15: "Dead Man's Party" (BTVS S3E02)

[00:00:00] Mm?

[00:00:01] Ah!

[00:00:02] Hmm.

[00:00:04] Uncats be gone.

[00:00:05] What about puffy's welcome home dinner tonight?

[00:00:09] I told your mom we'd help out.

[00:00:11] Bring stuff.

[00:00:12] I'm the dip.

[00:00:14] Uh, you gotta admire the purity of it.

[00:00:18] What?

[00:00:19] Onion dip.

[00:00:20] Starring, not cooking.

[00:00:22] It's what I bring.

[00:00:24] We should figure out what kind of deal this is. Who'd nanny? It's really the old little day. It's maybe something a little more intimate. I mean, Buffy has just got home. I'm sure she's still feeling a little disoriented. All the more reason to make her feel welcome and a big party says welcome Buffy. OK, so one vote from the old guy for a smelly cheese night

[00:01:40] and how many votes for actual fun?

[00:01:42] Huh?

[00:01:43] All right, all right.

[00:01:44] Have a chill way.

[00:01:46] I'm just glad to have her home. Whitmore Jr. and written by Jayne Espenson, Marty Noxon, and JW. The original air date on this one was October 6th of 1998. So let's go back to that day. Alright, so at this point in time, the number one song in the United States was The First

[00:03:03] Night by Monica. And the number one song earlier this was that yesterday. Good Lord. That was yesterday. Um, just as a matter of fact, after I watched this episode of Buffy and took my

[00:04:22] note, so I was browsing for like Matthew Shepard was abducted and tortured and attacked and left for dead in a field, a corn field in Wyoming was a gay hate crime. And on October 28, 2009, Obama signed that legislation into law. Following her son's murder, Judy Shepard became a gay rights activist and established the Matthew when this happened and the news broke, it didn't break on October 6. It took a couple of days for national news, but it was devastating. It's so good. But there's a character in the fourth season who's a little bit, John Glenn. He's like 70 something and he's like on Mars. And it's fun to sort of compare them. Astronauts are some of like the bravery and the confidence that it takes to go into space.

[00:09:44] Yeah, like I just love it.

[00:10:45] coming back to Sunnydale and awkwardly reconnects with her friends. So awkward.

[00:10:46] And Stander almost kind of stakes her, although we all know she could have taken him down.

[00:10:52] Then she goes over and sees Giles and he is just more than thrilled that she's home

[00:10:57] and relieved that she's not like a hark or anything.

[00:11:05] If you hear a bunch of coughs and stuff on this episode, you guys were sorry. evasive and passive aggressive and then by turning choices let's have dinner together invitation into a hootenanny. It just makes no sense to me like if I I don't know maybe that's the introvert in me but if I was looking forward to you

[00:12:21] know a sit-down dinner with my friends think I've got to do a shot? Buffy!

[00:13:40] Hey, I need to talk to a buddy.

[00:13:43] Is there a buddy here?

[00:13:47] Sorry, he's so funny. Oh my god, that's the band from Buffy. I wonder how much crossover there is between those. There's got to be little bits here and there for sure. I mean, they were both on the WB at the same time and they're supernatural. I'm sure there's a lot of like character actors and supporting actors that show up on both 100%.

[00:15:03] I just, this know, just explain, just use your words. And I, I, you know, in this episode, their teenagers, these are very big, like complicated feelings and issues. So I can forgive it. It just drives me crazy.

[00:16:21] Cause I'm like, come on, guys, like give her a break.

[00:16:24] She had to kill the guy, right? Like sometimes it's hard to talk about things and you have to be pushed to an emotional edge to be able to stand to say some things out loud. I've definitely had those kind of fights with friends where it's actually something that isn't that big of a deal, yeah, that sets you off. And then you're like, and another thing. And then you're

[00:17:42] you feel you're exhausted afterward, right's no way to communicate that to her. And Willow, I completely understand Willow being like,

[00:19:01] you know, I've been going through stuff too.

[00:19:03] Like I have a boyfriend and that's what she was missing

[00:19:06] her best friend for. this really pretty house and well it's my family lawyer brain immediately went to I wonder how much Buffy's dad is paying in child support yeah I wonder that too because it's like that's gotta be fairly significant he lives in LA like in a nice house like I'm sure he does well for himself I think that he has has good money everything they say about him makes me think that he's pretty well

[00:20:22] off whenever they reference him but he's this kind older man who guides her. So of course she sort of transfers all her affection for a father onto Giles. I would too. I love the reunion between Buffy and Giles

[00:21:41] when they all show up to Giles's apartment.

[00:21:44] And she says, I got in a few hours ago, a freak for a boyfriend and then he turns into Mr. Killing spree, which is pretty much my fault and it's good. Lord Cordelia. Like you started out good but yeah like please don't help. Cordelia. She's so blunt. She's precious. And then of course we see how Joyce

[00:23:02] has been coping when Buffy was away. She go down this route? Does Joyce have a girlfriend? Does that what Buffy missed?

[00:24:21] Or I thought they were gonna do some scene

[00:24:24] where Pat tries to kiss Joyce collect like one of my mom's friends growing up from traveling. She would collect different masks and, you know, little decorative objects or artifacts like that, wherever she went. And there was a room in the house. I remember as a kid, just wanting to go in and play with everything, but it was not for playing. It was for looking. And there were all

[00:25:41] these different kinds of masks. So if Joyce had some out of a grave. It's like, oh, you mean like that? They'll come right back up. So it's like, oh, we get a whole metaphor. Well, and I look, I love this episode. I think it's fun and funny. And it makes me angry, you know, with how they're all

[00:27:00] responding, but that makes me like it more

[00:27:03] because it is making me feel things. where Joyce makes a comment about the stray cat and getting lost on it. Yeah. So I was like, OK, so like Buffy was a stray cat. OK, but I guess they had to have something that signified that things were coming up from the dead before it was a person in the cat works.

[00:28:21] I think it's also an homage to pet cemetery,

[00:28:24] because I think the first is very pet cemetery feeling. And they're like, oh yeah, like, hey, Brie. Yeah, it smells like I know it smells like cat. He's like, it's not my cat. That was great. Like this whole episode had some fantastic lines and like little quips here and there. Can I just say, how can you hate Brie? Brie is saying to me.

[00:29:40] I know.

[00:29:41] And you can use it in so many different ways

[00:29:44] and flavor profiles, like there will be a way that may not love blue cheese. Like that's legitimately stinky cheese. A little more polarizing. I happen to love it, but a lot of people don't get it. And good old Oz, what is he saying? A gathering. You know, is it a gathering, a shindig or a hootenanny? And it's just such an Oz topic.

[00:31:00] Like the fact that he has ready definitions is hilarious.

[00:31:03] And when he talks about a shindig and he goes,

[00:31:07] he describes it as having dip. Oz has some great lines in this too. Like casually dropping in when they are at, are they at Buffy's house first where they're catching up with her? Or at Joel's apartment? No, that was at the house, yeah. That's right. And he's just like, hey, so you're not wanted for murder anymore. Like just casual, by the way. It's like, oh, that's great news. And Buffy's like, good, that was such a drag.

[00:32:21] Like just, I love how casual they work that in,

[00:32:25] which is kind of a necessary little plot point

[00:32:27] because you would be wondering like, hey, because Jommers gets pissed at Xander's stupidity, but with Kordie, it's more like a resigned sigh whenever she says something silly. But there are some really, really great moments. And I love seeing the Scoobies back together, even though there's discord among them,

[00:33:40] and they're working through these feelings of resentment

[00:33:43] and it's kind of a rough reunion.

[00:33:47] I love the fact that it's got Ed Begley Jr. in it and Pam Greer and there's some other people you'll

[00:35:02] recognize. Oh the actor who plays Beard on Ted Lasso was in it. Especially in the 90s, that was kind of like, heavily lesbian coded in media especially. So I was like, oh, okay. Chunky statement necklaces. And we used to call those kinds of vests and jackets therapist jackets because a lot of my friends noticed,

[00:36:21] we all noticed that our various therapists

[00:36:23] wore a lot of sort of like jazzy jackets.

[00:36:26] Fantastic, jazzy jackets.

[00:36:28] I love that. because in one point she's wearing platform shoes and then later she's wearing those gorgeous like lavender colored high heels, which is so funny to me. It's hard not to miss that she doesn't take them off as soon as she goes in the house. Like I'm a no-shoes-in-the-house person. Right. And I'm like why are you still in your high heels in the basement? But whatever. I was like this is not realistic. Yeah, like women take off those high heels as soon as they can.

[00:38:40] They're soft. Willow and Sander and even Cordelia are all

[00:38:46] in kind of darker muted colors.

[00:38:49] Yeah.

[00:38:51] And you know, also everything coming up from the dead

[00:38:54] being very dark and.

[00:38:57] Yeah.

[00:38:58] Except for the one Sunnydale cheerleader

[00:39:00] in her bright yellow top.

[00:39:02] That was kind of fantastic.

[00:39:04] Yeah.

[00:39:04] These zombies, like it's just, it's an all around.

[00:40:07] But the UK has some fascinating laws when it comes to what you can and cannot show on TV.

[00:40:09] Like for instance, making fun of using any sort of footage of parliamentary procedure

[00:40:15] and mocking it essentially.

[00:40:18] That's one thing that comes up on John Oliver all the time.

[00:40:22] So in this one, I was like, imitatable crime.

[00:40:25] What can they show then? telling Buffy and Joyce that you know it gives him this kind of tingle of pleasure basically to deny her. It's disgusting. It's so gross and unsettling. I was like what the? Yes it felt. Oh yeah we're not cursing but I was like come on man like that is so messed

[00:41:41] up and I do like how when Giles later goes to confront him he is you what do you know, Buffy's allowed back in school. So he did convince Snyder, but that moment, I was like, damn, okay, you tell him Giles, that was Ripper. And I love the subtle, we'll see this more in future episodes where we see Ripper,

[00:43:00] but the subtle accent change when he is

[00:43:05] in a lot of Ripper show, yep.

[00:44:04] The news about them always whenever the news about something awesome that she's done comes out It's always like yeah, and she's been doing this for 12 years like it's never yeah a publicity stunt

[00:44:10] It's always genuine. She just seems like a good human book program

[00:44:14] She has where like you sign up and she sends you a book every month for your kid amazing

[00:44:19] Yeah, I was playing music yesterday at a friend over a couple days ago and Jolene came on my playlist and he was like oh

[00:45:24] love that she was involved in Buffy. It just feels right. Yeah. It makes me really happy whenever I think about it. I'm like, oh, and Dolly Parton had a part in this. It's like, I don't

[00:45:28] know. When I do the blessing from an angel, that's true. It's been blessed by Dolly. But I think

[00:45:35] part now, speaking of women, I think the friendships. I can take my lumps for a while.

[00:47:03] All right, let's stop giving you a hard time. Run away.

[00:47:07] Will? Yes, and it was, yes hooker, we called like hooker came up all the time and it was only us though Like we were the only ones that were allowed to go back and forth if any of our guy friends at any point Tried to like jump in it's like you're not allowed to do that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, becoming more of who she really is. And, you know, she talks about she's settling in for herself. Yeah, it's really fun to see. And when the show was on, I was still a redhead and I always identify with redheads

[00:49:40] when I see them on TV.

[00:49:41] And so Willow was one of my favorite characters immediately.

[00:49:44] And so seeing her grow and change and develop made me so happy is Joyce and her efforts to show how accepting she is a Buffy, you know, where she makes a comment about like, you know, there should basically be an exception for you. Like you're practically a superhero. And she wants to have all of Buffy's friends over. And she makes a suggestion. She's like, Oh, are you going toayer daughter or something like that. That's exactly what I thought of. I had a friend after he came out to his parents, his mom went and bought like, I love my gay son, like a bumper sticker for their car. She went and this is when blockbuster was still a thing rented like the first

[00:52:20] season of Will and Grace and wanted to watch it with him.

[00:52:24] I was like, okay, well Joyce handled herself during the whole fighting scene. She didn't scream, she didn't like overly freak out, she was kind of practical about it. She's like, oh, there's Pat, let's bring her in here. And like, oh, she died like, she was of an appropriate amount upset,

[00:53:41] but she wasn't falling apart the way like,

[00:53:44] if someone has attacked my house,

[00:53:45] as much as I think I've been preparing for that, She would have turned around and slammed Giles against the file cabinets. Good kind of different slam. I'm like, I got something. Yeah, the fun kind of slamming. I was just very impressed by her and then yeah, when it was over and she's like, is this a typical day at the audience? Poor Buffy was also like, no, this was nothing.

[00:55:01] I was like, come on, Buffy.

[00:55:02] Like, this was pretty intense.

[00:55:05] Like, they weren't vampires, but yeah.

[00:55:08] But Joyce. Get a better idea and from multiple perspectives right like she's talking to Buffy at and she has Buffy's perspective on what a slayer is and and what a slayer does to a certain extent But like Willow and Xander have had a foot row seat to watching Buffy be the slayer and They probably could tell Joyce a lot of stuff about it. Oh, yeah, I'm in real ass for sure

[00:56:24] That would be helpful, but I guess, because when Willow is getting upset with Buffy and her mom kind of has a moment with her and even Giles, I'm like, okay, I understand.

[00:57:40] But then when Zander jumps in to defend Willow

[00:57:44] and it's like, let her know, last 20 years or whatever, I remembered it as Nightwing. So when he says Nightwing, when Cortillo says Nighthawk on the radio, I'm like, Nighthawk, like the Edward Hopper painting. Oh, and then Oz, I'm gonna be refereeing it being referee guy. That's when Willow that one line where she's

[00:59:02] like, no, let him go. Oz talking about it isn't helping. We

[00:59:05] might as well try some violence. And so she, and we weren't allowed to have cats in the building. So she was like walking around in the hall trying to find the kitten going like whispering. Here, kitty, kitty. And I'm like, I have something that belongs to you. I ended up becoming pretty good friends with the upstairs neighbor. And I got to go up and play with the kittens a lot,

[01:00:20] which was a nice way to love steam during law school.

[01:00:23] Oh, did you also have villain, that's a really great power because then you can just kill the person really easily probably. I am wearing my Medusa T-shirt today

[01:01:40] in honor of Pat's ability to freeze people with her eyes.

[01:01:44] I really enjoyed that, you cops. Nobody was like, ah, we should probably see what's going on over there. They were probably like, summer's just weird. I guess they're having a really big costume party.

[01:03:01] I don't know what's going on over there.

[01:04:08] good. Very appropriate that this was the book that they were reading for sure. Also, next bit of trivia, the title of this episode, Deadman's Party, refers to the

[01:04:13] song of the same name, but is that Wengo Buengo? That's fun to say.

[01:04:18] Wengo Buengo. Ozz is the one who says it, and that makes sense that he would be

[01:04:25] into Wengo Buengo. That's like turned me in. I always liked the post-apocalyptic storylines, anything end of the world, signed me up natural disasters and then having a realistic

[01:05:42] quote-unquote zombie show. I was like fashion is unbelievable on Buffy. It's so beautiful. That dress, there's no way that was a mall dress. That is a designer dress, that pink dress. It's not something she picked up. But the episode is, it's a great beginning of the season episode, because it re-establishes all the relationships

[01:07:00] and takes them in a new direction

[01:07:03] and reintroduces all these characters that we love.

[01:07:07] It's

[01:08:22] funny because we dislike the character so much we might not be giving enough you selfish jerk, L.O.L. I agree. I am, I'm... Yeah. I'm Becky. Shut up, this lady. Frequently yell at Zander on my TV as well. She said Cordelia trying to take up for Buffy, but doing nothing but insulting her L.O.L. That's true. She tried.

[01:09:41] We're getting out of action. When the cat dug its way out of the ground,

[01:09:43] all I could think of was,

[01:09:45] set toons is the driving cat.

[01:09:48] Oh yeah. really. And she said, Willows, Dreamy looks at Oz while he was playing with the band, too cute. And finally, she said, the Walking Dead loved the zombies, made for some funny moments for the whole gang. And the back and forth argument between Joyce and Buffy was incredible. Give me Sarah Michelle Geller and Kristine Sutherland play it yet. Do you like my mask? Isn't it pretty? It raises the dead. Americans. I love how Giles works in that little scoth in Americans at the end. It as well try some violence. Zombie crashes through the window and Willow, I was being sarcastic. That is a classic moment. Giles surprising Cordie and Oz and Cordie saying, how do we know it's you and not zombie Giles? And Giles is Cordelia stopping so tiresome and Cordie,

[01:13:42] it's him.

[01:13:43] Those are all excellent quotes.

[01:13:45] And she finishes it by saying again, This is Steve and this is going to be for StillSland season 3 episode 2 Dead Man's Party. On a side note, I get that people have troubles with the episode Anne, how it doesn't fit. But I think we needed to see the transition. We needed to see Buffy out of her own element. And like I said in my voicemail for Anne, it's such an acting tour de force by Sir Michelle Geller talks about Buffy and about the expulsion. You. Oh, and another mention of the mayor. I know he's coming up. Don't wanna spoil anything. Okay, Pat is just too weird. Uh oh, guests for dinner, indulge your mother. Yeah, this is not gonna go well. Dead Cat. Oh, this is gonna be a prophecy girl dream, right?

[01:16:21] With Buffy here in the school courtyard.

[01:16:24] Well, Joyce just said consequences.

[01:16:26] That's not, that's the dip love it and Courtney get out of my shoes. Okay. Well, somebody please figure out how to kill a zombie Oz just said dead man's party is Mike drop when scary things get scared not good and random shovel for the wind Buffy gets the eyes guess that was a shovel they they used to

[01:17:42] bury the cat but still it's random that would still be out there, right? Sorry this went long. Um, talk to you later

[01:18:45] Facebook.com slash podcastica or Instagram at stillslayingcast.

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[01:19:01] I will say if you feel so inclined, leave us a review.

[01:20:05] And it's all improvved and so far it's been hilarious. So funny.

[01:20:05] And there's only been two episodes out,

[01:20:07] but I'm on the third episode, so check it out.

[01:20:12] I, listening to the first two, I felt like an idiot sitting

[01:20:16] alone in my car cracking up.

[01:20:18] So it was definitely enjoyable to listen to.

[01:20:23] And it's quick.

[01:20:24] It's like half hour episodes and they're very silly. Also, Giles keeps them in his office, in his personal files. Most importantly, it would be wrong. That's plenty of warning. We're moving on to the Watchers Diaries and any spoilery stuff we want to talk about. And I want to start with, you know, we never get to see Joyce's art gallery.

[01:21:40] I know.

[01:21:40] And I'm kind of bummed about that.

[01:21:42] It's weird that we don't.

[01:21:44] Like, right?

[01:21:45] It must be in downtown Sunnydale, a title for it. But I could not stop thinking about that pretty much the entire time, especially after having just covered Anne. I was like, oh yeah, that's gonna be a fun one to talk about. That is a really fun one. It's different types of zombies because the zombies on that can talk

[01:23:00] and think. Definitely different. Limitedly, but break for this episode, because I think I'm projecting what I feel towards him later on. But this episode, you know, is there's a lot that just kind of sets the table

[01:24:23] for what's to come and I can't wait.

[01:25:24] But I like the pop collar he had going on. I like that look on dudes.

[01:25:26] I think it's kind of sexy.

[01:25:28] Yeah.

[01:25:29] There are some moments.

[01:25:30] It's so funny.

[01:25:31] Some moments he looks like they dress him very well.

[01:25:35] There's an episode coming up the homecoming episode where

[01:25:39] we see Xander in a tux.

[01:25:41] And I remember being like, oh, OK.

[01:25:43] Xander cleans up pretty well.

[01:25:46] But that Pico look that is a good one. to Snyder as kind of a rodent. There are multiple ones and then, you know, the mayor. He gets eaten by his mouth. Yeah, like every time I hear it, I'm just like, appropriate for him. There was a cut line where Joyce goes on at length

[01:27:02] about Snyder and describes his like little rodent teeth

[01:27:05] and stuff.

[01:27:06] And I'm glad they cut it.