The Watcher Diaries: Innocence - Buffy Episode 2.14

Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 06.04.2008

In what may be the most infamous (and best) Buffy episode ever, Angel loses his soul and breaks Buffy's heart, an unstoppable demon sets his eyes on world destruction and the Slayer is a basket case. Things couldn't get worse for the Scooby Gang, and things couldn't get better for the viewers!

This is an episode that needs no introduction. Literally.

Episode 2.14 — "Innocence"
W: Joss Whedon
D: Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: January 20, 1998

Synopsis: Buffy wakes up post-coitus and finds Angel missing. It seems while Buffy has lost her virginity, Angel has lost his soul. He feeds off a hooker in the alley behind his abode as she hurries off to school. Angel reunites with Spike and Dru. During research, Willow accidentally learns about Xander and Cordelia's relationship, and she doesn't react well. When Buffy goes back to Angel's after a day of thinking about him, he brushes her off in one of the series' most heart-wrenching scenes. When a dream reveals that Miss Calendar was responsible, Buffy demands that she take her to her Uncle Enyos, but Angel is one step ahead. He's dead by the time they get there. Meanwhile, since no weapon forged can stop the Judge, Xander has the idea to use a rocket launcher.

Here’s Mike Gorman with the full review!

This is an episode I have been waiting for since we started this little shindig and yet I sit here a bit afraid of reviewing it. How do you put to print your thoughts and feelings about an episode of television that has inspired many long discussions and debates with friends? How do I get across to those readers who haven’t seen it yet just how truly amazing this hour of television is? I guess it’s best to just jump on in and get going.

This is the next part to the story which began last week. After a series of adventures, Buffy and Angel finally consummate their relationship. That episode ends with a distraught Angel running from their bed into the rain screaming Buffy’s name. This week begins with what I believe is one of the coolest moments of the whole series. Angel stands up in the alley outside of his place and approaches a woman who is smoking a cigarette. Before much can be said, he attacks her. What? Good guy Angel is sucking blood??? After he drops her lifeless body we get the moment, in full vamp face Angel lifts his head and exhales smokes. Sure I still cannot figure out how you get smoke from a vein but damn if Whedon didn’t just succinctly tell us in that moment that this was not Angel anymore but instead it is Angelus.

There is a pretty heavy handed message imbedded in this episode directed at any teenage girls thinking of sleeping with their boyfriends. They better not or their boyfriends will also turn evil! Angelus goes back to Buffy and does not vamp out on her. Instead he begins the psychological torture which will continue for the rest of the season. He tells her she was ok in bed. He tells her he should not have expected more. He breaks her heart. These are moments that happen between partners every day but as viewers we are in on the more sinister elements at play. Buffy is a teenage girl who is now dealing with a sexual encounter that was not all love and butterflies. This brought home even more when Giles misreads her emotional state and scolds her until Willow stops him. She can see in Buffy what has occurred. The way these scenes are acted and scripted blew me away.

So Angelus turns out to really be the Big Bad of season two. After leaving Buffy he reconnects with Drusilla and Spike declaring he is back to reunite their old group. Drusilla is filled with glee at this prospect while Spike is more cautious. The way in which Whedon exposes Angelus’ new evil status to Buffy and the gang is another highlight. Willow goes to the library where she discovers Xander and Cordelia kissing. The secret romance is discovered and Willow is not thrilled. She runs into the hallway where she encounters Angelus in the shadows. He claims to have to new info on “The Judge” (The demon assembled by Spike and Dru last week who can dissolve human flesh with a touch.) Willow approaches him. When she is almost in his reach Buffy enters the hallway and warns Willow to get away. Willow is almost killed but Buffy saves her and Angelus flees. Buffy leaves herself when she starts to realize she is the reason Angelus is back. That night Buffy is visited by Angel in a dream who warns her to be wary of Ms. Calendar. She awakes and pretty forcefully confronts Jenny. She reveals that she is a part of the gypsy tribe that cursed Angelus with his soul. She also reveals that the curse can only be broken if Angel experienced a moment of true happiness. They all pretty quickly put together what Buffy and Angel did the previous night. Buffy expects judgement, especially from Giles. Later she finds he offers only love and support.

Buffy is shaken but she proves her strength when they prepare to face The Judge and Angelus. The Scooby’s figure out that Angelus and friends will be setting The Judge loose first at the mall. Whedon and co. show that they do get what their audience wants when Buffy quickly dispatches The Judge with a rocket launcher procured by Xander. This big bad demon is quickly killed because he is not who we care about. We want to see Buffy confront Angelus, and she does. Their fight is heart wrenching and so well done. The fight ends in a draw as it is not yet time for them to have a final confrontation. When Giles speaks to her about it she tells him that she knows what she needs to do; she has to kill Angelus. In that moment we know what the rest of the season will be about and as a fan I was afraid that it would really have to happen.

This episode is an emotional rollercoaster filled with big bangs and smaller character moments that are reflective of what one expects from a well done episode of this show. The perfection of this episode extends to the cast, the writing, the directing… everything. This is the set up for some of the best episodes to come but it stands alone at the top of my best episodes’ list. Every time I re-watch it I notice new subtle nuances that enhance the story. It is a diamond amongst the gems of this show.

J.D. Dunn

The first show for "Buffy's" new night, which you can tell by the airdate, and it had to be huge to keep its audience. It delivered. Boy, did it deliver! It's pathos galore as Buffy has her heart ripped out when Angel treats her as just another lay…and not a very good one. Whedon rightly points out the "Moonlighting" curse (actually, he references "Cheers") where the characters sleep together and the show loses all momentum. Turning Angel against her was a way out around that. He also mentions that people hated Oz for coming between Xander and Willow, so he wrote the van scene where Oz refuses to kiss her to help the audience get into him. A success on nearly every level with the only small flaw being that Miss Calendar's treachery is revealed by a dream, which is a pretty lazy "out" for the writers, considering how well everything else worked.

Ronny Sarnecky

A-freaking-mazing!!!!!!! That is the perfect word to describe this episode. Every good story has a beginning, where you introduce the audience to the characters and the story. Season One and Season Two, up until the episode “Surprise” took care of that. The next phase in a story would be the middle where the hero faces an adversity that they must overcome in order for there to be a “happy ending.” You’ve got to hand it to Joss Whedon. In the episode “Innocence,” Whedon clubbed Buffy over the head with adversity, and kept beating, and beating her over the head with it.

This episode had so many awesome moments, that if there were a Mount Rushmore put up of Buffy episodes, this show would be front and center on the mountaintop. Throughout the episode, the one element that stood out was “betrayal.” Xander betrayed Willow once his relationship with Cordelia was exposed. The “Scooby Gang” felt betrayed by Miss Calendar when they found out that she was actually sent to make sure the curse on Angel remained, yet she kept this a secret. The betrayal with the greatest impact was Angel’s betrayal of Buffy.

It’s a fear that everyone can relate to. You open your heart to someone, and then when you finally give yourself to them, not just physically, but emotionally, you leave yourself vulnerable to be hurt, or rewarded with the same love. You fear having the former happen. In Buffy’s case, that’s exactly what happened.

By Angel turning into a vamp, and rejecting Buffy, Joss provided the viewer with the “sex is bad, and guys only want one thing” after-school special public service announcement for all of the girls out there. If you want to go into an even deeper meaning, Angel’s fall into being a vamp could be used as a metaphor for catching a venereal disease for the males watching the show.

However, I don’t think Joss turned Angel as part of some public service announcement for teenage sex. I think he did it because it made for some VERY compelling television. Angel as a “Big Baddie,” is an awesome character. He makes Satan look like the King of Kindness. I love the interaction between Angelus and Spike. The previously brooding Angel character gives way and the evil Angel allows David Boreanaz to let his comedic side shine through. It's that comic side of Boreanaz where he comes through as an actor, whether it be as the evil Angelus on “Buffy,” as Angel singing karaoke in “Angel,” or as Seeley Booth in “Bones.”

There is nothing about this episode that I didn’t like. Even the small things were extremely well done. When Willow asked Oz to kiss her, he said no because he dreams that when he kisses her, she kisses him. There was something really sweet about that during all of the madness going on. I also loved how Xander’s military knowledge from the “Halloween” episode came into play as a way to defeat the “Judge.”

I could go on and on about this episode. I’ll just close it out with this: I’ve seen this episode no fewer than 20 times. Even during my time watching the episode for this review, I found myself on the edge of my seat for the whole 43 minutes. Now, that is great television. A perfect 10!

Jerome Cusson

I know that Joss Whedon has done some fantastic work for this show and various other shows. But when I think about one of his very best works, I think of "Innocence." This was the show that separated itself from so many other pedestrian science fiction and fantasy shows. I've always believed that as good as some of these shows are sometimes, they still tend to veer on the corny side. Here was a show that despite all of its' humour and sometimes light-heartedness always took its material seriously. I actually remember "Surprise" and "Innocence" well since this was around the time I began watching the show. I wasn't sure what to think, but I knew this was something far better than a lot of the other dramas I'd been watching up to this point. I think the first scene with Angel and Buffy is one of the most heartbreaking and poignant moments I've ever seen on television.

Angel turning bad could have also easily been seen as a cliche of young girls losing their virginity to guys who ultimately turn out to be assholes. But David Boreanez did such a great job that I think this is what earned him his own spin-off. It also set up a fantastic rest of the season because with Angel being so bad, he was always a threat to jump from the shadows and attack... someone.

I'm not sure if it's my favorite episode of Buffy, but this is certainly one for a top ten list and if you are a fan of this show, you certainly know what a huge part of the canon "Innocence" is.

Ron Martin

The second half of Buffy two-parters are always the better half....but with the first episode scoring a 9.8, is it possible for the second half of this one to be better? Possible and done. This was the episode that cemented Boreanaz for me. He was as green as they came in Season One and it showed. He was showing progress throughout Season Two, but when he makes the transition from Angel to Angelus? Welcome to the party, Dave. I'm not going to talk much about the bigger things (the metaphors, the betrayals and the like) in this episode as much as the detail stuff. It's always the detail stuff that makes a 10 episode, a 10 episode.

Here's what brings the episode from 9.8 to 10. Having the Judge around. You know the Judge is going to be beat. There's no question about it other than how. That's not the big picture. The Judge is not here to be another notch on The Scooby Gang's belt. His basic reason for this entire episode is to prove that indeed, Angel has turned into Angelus. Instead of an elongated standoff between Angelus and Spike/Drusilla, Angelus is immediately accepted back because the touch of the Judge didn't so much as irritate him. Even though Spike would later get jealous of him, he never doubts his sincerity as being the evil of all evil. Also, I would have had to have taken off a .1 if the Judge had been destroyed by the rocket launcher. He wasn't. He was still moving -- why? Because no weapon forged by man could kill him. He's not dead, it's just impossible to put him back together.

The other thing that puts this over the top? Willow. Not her reaction to the dicovery of Xander/Cordelia (though that is very, very good) but her repressed sympathy for Buffy when it comes to Angel(us). This would be a running theme for the two as Willow is the last to completely turn against Angel(us) and the first to accept Angel back into the group. Alyson Hannigan gives the second best performance in this episode full of grade A performances by everyone in the cast.

Great writing. Great acting. Great characters. Great storylines. Great setup. Great execution. Does it get any better than this?

Jason Chamberlain

No Ron, it really doesn’t!

This episode is a ten. Literally. It’s one of, if not the best Buffy episode ever produced. What can possibly be said about it?

Well, a whole lot as my fellow writers have proven!

The things that resonate the most in this episode for me are the small, underplayed moments that may get lost within the scope of the large, epic story, but which become clearer upon each viewing.

Oz is a big highlight of this episode for me, which isn’t surprising considering he’s my third favourite Whedon character of all time. And it’s little moments like his response to Willow in the van where he tells he won’t kiss her until she’s kissing him back that cement him as one of the show’s better characters. That’s what you call nobility folks! Joss has said in interviews he wrote that scene so we can watch Willow fall in love with him, and we see it in her eyes. It’s also the moment when, for most viewers, Oz becomes one of the gang.

And come on. “Uh.... arm!” GOLD!

Another small moment I love is Xander’s “Say hi for me.” Maybe the line of the season when taken in context.

Of course, the big thing is Buffy and Angel and to her credit, SMG really brings the pain. Buffy’s heart is shattered and it’s hard not to go there with her, as Angelus is reborn and blows her off in the worst way imaginable before revealing how evil he truly is. David Boreanaz knocks it out of the park as the demonic version of Angel and his range between the two characters is what convinced Joss that the dude could carry his own show.

Of course, this is also the episode that cements Buffy’s reputation as ‘the metaphor show’, and it doesn’t get much clearer than the one that’s here. Evens so, it’s perfectly executed, as is the entire show from top to bottom.

Simply put, this could be the best Buffy episode ever. What more can you say?

GRR!!! ARGH!!!

The 411: This episode of Buffy is amazing. It changed the tone of the series and laid the groundwork for seasons to come. One night of passion goes wrong, and our heroine was never the same again. The new status quo is emotional and scary for Buffy and her friends. It is episodes like this that makes you glad you are with them for the ride!

Final Score:  10.0   [ Virtually Perfect ]