DEAD MAN'S PARTY; Thoughts and reviews

[Saturn 5]

Dead Man's Party

The Good;
Cordy's outfit, Buffy's homecoming. Joyce's friend Pat. Jonathon. The attack of the undead, another Sunnydale High cheerleader seemingly amongst them. Giles's 'Americans' line and his hotwiring the car. Oz's party definitions. 'Ripper' threatening Snyder

The Bad;
Before Giles arrives the house is full of zombies, after he gets there they all disappear? Also would Joyce really choose to hang that horrible mask in the bedroom, even if it is art?

Best line;
Oz; "And a hootenany. Well that's chock full of hoot. With just a little bit of nanny" (How effortlessly cool is Seth Green in this scene?)

Wheldon Cliches;
Character death; So long Pat, we hardly knew you. But at least the actress goes on to be Earl's mum in 'My Name is Earl'
Shot;
Tied up; none although when Xander says he's tied up tomorrow Cordy says 'You wish'
Knocked out;
Women good/men bad;
Kinky dinky; Buffy is aghast that Joyce wants her to go to private school where she'll have to wear a schoolgirl's uniform. Well it worked for Britney. Cordy says that Xander turned her on with the whole 'Nighthawk' vamphunter look (she also seemed to like him in his army gear in Halloween) Her party dress has to be seen to be believed. Also see 'Tied Up'
Calling Captain Subtext; this time it's Oz and Cordy who end up in the closet together

Questions and observations;
So where is Dawn in all of this? Snyder advises Buffy to get a job in fast food which she eventually does. The confrontation between Joyce and Buffy is really long overdue and Joyce really does have a point. Willow is studying to be witch. Jonathon gets in on the demon fighting for the first time as do Joyce and Devon. After this it's business as usual and we're glad to get back to the status quo in Sunnydale. Joyce's tipple is schnapps and she has a book club (which she later attends in season 5). She also skis to judge by the weapons Oz and Cordy use in the closet. Xander calls himself Nighthawk on patrol, they seem to be pretty good at the vamp staking, having killed at least 6. I'd love to see if they handled any other supernatural threats during the summer. The Mayor is mentioned again and the first appearance of the Expresso Pump. Cordy refers to Buffy as a freak but she'll later become one herself on Angel. Presumably the Watcher's Council used their influence to help get Buffy back in school (see also Checkpoint). Willow is still practicing witchcraft and growing more proficient.
6/10, good but not brilliant

[gumgnome]

I agree with you here. This is a pretty cool episode, but I dislike the way the gang really attack Buffy. While I do agree with some of the things they have to say, they do avoid the issue of talking to her when she'd like to, then throw a huge party in her house when she clearly wanted to catch up, avoid her at the party and then eventually when they've driven her away enough, they suddenly launch a full-blown attack on her in the middle of a massive group of her peers. Hardly what friends are for, in my opinion.

Then there's the Joyce line:
JOYCE: Having Buffy home, I-I thought it was gonna make it all better, but in some ways, it's almost worse.
How could a mother say that about her child. I really think this is out of character for Joyce and am not surprised by Buffy's decision to bail afterwards.

On to the good! I love Pat's character, particularly Buffy's reaction to her when she arrives at the party:
BUFFY: Do you wanna see my mom?
Pat: Please.
BUFFY: MOM!

I agree that the mask is clearly evil and that nobody would hang it in their bedroom.

Favourite line of the ep:
BUFFY: I got in a few hours ago, but I wanted to go see my mom first.
GILES: Yes. Yes, of course. How, how did you find her?
BUFFY: Well, I pretty much remembered the address.
Silly joke, but it gets me every time. I also love Giles' reaction in this scene when he's making tea. He's so happy to have his Slayer back! We love you Giles!

[willow333]

This episode bugs me. I mean come on, would Joyce really let a bunch of teenagers have a huge party at her house. They were obviously drinking and all underage. It just seems like that would never happen. Other than that the episode has some decent parts, but I find it very hard to get over that huge hole in the plot. Am I missing something here?

[buffyfan21]

I would actually count this among my fave S3 eps. Yes, it's a standalone, but it's a good one, imo.

So many funny lines:

Giles: "Do you like my mask? It raises the dead. Americans.

Oz's party definitions: "chalk full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny"

Cordy: How do we know it's really you and not Zombie Giles?

Cordy: I hate brie, it smells like Giles' cat.
Giles: it's not my cat. It's not as if I want to go home and offer it a saucer of warm milk.

The part with all the scoobies ganging up on Buffy at the party is less fun and difficult to watch. I think they are being kind of harsh here, especially given that they really have no idea what Buffy has been through or why she left. At the same time, however, I can understand their feelings. They spent months worry about Buffy, wondering if she was ok. She never made any effort to call or contact them, which she could have done at the very least. Meanwhile, while she was away, they were busy putting their own lives in danger. So, I am able to sympathize with both sides of the issue. I think everyone was just trying so hard to pretend that everything was fine, until finally everything just came to a boiling point. Not an easy thing to watch (kinda like the scene in Empty Places), but thankfully everyone came together to save the day in the end.

gumgnome, I never thought of Joyce's statement to Pat as being harsh or mean. When she said that it was almost worse having Buffy back, I don't think she at all meant that she didn't want Buffy to be there, just that the tension between them and not knowing what to say or how to say it was difficult. The later scene during the party where Joyce finally confronts Buffy (after seeing her in her room packing, about to run off again), attests to the fact that she does not want her gone, that she in fact spent all summer worried about her daughter, afraid to even leave the house. That being said, however, I am not surprised that a very emotional Buffy would have taken it the wrong way. I think Buffy was just expecting to come back home and skip all the drama, have everything go back to normal, and unfortunately that could not happen. Luckily, though, after everyone had said their piece and got their feelings out in the open, we see that the rift is repaired between Buffy and the scoobies and her mom.

[Darth Rosie]

That none of the Scoobies tried to talk to Buffy first and ask her "What happened to you?", that they instead threw this ridiculous party inviting people who we have never ever heard of or seen, this I always thought was suboptimal storytelling. But I think Bufffan21 made some good points concerning the whereabouts of the Scooby Gang during the summer, which makes me empathise a bit more with their behaviour. And I like to think that the way this party developed before the zombies came out had something to do with the Hellmouth.

[gumgnome]

I understand that Joyce doesn't want Buffy to leave, but I still can't fathom why she'd say that it's worse having her home. More difficult, sure, but worse? Worse implies that the situation has taken a down-turn and that consequently she'd rather it were like it was before. I can't understand why she would say that.

[hedgehogvampire]

I thought this episode was a good one.It had many funny parts. At the party when most of the Scoobies where arguing with Buffy I always laugh at the part where Cordy was the only one to back Buffy up.

[Saturn 5]

Last time that happened I'm sure!

[Tea - Total]

Pros
*Great acting.Especailly Buffy in the argument.
* I love how Buffy interrupts the group slayage to get the job done. Excellent moment...
*Giles reactions. Was sad but happy.
*I love how Oz excellently was describing these terms of partying.
“Mellow song styling; shindig: dip, less mellow song styling, perhaps a large amount of malt beverage; and hootenanny, well, its chock full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny”.
*I think the party was a good idea to show good culmination of everyone's feelings
* I love the confrontation off the entire group and Buffy realised that every Scooby had a hard time of dealing with the recent events.
*I love how violence solved the problem with zombies. And I love the scene with Joyce with the baseball bat; “I was like you go hot mama”. LMAO.
*The action was fast and clear...Buffys fights on and off the roof with the demon especially the garden spade ending.
*The last scene was incredibly funny,”
Willow: Bailer.
Buffy: Harpy.
Willow: Delinquent.
Buffy: Tramp.
Willow: Bad seed.
Buffy: Witch.
Willow: Freak.


CONS.

*Xanders asks the group to vote on how Buffy’s homecoming should be celebrated, Willow raised her right hand with a pencil in it. When the camera returns to willow the pencil disappears.
*And, grabbing the principle like that could easily cost a librarian his job??

Overal.

Another great episode, Lots of great scene with great expression and feeling backhand them, but it’s a good second instalment in the third series that needed to follow Ann.




Acting. 8/10
Storyline 7/10
Actions 6/10
Overall 7.1/10



Favourite quotes. It has to be when Buffy was going to attack Xander, I do the same thing lol… “Xander: Fine! You stop acting like an idiot, I'll stop annoying you! Buffy: Oh, you wanna talk acting like an idiot, Nighthawk?

[Saturn 5]

One of the great things about Buffy is characters take the time to recover emotionally, Anne and Dead Man's Party the best examples

[Tea - Total]

Oct 26, 2009 13:56:05 GMT -5 Saturn 5 said:

One of the great things about Buffy is characters take the time to recover emotionally, Anne and Dead Man's Party the best examples

I agree,Great way to solve the attention between the scoobies.Violence

[Saturn 5]

Not really what I meant, more that characters don't just forget their pain from the last ep, it lingers with them. Except for losing Jesse of course!

[Tea - Total]

Oct 28, 2009 13:30:34 GMT -5 Saturn 5 said:

Not really what I meant, more that characters don't just forget their pain from the last ep, it lingers with them. Except for losing Jesse of course!

Thats what i was trying to say lol
the scoobies have feelings that lingers on so thats why this episode is great to show that actually best of friends have attentions and feelings between others.

[Randi Giles]

I would have to agree with Willow333 on rather or not Joyce would have a bunch of teenagers in her house having a party. I didn't even think of it until I read your post and I saw this episode two nights ago. I actually love this episode because of towards the ending. Xander call Buffy out on all her crap.(I love when he does that) And I get to see one o f my favorite couples be lovey dovey. I really miss Xander and Cordelia. Back to topic it really look like Buffy and Xander was about ot throw down. It was good though that they teamed up and got back to each others good side when it was all said and done. 7/10

[Tea - Total]

I agree ^^
I would perfer the whole gang at dinner not a pointless party.

[Saturn 5]

Yeah but at dinner they might be able to sort things out in a civilized manner, the whole idea of the party was to make Buffy feel overwhelmed. And as for Joyce, well Band Candy showed what a rockin chick she was, maybe she wanted to recapture her glory days?