Season 4, Episode 1: The Freshman
In which everyone at UC Sunnydale is a douche, Buffy gets the crap beat out of her, and Xander is the stalwart.
I think this episode overblew how overwhelming the first day of classes at college is. For one, there should’ve been an orientation, or at the very least a personal tour, that Buffy had taken beforehand to get a feel for the area. Secondly, I don’t imagine all professors are that douchey, especially in what are probably typical freshman level classes. And lastly, this is freakin’ UC Sunnydale. Why would an esteemed and notable Professor of Psychology be doing there when she could be at UCLA, USC, or any other UC school that is probably better than Sunnydale, in conjunction with Sunnydale having the ominous reputation it does? Of course, this is me looking for into the context. I imagine I’ll forget about all of this by the second episode.
Seeing Buffy as the one having the most trouble with the transition was interesting, though I guess it makes sense. Willow thrives in the academic setting, Oz is cool guy extraordinaire, and Xander isn’t going there so he doesn’t have as much of a transition to make involving lifestyle. This reminds me that I don’t remember Charisma Carpenter having been in the opening credits, though I could just not be remembering as I watched the episode 24 hours ago. Either why, I hope they explain in short time what she ended up doing, as well as all the other things that I was hoping they would clear up in the Season 3 finale but didn’t.
As for the episode plot itself, it was good. Good one-shot villain and all that. Good struggles for Buffy, awesome inspiration from Xander, and it was great to see everyone realizing how silly they were kind of being and rush to Buffy’s aid at the end.
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snowpork
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