Buffy Reviews

     The exceptions came about when the Bezoar took over everyone, minus Buffy and Xander. This Bezoar creature brought out something in both Cordy and Willow that I think has been bubbling under the surface, their need to release their frustrations on people they find responsible for causing them. In Willows's case, it was Xander she chose to 'whack' in the head, something I believe she's wanted to do for years, considering her feelings for him and her inability to tell him about them, as well as his ignorance of them. Cordy chose Buffy because she has begun to have feelings for Xander and she sees Buffy as an obstacle to her truly 'having' him. She feels that even though Xander is making out with her in the closets of Sunnydale High, he's thinking of Buffy, which probably wouldn't be too far off.

     One other interesting exception was GIles. Even though for most of the episode he was his usual self, when Joyce showed up to look for Buffy, he showed a bit of his affection and loyalty to Buffy in defending her to her mother. I find this interesting because Giles has always had a difficult time expressing his feelings and the fact that he needed an outside influence to bring them out shows how much he has and hasn't changed. What I mean is that he has grown from thinking Buffy is a 'strange girl' whom he has to train to having a certain level of fondness for the Slayer, but he still can't seem to tell her things like this, except for after times of crises.

     The Buffy/Angel and Xander/Cordy relationships are briefly touched on also. Buffy and Angel are quickly moving past the initial stages of 'courtship' and towards the inevitable intimacy we all know that is upcoming. Quite a change from first season when they kept their distance from each other. Xander and Cordy on the other hand are still keeping everything quiet, trying not to be obvious in the way Angel and Buffy are. I hadn't really noticed the first time I watched this episode, but Xander already seems to be showing a touch of affection for Cordy at this point. When he tells her that he doesn't want to hit her 'most of the time', this is a revelation of sorts from him. Before they became involved he couldn't stand the sight of her and made fun of her with Willow, but at this point he's starting to see something in her that he hadn't before. Maybe it's just his hormones influencing him. ;)

     While in a Sunnydale mall, on her way to pick up Joyce's outfit from the tailor, Buffy notices a flirting couple on the ascending elevator and double-takes when she realizes that the man in the white Stetson has no reflection in the mirrored walls. In a deserted arcade, she interrupts the vampire about to feast and after his victim escapes, Lyle Gorge, as he introduces himself in a Southern drawl, briefly fights Buffy before bolting with a promise to meet again. Bufy returns empty-handed to Joyce to face a lecture on being more responsible.

     In between heavy kissing in a closet, Xander and Cordelia argue about their burgeoning relationship because even though they say they despise each other, the attraction is strong. In Teen Health class, Mr. Whitmore lectures on the negative consequences of teen sexual interaction and after Xander and Cordy harangue each other with thinly-veiled insults, he illustrates unwanted pregnancy by giving the class eggs as a parenting assignment.

     In the library, Willow hands Buffy her egg while Giles informs them about Lyle and Tector Gorge, slow-witted vampire brothers from Abilene who massacred a Mexican village in 1886 prior to becoming vampires. Later that night, the Gorges recognize Angelus and watch uncomprendingly as he and the Slayer kiss passionately.

     After Buffy goes to sleep, her egg, "Eggbert", cracks open at her bedside and slimy tendrils snake out across her eyes, entering her ears. Feeling "funky" the next morning, she takes her now normal egg to the library where Gilles remarks on her and Willow's lethargy. To their horror, Xander drops his egg but confesses that "Xander Jr." is now hard-boiled.

     Angel and Buffy again have a heavy necking session in the graveyard and when she explains her "faux parenting" assignment, he reveals that he cannot reproduce and asks her about her thoughts of the future. All she sees in the future, she explains, is him.

     Buffy returns home as the egg starts cracking and in horror, watches as a crawly, lobster-like thing hurtles out at her. She stalks the hatchling, finally pinning it to the wall with scissors. Panic-stricken, she calls Willow to warn her. The commotion brings Joyce who, dissatisfied with Buffy's answers as to why she was dressed and calling someone in the wee hours, grounds her and forbids her any after-school socializing.

     As Buffy, Willow and Cordy talk about their eggs, a hungry Xander discovers the cooked version of the hatchling, which Willow, tendrils peeking from her back, offers to dissect. She theorizes that the offspring may have used Whitmore to return to the Mother Behzore and as Xander reacts to her statement, Cordelia knocks him out as Willow deactivates Buffy. They dump them in a closet with two unhatched eggs and lead a stream of people down to the basement.

     In the library, Joyce is chatting with Giles re parenting responsibilities when he drops a hatchling on her back and zombie-like, leads her out. Meanwhile, Buffy and Xander awaken, kill the hatching eggs and head for the library where they find egg fragments and information on the Behzore. The prehistoric parasite hibernates underground laying egg and the offspring take control of their host's motor controls by "neural clamping". They follow a host to a basement excavation and Xander goes after Cordelia who carries the eggs. Buffy, looking for a weapon, encounters the Gorges.

     Fighting, Lyle and Buffy fall through the wall and are attacked on Willow's command by Giles, Joyce and others. Tector peeks at the Behzore who yanks him inside its hole. Lyle then throws Buffy across the floor and Joyce tries to kill her with a pick-axe which Buffy grabs as the Behzore pulls her in. Gurgling screams are heard, everyone freezes then collapses as the parasites drop off. Buffy crawls out covered in black gore and Lyle, conceding defeat, runs off.

     Buffy first encounters Lyle Gorch at the local mall, as she runs an errand for her mother, Joyce. When Buffy foils Lyle's plan to feed on a pinball queen, a fight ensues. To his credit, Lyle does make a pretext of manners, introducing himself to the Slayer he has heard so much about. He clearly enjoys fighting, telling Buffy, "Well, you're a rough one, ain'tcha? I like that!" When the fight is over, and Lyle leaves realizing that he will not defeat Buffy alone, he says, "This ain't over." In fact, it is just the beginning of Buffy's dealings with the Gorches, and the catalyst for Buffy's descent into Joyce's bad graces, as the fight with Lyle distracts Buffy from her original errand for Joyce.

     We get to see Lyle with his brother Tector in a subsequent scene as they spy on Buffy and Angel "hunting" for vampires. The brothers' hilarious attempts to understand Buffy's "kissage" of Angel rather than "slayage" prove that their wheels spin as fast as those on a broken down stage coach. As Giles describes them, "they're....not amongst the greatest thinkers of our time." The Gorches' conversation reveals that Lyle takes the lead as "the thinker" of the duo, while Tector prefers immediate action.

     Later in the sewer scene we learn that, like other vamps Buffy has met, these two retain some humanity. During their discussion it is revealed that in mortal life Lyle raised Tector when they were abandoned by their mother. The two continue to demonstrate a brotherly fondness for each other, getting into scraps at the least provocation, but becoming fiercely protective when outsiders threaten them. It seem to be the "I can hit my brother, but don't you dare touch him" approach to family.

     Family loyalty is also an issue with Buffy's other foe in this episode, the bezoar. At first the bezoar appear to be normal eggs, the faux-children in a faux-parenting exercise for health class. Buffy finds herself a "single" parent in the exercise, mirroring Joyce's own experience in raising her. As the Slayerettes and their classmates enter the world of parental responsibility, little do they know the trouble their adopted offspring will cause.

     We know that something is askew when tentacles poke through the shell of Buffy's egg and attach themselves to a sleeping Slayer. Like a parent who has been up all night comforting a colicky baby, Buffy finds herself exhausted (thanks to "Eggbert") when morning arrives. At school, the disappearance of their health class teacher allows Buffy and Willow, who is also inexplicably sluggish, a chance to restore their energy.

     Buffy's nurturing of "Eggbert" is rewarded by the horrifying metamorphosis of the cute, cuddly egg into a creepy insect-like adolescent. Discipline is clearly called for when the unruly offspring attempts to latch itself onto Buffy. Having failed to provide the "hard-boiled approach" to parenting as Xander did, Buffy must resort to the scissors method, which she uses to dispatch the hatchling.

     Unfortunately, Willow and Cordelia have not escaped their eggs' treachery. In their roles as hosts for the creatures, Willow and Cordelia become villains themselves. Both girls lie, denying any knowledge of unusual egg activities when Buffy asks them about it. They attack Buffy and Xander in the school lab, using the pretext of a hatchling autopsy to lure the victims into the trap, and taking advantage of Buffy's distraction during the "Guyyhh" versus "Nyahh" debate over who should perform the autopsy. Willow and Cordelia attempt to convert Xander and Buffy into hatchling hosts by leaving the two locked in a closet with ready-to-hatch eggs. In fact, Willow-as-hatchling-host seems to take the lead among the bezoar hosts, leading a group of hosts to tools for harvesting eggs fro the mama bezoar's lair, and giving the order to kill Buffy and LYle when the two noisily bring their fight into the breeding ground.

     All the families come together in the bezoar breeding ground. Buffy find that not only her friends, but her mother and father figure (Giles), have been taken over by the bezoar, turning the people she loves into her adversaries. The hatchlings, for their part, obediently obey their mother's wishes by using their hosts to spread newborn eggs, thus ensuring the reproduction of the species. They also obey the command to protect the fragile eggs from intruders Buffy and the Gorches. Clearly, in mama bezoar's eye, the hatchlings are "good eggs".

     Lyle and Tector Gorch try to defend each other against Buffy, but Lyle find himself fighting with Buffy against the common foe of the bezoar. Tector's attempt to befriend the mama bezoar is cut short when she eats him, apparently not trusting those outside her immediate family. Lyle, using his immense reasoning capabilities blames Buffy for the destruction of the brother he has raised, and tries to avenge the death by throwing Buffy to the mama bezoar. When Buffy uses a pick to quickly destroy the matriarch, Lyle decides his existence is more important than avenging his brother and escapes.

     As students, teachers, and Joyce recover from the experience, we find that Buffy's responsibilities as Slayer and her inability to share this truth with her mother land her into more trouble. Since battling the Gorches and the bezoar meant that Buffy had to disobey Joyce's instructions to meet her in the library, Buffy must deal with the consequences of being considered a "bad egg" by her mother. Joyce, on the other hand, is an inadvertent villain, punishing Buffy for disobedience even when that disobedience was necessary to save her life. The villains of Bad Eggs(bold), while not the most dangerous creatures that Buffy has dealt with, provide not only an interesting plot, full of action and suspense, but also a compelling exploration of the child/parent relationship.