14: "Anne" (BTVS S3E01)

[00:00:00] AHHH!

[00:00:02] HUH!

[00:00:04] I can't speak up!

[00:00:10] You work, and you live, that is all.

[00:00:13] You do not complain, or laugh, or do anything besides work.

[00:00:18] Whatever you thought, whatever you were, does not matter.

[00:00:23] You are no one now.

[00:00:25] You mean nothing. Hello everybody, welcome to Still Slaying, a Buffyverse podcast. I'm Penny. And I'm Kara. This episode we're going to be discussing Season 3, Episode 1, Ann, directed

[00:01:40] by and written by Jane Espenson, Douglas Petrie, and JW. The The box office, number one was saving private Ryan. Two was Stella, how Stella got her groove back. Three small soldiers and four. After all this time, Titanic's still in the theaters. Oh my gosh, small soldiers, I loved that movie. I forgot that movie existed.

[00:03:01] You just unlocked a memory for me.

[00:03:05] Holy crap.

[00:03:07] Man, I love the 90s.

[00:03:08] Yeah, me too. 2000s television show. That's the show that made me wish I had curly hair. Oh, that's the show that made me love that show. Better about my curly hair. It's good. Gosh, Carrie Russell's hair. So beautiful. That once he's in the third tangent. Or like the entire country was like, no. Yep.

[00:04:21] It's like a flash bulb memory for me, and it should not be.

[00:04:25] That's, I remember. Yeah. So will it link at least one of them in the show notes? So if people want to read about it, there's a lot to say about that day. It's like, Hard Knock Life probably stands out the most for me. And then this next one, I remember very well on this day,

[00:05:40] Jive Records releases a debut single by a new artist named Britney Spears,

[00:05:47] called Baby One More Time. point is booming. This is the very beginning of the infamous dot com bubble. We had a federal budget surplus. This is why people love the 90s so much. It was kind of better time. Three nine 11. Everything was looking up. It really was. I remember it as a very positive time. And I mean, I was also at

[00:07:01] the beginning of sort of a new adventure. And I was struggling

[00:07:04] with law school, but still it was treated like a law school class where you did you know you read cases We're so far past that now. We have abusive regimes. Let's get into the episode. And I'm going to start us off with first a content warning. I'm about to go into some content about human trafficking and slavery. And I am not going to pretend to hide any of my politics.

[00:09:43] So I'll put a chapter are on the margins of society. It's people who won't be missed, undocumented refugees or immigrants.

[00:11:04] A lot of Native American women are going missing every year.

[00:11:07] No one knows where they are. facilities, salon services, massage parlors, retail services, fairs and carnivals, pedaling and begging, drug smuggling, religious institutions, childcare and domestic work. And then of course there's the sex slaves. There's a lot of this is all mixed together too, right? Like people who are labor slaves are also often sex slaves.

[00:12:23] In the United States, the most vulnerable populations to human trafficking include children, especially And it is happening to like 14 year old girls are being married within these Fundamentalist religious religious communities to older men. They don't have any other option They don't even know that there are other options in the world right there. So Isolated they're usually homeschooled in order to make sure they don't have any other outside opinions

[00:13:41] I also there are

[00:14:42] slavery within the coffee supply chain. And if you're interested in this topic,

[00:14:45] that is a really great resource.

[00:14:47] I would suggest you check it out.

[00:14:49] If you don't have HBO, I'm pretty sure they post

[00:14:51] the whole story on YouTube.

[00:14:53] So you should be able to see it for free on YouTube.

[00:14:57] John Oliver in general is an absolutely excellent source of.

[00:15:02] I love that show increasingly become an issue. So within the last couple of years, when I was with the DA's office here, our boss, RDA, wanted us to take some continuing legal education classes regarding human trafficking just because it was starting to come up more and more in our

[00:16:20] cases. And it is kind of a more nuanced subject thatold at a mall that met an older man who showered her with attention, ended it seemed very, you know, relevant and appropriate with this episode with that kind of cult mindset where they are intentionally preying on these people who,

[00:19:01] you know, are looking for love, acceptance, and don't seem like they have a lot to lose.

[00:20:03] I think even in the 90s, it wasn't as well known how big the problem was.

[00:20:05] At least I didn't know about it.

[00:20:07] And it's worldwide and it's been happening forever

[00:20:10] and this doesn't even get us into prison slavery

[00:20:13] which I'm sure will come up in some other context,

[00:20:16] something that I'm also incensed about.

[00:20:19] I don't know if there's a call to action here.

[00:20:22] Just educate yourself on the topic

[00:20:24] and I don't know, this is about these young people who are lost and trying to find meaning, trying to find a sense of belonging and they get caught up in the wrong crowd. That's still very relevant to, you know, high schoolers today. And I do think this episode does a good job exploring that.

[00:21:44] I don't know if this is a good time or a bad time

[00:21:47] to mention that you remember how I said don't like seeing the Scoobies away from each other, even though I understand and can be intellectually interested in how they cope without Buffy there. I think just overall, I'm too anxious when the season starts to get her back to Sunnydale. Yeah. And I really still

[00:23:00] don't know what it like. I can appreciate good much of a downer. But this episode is one of those where it's a lot of people's favorite season premiere. Like it gets good ratings consistently. And I just, I don't know, I don't like Joyce blaming Giles for

[00:24:24] Buffy being gone, even though I understand it.

[00:25:26] really fun dialogue. I actually think Joyce is right to blame Giles. I'm on her side in that conversation, so it's funny that you and I are not. That's great. I see it. I just, I don't like

[00:25:34] watching it. I'm just like, this makes me uncomfortable, which is good storytelling. I understand that

[00:25:40] that is kind of the point to have conflict. But for whatever reason, I cannot personally get

[00:26:45] first act at about seven minutes in the episode until about 10 minutes and 15 seconds is

[00:26:52] one single take that follows various people through the hallways of Sunnydale High School. So it starts with Willow in the library and then Gordy comes into the library and then it follows the two of them walking out of the library together and

[00:27:00] then

[00:27:01] Gordy walks away and Willow is talking on the phone in his office.

[00:28:20] And the shot is through the glass window of the door

[00:28:24] that says librarian on it through another door.

[00:28:27] Oh, yeah.

[00:28:28] The Giles. And then some of the other shots end up in the credits, like the pole swinging around the pole and kicking. And then there's like a pole jump that's in the credits as well. That is cool. That fight scene is awesome. I like I nerd it out. So I did Taekwondo for years and years

[00:29:40] and God, I don't know if I could do it anymore.

[00:29:43] But at some point I was a black belt new appreciation for the show and the director of cinematography because in addition to one cut of The Dead we covered Marvelous Mrs. Mabel over, organize this and organize that. There's a very funny bit on an episode of 30 Rock about a wonder that Tracy Morgan's character keeps messing up. That's fun. job. They didn't die, so it was fine. And later they kind of make fun of Willow for the quip. Like a pay big boy. And she's like, well, the Slayer always has some fun quip. Like I do enjoy watching them try to deal with vampires. But I just, I don't know,

[00:33:41] I'm missing all the scoobies together,

[00:33:43] but we get a lot in this episode.

[00:33:45] We get a lot like, you're bait, go act baity. And she's like, what's the plan? And Sanders like the vampire attacks you, obviously. And she said, and then what? And he goes, the vampire kills you. We watch, we rejoice. Like just- So mean.

[00:35:00] It's so mean, but it is some really great back and forth.

[00:36:05] Willow's contribution to that is I wonder what our first homework assignment is going to be. And I was like, they're doing a very good job of trying to remind us of these characters and maybe remind new viewers who these people are and set them up.

[00:36:15] Yeah. But, I don't know, those are my You've been this huge influence on her, guiding her.

[00:37:44] You had this whole relationship with her behind my back. laws, like regarding a minor and Influencing a minor without the consent and knowledge of their parent You know, he could very easily be thrown in prison for his behavior If in real-time life Giles could get in a lot of trouble. Yeah, like if Joyce did dis regarded Buffy's whole like don't get the police involved thing like

[00:39:08] Giles would be in prison But Buffy was gone because when he comes to her and tells her about this lead, he was following. He mentions you know Nothing to do with vampires actually. Yeah So clearly talked and talked several times right because he probably comes over after every trip I have yeah, sort of written the fan fiction of this in my head that you know, Buffy goes missing and

[00:40:23] Joy's reaches out to Willow and it's and, you know, lay into him. And I can imagine that was one of the first things Joyce did. Yeah, I can't address it with the parents. I mean, I guess maybe the storyline would be a little different. Yeah, it would have to be different. For the show. But it would be an interesting story. I mean, I like that they chose to tell a story where Joyce finds out later into the show so that we get to have all of them.

[00:43:00] Yes, Lucy, you know, getting used to the idea,

[00:43:04] coming to accept the idea, struggling with the idea stuff

[00:43:07] with Joyce. have this tradition in it. But how did they know? Yeah. Like how did they know? And, and, and how early, you know, did her watcher contact her that and that Buffy never had that, like she only got contacted when she got her calling. We all saw that in, in becoming part one. So yeah, I, I also

[00:44:20] kind of blame Giles. He was the person with the most knowledge ofdale are tremendously stupid. Yeah, like it's just, but it makes the show more interesting. So yeah, it's a lot more fun. It's a show where you can't rely on authority figures. And Giles really does seem to treat the Scoobies as peers, as equals for the most part. Every now and then he throws out the, you know, kind of librarian, watcher card, but

[00:45:46] not that sense. Yeah. But, yeah, that's why I understand Joyce blaming Giles. I get it.

[00:47:00] I just don't enjoy watching it.

[00:47:02] Yeah, that's very satisfying. But I was like, yeah, that's what happens when you don't have safety railings. It's the same problem of like the death star, like never has to be a safety railings. Oh my gosh. People are always plummeting to their death in those Star Wars movies. And not safe. Yeah, and here again, we have this like lack of safety

[00:48:20] precautions that are standard in most workplaces.

[00:48:23] I get that they don't care about their workers. One thing that popped up when I was doing research for this episode, trying to find trivia, is how many people think that that Henga manga that we're talking about was... Now I'm drawing a blank, like a hammer and sickle because she was holding that

[00:49:40] camera in her hand. And they're all like... It romanticize them. And she talks about how she is kind of easily swayed and she clearly has tendencies to lose herself.

[00:51:00] And part of the evidence that leads Buffy to saying

[00:51:05] that there's this cult going on is that chanting forward. But that is the point. Yeah. Ken is the villain, but he delivers some really important lines about the way that despair, which is definitely how Buffy is feeling, Ken sucks. He literally says it sucks the life out of you. Now, he means despair makes you vulnerable and I suck the life out

[00:52:22] of you by it's like, but literally, but to shut her down because she gives people hope. She gives them something to fight for. She's defiant against the

[00:53:42] despair and therefore an enemy of the state. And was waiting for Buffy to be like, girl is gonna kick your ass. And I was like, who came first this episode of Buffy or. Like the fifth or sixth book of the Game of Thrones series and I actually think I've read the Game of Thrones books. I don't think that that I'm.

[00:56:09] I mean, it's so good and it's applicable in every society in multiple situations. And I do like that kind of depth that they're giving to the episode there.

[00:56:15] And you know, Buffy has that, that one quote, I do love when she's trying to be quote unquote

[00:56:26] undercover. want to get back to the Buffy that I know and have fun watching. But God, I love that so much. I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you are... It's one of the best lines ever. She doesn't often say it. There's only two times in the series when she says I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[00:57:44] And I was pretty excited to capture it, so here I'll play it again. I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you are?

[00:58:42] I give him the names of the healthy ones.

[00:58:46] Give them to who?

[00:58:51] Gosh, I love how she just straight up, and it's like, yeah, I've broken your office

[00:58:53] and I'm going through your confidential files.

[00:58:56] And when she's like, I'm calling the police,

[00:58:57] and Buffy just like casually rips the phone out of the wall.

[00:59:01] And it's like, I mean, that wouldn't work today

[00:59:03] with cell phones, but it's so satisfying.

[00:59:06] So it happens like grab her past that part of the despair

[01:00:21] But you know that she's still sad when she goes home. She hasn't completely recovered from what happened with angel. How could she?

[01:01:22] And I didn't love that. And it was more like, I won't leave your thoughts,

[01:01:25] not I, Angel won't leave you.

[01:01:27] It's more like you're never gonna get rid

[01:01:29] of the guilt of sending me to hell.

[01:01:32] Well, cause that was also completely not

[01:01:36] in character for Angel.

[01:01:38] That's how Buffy is interpreting and imagining

[01:01:42] what he would be like.

[01:01:44] Yeah.

[01:01:45] And again, she's a teenager. That is a nice moment. And poor joy had probably been so used to, you know, a knock on the door and it's Giles or somebody else telling her they haven't found anything and had probably kind of lost a little help. And then to have it's face of like, I can't accept the guilt for this. I already have like, I already feel guilty for every time I haven't saved a person and like how like she's so conflicted and she just leaves. But she doesn't give up. Don't remind me. Yeah. Well, I think it. So for her then to get that kind of bit of a backlash and, you know, some judgment from Willie, that had to, that had to be pretty painful. Really painful, yeah.

[01:05:41] I guess my other little note is the costuming

[01:05:47] in this episode. that is also enjoyable. But I do like that that costume choice and how bright and clean it is compared to when we see her kind of on her own and her apartment and dealing with all of this depression and yeah she's in gray and everybody else is in gray and black and

[01:08:05] or dating, we have to figure out a way to make sure he's around and it makes sense. Oh yeah. So he didn't go to summer school, I guess, because we know he's brilliant. He and Willow were

[01:08:11] both being recruited for, yeah, like all sorts of some like shady software. Yeah, yeah, technology

[01:08:20] company. So I, but I'm, I love Oz. So I'm happy that like kind of the amplified remaster. Yeah, thank you. It's like there's a word, there's a word there. But the opening credits for season three kind of hit And Buffy, you know, points out that it's a mushroom. And she's like, well, it's an exotic mushroom. Yeah. Just trying to be helpful. So nice and friendly. But I do think it is important, I won't say much, that we are seeing this type of environment

[01:11:05] in the underbelly of Los Angeles that were more relevant than this one. Yeah. And I guess somebody really liked it. Yeah, there's something about this shot that people really wanted it to be in there. I don't know. If you love this shot, let us know. I'm curious. Yeah. Because I just anyway, also, fun fact meet the quota. So a little realism thrown into the mix there. That was kind of insane thinking about it.

[01:13:41] I will say when I saw that bit added in

[01:14:47] a green sweater and the visible part of the t-shirt says dent and has a red heart with the words home of visible right inside the heart and this is most likely a nod to the rocky horror picture

[01:14:54] show in which a billboard is visible in a graveyard and on that billboard you can see a large red

[01:15:00] heart with the word dentin above it and the phrase the home of happiness inside of it.

[01:16:04] Carlos, Jack Cott, that's an interesting name, jacket, Jack Cott, who played Ken,

[01:16:07] plays a different demon in the Bachelor party,

[01:16:11] which is another angel episode.

[01:16:14] It's actually one that I really enjoy.

[01:16:16] Yeah, that's a pretty funny one.

[01:16:18] Yeah.

[01:16:20] All right, we have come to the part of our episode

[01:16:23] where we ask, does it still slay?

[01:17:22] I often skipped this episode also. And watching it this time, it felt really fresh to me

[01:17:27] because I hadn't seen it in so, so long.

[01:17:29] And I liked it a lot better than I remembered liking it before.

[01:17:33] Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have watched it five times.

[01:17:36] So I'm gonna give it a yes, it still slays.

[01:17:40] Nice.

[01:17:41] I think the social commentary is important.

[01:17:44] I wish that they had had somebody

[01:17:46] who wasn't white in the mix there. that we skipped over in season one and season two. I have a bunch of handful. Yeah, a bunch of them. But yeah. Well, let's go over to the bronze and see what some of our listeners have to say. Bronze things, things of bronze. Wanna read that first one? Hey, I love this. Sam on Facebook just said, oh, the chunky highlights.

[01:19:04] Yeah, Buffy's hair.

[01:19:06] So chunky. Never works. Yeah, that's pretty funny. Willow talking with Giles about their issues with patrolling. We still have some glitches in the system, like vampires getting away had me cracking up. Xander had some great lines in the opening scene. Nicholas Brendan has a way with delivering those funny moments so well. It's true. He has usually the funniest lines are

[01:20:20] Xander and Nicholas Brendan does really sell it. I thought it

[01:20:25] was adorable. The back and forth between Cordy and Xander to Buffy, but I love how it lit a fire in her to get back to kicking some A instead of SS Becky has put in two dollar signs. Great moment when she is fighting and the music builds as the camera swings around and does the close up with her holding the weapon. Anyone know exactly what they were building down there? Yeah, no idea. Right. I laughed aloud when Lily pushed Ken while he

[01:21:43] was in the middle of his rant. Me too. I fun thing to be able to participate in. Wishing you both and all your listeners a wonderful holiday. Until next time, girl or arc. Thanks, Becky. I was an amazing email or Facebook post. And keep them coming. We really enjoy your feedback. Yeah, I love it.

[01:23:00] Oh, and Becky, side note,

[01:23:02] I did order that Sunnydale High sweatshirt.

[01:23:05] So thanks for influencing me. everything, but I also kind of get where she's coming from. And Giles love him traveling the country looking for her. Anyway, so excited for the series three coverage. I was a bit worried you might have a bit of a break between the series. So, so very happy to see this post. Oh, yay. We did take a little break. Yeah, we're coming up with other things, but yeah.

[01:24:22] Yeah, not one that's too long.

[01:24:23] Not too long.

[01:24:24] And we have-

[01:24:25] Thanks, Jolene. cuts in this. This is constant camera movement. It doesn't mean trying to be offered Hitchcock. OK, I have to admit the first time I watched this episode way back when 20 years ago, I did not remember this girl at all. Because, you know, we didn't have a lot of reruns or the DVDs, the VHS is back then. Oh, I forgot about this buffet getting hit by the car. But of course, she's a slayer, so she just gets right up.

[01:25:42] The foreshadowing that we know now when Ken says you get old fast here.

[01:25:45] Yeah, right, sir. Depressing night at the bronze.

[01:26:43] This family hope I'm bad, I'm dirty. She realizes that she just sucks at her cover.

[01:26:45] Hey, that kin's pretty powerful demon

[01:26:47] if he can knock Buffy out with one punch.

[01:26:49] It was a sucker punch and now we're back to the Scoobies

[01:26:53] with Cootelia.

[01:26:54] And the vampire goes to dust and Cordelia

[01:26:57] and is in her make out.

[01:26:59] Okay, no spoilers because,

[01:27:00] but kin is talking about how the hell dimension

[01:27:03] time runs faster.

[01:27:05] Seriously, does this guy have a flesh-covered helmet and find that shot and compare them. I wonder if it was an intentional homage. Very possible. Maybe Buffy was just a little rusty with the one liners and quips. So she threw out the first thing that came into her head to make a ton of quits.

[01:28:20] I mean, and she explains it.

[01:28:22] She says, he was really pissed off.

[01:28:24] He was really angry.

[01:28:25] And it's funny, but I get to see another another side of the parents, you know Not knowing what's going on and just you know selective memory kind of thing so I thought that was great and

[01:29:41] Again, and I don't ever I will never try to defend Zander and was like, I do try to keep in mind that he's a teenage boy. It's kind of the same thing I feel with the Ron Weasley character in Harry Potter. Honestly, that's who it kind of reminds me of getting really, find links to our social media pages, and all of our other shows. Just, you know, come join the Podcastica family. It's a great time. There's something for everyone, and I will plug an episode that Penny was on

[01:32:21] just very recently that I listened to,

[01:32:24] actually getting ready this morning. The Star Wars cast on podcastica has covered all of the live action Star Wars shows on Disney Plus. And I've listened to all of that coverage. My favorite of all of those shows is definitely Andor and the Andor cast was really fantastic. And I got a lot out of that experience.

[01:33:42] So if you like Star Wars, like, you do, we're gonna say this every time. Hit like, hit follow, cry, five star reading, a review, whatever, interacts with us in some way. Yeah, we love it.

[01:37:47] Next time, I'm so excited, we'll be attending a bonkers and really funny. I had said actually Dead Man, love what they did with a character. She doesn't have any supernatural powers for connections. And she finds a way inspired by Buffy and Buffy's selflessness and Buffy's strength uh this episode in general almost feels like a tester episode for angel the setting in Los Angeles and kind of the gritty you know underground um the vibes are kind of similar which is funny because I don't like lawyer TV shows, but I love everything about the Wolframan Heart storyline. It's so fun. It is fun. The fact that it's a law firm, like it's just perfect. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. It's chic and hilarious. And some of the characters that's just a, that's, that's just my own little weird quirk. You can go ahead and watch Deadman's party this afternoon. I think I love seasons. Anyway, yeah. That's definitely far away. Yeah, let's let's let's let season six to talk about once we start getting to faith episodes, but that arc is just so well done. And the way that they set it up thematically, you know, back from pre-emat, you know,