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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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Simply, this episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” is not good. At all. There’s a reason why “Where The Wild Things Are” is widely considered to not only be the weakest episode of the season, but sometimes the weakest episode of the entire series. There’s just not a lot going for it. Luckily, at this point in the show’s run, there are always a few things to take away from each episode and “Where The Wild Things Are” gives us some amusing moments between Anya and Spike, Giles singing, Kathryn Joosten, Giles singing, Xander’s “big, hot, sweaty sex” speech, and Giles singing. Outside of those things, I’m really struggling to think of anything interesting or noteworthy that happened. Now, this episode was written by Tracey Forbes, the same writer who brought us “Something Blue”, so we know that she’s capable of greatness!...she also brought us “Beer Bad”, though. That makes for a...colourful résumé
Buffy: “Okay, You get fang, I’ll get horny. I mean...”
That pretty much sets the tone for the episode. The basic premise is that Riley and Buffy shagging like bunnies causes some sexually oppressed and abused poltergeists to wake up and start haunting the frat house where the shagging is occurring. Glossing over the fact that this is the second haunted house episode of the season and the third time a college party has gone awry this season, the plot leaves a lot to be desired when placed in anyone’s hands. I’m not even sure that the man himself, Joss Whedon, could make this episode work. It’s also yet another example of sex being conveyed as a negative thing in the Buffyverse. I’m forced to ask yet again...CAN ANYBODY HAVE SEX IN THE BUFFYVERSE WITHOUT IT BEING A COMPLETE DISASTER?! SERIOUSLY! Buffy sleeps with Angel, he loses his soul. Xander sleeps with Faith, he’s totally discarded...like a used condom. Riley sleeps with Buffy, turns out it’s Faith in Buffy’s body. Cordelia sleeps with Pearce, she’s impregnated with demon spawn. Buffy finally sleeps with Riley properly, it awakens poltergeists. Seriously, Riley and Buffy have only just gotten over the whole ‘Faith in Buffy, Riley in Faith’ thing and now this...why, oh why, have the Scoobies not started wearing chastity belts?! The only couple thus far I can think of that had a normal, non-awkward first time having sex was Willow and Oz, and let’s face it, they’re too adorable to have awkward sex.
Let’s concentrate on the positives here for a moment, shall we? The musical scores are great. This episode reuses the musical score “Faith’s New World” (previously used in “This Year’s Girl”) and also reuses “Kralik’s House” from “Helpless” and “Graduation Day Part One”. You know you’re watching too much Buffy when you can recognise the musical scores and remember which episodes they previously appeared in. Another positive is that Xander is now an ice cream van driver. He changes jobs far too frequently in this season. THINK OF YOUR C.V., XANDER! IT’S GOING TO LOOK TERRIBLE! I appreciate the fact that two of the Scoobies (the other being Giles) are having trouble adjusting to life outside of Sunnydale High. If every character easily moved onto their perfect career, job, or education it wouldn’t be realistic and it wouldn’t be much fun to watch play out. Xander represents a large percentage of the populace this season and I think it was a wise choice to have Xander fill that directionless role. He’s never been academically gifted, he’s never enjoyed education, and he’s always been the non-superpower wielding member of the Scooby Gang.
While in the ice cream van, Anya remarks that Xander and herself are clearly breaking up because they didn’t have sex the previous night. Anya is 1,121 years old, surely she must know more about relationships than this? I understand that she’s spent a thousand years witnessing the very worst of relationships and exacting vengeance on the male species after the dissolution of those relationships, but c’mon! Pull yourself together, Anya! Anya wonders out loud if the reason why they didn’t have sex was because Xander is unable to ‘get it up’. To prove this isn’t the case, Xander, also out loud, demands hot, sweaty sex with Anya right there in the ice cream van. The only problem is that there’s a queue of people just outside the van waiting to be served who all hear this conversation and look disgusted. Tact, guys, tact. It’s probably the highlight of the episode as far as comedy goes.
Before Riley and Buffy’s shagathon begins, they’re disgustingly happy. They’re constantly kissing, constantly stroking each other, and constantly looking into each other’s eyes all swoony...makes me want to heave. Clearly, Jonathan’s words of wisdom in the last episode, “Superstar”, have done some good and have built a bridge between Buffy and Riley. Buffy now understands that Riley is not to blame for sleeping with Faith (who had body-jacked Buffy at the time) and that she needs to let go of the situation to move forwards. In turn, Riley has realised that he needs to reassure Buffy that he’s not comparing the two experiences and that he needs to express to Buffy more than ever how much she means to him. While all this happiness is highly unusual in the Buffyverse, it is oddly sweet while it lasts. It’s also nice to see that Riley and Buffy are having safe sex. Unlike Angel, who isn’t capable of having children (or so we thought...), Riley has working sperm. The last thing we need right now is his little commandos fertilising a Slayer egg. No baby Slayers are needed anytime soon, thank you. Dawn is enough to contend with next season.
After arguing with Xander, Anya bumps into Spike, who is now jumping out at humans in vampire face to scare them into giving him money for blood and smokes. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The two of them end up hanging out together at The Bronze, reminiscing over their glory days of slaughtering people without needing to worry about emotions or feelings, regretting that they didn’t savour the killing more. In a highly dysfunctional way, these two characters have a lot in common. Both have had their powers stolen away from them against their will. Anya’s amulet was destroyed by Giles in “The Wish” and D’Hoffryn refused to give her another one, forcing her to live out her life as a high school student. Spike was neutered by The Initiative and can no longer hurt or feed off of living humans. When I flash forward two years to “Entropy”, I can understand why Spike and Anya found solace in one another temporarily. However, I find Anya and Xander’s argument in this episode forced. Why are they arguing exactly? Because they went one night without sex? It feels like the argument was created to give Anya and Spike some bonding time, as opposed to the argument feeling natural and realistic.
All of this leads us to the haunted frat party. Buffy and Riley are firmly engrossed in their marathon sex session by this point and in doing so have released the teenage poltergeists.
Speaking of the haunted house, it has some rather questionable features that aren’t fully explained. Like, why is there an orgasm spot on the wall?! I get that the teenagers were sexually oppressed, but why an orgasm spot? Why not an orgasm wall? Why is it that particular spot? Did someone ejaculate there? Was that where Genevive would beat the children? I don’t understand the logistics. The character of Roy (the guy who stumbles across the orgasm spot on the wall) also appears in another of Tracey Forbes’ episodes, “Beer Bad”. Same character, same actor. It’s a tiny piece of continuity, but I adore it.
Xander: “Very smooth cheek you have there, do you exfoliate?”
Xander meets a college student at the frat party called Julie. Julie, while possessed by the house in some way, cuts all her hair off in the bathroom! When she’s proclaiming “I’m bad”, she sounds identical to Dorothy from “The Wizard Of Oz”. It’s at this point that the house really goes to shit. It starts growing branches and trying to kill everyone. Okay, why does the house turn into a forest? I understand the haircut, I understand the sexual energy, as these are all things that the teenage poltergeists were deprived of, but why is there a forest? Were the children not allowed to play in the woods or something? Do you mean to tell me that over the past forty years, nobody has had sex in that frat house before? Why are the vengeful spirits only waking up now? Does Buffy have super-Slayer shagging skills (alliteration, how I love thee)? Also, isn’t The Initiative headquarters directly below this frat house? Have the poltergeists been haunting Forrest and Graham while they’ve been trying to enjoy their evening cocoa down in The Initiative? Now that scene would have made this episode so much better!
Xander: “Somebody’s gotta go back in there, now who’s with me?”
Spike: “I am. I know I’m not the first choice for heroics and Buffy’s tried to kill me more than once, and I don’t fancy a single one of you at all, but...actually, all that sounds pretty convincing...*he walks away*....I wonder if Asian House is open...”
After Spike bails on helping Buffy and Riley, the Scoobies go to find Giles to help them. They stumble upon Giles singing in public. I repeat, singing in public. I don’t know when Giles became cool and sexy, but it happened at some point over the past couple of years. Remember when he used to wear suede elbow patches and hilariously old brown suit jackets? Now he’s all sexy and singing and has a killer record collection! For those of you unaware, Anthony Head used to be a singer when he was younger (and still is today to a certain extent). He had a vinyl record released and everything! I happen to have one of his vinyl records from the ‘70s, which I got him to sign the first time I met him, at LFCC 2012.
His singing voice is absolutely incredible. Like, seriously, I’ve heard him sing live and the man has pipes! Giles singing also reveals something that I’ve speculated for the first three seasons...Willow used to have a crush on Giles! I knew it!
Xander (talking about Giles singing): “Uh...can we go back to the haunted house? Because this is creeping me out.”
Giles helps the Scoobies and in doing so utters arguably the funniest line of the episode...
Giles: “In the midst of all that, do you really think they were keeping it up?...oh, for a different phrasing...”
Kathryn Joosten does a great job as Genevive Holt, the mean old lady that used to abuse and drown the children who are now poltergeists. Sadly, she died a couple of years ago, after battling lung cancer for 11 years (she contracted lung cancer the year after filming this). Rest in peace. The introduction of Genevive brings us to the theme of the episode: abuse. The only problem is that the episode is 30 minutes in before the reveal of what the episode is actually focusing on. It’s left way too late! Genevive used to mentally and physically torture the children that were in her care. If they were too into their looks, she’d hack their hair off. If they were showing signs of sexual ‘deviance’, she’d perform a ‘baptism’ on them (read: drown in the bathtub), and she’d punish them in other ways if they were lustful. Sadly, things like this happen all the time in real life. I just want to take a moment to say to you all that if you’re suffering mental or physical abuse at school or at home, seek help! Tell someone! Talk to someone! Don’t suffer in silence. Speaking as someone that suffered mental and emotional abuse for years and physical abuse at school for years, suffering in silence doesn’t help at all.
Xander: “Yeah, you smell sin? Well let me tell you something lady, she who smelt it, dealt it. It’s like you said only faster...”
My biggest criticism of the episode is that Genevive has no negative repercussions at all! She isn’t reprimanded by the authorities, she isn’t destroyed by the poltergeists, and there is no negative consequence for her! She gets to live out the rest of her life in peace! What. The. Fuck. What kind of message is that sending out into the world? After battling through the random forest in the frat house, Xander opens the door, which destroys the poltergeists. Really? They were destroyed by opening a door? Oooh, scary. Buffy should remember that for the next time she’s battling the forces of darkness...“Glory seems unkillable, but perhaps if I open a window near her it will destroy her...”
Quote Of The Episode
Spike: “You know, you take the killing for granted and then it’s gone and you’re like ‘I wish I’d appreciated it more’. Stopped and smelled the corpses, you know?”
FINAL SCORE: 3.5/10
What are your thoughts on "Where The Wild Things Are"? 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?
Simply, this episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” is not good. At all. There’s a reason why “Where The Wild Things Are” is widely considered to not only be the weakest episode of the season, but sometimes the weakest episode of the entire series. There’s just not a lot going for it. Luckily, at this point in the show’s run, there are always a few things to take away from each episode and “Where The Wild Things Are” gives us some amusing moments between Anya and Spike, Giles singing, Kathryn Joosten, Giles singing, Xander’s “big, hot, sweaty sex” speech, and Giles singing. Outside of those things, I’m really struggling to think of anything interesting or noteworthy that happened. Now, this episode was written by Tracey Forbes, the same writer who brought us “Something Blue”, so we know that she’s capable of greatness!...she also brought us “Beer Bad”, though. That makes for a...colourful résumé
Buffy: “Okay, You get fang, I’ll get horny. I mean...”
That pretty much sets the tone for the episode. The basic premise is that Riley and Buffy shagging like bunnies causes some sexually oppressed and abused poltergeists to wake up and start haunting the frat house where the shagging is occurring. Glossing over the fact that this is the second haunted house episode of the season and the third time a college party has gone awry this season, the plot leaves a lot to be desired when placed in anyone’s hands. I’m not even sure that the man himself, Joss Whedon, could make this episode work. It’s also yet another example of sex being conveyed as a negative thing in the Buffyverse. I’m forced to ask yet again...CAN ANYBODY HAVE SEX IN THE BUFFYVERSE WITHOUT IT BEING A COMPLETE DISASTER?! SERIOUSLY! Buffy sleeps with Angel, he loses his soul. Xander sleeps with Faith, he’s totally discarded...like a used condom. Riley sleeps with Buffy, turns out it’s Faith in Buffy’s body. Cordelia sleeps with Pearce, she’s impregnated with demon spawn. Buffy finally sleeps with Riley properly, it awakens poltergeists. Seriously, Riley and Buffy have only just gotten over the whole ‘Faith in Buffy, Riley in Faith’ thing and now this...why, oh why, have the Scoobies not started wearing chastity belts?! The only couple thus far I can think of that had a normal, non-awkward first time having sex was Willow and Oz, and let’s face it, they’re too adorable to have awkward sex.
Let’s concentrate on the positives here for a moment, shall we? The musical scores are great. This episode reuses the musical score “Faith’s New World” (previously used in “This Year’s Girl”) and also reuses “Kralik’s House” from “Helpless” and “Graduation Day Part One”. You know you’re watching too much Buffy when you can recognise the musical scores and remember which episodes they previously appeared in. Another positive is that Xander is now an ice cream van driver. He changes jobs far too frequently in this season. THINK OF YOUR C.V., XANDER! IT’S GOING TO LOOK TERRIBLE! I appreciate the fact that two of the Scoobies (the other being Giles) are having trouble adjusting to life outside of Sunnydale High. If every character easily moved onto their perfect career, job, or education it wouldn’t be realistic and it wouldn’t be much fun to watch play out. Xander represents a large percentage of the populace this season and I think it was a wise choice to have Xander fill that directionless role. He’s never been academically gifted, he’s never enjoyed education, and he’s always been the non-superpower wielding member of the Scooby Gang.
While in the ice cream van, Anya remarks that Xander and herself are clearly breaking up because they didn’t have sex the previous night. Anya is 1,121 years old, surely she must know more about relationships than this? I understand that she’s spent a thousand years witnessing the very worst of relationships and exacting vengeance on the male species after the dissolution of those relationships, but c’mon! Pull yourself together, Anya! Anya wonders out loud if the reason why they didn’t have sex was because Xander is unable to ‘get it up’. To prove this isn’t the case, Xander, also out loud, demands hot, sweaty sex with Anya right there in the ice cream van. The only problem is that there’s a queue of people just outside the van waiting to be served who all hear this conversation and look disgusted. Tact, guys, tact. It’s probably the highlight of the episode as far as comedy goes.
Before Riley and Buffy’s shagathon begins, they’re disgustingly happy. They’re constantly kissing, constantly stroking each other, and constantly looking into each other’s eyes all swoony...makes me want to heave. Clearly, Jonathan’s words of wisdom in the last episode, “Superstar”, have done some good and have built a bridge between Buffy and Riley. Buffy now understands that Riley is not to blame for sleeping with Faith (who had body-jacked Buffy at the time) and that she needs to let go of the situation to move forwards. In turn, Riley has realised that he needs to reassure Buffy that he’s not comparing the two experiences and that he needs to express to Buffy more than ever how much she means to him. While all this happiness is highly unusual in the Buffyverse, it is oddly sweet while it lasts. It’s also nice to see that Riley and Buffy are having safe sex. Unlike Angel, who isn’t capable of having children (or so we thought...), Riley has working sperm. The last thing we need right now is his little commandos fertilising a Slayer egg. No baby Slayers are needed anytime soon, thank you. Dawn is enough to contend with next season.
After arguing with Xander, Anya bumps into Spike, who is now jumping out at humans in vampire face to scare them into giving him money for blood and smokes. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The two of them end up hanging out together at The Bronze, reminiscing over their glory days of slaughtering people without needing to worry about emotions or feelings, regretting that they didn’t savour the killing more. In a highly dysfunctional way, these two characters have a lot in common. Both have had their powers stolen away from them against their will. Anya’s amulet was destroyed by Giles in “The Wish” and D’Hoffryn refused to give her another one, forcing her to live out her life as a high school student. Spike was neutered by The Initiative and can no longer hurt or feed off of living humans. When I flash forward two years to “Entropy”, I can understand why Spike and Anya found solace in one another temporarily. However, I find Anya and Xander’s argument in this episode forced. Why are they arguing exactly? Because they went one night without sex? It feels like the argument was created to give Anya and Spike some bonding time, as opposed to the argument feeling natural and realistic.
All of this leads us to the haunted frat party. Buffy and Riley are firmly engrossed in their marathon sex session by this point and in doing so have released the teenage poltergeists.
Speaking of the haunted house, it has some rather questionable features that aren’t fully explained. Like, why is there an orgasm spot on the wall?! I get that the teenagers were sexually oppressed, but why an orgasm spot? Why not an orgasm wall? Why is it that particular spot? Did someone ejaculate there? Was that where Genevive would beat the children? I don’t understand the logistics. The character of Roy (the guy who stumbles across the orgasm spot on the wall) also appears in another of Tracey Forbes’ episodes, “Beer Bad”. Same character, same actor. It’s a tiny piece of continuity, but I adore it.
Xander: “Very smooth cheek you have there, do you exfoliate?”
Xander meets a college student at the frat party called Julie. Julie, while possessed by the house in some way, cuts all her hair off in the bathroom! When she’s proclaiming “I’m bad”, she sounds identical to Dorothy from “The Wizard Of Oz”. It’s at this point that the house really goes to shit. It starts growing branches and trying to kill everyone. Okay, why does the house turn into a forest? I understand the haircut, I understand the sexual energy, as these are all things that the teenage poltergeists were deprived of, but why is there a forest? Were the children not allowed to play in the woods or something? Do you mean to tell me that over the past forty years, nobody has had sex in that frat house before? Why are the vengeful spirits only waking up now? Does Buffy have super-Slayer shagging skills (alliteration, how I love thee)? Also, isn’t The Initiative headquarters directly below this frat house? Have the poltergeists been haunting Forrest and Graham while they’ve been trying to enjoy their evening cocoa down in The Initiative? Now that scene would have made this episode so much better!
Xander: “Somebody’s gotta go back in there, now who’s with me?”
Spike: “I am. I know I’m not the first choice for heroics and Buffy’s tried to kill me more than once, and I don’t fancy a single one of you at all, but...actually, all that sounds pretty convincing...*he walks away*....I wonder if Asian House is open...”
After Spike bails on helping Buffy and Riley, the Scoobies go to find Giles to help them. They stumble upon Giles singing in public. I repeat, singing in public. I don’t know when Giles became cool and sexy, but it happened at some point over the past couple of years. Remember when he used to wear suede elbow patches and hilariously old brown suit jackets? Now he’s all sexy and singing and has a killer record collection! For those of you unaware, Anthony Head used to be a singer when he was younger (and still is today to a certain extent). He had a vinyl record released and everything! I happen to have one of his vinyl records from the ‘70s, which I got him to sign the first time I met him, at LFCC 2012.
His singing voice is absolutely incredible. Like, seriously, I’ve heard him sing live and the man has pipes! Giles singing also reveals something that I’ve speculated for the first three seasons...Willow used to have a crush on Giles! I knew it!
Xander (talking about Giles singing): “Uh...can we go back to the haunted house? Because this is creeping me out.”
Giles helps the Scoobies and in doing so utters arguably the funniest line of the episode...
Giles: “In the midst of all that, do you really think they were keeping it up?...oh, for a different phrasing...”
Kathryn Joosten does a great job as Genevive Holt, the mean old lady that used to abuse and drown the children who are now poltergeists. Sadly, she died a couple of years ago, after battling lung cancer for 11 years (she contracted lung cancer the year after filming this). Rest in peace. The introduction of Genevive brings us to the theme of the episode: abuse. The only problem is that the episode is 30 minutes in before the reveal of what the episode is actually focusing on. It’s left way too late! Genevive used to mentally and physically torture the children that were in her care. If they were too into their looks, she’d hack their hair off. If they were showing signs of sexual ‘deviance’, she’d perform a ‘baptism’ on them (read: drown in the bathtub), and she’d punish them in other ways if they were lustful. Sadly, things like this happen all the time in real life. I just want to take a moment to say to you all that if you’re suffering mental or physical abuse at school or at home, seek help! Tell someone! Talk to someone! Don’t suffer in silence. Speaking as someone that suffered mental and emotional abuse for years and physical abuse at school for years, suffering in silence doesn’t help at all.
Xander: “Yeah, you smell sin? Well let me tell you something lady, she who smelt it, dealt it. It’s like you said only faster...”
My biggest criticism of the episode is that Genevive has no negative repercussions at all! She isn’t reprimanded by the authorities, she isn’t destroyed by the poltergeists, and there is no negative consequence for her! She gets to live out the rest of her life in peace! What. The. Fuck. What kind of message is that sending out into the world? After battling through the random forest in the frat house, Xander opens the door, which destroys the poltergeists. Really? They were destroyed by opening a door? Oooh, scary. Buffy should remember that for the next time she’s battling the forces of darkness...“Glory seems unkillable, but perhaps if I open a window near her it will destroy her...”
Quote Of The Episode
Spike: “You know, you take the killing for granted and then it’s gone and you’re like ‘I wish I’d appreciated it more’. Stopped and smelled the corpses, you know?”
FINAL SCORE: 3.5/10
What are your thoughts on "Where The Wild Things Are"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!
If you've enjoyed this review, please use the conveniently placed buttons just below to share it on Blogger, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, or email it to a friend! It is greatly appreciated!
All I cna think of on the main rpemise is that sicne Buffy and riley are both enhanced it generated abigger spike of sexual energy which finally released these forces. Once rleeased, it kept feeding back into them so they did it over and over. Heck, evne without this they were likely in the mood to do ti mroe thna once that night, happens to msot couples.
ReplyDeletebut still, a welll-mad ebuilding that close to the center of cmapus sits empty until the feds buy it as cover for the Initiative? Not likely.
Anya; Maybe the Vengaence demosn ebign transformed humans wasn't a fully formed idea when this was written???
D'C'A'
I also do not like this episode, I don't really like Riley & Buffy so is a bit of an ick fest.
ReplyDeleteLike you I cannot believe that there has not been enough randy students in a frat house to have triggered these events before. I also don't understand why Riley & Buffy seem to trigger it with their rather lame and non-movementy sex - doesn't seem that passionate/erotic/enjoyable - much like their entire realtionship! Unless they are having amazing tantric sex then I really don't understand why the energy is released.
While I agree it is important to promote safe sex, the extended view of reaching for the condom is very unsubtle and is more likely to irritate younger viewers as patronising.
Giles singing is orgasmic for me - love ASH, would have loved to see him as Frank in Rocky Horror! Not only is this scene sexy but very funny, AH with her mouth agog is brilliant.
This episode is just average really, not much going on; in terms of plot, character development e.t.c. The best bit was Anya and Xander's scene in the ice cream truck.
ReplyDeleteA lot of fans say Season 4 of Buffy is their least favourite, and whilst I agree it is somewhat average there are some great episodes (Hush being the highlight). However, this episode in particular doesn't give viewers much hope for the season to improve!
All in all my rating is 2/10