I, Robot - You, Jane
Buffy Episode Review
In which Willow has crap taste in men.
What Happened
Willow's new man is a demon uploaded onto the World Wide Web. He recruits several of her classmates to build him a robot body, but his attempts to isolate Willow from her friends (plus a few dead bodies and murder attempts) arouse Buffy's suspicions.
What Did I Think?
Willow's definitely got more brains than Xander (who followed his hormones straight to the giant preying mantis), but between Moloch and the vamp from "Welcome to the Hellmouth," it's no wonder it took until halfway through the second season for her to take a chance on a boy besides Xander.
New shades for Willow include her acting almost snotty when Buffy voices her concerns about "Malcolm" (though the scene lacks the cute factor of her outbursts in 'Reptile Boy' and 'The Dark Age'). Not to mention Willow seems to get a certain amount of pleasure out of turning down Xander's pleas to get together after school. Maybe a little passive-aggressive payback for his being so clueless when it comes to her crush on him?
She doesn't forget her friends, however, and when 'Malcolm' starts making comments about Buffy getting kicked out of school, Willow shuts him down pretty quickly. It isn't enough to keep her from being kidnapped, of course, but that had more to do with being part of the Sidekick Code of Conduct than with her character.
On the other side of the romantic coin, are Giles and Jenny Calendar. As far as new ideas go, the uptight English paired with the liberal American is, well, kinda not. The stereotype persists despite the fact that America was settled by people who thought the people who invented cricket were having too much fun, what with the drinking and the smoking and the cursing. On television, the British are almost always the straight-laced type.
Remember two things about these about these relationships: one, no matter how much lip service they give to seizing the day, in the end, the rules will triumph and the free spirit will conform. Two, once the duo gets it together, it's over. All the spark will fizzle, all the life will just drain out this pairing. This is why soap operas spend so much time throwing obstacles in the way of true love; television's shorthand for Happy Ever After always seems to involve overly gooey demonstrations of affection, usually involving artificially amplified kissy noises.
Banterwise, Jenny wins most of their rounds, but Giles wins my heart with his sweet speech about the benefits of books over computers. His computer phobia was established in the pilot and remains a running joke, but that doesn't make the idea that just because he's old-fashioned, he's afraid of all things mechanical any less contrived.
The biggest problem with this romance is that Jenny's character gets kind of stalled in it. To me, she never developed past just being Giles' opposite. Where he would stammer and blush, she would sail right in. Yes, it was kind of cute the first few times, but then we need to move on. If something was going to happen to her, it would be because something happening to Giles would spill over into her life.
Of course, I cared that Giles had a girlfriend, but that was because he is a main character; I want him to be happy. Jenny was never allowed to play outside of that relationship, however, so her value as a character in her own right was often in question. It's a problem with a lot of second string supporting characters. They are less fully developed personalities and more like variables to be plugged into the story equation.
Gives Willow more to do, but doesn't break any new ground on the "Evil Boy/Girlfriend" front.