4.11 Doomed

[Clare]

4.11 Doomed - Episode #067
It's back-to-school time for the gang as an earthquake heralds another apocalypse.

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

[cyclica]

A pretty boring episode, full of lots of little flaws and ok moments, nothing terrible or great. So I'm giving it a 5.

I didn't like how all you need to end the world is 3 ingredients, and jump in a hole. Its stupidly easy, and why do those demons want to end the world anyway?

Giles sounded like he had a cold during this episode, especially during the earthquake conversation with buffy. Or maybe he rerecorded his lines later on for some reason, either way he sounds off.

Spike discovers he can hurt demons. Strange he didn't discover this when fighting demons in 'something blue'. Though I did enjoy seeing him become overenthusiastic about fighting evil - for the sake of puppies and christmas.

[partcynic]

4x11 “Doomed”

Episode Rating = 5

As is commonplace in the series, being the follow-up to a classic episode is usually a thankless job, and “Doomed” gets the same unfortunate placing as many a story before it. If we accept that almost nothing could have outshone “Hush”, “Doomed” actually comes across as a respectable filler-type episode with relevant character development, a decent theme and some strong comedy when the focus falls on the supporting cast. However, there’s also an unprecedented level of ‘roughness’ here – examining the credits reveals that it took three writers to pen the script, and the seams between the pieces are all too obvious (for my money, Marti Noxon wrote the Buffy/Riley scenes; Jane Espenson the Spike stuff; and David Fury the apocalypse plot). Without Joss around to do rewrites and character checks, the show’s overall quality is beginning to slip, and “Doomed” is a good example of a story that would have been better had a little more time been spent giving it some polish.

What I Liked about “Doomed”:

- I loved that the ep picked up right where “Hush” finished, which was a very pleasant surprise on first viewing. The ensuing conversation between Buffy and Riley was believably awkward and had a little bit of humour (“She who hangs out in cemeteries a lot”), and I liked Buffy’s ominous response to the earthquake.

- The ‘back to school’ theme was a bit under-developed for my liking, but I enjoyed the callbacks and references to “Prophecy Girl”; the Amy-rat; Drusilla; Faith and the Mayor (important foreshadowing there), as well as Percy’s reappearance and his criticism’s impact on how Willow perceived herself. It was also fun to return to the gutted high school building, which had a nice touch of nostalgia and a little bit of meaning as the characters noted that it wasn’t intimidating anymore.

- Though I’m still no fan of ‘Agent Finn’, I’ve zero problems with Riley when he’s in boyfriend mode, and while his corn-fed good guy schtick has the potential to get old fast, he remains sympathetic and likeable. He made consistently good points in his discussion with Buffy, and it was very refreshing to have someone call her out on how negative and self-centred she can be (of course, she often has good reasons for being so, but it’s still great to have a character who isn’t afraid to argue with her).

- The characters’ responses to the prospect of yet another end-of-the-world scenario are amusing, and a clever way of letting the audience know that the writers are perfectly aware of how overused the device is becoming.

- I thought that the brief research scenes were cleverly done, with good use of contrast as the ep cut from the Scoobs reading to an Initiative briefing, and clearly showed the differences between the groups’ approaches to monster-hunting.

- Spike was easily the highlight of the episode, and his dialogue and actions were almost always funny (“doing your part to keep America constipated”; trying to hit Xander with the wrench; shrinking his clothes and being forced to wear Xander’s gaudy monstrosities; the suicide attempt; his glee at the prospect of an apocalypse and then at being able to hurt demons; and his closing attempt at rousing Willow and Xander). Overall, he was excellently shown and developed, and his scenes were the most enjoyable of the lot.

- Bits and pieces of the character development are good. I liked Willow’s responses to overhearing Percy mock her (and how both she and Buffy were more perturbed by that than the murder or imminent end-of-the-world), and her insecurities flared up believably. Spike’s dismissal of she and Xander was also well handled – it’s just a shame that future episodes didn’t give the characters the amount of examination they really deserved.

What I Disliked about “Doomed”:

- Why did the demon opt to kill someone at the party instead just murdering a man elsewhere in Sunnydale? Did the specific victim or location have some kind of relevance?

- If you were going to lie on a foreign bed in a blacked-out room, wouldn’t you try and feel for anything on it as well as calling out? I find it hard to believe that Willow could lie down and curl up without noticing that there was another person taking up fifty percent of the available space.

- Although I appreciated the content of the Buffy/Riley chats, Buffy’s characterisation bothered me. It’s acceptable that she’d be reticent about dating Riley after discovering that he’s not a ‘regular guy’, but her refutations were decidedly melodramatic, and half the time the sweeping statements she made had little to do with the points Riley actually brought up. It would have been far better for her responses to be logical and toned down (yet still emotionally charged), instead of just being in the overwrought, bodice-ripper style.

- More should have been done with the eye symbol. Giles sees it and instantly states that it’s the end of the world, but the icon only seems to appear on the side of one mausoleum. Was it supposed to indicate that only the child-bones from that crypt could be used in the world-ending ritual, or was it just a contrivance?

- I don’t know why, but Giles’ voice sounds ‘off’ to me throughout this episode. It’s like he had a cold, and subsequently spoke at one-and-a-half times the speed he’d normally talk at. At a couple of points, it actually made it hard to follow what he was doing.

- Giles having had the Word of Valios on him the whole time was contrived, and you have to wonder why the demons left him alive. If they’re really as nasty as the books made them out to be, why wouldn’t they just kill him? In addition, why would the demons make retrieving the talisman their final objective? Surely it would make more sense for them to obtain the rarest item first? And how did they know Giles had it?

- Why didn’t Xander smash the jar of blood once he wrestled it from the demon? Knowing that it was a vital ingredient for the apocalypse ritual, wouldn’t destroying it have effectively stopped the plan? Also, once it became obvious that the demons were the sacrifice, why didn’t Willow/Xander etc take the bag of bones and simply run off with it? Doing so would have ensured the ritual couldn’t go ahead, leaving Buffy and Spike to kill the monsters.

- Riley turning up at the high school was too much of a coincidence, and his sense of timing in the fight was unreal. On top of that, there was the total stupidity of Buffy’s dive into the Hellmouth, which ignored basic rules of physics (as Buffy fell faster than the demon and was able to grab it), and disregarded all believability as Riley was able to pull she and the demon out of the crevice using an insubstantial piece of cord.

- At the end of the day, this ep felt like half a story. Many of the issues it brought up are admittedly ones that will be explored during the rest of the season, but I wasn’t really satisfied by the character development here. Spike’s critique of Xander may have been accurate, but his words to Willow weren’t as persuasive (in four or five eps’ time, maybe, but not now); and Buffy’s sudden about-turn on the Riley issue didn’t feel natural to me. Sure, she’d be grateful to him for his assistance in the fight, but I don’t see why that would render her prior issues regarding their relationship moot.

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

I feel the same. “Doomed” is a decent edition with an even mix of positives and flaws, and has enough development (and most importantly, humour) to compensate for a generic and poorly thought-out main plot. I can’t say that I ever really think about this episode outside of marathons, but I do enjoy watching it, and unlike “Pangs” and “Something Blue”, it’s a comedic S4 story that maintains the proper Buffyverse tone (as opposed to feeling like a sitcom ep written in ‘Buffyese’). Therefore, I’m going to score “Doomed” a healthy five out of ten.