Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 1 Review: Anne

Anne
Original Airdate: September 29, 1998
Writer: Joss Whedon
Director: Joss Whedon

While the “Buffy” team would craft some well made finales, the premieres tend to be mediocre, wrapping up threads from the previous season rather than establishing the threat of the current season. This is that kind of premiere. The purpose of this episode is to get Buffy to realize her identity and return to Sunnydale. Ultimately, it feels rushed. Considering all the bad stuff that happened in the “Becoming” two-parter, one episode, especially this one, doesn’t feel like enough to get her to go back home.

Before we get to the meat of the episode, one technological aspect must be addressed. As of this episode, “Buffy” switched their film stock from 16 mm, what they’ve used since the first episode, to 35 mm, which they’ll use until the end of the series. Because of that, the series looks a lot better. Some of the earlier episodes were poorly lit, making the image barely visible. They did get better at lighting the series so that the end of the second season looked pretty good. However, the new stock makes a sharper, more colorful image, vital for a show like Buffy.

Buffy lost a lot as season two ended. Her attempts to keep a separate, “normal”, life outside of slaying failed. She lost her home, her fellow slayer, her love, her school all in a few hours. So it makes sense that Buffy would want to run away from all that. However, this episode shows that running from her identity isn’t as easy as she’ thought, as Angel creeps into her dreams and demons creep the streets of LA. If last season was about Buffy trying to have a normal life while balancing her slaying duties, this season is about Buffy’s identity as slayer and how that shapes who she is.

Instead of the gang going to LA to bring her back, not that Giles wasn’t ready to with even the slightest hint, they have someone Buffy saved play that role. Considering the episode’s theme, that it would be someone from Billy Ford’s vampire cult in “Lie to Me” makes sense. Lily, formerly Chantarelle, soon to be Anne, is the opposite of Buffy. While Buffy ran away from home because of her identity, Lily likely drifted to LA to find an identity for herself. Ricky, her boyfriend who falls victim to the inter-dimensional demons, comes across as another step in that ladder.

Interestingly, their experience in the hell dimension causes an epiphany of identity for both sides of the spectrum. Anne’s mourning over Ricky causes her to wind up with Ken, who plunges her into the hell dimension where humans are forced to deny their identities and become servants at some industrial plant. Lily’s is less pronounced, as she works to get the other workers out of the dimension while Buffy takes on the demons.

Despite Buffy’s wish to stay out of the situation, she can’t help but step up to save those affected. It’s a tough fact for her after what she went through. She’s the chosen one and nothing can get her out of that duty. The further she goes investigating Ricky’s disappearance, the further she realizes that’s who she is, the turning point being when she identifies herself using the show’s title.

This episode introduces the concept that time passes differently in other dimensions. While it may have been a device to explain how the runaways turn into bewildered old people, this facet would become a major element for a character later on “Angel”.

Those who overread everything could see communist images and ideas with the hell dimension. People are grabbed up by the system, forced to abandon all identity but worker, and spit out in the world old and useless. Even Buffy’s choice of weaponry in the final fight, a hammer and blade (could be substituted for a sickle), adds to that point, making her a champion of the workers. OK, there could be absolutely nothing to this, as individuality is the major point of the scene.

The infamous “Ghandi” joke is at best forced. This joke makes absolutely no sense, as if it were an inside joke among the writers that Whedon thought would resonate with the audience.

In some ways, this episode serves to set the stage for “Angel”, which would be set in LA. Too bad planning for the series was in its infancy, or we might’ve been able to see Buffy interact with people and things that would make up that universe. On the other hand, it could’ve easily veered into backdoor pilot territory, which can be largely disappointing or forced. Regardless, it would’ve been cool if she stopped by Caritas for some advice.

Obviously Buffy’s absence was going to leave a major hole in controlling evil in Sunnydale. If things went unchecked, Sunnydale and the world would be in bad shape. They got lucky last season, but the gang prepared for the worse after a much gloomier resolution to the problems of season two. Unfortunately, none of the gang have the strength or experience to combat the dark creatures the way Buffy can.

However, their ineffectiveness seems to ignore the contributions they’ve made towards Buffy’s work, which ultimately has become their own, for comic effect. Granted they don’t have the skills Buffy does, but they should have some more on screen success, at least towards the end of the episode. The stakes aren’t high enough to really warrant such problems among them. Perhaps if they had a real crisis beyond stopping the newly minted vamps their subplot would’ve worked better.

Oz’s failed attempt to kill the vampire by throwing the stake at it mocks the cliché of the hero being able to impale anyone by throwing a pointed object fast enough at it. Ironically, that shot, minus the miss, is in the credits as if it were one of those typical action hero moves!

While it’s not unusual to use bait to catch prey, the way Xander suggests they use Cordelia comes off as uncharacteristically cruel. They have made comments like that before, but generally the sentiment wasn’t genuine malice. If this was meant to show the cracks in their relationship, it could’ve been better handled, or at least downplayed until it came to resolution.

Giles and Joyce, who have had chemistry in the past, play a different scene altogether as Joyce unleashes on Giles, blaming him for Buffy’s disappearance. That may be too much blame to heap on a person, but Joyce still has a lot to learn about her daughter, as she only got the basics before Buffy left to stop Acathla. Obviously Joyce is regretting her heat of the moment ultimatum to Buffy from “Becoming, Part 2” and desiring a second chance.

The big problem in this episode is the pacing. The finale in the other dimension takes way too long to happen. If this had been a two parter, it would’ve been better to develop Buffy’s struggle with her identity. Being in a hell dimension would be a pretty interesting place for self-discovery, but we see little of it.

Overall, this episode is another example of a lackluster premiere, seeking to tie up loose ends from the finale rather than setting up the new seasonal arc. However, considering where this season would go, bumps in the road this early are easily forgivable.

Overall Score: 5/10