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1) This review will almost definitely contain spoilers for episodes after this one.
1) This review will almost definitely contain spoilers for episodes after this one.
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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?
“A New Man” is the first Giles-centric episode in almost two and a half years. I’m not sure why there are so few episodes that centre around Giles when you compare them to episodes that centre around Xander, Willow, or Spike? Perhaps it’s because Giles is already a fully grown man by the time “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” starts? Perhaps it’s because Giles doesn’t have a huge amount of character development compared to the other three? Whatever the reason is, seeing Giles as the prominent star of an episode is always great to witness. In the case of “A New Man”, it revolves around Giles’ ever-growing insecurities and feelings of inadequacy and uselessness. Since Sunnydale High came to an explosive ending and Giles was fired by the Watcher’s Council, he’s been feeling increasingly confused and directionless. He feels as though his Slayer no longer relies on him or needs him, he’s questioning his purpose in life, and he’s questioning his place within the Scoobies. What makes this episode work is that Giles’ story has been a slow-burning process throughout season four of the show. We’ve witnessed Giles fall deeper and deeper into despair through each of the first twelve episodes of this season. Buffy and Willow are off at college with new partners so have very little time for socialising. Also, some of Giles’ fears are true. Buffy does need Giles to help her less and less! While it’s a good thing that Buffy can stand on her own two feet and can solve her problems herself now, it does make Giles rather redundant. As a result of this, Giles has been involved less and less this season than he has been in the previous three. The only character that Giles seems to have interacted a lot with this season is Xander, who is feeling equally lost, unneeded, and directionless. Giles’ story in this episode is a relatable one as it’s something that every single person in the world struggles with. Who can’t relate to feeling lonely, unwanted, confused, or directionless? We all face it at various points throughout our lives. Much like the overall theme of season four, the theme of this episode is ‘identity’, and is yet another example of a character’s feelings and thoughts being made flesh. Giles feels like his friends don’t communicate with him anymore. In an ironic twist, Giles is turned into a Fyarl demon and can no longer communicate with them at all due to speaking another language. Well played, well played.
In addition to the Giles aspect of this episode, “A New Man” also contains very important developments and details about Buffy and Riley’s relationship and plants the seeds for Willow and Tara’s relationship. The really interesting thing about “A New Man” in relation to Buffy and Riley is that it signifies both the beginning and the end of their relationship. This is the first episode where we get to see Buffy and Riley acting as a fully fledged couple. The episode opens with them getting all steamy on Buffy’s bed...until Willow vag-blocks Buffy...would that be the female equivalent? Shortly after this, Riley becomes insecure after learning just how many vampires and demons Buffy has slain over the years. I still maintain that a Government Research Initiative should have known that the Slayer was real...they should have done their research. Much like Giles in this episode, Riley is battling feelings of inadequacy himself. Riley’s insecurities about Buffy’s strength are further enhanced after they have a sparring session that ends with Buffy kicking Riley flying across the room. The sparring session itself is a really cute scene that helps establish that these two characters do have chemistry when they’re written correctly. Just for future reference, I refuse to call Buffy and Riley’s relationship ‘Biley’ or ‘Ruffy’, as both sound disgusting. One sounds like a dog and the other like something you drink when you’re nauseous. Riley’s face after being kicked across the room tells you everything that you need to know about his mental state and about what the biggest problem in their relationship shall be. Riley can never, ever get over the fact that Buffy is stronger than him. He’s a corn-fed Iowa boy that was raised to believe that men are strong and need to protect their women. Now he’s dating someone that can kick his ass with barely any effort. He can never learn to live with that fact. By the end of this episode, Riley has convinced himself that he likes Buffy’s strength, but this thought pattern won’t last long. Riley’s feelings of inadequacy in relation to Buffy become so strong that he almost dies to try and keep a certain amount of superpowers in the next season’s “Out Of My Mind”.
“A New Man” is also the first episode where Riley’s loyalties are split between Buffy and The Initiative. The Initiative give Riley the directive that Riley can’t bring Buffy along to search for Giles. The Buffy vs. The Initiative arc will also continue throughout this season until Riley has to make a choice between the two.
Let’s be honest, though. This episode is all about Giles. The first twenty minutes or so of this episode are reminding the audience just how lonely and isolated Giles has become over the past six months. We witness Giles sitting alone at Buffy’s surprise birthday party, which makes me so sad that I could die. It’s not until this episode that you really appreciate that without Sunnydale High and Buffy, Giles has no reason to stay in America. He doesn’t seem to have any friends there away from the Scoobies, he has no family near him, and he has no job. The only friends of Giles’ that we’ve met are still living in England. I’m not surprised in the least that Giles was contemplating leaving Sunnydale at the beginning of the next season (as he feels Buffy no longer needs him) and it makes perfect sense for him to leave at the beginning of season six after Buffy’s death. With Buffy having a new boyfriend and being at college, Willow almost dating Tara and being at college, and Xander now having Anya, Giles spends most of his time alone. To quote Angel, “loneliness is about the scariest thing there is”. After spending most of the night alone, Giles is introduced to Buffy’s boyfriend Riley. The only problem is that Buffy forgot to tell Giles that Riley is her boyfriend! The look of surprise and confusion on Giles’ face tells the full story of how much he’s hurt by not being included in this.
Riley: “So, you’re retired?”
Giles: “I’m sorry?”
Ouch. Way to kick a guy when he’s down. I was just about to type “I want to give Giles a big hug!”, but then I remembered that I’ve hugged Anthony Head three times in the past two years and it made me feel better...
To add insult to injury, Buffy refers to Maggie Walsh as the smartest person she’s ever met...know your audience, Buffy! It’s not as though Maggie is replacing Giles as Buffy’s new mentor in relation to vampire hunting, but you can see why Giles feels like he’s being replaced after being neglected so much by Buffy this season. On top of that, Maggie pronounces to Giles that Buffy clearly lacks a strong father-figure (lying bitch!) and nobody told Giles that Riley is a commando in The Initiative. How has Giles – the font of all knowledge and wisdom in the first three seasons – fallen from grace so hard in this season?! Two years ago (to the day), Giles was giving Buffy a speech about how Angel losing his soul wasn’t her fault and that he loves and respects her. He was the embodiment of a father-figure to her. Now he can barely be kept in the loop about anything! However, it is all worth it to give us the scene where Giles is interrogating Willow and Xander, while using his torch. It’s one of Giles’ greatest scenes ever for me.
Giles: “*exasperated* Spike! Spike knew!”
----------------------------------------
Giles: “Professor Walsh, that fishwife!”
I defy you to watch that scene without bursting into hysteria! This scene is followed by the joint-best scene of “A New Man”: Giles and Ethan drinking.
Ethan Rayne is back in Sunnydale for his fourth and final episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. For those of you that don’t read the comic book continuation of the show (which is canon), Ethan Rayne does appear again in season eight. I’m a huge fan of the Ethan Rayne character and my only criticism is that he’s only in four episodes! There was so much story to tell with Giles and Ethan. We discover very little of Giles’ life before Sunnydale and the few times we do are usually in episodes that feature Ethan Rayne. The scene where Giles and Ethan are drinking together and acting like old friends is nice to see because it confirms that Giles did once have friends and have a life away from his occupation. I want to see Giles happy. I want to see Giles with friends. Ethan and Giles have so much history together that even though Giles loathes him by this point, he’ll happily go out and get drunk with him. That’s how lonely he is! HE WATCHED “PASSIONS” WITH SPIKE!
I maintain that drunk Giles is the greatest creation in the history of television. His declaration that he’s “twice the man” Maggie Walsh is leaves my sides hurting. It’s also nice to hear that Giles is aware of the fact that he’s always getting knocked unconscious. It’s a small miracle he hasn’t suffered brain damage or comatose by this point. I also enjoy that Ethan jokes about putting something in Giles’ drink and follows it up with a drunken “just kidding!”, only for us to discover that he actually did put something in Giles’ drink. It’s also great to see that Ethan’s return serves a purpose that extends beyond this episode. Ethan mentions to Giles that a room at The Initiative, “314”, has a lot of people scared and that nobody seems to know what The Initiative’s ultimate purpose is. These two questions form the basis of the next two episodes of the show and set up the rest of the season.
What follows this is what I can only describe as a ten minute laugh-fest. Giles wakes up the next morning with a hangover so bad that he’s turned into a Fyarl demon, no longer speaks English, tears his banister off the staircase, breaks his phone, puts his fist through the wall, and pulls his front door off its hinges. That’s an expensive prank played by Ethan Rayne. Yet again, Giles being unable to verbally communicate to the people closest to him is a perfect addition to this episode after witnessing Giles feeling invisible and left out by the other Scoobies. Of course, Giles goes to Xander for help first. Giles knows that Xander is the only Scooby other than himself that has nothing better to do at 10:30 am than sleep in. While it’s not confirmed, I also like to think that Giles went to Xander for help because he knew that Xander would understand his plight and he didn’t want to feel embarrassed or ashamed in front of Buffy or Willow (who he is closer to). Finally, the writing choice to have Spike as the only person that can understand Giles was an excellent way to bring Spike into the episode. He doesn’t speak ‘Chinese’, but he does speak Fyarl, apparently. Scenes between Spike and Giles always entertain me. Ordinarily, Spike would be the last person Giles would go to for help. However, they’ve lived together this season, watched “Passions” together this season, and while Giles dislikes Spike, he knows that Spike is capable of handling himself in a fight.
Spike and Giles driving around Sunnydale in a broken-down car, almost like a buddy-cop show, might be my favourite part of the episode. Can these two hang out together in every episode, please? “A New Man” can be considered a successful episode just for the fact that the usually mature Giles stopped the car in order to chase Maggie down the street while waving his arms over his head madly. That’s all you need to do to entertain me.
I’ve got to admit, when Buffy stabbed Giles with the letter opener, I had a brief moment where I thought Giles was dead and my heart stopped. Thank God Giles is too cheap and English to buy a real silver letter opener!
Ethan is arrested by The Initiative, Giles looks ridiculous, but oddly sexy in one of Ethan’s colourful, shiny shirts, and everything is right in Sunnydale again...or is it? Giles’ insecurities don’t evaporate after this episode. In fact, they only get worse. Riley’s insecurities about Buffy being stronger than him don’t disappear after this episode, they get worse. Did this episode actually change anything? Not a great deal, but it did do a fantastic job of showing us what Giles is feeling and where his character is heading.
The episode comes to a close on a door marked “314”. Oooh, chilling. Why is it “314”, anyway? Is it somehow cleverly linked to pi? Is Adam pi? Is he made up of 3.14 parts? Hmmm....
As this is the last appearance of Ethan Rayne, I wanted to take a paragraph to say just how amazingly talented and wonderful Robin Sachs was. For those of you unaware, Robin died a little while ago of a supposed heart attack. He made the character of Ethan Rayne so interesting, so likeable, and the ultimate recurring character that you love to hate. He was charismatic, he had a deep backstory, he had a personal connection to Giles, and every episode that he was in was decent. R.I.P., Robin Sachs. You will be greatly missed.
Quote Of The Episode
Buffy: “Nice phone.”
Giles: “Yes, fabulous technology. You see, if anyone has any information I need to know, they can simply tell me about it through this ingenious speaking tube. I’m very excited.”
With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?
“A New Man” is the first Giles-centric episode in almost two and a half years. I’m not sure why there are so few episodes that centre around Giles when you compare them to episodes that centre around Xander, Willow, or Spike? Perhaps it’s because Giles is already a fully grown man by the time “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” starts? Perhaps it’s because Giles doesn’t have a huge amount of character development compared to the other three? Whatever the reason is, seeing Giles as the prominent star of an episode is always great to witness. In the case of “A New Man”, it revolves around Giles’ ever-growing insecurities and feelings of inadequacy and uselessness. Since Sunnydale High came to an explosive ending and Giles was fired by the Watcher’s Council, he’s been feeling increasingly confused and directionless. He feels as though his Slayer no longer relies on him or needs him, he’s questioning his purpose in life, and he’s questioning his place within the Scoobies. What makes this episode work is that Giles’ story has been a slow-burning process throughout season four of the show. We’ve witnessed Giles fall deeper and deeper into despair through each of the first twelve episodes of this season. Buffy and Willow are off at college with new partners so have very little time for socialising. Also, some of Giles’ fears are true. Buffy does need Giles to help her less and less! While it’s a good thing that Buffy can stand on her own two feet and can solve her problems herself now, it does make Giles rather redundant. As a result of this, Giles has been involved less and less this season than he has been in the previous three. The only character that Giles seems to have interacted a lot with this season is Xander, who is feeling equally lost, unneeded, and directionless. Giles’ story in this episode is a relatable one as it’s something that every single person in the world struggles with. Who can’t relate to feeling lonely, unwanted, confused, or directionless? We all face it at various points throughout our lives. Much like the overall theme of season four, the theme of this episode is ‘identity’, and is yet another example of a character’s feelings and thoughts being made flesh. Giles feels like his friends don’t communicate with him anymore. In an ironic twist, Giles is turned into a Fyarl demon and can no longer communicate with them at all due to speaking another language. Well played, well played.
In addition to the Giles aspect of this episode, “A New Man” also contains very important developments and details about Buffy and Riley’s relationship and plants the seeds for Willow and Tara’s relationship. The really interesting thing about “A New Man” in relation to Buffy and Riley is that it signifies both the beginning and the end of their relationship. This is the first episode where we get to see Buffy and Riley acting as a fully fledged couple. The episode opens with them getting all steamy on Buffy’s bed...until Willow vag-blocks Buffy...would that be the female equivalent? Shortly after this, Riley becomes insecure after learning just how many vampires and demons Buffy has slain over the years. I still maintain that a Government Research Initiative should have known that the Slayer was real...they should have done their research. Much like Giles in this episode, Riley is battling feelings of inadequacy himself. Riley’s insecurities about Buffy’s strength are further enhanced after they have a sparring session that ends with Buffy kicking Riley flying across the room. The sparring session itself is a really cute scene that helps establish that these two characters do have chemistry when they’re written correctly. Just for future reference, I refuse to call Buffy and Riley’s relationship ‘Biley’ or ‘Ruffy’, as both sound disgusting. One sounds like a dog and the other like something you drink when you’re nauseous. Riley’s face after being kicked across the room tells you everything that you need to know about his mental state and about what the biggest problem in their relationship shall be. Riley can never, ever get over the fact that Buffy is stronger than him. He’s a corn-fed Iowa boy that was raised to believe that men are strong and need to protect their women. Now he’s dating someone that can kick his ass with barely any effort. He can never learn to live with that fact. By the end of this episode, Riley has convinced himself that he likes Buffy’s strength, but this thought pattern won’t last long. Riley’s feelings of inadequacy in relation to Buffy become so strong that he almost dies to try and keep a certain amount of superpowers in the next season’s “Out Of My Mind”.
“A New Man” is also the first episode where Riley’s loyalties are split between Buffy and The Initiative. The Initiative give Riley the directive that Riley can’t bring Buffy along to search for Giles. The Buffy vs. The Initiative arc will also continue throughout this season until Riley has to make a choice between the two.
Let’s be honest, though. This episode is all about Giles. The first twenty minutes or so of this episode are reminding the audience just how lonely and isolated Giles has become over the past six months. We witness Giles sitting alone at Buffy’s surprise birthday party, which makes me so sad that I could die. It’s not until this episode that you really appreciate that without Sunnydale High and Buffy, Giles has no reason to stay in America. He doesn’t seem to have any friends there away from the Scoobies, he has no family near him, and he has no job. The only friends of Giles’ that we’ve met are still living in England. I’m not surprised in the least that Giles was contemplating leaving Sunnydale at the beginning of the next season (as he feels Buffy no longer needs him) and it makes perfect sense for him to leave at the beginning of season six after Buffy’s death. With Buffy having a new boyfriend and being at college, Willow almost dating Tara and being at college, and Xander now having Anya, Giles spends most of his time alone. To quote Angel, “loneliness is about the scariest thing there is”. After spending most of the night alone, Giles is introduced to Buffy’s boyfriend Riley. The only problem is that Buffy forgot to tell Giles that Riley is her boyfriend! The look of surprise and confusion on Giles’ face tells the full story of how much he’s hurt by not being included in this.
Riley: “So, you’re retired?”
Giles: “I’m sorry?”
Ouch. Way to kick a guy when he’s down. I was just about to type “I want to give Giles a big hug!”, but then I remembered that I’ve hugged Anthony Head three times in the past two years and it made me feel better...
To add insult to injury, Buffy refers to Maggie Walsh as the smartest person she’s ever met...know your audience, Buffy! It’s not as though Maggie is replacing Giles as Buffy’s new mentor in relation to vampire hunting, but you can see why Giles feels like he’s being replaced after being neglected so much by Buffy this season. On top of that, Maggie pronounces to Giles that Buffy clearly lacks a strong father-figure (lying bitch!) and nobody told Giles that Riley is a commando in The Initiative. How has Giles – the font of all knowledge and wisdom in the first three seasons – fallen from grace so hard in this season?! Two years ago (to the day), Giles was giving Buffy a speech about how Angel losing his soul wasn’t her fault and that he loves and respects her. He was the embodiment of a father-figure to her. Now he can barely be kept in the loop about anything! However, it is all worth it to give us the scene where Giles is interrogating Willow and Xander, while using his torch. It’s one of Giles’ greatest scenes ever for me.
Giles: “*exasperated* Spike! Spike knew!”
----------------------------------------
Giles: “Professor Walsh, that fishwife!”
I defy you to watch that scene without bursting into hysteria! This scene is followed by the joint-best scene of “A New Man”: Giles and Ethan drinking.
Ethan Rayne is back in Sunnydale for his fourth and final episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. For those of you that don’t read the comic book continuation of the show (which is canon), Ethan Rayne does appear again in season eight. I’m a huge fan of the Ethan Rayne character and my only criticism is that he’s only in four episodes! There was so much story to tell with Giles and Ethan. We discover very little of Giles’ life before Sunnydale and the few times we do are usually in episodes that feature Ethan Rayne. The scene where Giles and Ethan are drinking together and acting like old friends is nice to see because it confirms that Giles did once have friends and have a life away from his occupation. I want to see Giles happy. I want to see Giles with friends. Ethan and Giles have so much history together that even though Giles loathes him by this point, he’ll happily go out and get drunk with him. That’s how lonely he is! HE WATCHED “PASSIONS” WITH SPIKE!
I maintain that drunk Giles is the greatest creation in the history of television. His declaration that he’s “twice the man” Maggie Walsh is leaves my sides hurting. It’s also nice to hear that Giles is aware of the fact that he’s always getting knocked unconscious. It’s a small miracle he hasn’t suffered brain damage or comatose by this point. I also enjoy that Ethan jokes about putting something in Giles’ drink and follows it up with a drunken “just kidding!”, only for us to discover that he actually did put something in Giles’ drink. It’s also great to see that Ethan’s return serves a purpose that extends beyond this episode. Ethan mentions to Giles that a room at The Initiative, “314”, has a lot of people scared and that nobody seems to know what The Initiative’s ultimate purpose is. These two questions form the basis of the next two episodes of the show and set up the rest of the season.
What follows this is what I can only describe as a ten minute laugh-fest. Giles wakes up the next morning with a hangover so bad that he’s turned into a Fyarl demon, no longer speaks English, tears his banister off the staircase, breaks his phone, puts his fist through the wall, and pulls his front door off its hinges. That’s an expensive prank played by Ethan Rayne. Yet again, Giles being unable to verbally communicate to the people closest to him is a perfect addition to this episode after witnessing Giles feeling invisible and left out by the other Scoobies. Of course, Giles goes to Xander for help first. Giles knows that Xander is the only Scooby other than himself that has nothing better to do at 10:30 am than sleep in. While it’s not confirmed, I also like to think that Giles went to Xander for help because he knew that Xander would understand his plight and he didn’t want to feel embarrassed or ashamed in front of Buffy or Willow (who he is closer to). Finally, the writing choice to have Spike as the only person that can understand Giles was an excellent way to bring Spike into the episode. He doesn’t speak ‘Chinese’, but he does speak Fyarl, apparently. Scenes between Spike and Giles always entertain me. Ordinarily, Spike would be the last person Giles would go to for help. However, they’ve lived together this season, watched “Passions” together this season, and while Giles dislikes Spike, he knows that Spike is capable of handling himself in a fight.
Spike and Giles driving around Sunnydale in a broken-down car, almost like a buddy-cop show, might be my favourite part of the episode. Can these two hang out together in every episode, please? “A New Man” can be considered a successful episode just for the fact that the usually mature Giles stopped the car in order to chase Maggie down the street while waving his arms over his head madly. That’s all you need to do to entertain me.
I’ve got to admit, when Buffy stabbed Giles with the letter opener, I had a brief moment where I thought Giles was dead and my heart stopped. Thank God Giles is too cheap and English to buy a real silver letter opener!
Ethan is arrested by The Initiative, Giles looks ridiculous, but oddly sexy in one of Ethan’s colourful, shiny shirts, and everything is right in Sunnydale again...or is it? Giles’ insecurities don’t evaporate after this episode. In fact, they only get worse. Riley’s insecurities about Buffy being stronger than him don’t disappear after this episode, they get worse. Did this episode actually change anything? Not a great deal, but it did do a fantastic job of showing us what Giles is feeling and where his character is heading.
The episode comes to a close on a door marked “314”. Oooh, chilling. Why is it “314”, anyway? Is it somehow cleverly linked to pi? Is Adam pi? Is he made up of 3.14 parts? Hmmm....
As this is the last appearance of Ethan Rayne, I wanted to take a paragraph to say just how amazingly talented and wonderful Robin Sachs was. For those of you unaware, Robin died a little while ago of a supposed heart attack. He made the character of Ethan Rayne so interesting, so likeable, and the ultimate recurring character that you love to hate. He was charismatic, he had a deep backstory, he had a personal connection to Giles, and every episode that he was in was decent. R.I.P., Robin Sachs. You will be greatly missed.
Quote Of The Episode
Buffy: “Nice phone.”
Giles: “Yes, fabulous technology. You see, if anyone has any information I need to know, they can simply tell me about it through this ingenious speaking tube. I’m very excited.”
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
What are your thoughts on "A New Man"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!
What are your thoughts on "A New Man"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!
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