Directed by: Joss Whedon
Original Air Date: 29 September 1998

Guest Stars:
Julia Lee (Lily)

Trivia:

• We learn in this episode that “Anne” is Buffy’s middle name.  The Buffy Trivia Guide mentions that there is a chain of lingerie stores in England named Ann Summers, which I thought was funny enough to mention.  =)
• According to IMDB, this is the first episode where they do the “Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer” thing at the beginning.  Really?  How did I miss that?

Quotes:

Larry: “If we can focus, keep discipline, and not have quite as many mysterious deaths, Sunnydale is gonna *rule!*”

Key Events:

• Buffy returns to Sunnydale, after having been away for several months.

Rating:

Jason:

Kathleen:

Troy:

In Other News:

Jason is the proud papa of Seth, surely a future Watcher.

And you can find out what Longaberger is here.

Buffy would be a MUCH better foil for Edward than Bella.  Yay kick ass women!

The first thing that runs through my head is, “Oh my God, they’re going to let him do season 8 on TV!!!”  Yeah.  No such luck (and honestly, how COULD they?  That comic is fairly epic in scope, and would be a bitch to translate to the TV…)  OK, but still, another Buffy movie!?  Hope SMG has stayed in fighting shape!  And then I continue to read…

Now, I’m not going to dismiss the movie yet, just because they aren’t going to do exactly what I want them to do.  That would be silly.  However, isn’t it also silly to make a Buffy movie without Joss Whedon?!  C’MON, people?!  He’s Joss!  She’s Buffy!  They go together like peanut butter and jelly!!!  How can you do one without the other?

Apparently, Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz Kuzui, the directors of the first Buffy movie, are planning on making number two.  However, they “have yet to reach out to Joss”.  OK, well what are you waiting for?!  Don’t they realize that the only reason anyone watches their movie at all is because they became rabid fans due to the Buffy TV series?!

On top of no Joss, neither will we have Xander, Willow, Giles and it sounds like we may not even have a Buffy…from what I’ve been able to put together so far, the producers want to continue in the “every generation has their own slayer” theme and move onto an entirely different cast.  I suppose that would actually be for the best, considering the amount of baggage that people have for Buffy herself, but the last thing we need is another lame “Twilight” wannabe.

Joss’ response is, of course, classy and awesome.  “I hope it’s cool.” he is quoted as saying.

Me too, Joss.  (But, I kinda doubt it will be…)

Directed by: David Solomon (part 1) & David Semel ( part 2)
Original Air Date: November 17, 1997 (part 1) & November 24, 1997 (part 2)

Guest Stars:
Bianca Lawson (Kendra)
Kelly Connell (Bug-sassin)
Saverio Guerra (Willy)
Spice Williams (Policewoman Assassin)

Trivia:

• We get several visits to “Willy’s Tavern” in these episodes, a shady bar that caters to the shadow-y supernatural type.
• We get the second slayer showing up in this episode because, even it was for a short time, Buffy did die in the final episode of Season 1.

Quotes:

Angel: “You’re in danger, do you know what this ring means?”
Buffy: “I just killed a Superbowl Champ?”

Buffy: “You and bug people, Xander…what’s up with that?”

Key Events:

• Xander and Cordilia kiss!

Rating:

Jason:

Kathleen:

Troy:

Video Clips
Bug Guy

Slayer vs. Slayer

Spike vs. Organ

Directed by: Bruce Seth Green
Original Air Date: November, 10 1997

Guest Stars:
Stuart McLean (Philip Henry)
Wendy Way (Dierdre)
Michael Earl Reid (Custodian – EDDIE!!!)
Trivia:

• In the game at the beginning of this episode, “Anywhere But Here”, Buffy wishes for a foot massage from Gavin Rossdale, who is the lead singer of the band “Bush”. Plus, he’s married to Gwen Stefani, which makes me hate him a little, due to extreme jealousy. Amy Yip, with whom Xander wants to visit a waterpark, is a sexy Hong Kong actress who is famous for having very large breasts. And everyone knows who John Cusack is…
• The photo of Giles holding the bass guitar that Xander finds in Giles’ office was created by the Buffy staff by photohoping his head onto a picture of Sid Vicious.

Quotes:

Xander: “That’s it! Twelve years of you and I’m snappin’! I don’t care if you’re a girl or not, I’m throwin’ down!”
Cordelia: “I’ve seen you fight. And don’t think I can’t take you!”

Xander: “Giles lived for school. He’s actually still bitter that there are only twelve grades.”
Buffy: “He probably sat in math class thinking, ‘There should be more math. This could be mathier.’”

Key Events:

• We learn Giles has a tattoo!
• We get a good look at Giles’ less-tweed-y past.

Rating:

Jason:

Kathleen:

Troy:

Directed by: Joss Whedon
Original Air Date: November 3, 1997

Guest Stars:
Julia Lee (Chanterelle)
Jason Behr (Billy ‘Ford’ Fordham)

Trivia:

• Jason Behr (who played Ford) reunited with SMG in 2004′s The Grudge
• The fake vampire who greets Buffy when she visits the Sunset Club is actually Todd McIntosh, the show’s make-up supervisor.

Quotes:

Buffy: “It was terrible. I moped over you for months. Sitting in my room listening to that Divinyls song ‘I Touch Myself’…Of course, I had no idea what it was about.”
(minutes later…)
Willow: (realizes) “Oh, that’s what that song is about?!”

Buffy: “Does it ever get easy?”
Giles: “You mean life?”
Buffy: “Yeah. Does it get easy?”
Giles: “What do you want me to say?”
Buffy: “Lie to me.”
Giles: “Yes, it’s terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.”
Buffy: “Liar.”

Key Events:

• Buffy tells Angel she loves him for the first time in this episode.

Rating:

Jason:

Kathleen:

Troy:

First up, “TurdBoy Brown-Eye”. I’ve included a screen shot of the poor kid…and I’m still not sure what he’s supposed to be. It’s so sad. What kind of whacked out parent sews eyes and a mouth on a potato sack, and completes the look with two brown oven mitts for Halloween? Only on the Hellmouth, people. I’ve tried to look up the character that Kathleen and Jason were talking about in the Watchercast episode but I can’t find anything on a brown pillow in Willow’s room anywhere on Google…anybody else know what they might be talking about?

Next, we also mentioned an article about how the FCC was OK with nudity on TV, as long as it’s Alyson Hannigan. We, at the Watchercast, heartily agree.

Finally, here is the link to Podcamp Ohio, which is also included on the sidebar to the right. PodCamp Ohio will be held at the ITT Technical Institute in Hilliard, Ohio on June 28, 2008 from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM. I would love to run into any of our listeners there!

Finally, we didn’t mention it on the episode, but Joss’ new show, Dollhouse, has a trailer out online that looks just great! I can’t wait!

Update! So, Kathleen remembered that the pillow that she and Jason were talking about showed up in the episode “The Body”, so I hit компютриScreenCap-Paradise.com, and there it was!

What’s more, one of you guys knew exactly what Jason and Kathleen were talking about! Brent E. Engle had a comment waiting for me when I was preparing this update (in the comments for the Halloween episode)

The doll the Whedons love so much is called (in English) ‘Burnt Bun Boy’. In his native language, it’s ‘Kogepan’. (Thanks, Brent!)

A quick Google Image search verifies that is, indeed, exactly the same character as the pillow. Brent also speculates that turd boy isn’t supposed to represent Kogepan, and the fact that the costume has pupils seems to back that up. So, it must be, indeed, SpongeBob Turd-Boy as Jason states in the episode.

(I have no idea why this became such a big deal…I was just totally intrigued by the whole thing!)

Directed by: Bruce Seth Green
Original Air Date: October 27, 1997

Guest Stars:
Robin Sachs (Ethan Rayne)
Larry Bagby (Larry Blaisdell)

Trivia:

• Xander’s transformation into a soldier in this episode is the excuse used in numerous upcoming episodes when military knowledge is needed.
• This is the first episode where we hear Giles referred to as “Ripper”.
• Writer Carl Ellsworth was fired by Joss Whedon immediately after completing the script for this episode. (via IMDB) … (this was just a bit too interesting, so I had to look a little deeper. Found some more information here)

Quotes:

Spike: “This is just…neat!”

Willow: “She couldn’t have dressed up as Xena!?”

Drusilla: “Do you love my insides? The parts you can’t see?”
Spike: “Eyeballs to entrails, my sweet!”

Key Events:

• First appearance of Ethan Rayne

Rating:

Jason:

Kathleen:

Troy:

Pete:

Jodi:

Video Clips:

Thinks you’re a babe…

Willow the dish

I could watch this over and over -Jason

“… the ghost of what?”

The first appearance of “Ripper”

Directed by: David Greenwalt
Original Air Date: October 13, 1997

Guest Stars:
Greg Vaughn (Richard)
Todd Babcock (Tom)
Jordana Spiro (Callie)
Robin Atkin Downes (Machida the Snake God)

Trivia:

• Jordana Spiro, who plays Callie, the third girl captured for the sacrifice to Machida, currently stars as P.J. Franklin in the TBS sitcom “My Boys”. Kathleen spotted her instantly.

Quotes:
Willow “Well, why do you think she went to that party? Because you gave her the brush-off…And you never let her do anything except work and patrol. And I know she’s the Chosen One, but you’re killing her with the pressure. I mean, she’s sixteen going on forty…And you! I mean, you’re gonna live forever. You don’t have time for a cup of coffee?…Okay, I don’t feel better now, and we’ve gotta help Buffy.”

Cordelia “You guys! I just hate you guys! The weirdest things happen around you!”

Key Events:

• er…not a lot. This is kind of a filler episode (though Willow telling off Giles and Angel rocked!)

Rating:
Jason:
Kathleen:
Troy:

Shannan:

Extras:

As promised, Ballywood Superman!

Nimoy sings The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins

Shatner sings Rocketman

Video Clips

Directed by: Ellen S. Pressman
Original Air Date: October 6, 1997

Guest Stars:
Ara Celi (Ampata Gutierrez)
Seth Green (Daniel ‘Oz’ Osbourne)
Danny Strong (Jonathan Levinson)

Trivia:

• Xandar and Ampata had to eat up to ten twinkies each for each take of the scene in which they are eating lunch. Life is truly cruel on the hellmouth. (ugh!)

Quotes:
Willow “Well, you know, I have a choice. I can spend my life waiting for Xander to go out with every other girl in the world until he notices me, or I can just get on with my life.”
Buffy “Good for you.”
Willow “Well, I didn’t choose yet.”

Giles “You can’t go to the dance, you have responsibilities that other girls do not.”
Buffy “Oh! I know this one! Slaying entails certain sacrifices, blah, blah, bitty blah, I’m so stuffy, gimme a scone.”

Key Events:

• Oz makes his first appearance!
• Jonathan makes his first (very short…no pun intended, Jonathan!) appearance!

Rating:
Jason:
Kathleen:
Troy:

In Other News: Come join us in our newly updated and snazzy forums!

Video Clips

Twinkies:

Johnathan:

Directed by: John T. Kretchmer
Original Air Date: September 29, 1997

Guest Stars:
James Marsters (Spike)
Juliet Landau (Drusilla)

Trivia:

• It is hinted that Principal Snyder knows more about Sunnydale and its foolishness than he is letting on…
• Though Spike refers to Angel as his sire, this is not technically correct. It was eventually shown (in Season Five’s “Fool For Love”) that it was actually Drusilla who sired Spike. For many of us, this was no surprise — Joss has been saying for ages that Dru was actually Spike’s sire. For example, on January 2, 1998 (about 3 months after “School Hard” aired), he said, “Angel was Dru’s sire — he made her — and she made Spike. But SIRE doesn’t just mean [the] guy who made you, it means you come from their line. Angel is like a grandfather to Spike.” Whether the line was originally intended with that interpretation, or whether it was a boo-boo that slipped through and Joss justifies that way, Joss has always maintained that in his mind (which is the only place the characters really live), Dru was Spike’s sire. – from BuffyGuide.com

Quotes:
Xander: “Does anybody else remember when Saturday night meant date night?”
Cordillia: “You don’t.”

Spike: “Women!”

Key Events:

• First Spike!
• First Drusilla!
• The death of the Annoying one!

Rating:

Jason:

Shannan:

Kathleen:

Troy:

Video Clips:

Spike’s Background:

Spike/Angel Reunion part 1:

Spike/Angel Reunion part 2:

Meanwhile The Annointed One has hatched a plan to resurrect The Master…unfortunately for our Scoobies, that requires the sacrifice of everyone that had been in the vicinity of The Master when he died…in this case, Willow, Miss Calendar, Giles and Cordelia. Buffy realizes the importance of her friends when she is forced to save them and her less bitchy, more quippy self returns.

Directed by: Joss Whedon
Original Air Date: September 15, 1997
Guest Stars: Dean Butler (Hank Summers)
Trivia:

• David Boreanaz became a regular cast member as of this episode.
• Apparently, Giles, Willow and Xander (it is assumed) figured taking the Master’s bones from the library and burying him three feet deep in the Sunnydale Cemetary covered in soil watered with holy water was a good enough defense to keep him from coming back. Silly Scoobies.

Quotes:Cordelia: Whatever is causing the Joan Collins ‘tude, deal with it. Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever, but get over it.

Willow: That’s what it was! I mean, why else would she be acting like such a b-i-t-c-h?

Giles: Willow, I think we’re all a little too old to be spelling things out.

Xander: A bitca?

Key Events:

• Season 2 starts.
• Joss directs his second episode
• Buffy totally confuses poor Xander by dancing seductively with him at the Bronze.

Rating:

Jason:

Kathleen:

Troy:

Video Clips:

Buffy nightmare:

Buffy Sexy Dance:

In Other News:
Buffy Live
Ciba Motto

At the Wizard World Los Angeles convention, Chris Ryall, editor of IDW Comics, made the following announcement (as reported on Newsarama):

…Joss Whedon said in the new issues of Buffy/Angel magazine, “I am talking to Brian Lynch, about doing sort of a ‘season 6 of Angel‘. After (the current Angel mini-series) Shadow Puppets, we will be doing some new Angel books, with Brian and Joss, picking up where the show left off. They will be post-show, and definitely canon, and co-written by Joss.”

Bruce Timm, the genius behind Batman the Animated Series, has been tapped to create some direct to DVD cartoons of some of the most famous storylines from the DC Universe! Much like what Marvel has been trying to do with it’s direct to DVD cartoons such as Ultimate Avengers except that these should be…you know…good.

First up is Superman: Doomsday the story of the Death of Superman at the hands of “Doomsday”, an alien from space that came to Earth and, basically, beat the tar out of Superman with his bare fists. The story wasn’t as cool as it sounds, in my opinion. I mean, for SUPERMAN to get BEAT UP…it’s just so…common. The death of Superman should have been EPIC, and at the hands of Lex Luthor or Braniac…not some alien monster from out of the blue who punches him to death.

That having been said, I’m still excited by the possibility of these DVD’s. Bruce Timm has proven again and again that he knows comics, and what makes a story cool, and the fact that he’s behind these videos gives me all KINDS of reasons to be excited. And the fact that the second video out of the gate is the BRILLIANT Darwyn Cooke comic DC: The New Frontier gives me all kinds of happy feelings. It’s going to be awesome.

ANYWAY (I’m rambling! Sorry!) the cool news on top of THIS cool news is that many of the biggest roles in these cartoons are being voiced by Buffy vets…from Superman:Doomsday we have Adam Baldwin as Superman and James Marsters as Lex Luthor, and then in DC: The New Frontier, David Boreanaz will be playing the pivotal Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) character.

Keep an eye out…these promise to be very cool videos. And rest assured, I will be talking about them in future episodes of the Watchercast!

* WARNING * for those of you who haven’t seen Season 7 yet, you may want to hold off on reading any further…there be some slight spoilage ahead…

Wait! Stop the Watchercast! There is one more season of Buffy to come!

That’s right. Season 8 is coming! OK, it may not be in quite the same format as we all came to know and love (on the TV for those of you who don’t remember) but Joss is creating Buffy Season 8, as we speak. It’s canon, it’s Buffy, it’s one-eyed Xander, it’s Willow…it’s the whole crew!

And it’s a comic!

Now, for some of you, this may be as exciting to hear as “Buffy is undergoing a sex change operation!”, but for me, this is music to my ears. As a HUGE comic nerd (20 long boxes, baby!) I can’t be more excited! I mean, look at that beautiful Buffy cover for issue #1. Just LOOK at it! That was done by series artist, George Jeanty. Now, I’m not terribly familiar with his stuff, but from what have seen, it looks like the man can draw. He’s just never drawn anything that I wanted to read before. But all that has changed!

Ok, so here is the scoop. This isn’t just some piddly little 6 issue mini that he’s offering to us…from what I’ve seen, this story is going to last for TWENTY to THIRTY issues(!), picking up right where we left off at the end of Season 7. There is now an entire world of slayers, there are even 3 Buffys! (I know that doesn’t make sense…that’s why you have to read the first 4 pages, which are being previewed for us by the nice people at TV Guide, right here.)

It’s Joss, it’s Buffy…what more do you need?! Get thee to a Comic Book Shop!