Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Living Conditions" Review (4x02)

Brief Synopsis: “Dorm life proves to be a challenge for Buffy, as she has to deal with a roommate who is more than a little difficult. Kathy plays music that Buffy hates, labels all her food in the refrigerator, borrows clothes without asking, and gets in the way of Buffy's Slayer duties. She even starts flirting with Parker, Buffy's first college infatuation. Eventually, Buffy comes to the only logical conclusion: Kathy is evil and must be killed.”


"The Freshman" (4x01) quick link here                                                                                                 "The Harsh Light Of Day" (4x03) quick link here

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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?

• I must admit, I quite like this episode. It’s not amazing and certainly won’t set the world ablaze, but it’s an amusing standalone episode that explores Buffy having to adjust to having a roommate. Not only a roommate, but a Cher-loving, jeans-ironing, label-making, egg-rolling, soul-sucking roommate. Who said you can’t make friends in college?

After leaving Sunnydale High, I was worried as to whether or not the show could survive without the high school environment that it thrived so superbly in. The season four opener, “The Freshman”, didn’t give me a lot to work with as it was primarily an episode that established the new environment, rather than being an episode that explored it. “Living Conditions” is the perfect example of a story that can now be told on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” that wouldn’t have been able to be told beforehand. As part of the college experience, Buffy has a roommate. As an only child (until next season), Buffy has never had to deal with sharing to the extreme that she has to with Kathy. It’s interesting to note that even before the soul-sucking started, Buffy disliked Kathy and was avoiding her at all costs. It’s a shitty situation for Buffy to be in. Not only is she not used to sharing a room with someone, but she’s the Slayer. She was finally at a point where all of the important people around her knew what she was so she didn’t have to hide it anymore. Now, she’s started college and has to revert back to sneaking around and lying about where she’s going and what she’s doing. If Buffy were in a position to confide in Kathy, all of these problems might have been avoided...if, ya know, Kathy wasn’t trying to steal her soul. That’s a minor detail, though. I love that Kathy just casually shrugs off the fact that her roommate has a selection of crosses, stakes, and a crossbow in her wardrobe. Like that’s entirely normal things to take to college with you.

Having a roommate is hard. Having a housemate is hard. Two and a half years ago I moved in with my friend Hayley. In a lot of ways this has allowed us to grow closer, but it does come at a price. Little things start to annoy you. They haven’t cleaned the dishes or they put things back in the wrong place. They leave the bathroom messy or don’t empty the bin bag. While all of these things seem trivial, they do add up over time. There’s definitely an adjustment period. That is what “Living Conditions” explores, only it puts a supernatural spin on things. I appreciate the realism of this episode. It’s the small things that Kathy does which are driving Buffy mental. Kathy’s quirkiness at the logging of calls, her obsession with Cher’s “Believe”, borrowing Buffy’s clothes, following her on patrolling (thinking that it’s a coffee run)...it’s all very amusing. The first half of this episode is played entirely for humour. It’s funny watching Buffy try to juggle her slaying life and her highly spirited new roommate. If I had to listen to “Believe” on constant repeat, I would probably want to murder Kathy too.

The Scoobies, justifiable so, think that Buffy is just having trouble adjusting to sharing with someone. As the episode continues, Buffy’s behaviour becomes increasingly irrational. She’s no longer the Buffy that we’ve grown to know and love over the past three years. She’s argumentative and is getting annoyed at the smallest of things that Kathy does. Even with Buffy acting so out of character, I didn’t suspect foul play on Kathy’s part. I thought that this episode was going to be about Buffy realising that she had to learn how to live with another human being. Oh, how wrong I was...

Kathy: “Sounds like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”
Buffy: “And guess what? You were next to it.”

I do love it when Buffy gets all sassy like that. A sassy Slayer is an amusing Slayer.

Things come to a head and Kathy tells Buffy that she needs to learn to share. Even though it is later established that Kathy was a demon that was stealing Buffy’s soul, I do believe that there’s an element of truth to this. Buffy does need to learn to share. When Willow eats some of Buffy’s sandwich at the end of the episode, Buffy gives her the same evil eyes that she gave Kathy, even though there is no longer any soul-sucking in place (is it me or do Sarah’s teeth look ridiculously white in this episode? The glare off of her perfectly white teeth hurts my fragile little eyes). Oh God, the scene where Buffy tries to drink an entire carton of milk just to annoy Kathy is beyond excellence. Buffy usually has the weight of the world on her shoulders. It’s rare and exciting to see Buffy acting so juvenile and silly.

Do you know who I really appreciate in this episode? Oz. Oz is the person that looks out for Buffy and monitors her behaviour. It’s so nice to see some one-one-one bonding between Buffy and Oz, as it’s such a rarity. I believe that this is their first proper scene together just the two of them. Oz comforts Buffy in his usual way. He says very little and what he does say is quirky and humorous. 

Oz: “On the plus side you killed the bench, which was looking shifty.”

What impresses me about this episode is how it’s able to switch so quickly and subtly between comedy and disturbing. Buffy tells Willow that she has to kill Kathy to stop her from annoying anyone else. What the fiddlesticks?! BUFFY CAN’T SLAY A HUMAN! It was at this point in the episode that I realised shenanigans were afoot. It was very well done! I didn’t suspect that Buffy was being possessed or having her soul sucked out. I just thought that she was changing as a person due to living with an annoying roommate.

The Scoobies devise a plot to capture Buffy and eliminate the ‘possession’ that has taken place. I can’t believe that they managed to trap Buffy in a net and tie her up! Clearly the Slayer is a little off of her game due to a lack of beauty sleep and having her soul sucked out slowly. Also, Buffy stole Kathy’s toenail clippings...that’s so very, very disgusting. That’s sociopathic behaviour right there.

In a move that surprised nobody, the genius team of Xander and Oz didn’t tie the ropes constraining Buffy tight enough.

Xander: “I don’t think I tightened those ropes enough.”
Oz: “Well, we better go over there and check ‘em.”
Xander: “*laughs*...Oh dear God…”

I really, really like Xander’s nervous laughter before saying “Oh dear God…”. He is terrified at the prospect of going near an annoyed Buffy. Who can blame him! This Buffy is more terrifying than regular Buffy! This one steals toenails and drinks all of your milk! All of this hilarity and disturbing behaviour leads to a Buffy vs. Kathy showdown! A Buffy vs. Kathy faceoff (see what I did there?)! Team Slayer vs. Team Cher! The fight itself is great as it encompasses all of the annoyances that both of them have been feeling. Buffy strangles Kathy with the blue sweater that Kathy borrowed without asking and they argue over the logging of phone calls while fighting. If it wasn’t for the Xander-Harmony bitch fight later in the season, this fight could win ‘Fight of the Year’.

Even at this point, I didn’t suspect that Kathy was a demon. While enjoying the fight, I was startled at the fact that Buffy was hitting a human. Stop hitting a human! Bad Buffy! Then, Buffy reached over and PULLED KATHY’S FACE OFF! AAAH! I yelled so loudly at my screen (I was 10 years old when I first watched this episode in 2000) that my mum came in to make sure I wasn’t dying or something. I don’t think the revelation that Kathy was a demon invalidates the episode at all. All of the underlying issues that Buffy had at having to share her life with someone were genuine. Kathy sucking her soul out during her sleep just made them more extreme than they would have been otherwise. In some ways, Kathy is a nice warm-up act for Dawn. Even though the monks give Buffy memories that Dawn has been there the whole time, we know that she hasn’t been. Buffy has issues throughout the next season that relate to sharing with Dawn. She doesn’t seem to like the Scoobies interacting with Dawn and she doesn’t seem to like sharing Joyce with Dawn sometimes.

...I wonder if Kathy went to the same face-putting-on people that Ken did from season three’s “Anne”. Speaking of Ken, it was never established what type of demon he was. Perhaps he was also a Mok’tagar demon like Kathy. Mok’tagar are inter-dimensional time travelling demons. Ken does something similar to this with his slave planet. Plus, they look similar after their faces had been removed.

Kathy is a unique character and one that I can’t help but feel sorry for. She ran away from home because she wanted to be independent and live her own life, and she was taken back against her will. This explains why Kathy was so happy and overly cheerful all the time! She was so joyous at having escaped from her family that everything looked positive and wonderful in comparison. She was finally free to live her life the way she wanted to after being controlled for so long. Clearly 900-year-olds aren’t allowed out without supervision on her planet...

I also need to mention what a wonderful job Dagney Kerr did with Kathy. Dagney takes a character that is only in two episodes (only one of which does she have a significant role) and she makes her memorable. Not only memorable, but empathetic, likeable, annoying, hilarious, and interesting. That is not an easy feat to accomplish in such a short space of time. Easily one of the most memorable ‘villains’ of the fourth season. Kudos to her for a job well done!

The episode comes to a close with Willow moving into Buffy’s dorm room with her. Dingoes Ate My Baby’s “Pain” is a much nicer song to have playing on repeat.

One final important part of this episode is the introduction of Parker Abrams. Jerk alert! What. An. Ass. I have a lot to say about Parker, but I’m keeping it all for the next episode’s review. My initial impression of Parker was that he was going to become Buffy’s attempt at a ‘normal’ boyfriend. After dating a vampire on and off for the past three years and being broken up with by that vampire to give her the opportunity for a ‘normal’ life, I was expecting Buffy to over-correct and date a human in this season. I was right about the human, wrong  about the person. Luckily, Riley is a thousand times better than Parker...I can’t wait until Riley punches him. I will arm-flail with joy at that! While I dislike Parker’s character, he’s important. Buffy learns a lot from the shag-and-run technique that Parker uses.

Oh, also, when I first saw “Mean Girls”, I thought that Adam Kaufman (Parker) was playing Aaron Samuels. It’s not him, but they look damn near identical.


Some other thoughts on “Living Conditions”...

• I don’t see what Buffy has to complain about really. Compared to Willow’s roommate, a little soul-sucking and listening to “Believe” is nothing! There is a party going on in Willow’s dorm room 24/7.
• Buffy was looking through Giles’ mail. Surely that’s an invasion of privacy? Look how shirty Buffy gets in season one when she thinks Angel read her diary!
• Giles: “You took your roommate patrolling with you?”
   Buffy: “Well, I invited the whole dorm, but she was the only one who could make it.”
• This episode also contains the first sighting of Veruca. I hate her! She comes along out of nowhere and ruins the adorableness that is Willow and Oz. Veruca is the perfect name for her. She’s irritating and won’t go away. Veruca and Parker should be slayed immediately.
• Spike is back in the next episode! Woohoo! Even though season three had very little Spike in and was the most consistently great season, I’ve missed Spike a lot. You don’t realise just how important he is to the show until he reappears and steals every scene that he’s in.


Quote Of The Episode

Buffy: “She has parts that keep growing after they’re detached! She irons her jeans! She’s evil! She has to be destroyed!”

Giles: “I fear the demon that Buffy met in the woods has somehow possessed her.”

Buffy: “Light FM! Love songs! Nothing but love songs!”

Xander: “You think?”

FINAL SCORE: 6/10

What are your thoughts on "Living Conditions"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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