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Post by Clare on Sept 24, 2008 6:26:08 GMT -5
3.05 Homecoming - Episode #039
As Buffy runs against Cordelia for homecoming queen, Mr Trick targets her for 'SlayerFest '98'.
Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.
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Post by cyclica on Oct 1, 2008 12:21:17 GMT -5
A very enjoyable episode, homecoming was the big buffy/cordy adventure. It was filled with great scenes, like giles playfully pretending buffy was in trouble, or the scene near the end where cordy intimidated gorch into leaving. Or of cource the new take on the cliché that main characters always win, with both buffy and cordy loosing the contest.
It did seem a bit out of the blue that xander and willow would suddnely be attracted to each other, but then again willow had liked xander in the past (though that ended when she met oz) and xander had once said in the past that even looking at linolium made him want to have sex. Still, its as close to a nitpick as I can find.
I'm giving this one a high 7
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Post by jennf10 on Dec 3, 2008 14:09:23 GMT -5
This episode did/does absolutely nothing for me. I rarely watch it, when I'm rewatching my season 3 set. I did like seeing Mr. Trick again, but that was it. The Xander/Willow thing never made any sense to me. Xander never showed interest in Willow before Oz came around. And Willow should have been more loyal to Oz than that.
My score: 4/10.
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Post by partcynic on Dec 17, 2009 17:10:23 GMT -5
3x05 “Homecoming”
Episode Rating = 6
Looking back, I’m increasingly thinking that David Greenwalt was one of the Buffyverse’s underappreciated writers, and despite having come out with so-so material like “Teacher’s Pet” and “Reptile Boy”, his role as co-executive producer meant that he was highly important in structuring and directing the show on a day-to-day basis (it’s also interesting to note that the quality of both “Buffy” and “Angel” started to slide once he left, though he was admittedly responsible for the disastrous third season of “Angel”). As an episode, “Homecoming” is one of those stories I don’t tend to think about that much when it comes to “Buffy”, but it’s a vibrant romp in the best tradition of S1, and one of those is more than welcome given S3’s early, downcast tone.
What I Liked about “Homecoming”:
- The opening (with the gang discussing Homecoming) was a fun way of establishing the episode’s topic, and I laughed at Cordy’s ever-present tactlessness when the topic of Scott/Buffy came up (as well as Buffy’s response about humiliation going with her complexion). It was a neat way of setting up some conflict between the girls, and it was especially surprising to see Scott dump Buffy when things appeared to be going so well between them.
- I really liked the little segment where the gang had their photos taken, and it was a clever touch to have the snaps encapsulate their high school personae (I chuckled at Willow’s in particular).
- It’s fun to watch how friend-Faith is fitting into Buffy’s life, and she fills a vacant niche by being more streetwise and combative than the other Scoobs. I smiled at her attempts to cheer Buffy up via partying and ‘stud abusing’, and her sexual disease jab at Scott during the party was her best moment yet.
- Buffy’s upset at being absent from the yearbook (and consequently, feeling absent from ordinary school life) was believable despite being an unnecessary retread of past themes, and permitted her escalating row with Cordelia to have a legitimate emotional base. All of the tit-for-tat between the two was funny, and it was awesome to see the Slayer unleash her inner prom queen.
- As lighthearted fun goes, the girls’ campaigning for queen is top-notch, with rapid pacing and lots of humour (the constant one-upmanship with the posters and cakes, Buffy ‘accidentally’ dropping her papers in front of potential voters; and the attempts at bribing Jonathon). Above all, I liked Buffy’s board - if you pay attention during the library scene, you can read most of it, and it’s hilarious (much kudos to whomever decided to write ‘Xander’ in Cordy’s list of weaknesses).
- I loved the entirety of Slayerfest. Besides being a humorous concept in and of itself, the scheme was an excellent example of Mr Trick’s industriousness and ability to work outside the traditional vampire box. The assortment of rogues it attracted allowed for a varied (demon; vampire; traditional; technological) set of threats, and it was a welcome blast from the past to see Lyle Gorch again (and it was so fitting that he’d married a hick named Candy).
- The introduction of the Mayor is well-handled – it doesn’t disappoint after the build-up in S2, yet doesn’t detract from the main plot, subverting the audience’s expectations by playing the character for his major humour value. He’s probably my favourite Big Bad in the series, and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing more of him (as well as his imminent team-up with Mr Trick).
- Once the episode moves into the woods, it experiences a welcome surge in action (something that’s been missing from the season so far), and it’s all thrilling. The emotional content of the conversation between Buffy and Cordelia was strong, and the comedic moments were uniformly excellent (with specific reference to Cordy and the spatula, and Kulak attempting to flee the cabin only to bounce back onto the grenade). When Buffy and Cordy made it to the school, the tension persisted, with the amazing verbal confrontation between Cordy and Gorch, as well as the girls’ realisation that they were being tracked via their corsages (and attempts to take the last remaining hunters out).
- The homecoming dance itself is pretty good – Giles is wonderfully playful with his fake-out about Buffy being in trouble, and Willow/Xander are believably guilty and conflicted about their kiss. The closing sequence where the bedraggled ‘Slayers’ finally arrived was also great, from Xander’s incredulousness and thinking Buffy and Cordelia had attacked each other, to the fantastic closer as the competition ended in a tie... with the two other girls being the victors.
What I found to be a mixed bag about “Homecoming”:
- As in “Anne” and “Dead Man’s Party”, the scene with Angel felt like it was tacked onto a finished product in order to fulfil contractual obligations. While it’s fine to show the character now he’s returned to Sunnydale (and both he and Buffy are reacting believably to the changes in their relationship), it’s still arbitrary, and it’s not the most exciting thing to watch knowing that most of their arc will entail treading water until “The Prom” breaks them up for good.
- Thematically, the episode did a bit too much recycling. I think that this was intentional, but it’s weird to be watching a Buffy vs Cordelia plot when that conflict had long since been dealt with; ditto for Buffy’s ‘I want a normal life’ gripes. As is, this feels almost like a rejected plot from early S2 that was deemed too much fun to be ignored, and was consequently dolled up for S3.
- For the most part, the Xander/Willow development left me cold. Like much of the episode, it seemed to be leaning back towards the character dynamic of S1, but I personally felt that their ship had long since sailed. After the progression the two had demonstrated in pairing with Oz and Cordelia, it felt jarring to have them suddenly fall for each other, particularly considering that doing so undid some of Willow’s prior development and was out of character for Xander (since he’s shown no romantic interest in Willow, besides the ambiguous bedside statement about loving her in “Becoming”). However, my dissatisfaction with the topic didn’t mean I actively disliked their scenes, and the ‘fluke’ provided a worthwhile reason for their assisting Cordelia in the Homecoming race (it also helps knowing that the direct payoff from this plot will be the excellent “Lover’s Walk” and “The Wish”).
What I Disliked about “Homecoming”:
- I generally prefer it when the show avoids time-stamping itself, as doing so inevitably dates things. It pulled me out of the story to hear Mr Trick mention ‘Slayerfest ‘98’ (annoying, since the statement would have lost none of its wit by dropping the year reference), and that’s a flaw in a narrative that had otherwise engaged me.
- A minor thing, but since when could vampires get married? I’m assuming that the Gorches at least had a non-religious ceremony.
- Considering how run-down the shack in the woods was, I’d imagine that there wasn’t anyone residing there – so why did it have an active telephone line? I hope that it was just one tapped from a nearby pole.
Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?
Like “Faith, Hope and Trick”, I think that I may have underestimated this episode before, so I’ve bumped my previous score up a point. While it’s a story with filler-ish overtones and too much repetition of long-finished plots, it’s done with a considerable amount of finesse and humour, and it’s revitalising to have a breezy, action-filled narrative after the inappropriately heavy “Beauty and the Beasts”. As such, I’m happy to award “Homecoming” a solid score of six out of ten.
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Post by cyclica on Dec 21, 2009 16:03:10 GMT -5
The main plot for this episode is buffy wanting to be known for being more than just a slayer, so she participates in a popularity contest against cordelia to see who will be the homecoming queen, only for the two of them to be involved in a different contest, in which they are both prey to be hunted. It's a really fun, original story... which falls apart when looked at too closely. So scott agrees to go to the homecoming with buffy... then breaks up with her. Um, okay. Goodbye scott, I won't miss you. There's also a token angel scene where we see he's slowly regaining his memory and humanity. I'm glad he only has a cameo in this ep, as there's so much going on. We finally get to see the mayor, and like always he's amusing to watch. Though one of his lines I found problematic- talking to deputy finch, he says "you have all my faith". Is that supposed to be a reference to faith? It sounds like it's supposed to be, but it doesn't really make any sense. The gang all have their pictures taken (one of the funniest scenes this episode), all except buffy, who missed it. She blames cordy (even though none of the scoobies told her it was picture taking day), and accuses cordy of never thinking of anyone except herself (even though cordy's been risking her life fighting with the scoobies for a long time now). Cordelia responds by being overly bitchy to buffy (being popular 'involves having actual friends'... huh? buffy has friends). This whole scene, and much of the rest of the episode, feels like it was lifted out of season one, as though cordelia was back to being the popular girl who was hated by the scooby gang (or just buffy this time). What happened to the cordy who ditched harmony and committed herself to joining the scooby gang at the end of b, b & b? Meanwhile, willow and xander succumb to hormones and kiss. This forms the start of an ongoing, soap-opera subplot that I could have done without, but at least it gives the characters something to do, and leads to some funny lines ("We gotta get out of these clothes!" "Right now!" "Oh, I didn't mean..." "I didn't mean, either!"). Meanwhile, mr trick has gathered a bunch of hunters to participate in Slayerfest 98 (love the name). It's an inventive plot, and I liked how they brought back the vampire gorch. Though I don't know why they didn't bring back werewolf hunter cain as well, as 'jungle bob' is clearly just a cheap imitation of him. One thing I would like explained is why there are humans who want the slayer(s) dead. Those two german twins are ridiculous, and whatever happened to the older man at the computer? He never got his comeuppance, and he's still out there somewhere. I loved how mr trick mistook cordy for faith, and even though I feel a little like I've been cheated out of what could have been a great faith episode, I still consider the slayerfest portion of the episode to be the highlight. The talk between cordy and buffy in the cabin is one of the better conversations on the show, and I liked buffy advising cordy to use the spatula after she's so hopeless with a gun (strange how buffy has no problem using a gun here, since she hates them in later eps). My favourite line of this episode has to be this one from cordelia- "Those animals! Hunting us down like poor defenseless... well, animals."  They go to the school and confront the gorches, which ends with buffy staking candy gorch (in the stomach, with a plastic spatula?), while cordy gives a very amusing speech to lyle, and manages to scare him off without ever getting into a fight. Then buffy discovers her corsage is bugged (were all the corsages in the limo bugged?), and uses it to trick the german guys into killing each other, in a way that pushed my suspension of disbelief to the limit, but just about seemed to work. Though I would like to know if buffy buried the bodies or just left them for someone to find the next day. Then buffy and cordy return to the bronze where the winners of the prom queen title are being read out. I liked buffy telling xander the reason they are dirty was 'a long story' only for cordy to explain it all with 'we got hunted', and buffy adding 'apparently not that long'. That whole sequence was lifted straight out of faith, hope and trick, but I don't care, it was still funny. Like I said before, I loved how neither buffy nor cordy won the contest. I especially liked how they teased us by saying there were two winners, only to reveal it was the other two girls. Upon rewatching I found a few more probematic scenes than before, in particular how buffy and cordelia had gone back to their season one adversarial relationship just for the plot to work. But it was still a very entertaining and original episode, and I'm only going to bump it down to a low 7. |
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Post by cyclica on Dec 22, 2009 14:51:26 GMT -5
Still, its as close to a nitpick as I can find. I wasn't looking hard enough. ;D - As in “Anne” and “Dead Man’s Party”, the scene with Angel felt like it was tacked onto a finished product in order to fulfil contractual obligations. While it’s fine to show the character now he’s returned to Sunnydale (and both he and Buffy are reacting believably to the changes in their relationship), it’s still arbitrary, and it’s not the most exciting thing to watch knowing that most of their arc will entail treading water until “The Prom” breaks them up for good. Agreed. Season 3 is by far the worst angel season, in most episodes the bangel scenes are just a drag to watch. - I generally prefer it when the show avoids time-stamping itself, as doing so inevitably dates things. It pulled me out of the story to hear Mr Trick mention ‘Slayerfest ‘98’ (annoying, since the statement would have lost none of its wit by dropping the year reference), and that’s a flaw in a narrative that had otherwise engaged me. I dunno, 'slayerfest 98' has a nice ring to it, and I don't mind the year being mentioned. - A minor thing, but since when could vampires get married? I’m assuming that the Gorches at least had a non-religious ceremony. They might have been married back when they were alive. |
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Post by partcynic on Dec 23, 2009 12:36:32 GMT -5
I don't think it was supposed to be a reference to the character - more a general turn of phrase.
To be fair, Cordy had told the others that she'd fill Buffy in about the photo session. When she didn't, Buffy was justified in being annoyed with her.
I agree wholeheartedly. I liked Cordy in this ep, but she certainly made an inexplicable regression.
I can't say I thought 'Bob' was supposed to be a stand in for Cain. Why would Cain want to kill the Slayers anyway? He may be willing to kill werewolves when they're in wolf form, but nothing in his characterisation implied that he'd kill regular people for sport.
How about money? They may not care at all about the girls being Slayers, but are just interested in having an opportunity to hunt and kill people for cash.
I didn't have a problem with the twins - they were flat characters. but that was fine. I guess the old guy took the money and went. I liked that not everyone got their comeuppance - it's more real that way.
There were just two (one for each 'Slayer'), and they were both bugged.
Do you mean just for "Buffy", or do you include "Angel" here too? Because I'd rather watch the B/A angst than Angel/Cordy or Connor.
I don't think that's possible. The money they paid to take part in Slayerfest was from their "honeymoon stash", implying they got hitched very recently (their lovey-dovey behaviour alos points to this). If they'd been married as humans, it means that they'd have waited at least a few years between the marriage and the honeymoon.
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Post by cyclica on Dec 23, 2009 18:57:27 GMT -5
I don't think it was supposed to be a reference to the character - more a general turn of phrase. I think you're right. Though with a character on the show named faith, I can't be blamed for thinking it's some kind of reference. I can't say I thought 'Bob' was supposed to be a stand in for Cain. Why would Cain want to kill the Slayers anyway? How about money?  Anyway, it would have been more believeable for me if the hunter was someone from a past episode who we know cared little for human life and who disliked buffy, rather than the empty character we got. There were just two (one for each 'Slayer'), and they were both bugged. Wasn't there a whole box of them? Do you mean just for "Buffy", or do you include "Angel" here too? Because I'd rather watch the B/A angst than Angel/Cordy or Connor. I was only talking about buffy, but if I were to include the spinoff my view that btvs s3 was the worst for angel would still apply. I don't think that's possible. The money they paid to take part in Slayerfest was from their "honeymoon stash", implying they got hitched very recently (their lovey-dovey behaviour alos points to this). If they'd been married as humans, it means that they'd have waited at least a few years between the marriage and the honeymoon. Eep, you're right there. I forgot about the honeymoon line.  |
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Anyway, it would have been more believeable for me if the hunter was someone from a past episode who we know cared little for human life and who disliked buffy, rather than the empty character we got.