What? What-ing a what?

Episode 2.7: Lie to Me. Original Airdate 11.3.97

"Buffy is lured into a trap by a group of undead wannabes who hope that Spike will make them vampires in exchange for giving him the Slayer."

Daniel's Thoughts:

Willow's fashion don't. What is this shirt?

• Worst mom ever. Not Joyce! Whoever left their kid in the middle of a playground at night in Sunnydale.
• Drusilla is so creepy! I love it!
• I like Angel's remorse and guilt when it comes to Drusilla.
• Why is Buffy on a rooftop except for a nice directorial shot and so she can accidentally come across Dru & Angel?
• I love whenever Cordelia speaks up in class.
• I hate Ford...mostly because I hate Jason Behr. He's such a boring actor. Here's a hint: don't watch Roswell.
• How many of us have sat in our rooms, moping, listening to "I Touch Myself"?
• Xander's "You're not wrong!" - I've used that. [Me too. My friends hate me for it. But they are, in this case, wrong. - Z]
• I love Chanterelle. I'm so glad she makes future appearances.
• Willow has a balcony leading to her bedroom!
• By letting Angel in, Willow is dooming the future of her goldfish.

• 

  Well, this is awkward.

• Willow's bad at lying...for now.
• Chanterelle is so sweet and innocent.
• Someone's dressed like Angel! ==>
• Spike to Ford: "I've known you for two minutes and I find you annoying." Preach.
• "The Lonely Ones," "The Lost Boys," "They just...sparkle..." People have found ways of romanticizing vampires since they were invented. I l like that BtVS doesn't really do that. [Everyone here should read Sunshine by Robin McKinley.]
• Empty threat. Buffy says she'll kill Ford, but she won't - as long as he remains human.
• Looking at Spike's face when Ford asks for his reward, I was sure he was just going to kill him. I was very surprised when we saw Ford emerge from the grave as a vampire. What does that say about Spike? He's a vampire. He didn't have to keep his promise.  

Zelda's Thoughts:

Okay, so this is one of my top ten right here, so please bear with me. It's just - this is when I fell in love. The second half of OMWF (my first ep) was a moment of "oh wow, who's that across the room?" Prophecy Girl was a moment of "you guys, I think this show and I could really have something special." But Lie to Me was the moment I fell for good. Specifically the moment at the end, the final lines (quoted below in our Favorite Lines section), and here's why:

I remember being very conscious of the episode title while watching this for the first time, and how prevalent that theme was in this episode - Buffy's people - her boyfriend, her childhood crush, her two best friends - spend a good chunk of the episode lying to her, or at the least, withholding the truth. The people she should be able to count on the most to be honest with her are betraying that trust. Watch SMG's face as the episode goes on - it becomes more and more closed off, less willing to reveal her true reactions as her shields go up. Coupling this  with the cavalry's only showing up at the Sunset Club once the battle is done, and this is really an episode where Buffy is forced to be the adult, to make the responsible heroic choices that will save the lives of the naive idiots like Chanterelle and Mark/Diego. But Buffy is not willing to let herself be a passive victim of her friends' dishonesty ("I don't need to understand, I just need to know.") - she demands the truth, even if none of it is anything she wants to know - that Angel drove a young girl mad, killed her whole family, turned her, and is allowing her to go free in Sunnydale, or that Ford is not only a cruel manipulator willing to let all the denizens of the Sunset Club die, but that he is dying in a truly horrible way. Buffy knows first-hand how awful it is to face death as a teenager, but she also knows the full truth, that that awfulness is never a sanction for murder. Part of growing up is facing these awful truths.

All of that adds up to a pretty good episode on its own, but it's the end bit that kills me. Buffy sits with Giles, waiting to kill Ford, and asks him, like a two year old with a scrape on her knee, if it gets better. And when Giles asks what she wants to hear, she invokes the episode's title: "Lie to me." Buffy would like to remain a child just a bit longer, to retain the fantasy that the world is simple, that truths are always true, and that people you love will be honest with you. And so I fell in love. Thank you for your time.

• Creepy playground ... on the backlot.
• Juliet Landau is really good at being quietly dangerous. "Oh, well, I'm not a person, see - " - so mad at being misunderstood.
• I'm confused why Angel doesn't just kill Dru. He knows she's psychotic and dangerous, even if she's weak right now. You can't tell me it's guilt. If his guilt were that bad, wouldn't he try to relieve her of the burden of being crazy by killing her? More evidence that Angel is just a big stupid stupidhead.
• Yaaaaay written and directed by Joss Whedon!



Xander's face as Cordy defends Marie Antoinette.
 Awesome.

• So in this instance, Cordy demonstrates very little understanding of history. I guess Shakespeare is her specialty?
• "Would I be imposing?" // "Oh, only in the literal sense."
• "Okay, once more with tension" shoutout to our blog!
• "See, you made him do that thing where he's gone!" Oh, Joss, you're so Jossy.
• Nice touch when Ford enters the Sunset Club, that we see a guy welding/rigging the door for the big event.
• So this vampire-worshipping bar is just the Bronze re-outfitted, right?
• Willow being scandalized at having a boy in her room is adorable.
• "Help? You mean like on homework? No, 'cause you're old and you already know stuff."
• "Really honed my brooding skills" leave it to Joss to hang a delightful lantern on the pretension that is Angel's melancholy.
• "Okay, but if there isn't anything weird - hey, that's weird."
• "Nice girl." "There aren't two of those in the world." SPOILER YES THERE ARE SOMETIMES
• So how did Ford know random blonde vamp would be a Spike minion? Does he just own all the local vamps?
• "Yeah I'm gonna have to go with Dead Boy on this one." // "Could you not call me that?"
• Bossy the cow. bahahaha. I love how much we're insulting Angel in this episode.
• "What, and miss the nitro-burning funny cars?"
• Oooh "isn't he supposed to be a good guy?" BECAUSE JENNY KNOWS BETTER ZOMG SPOILER [Again, I have a problem with this...because it still seems like the writers/Jenny don't know better. - D]
• "My book! It took one of my books!" Giles is so outraged
• Awww Spike is all jelly of Angel. I love it. JM is my favorite.
• "The bird's dead, Dru. You left it in the cage, and you didn't feed it, and now it's all dead, just like the last one. Oh, I'm sorry, baby. I'm a bad, rude man ... Would you like a new bird? One that's not dead?" love love love it all
• "Well, I don't go much for tradition." yeah, Ford, and if you really knew who Spike was, like you claim, you'd know better.
• Ford's obsession with following the rules of storytelling and bad guy posturing is fascinating. I want to talk about it more, but I think I've already written way too much this week. Short version: he's a man who's lost control of his body and so is seeking to control everything else in reaction - right down to structuring his whole scheme so that people will play pre-assigned roles in his head - Spike as the mustache-twirling villain, Buffy as the self-righteous but ignorant hero, and himself as the sufferer - all to lead up to his reveal. But Buffy doesn't respond the way he wants, because she knows better. See: my discussion in Inca Mummy Girl, and Buffy's line regarding ends and means - nothing warrants murder.
• "And my GOD, could you have a dorkier outfit?"
• Buffy's form of mercy is killing Ford herself, so that he doesn't become a vampire. Because she knows. She's seen what hell looks like. She's seen what death looks like. And she's seen the ugliness of vampires up close.
• I love how Buffy scans the room of vampires feasting. She could take down vamp by vamp, or she could go for the Queen (Dru) and neutralize all of them.
• "Uh. ... where's the doorknob?" snort
• "She's NOT stuck in the basement."
• Oh Ford. You died twice. Just like Buffy.
• So ... did Ford get buried in Sunnydale? Or did Buffy and Giles go to an LA cemetery to wait for him?

Favorite Lines:

Daniel: "Um...uh, there was a, a cat. A cat here, and, um, then there was a-another cat...and they fought. The cats. And...then they left." - Goofy Buffy

Zelda: This entire sequence:

Buffy: Does it ever get easy?

Giles: You mean life?

Buffy: Yeah. Does it ever get easy?

Giles: What do you want me to say?

Buffy: Lie to me.

Giles: Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.

Buffy: Liar.

90s Factoid:

Buffy's ginormous cordless phone.

Arc/Continuity Stuff:

• Buffy used to eat Oreos dunked in apple juice
• Buffy went to Hemery in LA with Ford.
• Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Cordy all have History together. Buffy, Xander, and Willow have French together.
• First appearance of Chanterelle/Lily/Anne.
• Angel now has permission to enter the Rosenberg abode.
• Female Blonde Minion of Spike steals one of Giles's books.
• Buffy tells Angel she loves him.
• Angel drove Drusilla insane, tortured her and killed her family, and then killed her. Nice guy.
• Lucius is Spike's offscreen minion.

Stats:

Voiceover - none

Dead Humans - 1

Dead Undeads - 3

Giles Unconscious - 0

Giles Cleans His Glasses - 0

Buffy Breaks a Door - 0

Evil Reveal - 1 (Ford is a dumb shit)

Unevil Reveal - 0

Shenanigans Called - 0

Apocalypse Called - 0