Flooded

Buffy Episode Review

In which Giles comes home.

What Happened

Buffy tries to deal with her money woes. Giles returns to Sunnydale.

The Good

• Giles is so cool. We miss Giles. We'll even forgive him for not following up on what happened to Buffy like he followed up and made Buffy tell him what happened to Angel.
• Ah, the three weenies. You can't top a God, why even try?
• Giles vs. Willow. He even raised his voice during their argument. Most of the verbal fights on this show are so subdued, like they can't muster up the energy to shout.
• "You want me to take them out. It would give me a hell of a headache, but I figure I could thin the herd a little." Spike doing his version of "nice" guy, but still, when, you actually look at the statement, he's not so very comforting.

The Bad

• The basement is flooded. Buffy is overwhelmed. Not a very subtle motif, there, guys.
• Don't Willow or Tara have jobs? They live in the house, too. Are they contributing to the pot here?
• Dawn is too young to research? Since when? She was helping last year, wasn't she? So she can be threatened with certain death by these creatures, but she can't look at a picture of one in a book?
• Back in town one day and Giles is already unconscious. That he mentions it later is a funny, but really just points out how self-aware the show is.
• Refreshing as it is to see them actually worry about how much it's going to cost to repair all the damage they do, the jokes about the lamp and coffee table just weren't funny.
• Buffy gets a call from Angel. Except that according to Angel, Willow called him. How long did he wait before calling back?

The Cliche

• "Overwhelming" real-world problems that are only really discussed in the one epside.

What Did I Think?

It's all about Giles coming home. The scenes between him and Buffy are terrific and so is the scene where he tells Willow how "stupid" she is to be messing with such powerful magic.