“I’d just as soon kiss a Wookiee.” - Princess Leia

By Sabrina Boyer

So apparently, Oz has a thing about rabbits. I’ve never noticed this before, but at the beginning of this episode, as Will reads Call of the Wild, Oz seems to get excited when she mentions the bunnies. And later, we find out so does Anya. What’s up with the bunny phobia in the Buffyverse? As this episode opens, Oz is in his second night of wolfdom, and Xander takes over for Oz Watch while Buffy and Faith talk about good down low tickles and Scott Hope. This leads to a discussion about all men being beasts. “Every guy, from manimal down to ‘I love the English Patient’ has it in ‘em. I don’t care how sensitive they act. They’re still all in it for the chase.” Cut to an actual chase in the woods, and the episode opens to some boogley-woogley. 

Interesting statement coming from Faith; are all men beasts? Buffy gets Will’s side of things and both decide this is an overgeneralization. We meet Debbie and Pete, and things get all couply; Scott and Buffy are full-on kiss mode and we learn Buffy is seeing the school counselor Mr. Platt. The gang stumbles on Giles and Xander having a wiggins about a male student found in the woods who was terribly mauled; Xander did a little shut eye, and we think Oz got out. Meanwhile, Buffy meets Mr. Platt, a smoking, down to earth counselor tells Buffy that “everybody has demons. Demons can be fault, people can change.” If he only knew just how real demons are in Sunnydale. Buffy gets all deep into who Angel was and what happened. “He changed, he got mean. And you didn’t stop loving him.”  Wow; go Mr. Platt. He tells Buffy that everyone gets lost in love, but the thing is, you can’t stay lost. And if you do? “Then love becomes your master, and you’re just its dog.” Hmmmm; this is a central theme in the Buffyverse, no? What other character do we see with this type of mantra? Oh yeah, Spike. 

Later, Buffy sees the gang playing somber faces as they contemplate whether or not Oz got out of his cage.  So, we’re beginning to touch up on the idea that all men are beasts; Oz is literally a beast; while Buffy patrols, she sees another kind of beast. The kind of beast called…..Angel? WTF? But he’s not entirely Angel, but more like a savagey, hungry, primitive version of Angel. Not Angelus. Just not entirely human. Yet. He’s been in hell you know. Ah ha, so he might be the one responsible for the extreme dead guy in the woods. Will takes her lunch box ‘o tools for checking out dead dudes, and examines whether or not it was a werewolf kill. Meanwhile, Buffy digs up the chains for fun and games she keeps hidden in her toy chest, and chains Angel up in the mansion. She sees evidence of his return on the floor in an outline of his falling body. So, ok, beast number two. 

Faith rocks out while babysitting Oz and Buffy searches old school Dewey decimal system cards for research on Angel. She asks Giles if it’s possible for Angel to return from a hell dimension. But she doesn’t actually tell Giles, or anyone, that Angel’s back in town. It would take tremendous force of will to survive; there are two types of demons then: the one that wants to be redeemed and the one void of humanity. Interesting. What type is Angel? And later, what type is Pete? As Buffy eats lunch with Scott, Pete and Debbie, she’s a little out of it. As Scott Hope compliments her, she bails and heads out to see Angel, still chained up in the mansion. Is he redeemable? Of course. He’s Angel. But from here on out, things are gonna get a little sticky. We get to know Pete and Debbie a little bit more, and as he pulls her into a shed like area to make out, there’s some glowing green goo. Buffy goes to see Mr. Platt, and when she’s ready to spill the beans about her cuddly boy toy with fangs now back in town, she finds that Mr. Platt is dead. Why is it when Buffy’s ready to open up and needs support, it ends up dead? Simultaneously, Pete gets uber-angry over Debbie’s spillage of his super secret glowing green goo that makes him extra strengthly. He begins to get super scary and very abusive to Debbie, and he turns into a monster, much like the hulk only not good. He blames Debbie for forcing him to take this ‘formula’ and hits her. Hmm, metaphor much? He’s a beast too, but a different kind from Angel and Oz. Classic abusive boyfriend/husband behavior; he berates her, beats her, makes her feel stupid and alone, separates her from her friends, and then gets all Mr. Sensitive and tells her, “you know you shouldn’t make me mad.” There seems to be an obvious comparison going on between Buffy and Debbie. Are they alike with their beasts? 

Oz, helping Debbie with a class, sees her with a black eye and doesn’t take her “I fell down and hit a doorknob” excuse. But he offers his friendship as Pete looks on, all jealous like. The gang, after knowing that Mr. Platt is dead, knows now that it isn’t Oz doing the killing. They figure out that the two dead guys have Debbie in common; they figure that it must be Pete doing the killing and Buffy has a one on one talk with Debbie about leaving her beast. The difference is, Buffy is physically strong, but emotionally, she’s still tied to Angel. Debbie is neither emotionally or physically strong; the sad thing is, they do have a bit in common. “It’s not his fault. He’s not himself when he gets like this. It’s me, I make him crazy. He does what he does because he loves me too much.” Um, ring a bell from season two? Just a bit. But also, Angel and Angelus are two different people. Pete is not. His monster and man are one and the same. He doesn’t want to be redeemed; he has no humanity. 

Pete confronts Oz, and the monsters go at it. He accuses Oz of putting the moves on Debbie. They fight and things get all beasty. Oh, and Giles gets hit with the tranq gun. Bloody priceless. The coolest thing about this episode? Buffy, a girl, kicks Pete’s butt. Pete finds Debbie in their closet, and he kills her. Not all women are the same, and neither are all men. Somehow, Angel breaks up the fight between Buffy and Pete, and breaks his neck. So there seems to be some humanity left in Angel after all. Not all men are beasts. The thing is, we all have choices to make. Angel recognizes Buffy and hugs her. She keeps it quiet though; in the end, it was a Jekyll/Hyde thing, and so was Angel. But that may be where the similarities end. Angel’s back. “Night came on, and the full moon rose high over the trees. Lighting the land til it bathed in ghostly day. And the strain of the primitive remained alive and active. Faithfulness and devotion, things born of fire and roof were his, yet he retained his wildness and wiliness and from the depths of the forest, the call still sounded.” 

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About Sabrina Boyer: As a kid my dad would sneak scary movies past my mom and let me indulge in his horror movie fetish. I grew up watching V, Alien Nation, The Thing, The Fog (all originals) and then, in 1992 when Buffy the movie came out, I became obsessed with vampires, girl power, and all things gothic. I once stayed home from school, faked sick, and watched BTVS: the movie 6 times in a row. I know the beginning cheerleading dance by heart (still). Currently, I’m obsessing over Laurell K. Hamilton novels, and dream about Anita Blake being my best friend.