1.8 I, Robot... You, Jane

Plot Synopsis (Display)

Highlights

• Buffy and Xander getting worked up about their concern for Willow, culminating in Buffy's "Willow, axe-murdered by a circus freak!"
• All of the "computers vs books" conversations between Giles and Jenny. The chemistry between them, adversarial though it may be at this point, is already obvious.
• Jenny's description of herself as a "techno-pagan" when Giles says that computer science hardly lends itself to activities such as the casting of bones. Her next speech, "Wrong and wrong, snobby. You think the realm of the mystical is limited to ancient texts and relics? That bad old science made the magic go away? The divine exists in cyberspace same as out here." is sublime!
• Willow's break-up speech to Malcolm/Moloch while she attacks him with a fire-extinguisher
• Giles's "knowledge should be smelly" speech.

Firsts

First time we meet Jenny Calendar, who soon becomes a fairly regular character

First time a pop-culture reference is referred to as such

First time we see inside Willow's house

Pop Culture References

The name of the episode is a mixture of two references. Firstly, to the book "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov, an inspired collection of short stories about robots and their interactions with humans. The name also parodies the catch-phrase "Me Tarzan, You Jane" made famous by the Tarzan legend and popularized by the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

When Willow mentions the seemingly incomprehensible fact that she doesn't know what her new friend looks like, Buffy responds with "No, wait, I'm good at these. Does it involve a midget and a block of ice?"
She is referring to at least two famous lateral thinking problems, although there is little point in describing the problems, as Buffy has given both punch-lines away by her comment!

Buffy: "My spider sense is tingling" - does this really need explanation??
Ok, ok. This refers to the Spiderman character of Marvel comics, a newspaper photographer who, after being bitten by a genetically altered spider, developed super powers, including the ability to sense danger approaching.

Xander suggests that Dave's apparent suicide may have been achieved "with a little help from my friends" quoting a song of the same name by The Beatles.

When Giles suggest a computer virus could be used to disable Moloch, Jenny tells hims he has "seen way too many movies". This could be a reference to Independence Day, a film released in 1997, the same year as this episode, in which one of the characters miraculously defeats a malevolent alien race by introducing a virus into their computer systems. It could also be a more generic referece, as this seems to be a fairly common TV and movie theme, despite the fact that such separately developed computer systems would, in all likelihood, be completely incompatible.

Comments

We don't actually learn Jenny Calendar's full name in this episode, and on screen she is referred to throughout simply as "Ms. Calendar". In fact, according to the original transcripts, at this point her first name was going to be "Nikki". In the quotes section, I have referred to her as Jenny, as that is how she will be familiar to fans of the show.

What We Learn

• Giles doesn't like computers. No, wait, we already knew that!
• Willow lives with her Mom and Dad, who don't seem to be home much.
• Jenny is a techno-pagan.

Nitpicks

• When Willow is supposed to be scanning in the text from a book, she just runs the scanner down the centre of the page - surely she's missing a lot of stuff out??
• When Buffy's record first appears on the screen, her date of birth is shown as 24th Octbober 1980, however when the same record is displayed on Fritz's screen, it has changed to 6th May 1979.