2.1 When She Was Bad

Plot Synopsis (Display)

Highlights

• Snyders "kids are like locusts" speech, while in the background Giles is meeting Jenny again, and as they walk off together, Snyder finishes with "I might as well be talking to myself".
• During an overly-frenzied training session, Buffy kicks the wooden punching stand so hard it breaks in two.
• The scene where Xander dabs ice-cream on Willow's nose, then moves in to lick it off. The mood is intimate, and they almost kiss. Later in the Bronze, Willow tries to re-create the moment by dabbing ice-cream on her own nose and waiting for Xander to react. The significance doesn't even occur to him, he just tells her she has something on her nose. Her face falls, and she realises that everything is different now Buffy is back. Although he says he's over her, it's clear Willow doesn't stand a chance while Buffy is on the scene.

Unusual Weaponry

Buffy kicks a vampire against a tree, where he is dusted by a broken branch

In the factory fight, Buffy somersaults over a wooden box, then keeps it in her hands as she springs back on to her feet, swinging it over her head and using it to bash a vampire in one smooth movement.

Breaking off most of a standing torch, she twirls it, then stakes one vamp with the broken end, and burns another with the flame.

Pop Culture References

The episode title probably comes from the Nursery Rhyme "Jemima", rumoured to have been written by the great Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

There was a little girl, who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good she was very very good
But when she was bad she was horrid.

Cordelia refers to the gang as 'The Three Musketeers'
The original literary reference is to the classic novel by French author Alexandre Dumas, on which numerous stories, cartoons, movies have since been based. The team of swash-buckling heroes embody nobility, honour and romance.

Xander thought Cordelia's insult would have had more impact if she'd gone for 'The Threee Stooges' rather than the musketeers.
The Three Stooges were a famous slapstick comedy trio from the 1930's to 1950's.

Cordelia: 'Whatever's causing the Joan Collins 'tude'
Refers to the English actress most famous in the States for her role as super-bitch Alexis in the American soap opera Dynasty.

Comments

In a dream sequence, Giles attacks Buffy, and she rips away a mask to reveal the Master underneath. Clearly, some part of Buffy blames Giles for what happened to her, and resents it. He is the father-figure who let her down, failed to protect her when she needed him the most.

Although there are a few situations in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where torture is assumed to have been used by the "good guys", this episode contains the most graphic example of it - most others either occur off camera, or are only referred to, or implied. This is probably meant to illustrate the alternate Buffy we see in this episode - closed off from her feelings, and therefore more brutal and unscrupulous than we are used to seeing her.

Willow: It's over.
Xander: No, it's not.

Xander is often the most perceptive of the group when it comes to Buffy's feelings (except where they affect himself!), in this case, knowing that simply winning the fight is not enough to banish Buffy's inner demons. He understands that she needs a more physical form of catharsis, smashing the Masters bones to smithereens to finally break the hold he has had over her.

Slayer Quips

So, are you gonna kill me, or are we just making smalltalk?

Nitpicks

• This is probably overly picky, but I found it a bit surprising that Buffy so quickly identified Coredlia's watch/bracelet when they're not exactly close friends. Maybe she'd just seen it and admired it, so it stuck in her mind...
• In the scene where Buffy smashes the Master's bones with a sledgehammer, she clearly destroys his ribcage at one point, but in a later cut it is still intact and she whacks at it again.