In case it wasn’t painfully clear, the topic of the classroom session from each episode always relates thematically to the episode itself.
In ‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’, Cordelia and the cool clique make fun of Buffy’s proclivity for weapons and odd behavior,
which segways into the class discussion of the dialogue from 'Star Trek VI'.
(In the original Klingon)
“Tickle us do we not laugh, prick us do we not bleed, wrong us...shall we not revenge."
Coolest.
Class.
Ever.
‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’ is once again about the consequences in Sunnydale when cool kids are mean to uncool kids.
The episode seems a bit divisive among fans.
I’ve read more than a couple comments on this channel from people who love it.
And yet, it has the same Internet Movie Database score as ‘The Puppet Show’.
I personally fall on the side of MEH.
I think we’ve already covered this topic a bit more effectively in 'The Pack'.
There are a couple of events key to the overall thread of the season.
but once again, if you’re new and don’t feel you have the bug yet I think you might want to give this one a pass.
*"Out of Mind, Out of Sight"
It’s nearing the end of the school year at Sunnydale and everyone is gearing up for the May Queen dance.
While Cordelia is campaigning for the May Queen title,
her boyfriend is attacked in the boys locker room by someone giggling and invisible.
The boyfriend is hurt but not---.
"Dead? Of course not."
(sarcastically) “Dead.”
“What are you ghouls? There are no dead students here."
...this week.”
The gang does some sleuthing and figures out the invisible attacker isn’t a ghost
but a student that has turned invisible due to everyone ignoring her.
Even Xander and Willow didn’t remember her and they signed her yearbook.
“'Have a nice---yeesh.'”
“Where am I?”
[points]
“Oh… 'Have a GREAT summer'.”
In much the same way Moloch thought small when he had unlimited access to the Internet,
Invisi-Girl has decided to stay local and take revenge on all the people at school who were mean to her.
Why isn’t she out robbing a bank or something?
“The loneliness, the constant exhile, she’s---“
[coughs British-ly]
“She has gone mad.”
Thanks, Giles.
Anyway, Angel makes an appearance and tells Giles he can get a very important archive regarding the Slayer,
and the gang figures out the Invis-Girl's primary target is Cordelia.
As Buffy is protecting her we get the one very significant moment in this episode.
“You think I’m never lonely because I'm so cute and popular.”
To recount, the role of Slayer itself is the show’s metaphor for adulthood.
I’ve suggested that the purpose of 'Season 1' is for Buffy to accept her role as the Slayer.
I’ve also suggested that Cordelia represents Buffy’s path-not-taken.
Cordelia is what Buffy’s life would have been without being chosen.
In that sense then, Cordelia is Buffy’s adolescence and the Slayer is her adulthood.
And in this episode we see Buffy pining for what she’s lost.
Sure she has Xander and Willow but we see in this episode she still feels like an outsider to them
and, as we’ve talked about before, she ultimately always will be due to the responsibility of her superpowers.
She can’t then grow until she’s able to put her desire for what Cordelia has to rest.
Which is why the scene then occurs where Cordelia tells Buffy that just because she’s popular doesn’t mean she isn’t lonely.
Having everything that Buffy thinks she wants doesn’t make life any better or worse.
Sure, the scene is a ray of light through the normally tedious and vapid cloud that is Cordelia
and this later sets the stage for her more interesting role in Season 2,
but it’s mostly there to allow Buffy the opportunity to relinquish her desire for a life other than her own.
At which point, Buffy and Cordelia are grabbed by Invisi-Girl for the final confrontation.
Buffy breaks lose and, in keeping with the metaphor, has to tell Cordelia to shut up
in order to user her Slayer sense to win the day.
“Cordeila, shut up.”
“Okay.”
[breeze]
[punch]
Angel brings Giles the codex and in the process saves the rest of the gang from getting gassed.
Invisi-Girl is then carted off by government agents
and the episode ends with a tease that, similarly to the eggs hatching at the end of 'Teacher’s Pet',
gets completely dropped.
Though its worth noting that the government is aware of the supernatural in Sunnydale.
As much as I appreciate the clever way the plot informs Buffy’s character,
I mostly found scorned Invisi-Girl’s episode a bit tedious.
It’s Carrie. It’s a time honored, traditional, high school horror topic that's been done better,
including already in this season.
'The Pack' was about high school cruelty but the episode was much more relevant and effective
because it was concerned with Willow and Xander,
not another out of left field character we don’t really care about.
And, just like 'Nightmares', the plot is overburdened and unnecessarily complex.
There are many interesting ideas here but, for me, the main plot lacks the subtlety of the details and can’t hold it all together.