Btvs S2 - Tumblr Posts

random 'Inca Mummy Girl' thoughts:

In the museum, Buffy is disappointed her friends think she solves all her problems with violence. Then later, Giles agrees to let her go to the dance to end their training session, because when she trains while angry she unintentionally hurts him. Her response: "Yay! I win :)". Don't know if I have anything to say about that, but I'm definitely paying more attention to Buffy's characterisation on this rewatch, and noticing more of her Faith-like traits.

I think of Xander's jealousy over Buffy as a Season One thing, but it seems to be sticking around, and I am extremely tired of it. Hope it doesn't last much longer.

The Scoobies' assumption that Ampata can translate an ancient Incan relic just because they're South American is so wild I struggle not to read it as a joke at their expense. (Though given the show's approach to other cultures - as exemplified by this episode especially - it almost certainly isn't.)

It's interesting that this episode doesn't try to play itself as a mystery - the audience is never kept in the dark about what's happening, even as the Scoobies are. It's much to the episode's benefit - it allows Ampata to be an actual character, where a mystery would likely keep her at too much of a distance. It doesn't just make her sympathetic - it makes her a viewpoint character, which makes the Buffy parallels much more tangible.

Speaking of which, this episode has a Garth Marenghi approach to subtext, but honestly I kind of like that. It's nice to have subtext even I can notice sometimes.

I didn't remember going in that Oz first appeared in this episode, so that was a nice surprise. But then seeing Jonathan was even more of one - I really wasn't expecting to see him so soon. Strange that such a small role became a recurring character when so many Sunnydale students appear in one episode and then are immediately forgotten about, but I guess he does give a good, distinctive performance.

Sorry Buffy, but "I'll say one thing for you Incan mummies - you don't kiss and tell," is just a terrible quip. And you can tell Buffy was thinking of it on the journey - as she runs to the museum she's thinking to herself 'I need to say something funny about kissing, I guess?', and she does a bad job. I think she needs to take some improv classes or something if she's gonna keep doing this.

With his relentless, manipulative cruelty, his obsessive tendency make people live out the tragic narratives he's imagined for them, his ableism towards a wheelchair-bound Spike, plus all the murders...

... is Angelus a Vriska?

one of the weirdest moments for me is when Buffy and Willow raid the Watcher Diaries in Halloween. Because at best, they're just flipping past all the descriptions of torture and murder to get to pics of girls Angel might've fucked. But at worst (and frankly, more likely, considering just what types of things watchers would chronicle), they're looking at pics of girls Angel ATE and being like "I think you could pull off that look, Buffy."

I want to talk about Buffy and Angel's relationship in Ted (and, I guess, Bad Eggs as well, a little). And I think it's a good time to look at them together - for one thing, at this point, post-What's My Line, I think they are definitely in a relationship, rather than the weird murky situation they were in for most of the early season. And in two episodes time, Angel's going to lose his soul - this is basically the peak of their Season 2 relationship, and also of what I see as Angel's pre-'Surprise' arc, of him gradually becoming less of a complete fucking disaster.

So now in Ted, we see them together as boyfriend and girlfriend, and... well, the scene starts with her talking his ear off complaining about Ted and him clearly bored. It's not as bad as it sounds - he's pretty good in this scene, and gives Buffy some sensible advice. (Ignoring the fact that Ted turns out to be abusive and also a robot, which isn't a factor yet.) This might be the first time in the series that Angel actually seems more emotionally mature than Buffy, and he uses that maturity to be a good, supportive boyfriend helping her through her issues...

But...

This is also a scene where Buffy is very much a teenager and Angel very much isn't. (This is also in an episode partly about Buffy's parental issues, which seems relevant to their relationship but I'd like to ignore for ick reasons.) His maturity is an advantage here, but there's also a clear disconnect between them, and that becomes more apparent as Angel gradually works his way towards being a functional person.

Bad Eggs is similar. Again, we see the positive side of their relationship, in the form of fun makeouts, but we also see the shadow of deeper problems in their relationship from a long-term perspective - the fact Angel can't have kids, Buffy's immaturity and inability to think about the future (for both normal teenager and doomed slayer reasons).

I am glad we get this period of them being mostly happy together, of their relationship mostly working - it's not just all-angsty- melodrama-all-the-time, a common failure state for their relationship and for Buffy as a whole. But even at the best of times, the issues in their relationship are always present - not the grand, dramatic problems that are the focus of Season 2, but the mundane issues that are the reason they ultimately break up in Season 3.