Buffy The Vampire Slayer, “I Robot...You Jane" Review (1x08)

Brief Synopsis: “In 1418, a group of Italian priests use magic to trap the demon Moloch in a book, only to be released if the book is ever read aloud. In 1997, Sunnydale, the computer teacher, Ms. Calendar, is working on a project to digitally scan all the books in the library. When a new arrival in a strange language is scanned, Moloch is released into the computer...and into every computer connected to it. Now Buffy must face Moloch's human minions, while Giles figures out how to exorcise a demon from the Internet. Meanwhile, Willow meets a nice boy online. His name is Malcolm...”

"Angel" (1x07) quick link here                                                                                                    "The Puppet Show" (1x09) quick link here


Before getting started on this review, here are a few notes about how these reviews will be formatted...

1) I will be reviewing the episodes in bullet point form. This is because it makes the reviews simple to read, and helps break up the vast amount of text.
2) I will be uploading a new review every one or two days, so be sure to check back often! Alternatively, you could subscribe to the blog via email to receive the reviews in your inbox (the subscription box is located to the right-hand side of this blog).
3) If you are watching the show for the first time along with these reviews, please be warned that there may be a few spoilers for things that haven’t happened yet.
4) If you are here from my Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Angel fan page from Facebook (located here :- www.facebook.com/BTVSFC), these reviews are similar to the rewatch reviews that I wrote for that page, only they are longer, more detailed, and in a much nicer format than Facebook allows (curse their lack of italics, bold, and underline!)
5) The basic layout for the review will be the review itself, the ‘quote of the episode’, and then the final score for the episode (out of ten). All of the final scores will also be placed on a separate tab so that you can refer to them easily.

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



•    Okay, this episode centres on Willow. It’s the very first Willow-centric episode, and sadly, it’s not very good. In fact, I have this episode ranked 254th (out of 254) on my list of best-to-worst “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” episodes (yes, I have an actual list of my favourite episodes going from 1-254...leave me alone! IT’S TOTALLY COOL TO HAVE A LIST!). This episode has almost nothing that holds my attention. It has a few good moments, but at the end of the episode I’m always left wondering “....is that it?”
•    The basic premise of the episode is Willow meeting a guy online that she develops feelings for. The guy turns out to be a demon named Moloch, who is ultimately released from the internet and into an abysmally fake-looking robot costume..that’s usually how these internet meet-ups go, right? Clearly you’re all just demonic robots. Can one of you be a demon toaster please, ‘cause I’m having a craving?
•    The opening scene is pure cheesiness.
•    Jenny! One of the few great things about this episode is the introduction of Jenny Calendar. Jenny and Giles’ relationship is a beautiful thing, and her death is the first major character death in Buffy The Vampire Slayer (obviously, more on that during the amazing “Passions” review).
•    Jenny: “More digitalised information went across phone lines than conversation.”
Giles: “That is a fact that I regard with genuine horror.”

Can you imagine Giles in 2013?! With Skype, video calling, Kindles, social media, and all sorts of other nifty technology. He’d have an aneurysm.

•    Giles: “I’ll be back in the Middle Ages.”
Jenny: “Did you ever leave?”
Did Giles just meet his sarcastic, dry-humoured match? Impressive skills, Ms. Calendar.
•    Woah, talk about sexual tension. I get the feeling that if Jenny tore a page out of one of Giles’ “musty old books”, he’d ravage her right there...now my mind has travelled to a very disturbing visual of Giles handcuffed to a lamppost wearing just a tie, and I have no idea why.
•    Did anyone else notice the picture of Willow and Giles in Willow’s locker? This is back in the days where she had a crush on him (confirmed in season four’s “Where The Wild Things Are”). In some ways I wish they’d explored Willow’s crush more. It’s never really apparent that Willow has a crush on Giles. If it wasn’t mentioned in season four I’d have never suspected it. I always thought that Willow just admired Giles.
•    The actor playing Dave, Chad Lindberg, goes on to star in “Supernatural” as Ash (“Business up front, party in the back”) and in the very first film in “The Fast & The Furious” series.

•    How did Willow and Moloch even meet online? I think we should have seen their first communication. Was Willow perusing chat rooms in order to get over her Giles crush and her love of Xander?
•    Xander’s jealousy in this episode is beautiful, but also kind of annoying. If the jealousy was because Willow having a sort-of-boyfriend made Xander re-assess his feelings for Willow, it would have been great. However, that’s not the case. Xander is just jealous that he’s not the centre of Willow’s universe anymore and it’s wounded his ego. There is a big part of me that would have liked to see Xander and Willow date back in the older seasons, but on reflection, I don’t think their characters were ever heading to that place...oh, wait, they cheated on Cordelia and Oz in season three and had that awkward love affair. That was so out of character! I despised that with every fibre of my being! WILLOW WOULD NOT CHEAT! After the way the Willow-Xander affair was handled in season three, I’m glad that the show never did a proper relationship for them because Willow and Xander’s friendship is my co-favourite relationship on Buffy The Vampire Slayer (with Giles-Buffy).
•    Giles: “I really don’t know how to advise you. Things involved with a computer fill me with a childlike terror. Now, if it were a nice ogre or some such I’d be more in my element.”
It’s so much fun to see Giles out of his comfort zone. Giles is usually the calm, level-headed one who gives long speeches about the monster-of-the-week, but in this episode he’s metaphorically rocking in a corner, cradling himself.
•    I hope Fritz has a disinfectant handy for that “M”. Nobody wants blood poisoning on top of being addicted to a demon on the internet.
•    Fritz: “I’m jacked in...”

Sweet mother...how did this episode get green-lit?...

•    Is this episode trying to say that everyone who uses the internet for many hours a day is a weirdo? If it was indeed trying to say that, it just offended 99% of the people on this blog.
•    Oooh, do my ears deceive me or is that Joss Whedon doing the radio voiceover? *consults Google* It is!
•    Buffy’s date of birth in this episode is displayed as the 24th of October 1980. This is later changed to the 19th of January 1981, which is where it stays. Gotta love the continuity of Buffy season one.
•    Ha, modem. I love the mid-90s.
•    Ha, the size of the laptop the student is holding on the stairs at Sunnydale High! It’s about 5 inches thick! I love the mid-90s.
•    Jenny: “You’re here again? You kids really dig the library, don’t ya?”
Xander: “To read makes our speaking English good.”
Buffy: “We’ll be going now...”
Giles: “Uh, we’ll continue this conversation at another time.”
Buffy: “I think we’re done *she walks off with Xander*....’makes our speaking English good’?!”
Xander: “I panicked, okay!”

What have we learnt during season one? That all four of the main Scoobies crack under the pressure of having to lie on the spot.

•    One of very few redeeming scenes in this episode is the attempted electrocution scene. Even though a little cheesy, it came across quite well. Buffy’s paranoia over her hair was sheer perfection.
•    Poor Dave. I always found it really hard to deal with the fact that Dave’s parents are going to think that he genuinely committed suicide. They’ll go through life always wondering how they could have saved their son or how they could have helped him more, when really it was a demon. It’s easy to forget about because it’s such a minor part of the story, but Dave’s fake suicide note is the most upsetting part of this episode. Suicide and attempted suicide are a very touchy subject to me. Two years ago, I tried to kill myself. I’m not going to talk about it in depth here, as that will come in the “Amends” review, but I think I take suicide plots harder than most people.
•    I love Jenny’s reaction to “There’s a demon in the internet”...“I know”. Well, she took that better than expected. After that scene I had come to the conclusion that she was evil. It was the only way I could possibly envision her already knowing. Luckily, I was wrong.
•    Moloch’s robot costume is TERRIBLE. I think it would win the bronze medal at the “Most ridiculous and unrealistic Buffy The Vampire Slayer costume” awards. The silver medal would go to the werewolf costume that is used from seasons 2-4. Good Lord that’s terrible. The undisputed winner, without a doubt, is the penis-looking Machida costume from season two’s “Reptile Boy”. I can’t even look at that without bursting into a giggling fit.
•    No, Willow, don’t cry! It’s too sad! All I asked after “The Pack” was to never see Willow cry again, ever! Was that too much to ask, Joss?!

•    ROBO-MOLOCH, SMASH!
•    I wonder if Ted later found Moloch’s body and used him for spare parts? Hmm...
•    Giles’ reaction when Jenny tells him that books don’t smell is hilarious. He’s so indignant!
•    Jenny : “Well, you really are an old-fashioned boy, aren't you?”
Giles: “Well, I don't dangle a corkscrew from my ear...”
Jenny: “That's not where I dangle it.”
Oh my. Get in there Ripper.
•    Willow, Xander, and Buffy joking about being doomed to finish the episode is highly ironic after you’ve seen all seven seasons of the show. Oh how right they are...Xander’s love life consists of Cordelia, which ends terribly, Anya, whom he leaves at the altar, and a selection of demons. That makes for a colourful dating résumé at best. At least his relationship with Anya is genuine and real, I suppose. Willow’s dating history consists of Oz, who cheated on her and left her, Tara, who was killed, and Kennedy, who we all wish had been killed (also, *spoiler*, they break-up in the season 8 comics! Woohoo!). Buffy’s love life is arguably the worst. This includes Angel, who turns evil after they shag, Scott Hope, who dumps her, Parker, who shags her and leaves her (charming, no?), Riley, who was at least a proper, stable boyfriend, but ultimately couldn’t handle Buffy being stronger than him and decided to get bitten by vampires instead, and finally, Spike, which consisted of sexual addiction, physical abuse, depression, and attempted rape (I’m a big Spuffy fan, I’m just saying it had some negative points too). There are a lot of positive points to Buffy-Angel, Buffy-Riley, and Buffy-Spike as well, but that’s all a story for later reviews. 

•    Ready for some trivia? This is one of only eight episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer that has no vampire in it whatsoever. The others are “Witch”, “The Pack”, “The Puppet Show”, “Inca Mummy Girl”, “Living Conditions”, “Fear Itself” and “Beer Bad”. Every episode has a vampire in after episode 61 (Spike is in them all).
•    To conclude, this episode is not good. I understand the metaphor that meeting people online can be a bad idea because some people online aren’t who they say they are. I get it, I understand it, and I even encourage it to be addressed so that the audience are aware of the dangers of internet dating...but how the hell did this episode even get green-lit from Joss? It’s about a lame demon infecting the internet! The odds of pulling this off successfully were very slim. Another thing to mention is that this episode doesn’t age well due to all the technological advancements in the past 16 years. With all of that being said, Jenny’s first appearance and some hilarious dialogue does save this episode from being completely throw-away. These good moments are too few and far between for me to consider this episode anything other than ‘below average’.  


Quote Of The Episode

Xander: “No, it's just... this Malcolm guy? What's his deal? I mean, tell me you're not slightly wigged.”

Buffy: “Okay, slightly. I mean, just not knowing what he's really like.”

Xander: “Or who he really is. I mean, sure he says he's a high school student, but I can say I'm a high school student.”

Buffy: “You are.”

Xander: “Okay, but I can also say that I'm an elderly Dutch woman. Get me? I mean, who's to say I'm not if I'm in the elderly Dutch chat room?”

Buffy: “I get your point....I get your point! Oh, this guy could be anybody. He could be weird, or crazy, or old, or... He could be a circus freak! He's probably a circus freak!”

Xander: “Yeah. I mean, we read about it all the time. Y'know, people meet on the net, they talk, they get together, have dinner, a show, horrible axe murder.”

Buffy: “Willow, axe murdered, by a circus freak... Okay, okay, what do we do?!....What are we doing?
Xander, you get me started! We are totally overreacting!”

Xander: “But it's fun, isn't it?”


Such an adorable scene. Xander’s jealousy over Willow liking someone other than himself is an interesting change of pace. Plus, anytime Buffy has a freak-out like that it’s hilarious.



FINAL SCORE: 2.5/10



So what are your thoughts on "I Robot...You Jane"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!