Buffy - Season 4, Episode 12: A New Man
In which Giles is a demon and The Initiative becomes suspicious.
The plot in this episode was okay, but what I cared about and enjoyed most was the introduction of things that could affect the rest of the season. But before I try getting into all of that, let me first just express my love for Ethan Rayne. He is the greatest Mid-Boss in television history (though I might just be saying that as simple hyperbole to get across my point about how much I love him). Somebody who gets off on chaos always provides fun obstacles to overcome, and I appreciate every episode Ethan is involved in. I hope The Initiative doesn't rough him up too much so that he can still get away only to come back again for more antics. The best part is that Ethan actually provided some plot substantial information, which is just pleasing to me because the guy is awesome and deserves more plot focus.
I'm left wondering what happened to Spike. Sure, he eluded The Initiative, but he crashed shortly after. What was to stop the commandos from capturing him right there? If Spike shows up all fine and dandy when I return to Buffy, then I'll just assume the crash was there for comedic purposes and not think too much into it.
I enjoy the "rivalry" between Giles and Walsh. I don't like Maggie Walsh either, so it's good that somebody starts off not liking her too. I'll be on team "told ya so" with Giles when it turns out she is a baddie (as was suggest by the "314" door she walked into at the end of the episode). She doesn't seem to see Buffy as a threat, which is interesting. She must have something planned to stop the Slayer, and I'm anxious to see what her ulterior motive with The Initiative is.
To go along with this, Riley is playing the "oh The Initiative is great" thing way too heavily, but I think it's on the side of being oblivious. He is obviously oblivious which makes me think that he won't end up being a baddie. Either way, I have found it curious (and disappointing) how Riley made it into the credits yet Anya has not. It could be something along the lines of contractual issues, or it's an intentional diversion by Joss Whedon. Either way, Anya needs more to do.
Finally, there is something not right with that Tara girl. She's awkward as hell and seems to know more about the black arts than she leads on. She seems like she'll be a big deal later on. I really enjoy how subtly characters are introduced in this series. Their not made to be a big deal. People like Anya and Ethan appeared to be one-shot characters before making returns, and I'm not sure if that is intentional or the writers deciding they just want to go back to these characters and were able to get the actors back as well. But anyways, back to Tara. I don't understand why Willow would say she wasn't with her when the rose thing happened. Seems unnecessary to hide that fact that she was practicing magic with someone. My initial prediction is also that Tara is the one involved with the disruptive black magics and not The Initiative.
So yeah, lots of stuff I paid attention to during this episode, which is nice. The plot just served as entertainment, and I took it for that. Not really much need to talk about it. The key thing is that the main arc is really starting to get rolling now.
Next up: Angel 11
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snowpork
I wanna be a SuperNiceDog when I grow up!