Buffy The Vampire Slayer: "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"

"Do you know what's a good day to break up with somebody? Any day besides Valentine's Day! I mean, what, were you running low on dramatic irony?"
-Xander Harris

First aired: February 10, 1998


On Valentine's Day, Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) is heartbroken when he gets dumped by his girlfriend Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) right after giving her a heart pendant necklace. This makes Xander the laughingstock of Sunnydale High.


Xander realizes that his classmate Amy Madison (Elizabeth Ann Allen) is a witch. He asks her to cast a love spell so that Cordelia will fall back in love with him. Amy says that love spells are tricky and that your intentions have to be pure. Xander says his intentions are pure, he wants revenge, pure and simple. Moreover, if Amy refuses, he plans to let someone in charge (presumably teachers Rupert Giles (Anthony Head) or Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte), who are knowledgeable about matters supernatural) know she's been using witchcraft to avoid doing any school work.


So Amy casts the spell, and suddenly every girl and woman in Sunnydale seems to be throwing themselves at Xander. Even his (platonic) friends Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan) are coming on to him. Only one woman seems to be immune to the spell: Cordelia! (Oh the dramatic irony!)


The situation escalates from there. Will the Scooby gang be able to extricate themselves? Do love spells work on vampires? These and other questions will be answered if you watch the episode.

J.A. Morris says:

"Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered" does a nice job of using Valentine's Day as a jumping off point for a typical (in a good way, of course) monster/spell/vampire of the week episode. It's always fun to see characters act differently because they're under the influence of magic, this episode is no exception. When Xander gets dumped we sympathize with him, when he resorts to blackmail...not so much. Nicholas Brendon gets a rare chance to be the lead character of an episode and runs with it.
Most of us have probably been dumped at least once in our lives and wanted to get back together with the dumper. This episode tells us we should LITERALLY be careful what we wish for. Without spoiling it, I'll say that Xander learns a very important lesson here.

My Rating:









3 Valentine Hearts

RigbyMel says:

The early seasons of Buffy do a great job of dealing with the many varieties of teen angst (sometimes high school really is hell). As J.A. Morris says, this episode taps into something that all of us have probably experienced at one time or another. Rejection hurts and we often try to find ways to get revenge on those who reject us (although most of us don't have access to supernatural means of achieving this). The episode is poignant, funny and scary. The ickiness of Buffy and Willow (to say nothing of Joyce, Buffy's mom) coming on to Xander under the influence of the botched love spell is almost painfully humorous, based on what has previously been established about the way the characters interact with each other. The love spell angle of the episode also exaggerates and magnifies some commentary on the way people can turn on each other in the name of "romance" - Xander and Cordy are nearly killed by the spell-induced ardor of the women of Sunnydale. The episode also uses humor and horror to make us think about what romance really is - coercion (via love spell or otherwise) is NOT a basis for a solid romantic relationship. Putting all of the action of this episode in the vicinity of Valentine's Day underscores this theme well.

All in all a very fun episode, well worth viewing.

My rating:








3 Valentine Hearts

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: "Pangs"

"To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It's a ritual sacrifice. With pie."
 -Anya

As we call this blog "Holiday Film & TV Reviews", I see no reason why we shouldn't branch out into more holidays than Christmas.

As Thanksgiving is just around the corner (and as I just watched it a couple days ago), today I would like to talk about the Thanksgiving episode of the cult-tv classic Buffy The Vampire Slayer. This particular episode is entitled "Pangs" comes from Season 4 of the series and first aired on November 23, 1999.

Summary: Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the Scooby Gang are spending Thanksgiving together rather than with family and Buffy is determined that everything will be absolutely perfect. Buffy's perfect Thanksgiving is interrupted by the emergence of a bloodthirsty Native American spirit called Hus (Tod Thawley) who is bent on revenge for wrongs done to his people in the past. Meanwhile, Angel (David Boreanaz), Buffy's vampire ex, has secretly returned to Sunnydale to help protect Buffy.

This episode contains many awesomely quotable lines (witness this blog entry's pull-quote, which is in reference to ex-demon Anya's (Emma Caulfield) summation of what Thanksgiving is).  It's an interesting postmodern take on the holiday and its place in U.S. history. Willow (Alyson Hannigan) takes the side of the Native Americans maybe being justified in wanting revenge for what was done to them by white settlers in the name of progress. Giles (Anthony Head) and Spike (James Marsters) argue from the other side. Giles citing the futility of symbolic revenge (Hus's victims are innocent and not responsible for their forbears' crimes against Hus's people), while Spike justifies his arguments based on the futility of guilt. ["You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do. It's what Caesar did, and he's not goin' around saying, "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it." The history of the world is not people making friends. You had better weapons, and you massacred them. End of story."] Buffy is conflicted about the whole thing and busy stressing about putting her perfect Thanksgiving meal together. ["And the thing is, I like my evil like I like my men - evil. You know, "straight up, black hat, tied to the train tracks, soon my electro-ray will destroy Metropolis," bad. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an indigenous culture. "]

Aside from containing vampires, spirits and demons the episode really follows an interestingly traditional arc for a Thanksgiving themed show dealing with holiday stresses such as family, travel and preparations that is given additional metaphorical significane by the stresses brought on by the spirit Hus's depradations. That plus the great dialogue and the humor make this an excellent addition to one's Thanksgiving themed viewing.

I'd give it a 3 1/2 pumpkin pie rating.

Actually here's some more great quotage (from near the end of the episode) from Buffy and Xander (Nicholas Brendon) that really sums things up:

Buffy: Wasn't exactly a perfect Thanksgiving.
Xander: I don't know, seemed kind of right to me. A bunch of anticipation, a big fight, and now we're all sleepy.

For some bonus fun, here's a link to a blog post featuring very old-school balloons from past Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades: http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/2008/11/miniseries-11-les-grands-ballons-de.html