3.04 Beauty and the Beasts

[Clare]

3.04 Beauty And The Beasts - Episode #038
Both the Oz-wolf and a newly-returned, feral Angel are suspects when a Sunnydale student is found mauled.

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

[cyclica]

An average filler episode where there are 2 possible killers, both of them main characters - and it turns out to be a third guy. I enjoyed the 'is it oz or angel' portion of the ep much more then the latter half, where some guy (who reminds me a lot of ben stiller for some reason) takes a potion to turn into an angry super strong asshole, only the potion's had a permanent effect on him and he turns whenever he gets angry, a bit like the hulk I guess. Since when could regular students make these kind of advanced concoctions anyway?

I'm giving a 5 to this flawed, slightly confusing but enjoyable episode.

[partcynic]

3x04 “Beauty and the Beasts”

Episode Rating = 4

I don’t know what happened between the end of S2 and beginning of S3 to knock Marti Noxon off her game, but it’s disheartening to see how much she seemed to be struggling at this point in time, going from excellent material like “Surprise”, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “I Only Have Eyes For You” to the underwhelming, poorly-researched diatribes that are “Dead Man’s Party” and this episode. That’s not to say that “Beauty and the Beasts” is bad (it’s miles better than “DMP”), but it suffers from doggedly heeding to a rigid view of gender, encompassing trite stereotypes and dangerously simple solutions/explanations for the problems it causes. As a series, “Buffy” has done well in promoting a feminist message by having sympathetic, skilled and three-dimensional female characters, and that’s what it should stick to doing – its attempts at delving deeper are usually weak (see also “She”, and the entire potentials/Caleb arc in S7), and ultimately undermine what it is otherwise a consistent and meaningful theme.

What I Liked about “Beauty and the Beasts”:

- Opening and closing the episode with passages from “The Call of the Wild” was elegant and thoughtful, and lent the story a literary air (albeit one its content didn’t really deserve).

- The first library scene is amusing, with Xander and Willow’s reference to “the Oz full monty”, as well as Willow’s concern at how Xander was handling the tranquiliser gun.

- Continuing from “Faith, Hope and Trick”, Faith is fitting in well, and is quickly establishing herself as a strong, memorable individual. Her burgeoning friendship with Buffy is fun, and it’s interesting to see the different approaches the two of them take to life, even at this early juncture.

- Buffy encountering Angel was startling even though I knew it was coming, and I thought that Sarah Michelle Gellar did a great job of conveying her character’s emotional responses. I felt for her when she tried to talk to him, was met with violence and quickly fled, and the climactic moment where he arrived at the school, fought for her and finally revealed some dormant humanity was moving (and there was some nice contrast between he and Buffy and Pete/Debbie).

- I enjoyed most of the early mystery regarding who killed the student, and having there be two competing (and equally unpalatable) explanations was effective in keeping things tense. All of the characters’ reactions to Oz being the potential killer were good (well, besides Xander), and the situation seemed suitably grave without being too weighty. It was also a nice twist that the murderer was an unrelated, seemingly innocuous individual (though Pete’s appearance earlier in the story implied that he’d be involved somehow).

- Cordelia only has a few lines during this episode, but I liked them all, and “Oz ate someone last night” and “Scarred for life!” were among the more humorous moments present.

- Considering he was a minor character, Mr Platt was very likeable, and I liked how he handled Buffy’s case with both humour and respect. I could believe that Buffy would choose to go to him after encountering Angel, and their early talk about the nature of love was well-written.

- Speaking of things being well-written, I loved the library conversation between Buffy and Giles. Buffy managed to initiate their chat without giving herself away, and Giles’ explanations about different types of ‘monster’ were compelling and emotional (and I also appreciated his reference to Jenny, which was perfect - and suitable - continuity).

- The monster mash-up at the story’s climax is a blast, and I can’t help but like the prospect of a confrontation between a werewolf, a vampire and Mr Hyde. The sequence was fast-paced and exciting (a plus considering how over-emotional and slow everything prior to it was), and there were a couple of hilarious comedy moments (the best being Giles being hit with the tranquiliser dart, though Willow pulling the Oz-wolf’s tail to lure him away from Faith was also humorous).

What I Disliked about “Beauty and the Beasts”:

- Considering how important it would be to prevent the Oz-wolf from escaping, why didn’t anyone check the library cage to ensure its windows were shut? Since Oz has been chaining himself up for a good eight months now, wouldn’t he/the other Scoobs have developed some kind of routine for guaranteeing their (and everyone else’s) safety?

- The werewolf costuming needs some real work. It looked better than the one we saw back in “Phases”, but it’s also unconvincing and generic, and the loss of a snout means that wolf-Oz doesn’t actually resemble a wolf anymore.

- Xander’s quite annoying during this episode. First there was the stupidity of him going to sleep and ignoring an important duty when he had an active werewolf only a few feet away from him (doesn’t he remember that the cage door can pop open if enough force is applied?), and then his completely inappropriate comments about Oz killing people. Is the idiot that incapable of taking others’ feelings into account?

- If Angel is wild, feral and capable of communicating only through growls, it’s weird that he took the time to put on some trousers, yet not a shirt to go with it. I get that they wanted fanservice for the female viewers, but it would be nice if the character’s actions made sense.

- The episode’s theme is too heavy, grossly inaccurate and pushed too hard. I can dismiss Faith’s sweeping generalisations about male nature as the product of an overly cynical teen who’s had a hard life, but the rest of the assumptions are harder to ignore. It also didn’t help that the ‘men are beasts’ stereotype is stated as fact, and that the main male characters (Angel, Oz and Pete) were portrayed as innately animalistic, and counterbalanced by their pure, morally ‘higher’ girlfriends. For a supposedly progressive series, that’s some remarkably backwards thinking.

- Frustratingly, the overemphasis on the ‘men are monsters’ concept overshadowed the more sophisticated one about unhealthy relationships and how people deal with them. After the eloquent discussion between Buffy and Mr Platt, I was hoping for something equally substantial to emerge later – but unfortunately, nothing did.

- I really disliked the scenes with Debbie and Pete. Their initial, ‘happy couple’ stuff was passable, but once the abusive relationship stuff started, I lost interest. Given that I was provided with no reason to like or care about the characters, I wasn’t emotionally invested in what happened to them, and Debbie’s death left me feeling grateful that I wouldn’t have to sit through another scene of her simpering idiocy, instead of the desired horror/dread. I’m not saying that I in any way condone what happened, but domestic violence is a complex subject that needs to be treated with respect, and not handled through a pair of two-dimensional auxiliary characters spouting endless clichés; existing only to create a melodramatic tragedy that isn’t actually tragic.

- While it’s infrequent, there’s some shockingly lazy discourse here. Buffy’s wise-woman lines about Debbie avoiding black eyes (“You know what works? Don’t get hit”), dealing with Pete (“Anyone who really loved you wouldn’t do this to you”) – and worst of all, ultra grave comments about her being “broken before” – sound like they were cribbed from a Lifetime Movie of the Week, and Pete’s nonsense about women being “all the same” isn’t much better. Suffice to say that Joss Whedon shows are usually much more attentive when it comes to dialogue.

- How did Angel find Buffy at the end? Was he able to track her by scent or something?

- As in “Ted”, some significant plot exposition is handled in an unsatisfactory manner. It’s never a good idea to leave the explanation for the villain’s behaviour to the last minute, and I didn’t buy all of the silliness about ‘potions’ (despite liking the Jekyll and Hyde aspect to it).

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

I feel similarly – I’m always content with this one until the Debbie/Pete stuff starts up, and the combination of their clichéd plot with the stereotyped misandrist theme drags this episode down for me. If something had happened to break from the narrative’s well-trodden path (like, say, having Debbie be the monster), I could regard it more positively, but as is, the significant quantity of eye-roll-inducing, soap opera tripe devalues what could have been an intelligent story. Still, “Beauty and the Beasts” is excellently framed, develops Buffy, Angel and Oz well, and has some solid writing amidst its hammy trappings - and that’s enough for me to give it a high four out of ten.

[cyclica]

So this episode starts out with buffy doing a narration, which cuts to willow doing a narration, reading wolfoz a passage from a book. Why did buffy do the voiceover at the start?

Someone has been killed, and the primary suspect is oz, who wolfed out when xander was asleep. Notice how xander is possibly responsible for a death, yet there are no repercussions beyond being yelled at, and only by giles. Good old goofy xander, you can't stay angry at him. Though I would like to know who opened the window in the first place, and why neither willow nor xander noticed it while they were watching oz.

Buffy patrols and runs into feral angel. She tells giles she saw him... but only in a dream, which is ironic because she never mentioned all the actual dreams she's been having of him. Anyway, it turns out angel is back from hell, for unexplained reasons, and unable to speak or act like a human (though he apparently was able to find and put on a pair of trousers). Buffy ties angel up with some chains she found in drucilla's trunk (who knew dru was so kinky? ) but can't bring herself to tell her friends that he's back. Which is a bad descision, but I can understand buffy's reluctance, and desire to make sense of the situation and deal with it on her own before letting everyone else in, and complicating things.

Meanwhile, the real killer isn't oz or angel, it's just some guy, who somehow managed to make a super-strength formula out of stuff found in a school chem lab. This is my only real, big problem with this episode- how the whole storyline revolves around this guy going nuts thanks to a potion which could not possibly exist (and isn't a supernatural thing either). Since it was mentioned that the guy messed up even before taking the formula, it comes across as a pointless 'interesting spin' on the guy-beats-his-girlfriend story, which could have been taken out with no real difference to the story.

Though there was one good scene that came from it, pete vs wolfoz. It was satisfying to see pete attack oz, only for oz to turn the tables by wolfing out, and attacking pete even more ferociously that pete did. Then enter angel, who kills pete, and then suddenly remembers buffy's name, as though murdering someone restored the humanity in him.

Oh and it turns out that buffy's narration at the start was really her reading (and talking about) angel at the end of the episode. Nice twist there.

Overall there aren't very many memorable scenes I enjoyed, and most of the time the episode is just depressing. Pete dies without ever learning his lesson, debbie dies without ever escaping the harmful relationship, and buffy is confused as to the angel situation, and is just more confused and stressed by the end. The whole 'battered girlfriend' story wasn't even a metaphor, and the 'spin' they put on it didn't make much sense.

I'm bumping this one down to a low 5. I guess raising awareness of domestic abuse is a good enough idea for a story, but I would have liked a better ending than 'everyone dies'.

And I still say pete reminds me of ben stiller.

More nitpicks!

- Why would pete keep his radioactive juice at the school, where anyone can get to it?
- Giles says that time behaves differently in *all* demon dimensions. Tell that to anyone who's visited pylea.
- Oz's wolf self now has a totally different look than it did last time in phases. And he didn't even scream when changing into a wolf this time. I guess it only hurts the first time you do it.

[cyclica]

Dec 12, 2009 14:49:18 GMT -5 partcynic said:

- How did Angel find Buffy at the end? Was he able to track her by scent or something?

I always assumed he just wandered in, but now that you mention it I'd buy that he was following her scent.

Dec 12, 2009 14:49:18 GMT -5 partcynic said:

If something had happened to break from the narrative’s well-trodden path (like, say, having Debbie be the monster), I could regard it more positively, but as is, the significant quantity of eye-roll-inducing, soap opera tripe devalues what could have been an intelligent story.

Hmm having debbie be the monster sounds like it would have made a much better story. It would have raised awareness of domestic abuse while still being a twist on the standard story.

[partcynic]

Notice how xander is possibly responsible for a death, yet there are no repercussions beyond being yelled at, and only by giles. Good old goofy xander, you can't stay angry at him.

I agree - that's always bugged me about the show. It's annoying how Angel/Faith/Buffy/Willow/Fred/Gunn/Anya all get the 'killing people is BAD, we must endlessly mope and whine about how horrible it is' treatment, yet Xander is never held culpable for his behaviour (the obvious worst being his failure to speak up in OMWF).

The whole 'battered girlfriend' story wasn't even a metaphor, and the 'spin' they put on it didn't make much sense.

I'm bumping this one down to a low 5. I guess raising awareness of domestic abuse is a good enough idea for a story, but I would have liked a better ending than 'everyone dies'.

I'm fine with the downer ending, but I also think the domestic violence thing should have gotten a rewrite (or been removed). And the cliched way it was handled really didn't help matters.

Giles says that time behaves differently in *all* demon dimensions. Tell that to anyone who's visited pylea.

Well, Pylea wouldn't emerge from the dark abyss of the writers' minds for two years yet.