The Harsh Light of Day

Reviewed by Adam Bardwell

Rating: 8/10

This is a special episode. It is the first ever crossover episode with Angel and Spike returns in his only episode of the season in which he is the villain (the "Wild at Heart" cameo doesn't count - which has to be noteworthy. It is a crossover but no Angel appear here - it is mealy a set up for Oz and Spike to crossover it to Angel and continue the story in "Into The Dark". The two episodes hang around first Spikes discovery of the Gem of Amara and then in the Angel episodes his attempts to get it back when Oz takes it to Angel as a present from Buffy. However, this is just the plot device used to link the shows, this show is actually about the parallels of three relationships.

The three relationships in the spotlight are Buffy / Parker, Spike / Harmony and Xander / Anya. They all end up (in terms of this episode) in the same way - seemingly over but I will look at each of them separately drawing the multiple parallels as I go and speculating as to only one of the relationships actually lasts.

The funniest element of the episode is Anya's return from "Fleeing in terror" in "Graduation Day Pt. 1". She returns because she still has feelings for Xander. Her solution to getting him out of her head is sex so she removes her dress and informs Xander of this plan in the shows funniest scene. Xander's reaction is laugh out loud hilarious. I loved his "I'm turning into a girl as I say this." protest that sex is ment to mean something - signify a commitment. Anya's comeback with; "I have condoms - some of them are black" was great - and won Xander over. Later Xander seemingly snubs Anya but the reality is that he is too tied up with what is going on to have sufficient time for her. This ends with Anya being alone and upset at the end (like Buffy and Harmony) but in hindsight we know that the relationship isn't over. In fact though the season it blossoms into a weird but sweet relationship which is now based on more than just sex. So why did there relationship go beyond this episode. i think it could be that they both knew that the sex here didn't mean anything.

Spike and Harmony also make an odd couple - you certainly wouldn't have though to put them together (unless you are Joss!). Again like Anya it is Harmony would harbours feelings for her partner while spike seems to just use her for sex (he admits to preferring Syphilis to her!). This is a paralleled in all the relationships - the males use the females (I'm totally unsurprised that this episode was written by a female - I'm not being sexist there is a clear anti-male message in this episode). I'm glad Harmony was brought back but I don't understand why she was sire. We saw her die in "Graduation Day Pt. 2" in the heat of battle - it seems unlikely that the vamp who killed her would have time to sire her with the battle raging around her. Maybe there is a longer period after death when you can still be sired that we have not been told about.

Its not long after Angel left but it initially seemed that Buffy already had a new serious love interest when she takes a chance and sleeps with Parker. However, Parker ends up being by far the worst male character of the episode. He basically seems to be in it for the conquest but his approach is to seem venerable and force Buffy to seduce him. Then after they sleep together he moves onto someone else without saying anything to Buffy. He is the kind of man who gives us all a bad name. I liked the paralleled Buffy's experience with Angel, however. Like Angel Parker was gone in the morning. He may not have turned into a monster but it a less metaphorical approach to show the same thing. It also adds to Buffy's insecurity about relationships. I wish this had been explored before she and Riley slept together later in the season.

It may just be me but this episode really highlights how much the show has changed since it started. It seems more violent, more sex orientated and generally less suitable for a pre watershed air time. These changes had grown though season 3 but with some of the metaphors being taken out in this episode it becomes more apparent. Having said all this I'm glad we saw Spike get to kick Buffy's ass (pretty violently) for a bit because although he is ment to be the Big Bad he has seemed pretty wimpy to me ever since "School Hard". Also, all the sex kind of makes sense as it is associated with college and to some degree the Buffy / Parker story can be seen as Buffy's reaction to her new freer environment.

I'm shocked by the revelation that Giles has a TV - "He's shallow - like us!" This is all part of Giles becoming less stuffy and more laid back. Well on the surface at least - he's actually had something of a mid-life crisis though the season. I hope he gets a job next season because I can't believe his savings can last much longer especially after he's paid Spike on various occasions for help. While on the topic of Giles his scene with Xander was funny:

Xander: I don't get your crazy system. Giles: Its called the alphabet!