Reviewed By: Adam Bardwell
Rating: 8.5/10
This is a very fun episode. It has a great mix of action and humour while still have time to advance some important story arcs. Scott dumps Buffy and Mayor Wilkins and Deputy Mayor Finch are introduced who will prove to be important characters (for very different reasons) throughout the season. Along with this Mr. Trick joins the Mayors team and Xander and Willow have a flux (they kiss) and this is beside the main plot which involves Buffy and Cordelia going head to head to head to become Homecoming Queen and being sucked into "SlayerFest '98" (I'm will the Mayor I love the name).
This episode has an amazingly long teaser - perhaps a little to long. In it we get Angel's only appearance of the episode where Buffy tells him about Scott who we then see dump her. This is no coincidence. I blame Angel for Buffy and Scott's break up even if he was a bit of a rebound guy. By the end of "Faith, Hope and Trick" Buffy seemed to be moving on from Angel and getting on with her life. Then Angel turns up and as Pete says in "Beauty and the Beasts" she becomes a "manic depressive chick". Angel caused her emotions to go haywire and made her very distant to Scott so I can totally understand him dumping her. She does seemed to be making a bit of a recovery in this episode emotionally here - her competition with Cordy plus the "SlayerFest" certainly helped.
Part of Buffy's unhappiness comes from the realisation that in stark contrast to her time at her previous school in LA she is a no body at Sunnydale High - she has no friends beyond the scoobies and has accomplished little to be noticed. This feeling is compounded by missing the photographs for the year book (which were very funny of the scoobies particularly Oz) and then Cordelia's attitude to Buffy about her insignificance is the last straw and she decides to run for the Homecoming title. This leads to some great bitching between them (culminating in Buffy calling Cordy a, vapid whore!). This leads the gang to put Buffy and Cordy in the limo to Homecoming along so they can work out their differences. Instead they end up at the "SlayerFest" but the result is the same they gain new insights into each other as they are forced to get along.
"SlayerFest '98" is a competition organised by Mr. Trick to kill the slayers. The competitors include Lyle Gorch from "Bad Eggs". However, the most interesting competitors are the heavily armed Germans who are guided by there boss who is tracking Buffy and Cordelia. They are reliant on technology which is a new approach to killing Buffy. From "Faith, Hope and Trick" it seemed that this might be a theme for the season. In fact it wasn't but was for season 4. I far more enjoyed the gadget / cool guns used here than anywhere in the initiative story line. Firstly, the grenade lancer was great and I'm never against a good explosion (this seems like Greenwalt's dress rehearsal for "To Shanshu in LA") then there were the cool lasers on the Germans guns its a pity they couldn't have justified X-files lighting for then it would have looked even better.
Willow and Xander's kiss was quite a surprise but starts off an important little arc on them cheating on their other halves. Since the first season I've been a fan of the idea that they would end up together. We've known how Willow feels about Xander since the beginning but Xander didn't see it. If he didn't already know Buffy basically told him in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" and the in "Becoming" he finally admits he loves her but being in unconscious it is clear whether she heard (although you could argue that it was the reason she woke up). Now we see the feeling is definitely mutual but they both also seem to love Oz and Cordelia respectfully. It is clear that cheating on them isn't a good idea but they don't seem to be able to do anything to stop it. It was stupid of them really and was always bound to end in tears which of course it did in "Lover's Walk".
The standout scene of the episode is probably Cordelia's confrontation with Lyle Gorch. As well as being funny it really shows how brave Cordy can be especially when she gets agree (further evidence of this can be found in the Angel episode "Room w/a Vu"). It also shows how much of a coward Gorch is because he doesn't even try to fight Cordy. Close runner ups to being the best scene are Cordelia and the spatula, Mr. Trick's introduction of "SlayerFest '98" and the first appearance of the cheery Mayor.
Although there have been numerous previous mentions of the Mayor suggesting that there is something up with him his first appearance is of a very genial, very health conscious man. The fact that by the end of the episode it is clear that he wants the Slayers dead and is quite happy to hire a vampire shows just how cleaver a juxtaposition this appearance is with his actual objectives. I like the fact that he already mentions that is an important year for him giving early hints of his ascension at the end of the year.
My biggest qualm with this episode is actually quite insignificant detail its the spatula staking Mrs. Gorch. Firstly it really didn't look wooden having a black plastic look. Secondly it didn't stake her though the heart. It went though her well below the heart - about the same point that the board of wood went though Angel in "Somnambulist". This is just annoying but it doesn't really spoiler the views enjoyment.
A more significant qualm is the fact that Mr. Trick and the SlayerFest competitors mistook Cordelia for Faith. Firstly they only used surveillance Buffy to know what that target looked like then when the details of who were being picked in the limo changes they didn't twig that maybe Faith wasn't the first to be picked. This shows gross stupidity and Mr. Trick in particular doesn't seem particularly dumb.
Great Buffy Moment: Cordelia standing up to Gorch.
In a Nutshell: A very fun episode both from a humour and action point of view.