance seem to vary quite a bit in response to the plot over the series as a whole, and that the latter was perhaps at a bit of a low ebb just there. I love Ethan as a character. There are loads of characters to love in Buffy; Ethan is one of many, but he *is* fun. Philip doesn't run from the demon because he's battering on the door to get in, gambling on someone opening it, and by the time it's obvious that no one will, it's too late to get away. Giles doesn't run because he's reeling in shock having just had his girlfriend turn into a demon and is additionally in a very bad way physically and being beaten up by a demon into the bargain. My only query here would be why Ethan didn't dash off as soon as the demon starting attacking Buffy in the final action scene, given we know he's a coward and he does run off anyway, only *after* Angel deals with the demon. All Comments | Link5 | OtterBearJan 7, 2008 Yeah, the difference in the actions while possessing an unconscious body and a dead body are briefly and not very well explained during the exposition. Dead body = temporary and rapidly decomposing shell that doesn't respond well. Alive body = everything is in working order along with increased power and euphoria for demon orgy fun. Also the longer that the demon is in the alive body, the stronger the possession, hence Ms. Calender's changing features over the ep. But overall I agree, it is interesting to get a glimpse into Giles's youth, but just not executed as well as it could have been. All Comments | Link6 | PaulaNov 13, 2008 I actually like this episode quite a bit, although the demon plottage is certainly average at best. What no one ever explains is what the demon has been doing all this time and why it suddenly just appeared again after those twenty years. One thing I wondered about when I first saw this episode, and actually still wonder about, is whether Angel was at the hospital to help save the blood delivery, or, well, steal some of it for his own use. Wasn't he shown to have some medical blood bags in his fridge back in "Angel"? Later (S3) he's shown buying blood at a slaughterhouse, but at this point in the show I'm not really sure how ethical he is about his own blood supply as long as he doesn't downright "eat people". All Comments | Link7 | EmilyFeb 16, 2009 Paula, I don't think Angel was there to steal blood. He was probably there to protect it from being stolen, and bumped into Buffy, who was there doing the same thing. The one issue I have here is that they're a couple, right? So why isn't there more communication between them? Why isn't he with her on patrol/blood bags watch? He's with her in later episodes- why not here? Then again, with Ethan- why didn't she invite Angel to come to Ethan's with her? He would've been able to watch her back. The lack of communication between them is very inconsistent with other episodes. I'd also like to point out that in the previous episode, "Lie to Me," Giles is the one "lying" to Buffy at the end. Here, it's Buffy who's telling Giles the truth: "I'm not going to lie to you, it was scary." All Comments | Link8 | SeleneJul 6, 2009 More Willow in charge goodness! I love how she was the only one to come up with the solution to the problem. The opening sequence was good, too, the the game of Anywhere But Here and the speculation on how Giles was at their age. All Comments | Link9 | LucyAug 6, 2009 Thank you Paula! It drives me crazy that there's absolutely no explanation as to where the demon has been since it killed the boy 20 years ago. When Giles is crossing people off his list, there are only 5 names there. Surely it didn't take 20 years to track down Deirdre and Philip? All Comments | Link10 | Smallprint84Mar 7, 2010 @ 7:46pm Hey, some more indirect foreshadowing: In Giles's appartment, the possessed Jenny says to Giles: "I've got you UNDER MY SKIN". Later in AtS the same called S1 episode "I've got you under my skin", the same thing happens. A person is possessed by a demon and has to be exorcised. All Comments | Link11 | NixApr 6, 2010 @ 4:10pm Nice bit: Giles says 'and the rest is silence' at the same instant as Philip gets killed. Philip is of course not particularly Hamlet-like in any other way, but still. All Comments | Link12 | StateOfSiegeJun 5, 2010 @ 3:12am Small Correction—— Jenny does not pretend to have ruined an "ancient textbook": Jenny has borrowed Giles' first edition of an E.M. Forster novel; while the book would have been valuable——for financial and sentimental reasons, as he notes that it belonged to his father——it could not have been more than 90 years old (Forster published in the early 1900s through the 1920s). The text is also thematically significant, as Forster dealt with issues of identity, class, and repressed sexuality in the waning years of the British Empire. All Comments | Link13 | SeánAug 18, 2010 @ 3:59pm Did anyone notice Cordelia telling Xander that he needed "a year supply of acne cream". WTF?! Xander's skin is completely devoid of spots. I think with this show, they like to make out that characters are ugly or nerdy or perfectly average and flawed looking when although they cast your typical sexy Hollywood actor or actress. All Comments | Link14 | John RobertsSep 19, 2010 @ 12:17pm Wow I liked this a lot more than most people did. Prolly because I glide over stupid plot parts, like demon not around for 20 years and then going into overdrive. And sure BtVS baddies doing the Batman thing and not killing their victims when they get the chance, instead waiting JUST long enough for the white hats to arrive, yeah that's stupid. But it happens every other episode, so I'm not fighting that battle either. Comes with the show. See, I'm loving the series leaving behind brightly colored Scoobies chase random monster that's eating people, and moving into a darker hue. Giles struggling to face up to his uncomfortable past, Jenny being truly hurt by the experience, the evolution of the Giles-Buffy relationship such that temporarily Buffy is Giles's leader, all great stuff. Also enjoy how Cordelia oh-so-gradually is sliding into Scoobiedom, without foregoing all that makes her our delightful Cordelia. Very well written. And of course many funny parts, and of course ... Bad Jenny! I'd swap the entire 2 hours of Inca Mummy and Reptile Boy for 30 seconds of watching Jenny writhing in Giles's lap. Yowsa. All Comments | Link15 | Michael CarruthersSep 19, 2010 @ 4:17pm This episode is one that gets worse with every viewing. It's nice that they expand Giles' character, but more time developing Giles and looking into his troubled past would've been better than a silly, non-sensical demon subplot. I agree that the episode has serious pacing issues, and would probably knock it down to a 59/100. All Comments | Link16 | CoyoteBuffyFanFeb 18, 2011 @ 8:39pm I like this episode a lot. I think I would have gone with a B. Cheers to the real introduction of Cordelia as a Scoobie. This is the first episode where she tries to help where she isn't the one in trouble, I believe (her unsolicited but spot on advice to Buffy in When She Was Bad notwithstanding). This was also one of the first times where you can tell that the fighting between Xander and Cordy could become attraction (when they are screaming nose to nose in the library). At least I felt it. And Willow's cute yelling reprimand is great. I love the notion of Giles as kind of a rebel. Upon the first viewing, it was quite shocking to see Giles with a tattoo, never mind a tattoo that is linked to witchcraft and demons! It was also unnerving to see Giles so unnerved and disheveled. Even in the face of all the dangers that came before, Giles still was always buttoned up tight. Here we see him a little sloppy and drinking. This is again a tribute to the show. Although they might have been a little two dimensional with him up until now (well, at least up until Halloween), I think it was intentional so that we are more disturbed by the difference of Giles in this episode. I think it's fantastically done. Not well done was the "melting" of the people into goo. But I won't let that ruin the episode for me. I also love how they come to appreciate how hard Giles' job is when they had to deal with Eighon on their own. Couple that with the fact that they actually realize that Giles is human, new found respect was gained, I believe. All Comments | Link17 | Gemma Dec 12, 2011 @ 12:26pm Mike, I have to 100% disagree with you, this episode was one once again full of strong moral themes. Giles' character development is enjoyable to watch. His character grows when we find out that he made the choice to be a watcher when the truth and horrors about messing about with magic, the dark arts and demons became palpable. His reaction to his friend's death clearly made aware that not only his role as watcher important but that his past can not stay buried, things will always resurface. His portrayal was conducive to the plot and i had no problem believing that he was both bad ass and watcher. Jenny's reaction too was good, the distance that her being possessed put between her and Giles was sad to see and the knowledge that there was nothing Giles could do to alleviate her pain was poignant to show a similarity between Buffy and Giles; both struggle when it comes to finding love; to me this supports just how inexorably linked the duo are. Jenny's reaction was made more so saddening because of the knowledge we knew she had, being a techno-pagen and aware of the Hellmouth but this didn't prepare her for what happened. WIllow's character growth was good to see; Xander and Cordelia's development continued here. Nice to see that the development wasn't only tied to one or two episodes. Glad to see Ethan back as well. This guy plays creep effortlessly! delivering some amazing lines! especially the line regarding being honest. ...'its one of my virtues...not really' HA! love this guy. The matter behind Eyghon i thought although could have been explained in more detail was good, the jumping into the dead or unconscious was an interesting theme. That was the difference between Jenny and Philip. Philip is dead. Yes there is the shuffling around and attacking much like a zombie. No real motor or brain power where as Jenny she is still alive and has all her senses etc hence the being able to talk and the strength. A good concept. The fight between the demon within Angel and EYghon was a well though of concept but as i said a bit more explanation. A good episode and a great show case for Giles All Comments | Link18 | Gemma Dec 12, 2011 @ 2:30pm Oh and regarding Buffy's strength and ability i think the reason that Ethan wasn't to injured when she punched him is because she can control her inherent abilities, she knew Ethan was human and so super slayer not needed. With her being knocked out in this episode and in others may have something to do with her abilities growing. She has all the power within her but slayers need training otherwise watchers wouldn't serve a big purpose. Plus Season five Buffy asks Giles to help her learn more about what it is to be the slayer. Those are the reasons i came up with to answer all queries regarding Slayer- Buffy's development. All Comments | Link19 | thebuffsterAug 4, 2012 @ 5:41pm I don't know if it was mentioned earlier but possesed Jenny Calendar said to Giles "was is good for you." later in Innocence Angel writes "was it good for you" too Buffy in Jenny's uncles blood. All Comments | Link20 | Tofik the vampireDec 5, 2012 @ 6:13pm Yes, this episode is mix bag. I like Giles's character development and that somday in the past he also was irresponsible youngster. I like Ethan Rayne as a villain I like that demon created atmosphere of horror and suspense. What I didn't like - and I'm wonder why no one mentioned this! - is huge plot hole in this episode. WHY NO ONE EVER JUST TRY TO REMOVE MARK OF EYGHON WHEN DEMON IS SO EASY TO DECEIVED? I mean if you need another human to tattoo mark on him/her then for sure Ethan wouldn't have problem with kidnapping someone and sacrificing him to Eyghon. This doesn't make any sense. And I agree about Buffy being largely helpless in this episode, this is classical case of dumbass in distress disorder or distress ball: "When a writer needs to have a character put in trouble so she (and it's almost always "she") can be rescued, they will sometimes have characters act in ways that serve the needs of the plot rather than their own characterization or common sense" Also it can be case of plot induced stupidity: "When a character has the Idiot Ball slipped into their pocket while they weren't looking, causing them to forget to properly use their abilities or powers to stop a bad guy or get out of a situation, even though they may have used the ability in similar situations before (often many times" There is no way that Buffy could be knocked down so easily and that all it takes to restrain her is one, small rope. Wher was super strength and super super endurance? All Comments | Link21 | SummerDec 15, 2012 @ 9:39pm I like this... the look into Giles reckless past... getting high via magick... he's not perfect. A great foreshadowing to Xander and Cordelia's relationship with them yelling at each other, about to fight. Xander has a lot of great lines. I await the re-write! Post a Comment
|
Latest News  Delays... MikeJer - Feb 24, 2013 Hey all!I just wanted to let you all know that I'm looking forward to getting going on my Season 2 review updates. I recently started a new job, so life has been extra bu... View Full Post Latest Comments Waverly [Season 6 Review] This is a difficult season to rate for me. It's among my least favourite but I admire, and a... View CommentMay 18, 2013 Other Scott [Tabula Rasa] I really like this episode (it would have been the second A+ in a row from me). I especially... View CommentMay 15, 2013 Adeline [Dead Man's Party] *in reply to Pippa Hall (#58) I have to say, I agree with just about everything you've said... View CommentMay 12, 2013 Latest Forum Posts Iguana-on-a-stick [Ordering the Seasons] Yeah, especially for such incredibly flimsy reasons. Oh well. View PostMay 18, 2013 Arachnea [Best Couples In TV/Movies] I'll stick to TV shows, otherwise it would give me a headache ! Babylon 5: Londo & G'Ka... View PostMay 18, 2013 Arachnea [Alyson Hannigan's interview] Alexei, I believe it's more about the hate of later seasons. Those who reject 5-6-7 will not... View PostMay 18, 2013 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I thought it was different with Jenny because she was still alive, having been possessed while unconscious, whereas Philip was dead and therefore Eyghon could do less with him.