The Watcher Diaries: Anne - Buffy Episode 3.1
Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 08.27.2008
Buffy's best season begins with the Slayer in Los Angeles, the Scooby Gang trying to fill her shoes, and Angel seen only in nightmares. Check out the full review of the third season premiere, 'Anne'!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s third season is, without a doubt, some of the best episodic television I’ve ever seen. Granted I don’t have what you’d call an unbiased opinion on the subject, but it’s generally accepted that this is Buffy at its finest. So strap in! You’re in for a treat.
Before we get to the episode, let me introduce 411’s very own Scooby Gang. True to the show itself, some of us have been here all the way, some have jumped in as we’ve gone and some have left. For this season I think we’ve got the strongest group of writers and reviewers we’ve had since we started. Here they are!
There is Mike Gorman of 'Mikey Likes It', the 'Babes, Bombs and Blockbusters Movie News Report' and The Sopranos retro review.
Then there’s Ron Martin of 'A Fool's Utopia' and 'The Damn Dirty DVD Review'.
Stepping up to the plate once again is Ronny Sarnecky, writer of The Piledriver Report in the wrestling zone.
Also back for another season is Jeremy Thomas, big time movie reviewer and wrestling aficionado.
I’m pleased to welcome Shawn S. Lealos, coming at you with ‘Alternate Takes’ and a slew of reviews.
One more time, give it up to John Meehan of 'Meethinks', who has pimped out our column with slick season three banners.
As for me, Jason Chamberlain, I bring you 'Casting Call' and 'The Heroes Review' when I’m not overseeing this column of ours.
So that’s the Scooby Gang. And this is the season premiere! Here’s a rundown.
Episode 3.1 – ‘Anne’
Written and Directed by: Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: September 29, 1998
Summary: Buffy has run away from her life in Sunnydale and has taken refuge in Los Angeles, going by her middle name and doing her best to deny who she really is. But demonic problems aren’t exclusive to Sunnydale, and when homeless kids start disappearing, she realizes she can’t run from her duty to help people. Meanwhile back home, the gang tries to move forward while picking up the slaying slack.
I’m up for the review this week!
As you’ll read further down, this episode wasn’t a smash hit with the rest of the gang. It’s not near the top of my list either, but it’s far from terrible
Every season premiere is saddled with the duty to reintroduce the characters, the world and the mythology of the show. That, and it has to resolve issues left hanging the previous year. As such, the episodes can be heavy on the exposition and a little slow at times. In this case, we want Buffy to be back in Sunnydale and for things to be back to normal, but we’ll have to wait a little for that.
Buffy’s Los Angeles story isn’t the most interesting one the show ever cooked up, but it serves its purpose in illustrating Buffy’s struggle to run away from her destiny. At the end of season two, she had reached a point where she didn’t think she could go on as ‘the hero’, but in this episode she finds out that no matter how far she runs, there will always be people that need her help, and she’ll always answer the call, because that’s who she is.
We also see that she is haunted by Angel, which is no surprise. It might have served the show better to leave Angel on the sidelines for the first few episodes to build the drama of his eventual return. But with his presence here as well as in the opening credits, there’s no suspense at all. It probably came down to a contract thing, with Boreanaz being a regular cast member and all, but still.
The story on Sunnydale is better as we see the rest of the gang adapting to life without Buffy. The scenes with them hunting vampires are hilarious and perfectly executed, from Xander and Cordelia’s over the top reconciliation kiss to Oz pitching in on wise cracking tactics (“I recommend ‘This time it’s personal’. There’s a reason it’s a classic”)
You know how I’m a Spike fan boy? Well I’m also an Oz fan boy. To me he was at once one of the best and most underused characters the show ever introduced, as I was really disappointed when he left the show. For season three, though, he’s a regular cast member and he’s well utilized in this show. His valiant but awful attempt at throwing the stake at the retreating vampire is excellent, and his discussion with Willow about his return to school (“I’d be willing to bargain down to eccentric with an option on cool”) is one of my favourite moments of the season.
On the grown up side of things, Giles struggles as a Watcher without a Slayer, which foreshadows his difficulties in later seasons when Buffy grows more indepandant.
Of course Buffy’s path leads her back to Sunnydale and her mother’s arms as the episode ends, and as viewers, we’re ready to get this season started!
Ron Martin
Anne is a necessary evil. You have to deal with the consequences of Buffy running away. It was just too much for her at the end of Season Two and not even she could deal with it. Even though the episode overall is pretty subpar, there are some goodies here.
First we deal with the Buffy side of the story. This is the side that is not so good. Buffy's trip to "Hell" is very campy (even for Buffy) and somewhat unnecessary. In all of Los Angeles, we couldn't come up with a better storyline for Buffy? Also, the story seems to spit in the face of the overall theme for the series - that Buffy survives where other slayers didn't because Buffy has a support system that constantly saves her neck. She went to "Hell" and didn't need any of her friends help to get out. That's a pretty big step. Though I do like the reappearance of Lily, that's about all I like in the LA story.
Things are a bit different down in Sunnydale. The Scooby Gang's attempt at taking over Buffy's responsibilities is hilarious. Every character is used fully if they are a bit clumsy. As an added bonus we get bits of Giles trying to find Buffy drawing the ire of Joyce. It's moments like these that make Buffy what it is. Unfortunately, this storyline played second to the Buffy storyline.
Yeah, yeah, we get it. Buffy ran away from herself and could have ended up like the homeless kids. We couldn't make this more interesting? My rating: 6.
Shawn S. Lealos
“This is our year. I’m telling you, best football season ever. I’m so in shape, I’m a rock. It’s all about egg whites. If we can focus, keep discipline, and have not quite as many mysterious deaths, Sunnydale is gonna rule!”
The first episode of Season 3 opens with Xander, Willow and Oz trying to fend off the vampire population of Sunnydale while Buffy is missing in action. The slapstick misadventure of the remaining Scooby Gang sets the tone for the Sunnydale portions of the show and provides the only comic relief in an episode full of angst. Buffy is back to her overly selfish agenda as she has run away and taken a job as a waitress named Anne in the big city. When a girl named Lily who she once saved (in Lie to Me) arrives, Buffy is unable to keep from being sucked back into the life of protecting others.
The production values were raised this season and the episodes look better than most in the previous two seasons. The story is a little melodramatic and is one of Joss Whedon’s “lesson episodes” (which is not surprising, since Whedon wrote and directed it) as Buffy must find herself. The fact that the episode is named after her alias tells you everything you need to know about what to expect with lots of clips of homeless and lost kids. When the demon tells Buffy she obviously wanted to disappear and now she succeeded, it is that key dialogue that kicks Buffy back into action. I had two problems with the episode. I don’t know why the portal closed after they escaped. That made no sense. Also, what happened to all those prisoners left behind? It is not the best of episodes but it serves its purpose. Trivia: Lily returns in Season 2 of Angel, using Buffy’s alias Anne. My Rating: 6
Ronny Sarnecky
There was something very cool seeing Buffy wielding a “sickle-style” knife towards the end of this episode. This episode played off as a nice bookend from the end of Season Two and episode two’s “Dead Man’s Party” in Season Three. While “Anne” is technically the first episode of this season, to me, Season Three doesn’t begin until Buffy and the “Scooby Gang” are reunited in Sunnydale. With that being said, I liked that they showed that life goes on without Buffy in Sunnydale. Oz and Willow were still dating. Xander and Cordelia were still playing cat and mouse games with each other. The “Scooby Gang” were trying to hold the vampire killing fort down until Buffy made her return. Their “hunting” scenes were funny, as they looked like little kids playing Pop Warner football for the first time. They know what they need to do, but they stumble and bumble on the execution. However, the best scenes involved Giles, as he acted like a worried father, more than a Watcher, which would be an issue that he would be taken to task for later in the season. The scene between himself and Buffy’s mom was awesome. You can see the stress both are under since Buffy left. As for Buffy’s new life, I liked the fact that this season did not begin like the end of Season Two was no big deal, and Buffy was back home. It was great to see the effect Angel’s “death” had on her. At the same time, the storyline she was involved in during this show bored me. I want to see Buffy with the “Scooby Gang” in Sunnydale. Thankfully, we wouldn’t have to wait much longer. Final Episode Score: 6.5.
Jeremy Thomas
Season Three opens on, if not its strongest note, a good one with “Anne.” The season opener was a natural and necessary progression from the end of Season Two, with Buffy having run away to (presumably) Los Angeles where she’s working as a waitress named Anne. I actually enjoyed this episode more then I otherwise might have for the nods to continuity. First, we see Xander, Willow and Oz trying to cover for the absent Slayer, something that we would see again later in the series—and honestly done a bit better—but here it was still new and interesting, watching the Scoobs step up in Buffy’s absence. We also see the return of Lily, better known at the time as Chantarelle from “Lie to Me” in what I thought was a nice touch. The episode has some awkwardness to it, which is understandable when coming off the emotional highs and lows that took us through the end of the second season, but Carlos Jacott, who’s a Whedon favorite for villains (see Lawrence Dobson in Firefly and Richard Straley in Angel) projects the great sort of hokey niceness-turned-blatantly evil that the character needed. That said, there is some weakness; I didn’t think we needed Angel to appear quite so quickly, even if it’s in a flashback, and they have another bout of classic crap Buffy/Angel dialogue:
Buffy: How did you find me here?
Angel: If I was blind, I would see you.
Okay, so it’s not “When I kiss you, I wanna die” bad, but still, ugh. There are also parts of the episode that feel rushed, and I think it ties things up a little too quickly and neatly to get her back on the road to Sunnydale. All in all, though, it’s a pretty decent episode, and I can’t complain too much. Score: 7.0
Check back next week as Buffy's friends welcome her home... and zombies crash the party!
GRR!!! ARGH!!!
The 411: Buffy doesn't quite come back with a bang in its third season, but don't worry; there's nowhere but up from here!
