3.01 Anne

[Clare]

3.01 Anne - Episode #035
Season Three premiere - Hoping to escape her problems, Buffy hides out in the city, only to find herself falling into hell.

Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.

[cyclica]

There isn't much to say that hasn't already been said. It was a great episode to follow on from the big season 2 finale, showing how everyone's been affected by it, and they're trying to get on with their lives. I always enjoy any episode with a change in setting (killed by death, angel's pylea arc, spiral ) so having an episode set mostly in LA featuring buffy made me happy. I'm giving this one a 7.

On the nitpicking side of things however, I did notice that when buffy and anne were first taken into the other dimension, they were 'welcomed' along with a bunch of other people, all dressed in white, who buffy ended up rescuing. Had they been working there for years, or did they all just arrive earlier that day and had been waiting around for buffy and anne to arrive before being told the rules? And what happened to all the workers who had been there for years, that buffy didn't rescue? Were they sealed in with the demons?

[jennf10]

ANNE was a good, solid opening to Season 3. It showed us where Buffy went and has been since she had to kill Angel. It also shows us how Giles desparately looks for her, like a father would a daughter.

FYI: There is a follow up to Lily's story in ANGEL.

My score: 7/10.

[cauldron]

this is actually one of my favourite episodes, there ssomething very exciting and dark about it and yes all the workers that didn't get out where sealed in to die.
great baddie, theres nothing like a born again villian!

[partcynic]

3x01 “Anne”

Episode Rating = 7

Of all ‘bookend’ episodes, “Buffy”’s season openers are usually given the hardest tasks, often having to sacrifice cohesion or creative stories in favour of restoring a lost status quo (it says a lot that the only two that don’t have this pressure are “Welcome To The Hellmouth” and “Buffy Vs Dracula” - and they’re the best ones). However, S3 intro “Anne” manages to buck the general trend, believably showing the audience how Buffy and the Scoobs are coping three months after the climactic events of “Becoming”, and successfully bringing the two groups back together. Amidst this development, we’re also treated to a strong, meaningful theme and a couple of pleasant character surprises, making an excellent beginning for what will be an excellent season.

What I Liked about “Anne”:

- The introductory scene is a great way to kick-start the year, and I love the reveal that the ominous vampire hunter is actually Willow. “Come and get it, big boy” is one of the more humorous first lines the show’s featured, and it was cool to see the Scoobs attempting to fight vampires (and failing dismally). I also liked how the discussion between Xander, Willow and Oz established facts pertinent to the story (resuming school; the Slayer’s absence, and the summer having passed); and the trio reacted believably to Buffy’s disappearance.

- The back-to-school sequence is very well filmed, using the ‘one-shot’ approach that Joss so frequently employs. I was impressed with how he captured everything in a single take, and there were elements of both humour (the excellent cameo from Larry; Oz repeating senior year and trying to explain things to Willow) and character development throughout.

- The theme here (of personal identity and what it means) is very good, and succeeds not only in the context of a single episode, but also in preparing for the broader questions about what it means to be a Slayer that will emerge once Faith arrives.

- Cutting to Buffy sitting in silence from the din at the school was an effective transition, and I felt for her loneliness. It made sense that she’d fled to Los Angeles (I wonder if she’d had any sort of contact with her father beforehand, or whether she assumed he wouldn’t want her around), and our formerly flippant heroine’s transformation into a meek waitress who’d grimace and silently accept sexual harassment was a sad one.

- As with other minor characters, I can’t say I’d given much thought to what became of Chanterelle from “Lie To Me”, but I really liked seeing her (and actress Julia Lee) again. For all of her flaws, ‘Lily’ was very endearing, and it was excellent to watch her grow from a painfully insecure girl who couldn’t hope to survive on her own, to someone who was willing to take responsibility and try to better herself. Her character arc progressed perfectly in parallel with Buffy’s, and it’s cool to think that her symbolic change in taking the name ‘Anne’ marks the first step in her journey towards becoming the mature, compassionate woman we’ll see in “Blood Money”.

- Giles’ persistence in trying to find Buffy is a great indicator of his concern/fatherly regard for her, and his scene with Joyce worked emotionally. I empathised with their distress at not knowing where Buffy was, as well as with Joyce’s anger at Giles regarding his involvement in her daughter’s Slayer activities.

- Ken is a decent villain, and I liked how his extremely bland, vanilla persona actually masked a monster. It was a clever touch to have him innocuously in the foreground as Buffy encountered the old woman who stated that she was “no-one”, and the irony of his comments about despair “sucking the life from you” is great when you know what he’s really doing.

- Xander and Cordelia’s romantic reunion in the graveyard is amusing, and there’s an awesome callback to “What’s My Line” in how their impromptu smooching is accompanied by magnificently cheesy orchestration.

- Buffy’s trip to ‘Family Home’ is fun (especially her lame attempt at going undercover; though I also smiled at her deadpan response of “breaking into your office and going through your personal files” when confronted at the bloodbank); and the ‘rebirth’ pool actually being a portal to a demon dimension was a good plot twist.

- The character progression once Lily and Buffy end up in ‘Hell’ is top-notch. It’s satisfying to see Buffy slowly but steadily re-embrace the identity she rejected at the end of “Becoming” (“I’m Buffy, the Vampire Slayer... and you are?” is definitely cheer-worthy), and it’s equally cool to witness the effect she has on Lily (culminating in the hilarious moment where Lily pushes Ken off the platform).

- Considering its limited budget, the ‘Hell’ factory isn’t too bad, and the demon guards were reasonably intimidating. The big fight was pretty exciting, and the humorous symbolism of Buffy leading a group of exploited workers to revolution while wielding a hammer and a sickle wasn’t lost on me.

- Buffy’s final confrontation with Ken is a good one, with the right amounts of stomach-churning grossness (the gate spikes going through his legs) and comedy (Buffy’s Ghandi impression).

- The last scene is beautiful. You can feel Joyce’s apprehension as she approaches the door, just thinking that this could be Buffy – and when we see that it is her, it’s hugely emotional. I loved that the feeling was conveyed without dialogue, and the silent embrace between mother and daughter was very moving.

What I Disliked about “Anne”:

- As always, I’m iffy on the idea of regular humans being able to fight vampires and survive. It helps that the Scoobs were sucking (and it was preferable to have the fight against evil continue instead of abruptly ceasing over the summer as it did between “Prophecy Girl” and “When She Was Bad”), but the mere fact that they were able to take on vamps for 3+ months and live to tell the tale is problematic. At this rate, we’ll soon be able to legitimately ask why Slayers are necessary.

- While I enjoyed the Cordy/Xander bickering and kiss in the graveyard, I didn’t think much of their material at the school. It was mildly funny that their fevered anticipation led to such a lukewarm conversation, but it didn’t justify the amount of time spent on its set-up.

- Buffy and Angel on the beach was cheesy. I’m willing to tolerate David Boreanaz’s contractually demanded micro-appearances, but this one could have been much better.

- The car accident that concluded act one was cheap. I don’t like it when shows have dramatic events occur for shock value, only for them to be brushed off a few seconds later.

- The ‘homeless people suffering’ sequence was painful. Please Joss, no more hackneyed montages with whiny music playing over them.

- What exactly was the connection between Ken and the blood bank? Were the staff there also demons of some sort, and if not, why were they co-operating with the scheme? Were they receiving a cut of the rewards/profits, or had Ken and his minions just intimidated them into complying?

- Having the dimensional portal close right after Lily, Buffy and the other kids escaped was convenient. Shouldn’t it have remained open? Why did it get sealed?

Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?

As per usual, I feel similar. “Anne” is a fine season opener that stands out amongst others of its type through some strong development, a powerful theme and the welcome reappearance of ‘Lily’. It manages to do a solid job of mixing the Buffy A-plot with the story of the other Scoobs coping in Sunnydale, and brings Buffy back quickly (a dramatic necessity) with making her growth seem forced or rushed. Thanks to these impressive qualities, I’m awarding “Anne” the same score I gave it before – a healthy seven out of ten.

[cyclica]

This episode is more like two completely seperate episodes, both following on from last season's cliffhanger, with one plot focusing on buffy and the other involving the rest of the scoobies.

The buffy plot-

So we start out with buffy on a beach, and whoa! Angel is still alive! And in sunshine! Whats going on? Well, it turns out it's just a dream, and get used to this because he'll be appearing in dreams for the next few episodes. The first time I watched s3 angel was my least favourite character, and the fact that they killed him off then kept bringing him back in dreams annoyed me no end. Though it's not a problem anymore since they brought him back properly a little later on, and made him a more likeable character on the spin off.

So buffy's a waiteress now, and runs into chanterelle, who is now called lily (loved the mushroom joke). It was a huge surprise to see such a minor character come back, and I'm glad she stuck around on angel. We also get a few appearances of ken, in the background as buffy walks down the street. I like little set-ups like that. Later on buffy gets hit by a car (and heals instantly, gotta be the fastest healing ever on the show) and again runs into ken, played by the same guy who will play richard the demon on bachelor party.

Later lily asks buffy for help in finding her missing boyfriend, and they go to where lily had given blood. After discovering the boyfriend is dead and aged, buffy tells lily (who can't handle it) and returns to the blood bank for clues... even though she had no reason to think that the blood bank was involved. Why was the blood bank involved anyway? I don't get why the demons didn't just enslave anyone they could, why only people with healthy blood?

Anyway, ken meets lily and convinces her to go though with a kind of baptism, just as buffy arrives (loved buffy sucking at undercover). Lily gets pulled into the black water... which makes no sense as a few moments later we see buffy and ken fall though the water and land on the ground. Who pulled lily in? A demon on a step ladder who then ran offscreen?

We then have a very nice scene where the demons try to break the moral of the new slaves, but they can't break buffy, and she fights back, providing hope for the others.

The whole episode is about hope and despair. The demon demension metaphor works very well for people who are lost as some people (like lily) are in real life. Buffy was lost until she was pushed into returning to her roots and regaining her own inner strength, and fighting back against the demons, and along the way turned lily from someone who can't look after herself into someone that can. This is best demonstrated near the end as the 'captive' lily pushes ken off a ledge and helps the other kids escape.

Upon rewatching the show I've gained a new respect for the main plot of this episode, with buffy finding herself and making lily into a more self-reliant person.

There are still a few unanswered questions with this episode. Like I said before, what happened to the prisoners who didn't escape?Who were the other kids who were initiated with buffy and lily? Just what was it they were working on anyway? Why does ken look so different from the other demons?

But these are all minor problems I can overlook, and overall I enjoyed this ep more than before. I'm bumping my score up to a high 7. And I loved buffy's ghandi impression.

The scoobies plot-

There's not much to this subplot beyond watching the rest of the gang trying to dust vamps in buffy's absence, and giles trying to track buffy down.

There are plenty of amusing scenes, such as oz throwing a stake at a vamp (and missing), willow's odd puns, and cordy and xander looking forward to seeing each other (only to have nothing to sday to each other in the end). I also loved the scene where they go back to school, it's pretty impressive how they managed to do the whole scene in one shot, and larry's comment about not wanting anymore mysterious deaths was funny. I also noticed cordy mention how much she hates mexico, could this perhaps be a reference to the actress being half mexican?

One thing I didn't much like was xander's treatment of cordy. His baseless paranoia that she might have met someone else caused him to use her as bait to catch vamps, seemingly not worried if the plan would get her killed (and he even joked about it). I'm glad they 'got back together' at the end, not because it made sense, but just because we were again treated to an over-the-top musical sting as they kissed. I guess we shoudn't get too concerned about the problems the comic-relief characters are having, and just enjoy the jokes.

There was also a necessary joyce scene, as we see she is blaming giles for what happened to buffy (and in the process discovering she has been filled in on slayers, vamps etc since the last episode).

Overall the scooby scenes were ok, and don't make me want to change my rating. Though the buffy subplot is definitely my favourite of the two.

[cyclica]

Partcynic, I think you and I agree on pretty much everything in this ep.

Dec 7, 2009 15:35:08 GMT -5 partcynic said:

- As always, I’m iffy on the idea of regular humans being able to fight vampires and survive. It helps that the Scoobs were sucking (and it was preferable to have the fight against evil continue instead of abruptly ceasing over the summer as it did between “Prophecy Girl” and “When She Was Bad”), but the mere fact that they were able to take on vamps for 3+ months and live to tell the tale is problematic. At this rate, we’ll soon be able to legitimately ask why Slayers are necessary.

If it's always three-against-one like it was in the opening, I can buy that they'd survive. It gets a lot worse later on when they are fighting one-on-one.

Something that just occured to me- if there was no slayer in town, and no buffybot yet, why was the town not overrun by demon bikers?