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TEACHER'S PET (1x04)

A review by Mikelangelo "MikeJer" Marinaro

Writer(s):	David Greenwalt
Director:	Bruce Seth Green

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Review
Minor Pros/Cons
Foreshadowing
Quotes

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Review

This episode is, quite frankly, completely boring. The new teacher is a praying mantis? No thanks. I really liked Dr. Gregory, who I feel was killed off a bit too soon. I think he should have hung around for a few episodes and then killed off for more of an emotional payoff. Imagine if he'd been all nice to Buffy in a handful of episodes and then was one of the ones killed off by vampires in Prophecy Girl (1x12). That would have fueled Buffy even more to go fight The Master.

The character dialog and interaction continues to improve. There's almost no clunky dialog in this one. Unfortunately, this is where the positives end. Not only is the plot moronic, but combined with the so-so directing and the unusually thin metaphors, this episode falls into disaster territory. We also find out that Xander is a virgin through the ridiculous praying mantis who doubles as Ms. French, the replacement for Dr. Gregory. Xander's dialog is great, but what's transpiring on the screen is so corny, it's difficult to notice or care. There's also some plot integrity problems. There's no way Dr. Gregory's glasses would have stayed in that room all the way until the end of the episode without being moved or packed up by an administrative official after his death.

Apart from all of that, Buffy and Angel's relationship continues to slowly move forward. The writers are laying the foundation for this season's Angel (1x07) and their first 'shocking' kiss.

Minor Pros/Cons (+/-)

+	Angel's true identity is being hidden surprisingly well.
-	The plot. It's bad. Really bad.
-	The praying mantis looks ridiculous.
-	Bat sonar and bug spray? Please…
-	The eggs at the end are never addressed (to my pleasure), but they never should have been there in the first place.

Foreshadowing

Angel gives Buffy one of his leather jackets, and at the end when she offers to return it he lets her keep it. She then says, "oh boy…," almost knowing the crazy relationship she's about to get involved in.
Xander's jealousy and general dislike of Angel. This is only going to grow from this point on.

Quotes

BUFFY:	Hot dog surprise. Be still, my heart.
WILLOW:	Call me old-fashioned, I don't want any more surprises in my hot dogs.

BUFFY:

Destruct-o Girl. That's me.

Score

25 /100

Just plain awful. Completely failed at what it was trying to do. Might be painful to watch. The only points awarded are for tiny bits of humor and/or a character moment or two.

Screencaps

<< The Witch

Never Kill a Boy on the First Date >>

Comments (8)

1.	Angelus Aug 14 2006
	I liked the plot in this one. The sub teacher hitting on Xander and turning out to be the first of his demon-chics was a good idea, its just -like you said- praying mantis and bad FX ruined it. Maybe I have a soft spot for any Xander centric episode. That alone would give the score a little boost. fav line: your hands are so ..serrated

2.	Marijn Feb 12 2007
	I loved the part where they find out the praying mantis only hits on virgins. Buffy is like: "well Xander must have had..." and Willow imediatly runs out saying that he's going to die.

3.	Latoya May 1 2007
	I cannot believe that Xander was having fantasies about Buffy while sitting next to Buffy in class. He has no shame. lol

4.	Marie May 11 2007
	What I don't understand is why there were eggs in Dr. Gregory's classroom at all. The praying mantis is only supposed to mate with virgins and although it is possible that Dr. Gregory was a virgin it is highly improbable. I liked the episode, it was just the part at the end that I was not sure about. It was an interesting way to end the episode though...

5.	LibMax Jul 23 2007
	This one is also my second worst, only above The Puppet Show. I guess I prefer the corny brainlessness of this ep over the pushy and perverse brainlessness of that one. YMMV. As premises go, Xander has a crush on a hottie who turns out to be a monster isn't bad, and it hadn't been beaten to death by repetition yet. But the She-Mantis? Conceptual ack, exposition/explanation ack, visual execution a-a-a-a-ack! I can't agree more about the bat sounds and the bug spray. Many other howlers have been noted above as well. As for the dialog, I just read the transcript again, and I don't see a good bit of BTVS dialog until the "when scary things get scared" scene between Buffy and Giles in his office, followed by a Buffy/Flutie/Cordelia scene which is also good. I don't find Blaine funny at all. And I agree, if you want us to cry over Dr. Gregory you need to let us see him in more than one episode. I did feel sad about Principal Flutie, buffoon though he was, when he bought it in The Pack, precisely because we'd come to know him as a character. I think the after-school-special element of this episode is perhaps the most heavy-handed ever (golly whillikers, you can actually learn stuff in school!). And I'm glad they stopped the trick endings after Season One (I think the last one is Out of Sight, Out of Mind). It must have seemed funny to the writers, but it sucks the drama and interest out of the series when you set up future threats as throwaway gags that are never addressed again. Once they established the principle that actions have consequences and stuck to it, the show deepened and matured. I didn't entirely love the casting of Miss French. She didn't seem good-looking enough, although she certainly managed to look predatory. All the leering teenage-boy sex talk got old quickly, even though I knew it was supposed to be funny, and I think we all saw the whole Blaine's a virgin, hardy-har-har thing coming before the episode even started. I did love the Buffy/Willow exchange mentioned above: BUFFY: Virgins? Well, Xander's not a - uh - I mean he's probably - WILLOW: Gonna die! But the She-Mantis is right up there with the worst Buffy visuals ever (what tops it? Anybody?), I couldn't cry over Dr. Gregory and I couldn't laugh at Blaine. Most of the dialog seemed forced and clunky to me, with exceptions as noted above. More than most, this episode showed the flaws of Season One - the lack of recurring themes and characters, the crummy effects, the lazy phlebotinum (supernatural explanations in exposition), and the many bits of plot and dialog that seemed to show little respect for the viewer's intelligence. At least the Scoobies (Willow, Giles, Buffy, and especially Xander) were funny whenever the script gave them a chance.

6.	buffyholic Oct 3 2007
	I like this one. Call me corny if you like but I do. The dialogue is amazing, sure the plot is bad but I enjoy it anyway. It´s one of my guilty pleasures

7.	Austin Oct 4 2007
	I think it has something to do with expectations and how critical a viewer one is. I don't watch much tv at all so I am much more easily entertained than others and so it follows that I was never actually dissapointed by a Buffy ep, not even IRYJ or WTWTA

8.	Andrew Dec 26 2007
	This one was weak. I quite liked the whole role-reversal thing with Buffy and Willow going to rescure the male virgins, but other than that it really wasn't very good. As regards the trick endings, this is the only episode in which they annoyed me. The one in The Annointed (or whatever it was called) actually came to something later on; and the one in Out of Sight, Out of Mind, was kind of cool while also clearly nothing more to do with Buffy-and-co. Whereas this one just made no sense and was never referenced later on.

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