I’m not a big fan of 'Beauty and the Beasts',
mostly because I don’t think it’s nearly as enjoyable without analyzing it.
It seems to me that one of the unspoken rules to this amount of subtext should be
that if you’re not entertaining FIRST then the rest is irrelevant.
It’s not BAD by any stretch of the imagination.
It’s just that, other than the usual smattering of funny lines
and one or two fun bits
the plot just isn’t very interesting to me.
Let me show you what I mean...
'Beauty and the Beasts' opens with a passage from 'Call of the Wild'.
'Call of the Wild' is about a dog named Buck
who lives a life of comfort
and is taken to the hellish wilds of Alaska
and has to revert to a more primal side to survive.
Significantly of course, it’s Buffy reading the passage.
Important to bear in mind that episodes that may not appear to be about Buffy
...almost always in some way relate to her
...almost always.
Willow is reading Oz Wolf 'The Call of the Wild' in the library cage
...when Xander takes over for her
... and promptly falls asleep.
Things between Buffy and Faith are copacetic.
Buffy says she and Scott Hope have been on a few dates.
Nothing to get excited about yet.
“But you like him."
"And when you think about him you get that..."
...good down low tickle, right?”
I love Faith’s sexual security
...and it's refreshing change of pace
...from the perspectives on sex the show has had so far.
She tells Buffy,
“Every guy from..."
"...Manimal"
"...down to..."
"...Mr. I-Love -'The-English-Patient'"
"...has beast in him.”
"And I don't care how sensitive they act."
"They're all still just in it for the chase."
As cynical as the “just in it for the chase" bit of her statement is,
...hers is still one of the important lines in the episode.
As if to demonstrate, Willow in the following scene refutes only one part of the statement and not the other.
“I don’t think that's true,"
"...that every guy is in it only for the chase.”
Scott introduces the gang to his friends Pete and Debbie.
There’s an interesting juxtaposition between how the three couples all stand.
Pete has his arm around Debbie, implying possession.
Oz and Willow are holding hands, implying equality.
And Scott and Buffy haven’t established that aspect of their relationship quite yet and simply stand next to each other.
The gang discovers there’s been a murder that could’ve been the work of a werewolf
and since Xander fell asleep
no one can be sure it wasn’t Oz who did it given his cage was open.
Buffy goes to Snyder-mandated therapy and her therapist is smoking indoors with the windows closed in a high school
...which even in the late 90s seems a bit strange.
Buffy explains that she has no desire to talk about her problems
(fittingly)
and that she’s not looking for a new friend.
“We’re not going to be friends.”
And this is how meet therapist Platt.
Who I really really liked.
My first time through the series when Buffy walked into his office I got really excited.
As overused as the 'protagonist goes to therapy' cliché is,
it’s one I’ve always actually kind of enjoyed.
It could have been so fun for Buffy to have to go to counselling for a few episodes,
always speaking to Mr. Platt about Slayer life through metaphor.
For instance...
“I mean, everyone has problems."
"Everybody has demons, right?”
[demon punch montage]
"Gotta say I'm with you on that."
Phill Lewis’ performance was so damn charming.
Mr. Platt asks Buffy to describe why she ran away and Buffy reluctantly lays it out.
Angel,
the fight with her mother
and her leaving.
Buffy asks what if she can’t find herself again
and Mr. Platt says:
“--love becomes your master and you’re just its dog.”
In an otherwise very natural scene the dog reference,
while forced, reminds of us of the title of the episode.
To be a dog is to be a beast.
Buffy joins the rest of the group and is filled in about the Oz situation.
Giles suggests they have Faith watch Oz that night.
Oz tries to storm away and Willow stops him.
“Ok. Uh, you know that thing where you bail in the middle of an upsetting conversation?”
"I have to do that."
"It's kind of dramatic I know but..."
...sometimes it's a necessary guy thing."
No one writes Oz as well as Marti Noxon.
Willow reminds Oz of the time of day
and Oz locks himself up in the cage.
When she points out the time we can see Oz’s frustration
at how he has to make tough decisions to control his own inner beast.
He then uncharacteristically tells Willow to get away from him.
That night, Buffy is patrolling the forest when she runs into a feral Angel with bloodied lip.
Angel attacks her like a rabid animal and Buffy knocks him senseless.
She takes him back to the mansion and chains him up, discovering the portal on the ground.
Willow, Xander and Cordelia investigate the mutilated corpse from the previous day
and Willow, on a quest to acquit Oz, is the only one not affected...
until she’s done of course.
The next day, Buffy asks Giles what would happen to someone who’d spent hundreds of years in a hell dimension being tortured.
“It would take someone of extraordinary... will and character to survive that and, uh, retain any semblance of self.”
"Most likely, he'd be, be a monster."
"From my experience there are..."
"...two types of monster."
"The first, uh, can be redeemed, or more importantly, wants to be redeemed."
"--second is void of humanity, cannot respond to reason"
"...or love."
At lunch with Scott, Pete and Debbie,
Buffy says she’s kind of enjoying talking to Mr. Platt so far.
Debbie says she hasn’t enjoyed the things he says or the questions he’s asked
and Pete takes notice.
Scott tries to pay Buffy a compliment
and you can see she’s clearly distracted with disturbing thoughts about something else.
Buffy discovers Mr. Platt has been gutted during the day
(poor bastard)
which eliminates Angel given he was locked up
and Oz given the lack of moon-age.
Turns out Pete was making his own brand of 'Monster' energy drink
and became more monster than man.
Here we have the literal manifestation of Mr. Platt’s previous statement about master and dog in Pete and Debbie.
And in this scene, Debbie ends up comforting Pete after he hit her.
Oz finds Debbie and tries to support her.
Pete sees and attacks him.
Angel breaks free in the mansion.
Sun sets and Oz gets a pretty awesome moment.
“Time's up."
"Rules change.”
Buffy tries to knockout Pete with a dart but Debbie foils her and she shoot Giles instead.
"Oh right. Bloody priceless."
Faith tranqs Oz.
Pete kills Debbie.
Angel kills Pete
...apparently retaining some vestige of his former self.
And we end with another 'Call of the Wild' quote.
I like the structure, even if I don’t particularly enjoy the execution.
There are three important statements that frame the episode.
The first is Faith’s.
"ALL men are beasts Buffy."
I don’t think the show is actually saying anything about the male gender.
There are genders of all kinds throughout the series with monsters in them.
In nearly every Wolf episode, the Wolf itself
...is symbol for our inner id or shadow self.
The primal animal urges we all have that we must control and be responsible for in civilized life.
Fitting then that Oz, the most subdued mellow member of the Scooby Gang
...is the one infected by the beast.
In the case of this episode, there are three beastly shadow selves in question.
The one that has been mastered. That’s Oz.
The one that has take over. That’s Pete.
And then Angel’s, the one we’re unsure of.
So what distinguishes the three?
Well, that bring us to the second important statement in the episode.
"From my experience there are..."
"...two types of monster."
"The first, uh, can be redeemed, or more importantly, wants to be redeemed."
"--second is void of humanity, cannot respond to reason"
"...or love."
The third important statement’s is Mr. Platt’s and it applies to Buffy and Debbie
- in regards what happens when you stay lost in love.
“--then love becomes your master and you’re just its dog.”
Debbie has ample opportunity to act out of integrity throughout the episode
but staunchly protects Pete
...to her very end.
Whether Buffy is still lost in love remains an open ended question when the episode finishes.
As I said, it’s all fine.
The episode gets a solid mehhhh from me.
The main issue is so much of the intense drama in the episode centers around Pete and Debbie
...who were JUST introduced this episode.
Their intense destructive relationship is dialed up SO high
and Pete’s words are so cliché...
"You're nothing but a waste of space."
...that they feel more like caricatures of abuse to me rather than real people.
I just wish there was more subtlety there.
Of course, it’s possible that if I’d ever personally experienced something like this I’d find those scenes more compelling.
Still, it’s an important episode if not a great one.
Providing a thoughtful blueprint for some things that are going to become
very important as the season goes on.
"He was...my first."
"I loved him"
"...and then he--"
--"Changed."
"Yeah."
"He got mean."
"Yes."
"And you didn't stop loving him."