2.21 Becoming I

[Clare]

2.21 Becoming I - Episode #033
Angelus attemps to destroy the Universe - but fails

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

[cyclica]

I liked the angel backstory told in flashbacks, but one thing I didn't like was whistler. A good demon who looks human, pleh. It would have been much better if angel had simply discovered buffy on his own, instead of having some mysterious cliche character tell him to find her, for no apparant reason.

I did like the glimpses into buffy's old like in LA, though I wish we could have found out what happened to merrick. I assume he died around the same time buffy burnt down the gym, like in the movie. But then the plot in the movie involved the master, so I guess buffy had a totally different reason to burn down the gym on the show, and merrick had a different fate. I wonder if there's any fan fics that explore this?

I'm giving this episode a 7, its mostly set up for the big finale.

[jennf10]

Wow...BEST OF BUFFY.

You really cannot review this episode without including its 2 part. This season finale shows us how the main characters, Angel/Buffy/Dru, became what they are today. We get to see Darla once again, as well. (Always a great treat to see Julie Benz.)

Angel has brought forth a demon that he plans to awaken, to bring unspeakable torment to earth. The Scoobies and Buffy try to find out how to stop him. However, Angel has a problem. He's tried the ritual, but it did not work. He knows he is missing something, so he kidnaps Giles in an attempt to torture the information out him.

In the meantime, the Scoobies are trying to find a way to restore Angel's soul. They have found an orb and Willow found the translated spell that Jenny was working on when she was killed. Willow believes that she can cast the spell. and even continues after being attacked and sent to the hospital.

In order to fight, Kendra returns to help Buffy, but is killed by Drusella while trying to protect the Scoobies. Buffy finds her dead, and it is assumed that Buffy is the suspect. She is expelled from school and hunted by the police.

On the way to her home, Buffy is confronted by Spike, who wants immunity in order to leave town with Dru. He strikes a deal with the Slayer in order to make this happen. Once home, Buffy is confronted by Joyce about what is going on. Joyce is finally told what her daughter is, but does not truly understand. Buffy walks out, but not before Joyce tells her not to come back.

In this episode is one of the best battle scenes in Buffy history. The sword fight between Buffy and Angel is classic and tragic. After Angelus finally figures out how to open the demon, Buffy realizes that she must kill him in order to close the portal. Only at the last moment, right before putting the sword through Angelus, does Buffy see that Angel's soul has been restored. However, in order to save the world, she must once again kill her beloved Angel.

In the end, Buffy, expelled from school and kicked out of her house, leaves Sunnydale on a bus, going to an unknown destination.

My rating for both episodes: 10/10.

[partcynic]

2x21 “Becoming , Part One”

Episode Rating = 9

With “Becoming” being my favourite finale of the entire “Buffy” series, I was really looking forward to watching it again, and I’m happy to say I enjoyed this opening part just as much as ever. While principally being set-up for Part Two, it’s an excellently paced, dramatic introduction that excels in both establishing the story’s plot and showing how grave the situation with Angelus is. Expertly reviving dormant plot threads from earlier in the year, the narrative mixes present and past events elegantly, becoming an explosive and gripping edition in the process.

What I Liked about “Becoming, Part One”:

- The introductory flashback makes for an engrossing opening, and the information conveyed was just what I wanted to know (though this applies for all of the historical scenes). It was interesting to see what Angel was like as a human, and a pleasant surprise to encounter Darla after a year-and-a-half’s absence from the series. Tonally, their interaction had the right amount of predation and longing, and Darla’s requesting Liam “close [his] eyes” will echo beautifully with Buffy and Angel in Part Two.

- Buffy’s first fight in the graveyard does a decent job of establishing that finals time is rolling around, as well as hinting at her newfound determination to stop Angelus. The reveal that Xander had been fighting alongside her was funny, and the way Angelus silently stalked her linked nicely to his movements in “Passion”.

- As with Liam, I was intrigued by seeing what Drusilla was like as a human, and the way Angelus quietly manipulated her in the confessional slotted in nicely as the start of the extended period of torment he subjected her to (as mentioned in “Lie To Me”). Even after countless re-watches, it’s still unsettling to see her cry that she wants to be pure, and for Angelus to quietly inform her that “God is watching you”.

- The discovery of Acathla’s tomb is fun, and I liked how the hugely ominous sarcophagus ended up not being the narrative’s true threat (granted, it is the mechanism of the apocalypse, but this is more a story about Buffy and Angel than anything else). The early exposition scene regarding it with Giles was solid, and I loved the vamps’ later attack on the museum workers as they stole it (especially Angelus telling Dru to “save me some”).

- The moment with the Scoobs in the cafeteria is cute, with nice little appearances from Oz and Snyder, as well as Xander’s hilarious fishstick theatre, and his playful come-ons to Cordelia. It was the lightest moment in an otherwise dark episode, and stands out all the more for it.

- Willow is continuing to develop excellently. I liked how her passion for teaching was mentioned and discussed, and the moment where she was kind but firm with Buffy during their chemistry session was wonderful (if anything, it’s a shame the teaching stuff wasn’t built upon later. I wonder if it was originally intended for Willow to become a Watcher? It seems like an organic fit.) In addition to that insight, the episode also displays the magic-related initiative she showed in “I Only Have Eyes For You”, and her willingness to perform the curse (and ultimate success with it in Part Two) is a pivotal character growth moment.

- I loved everything pertaining to the discovery of Jenny’s disk. It was certainly a big moment when Buffy and Willow realised what they were looking at, the subsequent group conversation in the library was amazing. I could understand every character’s perspective during the row, and I loved that the story didn’t try to push any one position as being correct. It was also the first time we’d ever seen major ingroup conflict with the usually-smiley Scoobs, and it was all perfectly tense and believable.

- Although many of the flashbacks in the “Angel” series contradict the Angel/Whistler LA scene, that’s more their problem than this episode’s (though I guess you could get everything to make sense - it would be incredibly convoluted). Whistler worked well as the mouthpiece for the episode’s theme, and it was awesome to see an ambiguous demon as opposed to the all-good/all-bad characterisations we tend to get. The subsequent trip to Hemery High was also strong (but let’s forget about the car windows painted black). ‘Spordelia’ Buffy is in excellent contrast to the character we’ve come to know and care about, and it was nicely humanising to show her mess up on her first vampire staking, and then be completely overwhelmed by it all. I also appreciated the scene of she and Joyce arguing (and then Joyce and Hank’s row), lending further support to Buffy’s feeling that she was responsible for their divorce (as we were shown in “Nightmares”).

- The climactic fight between Buffy and Angel is a top-notch bait-and-switch moment. There’s lots of initial tension as Willow begins the spell, and the reveal that the attack was on the library all along is fantastic (and a clever nod back to “When She Was Bad”, as hinted at in Angelus’ parting line). Adding to the scene’s punch, we got a fitting injury/death count with Willow comatose, Xander unconscious and injured, Giles kidnapped, and Kendra dead (the last one showing just how dangerous Drusilla could be, and making her only the second vampire we know to have murdered a Slayer).

- Despite Kendra’s short list of appearances and tendency to serve as a plot device, it was still sad to see her go, and there was a touching moment of kinship when Buffy got back to the library and kneeled beside her fallen ally. I also liked the earlier scene when she first surprised Buffy, as well as her sweet gifting of ‘Mr Pointy’ to her friend.

- The very last moments (with Buffy running back through the school in slo-mo, and Whistler narrating) are spine-chilling stuff. Between that and the final shock with the police appearing, I can’t see anyone not being eager to watch the following episode.

What I Disliked about “Becoming, Part One”:

- Angelus is generally creepy here, but some of his dialogue goes past ‘dramatic’ and into ‘corny’. Stuff like “it’ll stop whispering... we’ll make it scream” and “we’re about to make history... end” shouldn’t be coming from a genuinely good villain.

- The scene with the immolation-o-gram was cool, but it should have caused a bigger stir at the school. It’s always been hard to buy that Sunnydale’s populace is totally oblivious to the supernatural, and having instances like this that aggravate it even further isn’t advisable. In addition, the vampire combusted remarkably quickly considering the small pool of light she was in – we’ve seen (and will see) main character vamps be in more, and suffering no complications whatsoever.

- It’s a bit coincidental that Buffy and Willow find Jenny’s disk just as the situation is getting bleak, but it’s acceptable given that there was much debate over whether to do the spell, and it only happened because things were getting desperate. Still, I would have liked the mechanism of the discovery to occur through something a little less contrived than Buffy dropping a pencil and coming over with inexplicable déjà vu.

- Kendra could do with being at least a slightly competent Slayer. It takes way too long for her to dust one vampire, and having Giles and Xander being able to fight them off behind her only emphasised how slow she was being.

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

I’ve always thought that this episode was excellent, and I don’t feel any different now. While it’s admittedly a story that doesn’t stand up so well when separated from its conclusion, that’s no issue in the long run, and I think you’d have a hard time finding any other “Part One” that succeeds as much as this one does. With breakneck pacing, nice (if scant) humour moments, excellent drama/character progression, and a genuinely sad/shocking ending, “Becoming, Part One” is a true classic, and it’s great to know that the imminent Part Two is even better.

[cyclica]

The episode started off with angelus giving another voiceover, reminding me of passion. The flashbacks were great (when are flashbacks not great? . Though looking back it's almost frustrating to get 'half a flashback', I feel the need to go watch a few angel episodes to get the full picture, like darla first seeing angel, first time they met drucilla etc. Though of course that's not a problem with this episode if you were watching it for the first time.

I especially enjoyed angel pretending to be a priest and telling drucilla to be evil, and the later scene where we (unfortunately for the only time) get to see buffy's old life in LA. The one thing I didn't like was whistler. This was the first time a 'good' demon has been shown, and they never gave any explanation as to why this guy is on the side of good, why he looks human, why he knows so much about angel's past, how he knows buffy is about to be called as a slayer, or why it would be a good idea for angel to help her out. I heard he was supposed to appear on angel's spin-off show in place of doyle, and can only assume he would have filled the same role (gets vision from the powers-that-be) which would have explained everything, but as it is now we are left without an explanation.

The 'demon in a box' idea was interesting. I liked seeing giles called upon as an expert to try to make sense of this mysterious ancient obelisk, it's nice seeing giles being given some respect. The demon was interesting because it was a huge threat (as big bads should be), but it does raise questions. How did he 'come forth' to destroy the world? Was he born or created? I have a hard time buying the idea of a demon who can suck the world into hell with his first breath, not to mention that he was killed before he could even take a breath. The knight must have been amazingly lucky to have walked in on the demon just as it was being born/created/whatever. And would the demon's second breath be just a regular breath, or would it be just as powerful as before, like all the demons power is in his lungs? What would happen?

And you'd think someone would be looking for that box, after all it was important enough to make the front page of the newspaper. We never see any museum guys or police looking for it. But I can overlook that, since it may have happened offscreen and wasn't important.

The scoobies were great as always. The scene early on in the cafeteria was funny, especially xander's reinactment of buffy's fight using food, and buffy's comment to snyder that the cafeteria is a classroom where they serve lunch (and we're reminded how much snyder wants to see buffy kicked out, which will come up in the next episode). We also got to see the return of kendra (and first appearance of mr pointy), and giles mentioning he'd been using an orb of thesula as a paperweight (nice reference to passion). This was also the first ep where the scoobies had a major falling-out (not counting when she was bad), and at the time it was a big emotional moment for xander to go against buffy and say he doesn't want angel's soul put back.

Upon rewatching analytically I found a few more flaws than I had noticed before, but it's still an enjoyable episode. This may actually be the first time I have watched this ep on it's own, usually with two-parters I would watch them both together. I've never seen this one on tv because, funny story, after I first saw season one, I went out and found a couple of buffy videos, one with surprise/innocence and one with becoming I/II. I saw these episodes before watching s2 properly, and when s2 did air (I don't remember if it was the first showing or the repeats I watched) I didn't watch the eps I had already seen. Now I'm watching this one on it's own for the first time, it has become apparant how much a set-up episode it is, and that the good stuff is yet to come.

So long story short... I'm giving this one a little bump down to a low 7.

Nitpicks~

- Angel somehow got a vampire to walk into buffy's classroom and kill herself just to deliver a message? It was an impressive scene to watch but I'm not totally buying that anyone, even a vampire loyal to her boss, would kill themself for such a trivial purpose.
- And everyone saw it! This isn't really a flaw in the episode, but now the whole class has seen a dusting, and I would like to have seen that issue addressed. Like have the kids go to buffy asking what just happened, or something.
- Drucilla killed kendra, and didn't drink? Why would she not want to drink? Especially knowing how prized slayer blood is among vampires.

[cyclica]

Nov 21, 2009 10:20:34 GMT -5 partcynic said:

and Darla’s requesting Liam “close [his] eyes” will echo beautifully with Buffy and Angel in Part Two.

I missed that!

Nov 21, 2009 10:20:34 GMT -5 partcynic said:

‘Spordelia’ Buffy is in excellent contrast to the character we’ve come to know and care about, and it was nicely humanising to show her mess up on her first vampire staking, and then be completely overwhelmed by it all. I also appreciated the scene of she and Joyce arguing (and then Joyce and Hank’s row), lending further support to Buffy’s feeling that she was responsible for their divorce (as we were shown in “Nightmares”).

I wish we could have seen more of young buffy, I'm still wondering what happened to make her burn down the gym.

Nov 21, 2009 10:20:34 GMT -5 partcynic said:

- The scene with the immolation-o-gram was cool, but it should have caused a bigger stir at the school. It’s always been hard to buy that Sunnydale’s populace is totally oblivious to the supernatural, and having instances like this that aggravate it even further isn’t advisable. In addition, the vampire combusted remarkably quickly considering the small pool of light she was in – we’ve seen (and will see) main character vamps be in more, and suffering no complications whatsoever.

Yup.

Nov 21, 2009 10:20:34 GMT -5 partcynic said:

- It’s a bit coincidental that Buffy and Willow find Jenny’s disk just as the situation is getting bleak, but it’s acceptable given that there was much debate over whether to do the spell, and it only happened because things were getting desperate. Still, I would have liked the mechanism of the discovery to occur through something a little less contrived than Buffy dropping a pencil and coming over with inexplicable déjà vu.

Just think - if buffy hadn't have dropped that pencil, she would have ended up killing angelus because he wouldn't have got his soul back, he wouldn't have returned as angel in s3, and nothing that happened in the spin-off would have taken place. Fred would still be in the hell dimension, cordy would have become an actress, and conner wouldn't have even been born.

Buffy and her butterfingers gave us conner!

Nov 21, 2009 10:20:34 GMT -5 partcynic said:

- Kendra could do with being at least a slightly competent Slayer. It takes way too long for her to dust one vampire, and having Giles and Xander being able to fight them off behind her only emphasised how slow she was being.

It helps that kendra did eventually win the fight whereas giles and xander both lost.