Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 19: Choices
Written by David Fury; Directed by James A. ContnerPretty nifty. It's not as good as David Fury's other episode of the season, Helpless, but it's a solid episode that advances the story and, for once, lets Willow be a hero. I'm very conscious that, at this stage, the cast is hopelessly bloated (in addition to the seven main stars there's also Faith, Anya, Wesley, Joyce, etc.), the result being that they're all vying for attention, and some of them pass an entire episode with just the odd token scene or line of dialogue. At this stage in the game, this is especially true of Cordelia, who seems only to be waiting for Angel to start so she can head over to it. Nice moment for Oz, knocking over the pot, though.
Overall rating: 8/10.
Next time: The Prom.
2 Comments:
Part of this episode annoyed me because it was basically cheating. When the trade of Willow and the Box was proposed, there's always the option of sacrificing Willow to ensure that the Mayor can't ascend.
I'm not saying that this is the best option, but they deliberately choose Wesley as its advocate. Why? So they can dismiss it more easily without discussion. After all, who's going to take advice from Wesley?
It's sad because it is a more reasonable position than they make out. If the Mayor ascends - and at this point they have no idea how to stop it, because they aren't even certain what precise change will take place - millions of people are going to die. While I wouldn't like to make the decision, I could respect it if they went down this route.
By Baron Scarpia, at 21:13
I see what you mean. Alas, in TV and movie world, the writers always seem to have supreme difficulty in knowingly sacrificing one character to save the lives of many. The perfect example I can think of off the top of my head is The Rock, where the US government actually has serious trouble choosing between blowing Acatraz sky high and, in doing so, killing about 100 hostages, versus allowing a megalomaniac to destroy the entire city of San Francisco with chemical weapons.
That said, in Choices, I can sort of understand the characters' position. As a fairly powerful witch, Willow would probably be of more use in an apocalyptic situation than most people - which therefore means it's a shame she doesn't actually get to use any of her powers during the big fight. Using Buffy Season 3 Wesley to voice to argument for sacrificing Willow is, admittedly, far from fair, but, having seen the character that Wesley becomes on Angel, I'm willing to look at him more favourably since I know that he's basically a good guy with his head screwed a little too tight.
By Whiggles, at 22:04
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