After a intimate moment with Buffy, Angel looses his soul and becomes evil. Thus begins the cat and mouse sparing that ultimately leads to the two-part season finale BECOMING. And what a finale it is! First a little back story.
Centries ago Angel was sired by a vampire named Darla ( more on her later), and about a century after that a band of Gypsy's put a curse on Angel. The curse would give him back his soul and Angel would remember every victim he ever killed. Living like a bum feeding off of rats and who knows what else, Angel gets help from a demon to get back on track.
It is now present day and Angel is watching from afar the Slayer from Los Angeles, Buffy. He immediately falls in love and wants to help her. Kicked out of school, Buffy relocates to Sunnydale and lives with her mother. Angel follows in the shadows. The two finally meet in Season One and the rest is history.
Now evil, Angel wants to send the world to hell, literally. With the odds stacked up against her Buffy and her friends once again try and save the world.
A lot happens in BECOMING. We see the origin of Angel, Willow and Buffy discover a spell that can restore Angel's soul, Angel toutures Giles, and Buffy forms an alliance with Spike!
Like I said in my last post I knew Buffy and her friends saved Angel at the end of Season 2 because I had been watching Season 3. What I didn't know was just how nail bitting BECOMING turned out to be!
A few highlights:
I absolutely loved the truce Buffy and Spike made! Some great character moments/writing when Spike offers the deal to Buffy all while sitting on the hood of a cop car. Joss is a genius!
Buffy tells her mom she is the Slayer. Smart move. You're typical show would have Buffy still making up excuses why she sneaks out at night in Season 7.
Willow starts to grow as a character with having a nack for magic.
Angel getting his soul back at the last minute but Buffy still killing him was an emotional wallop!
Okay, now on to Season 3.
Season 3 of BUFFY is my favorite season! It's the season that I started watching in real time/broadcast, episode 9 till the finale. Every week me and my friend would try to watch it together. Great times! My friend was a bigger fan than I was, he would fill me in on all the stuff I missed. It was like hearing legends of the Slayer. I had never liked an hour long television show this much before. It was a show made for folks like us!
One of the things my friend helped me catch up on was the origin of Faith, my favorite (human) character of the series. In a nutshell I like her because she's Buffy unfiltered. They both have attitude but Buffy is more the Girl Scout compared to Faith. Faith is like the Darth Vader of the Buffyverse, and I love nothing more than troubled souls.
Without further ado here are some of my favorite episodes!
Episode 1:Anne
What a strong season opener! At the end of Season 2 Buffy saved the world but killed her boyfriend, got expelled, and her mom kicked her out of the house. Putting the past behind her she shacks up in L.A. working as a waitress in some greasy spoon diner. Back in Sunnydale her friends try and fight vampires waiting for their friend to return. Trouble always seems to find the Slayer as Buffy decides to help find a missing person.
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon, ANNE is top notch! One thing I notice to is the budget seems to be a tad bit higher. In it's own right Season 2 is amazing, but for me Season 3 is highest peak of the series.
Episode 3:Faith, Hope, and Trick
Every fan is different. I'm sure the majority consider Buffy Summers their favorite character, after all she is the main character. Don't get me wrong I adore Buffy, but rarely has she been my favorite character. That wouldn't happen until Season 6 and Season 7. Early on my favorites were Willow, Xander, Oz, and Spike. But Season 3 introduced my favorite Slayer, Faith!
What can I say, I have a thing for brunettes! As a character I was drawn to Faith's anti-hero bad girl attitude. Yes, Buffy is also a anti-hero, but Faith always had more finesse.
Episode 6:Band Candy
A school fundraiser where the chocolate candy bars turn the adults into teenagers. Some extremely funny moments in this episode. And Giles acting like a teenager is mandatory viewing!
Episode 9:The Wish & Episode 16Doppelgangland
This episode blew my mind! In the early years of my comic book collecting I always loved the Marvel Comics tile WHAT IF..., more for the concept rather than the stories themselves.
I'm sure I've already said this about another episode but THE WISH was a fan for life episode for me. A jealous (rightfully so) Cordelia tells her new friend Anya that the wishes Buffy Summers never came to Sunnydale. Turns out that Anya is a demon and grants Cordelia her wish. As you can imagine because of this Sunnydale becomes hell on earth, and we are introduced to Vamp Willow and Vamp Xander. Probably my favorite special guest villains of the series. You could tell the actors were having fun playing 'Monsters of the Week'.
They were so good that Joss brought Vamp Willow back for DOPPELGANGLAND, maybe my favorite Willow episode ever! Sorry, I'm going to say favorite a lot. My favorite moment from the episode is Willow pretending to be Dark Willow. Great episode!
Episode 13:The Zeppo
This episode is for all the nice guys who finish last. To prove himself "cool", Xander sets out and joins a gang and even fools around with Faith. After playing second fiddle to a Slayer, Witch, and a Werewolf it was nice to see Xander have center stage.
Episode 22:Graduation Day - Part 2
I picked PART 2 not because I like it better but because I liked how it ended the season. Not only is school is out for summer, but school's out forever! Yeah! The students blow up the school! With the Mayor defeated it marks a end to the chapter of Sunnydale's "Scooby Gang". It also marked a end for Angel and Buffy. I cannot remember if his spinoff show was announced yet or not? I'm thinking it was? And the big cliffhanger for me was that my favorite Slayer was still in her coma! Will Faith return?
With Season 3 over I was so excited for what was to come next. Never had I been this excited for a show during it's broadcast run! With the college years on the horizon, I like how the characters were transitioning into adult hood. I'd miss the high school library, but more excited for the future.
So the day of the Season 4 season premiere had arrived. We watched it at my best friends house with McDonalds in hand. The ANGEL season premiere followed after. Life was good! But the party was cut short. Next week Springfield, MO my hometown would loose The WB network, and I never watched BUFFY again until the seasons became available on DVD.
As of writing these blog post on BUFFY I am actually watching the series again. Season 4 is coming soon, but I think I wanna watch the rest of it before my next BUFFY blog. Thanks for reading!
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