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1) This review will almost definitely contain spoilers for episodes after this one.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re now officially over halfway through my reviews of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”! This is episode 73 out of 144! In the first 72 reviews, I’ve written over 200,000 words about the Buffyverse and spent roughly 200 hours on them. That’s excluding the first 16 episodes of “Angel” that I’ve reviewed. Jeez...it’s a good job I don’t sleep. With that being said, I love it, so it’s all good. “Superstar” is interesting in than it’s a primarily comedic episode, but ultimately the message that the episode is trying to convey is one of loneliness and trying to find your place in the world. Who can’t relate to that? Trying to figure out what career to choose or where you belong in the world. It’s something that 99% of the population of the world struggle with at some point in their lives. Most people don’t resort to changing the entire world to resolve their feelings of inadequacy and loneliness, but there’s no denying that the concept is intriguing. This isn’t Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s first time exploring the realms of an alternate reality episode, as the last season saw a universe where Buffy Summers had never arrived in Sunnydale (“The Wish”). Remember how well that turned out for Sunnydale...the difference is that while “The Wish” came across as groundbreaking and truly spectacular, “Superstar” comes across as, well, mundane. Sure, it has some interesting moments and does hold a key piece of information about Adam that will be relevant later on, but overall “Superstar” is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Even Jonathan doesn’t learn a lesson from this experience, as the next time we see him he’s in ‘The Trio’ with Andrew and Warren. That doesn’t mean that this episode is unenjoyable, it just means that it leaves a lot to be desired in the grand scheme of things.
I guess my biggest problem with the episode is the placement of it. After a thrill ride of a two-part story involving Faith, I felt like this episode should be season arc-centric in order to bring the audience back into the Adam and Initiative storyline. How many episodes this season have been season arc-centric thus far? Two? Three? It’s not enough. Season two and three were fantastic because there was a healthy mixture of standalone episodes and season arc episodes. Perhaps season four has less season arc episodes because Joss and the rest of the crew knew that their Initiative idea wasn’t working very well. Perhaps they were distracted by season one of “Angel” and trying to get that off the ground. Whatever the reason, season four comes across as lacking outside of some scintillating standalone episodes like “Hush”, “This Year’s Girl”, and “Who Are You?”. In comparison, “Superstar” is one of those episodes of the show that’s like Marmite to the fandom – people love it or hate it. I find it to be a good episode, but certainly not great.
I can’t help but compare “Superstar” to “Storyteller” in season seven. Both episodes deal with the ramifications of the actions of a member of The Trio. “Storyteller” is easily the better of the two. Both episodes pack a lot of humour and emotion into the episode, but “Storyteller” wins on both counts. Unlike Jonathan, Andrew learns a lesson from “Storyteller” and grows as a character. Jonathan doesn’t receive that “eureka!” moment that changed the course of his character. That comes much later...just before Andrew stabs him.
The episode opens with the Scoobies stumbling upon a vampire nest. Fairly standard stuff for Buffy, right? Then Buffy goes to visit Jonathan and ask him for help! I was highly confused. Then the opening credits roll and the look on my face closely resembles one that I pull when I’m trying to understand why someone would ball up odd socks together. IT MAKES NO SENSE! My brain exploded into a barrage of questions – “Why is Jonathan there? Why do they need Jonathan’s help? Can Jonathan fight now? Where’s he been since graduation, karate camp? Why does he look so suave? What’s the meaning of life? What the absolute hell is going on? And where did I put my packet of damn Rolos?!”...welcome to my brain. The decision to add Jonathan to the opening credits was a good one. It’s quite an expensive thing to change, but you just know it was Joss’ idea. It has his stink all over it. Sadistically, Joss wanted Jesse to be in the opening credits for “Welcome To The Hellmouth” and “The Harvest”. Why, you ask? So that it would be more shocking when he was killed off during “The Harvest”. However, it turned out to be far too expensive to create two sets of opening credits, so the idea was nixed. Joss later went on to accomplish that fiendish goal when he added Tara to the “Seeing Red” opening credits, only to kill her off at the conclusion of the episode...vindictive bastard!
Much like in last season’s “Earshot”, Jonathan tries to fix his life and loneliness with one grand gesture. Just like “Earshot”, he fails. YOU CAN’T FIX YOUR LIFE WITH ONE GRAND GESTURE....ASK WILLOW HOW HER SPELL TO HAVE HER WILL DONE TURNED OUT. You’ve got to work through the pain and fix the aspects of your life that need fixing. Jonathan doesn’t know how to do that so instead he’s resorting to magic, just like Willow did previously and will do again. When you think about it, his character journey thus far has been ridiculously depressing, so it’s no surprise that he wants to be the centre of attention for once. He was bullied by the swim team and ignored so much that he tried to take his own life in the clocktower with a rifle...like his little arms could have reached the trigger with the gun aimed at his head! Since Buffy talked him down, his life has clearly improved very little. Instead of trying to change himself to fix it, he’s trying to change everything in the world except himself.
Spike’s behaviour towards Buffy in Jonathanland (that’s what I’m gonna call this universe) is also fascinating. Even though he can’t remember her name (“back off, Betty!”), he has a twisted fascination with her and is clearly sexually attracted to her. At least he’s consistent in his stalking, I suppose...
Jonathan’s spell is so powerful that it can make lesbians attracted to him. That is some impressive wand work, right there.
Another important issue that “Superstar” explores and resolves is the emotional distance between Buffy and Riley since Riley slept with Faith in the last episode (in Buffy’s body). At the start of this episode, Riley goes to sit down next to Buffy and she instantly moves away. She can’t stand to be near him or to be touched by him after the betrayal she feels. Of course, it’s not Riley’s fault in the least, as I explained in the last episode. But this isn’t about whether or not it was Riley’s fault, the act has been committed regardless. Jonathan gives Buffy and Riley a unique perspective on the situation, when he reveals to Riley how Buffy is feeling and vice versa. Much like their relationship pre-“Hush”, Buffy and Riley can’t communicate without the help of other people. This will plague them in the next season until Riley decides to rejoin the Initiative and leave Sunnydale. On top of the resolution for Buffy and Riley, Jonathan also reveals the key on how to defeat Adam in “Primeval”. Jonathan mentions to the Initiative that Adam doesn’t eat. Adam doesn’t eat because he has a small reservoir of uranium 235 that powers him. If super-Jonathan had not given Riley this piece of information, then the Scoobies couldn’t have combined their essence to take down Adam at the end of the season. Does this mean that Jonathan should receive the credit for stopping Adam?! Did the guy that was picked on the most at Sunnydale High just take down a ‘Big Bad’ and stop a race of hybrid human-demons?! You’ve got to give him partial credit at the very minimum!
For those of you unaware, the singing voice of Jonathan at The Bronze is not Danny Strong. It is Brad Kane. Brad played Tucker Wells (Andrew’s brother) in season three’s “The Prom”. He was the guy who trained the Hellhounds to attack people in formal wear. Brad also performed the singing voice of Aladdin in the Disney film. Very talented man! His cover of “Serenade In Blue” that’s played at The Bronze is terrific. So terrific, in fact, that Xander and Anya get turned on and need to run home for a quickie. Another awesome guest star in this episode is Rob Benedict, who plays Adam’s lacky, Jape. Rob goes on to play Chuck (who might be God...) in “Supernatural”, who’s a terrific, very charismatic character. I hear that Rob recently suffered a stroke, so I hope he’s doing okay now. At a “Supernatural” convention last year, Rob suffered the stroke, but thanks to the quick intervention by Richard Speight (Gabriel/The Trickster in “Supernatural”), Rob was treated quickly and has recovered well as far as I’m aware.
After being relatively boring thus far, we discover that Adam does have a power or two of his own outside of the ability to put audiences to sleep...I jest...mostly.
George Hertzberg is awesome and does a great job with Adam. Adam the character, however, isn’t awesome. Adam isn’t affected by Jonathan’s spell because Adam is more aware of himself and his surroundings than anybody else. Other vampires and demons are affected, but Adam isn’t. So, this season’s ‘Big Bad’ has the superpower of being spiritual? Did Maggie program him to do yoga and Zen training as well?
While I have criticisms of this episode, it does get a number of things right. Jonathan is deliberately doing things in this universe that he never had the opportunity to do in the real world. He’s grand ruler of the universe for a couple of days and what’s the first thing he does? Twin girls in his bed. Good for him. He also gives himself decent fighting skills, a close circle of friends, and power. Everything he’s always craved but never had. It makes sense! I also love that in this reality Buffy gave Jonathan the ‘Class Protector’ award at the prom. At eighteen years old, Jonathan invented the internet, starred in The Matrix, graduated from medical school, coached the women’s soccer team to a World Cup victory, killed The Master, and blew up Sunnydale High. Xander was right, that is some effective time management.
It’s at this point where things start to unravel. Both for Jonathan and the episode. In doing his universe-altering spell, Jonathan has unleashed the world’s most unintimidating demon...except Clem. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. I can’t take it seriously. Even after Tara was attacked by the demon and spent the night in the janitor’s closet alone. Undo this world, Jonathan! Undo it now! Tara is off limits!
Anya: “Xander’s not here.”
Buffy: “Oh.”
Anya: “You’re not going away...why aren’t you going away?”
I love Anya. She’s so blunt and honest. At least you always know where you stand with Anya. There’s no fake politeness. To quote Jane Espenson, “she’s refreshingly candid”. Also, her world without shrimp analogy is sheer perfection. For those of you that haven’t seen “Angel” season five, or just might have missed it, Illyria talks about alternate realities and mentions that there is a world without shrimp! Ha! Buffy and Anya should hang out together more often, just the two of them. It’s such a rarity, yet their characters bounce off each other very well. It’s also interesting to note that Jonathanland Buffy still manages to figure out that Jonathan performed a spell to alter the world. I think that must be Slayer intuition. Even when her whole life has been changed, her first instinct is still to protect people and solve the problem at hand. After the recent drama with Faith and the fact that none of the other Scoobies believed her, it was refreshing to see Riley take Buffy’s side when she raised her theory about Jonathan. Part of the reason why he took her side might have been because he was trying to make amends over the Faith drama, but it’s nice to see them functioning as a team again nonetheless.
Giles has a swimsuit calendar of Jonathan. You can never take this away from me. I’m going to cradle this moment like Gollum with the ring. It will keep me sane during the dark times of the next few seasons. Giles had a Jonathan swimsuit calendar.
When push came to shove, Jonathan chose to save Buffy’s life and have the spell reversed, rather than push Buffy to her death. In the final clinch moment, Jonathan did the right thing. That’s what separates Jonathan from Warren and Andrew in season six. Jonathan just wants to be recognised and to do something memorable that will make him stand out from the pack and be noticeable to the Scoobies, whereas the other two (more so Warren) have genuinely evil characteristics and intentions at that time. Andrew starts to change in the seventh season, but Warren remains evil through and through. Jonathan choosing to do the right thing here results in the spell being reversed and Jonathan becoming his regular self again...
Xander: “You know what I’ll always remember?”
Riley: “The swimsuit calendar’s sticking in my mind...not in a good way.”
Xander: “I’ll always remember the way he made me feel about me...valued, respected, sort of tingly. Now I’m just...empty.”
Buffy: “Poor Xander, I guess Jonathan hurt you most of all.”
Xander’s depression over Jonathan’s spell being broken is ridiculously funny, but also kind of sad. If you read between the lines, it means that regular Xander doesn’t feel valued or respected in his life, which is kind of heartbreaking? All of his friends have moved on with their lives and gone off to college and are trying all these new and wonderful things, while Xander is drifting from one dead end job to the next, trying to find his place in the world. Plus, he’s living in his parent’s basement and that can’t be fun in the least. It’s was a fascinating addition to have some of the Scoobies prefer Jonathan’s bizarro universe. In essence, all of the Scoobies (along with the rest of the world) were dragged out of their regular lives and mind-rapes by Jonathan. He violated everyone in the world, yet some people were happier there. Xander, in particular, would choose Jonathan’s world over his real life. Riley, however, felt too tall. How tall is Marc Blucas? 6’2” according to Google. That is pretty darn tall.
Finally, my favourite part of “Superstar” is actually the closing conversation between Buffy and Jonathan. We understand Jonathan’s reasons for changing the world and we can empathise with that, yet Buffy doesn’t let Jonathan off easily. Like us, she understands why, but that doesn’t make what he did acceptable. She doesn’t instantly forgive him and tell him that everything’s okay. It’s not okay. He fucked up and he has to make amends. Jonathan’s selfish actions, regardless of his motives, need to have negative consequences associated with them and I feel that Buffy delivers those at the conclusion of the episode. Buffy explains to Jonathan that things take time to heal. You can’t fix your life with one big, dramatic gesture. She could easily be talking about her situation with Riley at the same time. Riley sleeping with Faith will take time to heal. It won’t happen overnight, but they’re in a position now where they can move forward together. Even though Buffy is mad at him, Jonathan takes the time to give Buffy some last minute advice on her situation with Riley. All Jonathan has ever wanted is a friendship group that cares about him. He’s latched onto Buffy and the Scoobies because they showed him some kindness at Sunnydale High. Give him an honourary Scooby badge or something, Buffy! CALL HIM EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE! If Buffy had remained in contact with Jonathan here, would he have joined The Trio? Clearly, Jonathan joined The Trio to find his place in the world and make some friends. If Buffy had treated Jonathan like a friend after “Superstar”, perhaps things would have turned out much differently for him.
Quote Of The Episode
Xander: “You can’t just go ‘librum incendere’ and expect...*the book catches fire*”
Giles: “Xander, don’t speak Latin in front of the books.”
Giles’ reaction is highly amusing. He sounds so exasperated...like a parent that’s tired of telling his child off.
FINAL SCORE: 6.5/10
What are your thoughts on "Superstar"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!
With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?
Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re now officially over halfway through my reviews of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”! This is episode 73 out of 144! In the first 72 reviews, I’ve written over 200,000 words about the Buffyverse and spent roughly 200 hours on them. That’s excluding the first 16 episodes of “Angel” that I’ve reviewed. Jeez...it’s a good job I don’t sleep. With that being said, I love it, so it’s all good. “Superstar” is interesting in than it’s a primarily comedic episode, but ultimately the message that the episode is trying to convey is one of loneliness and trying to find your place in the world. Who can’t relate to that? Trying to figure out what career to choose or where you belong in the world. It’s something that 99% of the population of the world struggle with at some point in their lives. Most people don’t resort to changing the entire world to resolve their feelings of inadequacy and loneliness, but there’s no denying that the concept is intriguing. This isn’t Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s first time exploring the realms of an alternate reality episode, as the last season saw a universe where Buffy Summers had never arrived in Sunnydale (“The Wish”). Remember how well that turned out for Sunnydale...the difference is that while “The Wish” came across as groundbreaking and truly spectacular, “Superstar” comes across as, well, mundane. Sure, it has some interesting moments and does hold a key piece of information about Adam that will be relevant later on, but overall “Superstar” is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Even Jonathan doesn’t learn a lesson from this experience, as the next time we see him he’s in ‘The Trio’ with Andrew and Warren. That doesn’t mean that this episode is unenjoyable, it just means that it leaves a lot to be desired in the grand scheme of things.
I guess my biggest problem with the episode is the placement of it. After a thrill ride of a two-part story involving Faith, I felt like this episode should be season arc-centric in order to bring the audience back into the Adam and Initiative storyline. How many episodes this season have been season arc-centric thus far? Two? Three? It’s not enough. Season two and three were fantastic because there was a healthy mixture of standalone episodes and season arc episodes. Perhaps season four has less season arc episodes because Joss and the rest of the crew knew that their Initiative idea wasn’t working very well. Perhaps they were distracted by season one of “Angel” and trying to get that off the ground. Whatever the reason, season four comes across as lacking outside of some scintillating standalone episodes like “Hush”, “This Year’s Girl”, and “Who Are You?”. In comparison, “Superstar” is one of those episodes of the show that’s like Marmite to the fandom – people love it or hate it. I find it to be a good episode, but certainly not great.
I can’t help but compare “Superstar” to “Storyteller” in season seven. Both episodes deal with the ramifications of the actions of a member of The Trio. “Storyteller” is easily the better of the two. Both episodes pack a lot of humour and emotion into the episode, but “Storyteller” wins on both counts. Unlike Jonathan, Andrew learns a lesson from “Storyteller” and grows as a character. Jonathan doesn’t receive that “eureka!” moment that changed the course of his character. That comes much later...just before Andrew stabs him.
The episode opens with the Scoobies stumbling upon a vampire nest. Fairly standard stuff for Buffy, right? Then Buffy goes to visit Jonathan and ask him for help! I was highly confused. Then the opening credits roll and the look on my face closely resembles one that I pull when I’m trying to understand why someone would ball up odd socks together. IT MAKES NO SENSE! My brain exploded into a barrage of questions – “Why is Jonathan there? Why do they need Jonathan’s help? Can Jonathan fight now? Where’s he been since graduation, karate camp? Why does he look so suave? What’s the meaning of life? What the absolute hell is going on? And where did I put my packet of damn Rolos?!”...welcome to my brain. The decision to add Jonathan to the opening credits was a good one. It’s quite an expensive thing to change, but you just know it was Joss’ idea. It has his stink all over it. Sadistically, Joss wanted Jesse to be in the opening credits for “Welcome To The Hellmouth” and “The Harvest”. Why, you ask? So that it would be more shocking when he was killed off during “The Harvest”. However, it turned out to be far too expensive to create two sets of opening credits, so the idea was nixed. Joss later went on to accomplish that fiendish goal when he added Tara to the “Seeing Red” opening credits, only to kill her off at the conclusion of the episode...vindictive bastard!
Much like in last season’s “Earshot”, Jonathan tries to fix his life and loneliness with one grand gesture. Just like “Earshot”, he fails. YOU CAN’T FIX YOUR LIFE WITH ONE GRAND GESTURE....ASK WILLOW HOW HER SPELL TO HAVE HER WILL DONE TURNED OUT. You’ve got to work through the pain and fix the aspects of your life that need fixing. Jonathan doesn’t know how to do that so instead he’s resorting to magic, just like Willow did previously and will do again. When you think about it, his character journey thus far has been ridiculously depressing, so it’s no surprise that he wants to be the centre of attention for once. He was bullied by the swim team and ignored so much that he tried to take his own life in the clocktower with a rifle...like his little arms could have reached the trigger with the gun aimed at his head! Since Buffy talked him down, his life has clearly improved very little. Instead of trying to change himself to fix it, he’s trying to change everything in the world except himself.
Spike’s behaviour towards Buffy in Jonathanland (that’s what I’m gonna call this universe) is also fascinating. Even though he can’t remember her name (“back off, Betty!”), he has a twisted fascination with her and is clearly sexually attracted to her. At least he’s consistent in his stalking, I suppose...
Jonathan’s spell is so powerful that it can make lesbians attracted to him. That is some impressive wand work, right there.
Another important issue that “Superstar” explores and resolves is the emotional distance between Buffy and Riley since Riley slept with Faith in the last episode (in Buffy’s body). At the start of this episode, Riley goes to sit down next to Buffy and she instantly moves away. She can’t stand to be near him or to be touched by him after the betrayal she feels. Of course, it’s not Riley’s fault in the least, as I explained in the last episode. But this isn’t about whether or not it was Riley’s fault, the act has been committed regardless. Jonathan gives Buffy and Riley a unique perspective on the situation, when he reveals to Riley how Buffy is feeling and vice versa. Much like their relationship pre-“Hush”, Buffy and Riley can’t communicate without the help of other people. This will plague them in the next season until Riley decides to rejoin the Initiative and leave Sunnydale. On top of the resolution for Buffy and Riley, Jonathan also reveals the key on how to defeat Adam in “Primeval”. Jonathan mentions to the Initiative that Adam doesn’t eat. Adam doesn’t eat because he has a small reservoir of uranium 235 that powers him. If super-Jonathan had not given Riley this piece of information, then the Scoobies couldn’t have combined their essence to take down Adam at the end of the season. Does this mean that Jonathan should receive the credit for stopping Adam?! Did the guy that was picked on the most at Sunnydale High just take down a ‘Big Bad’ and stop a race of hybrid human-demons?! You’ve got to give him partial credit at the very minimum!
For those of you unaware, the singing voice of Jonathan at The Bronze is not Danny Strong. It is Brad Kane. Brad played Tucker Wells (Andrew’s brother) in season three’s “The Prom”. He was the guy who trained the Hellhounds to attack people in formal wear. Brad also performed the singing voice of Aladdin in the Disney film. Very talented man! His cover of “Serenade In Blue” that’s played at The Bronze is terrific. So terrific, in fact, that Xander and Anya get turned on and need to run home for a quickie. Another awesome guest star in this episode is Rob Benedict, who plays Adam’s lacky, Jape. Rob goes on to play Chuck (who might be God...) in “Supernatural”, who’s a terrific, very charismatic character. I hear that Rob recently suffered a stroke, so I hope he’s doing okay now. At a “Supernatural” convention last year, Rob suffered the stroke, but thanks to the quick intervention by Richard Speight (Gabriel/The Trickster in “Supernatural”), Rob was treated quickly and has recovered well as far as I’m aware.
After being relatively boring thus far, we discover that Adam does have a power or two of his own outside of the ability to put audiences to sleep...I jest...mostly.
George Hertzberg is awesome and does a great job with Adam. Adam the character, however, isn’t awesome. Adam isn’t affected by Jonathan’s spell because Adam is more aware of himself and his surroundings than anybody else. Other vampires and demons are affected, but Adam isn’t. So, this season’s ‘Big Bad’ has the superpower of being spiritual? Did Maggie program him to do yoga and Zen training as well?
While I have criticisms of this episode, it does get a number of things right. Jonathan is deliberately doing things in this universe that he never had the opportunity to do in the real world. He’s grand ruler of the universe for a couple of days and what’s the first thing he does? Twin girls in his bed. Good for him. He also gives himself decent fighting skills, a close circle of friends, and power. Everything he’s always craved but never had. It makes sense! I also love that in this reality Buffy gave Jonathan the ‘Class Protector’ award at the prom. At eighteen years old, Jonathan invented the internet, starred in The Matrix, graduated from medical school, coached the women’s soccer team to a World Cup victory, killed The Master, and blew up Sunnydale High. Xander was right, that is some effective time management.
It’s at this point where things start to unravel. Both for Jonathan and the episode. In doing his universe-altering spell, Jonathan has unleashed the world’s most unintimidating demon...except Clem. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. I can’t take it seriously. Even after Tara was attacked by the demon and spent the night in the janitor’s closet alone. Undo this world, Jonathan! Undo it now! Tara is off limits!
Anya: “Xander’s not here.”
Buffy: “Oh.”
Anya: “You’re not going away...why aren’t you going away?”
I love Anya. She’s so blunt and honest. At least you always know where you stand with Anya. There’s no fake politeness. To quote Jane Espenson, “she’s refreshingly candid”. Also, her world without shrimp analogy is sheer perfection. For those of you that haven’t seen “Angel” season five, or just might have missed it, Illyria talks about alternate realities and mentions that there is a world without shrimp! Ha! Buffy and Anya should hang out together more often, just the two of them. It’s such a rarity, yet their characters bounce off each other very well. It’s also interesting to note that Jonathanland Buffy still manages to figure out that Jonathan performed a spell to alter the world. I think that must be Slayer intuition. Even when her whole life has been changed, her first instinct is still to protect people and solve the problem at hand. After the recent drama with Faith and the fact that none of the other Scoobies believed her, it was refreshing to see Riley take Buffy’s side when she raised her theory about Jonathan. Part of the reason why he took her side might have been because he was trying to make amends over the Faith drama, but it’s nice to see them functioning as a team again nonetheless.
Giles has a swimsuit calendar of Jonathan. You can never take this away from me. I’m going to cradle this moment like Gollum with the ring. It will keep me sane during the dark times of the next few seasons. Giles had a Jonathan swimsuit calendar.
When push came to shove, Jonathan chose to save Buffy’s life and have the spell reversed, rather than push Buffy to her death. In the final clinch moment, Jonathan did the right thing. That’s what separates Jonathan from Warren and Andrew in season six. Jonathan just wants to be recognised and to do something memorable that will make him stand out from the pack and be noticeable to the Scoobies, whereas the other two (more so Warren) have genuinely evil characteristics and intentions at that time. Andrew starts to change in the seventh season, but Warren remains evil through and through. Jonathan choosing to do the right thing here results in the spell being reversed and Jonathan becoming his regular self again...
Xander: “You know what I’ll always remember?”
Riley: “The swimsuit calendar’s sticking in my mind...not in a good way.”
Xander: “I’ll always remember the way he made me feel about me...valued, respected, sort of tingly. Now I’m just...empty.”
Buffy: “Poor Xander, I guess Jonathan hurt you most of all.”
Xander’s depression over Jonathan’s spell being broken is ridiculously funny, but also kind of sad. If you read between the lines, it means that regular Xander doesn’t feel valued or respected in his life, which is kind of heartbreaking? All of his friends have moved on with their lives and gone off to college and are trying all these new and wonderful things, while Xander is drifting from one dead end job to the next, trying to find his place in the world. Plus, he’s living in his parent’s basement and that can’t be fun in the least. It’s was a fascinating addition to have some of the Scoobies prefer Jonathan’s bizarro universe. In essence, all of the Scoobies (along with the rest of the world) were dragged out of their regular lives and mind-rapes by Jonathan. He violated everyone in the world, yet some people were happier there. Xander, in particular, would choose Jonathan’s world over his real life. Riley, however, felt too tall. How tall is Marc Blucas? 6’2” according to Google. That is pretty darn tall.
Finally, my favourite part of “Superstar” is actually the closing conversation between Buffy and Jonathan. We understand Jonathan’s reasons for changing the world and we can empathise with that, yet Buffy doesn’t let Jonathan off easily. Like us, she understands why, but that doesn’t make what he did acceptable. She doesn’t instantly forgive him and tell him that everything’s okay. It’s not okay. He fucked up and he has to make amends. Jonathan’s selfish actions, regardless of his motives, need to have negative consequences associated with them and I feel that Buffy delivers those at the conclusion of the episode. Buffy explains to Jonathan that things take time to heal. You can’t fix your life with one big, dramatic gesture. She could easily be talking about her situation with Riley at the same time. Riley sleeping with Faith will take time to heal. It won’t happen overnight, but they’re in a position now where they can move forward together. Even though Buffy is mad at him, Jonathan takes the time to give Buffy some last minute advice on her situation with Riley. All Jonathan has ever wanted is a friendship group that cares about him. He’s latched onto Buffy and the Scoobies because they showed him some kindness at Sunnydale High. Give him an honourary Scooby badge or something, Buffy! CALL HIM EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE! If Buffy had remained in contact with Jonathan here, would he have joined The Trio? Clearly, Jonathan joined The Trio to find his place in the world and make some friends. If Buffy had treated Jonathan like a friend after “Superstar”, perhaps things would have turned out much differently for him.
Quote Of The Episode
Xander: “You can’t just go ‘librum incendere’ and expect...*the book catches fire*”
Giles: “Xander, don’t speak Latin in front of the books.”
Giles’ reaction is highly amusing. He sounds so exasperated...like a parent that’s tired of telling his child off.
FINAL SCORE: 6.5/10
What are your thoughts on "Superstar"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!
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I don't have an issue with the placement. It did move the arc forward re Buffy and Riley and also Adam. Plus the Faith arc, "NMR," and the conclduing ep.s aqre all sup[er-intense, and some kind of breaks were improtant. And this break was decent enpough in itself. I deny the next rbeak exists.
ReplyDeleteI've often idnetified with Jonathan mentally and emotionally. But not morally; if this spell existed in the Ourverse, I woudln't try it unless I coudl scale it way down so other lives wouldn't be *too* disrupted. i won't mention the hosuemates I'd have . . . . .
As Topping poitned out, the "counter-creature" was hardly an antiparagon or incarnation of the worst - it was really more of a nuisance, strong and fierce as it was, so plot hole. And I also agree that, while adam's immunity was itneresting, his self-expalantion was "a load of waffle."
D'C'A'
I still contend that this is one of the funniest if not THE funniest ep in the series. When I watch reruns I chuckle from opening credits to the ending credits. I love this ep for it's message about grand gestures and distorting reality not making everything ok. It would have been great if WILLOW would have delivered the message Buffy did in the end, you know since she would know better than anyone about "feel good" spells (See Something Blue). Plus it would have been ironic since Willow was hell bent on destroying Jonathan et al in season 6... This is another reason why Jonathan was my favourite Trio member. I will go to my grave stating that Jonathan should have been the trio member that lived and eventually helped the Scoobies. It would have been his fantasy fulfilled.
ReplyDeleteUgh I hate this episode. Easily one of the worst Buffy eps in my opinion!
ReplyDeleteI think Adam's meant to be an Ubermensch from Nietzsche's philosophy. His name, Adam, recalls Adam and Eve, and apparently his plans are to progenate a new race of beings. His explanation for his immunity was interesting. He's perfect at everything and so it's impossible to fool him. I like his villainous boasting. Villains are always so much cooler than heroes.
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