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Post by Clare on Sept 21, 2008 10:34:22 GMT -5
1.02 The Harvest - Episode #002
Can Buffy prevent the Master from rising?
Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 26, 2008 7:00:45 GMT -5
I liked it. I give it a low 8.
There were lots of good bits in this episode, like when the vampires were walking towards the club, and darla was skipping in front, happy and eager to kill. That was wonderfully wrong. And I liked how the vamps first victim was the huge muscular bouncer, as if to say 'if we can overpower this guy then you kids have no hope'. Then there was angel's subtle line 'I'll be damned'.
And xander going with buffy, then coming back and kicking the bin around in anger because they couldn't save his friend. In later episodes, even within this season, they don't take death so hard, so in this one I'm glad they had xander express some pain and loss instead of moving straight onto the next vamp hunting strategy.
My only tiny flaw with this episode was that vamp jesse was staked by accident, I would have liked to have seen xander really stake him. Oh well, it was still a great episode.
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Post by partcynic on Sept 6, 2009 4:43:01 GMT -5
1x02 “The Harvest”
Episode Rating = 6
A fine conclusion to the series’ first story, “The Harvest” works well as a denouement to “Welcome to the Hellmouth”, continuing to develop the Master plot and demonstrating the important roles that each of the core four will come to play in the Scooby Gang’s dynamics. Unlike its predecessor, this ep has a few more problems popping up, but it’s still a strong entry in the show’s canon.
What I Liked about “The Harvest”:
- In general, the episode is excellently paced and has a consistent amount of plot and characterisation. There’s never a dull moment, and every scene has something important for the audience to take note of.
- Jesse’s capture and death. Since the viewer doesn’t really know the character, there’s no worry about an emotional attachment to him, and he can instead serve as a tool to a) galvanise Buffy and b) point out that she won’t always succeed. It also provides Xander with a legitimate reason to hate vampires, which prevents Buffy from having to espouse that view later on (and thus enables her character to have more depth).
- After the events of “Welcome to the Hellmouth” and Willow/Xander being rescued, the show has a believable explanation for them wanting to assist Buffy, performing the groundwork for the rest of the series. It was good that everyone was important to the plan (Buffy’s recon; Willow hacking the maps; Giles researching; Xander being willing to confront the vamps), and it nicely foreshadows the characters’ subsequent roles.
- I love how intelligent, resourceful and pro-active Buffy is in the hunt for Jesse, as well as the stress she places on keeping civilians out of combat. I also liked that Luke’s mysterious arrival back at the mausoleum served as a crucial plot point, and her “My God, I am so mentally challenged!” quip was funny.
- Cordelia is a fun, love-to-hate character, and her self-absorbed shallowness is juxtaposed well against the heroism of the so-called ‘losers’. The scene in the computer lab provided her with a fine comeuppance, and it was good that it was Cordy’s own density that did her in, and not any malice from Willow.
- Flowing from the last comment, there’s a really nice character moment for Willow when she stands up for Buffy in the face of Cordy’s venom. It shows that she’s not as timid as she might initially appear, and her willingness to risk criticism to defend a (sort-of) friend makes her come across as a good person.
- Is it bad that I like Jesse as a vamp more than as a human? He had a number of good lines (“I don’t get one?”), and I enjoyed the contrast in his behaviour around Cordelia. He also enabled us to see what the change from human to vampire would be like, and allows the show to present the idea that the two beings are different no matter how many similarities they may have.
- The Master continues to be a solid villain, being both humorous and intimidating (“You’ve got something in your eye”). The contrast between the near medieval vamps and 20th Century Buffy works really well, and her duping Luke into believing the yellow glow was sunlight (and the subsequent “…[it’s] in five hours, moron” line) is a classic moment.
- The Xander/Jesse confrontation is cool, being a little tense and having a resolution that’s funny and fitting (as I can’t see Xander being willing to kill the person he still thought of as his friend, and the accidental nature of the staking frees him from any unnecessary ‘I killed him!’ angst).
- The very last scene is fantastic, setting up the subsequent stories in the season (by pointing out that the threats aren’t just limited to vampires), and Giles’ “the earth is doomed” line is a perfect finale (I was happy to see it reprised in “Chosen”).
What I found to be a mixed bag about “The Harvest”:
- Buffy’s leap over the fence after Flutie’s “feet on the ground” comment was cool, but wouldn’t it be better to avoid performing superhuman acts of agility when you’re in clear view of half the school’s students?
- As in “Welcome to the Hellmouth”, Angel needs some serious work in both writing and performance (the notion of him being afraid of the Order of Aurelius is ridiculous in hindsight, and David’s delivery on the line makes it even worse). However, I did like the little bit of interaction between he and Buffy, especially her crack about having friends and his muted reaction to it.
- I enjoyed seeing Buffy decapitate the vampire with the cymbal, but Xander’s “heads up” pun was cringeworthy.
What I Disliked about “The Harvest”:
- The mechanism of Buffy’s early escape is too coincidental. It helps that we saw Angel present her with the cross in the previous episode, but it magically appears from nowhere to ward Luke off.
- How did Angel get into the mausoleum in the first place? As we know he’s a vampire, he can’t have come in from the daylight, and since the sewer doors were locked, it seems unlikely he came from there. So, did he sneak in soon after the gang cleared out, and then wait there all day in the hope that Buffy would show up?
- Why oh why do Buffyverse monsters move so slowly when a kill is within their grasp? I know that this is common to many genre shows, but that doesn’t make it any less silly. Why didn’t the vamps actively chase after Buffy in the sewer corridors, instead of creeping along, giving her time to lock and barricade the door?
- The Master to Luke: “My soul is your soul.” Hmm… I’m assuming that it was intended as a generic, spell-style figure of speech, unless he meant “My non-existent soul is your non-existent soul”.
- Considering that the vampires are acting as a single unit under the Master, they don’t seem to be organised well. Even if they only have one individual who could be a match for a Slayer (Luke), the rest should have had no problem overpowering Willow, Xander and Giles at the Bronze.
- When Buffy staked the vampire with the pool cue, why did it keel over? Shouldn’t it have dusted and the cue have fallen to the ground?
- The score music is still obnoxious. It’s unobtrusive for most of the episode, but the swells during the Master’s “the stars themselves will hide” and “give me MOOORE!” speeches are cheesy beyond belief.
Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?
Perhaps a bit more. I think it’s a little more flawed than “Welcome to the Hellmouth”, but almost everything in it works, and it concludes the two-part story without decreasing or derailing the established tension and character development. As such, I’ve increased my score by one point, raising “The Harvest” to a high, healthy six.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 6, 2009 16:58:56 GMT -5
I agree with everything I said last time, except for this: And xander going with buffy, then coming back and kicking the bin around in anger because they couldn't save his friend. In later episodes, even within this season, they don't take death so hard, so in this one I'm glad they had xander express some pain and loss instead of moving straight onto the next vamp hunting strategy. Upon rewatching, it seems like they didn't show enough pain. Xander and willow's friend has just died, and after a bit of moping things return to normal. They never even shed a tear. Since I'm nitpicking, I may as well mention a few other things- - Giles skimmed over the demon history near the start; he said 'the way has made for humans', but never explained how humans took over from demons. I would like to know what happened. - At one point buffy is trapped with xander and jesse and tries to keep a vampire horde out by closing a very thin, flimsy door... which she struggles to close! Come on, any child could have closed that door, and she has slayer strength. - The master puts some paint or something on luke's head in the shape of a symbol... yet later that symbol is a scar, not paint. - Buffy's secret compartment in her trunk is filled with stakes, garlic... and a big jar filled with little white discs? What am I missing here? I'm giving this ep a 7 and a half like W2TH. In my mind they are one big episode, I have to give the same score for each. |
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Post by partcynic on Sept 7, 2009 12:25:28 GMT -5
Very true - although I'm actually glad that they didn't react much. While it would have been logical and made sense for the characters, I personally had no emotional connection to Jesse, so any grieving from the others would probably have just bored me. I've always thought that Xander's special hatred for vampires was a result of Jesse's death, though.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 7, 2009 17:23:05 GMT -5
^ I wouldn't have wanted to watch much more grieving either, and given the threat the vampires still posed it was understandable that they moved on straight away to forming a plan.
But still, they could have included a line or too like 'I'm going to jesse's funeral later' or something. But no, the episode ends with the gang all laughing and making jokes the day after their friend died.
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Post by partcynic on Sept 8, 2009 8:18:09 GMT -5
^ Well, technically half of the gang didn't have any history with Jesse (Buffy and Giles), and I didn't get the impression that he was as tight with Willow as he was with Xander. You're right that a line of acknowledgement would have been good, though.
Thinking about Jesse, I wonder what would happen in the case of a vampire being sired and dusted soon after. With no body, there'd be no proof of death and probably no funeral. Perhaps they'd be listed as "missing, presumed dead". It would certainly be awful for their loved ones.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 8, 2009 17:24:49 GMT -5
^ Yeah, it's really tragic when you think about it.
In this case maybe we can assume xander called jesse's parents and told them what happened (substituting 'vampires' for 'a bad man' as willow said), but the scoobies won't be able to do that every time buffy stakes a vamp. I seem to recall in gingerbread joyce made a speech asking the townspeople how many times their loved ones had just gone missing.
Although, the only other time I can remember someone being turned and being staked before their families knew they were dead, would be that enterprise guy on helpless, and presumably quentin would have made that call.
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Post by Clare on Oct 5, 2009 12:06:17 GMT -5
I've seen this episode many times now but it's still a great episode and a good conclusion to "Welcome to the Hellmouth". We learn a little more about some of the characters and we see some small changes in some of their personalities already, e.g., Willow sticking up for Buffy to Cordelia. Plus, Buffy averts an apocalypse - the first of many! The relationship between Darla and the Master is shown throughout this episode. The Master seems to be a fatherly figure to Darla, like how Giles is to Buffy. It's interesting how they show this "loving", caring relationship between these two creatures who don't have souls; it makes them less one-dimensional. The Britain-bashing has begun already! Mr. Flutie says: "Well, maybe that's how they do things in Britain, they've got that royal family and all kinds of problems..." I really enjoyed the scene where Willow inadvertently gets her own back on Cordelia by telling her to press deliver so she presses 'del' and it deletes her work!  There was some really enjoyable dialogue through the episode, I really liked: Buffy: "I looked around, but as soon as they got clear of the graveyard, they could have just, voom!" Xander: "They can fly?" Buffy: "They can drive." I know they hadn't really established it yet, but Jesse changed very quickly in this episode. How come others take a while and some only turn after being buried? Luke says metal can't hurt him - just him because he's the vessel or all vampires? Because in future eps, I'm pretty sure some vamps are killed with metal! Luke is over 150 years old and has killed Slayers before so is obviously not stupid, plus the fact that vampire's can kind of tell what time it is (and when dawn will begin) so why would he think the light, when Buffy breaks the window, is sunlight? Yes, it was a clever idea on Buffy's part but I think it should have been thought out better by the writers. - The mechanism of Buffy’s early escape is too coincidental. It helps that we saw Angel present her with the cross in the previous episode, but it magically appears from nowhere to ward Luke off. It looked like the cross was in shirt pocket and when Luke was about to bite her, it slid out of her pocket... I actually liked how this was done. - Jesse’s capture and death. It also provides Xander with a legitimate reason to hate vampires, which prevents Buffy from having to espouse that view later on (and thus enables her character to have more depth). Do you think (other than jealousy) this could be the reason he hates Angel so much? - Is it bad that I like Jesse as a vamp more than as a human? He had a number of good lines (“ I don’t get one?”), and I enjoyed the contrast in his behaviour around Cordelia. He also enabled us to see what the change from human to vampire would be like, and allows the show to present the idea that the two beings are different no matter how many similarities they may have. Jesse becoming a vampire made him stronger (physically and mentally) and more confident, I think it would have been interesting if he had been in a few more episodes as a vampire. We would have been able to see in more detail how Xander would have dealt with him as a vampire. By Jesse going from human to vampire in the opening episodes, it showed us what a Buffy tVS vampire is like and that they can remember their past and can still act "normal" when they want to. - The Master continues to be a solid villain, being both humorous and intimidating (“You’ve got something in your eye”). The Master is one of the more entertaining characters in the first season and that scene and quote, even though quite disgusting, is really funny! My only tiny flaw with this episode was that vamp jesse was staked by accident, I would have liked to have seen xander really stake him. Oh well, it was still a great episode. - The Xander/Jesse confrontation is cool, being a little tense and having a resolution that’s funny and fitting (as I can’t see Xander being willing to kill the person he still thought of as his friend, and the accidental nature of the staking frees him from any unnecessary ‘I killed him!’ angst). I think the only way Xander would have actually staked Jesse on his own free will would have been if he was protecting Willow, or maybe Giles or Buffy. I agree with what Partcynic says about having Xander "accidentally" stake Jesse making him feel less guilty. I agree with everything I said last time, except for this:Upon rewatching, it seems like they didn't show enough pain. Xander and willow's friend has just died, and after a bit of moping things return to normal. They never even shed a tear. Very true - although I'm actually glad that they didn't react much. While it would have been logical and made sense for the characters, I personally had no emotional connection to Jesse, so any grieving from the others would probably have just bored me. I've always thought that Xander's special hatred for vampires was a result of Jesse's death, though. I wouldn't have wanted to watch much more grieving either, and given the threat the vampires still posed it was understandable that they moved on straight away to forming a plan. But still, they could have included a line or too like 'I'm going to jesse's funeral later' or something. But no, the episode ends with the gang all laughing and making jokes the day after their friend died. I agree with what you both say, I think Xander's reaction to Jesse being turned into a vampire was good but (and I don't know how well Willow really knew him) maybe Willow should have had more of a reaction? It's sad Jesse is never mentioned again - I think they should have mentioned him at the end of season 3, maybe when they were glancing through their yearbooks and saw his name/photo in the "in memoriam" section. - As in “Welcome to the Hellmouth”, Angel needs some serious work in both writing and performance (the notion of him being afraid of the Order of Aurelius is ridiculous in hindsight, and David’s delivery on the line makes it even worse). However, I did like the little bit of interaction between he and Buffy, especially her crack about having friends and his muted reaction to it. I still say I like the more cryptic Angel from early season 1 and I really like the scene in the mausoleum; it's sad when Buffy says, "I've got a friend down there. Or at least a potential friend. Do you know what it's like to have a friend?" and he just looks at her. I also think it's sweet when he whispers "good luck" after Buffy leaves. - Why oh why do Buffyverse monsters move so slowly when a kill is within their grasp? I know that this is common to many genre shows, but that doesn’t make it any less silly. Why didn’t the vamps actively chase after Buffy in the sewer corridors, instead of creeping along, giving her time to lock and barricade the door? Lol, that scene just makes me laugh - seeing a load of vampires moving more like zombies! - At one point buffy is trapped with xander and jesse and tries to keep a vampire horde out by closing a very thin, flimsy door... which she struggles to close! Come on, any child could have closed that door, and she has slayer strength. I think the door was warped a bit which would make it harder to close but still...  - When Buffy staked the vampire with the pool cue, why did it keel over? Shouldn’t it have dusted and the cue have fallen to the ground? It should have just dusted, yes, most other vampires do. I have no explanation except maybe the director/producer just wanted to make a staking look more interesting... Overall pros: Characters and relationships are developed a little bit from the first episode, some great dialogue, concludes "Welcome to the Hellmouth" well. Overall cons: Not enough of a reaction to Jesse being turned into a vampire then staked, Luke is made to look like a fool when he shouldn't have been, some scenes are a bit silly (the vampires moving in slow motion, etc). Rating: 7/10 |
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Post by partcynic on Oct 5, 2009 14:44:34 GMT -5
I loved that bit too. It was a clever way of Willow getting revenge without sinking to Cordy's level.
I've thought about this a bit. My theory: the amount of blood exchanged between the human and the siring vamp influences the speed of the transformation. If we imagine an area between draining so much blood the victim dies and so little that vamp blood would have no effect (like in Buffy Vs Dracula), it's possible that the proportions exchanged have an effect. For example, someone who was drained until they almost died and was then given the same amount of vampire blood might transform quicker than a human who bled and received less.
Most likely (though I think that his early treatment of Angel and Buffy/Angel was unjustified either way).
I think he was just referring to how Buffy was wielding the music stand (or whatever it was). She was holding it like she would a stake, and Luke would be right that stabbing him with it wouldn't kill him. The other times Buffy's used metallic objects, she's mainly killed them through decapitation.
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Post by cyclica on Oct 5, 2009 16:27:59 GMT -5
I know they hadn't really established it yet, but Jesse changed very quickly in this episode. How come others take a while and some only turn after being buried? I've thought about this a bit. My theory: the amount of blood exchanged between the human and the siring vamp influences the speed of the transformation. If we imagine an area between draining so much blood the victim dies and so little that vamp blood would have no effect (like in Buffy Vs Dracula), it's possible that the proportions exchanged have an effect. For example, someone who was drained until they almost died and was then given the same amount of vampire blood might transform quicker than a human who bled and received less. Interesting idea. But then, why would some victims 'rise' slower than others? Surely if it's a vampires intention to turn their victim, they would drink *all* the blood? Why would they drink only, say 75%, and let their victim wait all night before becoming a vamp, when they can drink it all and have a new vamp allie almost immediately? And how would they get jesse to drink anyway? How do vamps get their victims to drink, is it like if the vamp has drunk enough blood, the human would want to start drinking too, to offset some of the blood loss? Or is it like a hypnosis thing, like we've seen with dracula? Luke is over 150 years old and has killed Slayers before so is obviously not stupid, plus the fact that vampire's can kind of tell what time it is (and when dawn will begin) so why would he think the light, when Buffy breaks the window, is sunlight? Yes, it was a clever idea on Buffy's part but I think it should have been thought out better by the writers. I agree. Luke should have known it was long before sunrise. But still, it was a funny scene. I can forgive it.  - When Buffy staked the vampire with the pool cue, why did it keel over? Shouldn’t it have dusted and the cue have fallen to the ground? It should have just dusted, yes, most other vampires do. I have no explanation except maybe the director/producer just wanted to make a staking look more interesting... Maybe the vamp wasn't staked through the heart, but he was too injured to get up? |
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Post by partcynic on Oct 5, 2009 16:47:09 GMT -5
I think that it might depend on the vampire in question. Given that different people have different body weights, some would be more quickly incapacitated than others, and only vamps with siring experience would be able to effectively judge the perfect point for exchanging blood before the victim dies (biologically, that range would be pretty narrow). Therefore, vamps like Dracula, Angelus and Darla could probably make others quickly and effectively, while more clueless rookies might risk actually killing their victims (in "The Trial", Darla even has to explain the siring process to the guy she picks up).
Because of this, newer vamps might prefer to drain less blood, meaning that they get a guaranteed sire from waiting a couple of days, instead of potentially losing the catch altogether (and if they wanted a specific person for a mate, that could be a big problem).
I think it's more of an instinct thing - if something is flowing/pouring into a person's mouth, the natural response is to swallow to prevent it from entering the lungs and causing death by drowning. It's probably how most humans would react to having their mouths filled with blood. And if they've already had significant bloodloss, they'd be too weak to struggle or push the vampire away.
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