Why Couldn't You Be Dealing Drugs Like Normal People?

Episode 3.19: Choices. Original Airdate 5.4.99

"The Mayor takes Willow prisoner after Buffy and her friends steal away a box containing demonic energy needed for Ascension Day."

Daniel's Thoughts:

• Mayor, I want a cookie! I bet he bakes well.
• So I love this father/daughter relationship that the Mayor & Faith have.  Because it’s not just about being close.  He disciplines her like a dad too.  A kind of deranged dad…but still.
• And that is the coolest knife I've ever seen.

Eat your heart out, Crocodile Dundee

• They really like leather on this show.  Also, hey!  A female vamp.  They’re kinda rare in opening vamp-fighting scenes. But of course, it’s Angel fighting her.
• Give it up, Joyce. Buffy isn't going to Northwestern.
• Yay! Snyder!

• “Go ahead mock me.”// ”I think she just did.”
• Cordy’s not going to college.  She’s going to LA.  And will eventually become evil, stupidly. And eventually die, also stupidly.
• "This conversation is reserved for people who actually have a future." Way Harsh, Tai.
• Yes, Buffy – ‘Cause vamps and demons just attack during school breaks.
• Now Faith stole Buffy’s red leather pants.
• I actually like Willow’s shirt-dress – it’s also a bit witchy.
• I love Willow’s drawing!
• The fight choreography in the Mayor's conference room is awesome.  Good job, fight choreographer. 
• Nice job, Willow!  Those pencil-floating skills are really coming along!
• I like Willow's speech to Faith. It doesn't help much but...it's still good. And Alyson nails it.
• You can tell what the Mayor is saying is getting through to Angel & Buffy. 
• And it’s kind of amazing how much he knows about Angel.
• Those spider thingies are so creepy!

Hey! It’s general redhead from Chuck!

General Redhead started as a boutique manager

Zelda's Thoughts:

• She's smelling the knife. Why is she smelling the knife?
• Buffy's feeling like she and Angel are in a rut ... in their slaying times. Buffy, you're like 18. This is a talk for when you're 28. Oh god. I'm 28. I'm old. And all I do is watch Buffy and look for funny gifs to post. WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE. [I...have you beat. *sigh* :( - Daniel]
• Buffy got into Northwestern. Northwestern rejected me. WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE.
• Random Snyder driveby.
• Buffy's feeling her lack of choices about her future. Sure she got into Northwestern, but is she also glued to the Hellmouth?
• WTF IS THAT HAND GESTURE WESLEY.

By the power invested in me by the Council, I forbid it.
Also I can turn into a mushroom if I do this three times.

• Shenanigans! Faith's new knife is not for sawing of bone. It's for stabbing. Look at the internal cutting of it. It's made to do visceral damage - while stabbing. Sawing would dull its edges too much.
• Harry Groener, you are the best. I wish we had scenes of you and Armin Shimerman being the best together.
• Shenanigans! Cordy hands her acceptance letters to Xander, but they're all small envelopes. That's how I could tell my rejections - small envelopes. The acceptance letters came with big thick packets. Also why is she just carrying them around? Is that a thing people do?
• It's Mission: Impossible time!
• Oops alarm.
• The fight scenes are in general much better this season.
• Oh shit. Mayor Wilkins is angry.
• Also oh shit Willow's a hostage.
• "I need a volunteer to hit Wesley." Everyone everywhere raises hands.
• "Buffy's like a dog." Just the light casual way he says it. Harry Groener, still the best.
• I love that Willow uses her hostage time to spy more on the Mayor and the Books of Ascension. I love it. She's not willing to be a girl waiting to be rescued, she's gonna be useful, dammit!
• I also love her interaction with Faith: "It's way too late. You know, it didn't have to be this way, but you made your choice. I know you had a tough life. I know that some people think you had a lot of bad breaks. Well, boo hoo! Poor you. You know, you had a lot more in your life than some people. I mean, you had friends in your life like Buffy. Now you have no one. You were a Slayer and now you're nothing."
• Angel: "Yeah, well, what can I say, I like 'em sane." LIES LIES LIES
• Aww, the Mayor pointing out - correctly - that there are issues of longevity for Angel's and Buffy's relationship. We'll see this bear fruit next week.
• I love that this is how he spends his evil monologue time - tearing into their insecurities, rather than any blustering about his intentions of Evil Domination and Power.
• HAHAHAHA and Snyder busts up the trade, thinking it's drugs.
• Yay! Thank you, show, for giving me HG and AS in a scene together. That was awesome of you.
• Aw, the Gavrok spider thing killed a deeply stupid policeman. For the record.
• Yeeeeeah, Snyder's gonna have a hard time blocking this from his memory.
• And there's Faith's requisite one moment of possible redemption per episode - throwing her fancy knife to save Wesley from the Gavrok spider. And then leaving the knife behind.
• YAY WILLOW RIPPED OUT PAGES FOR GILES FROM THE BOOK. Love it.
• Awwwwwwwww Willow's gonna go to UC Sunnydale too. Best friends! (fyi, UC stands for University of Convenience.)
• I'm glad Willow clarifies that she's not staying for Buffy - because that would be a bad choice - but for herself - she wants to continue the good fight with Buffy. "I want in."
• And tah-wist, Cordy is working at the dress shop.
• "I'm hoping mom will let me live there. It's too far to come home every night." I thought you didn't have a whole lot of town, Sunnydale!

Favorite Lines:

Daniel: “Of the two people here, who is the boss of me?” - Willow

Zelda: As the Scoobies debate whether to go after Willow or perform the ritual to destroy the Box of Gavrok, Oz wordlessly destroys the spell stuff so that they have to trade the box for Willow. BECAUSE HE LOVES HER AND THIS IS NOT A CONFLICT OF INTEREST FOR HIM.

Arc/Continuity Stuff:

• Recurring: Mayor, Faith, Joyce, Snyder
• The Mayor gives Faith her fancy knife which will be used in many dream sequences. She leaves it behind with the Scoobies after the showdown.
• First mention of the conveniently-located UC Sunnydale. Also first mention of Sunnydale having an airport.
• Xander announces his plan of a post-graduation road trip.
• Mr. Pointy gets name-dropped.
• Willow's pencil levitation skills from Enemies comes into play as she stakes a vampire with a floating pencil.
• First time Buffy and the Mayor have officially met.

Retraction: (as published in our review of Graduation Day: Part 1) We would like to retract our previous stats/scoffs of Choices where we mocked Sunnydale's sudden acquisition of both an airport and a university. Sunnydale's airport first reared its implausible head in What's My Line: Part 1 (when Kendra arrived), and Sunnydale's Crestwood College's Frat House o Penises (Delta Zeta Kappa) made an appearance in Reptile Boy. But for the record, Crestwood is not UC Sunnydale, so ... snap.

Stats:

Oz's Hair - blonde

Dead Humans - 2

Dead Undeads - 3

Giles Unconscious - 0

Giles Cleans His Glasses - 0

Buffy Breaks a Door - 0

Evil Reveal - 0

Unevil Reveal - 0 

Shenanigans Called - 2

Apocalypse Called - 0