BtVS season 1: The Pack
Mar. 15th, 2008 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightAm feeling very tired today for some reason, and my brain feels like it's full of treacle. However, since I re-watched The Pack on Thursday, I thought I ought to try and write a review before I forget everything about it. I'm afraid it's not a very good review. Treacle in the brain will do that.
The Pack is another good episode, the teenagers turning into hyenas being a metaphor for (I suppose) school bullies and predatory, out-of-control teenagers in general– though, this being Sunnydale, the teenagers in question all look like they come from affluent middle-class families.
There are some great scenes, including the slo-mo power walk across the school campus with the rock music in the background, and the dodge-ball scene. Also, the first time I watched this episode, the scene of Principal Flutie's horrible death made me realise BtVS was a show that wasn't afraid to take risks.
In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, and especially after having re-visited the AR scene from Seeing Red and the mental anguish it caused me quite recently, there's another scene in this episode that I should have paid more attention to the first time I watched it. Of course, I mean Hyena Xander's sexual assault on Buffy. For obvious reasons, I really took notice this time when watching this scene, and it is in fact quite a nasty attack, and Hyena Xander's motives are far more those of the 'traditional' rapist than Spike's were in Seeing Red. In other words, it's all about the power. Xander even says so. He's almost as strong as Buffy, thanks to the hyena power, and he's going to take what he wants from her – and he makes what that is pretty clear.
However, not only is Buffy not scared, she hardly bats an eyelid and seems a gazillion miles away from being traumatised afterwards. In fact, when Giles tells Buffy and Willow what has happened to poor Principal Flutie, the girls are relieved because Xander wasn't involved, what with him having been busy trying to rape Buffy at the time.
And it never gets mentioned again.
I'm not really sure what, if anything, Joss was trying to say with this scene, but I suppose it's an important character point for Buffy, in that it seems she has 'form' from the very beginning of her career at forgiving/excusing people for their bad acts, if those acts were undertaken when under the influence of something malign – either a predatory hyena spirit in Xander's case or a lack of soul in Spike's and Angel's.
This is not me saying that I think they should have made a big thing out of it, by the way, or that Buffy should have felt differently about Xander after it. I get that this scene is part of a metaphor whereas the SR scene isn't, but it is still interesting to compare the two. I suppose the different reactions we, as viewers, have to them, not to mention the very different reactions of the characters, do have something to do with the fact that Joss allowed them to grow-up and with that growth their perspective changes and becomes more adult, though the difference is actually not that great in Buffy's case. It seems with her, the motive behind an act is always more important than the actual act itself. Here, she knows that Normal Xander would never act this way so it's easy for her to dismiss it from her mind. With Angelus's murder of Jenny, she knows that Souled Angel would never have done such a thing. Finally, with Spike in SR, although she is shocked and horrified by his actions - I think more because they were a breach of trust than anything else - she also realises they weren't premeditated. And then Spike gets his soul back anyway, which is sort of the equivalent to the hyena possession wearing off. Thus, Buffy is able to forgive all three of them (though of course, with the possible exception of Xander, because we're never shown it, they never forgive themselves).
A-and I'm thinking about this way too much, but the comparisons are there to be made.
Also in this episode, we learn just how deeply Willow feels for Xander and, when Buffy says it would be nice to feel that way about someone and Willow mentions Angel, we get (I think) the first inkling that Buffy is genuinely interested in him (being attracted – which she clearly is from the first time she sets eyes on him – and being interested are not IMO the same thing). However, Buffy doesn't think Angel is interested in her, because he never shows up except when he has some doom-laden warning to impart.
Nick Brendon is very good indeed at playing mean, possessed Xander, and given how DB blossoms when Angel goes evil in season 2, I suppose it must be true that the devil gets all the best lines.
Other stuff
The four actors playing the 'mean kids' are way, way too old to be in school. They're pretty good, though.
The drums! The dashed awful drums! I love the cheesy Tarzan film music that plays in the background almost all through the episode (except, as previously mentioned, in the very effective hyena kids power-walk slo-mo scene).
Giles's protective gear is hilarious! A Watcher's life is hard. Also, he gets hit on the head and knocked out for a second time. It's already getting to be a habit.
Poor, poor Principal Flutie! Not to mention the pig.
Silly stuff
The hyena kids are very neat eaters. They manage to polish off Principal Flutie without getting any blood on themselves at all.
Why on earth is Willow watching a scene of African wild dogs on an endless loop while guarding Xander in the library? Couldn't Joss find any genuine hyena footage?
Best line:
Giles again (re: Hyena Xander): It's devastating. He's turning into a sixteen year old boy. You'll have to kill him.
Also quite good is Willow (re: Hyena Xander): Why couldn't Xander be possessed by a puppy, or some ducks?
Willow obviously has a completely unrealistic idea of what ducks - the Hells' Angels of the bird world - are like, or she wouldn't say that.
The Pack is another good episode, the teenagers turning into hyenas being a metaphor for (I suppose) school bullies and predatory, out-of-control teenagers in general– though, this being Sunnydale, the teenagers in question all look like they come from affluent middle-class families.
There are some great scenes, including the slo-mo power walk across the school campus with the rock music in the background, and the dodge-ball scene. Also, the first time I watched this episode, the scene of Principal Flutie's horrible death made me realise BtVS was a show that wasn't afraid to take risks.
In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, and especially after having re-visited the AR scene from Seeing Red and the mental anguish it caused me quite recently, there's another scene in this episode that I should have paid more attention to the first time I watched it. Of course, I mean Hyena Xander's sexual assault on Buffy. For obvious reasons, I really took notice this time when watching this scene, and it is in fact quite a nasty attack, and Hyena Xander's motives are far more those of the 'traditional' rapist than Spike's were in Seeing Red. In other words, it's all about the power. Xander even says so. He's almost as strong as Buffy, thanks to the hyena power, and he's going to take what he wants from her – and he makes what that is pretty clear.
However, not only is Buffy not scared, she hardly bats an eyelid and seems a gazillion miles away from being traumatised afterwards. In fact, when Giles tells Buffy and Willow what has happened to poor Principal Flutie, the girls are relieved because Xander wasn't involved, what with him having been busy trying to rape Buffy at the time.
And it never gets mentioned again.
I'm not really sure what, if anything, Joss was trying to say with this scene, but I suppose it's an important character point for Buffy, in that it seems she has 'form' from the very beginning of her career at forgiving/excusing people for their bad acts, if those acts were undertaken when under the influence of something malign – either a predatory hyena spirit in Xander's case or a lack of soul in Spike's and Angel's.
This is not me saying that I think they should have made a big thing out of it, by the way, or that Buffy should have felt differently about Xander after it. I get that this scene is part of a metaphor whereas the SR scene isn't, but it is still interesting to compare the two. I suppose the different reactions we, as viewers, have to them, not to mention the very different reactions of the characters, do have something to do with the fact that Joss allowed them to grow-up and with that growth their perspective changes and becomes more adult, though the difference is actually not that great in Buffy's case. It seems with her, the motive behind an act is always more important than the actual act itself. Here, she knows that Normal Xander would never act this way so it's easy for her to dismiss it from her mind. With Angelus's murder of Jenny, she knows that Souled Angel would never have done such a thing. Finally, with Spike in SR, although she is shocked and horrified by his actions - I think more because they were a breach of trust than anything else - she also realises they weren't premeditated. And then Spike gets his soul back anyway, which is sort of the equivalent to the hyena possession wearing off. Thus, Buffy is able to forgive all three of them (though of course, with the possible exception of Xander, because we're never shown it, they never forgive themselves).
A-and I'm thinking about this way too much, but the comparisons are there to be made.
Also in this episode, we learn just how deeply Willow feels for Xander and, when Buffy says it would be nice to feel that way about someone and Willow mentions Angel, we get (I think) the first inkling that Buffy is genuinely interested in him (being attracted – which she clearly is from the first time she sets eyes on him – and being interested are not IMO the same thing). However, Buffy doesn't think Angel is interested in her, because he never shows up except when he has some doom-laden warning to impart.
Nick Brendon is very good indeed at playing mean, possessed Xander, and given how DB blossoms when Angel goes evil in season 2, I suppose it must be true that the devil gets all the best lines.
Other stuff
The four actors playing the 'mean kids' are way, way too old to be in school. They're pretty good, though.
The drums! The dashed awful drums! I love the cheesy Tarzan film music that plays in the background almost all through the episode (except, as previously mentioned, in the very effective hyena kids power-walk slo-mo scene).
Giles's protective gear is hilarious! A Watcher's life is hard. Also, he gets hit on the head and knocked out for a second time. It's already getting to be a habit.
Poor, poor Principal Flutie! Not to mention the pig.
Silly stuff
The hyena kids are very neat eaters. They manage to polish off Principal Flutie without getting any blood on themselves at all.
Why on earth is Willow watching a scene of African wild dogs on an endless loop while guarding Xander in the library? Couldn't Joss find any genuine hyena footage?
Best line:
Giles again (re: Hyena Xander): It's devastating. He's turning into a sixteen year old boy. You'll have to kill him.
Also quite good is Willow (re: Hyena Xander): Why couldn't Xander be possessed by a puppy, or some ducks?
Willow obviously has a completely unrealistic idea of what ducks - the Hells' Angels of the bird world - are like, or she wouldn't say that.
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Date: 2008-03-15 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-17 05:06 pm (UTC)