Reviewed by: Drew Bennett
Rating: 7/10
This whole season is revolved around the relationships of the core Scoobies. In this episode, we find ourselves getting a closer look at the character Willow. The story begins with Willow’s involvement and interest in an Internet relationship between herself and a boy named Malcom. In reality, Malcom is a deadly and seductive demon who promises wealth, love and happiness to his followers in exchange for their service. The twist is that Moloch isn’t in his demon form. Willow inadvertently scanned him onto a computer. As pointed by Buffy and Giles, with control of all of the computer systems in the world, Moloch could do major damage.
Buffy and Xander are over-protective of Willow. They think that she should take it slow with Malcom. In one of the many humorous scenes in this episode, Xander is reacting badly toward the whole Willow/Malcom relationship. He worries Buffy even more and convinces her that Malcom is “a circus freak”. “We hear about it all the time. People meet on the net. talk. get together. dinner. a show. horrible ax-murderer.” “Willow ax-murdered by a circus freak!” This is funny, but true. This actually happens to certain teenagers. (Not the circus freak part, the ax-murderer part).
As mentioned earlier, Moloch promises his followers the world. In this episode, his followers include a computer company and two high school students who are very talented when it comes to computers. The first student is Dave. Dave is a sweet and innocent teenager who doesn’t want to hurt anybody. He definitely gets my sympathy vote. He gets involved with things he can’t escape from. It can be related to a gang. He was accepted in, but if he wants out, he dies. Well, that is exactly what happens to poor Dave. He gets murdered. Moloch is in a computer though. He had to convince someone to kill Dave for him. That’s where the other high school student fits in. Fritz is just creepy. There is no excuse for what he did. It was upsetting and creepy while Dave watched Moloch type up a suicide note with his name on it.
While Willow is infatuated with Malcom, another relationship starts to bloom. A new character is introduced in the beginning of this episode. Jenny Calendar. Jenny represents the complete opposite of Giles. She is a computer teacher, and Giles is a librarian. Jenny is accepting the new technological advances and uses them, while Giles rejects them and prefers books. The arguments between the two are highly amusing and entertaining. I love Jenny’s witty and clever remarks such as “I know are ways are strange to you, but soon you will join us in the 20th century, with three whole years to spare”. Robia LaMorte does a sensational job portraying the techno-pagan. Without the comedic bickering between the two lovebirds, this episode would have been pointless and unsuccessful.
With this new relationship, Giles teams up with Jenny. He tries to explain to her that there is a demon on the Internet. She replies, “I know.” When Jenny introduced herself as a techno-pagan, I thought the idea was interesting and cool. She could now be initiated into the Scoobies because she is already aware of what lurks in the night. Now, that I re-watch it, I think it was a little rushed. I think they should have waited a few episodes before revealing that aspect about her. Beside that problem, I didn’t find too many things that bothered me.
The only other part that I found troublesome was the concluding battle. Like many other fight scenes in the first season, this one was short and sluggish. Moloch was very powerful inside his robot body, but he didn’t move quickly, which lost my interest. The one thing good that came out of the fight was Willow’s classic and hilarious, “Maybe we could still be friends” speech while she drove a fire extinguisher into him. Its nice to see Willow get some combat action.
Another classic moment is the last scene. Buffy and Xander try to cheer Willow up. Buffy says, “Let’s face it. None of us are gonna have a happy normal relationship.”“We’re doomed!”. The three are laughing at the references to their bad relationships (Natalie French, Angel, and of course Malcom) and then realize what they just said. I thought that was a very funny scene.
Also, I’d just like to add this in. I found it very comical watching Willow talk to herself while chatting with Malcom on the computer. Every time I re-watch that scene I laugh.
Great Buffy Moment: The many enjoyable quarrels between the two lovebirds.
In a Nutshell: packed with a clever and strange premise, this episode will keep you entertained through the interaction of Giles and Jenny and some other funny moments.