I've always enjoyed this episode, especially for the scene where Angel shows up and looks constipated because Buffy's on a date. :P

I think Watchers maybe like to keep it in the family. Giles' father was a Watcher, presumably. Wes' father was a Watcher. It makes sense for a secret organization that's lasted millennia. I'm not sure if I'd call it sacred birthright or family obligation. I think it's a bit of both.

THE COAT. WE WILL SPEAK OF IT NO MORE. *spits*

Four Stars. This episode was fun! And I remember it being very gripping as everyone was so scared of the vampire rising. Plus, I enjoyed the twist of the Anointed One being a child (little did we know how lame he'd be) and the final scene of they're being doomed in romance (little did we know how painful that'd be).

Edited at 2010-03-09 09:07 pm (UTC)

I really enjoyed all the business at the funeral home and the slapstick of trying to keep Owen out of the loop.

That coat never fails to make me laugh. I can just hear Giles thinking Good Lord, Buffy, what are you wearing?!

I like the coat. I kind of really like it when I see people wearing something that is godawful ugly with pride. I find it entertaining.

1. Owen/Buffy is my OTP!!! ... Not really. He gets the "Eh" option because of Dickinson though.

2. Familial.

3. Owen/Scott is my OTP!!! ... Not really. I pick Scott over Owen. I always wonder if Scott and Buffy might've worked out if Angel hadn't come back. (Excepting, of course, that Holden Webster said Scott was gay.)

4. I love it. I love weird stuff sometimes...but I love it.

5. Tres.

I wish my name lent itself to a state of being.

Oh my god. Buffy slayed Tigger.

I rather like Owen, but it's hard to get worked up over half an episode's worth of character. Still, I have no reason to dislike him, which puts him way over many Buffy-boyfs imo.

I think my enthusiasm for this ep is dimmed by the fact I saw a chunk of it way before I became a Buffy fan, out of context and with flatmates yakking in the room so I wasn't following it at all. Every time I looked up, Buffy seemed to be defeating a vampire with a big kick, and what with that together with the title of the series I thought I knew what BtVS was all about: Sabrina, with high kicks.

Um, no... But it sadly marred the episode when I finally got to see season one, and some of that lingers.

I quite liked that being a Watcher went from a grandMOTHER to a FATHER. ie it's totally gender-irrelevant. Hooray! Not that I want to get into any quibbles about the Slayer being female. But just that it's cool to hear it so nonchalantly tossed off by Giles during conversation. (I just rewatched this myself recently.)

Rewatching, I was so uninspired by Owen, and found it hard to recall how exciting the Anointed One was. But the Scoobies still do it for me, and Buffy's "I want a real life" crusade.

Such a nice episode. And a great coat.

I like it when Buffy crushes on the bookish, sensitive ones. The teenagerish dating and posing is classic Season One.

And, whatever mystical glowy connection evil demon infections may have imposed between Angel and our hero, her first kiss comes with Owen.

Willow's description of Owen is fun:

"He's solitary, mysterious. He can brood for forty minutes straight, I've clocked him."

Sounds vaguely like someone else Buffy likes...

(And it also suggests that Willow has her own crush on Owen.)

I've just read a cool Angel/Owen fic, so I'm kinda fond of this guy at the moment. :)

*profoundly hates most of the S1-S2 clothing*

And the episode? Four stars - one of the season's highlights, imo.

Oh, something is just WEIRD about that Owen, ngl. I prefer him to Scott, though, cause Scott's a d-bag.

The coat though? Love it.

Oh, coming back to note that Owen is the human version of Angel. So Buffy clearly goes for Angel because he's the supernatural version of Owen aka the one she can be with because he knows about things that go bump in the night. She can't drag Owen into her world, but Angel's already there so why not jump him?

Owen is the brooding, silent loner who likes poetry. All of which pretty much define Angel's character in the first seasons of BtVS.

Conclusion: Owen is Buffy's... soulmate.

:P

Edited at 2010-03-10 02:58 am (UTC)

I liked Owen. Which is part of the reason why I liked Riley right off the bat, I suppose.

I totally wear a coat just like that. Except it fuzzier and uh...black and white.

I kind of think the Watchers have to be some combination of familial obligation and ability, in particular magical ability. Giles can work magic - not like Willow, but he can - and Wes can too, as can Gwendolyn. But that's the kind of thing that seems likely to run in families, and we know future Watchers and occult specialists go to a Watchers' Academy, which will tend to limit the future career potential of those born into Watching families, and of course the magically-able but not-powerful won't show up on the Watchers' radar. (That also explains why ten year old Baby Rupert found out his calling when he did - if I read my Harry Potter right, that's about when supernaturally inclined British kids start packing their bags for boarding school.) That said, since it's at least partially about ability, I can see the Watchers going out and recruiting potentially powerful Oxbridge students for an adult crash course.

I always visit your journal over the su_herald links and somehow I never comment... UNTIL NOW.

I like Owen, he's sort of a proto-Angel without the manpain, which is good because manpain is pretty blah. I wouldn't have minded seeing him again, but of course the whole point of him was that Buffy can't date regulars.

Huh, it never occurred to me before that Watchering could be interpreted in any way other than just a family trade like doctoring - you don't have to do it, but there is rather a strong moral obligation to at least think about it.

I like Xander's Tweety watch, how adorable. Also when he was trying to position the mirror to see naked Buffy -pervert. It must have sucked being only friends with girls -makes a guy an outsider. Kinda like with Willow when Jesse was alive, I can see her being an outsider, especially consider her comment in the Pack.

I gave the episode 3 stars, I thought it was good, but not great. It sets the scene for Buffy's relationship with Angel by showing that she can't have a normal dating life.

I doubt that Watchers are called like slayers, but I can see it as an occupation that is passed down through family obligation. I can't picture the Watchers setting up a booth at a college job fair and recruiting :)

1) Eh. He’s okay. The real question is why Cordelia is into him.
2) Familial obligation via his grandmother (and possibly parents). Giles’ scene with Buffy at the end is the best in the episode, I think.
3) Scott for Buster Keaton, and because he led to a better meta-joke four years later (Fab Filipino was a gay character on Queer as Folk, apparently, which is part of the CWDP reference). Did Owen lead to any meta jokes four years later? I don't think so.
4) She’s wearing a what? I don’t pay attention to much fashion, but yikes. I can't help but thinking of Giles in "Earshot," regarding Buffy wearing cats strapped to her feet if a fashion magazine told her to.
5) Good ideas, but too padded. The Bronze scene where Xander and Willow have to pretend to be together and Willow wants them to play it up is pretty awesome, as is Giles’ scene with Buffy and the twist regarding the Anointed One. But neither Owen nor the prophesy-spouting vampire interest me enough to get too involved in the episode. So I’ll say 2 stars.

1. So...Owen. You a fan?

As a heterosexual man, I have neither the desire or the capability of bearing his children. :P However, I hate him. I could like him only the actor playing him is so incredibly bland. Honestly, the worst actor on the show. I can't believe this is a real person that anyone would show interest in (even if he looks good physically), least of all Buffy. Okay, she has fallen for almost as equally wooden Angel but at least Angel seems capable of emotion. Owen is just...cardboard. *tries to think of a better word to describe Owen as a character*

2. In this episode, Giles tells Buffy that he was ten years old when his father told him he was "destined to be a Watcher". Are Watchers chosen like Slayers are?

It seems strange that Giles would say he was "destined" to become a Watcher but its never been established in the show that Watchers are "chosen" like Slayers. And what do Watchers do only research stuff on demonology and allow themselves to be beaten up by their Slayers whilst training. Anyone can do that. So I would say familial obligation. Perhaps Giles' father wouldn't allow Giles to pursue any other career and carry on the family tradition. Which goes to prove, in the case of Wesley, that all fathers are dickheads! Or cyborgs!

3. In S3, Scott Hope is another potential Buffy boyfriend that just didn't make it. Who do you prefer: Owen or Scott?

I really don't like smarmy Scott either but at least he felt like a real person unlike bland, personality less Owen.

4. Buffy's outfit?

I'm not into fashion but that's pretty fugly! Did people actually dress like that, circa 1997?

5. Pretend you're a movie reviewer and give this episode a star rating.

The slow "tense" pace, the introduction of the real Anointed One and Owen bring this episode down but it still gets 3 stars. Why? Because Willow and Xander are charming in this, I love the humour where they interrupt Buffy's date, I like Angel's jealously and I have all kinds of love for Buffy and Giles' talk at the end. This is the episode where Giles goes from stuffy old English stereotype to three dimensional character for me.

1. Eh..... he's okay. And that really is the extent of my thoughts. No, seriously, he's a bit of a weirdo (in a not-so-good way, because weird can be good), but I like that he seems to get Buffy's humour, which balances out the weirdo thing. The real question is: is Owen a precursor to Faith? I.e., a thrillseeker that likes the world of the vamps a little TOO much.... Haha

2. Familial obligation. Hey, what's to stop Giles going off and becoming a fighter pilot now? I mean, he doesn't have a job - techinically - right? I can see it.... :)

3. I like Scott more. The gay thing made sense, and he and Buffy wouldn't have worked out in the long run, IMO, even if it weren't for the spectre of Angel (and the gay thing), but he was.... nice. ;)

So is Owen Angel's "normal" parallel, and Scott Riley's? (Assuming Scott wasn't secretly a commando.... Always possible.)

4. LOVE. I love crazy fashion. And it's so age-appropriate and looks fab on Buffy. If you can wear it, wear it.

I'm watching season 4 atm, and while I can always count on Willow and Tara to keep the spirit of crazy fashion alive :), I have to say I really miss Buffy's early-seasons tastes. As well as her missing weight.... :(

5.4 stars. I love this one. It's the purest "Buffy tries to have a normal life" episode - at least until Homecoming. Buffy herself is extraordinarily loveable here, IMO. So peppy and witty ("If the apocalypse comes, beep me." :D), but also so sensitive to Owen, and to Giles in the last scene. Buffy grows out of her blonde cheerleader role in later seasons, but here she both embodies it to the full ("Emily Dickens" lol) AND subverts it, by realising her obligations and being the hero. Some great set-up for future Buffy characterisation: her emotions enhancing her fighting skills in the funeral home, making her first - albeit, small - sacrifice, in the form of Owen. The final scene between Buffy and Giles is really poignant (I love the song); it's the first scene where I felt a connection between the characters. Fantastic dialogue ("Salty goodness"). Xander cracks me up: "It's the eyes! CRAZY!!! [mimes antenna-like things]" LMAO LOLOLOL Oh, and the title is so fun. Wow, I just fangirled all over this episode, didn't I? lol

Also, thanks so much for providing this great forum for Buffiness. Your 'holism is def a good thing. :)

I especially love your depression and feminism stuff. Need to get round to reading it properly at some point.

Oh, and what's a "meta"?