HELPLESS; thoughts and reviews

[Saturn 5]

Helpless

The Good;
Fabulous ep, really pulls the rug out from under you and puts Buffy in serious peril, very scary. Lovely Amy ref, love the final scene and Joyce's pride at Buffy's cleverness.

The Bad;
The whole idea of the Cruciantanem is stupid. If the Slayer isn't up to the job then surely she just dies anyway and they get a new one? Surely Buffy would go to her friends for help? How does Kralik know that Buffy is aware where to come to when he send her his invitation? Wouldn't it be better for the Council to have Wes standing by to relieve Giles rather than leave it a fortnight? Willow's mustard yellow tights are awful, I think Tara threw them out as we don't see them past season 3. .

Best line;
No contest "Bite me!" but I do also like the Buffy/Angel exchange;
Buffy; "That's beautiful...or taken literally really gross"
Angel; "I was just thinking"

Wheldon Cliches;

Character death; 2 humans and 2 vamps

Shot;

Tied up; Joyce

Knocked out;
No but Buffy mesmerised

Women good/men bad;
Lots of it. Buffy is let down by her father and betrayed by her father figure (the scene where she dumps her father's present in the bin is particulary heartrending). Kralik killed and ate his own mother (hopefully after he became a vampire?) Kralik menacing Joyce is very scary and his idea of turning Buffy even more so (although would even a sired Slayer be evil?).

Kinky dinky;
How long have you got? Buffy and Angel 'getting all sweaty' as Xander would say. Buffy refers to dating an older man who likes it when she calls him daddy, probably her father but Angel would like to be sure. I must say I missed the whole 'phallic crystal fondling' first time around, David Fury had to point it out to me.You could even say that the whole Giles' drugs Buffy routine is tantamount to child abuse, he dopes her then penetrates her with the needle. Kralik meanwhile actually seems to like pain from Buffy burning him with the cross

Calling Captain Subtext;
If there were ever an ep where Cordy and Buffy were to get together this is it. Note Cordy's outraged pounding of the guy who pushes Buffy and her leaving Buff home.

Guantanamo Bay;
The Watcher's Council show their true colours and they're pretty damn ruthless

Scoobies to the ER;
Going to start a new topic because in virtually every ep one or more requires hospital treatment;
Buffy pretty banged up and without Slayer healing for once

Where's Dawn?
Still at the house when Kralik snatches Joyce? At Kit's? Girl Scouts? After school classes? Or taken hostage with her mother?

Questions and observations
Interesting to hear David Fury's initial story idea, that Buffy hallucinates the Scoobies and Joyce as vamps. Nice to hear he was a fan before he got to write it. I also heard they couldn't do it because Kristine Sutherland was allergic to the vamp makeup. No Faith this ep? A shame, liked to have seen her. Presumably Kralik's pills are for mental illness rather than for anything physical which would have been cured when he became a vamp like Spike's mum/Darla. The guy he turns is one of the crew from ST;ENTERPRISE. You always knew Buffy would beat him but her method is very ingenious (after all, Little Red Riding Hood defeats the big bad wolf). Presumably more time elapses between Buffy trying to untie Joyce and him breaking through the door than is shown onsecreen. Remember Buffy hasn't even seen Kralik wash down the pills so Joyce must have told her. Personally I always liked the eaten-away-from-within effect and it was always obvious to me. Cordy's paper is on Bosnia which dates this ep pretty accurately (nowadays kids would be writing about Darfur).

8/10, very, very good, almost a classic

[gumgnome]

This is a classic, through and through! It is one of the very best episodes of Buffy! Scary, funny, and poignant. Kralik is, without doubt, the best monster of the week - going after Joyce, wanting to turn Buffy, completely unhinged - he's got it all. Even the first moments we get a glimpse of the box he's in, when Quentin is talking to Giles for the first time, is chilling.

It also introduces Harris Yulin as Quentin Travers (seen by me previously as the judge in Ghostbusters II and as one of the dirty politicians in Clear and Present Danger) who provides a real touch of beauracratic a**-hole to the role.

Buffy is physically and emotionally vulnerable and in real peril, making for great viewing (the dungarees come out again, so we know she's hurting). The only thing that really doesn't make much sense is the absence of Faith - they could really use her in this episode! I would love to see Faith perform under Cruciamentum - frankly I think that she would flip out completely if she lost her powers...

Giles betraying Buffy is intense. We get a real Ripper expression (similar to his in-front-of-the-mirror expression in "The Dark Age") from him when it's first revealed that he's poisoning her. Then there's the heart-rending scene when he reveals all to Buffy and tries to explain, and finally the reconciliation in the library ("You have a father's love for your charge, which is useless to the cause") which brings a tear to my eye without fail.

The score is fantastic - I particularly love the scenes when Giles goes to the boarding house and finds the body (gives me a "Resident Evil" vibe) and, naturally, the showdown.

Unfortunately the episode does contain possibly my least favourite line of dialogue in the whole show:
OZ: Ice is cool! It's water, but it's not. (Seriously, this guy's meant to be clever, right?)

Best lines (sticks a knife in my chest every time):
GILES: (imploringly) You have to listen to me. Because I've told you this, the test is invalidated. You will be safe now, I promise you. Now, whatever I have to do to deal with Kralik... and to win back your trust...
BUFFY: (interrupts, sobbing) You stuck a needle in me. You poisoned me!