'Superstar' is a fun little episode
and a surprising piece of foreshadowing for some significant events later on down the line.
It’s a lot of fun and very funny
but suffers a bit from there having already been funnier episodes
as well as ones that didn’t sideline the season’s arc to quite the same degree.
Still, this is a memorable episode.
The Scoobies are on patrol and facing off against an unusual number of vamps.
Buffy’s fighting style seems bizarrely more tentative than it was before,
as she stakes a vamp more by accident than on purpose.
When she makes mention of going in and attempting to clear out the nest
the team thinks it’s guaranteed death and they need to enlist the help of...
“Sounds like you could use my help.”
...Jonathan.
The opening credits of the show actually blue screen in shots of Jonathan,
use footage from this episode,
or use shots that don’t appear anywhere else.
It plays like a Saturday-morning cartoon.
Buffy may have gotten to walk towards the camera in a flowy outfit
or gotten the hero shot in 'Anne'
but those were earned
...JONATHAN.
"Fantasies are fun, aren't they Jonathan?"
At Giles’, the gang is prepping for their attack on the vampire nest.
On the kitchen counter we can see that Giles eats
“Jonnie’s O’s,” Jonathan’s personal brand of cereal.
The number of props they had to come up with for this episode is a bit mind boggling.
The scene plays out like a 12 year old boy’s fever dream of what it is to be cool.
Jonathan is beating Giles at chess.
Knows more about technology than Willow and patronizes her warmly over it.
He is also a far better fighter than Buffy.
Which continues into the crypt when Buffy slays one vamp
and Jonathan slays half a dozen.
As they exit the crypt, the paparazzi snaps a few quick shots of the great J.
Buffy is confused by her performance, feeling like something is amiss.
As Jonathan drops some knowledge, Spike creeps in from the shadows.
Buffy fumbles for words to spar with Spike while Jonathan lays into him.
The 12 year old boy's fever dream continues with Jonathan’s ability
to attract the eye of two gay women.
Tara and Willow are building an altar of Jonathan
as Willow confirms that not everything in this timeline is so different.
Buffy and Riley still have each other at a distance after what Faith did to them both in 'Who Are You'.
Willow thinks they’re probably making up right now
but, in Riley’s room, the conversation is proceeding both awkwardly and shirtlessly.
I...he
...he’s SO hairless.
Distractingly without hair.
I don’t mean to fixate but it really adds to the white bread Ken doll persona.
Riley tries to initiate closeness with Buffy again and she reacts with complete discomfort.
Maybe it’s the baby soft skin on his chest.
I don’t know.
I’m just saying.
At the Espresso Pump the next day, Jonathan is trying to counsel Buffy through her relationship troubles,
suggesting that she’s actually angry with Riley.
A number of people came to Buffy’s defense in the last episode when I suggested that the writing treatment in that episode felt dated to me.
Let me clarify.
As we talked about, Faith had two victims in 'Who Are You',
Riley and Buffy
and the way it’s written in both episodes leaves me with a side of ick.
However... that’s not to say her reaction is unrealistic.
Even if the idea of male rape hadn’t been such an anomaly at the time,
there might still have been feelings of resentment.
Buffy DID see Giles.
And when Faith was behaving like a horny viper
Riley didn't see Buffy in there *Riley didn’t see Buffy WASN'T in there.
Even if those feelings might be unjust, their existence is understandably human.
As Buffy says:
“Maybe I have been blaming him.”
At the Initiative, the hunt for Adam continues and the Initiative are bringing in a big gun to figure out how to win.
And Jonathan...actually has a plan.
Adam has a nuclear battery inside him powering his functions that,
if removed, will shut him down completely.
I LOVE the proto-masculine beefcakes describing Jonathan as the big gun.
I mean... look at all the bones in those two faces.
They could club people with their heads.
...I guess that would be
...head butt people to death
At The Bronze, Riley and Buffy are working through their awkwardness
and Anya and Xander are working through their mutual attraction to Jonathan.
"Xander."
Xander: "Yeah?"
"Let's go have sex now."
"Yeah."
Jonathan takes center stage and sings.
An interesting bit of meta trivia here.
The person singing isn’t actually Danny Strong but Brad Kane.
The actor who played Tucker Wells in 'The Prom'.
You know...
...Andrew’s brother.
Let THAT one simmer for a minute.
A woman runs to the stage who has been assaulted by a monster.
Upon hearing the description, Jonathan bypasses the whole conversation.
We get the posthumous Big Bad appearance but...
more interesting than Adam in this scene is the vampire he’s hanging out with.
Who happens to be...
...a rather famous writer from another Supernatural show.
Adam’s self awareness somehow gives him the ability to realize the universe has been altered.
A hint at why Buffy has that same ability.
Buffy goes to speak with the only person she knows personally that may have altered reality,
Anya.
“But someone could wish the whole world to be different, right?"
"That’s possible?”
“Sure. Alternate realities."
"You could have, like, a world without shrimp."
Or with, you know, nothing but shrimp.”
“I tired of that one quickly.”
Buffy brings her concerns about Jonathan to the Scoobies.
"The monster had a mark on it."
“Jonathan saw it an-and he kind of..."
"...blinked.”
“He blinked?"
(DON'T BLINK)
"The man moistens his eyeballs and we’re having a meeting about it?”
Well, one thing that's consistent about this universe
is Xander undercutting Buffy in Scooby meetings.
Turns out Jonathan has the symbol of the demon on his shoulder.
He enters and agrees to go hunting the monster with Buffy.
On the way to the fight, they run into Spike who nearly gropes Buffy
and says he would love to see how she’d face evil alone.
It’s unclear whether Faith’s 'popping him like warm champagne' comment occurred in this reality
...but it’s always interesting to be reminded how close sex and violence are for Spike.
“--I’ll make it quick."
"It won’t hurt a bit.”
"I want Dru back,"
I just got to be the man I was."
"The man she loved.
"I'll find her, wherever she is,"
"Tie her up,"
"torture her,"
"...until she likes me again."
As well as how, when presented with a depowered Slayer lacking in self-confidence,
Spike seeks to assert sexual dominance over her.
Though I’m sure that won’t come up again.
Jonathan and Buffy find the monster and as the two of them kick it’s ass,
Jonathan loses his abilities and Buffy regains hers,
culminating in Jonathan throwing the monster into the pit and Buffy saving him
...again.
According to Wikipedia, a Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character.
Often the character is recognized as an author insert or wish fulfillment.
Which is perfect here as Jonathan is both the author and star of this reality.
I was also fascinated to learn that the term originated in a piece of 'Star Trek' fan fiction
which was intended to parody the hyper-idealized women in 'The Original Series'.
The episode fits the season’s themes of authentic identity being something that is
discovered and earned through choice and ensuing action.
Just as identity isn’t something that can be given to you by someone else,
we also can’t tell people who we are or force them to treat us in a certain way.
And, just like Maggie Walsh doing that with the Initiative
the consequence of Jonathan’s actions was a monster.
'Superstar' is good...really, really good.
And that would be all I'd have to say about it if it weren't for episodes like 'Fear, Itself',
or 'Something Blue',
or...unfairly I know,
'Hush'.
Where those episodes have the same levels of crazy comedy,
or arguably more,
they all feel grounded and justified within the episode's logic or characters.
In 'Something Blue' Willow’s curse is directly viral, affecting just the people she
and by association we, care about.
Jonathan’s spell is wildly over the top and has him speaking at the Oscars
and inventing The Internet and starring in 'The Matrix'.
Yes.
I get that that's the joke.
And it’s funny, but it also causes some dissociation.
It’s so broad, silly and over the top that it becomes emotionally impenetrable for me.
A fun little ride rendered meaningless
when the spell goes away and most people, according to Jonathan, can’t even remember the effect of the spell.
And not even Adam cares about what’s going on in this episode.
“THESE ARE LIES!”
You could argue that 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered'
had a similar issue in Xander’s spell broadly affecting every woman in the town,
except for the fact that the spell had XANDER at the center of it
and not someone who, to this point, has been an effective storytelling tool for being a piece of the background.
“You all think I’m an idiot.”
"A SHORT idiot!"
Given my regular complaining about the Big Bad throw-in
I should say, I’m not at all against one-off episodes.
It’s just that some of them manage to incorporate the season arcs well, like 'Band Candy'
which was triggered by the Mayor’s machinations.
And some of them have the Big Bad throw-in
... like 'Halloween'.
'Superstar' may be one of the most egregious throw-in examples.
A variation of the premise has also been done before in the alternate reality episode, 'The Wish'.
THAT episode stood as one of the three philosophical tiers within Whedon’s exploration of Absurdism.
Giles’ decision to destroy Anya’s power center was grounded in a faith that things couldn’t get any worse and so the uncursed reality HAD to be better.
On the other hand, 'Superstar' requires the monster MacGuffin to motivate the return to reality.
Without that... everyone ACTUALLY seems pretty happy.
Especially, Anya and Xander.
Spending just a moment on Jonathan I think it’s important to note, especially for later seasons,
that the spell does NOT target everyone equally.
Jonathan is brimming with ability but it’s not actually clear whether the spell is EMPOWERING Jonathan by depowering others
or if the spell is simply intended to make him the center of everyone’s focus.
Which is important because, beyond becoming fixated on him by virtue of a swimsuit calendar
or masturbation fantasies,
the other characters don’t appear to lose acumen or ability in quite the way Buffy does.
Yes.
There is an early scene with Jonathan beating Giles at chess
and knowing a bit of tech that Willow doesn’t.
But Buffy in this episode becomes something of a bumbling idiot
that no one has faith in,
“--big, bleached"
...stupid guy.”
experiencing a drop in stature far more dramatic than any of the other Scoobies.
"I am trying to do something here!"
"Of course, but um..."
"...I think you may be a little out of your depth."
And again, in a fantasy that allowed Jonathan to invent The Internet,
star in 'The Matrix',
win awards,
intimidate Spike,
sleep with twins,
have his own album,
turn two gay women straight,
and a straight man gay,
it isn’t clear why depowering Buffy to a humiliating degree was necessary.
Everyone in the group disproportionately makes fun of her and doubts her abilities,
"A nest. No biggie. I bet I could do it. I mean I know I can take at least two."
"Yes! And then we could run for help while the other three suck your heart out through your neck."
...which is a position that reminded me a bit of Jonathan
...in 'Earshot'.
It’s subtle, but read that way, Jonathan’s spell feels partially like a punishment directed at Buffy for saving him and for the power she possesses.
Still, it’s also an important element to his character that Jonathan WANTS to do good.
He is pained by the demon injuring someone.
He sacrifices himself to kill the monster.
And everything returns to normal.
Though, there is some interesting dialogue at the very end.
"After the thing with the belltower and the gun,..."
"...I went to counseling."
You know, other kids with problems--"
Counseling for troubled kids.
Hmm...
....wonder who else he might have met there?
"Fantasies are fun, aren't they Jonathan?"
"I guess?"
"We all have fantasies where we're powerful and respected, where people pay attention to us."
"Maybe."
"But sometimes the fantasy isn't enough, is it Jonathan?"