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Post by Clare on Sept 26, 2008 9:43:56 GMT -5
5.03 The Replacement - Episode #081
A demon attack causes Xander to be split into two seperate people.
Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.
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Post by cyclica on Feb 9, 2009 17:34:10 GMT -5
Xander is split in two, a goofy half and a suave half. Which is great as we get to see xander acting more goofy that usual.  I love this episode, its a lot of fun and shows insights into xander, the end result being he now knows there's a cool guy inside him. I give this one a 9. Very humorous, great story, I can't find anything really bad about it. |
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Post by partcynic on Aug 1, 2010 17:13:46 GMT -5
5x03 “The Replacement”
Episode Rating = 6
A great character development piece, “The Replacement” is a classic-style “Buffy” standalone that’s ably written by the reliable Jane Espenson. After “Real Me”’s surplus of teen whining, it’s good to have the focus back on characters I’m interested in, and for their screentime to serve a constructive purpose. Although we should question the practise of Xander now being relegated to one nominal ep per season, it remains that he’s one of those characters who’s actually gotten better as the show has gone on (not counting S6/7). Following his struggles during S4, he’s gained a sense of humility that’s made him more likeable and sympathetic, and he’s beginning to outpace Buffy and Willow in those domains. With a respectable plot, lots of humour and noteworthy character growth across the board, “The Replacement” is another strong S5 edition, and one of the better offerings of the year.
What I Liked about “The Replacement”:
- For a monster-of-the-week, Toth has a memorable appearance, and it was neat that he was more ‘elegant’ than a typical foe.
- Making good on his refusal to be “everyone’s butt monkey”, Xander really progressed here, and was both humorous and emotional. You can sense the skin-crawling embarrassment he feels when his parents start rowing, and then when Anya inadvertently humiliates him in front of the apartment manager; and I was rooting for him to get the upper hand. Through being ‘cloned’, the character got first-hand experience of what he could achieve if he approached life a little differently, and obtaining a steady job and his own place to live were excellent milestones. What’s even better is that Suave-Xander wasn’t actually anything new – he’s always been there (“Prophecy Girl”; “The Zeppo”; the pep-talk to Buffy in “The Freshman”), but Xander just didn’t have the self-confidence to bring him out all the time. All of his material was strong, though I’ll single out his chat with Willow as the highlight, which perfectly encapsulated where he was emotionally, and gave another example of his love for Anya.
- Though his scenes did have issues here and there (see later sections), this was the best Riley had been since the start of S4. He was consistently funny and charming, and the comment about doing psychological experiments on the two Xanders was a great callback to his original characterisation as a grad student. His final chat with Xander was also good – I felt for him for the first time, and it’s a good introduction to his ‘Buffy doesn’t need me’ arc.
- Like Riley, Anya is good throughout the episode, having lots of entertaining lines and an excellent emotional moment when she has her conversation about mortality with Suave-Xander.
- The plot is simple, but effective and mysterious. On first viewing, it was fun to follow Xander’s thought process and wonder what his double really was (robot? Demon? Toth? Magic user hypnotising people with the coin?), and it’s clever when it turns out to be another part of him. His questioning also gave us Willow’s reference to “Doppelgangland”, which was very amusing.
- The magic rod’s power works both as a single ep plot-device and as a cool hint about the year’s theme. Despite S6 purportedly being the year where ‘life is the Big Bad’, S5 illustrates this point far better, and the concept of the identity division between Buffy Summers and the Slayer is evident given that the main tribulations Buffy has this season (Riley leaving; Joyce’s illness and death) are struggles for her as a human, not as the Slayer.
What I found to be a mixed bag about “The Replacement”:
- Spike’s material is fine, but it’s gratuitous and doesn’t serve any real purpose. Ditto for the brief scene with Dawn (though that at least had foreshadowing of Joyce’s illness). I don’t see why being a regular cast member should mandate inclusion in every single episode – after all, Charisma Carpenter skipped a few in S1, and David Boreanaz missed one in S2. I’d personally rather characters be absent than forced in just because their contracts insist on it.
- The Riley/Buffy car chat is a good one, but placing it just after the gun confrontation eradicated the tension that had been built up.
- I really like the Xander/Riley dynamic, and it’s novel for the show to portray two guys as good friends without any annoying one-upmanship. However, their friendship should have been developed more beforehand – prior to this ep, you could probably count the number of meaningful chats that they had on one hand. In addition, I didn’t like that Riley’s “she doesn’t love me” revelation was used as the last scene. While well-written, it had little to do with the main story, and ended up being another example of the show’s slide into soap opera territory (every ep ending with a dramatic pronouncement or cliffhanger).
What I Disliked about “The Replacement”:
- The incidental music continues to be mediocre. If you watch an episode from S2/3/4 back to back with one from S5, it’s startling how much more amateurish it sounds. This should only be a little problem, but having treacly, unsophisticated synth-strings play over every emotional moment spoils otherwise strong scenes.
- I wouldn’t usually comment on this, but the clothing in this episode is horrible. Buffy and Xander’s main outfits are incredibly ugly, and Anya’s granny nightwear was strange.
- The comedy with Dork-Xander goes overboard with slapstick. Falling over once was fine, but having a door swing into his face (and then having him fall off his makeshift platform) was too much.
- Willow is nasty and condescending in places. Knowing that Xander was going through a rough patch, it wouldn’t have hurt her to consider his feelings instead of implying that he was useless, and then criticising the woman he loves - especially when she’s more than a little touchy regarding her relationship with Tara.
- Toth’s appearances seem random. He turns up at the Magic Box (in broad daylight, and exits through the front door, thus heading on onto Main Street – wouldn’t that have caused issues for passers-by?) for no real reason, and then materialises at Xander’s apartment in time to be killed. Had he been silently stalking Buffy? He seems to have exceptionally good radar for tracking her down.
- During the apartment fight scene, the roll Buffy does from the rod blast is poorly filmed and edited.
Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?
I still really like it. I don’t necessarily think that “The Replacement” is an amazing episode, but it –and its ilk – are the kind of material that should serve as the series’ benchmark. Within a single-episode frame, we got a novel and creative story that satisfyingly progressed the arcs of multiple characters, and did so with lots of humour, a bit of mystery and some heartfelt emotion. That’s exactly what I expect from “Buffy”, and with these types of ep beginning to become a rarity, I’m happy to give “The Replacement” a six out of ten.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 12, 2010 15:21:42 GMT -5
With a respectable plot, lots of humour and noteworthy character growth across the board, “The Replacement” is another strong S5 edition, and one of the better offerings of the year. Agreed. - For a monster-of-the-week, Toth has a memorable appearance, and it was neat that he was more ‘elegant’ than a typical foe. Meh, compared to the more 'human' like demons on angel like lorne, the fact that toth uses tools isn't especially impressive. - Though his scenes did have issues here and there (see later sections), this was the best Riley had been since the start of S4. He was consistently funny and charming, and the comment about doing psychological experiments on the two Xanders was a great callback to his original characterisation as a grad student. To me that line seemed out of place. Not exactly out of character, but it had been so long since we had seen that side of him, it felt strange. - Like Riley, Anya is good throughout the episode, having lots of entertaining lines and an excellent emotional moment when she has her conversation about mortality with Suave-Xander. Agreed. I especially liked her very open desire to have sex with both of the xanders before they were rejoined. - The plot is simple, but effective and mysterious. On first viewing, it was fun to follow Xander’s thought process and wonder what his double really was (robot? Demon? Toth? Magic user hypnotising people with the coin?), and it’s clever when it turns out to be another part of him. His questioning also gave us Willow’s reference to “Doppelgangland”, which was very amusing. While I didn't have a problem with this episode's plot, I do feel that the show has too many 'character meets themself' episodes. Fortunately this ep makes a humerous reference to this, and as such the repetition isn't so bad. - Spike’s material is fine, but it’s gratuitous and doesn’t serve any real purpose. Ditto for the brief scene with Dawn (though that at least had foreshadowing of Joyce’s illness). I don’t see why being a regular cast member should mandate inclusion in every single episode – after all, Charisma Carpenter skipped a few in S1, and David Boreanaz missed one in S2. I’d personally rather characters be absent than forced in just because their contracts insist on it. I feel the opposite- if a character is schedules to appear, and we're waiting for them, I'd rather they appeared, even if it's just for a cameo. Besides, we did get a funny spike line out of his appearance- "Oh, there's a nice lady vampire who set up a charming tea room over the next pile of crap." ;D - I really like the Xander/Riley dynamic, and it’s novel for the show to portray two guys as good friends without any annoying one-upmanship. When did xander and oz have any one-upmanship? In addition, I didn’t like that Riley’s “she doesn’t love me” revelation was used as the last scene. While well-written, it had little to do with the main story, and ended up being another example of the show’s slide into soap opera territory (every ep ending with a dramatic pronouncement or cliffhanger). Agreed, it was totally out of the blue and shouldn't have been forced into a xander-centric episode. ...and Anya’s granny nightwear was strange. Yeah, what was up with that? Were they trying to show how old fashioned she is by having her wear a victorian nightie? - Toth’s appearances seem random. He turns up at the Magic Box (in broad daylight, and exits through the front door, thus heading on onto Main Street – wouldn’t that have caused issues for passers-by?) for no real reason, and then materialises at Xander’s apartment in time to be killed. Had he been silently stalking Buffy? He seems to have exceptionally good radar for tracking her down. Hmm, I hadn't noticed that before. ..... I'm sticking with my 9 rating, it's still one of my all time favourite episodes. I have to give special mention to the xander-meets-xander scenes. It was very fortunate that nicholas brendon had an actual identacle twin to play suave xander, and it made the scenes with the two of them together much more beleivable that the usual someone-meets-themself special effect. |
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Post by partcynic on Oct 6, 2010 16:29:55 GMT -5
I was referring more to his clothes and poise there.
This is more of a personal thing, I guess. But I have to say that when rewatching, the blatant 'insert the character somewhere' scenes feel tacked on. You could chop out much of Spike's stuff from S4/5 and not lose anything from his story.
Based on your statement, does that mean you'd have Spike appear in "The Body"?
When were Xander and Oz friends? They hung out in the same circles, but we never got anything to suggest they was anything deeper to their interactions. Off the top of my head, I can only remember one or two scenes between them.
Quite possibly! Though I guess they were at least consistent with the similar ugliness in "Into the Woods".
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Post by cyclica on Oct 7, 2010 17:24:35 GMT -5
I was referring more to his clothes and poise there. My mistake. I thought you meant 'elegant' in a more general sense. Or something.  Based on your statement, does that mean you'd have Spike appear in "The Body"? No, but then that ep was a special case. When it comes to your average episode, like the ones in s7 that had no anya, I certainly would have appreciated every character showing up. When were Xander and Oz friends? They hung out in the same circles, but we never got anything to suggest they was anything deeper to their interactions. Off the top of my head, I can only remember one or two scenes between them. Well ok we didn't see them hang out much, but I didn't notice much rivalry either. |
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I love this episode, its a lot of fun and shows insights into xander, the end result being he now knows there's a cool guy inside him.
