| Character - by Siobhan | ||||||||
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| One thing I noticed in I Only Have Eyes For You was how there was a definite parallel between the relationship of Grace and James and that of Buffy and Angel. Both relationships were 'forbidden' and both ended violently. One of the pairing had a hard time letting go, but in the end found a sort of peace. Somehow I don't think this was coincidental, but at the same time, the viewing of Buffy's reactions to James was a very good way to show her current emotional state.
After thinking all this time that she was handling things and that she was ready to take down Angel, we can see that is definitely not the case. She still suffers guilt over what happened to Angel and Ms. Calendar, and seeing Giles' own feelings of guilt and need for resolution only made her feel worse. In the end though, I think she was heading towards, as Giles suggested, forgiveness. And speaking of forgiveness, it was easy to see that Giles was in need of that as well, especially just after he had decided that the spirit was Jenny. But he seemed, at the end with Buffy, to be finding some peace himself. I think that he and Buffy have a great need to work on this together since many of their feelings are tied together. For instance, despite it being Giles feeling guilt about Jenny's death, on another level he puts some of that blame on Buffy. True, he has put it aside for the most part, but it still lingers. They've already become stronger after making it through what they have to date, but if they can find forgiveness, for each other and themselves, it will make their relationship even stronger. Now we have found out even more interesting things regarding Snyder and what he and the city officials seem to know. They are aware of the Hellmouth, but oddly enough they don't seem to be aware of Buffy's role. I suppose that the Watchers have kept the Slayers a better secret than any of us thought. And finally, as I watched Cordelia and Xander, I was beginning to notice the parrallels between them. They seem to be two sides of the same coin: both are quite sarcastic and both try to find ways out of doing anything of importance, amongst other things. After seeing this, I've gone back to thinking they would make better friends than SOs. Pretty good, and creepy, ep that, for the characters, gets 4 out of 5 'Ehs' from me. |
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| Story - by Wendy | ||||||||
Perhaps because it was the first new episode after a long draught of reruns but I was quite impressed by this show. Sure, there were some weak points which may be shored up in later episodes, but it was unpredictable and introduced many nuances and unresolved issues. It posed as many questions as it resolved; an obvious lead up to the season finale. In a nutshell, I couldn't tear myself away and the surprise ending left me on the edge of my seat. The main story dealt with the past tragedy of a student who, after killing the teacher with whom he was having a relationship, committed suicide in despair over his act and his subsequent efforts as a disembodied spirit trying to change what happened in order to earn forgiveness by possessing others and reenacting the incident. The story opens on the night before the Sadie Hawkins Dance when Buffy encounters in the school, a distraught young man holding a gun to his girlfriend, screaming at her for no longer loving him. Disarming him, Buffy realizes that the disoriented pair have no memory of the incident and the gun has mysteriously disappeared. Daydreaming later in her history class, Buffy finds herself back in a past classroom, an unseen witness to a personal interchange between student, James Stanley and his teacher, Grace Newman. Lurching back to the present, Buffy's teacher has somehow written the same phrase she heard from the young man with the gun. Next, Xander is attacked by an arm in his locker and Giles believes that a poltergeist/ghost is at work, except he becomes fixated that it is the spirit of Jenny. Events turn serious when, in the same place with the same dialogue, the janitor kills a teacher with the disappearing gun, Giles a horrified witness. Winding its way through this storyline is the story of the Vamp trio and the rapidly escalating interplay between Druscilla, Spike and Angelus. In their new Gothic garden home, Angelus openly goads Spike about his disability, fanning Spike's jealousy by insinuating a sexual relationship with Dru, who evidently enjoys Angelus' attention. Nevertheless, Angelus is immediately distracted by Dru's forewarning of a Hellgate opening and Buffy's imminent danger. The first twist is when, after the school cafeteria is suddenly infested by snakes, the deliciously odious Principal Snyder and the Police Chief discuss the presence of the Hellmouth and the difficulty of successfully excusing the various incidents. While Giles obsesses on Jenny's ghost, Willow prepares an exorcism, which goes awry, when first Buffy is warned by a gruesome ghost to leave, Cordy sees herself as disfigured and Willow is saved from a subterranean vortex by Giles. When they finally begin to chant, hordes of deadly wasps inundate the school. Finally, Giles accepts that the malevolent ghost is not Jenny. In the aftermath, Buffy's directs her anger at James because he killed the one he loved in a stupid moment of passion, not yet understanding that she is relating to him in her own situation with Angel. Enthralled by James' ghost, she returns to the school, meeting Angelus who unexpectedly plays out Gloria's part in the tragic sequence unfolding. With words now eerily echoing their own parting, Buffy shoots Angelus as past and present scenes intermingle. This time though, Angelus/Grace arises in time to stop James/Buffy from suicide. Buffy and Angel's history is superimposed on the earlier couple so that we are unsure which character is actually speaking the poignant words. Buffy pours out her/his guilt feelings about being responsible for the other's death and Angel's response is that he/she died loving the other. Very significant are the moments just after the two spirits leave, when Angelus remains enthralled with Buffy before returning to demonic state. Back in the garden, Angelus' washes himself in a frenzy to rid himself of the violation of the possession and invites Dru to accompany him on a restorative kill, scorning Spike at the same time. After they leave, in a totally unexpected but spine-tingling finale to this episode, Spike reveals that he is fully mobile and is out for revenge. I really liked the juxtaposition of the two tragedies, accompanied by the haunting lyrics and melody of the title song, as well as the acknowledgment of Buffy's guilt feelings and the apparent momentary return of Angel. David's acting abilities were easily stretched during the female possession sequences and both Landau and Marsden are now very comfortable with their characters, and play them with a great deal more subtlety. |
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| Villian - by Kaboo | ||||||||
| I Only Have Eyes For You treats us not only to a long anticipated new episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but also a host of interesting villains, new and old. Angel, Spike, and Dru, although not the focus of this episode, do treat us to the workings of their strange demonic family. Mr. Snyder also makes a significant appearance, again causing trouble for Buffy when she must fulfil her Slayer responsibilities. However, the villain in the spotlight for this episode is a poltergeist, James Stanley, who wreaks havoc both for Buffy and for Sunnydale High.
With the approach of the Sadie Hawkin's Dance, where traditional gender roles are reversed, and presence of someone with whom he can empathize, James' ghost becomes active. The falling yearbook, Buffy's visions, and the history teacher's unknowing message on the chalkboard are all attempts by James to communicate with Buffy, and to resolve his guilt for the murder of his teacher/lover Grace Newman. As Giles and the Scooby Gang later discover, James is tormented by his crime, but in re-enacting the scene, James only compounds the problem by forcing the men he possesses to repeat the cycle of murder. James manifests his confusion, frustration and anger at not being able to makes things right by lashing out with increasingly frightening responses: his attack on Xander, and the transformation of the cafeteria into a pit of snakes are only the beginning. The gang's failed attempt to exorcise James suggests three things. First, he refuses to be stopped in his quest for forgiveness. Secondly, it was only the girls that he tried to intimidate, and he even told Buffy to "get out," perhaps in an attempt to prevent any more fatal re-enactments of his crime. In sending the swarm of wasps, James prevents admittance to the school by those who would interfere with his plan. Thus, it may be that the exorcism does not work because James intends good rather than evil, despite the manifestations of his frustration. James' villainous acts not only serve the plot, but also reveal inner conflicts for both Giles and Buffy. In Giles, we see a desperate attempt to identify the poltergeist as his lost love Jenny, killed by Angel in Passion. He misses Jenny so much that he disregards the evidence that this poltergeist is re-enacting a much different death scenario. Only when Willow points out that "Jenny could never be this mean," does Giles give up his determination to communicate with the dead Ms. Calendar. For Buffy, James' activity hits two very sensitive hotspots. First, James' killing of Grace invokes the stalker-like actions of Angelus' pursuit of Buffy. Buffy has no compassion for the guilt-ridden spirit who searches vainly for forgiveness. On the other hand, Buffy identifies with James for she has also "killed" the one person she loved, Angel, in a "blind moment of passion," which released the horror of Angelus on the world. She finds it difficult to have compassion for James, for she still blames herself for her own mistakes. James recognizes in Buffy a guilt similar to his own, and chooses her to help him in his quest for forgiveness. In the midst of these goings on, we find Principal Snyder attempting to blame Buffy for the strange happenings at Sunnydale High. In refusing to acknowledge Buffy's heroic interference with a murder, Snyder blames her instead for inciting "mayhem, chaos, and disorder." Although he accuses Buffy of conspiring to conceal the truth, we discover during the snake incident that the hypocritical Mr. Snyder is in fact involved in a conspiracy. During his conversation with the Police Chief, it becomes clear that the principal knows that Sunnydale High is built on the Hellmouth, and that he has been hired as a "damage control" expert, to keep the truth from the other Sunnydale residents. Our favourite vampire villains also make an appearance, as Angelus shows Spike and Dru the new lair he has found for them. The tension between Spike and Angelus has clearly grown. Angelus takes great pleasure at taunting Spike at every turn, from making jibes about Spike's need of a wheelchair, to openly seducing Dru to make Spike jealous. It is also obvious that Angelus simply views Dru as a plaything, in stark contrast to Spike's genuine feelings for her, as Angelus makes jokes about Dru's (often painful) visions. Strangely, though, Dru seems to prefer Angelus to Spike. Called to the school by Dru's vision, Angelus meets Buffy the school, where she is already under James' spell. In the true spirit of Sadie Hawkin's dances, James and Grace's dance of death sees Buffy and Angel taking on opposite gender roles. James acts through Buffy, at once acting out her desire to kill Angelus, while also letting her feel the whirlwind of emotions that led James to commit his crime. However, it becomes clear that only Buffy and Angelus as hosts for James and Grace's spirits could lead to the release of the ghosts, for by taking an immortal host, the cycle of Grace's death is broken. With Grace now able to tell James she forgives him, the two are released from their purgatory, and James our villain, is redeemed. Buffy, for her part, is closer to understanding forgiveness and compassion by her dealings with the redeemed villain. Ironically, Angelus is disturbed by the event, feeling "violated" by love . Again the demon has been made to feel human, and has unwillingly become a vessel for good. A form of the old curse is in effect, if only temporarily, perhaps gift to Buffy from James and Grace for her help. All is not going well for Angelus, as the episode ends with Spike secretly revelling in his renewed strength, a promise to us that Angelus will have yet another enemy to deal with. I Only Have Eyes For You demonstrates, through the confused and tormented James, the theme of compassion and redemption, which stands in sharp contrast to themes in previous episodes (Innocence and Passion) of the fall and vengeance. This episode also builds on previous plot threads in developing the villainous characters. We see Spike back at full strength, Angelus still haunted by his bouts with humanity, and a glimpse at Principal Snyder's true nature. I give this episode 4 out of 5 'Ehs.' |
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