4x04 “Fear, Itself”Episode Rating = 7
A worthy spiritual follow-up to the S2 classic “Halloween”, “Fear, Itself” is another one of those great S4 standalone episodes that serve as the year’s primary calling card. Despite cribbing ideas from both its temporal and thematic predecessors (the other obvious influence is “Nightmares”), this ep still manages to develop its own identity, thanks to excellent material for both the major and supporting characters; a smart theme with a cool plot twist; and a number of successful humour moments.
What I Liked about “Fear, Itself”:- The opening moments are very enjoyable. They set the scene for the rest of the episode (in terms of basic plot and Buffy’s emotional arc), have a number of funny lines (Xander/Oz and Fantasia; Buffy’s ‘life of a pumpkin’), and a couple of nice directorial decisions (the ‘pumpkin-cam’ as Xander finishes carving).
- The theme is strong, and the plot manages to get around duplicating the central concept of “Nightmares” by having the characters deal with more mature, realistic and less comedy-oriented problems. Gachnar’s symbolism really worked, and his grandiose intimidation giving way to something that was tiny and harmless was both hilarious and a brilliant metaphor for what fear actually is.
- Buffy’s arc is progressing believably. After the events of “The Harsh Light of Day”, it was fitting that she’d be feeling down, and the triple combo of her father/Angel/Parker abandoning her (at least in her eyes) made her understandably reticent about opening up to someone again. I really liked her scene with Joyce, which was a classic mother/daughter moment, and had Joyce giving some loving, meaningful advice.
- Buffy’s scene with Riley was a good one – I’d forgotten just how well Riley comes across in these early episodes. His chat with her was thoughtful and considerate, and he feels like a decent guy who’d make a worthy partner for her.
- The gang’s brief convo about outfits was cute, funny and referred back to “Halloween” nicely, and I liked the mini-twist with the Initiative soldiers going out openly under the cover of ‘costume’.
- Although she was annoying in places, Willow was mostly good. I loved her brief phone conversation about axe murdering Parker being ‘Halloween-y’, and her Joan of Arc outfit was novel. I also enjoyed her interactions with Oz (particularly his early concern about the dangers of magic; their jokes about the ‘God’ costume; and their related fears of hurting each other, with his being physical and hers being emotional). Despite her poor handling of the magic debate, her heart seemed to be in the right place, and it was cool to see her try out a new spell (and for it to follow the predictable route and go horribly wrong).
- Xander’s fear of being ignored and dismissed by his friends makes perfect sense, and it was good that the issue was raised early (when Anya asked why he still hung out with the gang despite having nothing in common with them anymore, and he didn’t have a proper comeback). The specific mechanism of his invisibility was an unfortunate retread from “Out of Mind, Out of Sight”, but it was brief enough not to be a problem, and we got to hear Xander actually articulate his concerns about how he fits in the new dynamic, which was a good development.
- Anya is fitting in nicely, and although she’s limited to interacting only with Xander, she feels like she belongs in the show. Happily, she’s maintained some of her brains and terseness, but has mixed it in with some extra humour (“It’s been a week since we copulated. Did you forget?”; not to mention the
brilliant bunny suit) and emotion (her approach to the prospect of a date with Xander, and how he’s her first concern upon realising something’s wrong at the party).
- Giles is beginning to feel like a tacked-on presence, but it was refreshing and funny to see him relaxing. I loved his answering the door in a poncho and sombrero (and the bit with the Frankenstein decoration), as well as the gleeful expression on his face when he pulled out the chainsaw and started carving away at the frathouse wall.
- Many of the special effects are cool, particularly the disappearing window and the animated skeleton. That’s what a budget increase will do for you!
What I Disliked about “Fear, Itself”:- I had no problem with Buffy’s post-Parker depressive state, but it probably could have had its emphasis reduced, especially considering that “Beer Bad” has the same topic as its main subject.
- Willow bugged me on two occasions here. First was her bewildering decision to dub Oz ‘Brutus’ just because he displayed concern about her using magic (which she knows can have severe negative consequences; not to mention that raising the issue to her face makes him the opposite of a backstabber); and then her hissy-fit at the party when Buffy instructed she and the others to fetch Giles. Her outburst about not being Buffy’s sidekick could have been a valid point, but it needed to be foreshadowed by her showing resentment in prior episodes, or Buffy having flatly refused to acknowledge other perspectives. Since neither of those things happened, Willow ended up looking very bratty, and the scenes contrived.
- A lot of the minor cast fail to impress with their acting. I didn’t think much of the guy who was cowering in the closet, and the eyeball girl didn’t even try to look frightened when she took her blindfold off and saw what she was holding.
- The scenes of people running around and screaming in the ‘goat room’ are clumsy and disjointed, and things like the girl with the blood-stained mouth were silly and added nothing to the story. I get that the director wanted to show how terrified everyone was, but that wasn’t what the scenes ended up conveying.
- Although some of the special effects are great, others (bleeding dummy head; the bats nested on the ceiling; Willow’s echoing “don’t leave me!”) are a bit lame.
- Whoever filmed the book inserts should have been more careful. The one of the symbol itself has its text written in what appears to be Gaelic, but the shots of ‘Gachnar: Fir Nicht’ have everything in English, despite the information being from chronologically-close pages in the same tome.
Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it? I feel exactly the same. “Fear, Itself” is a great episode with a successfully executed combination of humour, plot and character development, with no major problems and only a few blips detracting from the experience. However, for me, this is more of an ‘average great’ “Buffy” edition than a ‘brilliant’ one, so I’m going to score it a respectable and highly deserved seven out of ten.
