Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 2, Episode 17: Passion
Written by Ty King; Directed by Michael E. Gershman(a.k.a. In Which Buffy Learns That Angel Is A Bastard)
Did the same guy responsible for Some Assembly Required really write this??
It's funny, considering that Passion immediately follows a similarly strong but completely different episode, the comedy-oriented Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. As much as I like that particular episode, though, on reflection, I think that Passion is the better of the two, and indeed perhaps the finest of Season 2. True, Innocence and Becoming: Part 2 cry out for more attention and are more obviously designed as self-consciously memorable, but Passion is magnificently handled and, I think, perhaps more potent than either of these two Whedon-penned episodes. What it does so incredibly well is to maintain a brooding sense of tension throughout, in a way that is dark, twisted and at times almost disturbing in the way in which it sadistically plays with the characters and audience. Giles and Buffy both go through hell in this episode, and their scene together outside Angel's hideout showcases some of the finest acting in the whole series. After watching this episode, it's impossible to ever view Giles in quite the same way again, and I think the writers saw this too as they gradually began to shift away from the bumbling comic relief librarian persona in favour of a three-dimensional human being with real emotional issues. The framing structure of Angel's monologue about passion is also brilliantly written, even if Boreanaz's actual execution of it is lacklustre.
Oh yeah, this was also the episode where they started pulling the "kill a major character for shock value" game. This time round, it works, but future retreads - *cough!* Tara *cough!* Fred - came across as gratuitous and insulting. I still haven't worked out what it is that this episode does right that the others did wrong, but in this particular case it was the right decision.
Overall rating: 10/10.
Next time: Killed by Death.
1 Comments:
I think what makes the death work is that it did a lot of things simultaneously - upped the stakes, pushed Giles further out of two-dimensional characterhood and showed how sadistically vicious Angel could be, far more than any other villain up to then. Considering that Buffy was/is in love with Angel (when he has a soul), this is particularly brutal.
Whereas with Tara it just seems to be no lead-up, no justifiable pay-off and Willow going completely nuts. In other words, it's not organic.
By Baron Scarpia, at 12:14
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