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I'm going to be relatively quick with this review because, honestly, there's not much to really say about it. The main plot is very uninteresting and Angel's return is completely useless, but the episode is so damn funny that I genuinely don't care. The sheer amount of quotes I had to have below is further proof of that. Buffy is absolutely adorable, focusing completely on trying to have a successful Thanksgiving dinner while Willow gets all defendy for the Native Americans, Xander gets some mystical syphillis, Anya continues to make me laugh, Giles is highly sarcastic, and Spike joins in on the fun while being tied to a chair. I'm sorry people, but sometimes I have to sit back, put my plot concerns aside, and just enjoy the characters interacting with each other using the trademark witty dialog of this series to its full extent. The episode begins with Buffy displaying some progress with her 'honing' abilities that Giles said she should have way back in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" (1x01). I really like how this scene is completely the opposite of the cliche. Instead of a scared boy running in the woods being surprised and killed by a vampire, it's Buffy with a smile on her face who he sees. Yet in an even more amusing twist, it turns out that for the vampire it is a cliche after all! The vampire's scared in the woods and the Slayer comes out and kills him. I bet that's what sires tell their 'offspring' to spook them when they're young. Very clever writing. It's also worth noting that Buffy senses Angel in the area in this scene as well as two other times in the episode. It continues to show that the connection these two have will likely never fully go away. There's a few important things worth noting. One is Buffy's hilarious obsession with having a nice Thanksgiving dinner in which Giles gets stuck with all the cleanup. Buffy is so much fun to watch all episode. She's also cute, cozy, and very adorable. Another thread to note is Willow's protest of Thanksgiving ("it's about one culture slaughtering another") and her reluctance to fight Hus, the avenging spirit. I can buy that Willow would be a little against the holiday, but I think she wanders into the realm of "out of character" when she still shows reluctance to killing Hus after she finds out he's killing Xander with diseases and has killed a teacher and a priest. The most important issue involves Spike's entrance to the Scooby Gang as a tied-up prisoner. I love the scenes leading up to that, though, where he's longingly looking in at groups of other vampires feeding on people. It's kind of weird that I feel sorry that a vampire can't kill anyone -- Spike is quite the unique character! I also enjoyed seeing him so lonely that he'd even take Harmony's company and that she's wisened-up a tad and even has a stake under her pillow. Like I mentioned happened in "The Initiative" (4x07), Spike's subconcious love for Buffy is beginning to affect his decision-making process, and he doesn't even know it yet. Why else we he choose to go to Buffy for a place to stay? He could have just found himself a crypt to hang out in for a while and then steal some blood at the butcher shop to keep himself running. The final fight is amusing enough and it ends with a nifty little message from Giles: "Violence does that. Instinct takes over." Willow also learns this little lesson and is able to enjoy the turkey dinner. The entire post-fight dinner is highly amusing and homely. Spike's tied to a chair watching all of them have a feast (I'm so happy they let him sit there) and Xander lets loose that Angel was there. That mistake ("oops") switches to a hilarious shot from Buffy's perspective where the whole group is staring at her. Spike has this huge and highly entertained grin on his face. That pretty much sums up how I feel about the episode. |
| Anya's back! Her dialog is a breath of entertaining air. She is so impressively hilarious. | | Willow using the buried church the Master was stuck in as an analogy. More subtle continuity! Yay! | | Willow talks about great spells with ears. Buffy says, "that's one fun little habbit you got there Will." | | Willow and Xander both thinking Angel's evil at first. | | Spike repeatedly asking for a brandy. | | Spike being filled with arrows. | | The bicycle cavalry shot. | | Spike being entertained watching Buffy fight. | | Hus gets an entire little speech in while he has Buffy pinned to the ground. Very cliche. |
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| Well, I think that's a shame. I love a ritual sacrifice. | | It's not really a one of those. | | To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It's a ritual sacrifice, with pie. (Inscensed) What's she doing? Xander said he was going to dig. I want to see Xander dig. | | That part's just ceremonial. | | Well, it bites! She's not rippling at all! | | Oh. Look, there he goes. Look at him. | | Very...Diggy. | | Soon he'll be sweating. I'm imagining having sex with him again. |
| Buffy, earlier you agreed with me about Thanksgiving. It's a sham. It's all about death. | | It is a sham, but it's a sham with yams. It's a yam sham. | | You're not gonna jokey-rhyme your way out of this one. |
| Ooh. We could not invite Anya. | | I don't know. She and Xander seem pretty tight lately. Look, pilgrims aside, isn't that the whole point of Thanksgiving-- Everybody has a place to go? | | Grumble, grumble. |
| It'll be just like it was when I was a kid. Only without me building a fort out of my mashed potatoes. | | Sounds like fun. | | It will be. Um, you know, if you don't already have plans... You should come. I'm a great cook... In theory. I've eaten a lot. |
| Pretty darn scary. It more like a riot than a Ralph's. I thought I was going to have to use Slayer moves on this one woman who was completely hoarding the pumpkin pie filling. |
| It's clear we're dealing with a spirit of some kind. It's very common for Indian spirits to change to animal form. | | It's plenty uncommon for me to freeze up during a fight. I mean, I had the guy, I was ready for the take-down, and I stopped. And Native American. | | Sorry? | | We don't say "Indian." | | Oh, right. Yes, yes. Um, always behind on the terms. Still trying not to refer to you lot as "bloody colonials." |
| Ok. You know what? We need to boil those and put them through the ricer. | | I don't think I have a ricer. | | You don't have a ricer!? What do you mean? How could someone not have a ricer? | | Well, do you have one at home? | | I don't know. What's a ricer? |
| Peas. | | These are frozen. | | What's all that? | | Atrocities. I got the full poop on the Chumash Indians and our fabulous buried mission. | | You said you were going to get fresh ones. | | Atrocities? | | Peas. They come in little pods. You were going to shell them. | | I didn't have time. I was busy reading about the Chumash war. | | The Chumash were peaceful. | | Oh, they were peaceful, all right. They were fluffy indigenous kittens, 'till we came along. | | They're gonna be mushy. | | They won't be mushy. | | (Excited) I like mushy peas. | | You're the reason we had to have pilgrims in the first place. |
| I don't think you wanna help. I think you just wanna slay the demon, then go-- La la la | | And I think your sympathy for his plight has blinded you to certain urgent facts. We have to stop this thing. | | Ok, unfeeling guy. | | Willow, that's not fair. | | (Buffy, perterbed by the conflict, retreats to the kitchen) | | I have to baste. |
| Happy Thanksgiving. | | Xander. You look like death. | | Are you ok? | | You didn't bring rolls? |
| Can we come rocketing back to the part about me and my new syphilis? | | It'll make you blind and insane, but it won't kill you. The smallpox will. |
| This is no good! It needs more condensed milk. | | Buffy, Xander's in real danger. Are you sure the solution is pie? |
| (Desparate) Invite me in! | | (Amused) No! | | It's fairly unlikely. |
| Will, you know how bad I feel about this. It's eating me up-- (to Anya) 1/4 Cup of brandy and let it simmer-- (to Willow) But even though it's hard, we have to end this. Yes, he's been wronged, And I personally would be ready to apologize-- | | Oh, someone put a stake in me. | | You got a lot of volunteers in here. | | I just can't take all this mamby-pamby boo-hooing about the bloody indians. | | Uh, the preferred term-- | | You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do. It's what Caesar did, and he's not going around saying, "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it." The history of the world isn't people making friends. You had better weapons, and you massacred them. End of story. |
| Hey, when do I get fed? | | Later. I hope the others are ok. | | You know what happens to vampires who don't get to feed? | | I always wondered that. | | Giles, plates. | | Living skeletons, mate. Like famine pictures from those dusty countries, only not half as funny. | | You can have gravy. That has blood in it, right? | | Do you know what else has blood in it? Blood. |
| (to Hus) You. Listen, maybe I wasn't clear before about how terrible we all feel. 'Cause we're trying to help! | | What's going on!? | | It isn't working. | | Uh, you can have casinos now! |
| Well, that was a waste of time. | | I think he thought we were crazy. | | Maybe if Anya hadn't opened the conversation with "Everybody got both ears?" | | I liked his wife. She gave me pie. |
| (Appearing before them) Willow. | | Angel? | | So this is Angel. He's large and glowery, isn't he? | | He's evil again! | | I'm not evil again. Why does everyone think that? | | Angel's here to protect Buffy. | | (Annoyed) I haven't been evil for a long time. |
| A bear! You made a bear! | | (Apologetic) I didn't mean to. | | Undo it! Undo it! |
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85/100
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B+
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Just misses the mark of excellence. Essentially, a great episode that's rough around the edges and/or slightly flawed. Extremely fun to watch.
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