Buffy The Vampire Slayer - S03E02|♡Uncut Reaction &Review ♡

I’m certainly biased toward Buffy in this episode. The party was a horrible idea – their way of not talking with her – and then they blame her for not talking! (In fairness, we know that she killed Angel and not Angelus, and none of them did.) But I’ll defend Xander, when he says “She doesn't want to talk about it, we don't want to talk about it, so why don't we just shut up and dance?” He’s only saying what they all (except Giles) are thinking. At least, he has the courage to say it. As far as I can tell, Willow never faces her standoffishness toward Buffy. I don’t really think it’s out of character for Willow. I think we’re just seeing more deeply into Willow’s character. And I’ll defend Joyce, when she says, “in some ways, it's almost worse”. She doesn’t say “it’s worse” – she qualifies it – “in *some* ways” and “almost”. That actually makes sense. Transitions like that are never easy. She’s talking to a friend. She didn’t know that Buffy overheard her. On the other hand, once they discover that Buffy wants to leave again, I’ll not defend how any of them, Willow, Xander or Joyce, act. It takes the monsters to resolve that one, to get them back on track, back to their normal life. You had a great rant at that point.

Your reaction to how Xander/Joyce/Willow were acting is the same as how I feel. I'm more angry with Joyce and Xander but I didn't like how Willow was acting either.

I agree entirely with you SoFie ,I have hated Xander from the very beginning & Willow is very clingy . The only ones i would want as friends are Giles & Cordelia at least she is honest .

“Good bye stray cat who lost its way, we hope you find it.” I just realized after watching this today with you that this was notice for the viewers that Buffy is basically like a stray cat trying to find her way home....back to her life she left. Should have known from that moment on that everything was gonna be a hot stinky mess lol. Great reaction. Buffy deserved better. They knew like you said, that she was going to have to fight Angel. If she left town, they should know better to assume it’s because something awful happened with Angel. Yes, she could have said something but they know what she goes through on a regular basis ...to all of a sudden pretend they forgot that she has to do shitty things to save the world and that takes a tole on her. I get they wish she knew she was ok and wanted to act like nothing happened but ...something did happen and they should know better by now.

This episode is just so heartbreaking every time without fail. I'm assuming a lot of people in the comments are going to take sides hard but it is both of their faults. Both sides feel that the other isn't thinking about them but sooner or later someone has to listen to the other. The Scoobies didn't know what happened to Buffy and Buffy wasn't thinking about the effect her leaving could have on others; which is a very teenage way of thinking. The hardest part is that she was trying and they weren't. As well, Joyce choosing the worst time to bring everything up and everyone else just piling on without space and time to process everyone's emotions. Buffy was their punching bag and they weren't giving her any time to adjust to what they were saying. And XANDER IS SO HEARTLESS here. It's so upsetting :( One thing I can appreciate this episode for is the realism of arguments like this. I know that the details aren't real (monsters, and killing an evil ex and such) but the way it all came out, running away, expulsion, listening to others, misunderstanding, and bad timing, are all so realistic. I know that similar confrontations have occurred in my life when I was a teen. Overall, a very hard episode to get through.

Before I even watch it, I'm gonna say I'm totally on Buffy's side also... although, it probably would've made all her friends' lives easier if she just sent a postcard saying she was alive. I get their point... but sometime we just gotta deal with stuff on our own. Where I disagree with you, is when you say she wanted to talk to them but they were ignoring her. Buffy's "you wouldn't understand" when Willow said she'd like to know what Buffy was going through kinda told us that Buffy wasn't exactly being forthcoming with them either... and unfortunately, if she's not going to tell them anything about what she had to deal with, it's going to be very hard for them to understand and empathize with her. They have literally no idea what happened. For us, the viewers, we saw what Buffy had to deal with so we understand it... but they don't have that insider knowledge. I honestly think if she would've told them what happened, their reaction would be quite different.