Buffy 4.12: "A New Man"
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Michael Gershman
In which Giles begins to worry over his vastly reduced role in Buffy’s life as he stumbles into an encounter with an old enemy, while Buffy learns more about the Initiative…
Status Report
Breaking the tradition of dumping Buffy into terrible situations on her birthday, this episode instead turns to the theme of the season by addressing Giles’ ongoing issues with his place in Buffy’s life. Interwoven with Giles’ search for identity is the beginning of the next stage of Riley’s arc, as his relationship with the Slayer begins to interfere with his duties to the Initiative.
Everyone throws Buffy a surprise party, and not surprisingly, Giles is the odd man out. After spending several episodes earlier in the season trying to convince himself that the post-Watcher life is an opportunity to be cherished, Giles is now quite certain that he has become lost in the shuffle while the children have moved on to other things and new lives. In the absence of Joyce and Buffy’s real father, Giles has become the poster child for parental struggles with college age teens: if the children miss home, the parents find the sudden freedom to be a hollow reward.
It’s part of the cycle of life for the children to take the place of the parents, to find their own way and leave their parents to fade away into the background. College-bound students find it rather easy to take parents for granted, good or bad; they were always there, and so of course, they always will be. When parents try to get involved in the college life of their children, it’s either viewed as sadly awkward or intensely intrusive.
Buffy swings closer to the kind of student that simply gets so enmeshed in her new world, after much struggling, that she loses sight of those left behind in her old existence. Xander and Giles have already bonded over this feeling of isolation, but Xander has the benefit of being the same age as his college friends. They still have a common set of interests; just the details have changed.
Giles, on the other hand, has nothing at all in common with Buffy’s new world. His role as Watcher is long since over, and Buffy’s fight with evil hasn’t required the kind of constant activity from the Scooby Gang that it used to need (an effect, one would think, of the Initiative efforts). He has long since decided to give Buffy the chance to make her own mistakes and live her life, but there’s nothing to replace that relationship. The whole thing with Olivia didn’t go anywhere, so where can he channel his passions?
Now firmly established as a regular character, Spike is on his way to a new life of his own, moving out of Xander’s basement abode, recovering his sense of purpose now that he can wail on some demons for fun. He’s no longer much of a villain, though, despite his attempts to fit back into that world and remain edgy. Where Giles seems to be coming into a new understanding of his role in Buffy’s world, however transitional it might be, Spike is entering into a world that he still doesn’t quite acknowledge.
Walsh continues to sound as though she knows a lot more than she’s letting on, and considering where the season arc would eventually roam, that’s probably accurate. Walsh has an immediate respect for Buffy’s track record and some understandings of Buffy’s Chosen legacy, but it’s also clear that she’s not so well versed in how the whole Slayer thing works. She doesn’t seem to know about the Watchers, or she assumes that Giles has failed to keep his Slayer in line. Whatever the case, if she knew about Buffy’s dismissal of the Watchers’ Council, she might know better than to suggest that Buffy needs a firm, controlling hand.
After getting the mistaken impression that he and Buffy are on a level playing field, something he certainly didn’t expect, Riley now has to get used to the idea that Buffy is a seasoned warrior compared to his own limited experience. Riley certainly has every reason to wonder if he’s ready or able to keep up with her. This also introduces an interesting concept: how exactly does Riley keep up with Buffy? The answer, of course, is that he’s not entirely normal himself.
By the time Giles goes to visit Professor Walsh, apparently to see if she is providing the right kind of guidance for Buffy, the writing is on the wall. It’s rather clear that Walsh figures out Giles’ role in Buffy’s life, and she doesn’t bother holding back. Indeed, in some ways, she’s got him dead to rights. Giles has been depriving Buffy of his parental role, and before he ever stepped in, Buffy’s father checked out. Walsh does, however, overdo it a bit.
Things get worse from there. Already wondering about his assumptions regarding his place in Buffy’s world, he soon learns that the rest of the gang already knows the truth about the commandos and where Riley and Walsh fit into that world. And it leaves him stunned, unable to believe how quickly and methodically Walsh has apparently replaced him as Buffy’s mentor. Even if he could see the train wreck coming a mile away, he’s too self-absorbed at this point to warn Buffy. Quite possibly, he knows better than to think she would listen.
Enter Ethan Rayne, who just happens to be in town. His introduction makes absolutely no sense, serving a comic desire more than a plot point, but it leads to an interesting bit of exposition that helps place the Initiative and the season in a new light. This is clearly the writers’ continued attempt to give the season some cohesion; as they openly admitted, at this point in the fourth season, they were making things up as they went along in between the beats of the story as provided by Joss.
The gist of it is that the vast reaches of demonic society within and around Sunnydale have caught wind of something other than the Slayer causing major trouble. This is, of course, the Initiative. This provides two important pieces of information: that the current Sunnydale activity by the Initiative is relatively new (coming after the Mayor’s demise, most likely), and that the current project by Walsh is something very different from Initiative operations of the past. And it all has something to do with whatever’s behind “314”.
As future episodes would show, the worry is over the biologically engineered demon-based creature that Walsh is busily creating. The demons are nervous because the most powerful among them are being tested and then chopped up to create a bigger, better anti-demon machine. This is unknown by this point in the season, and so the nature of the “imbalance” being caused by the Initiative is still uncertain.
Giles is somewhat miffed at the idea that Walsh and her soldiers have become more feared that the Slayer and her allies. It makes him look completely meaningless in the scheme of things, despite the fact that he was instrumental in stopping an apocalypse in the previous episode. Giles feels sorry for himself because he allowed his life to become defined by his role as Watcher, and with that gone, he doesn’t know who he’s supposed to be.
As hinted in “Hush”, whenever Willow and Tara get together to do a little magic, there’s a sexual component to the whole thing that can’t be ignored. At the time, this was rather controversial; after all, Willow had been involved in one of the sweetest heterosexual relationships of the series to date. Taking her in the lesbian direction was somewhat unexpected. At the same time, it also began to give Willow a reason to hide things from her friends and isolate herself. This would become important as the season progressed.
Before things can get too overwhelming serious, Giles’ struggle moves into metaphorical territory when Ethan casts a nasty spell and turns Giles into a demon. It’s actually quite funny to see Giles deal with his new strength and all-too-easy anger. Meanwhile, lest Buffy remain off the hook, Willow points out that Giles has been a non-priority in her life. Lost in love, however, she doesn’t seem to get the point.
Giles’ attempt to communicate with Xander has predictably bad results, and Giles soon finds himself being outcast by the rest of the human race, dealing with his growing rage while attempting to figure out his situation. Giles is forced to hire Spike to help him deal with Ethan and try to get his true form back. Spike seems more bemused than anything else, and he’s probably just as interested in seeing Giles try to blunder through it all as he is interested in the payout.
While the Scooby Gang is convinced that Giles is dead or otherwise badly wounded, Buffy begins to learn the benefits of working with the Initiative. Riley gets involved thanks to the various 911 calls related to Giles’ earlier “rampage”, and self-repairing doors notwithstanding, Buffy stumbled into it and has precious little else in terms of information.
An interesting and revealing moment comes when Giles, struggling with the demon desires within him, decides to get a little revenge on Walsh. Confronted with a demon, much like in “Wild at Heart”, Walsh shows none of her usual resolve. In fact, she’s clearly terrified. This is eventually explained by her reasons for creating Adam, which stems from a desire to eliminate demons by using their own strengths against them.
Riley’s presence, however, does not equal Buffy’s instant right to participate, at least in the eyes of the Initiative. It’s suggested that Walsh has ordered Riley to keep Buffy at arm’s length from Initiative operations, probably because of her indeterminate status. In an early sign of not giving a damn about what Walsh wants, Buffy makes it very clear that she’s pursuing the demon with or without Riley’s consent.
It doesn’t take long for Buffy to catch up to Giles, who is fully in demonic mode, ready to crush Ethan to powder. Never one to miss an opportunity, Ethan sets Buffy against Giles, knowing perfectly well what it would do to Buffy to know that she killed her father figure and friend. Buffy doesn’t take long to get the drop on Giles, and she even attempts to kill him before realizing that it’s him. Thankfully, a cheap imitation silver letter opener keeps Buffy from being Giles’ killer.
As Ethan is taken to an Initiative facility (apparently for the rest of his life), Buffy gets to reaffirm that Giles is the father figure in her life, and nothing is ever going to change that. Oh, and she doesn’t stick to walls, and Riley seems to get the fact that she does things her own way. That, of course, will never become an issue. Walsh may not be so sure, but she does know that Buffy could be a problem for her special project in Room 314, and that plays into the future progression of the season arc as well.
This is essentially a transitional episode, focusing on Giles and his emotional state but covering changes and new possibilities for all the characters. It leads into what is essentially a couplet of two-part episodes. The next two episodes deal directly with the truth about Walsh and her project for the Initiative, and then the story turns more directly towards Buffy’s questions of self-identity. In essence, the season finally gets its feet after this episode, having spent far too long establishing the emotional concerns of the characters and the presence of the Initiative. While this is a good enough episode on its own, it suffers from leaving so much to be resolved in the future.
Memorable Quotes
WALSH: “Now I understand your energies were directed in the same places as ours, in fact. It’s only our methods that differ. We use the latest in scientific technology and state-of-the-art weaponry, and you, if I understand correctly, poke them with a sharp stick.”
RILEY: “I’m not even sure I could take you.”
BUFFY: “That all depends on your meaning.”
GILES: “Nothing is gonna happen…”
ETHAN: “I wouldn’t say that. I wouldn’t say that at all. In fact, Ripper, old mate, I’d say something interesting was about to hap-”
GILES: “Did someone…?”
ETHAN: “Oh, bugger, I thought you’d gone!”
SPIKE: “And I’m just supposed to help you out of the evilness of my heart?”
GILES: “You help me, and I…I don’t kill you.”
SPIKE: “Oh, tremendously convincing. Try it again without the stutter.”
SPIKE: “Hey, picked up a tail.”
GILES: “Yes. Just a little one. It hurts when I sit.”
SPIKE: “I mean, someone is following us…”
GILES: “Buffy, I don’t want to ask you to betray any confidences, and I certainly don’t want to interfere…”
BUFFY: “Uh oh, you have ‘but’ face. You look like you’re gonna say ‘but’…”
GILES: “But…”
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode is a transitional piece, serving to introduce some of the issues that will become very important in the next few episodes. The writers use this opportunity to focus on Giles and his particular struggles with Buffy’s changing priorities, including some very funny moments, but it’s not enough on its own to give the episode its own unique voice. It’s better than the previous episode, but also not equal to the episodes shortly to arrive.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 6/10
Directed by Michael Gershman
In which Giles begins to worry over his vastly reduced role in Buffy’s life as he stumbles into an encounter with an old enemy, while Buffy learns more about the Initiative…
Status Report
Breaking the tradition of dumping Buffy into terrible situations on her birthday, this episode instead turns to the theme of the season by addressing Giles’ ongoing issues with his place in Buffy’s life. Interwoven with Giles’ search for identity is the beginning of the next stage of Riley’s arc, as his relationship with the Slayer begins to interfere with his duties to the Initiative.
Everyone throws Buffy a surprise party, and not surprisingly, Giles is the odd man out. After spending several episodes earlier in the season trying to convince himself that the post-Watcher life is an opportunity to be cherished, Giles is now quite certain that he has become lost in the shuffle while the children have moved on to other things and new lives. In the absence of Joyce and Buffy’s real father, Giles has become the poster child for parental struggles with college age teens: if the children miss home, the parents find the sudden freedom to be a hollow reward.
It’s part of the cycle of life for the children to take the place of the parents, to find their own way and leave their parents to fade away into the background. College-bound students find it rather easy to take parents for granted, good or bad; they were always there, and so of course, they always will be. When parents try to get involved in the college life of their children, it’s either viewed as sadly awkward or intensely intrusive.
Buffy swings closer to the kind of student that simply gets so enmeshed in her new world, after much struggling, that she loses sight of those left behind in her old existence. Xander and Giles have already bonded over this feeling of isolation, but Xander has the benefit of being the same age as his college friends. They still have a common set of interests; just the details have changed.
Giles, on the other hand, has nothing at all in common with Buffy’s new world. His role as Watcher is long since over, and Buffy’s fight with evil hasn’t required the kind of constant activity from the Scooby Gang that it used to need (an effect, one would think, of the Initiative efforts). He has long since decided to give Buffy the chance to make her own mistakes and live her life, but there’s nothing to replace that relationship. The whole thing with Olivia didn’t go anywhere, so where can he channel his passions?
Now firmly established as a regular character, Spike is on his way to a new life of his own, moving out of Xander’s basement abode, recovering his sense of purpose now that he can wail on some demons for fun. He’s no longer much of a villain, though, despite his attempts to fit back into that world and remain edgy. Where Giles seems to be coming into a new understanding of his role in Buffy’s world, however transitional it might be, Spike is entering into a world that he still doesn’t quite acknowledge.
Walsh continues to sound as though she knows a lot more than she’s letting on, and considering where the season arc would eventually roam, that’s probably accurate. Walsh has an immediate respect for Buffy’s track record and some understandings of Buffy’s Chosen legacy, but it’s also clear that she’s not so well versed in how the whole Slayer thing works. She doesn’t seem to know about the Watchers, or she assumes that Giles has failed to keep his Slayer in line. Whatever the case, if she knew about Buffy’s dismissal of the Watchers’ Council, she might know better than to suggest that Buffy needs a firm, controlling hand.
After getting the mistaken impression that he and Buffy are on a level playing field, something he certainly didn’t expect, Riley now has to get used to the idea that Buffy is a seasoned warrior compared to his own limited experience. Riley certainly has every reason to wonder if he’s ready or able to keep up with her. This also introduces an interesting concept: how exactly does Riley keep up with Buffy? The answer, of course, is that he’s not entirely normal himself.
By the time Giles goes to visit Professor Walsh, apparently to see if she is providing the right kind of guidance for Buffy, the writing is on the wall. It’s rather clear that Walsh figures out Giles’ role in Buffy’s life, and she doesn’t bother holding back. Indeed, in some ways, she’s got him dead to rights. Giles has been depriving Buffy of his parental role, and before he ever stepped in, Buffy’s father checked out. Walsh does, however, overdo it a bit.
Things get worse from there. Already wondering about his assumptions regarding his place in Buffy’s world, he soon learns that the rest of the gang already knows the truth about the commandos and where Riley and Walsh fit into that world. And it leaves him stunned, unable to believe how quickly and methodically Walsh has apparently replaced him as Buffy’s mentor. Even if he could see the train wreck coming a mile away, he’s too self-absorbed at this point to warn Buffy. Quite possibly, he knows better than to think she would listen.
Enter Ethan Rayne, who just happens to be in town. His introduction makes absolutely no sense, serving a comic desire more than a plot point, but it leads to an interesting bit of exposition that helps place the Initiative and the season in a new light. This is clearly the writers’ continued attempt to give the season some cohesion; as they openly admitted, at this point in the fourth season, they were making things up as they went along in between the beats of the story as provided by Joss.
The gist of it is that the vast reaches of demonic society within and around Sunnydale have caught wind of something other than the Slayer causing major trouble. This is, of course, the Initiative. This provides two important pieces of information: that the current Sunnydale activity by the Initiative is relatively new (coming after the Mayor’s demise, most likely), and that the current project by Walsh is something very different from Initiative operations of the past. And it all has something to do with whatever’s behind “314”.
As future episodes would show, the worry is over the biologically engineered demon-based creature that Walsh is busily creating. The demons are nervous because the most powerful among them are being tested and then chopped up to create a bigger, better anti-demon machine. This is unknown by this point in the season, and so the nature of the “imbalance” being caused by the Initiative is still uncertain.
Giles is somewhat miffed at the idea that Walsh and her soldiers have become more feared that the Slayer and her allies. It makes him look completely meaningless in the scheme of things, despite the fact that he was instrumental in stopping an apocalypse in the previous episode. Giles feels sorry for himself because he allowed his life to become defined by his role as Watcher, and with that gone, he doesn’t know who he’s supposed to be.
As hinted in “Hush”, whenever Willow and Tara get together to do a little magic, there’s a sexual component to the whole thing that can’t be ignored. At the time, this was rather controversial; after all, Willow had been involved in one of the sweetest heterosexual relationships of the series to date. Taking her in the lesbian direction was somewhat unexpected. At the same time, it also began to give Willow a reason to hide things from her friends and isolate herself. This would become important as the season progressed.
Before things can get too overwhelming serious, Giles’ struggle moves into metaphorical territory when Ethan casts a nasty spell and turns Giles into a demon. It’s actually quite funny to see Giles deal with his new strength and all-too-easy anger. Meanwhile, lest Buffy remain off the hook, Willow points out that Giles has been a non-priority in her life. Lost in love, however, she doesn’t seem to get the point.
Giles’ attempt to communicate with Xander has predictably bad results, and Giles soon finds himself being outcast by the rest of the human race, dealing with his growing rage while attempting to figure out his situation. Giles is forced to hire Spike to help him deal with Ethan and try to get his true form back. Spike seems more bemused than anything else, and he’s probably just as interested in seeing Giles try to blunder through it all as he is interested in the payout.
While the Scooby Gang is convinced that Giles is dead or otherwise badly wounded, Buffy begins to learn the benefits of working with the Initiative. Riley gets involved thanks to the various 911 calls related to Giles’ earlier “rampage”, and self-repairing doors notwithstanding, Buffy stumbled into it and has precious little else in terms of information.
An interesting and revealing moment comes when Giles, struggling with the demon desires within him, decides to get a little revenge on Walsh. Confronted with a demon, much like in “Wild at Heart”, Walsh shows none of her usual resolve. In fact, she’s clearly terrified. This is eventually explained by her reasons for creating Adam, which stems from a desire to eliminate demons by using their own strengths against them.
Riley’s presence, however, does not equal Buffy’s instant right to participate, at least in the eyes of the Initiative. It’s suggested that Walsh has ordered Riley to keep Buffy at arm’s length from Initiative operations, probably because of her indeterminate status. In an early sign of not giving a damn about what Walsh wants, Buffy makes it very clear that she’s pursuing the demon with or without Riley’s consent.
It doesn’t take long for Buffy to catch up to Giles, who is fully in demonic mode, ready to crush Ethan to powder. Never one to miss an opportunity, Ethan sets Buffy against Giles, knowing perfectly well what it would do to Buffy to know that she killed her father figure and friend. Buffy doesn’t take long to get the drop on Giles, and she even attempts to kill him before realizing that it’s him. Thankfully, a cheap imitation silver letter opener keeps Buffy from being Giles’ killer.
As Ethan is taken to an Initiative facility (apparently for the rest of his life), Buffy gets to reaffirm that Giles is the father figure in her life, and nothing is ever going to change that. Oh, and she doesn’t stick to walls, and Riley seems to get the fact that she does things her own way. That, of course, will never become an issue. Walsh may not be so sure, but she does know that Buffy could be a problem for her special project in Room 314, and that plays into the future progression of the season arc as well.
This is essentially a transitional episode, focusing on Giles and his emotional state but covering changes and new possibilities for all the characters. It leads into what is essentially a couplet of two-part episodes. The next two episodes deal directly with the truth about Walsh and her project for the Initiative, and then the story turns more directly towards Buffy’s questions of self-identity. In essence, the season finally gets its feet after this episode, having spent far too long establishing the emotional concerns of the characters and the presence of the Initiative. While this is a good enough episode on its own, it suffers from leaving so much to be resolved in the future.
Memorable Quotes
WALSH: “Now I understand your energies were directed in the same places as ours, in fact. It’s only our methods that differ. We use the latest in scientific technology and state-of-the-art weaponry, and you, if I understand correctly, poke them with a sharp stick.”
RILEY: “I’m not even sure I could take you.”
BUFFY: “That all depends on your meaning.”
GILES: “Nothing is gonna happen…”
ETHAN: “I wouldn’t say that. I wouldn’t say that at all. In fact, Ripper, old mate, I’d say something interesting was about to hap-”
GILES: “Did someone…?”
ETHAN: “Oh, bugger, I thought you’d gone!”
SPIKE: “And I’m just supposed to help you out of the evilness of my heart?”
GILES: “You help me, and I…I don’t kill you.”
SPIKE: “Oh, tremendously convincing. Try it again without the stutter.”
SPIKE: “Hey, picked up a tail.”
GILES: “Yes. Just a little one. It hurts when I sit.”
SPIKE: “I mean, someone is following us…”
GILES: “Buffy, I don’t want to ask you to betray any confidences, and I certainly don’t want to interfere…”
BUFFY: “Uh oh, you have ‘but’ face. You look like you’re gonna say ‘but’…”
GILES: “But…”
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode is a transitional piece, serving to introduce some of the issues that will become very important in the next few episodes. The writers use this opportunity to focus on Giles and his particular struggles with Buffy’s changing priorities, including some very funny moments, but it’s not enough on its own to give the episode its own unique voice. It’s better than the previous episode, but also not equal to the episodes shortly to arrive.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 6/10
posted by John Keegan | 18:29
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