Okay, I'm watching it again now. Random observations follow (imagine me saying this in between bites of popcorn, not that I'm actually eating anything, though if I were then it would be fish or prawns!).
One, Cameron Walker in the intro scene is so much like Parker! Heh, getting all poetic over the ocean (and apparently assuming Buffy is a silly female lost in the scene, rapt with wonder as she no doubt is when introduced to kittens, rather than having an intense life of her own). 😛😡
Stupid Jonathan, calling out for someone to help him and then popping an attitude with Buffy when she does.
😡 (And if it's humiliating to be saved by a girl, what's it like for the jocks who get tossed about by a girl? I bet they sound lame as they talk about how they were only being chivalrous and pretending to be knocked down.)
That aside, I loved the intro (mainly how it ends), I think because I'm a Lovecraft fan (and it makes me think of stories of the Cthulhu mythos involving the
Order of Dagon ). It's more of a mood thing for me just before intro credits roll.
And then the scene of Willow in class (I wonder how the death of Jenny Calendar is explained to the students? Did they even bother to ask Willow for the details as kids would in most schools, or have they learned that it's better not to know some things?) with the infuriating bit about how Gage needs to be given special passes, even after he openly disrespects Willow showing how entitled he feels, and how above the rules. And thus we set that both Principal Snyder and the jocks are not good people to listen to. (Snyder's asking Willow if holding Gage accountable is how she shows her school spirit reminds me of an infuriating principal I had to deal with who talked about school spirit and having an attitude so much like Snyder's in that regard.)
Nice that Cordelia knew that Jefferson kept slaves, btw. Though her crack about Lincoln was so Cordelia, I didn't expect her to know something like that (Cordy's guilt and "true love" toward the end is also surprising, but obviously played for laughs). Xander wishes that Buffy was with him to share his moral outrage at the special privileges the swim team gets, just before Cameron (spouting more Parker-like words about his relationship with the ocean trying to appear deep) asks a bored Buffy if she's wearing a bra. And in the nurse's office after, Cameron gives such a nasty smirk as the coach says it's not a dance club that I KNOW it wasn't meant to imply Buffy was to blame for Cameron's behavior. He's a jerk, and that's as clear as can be, and neither Whedon nor the writer intended him, the evil coach, or Snyder to spout their personal views (if anything, they meant to vilify such views).
That aside...Willow saying, "Like an Oreo cookie."
😀😀😀
Furthermore, Xander gives Cameron a hard time about his nose, and says how much he loves it when they mess with Buffy (and get their butts kicked--ETA: just used an inappropriate word here that I've corrected, apparently my "high school brain" woke back up to comment!), including his statement of Buffy not being on his list of privileges after all. Didn't sound as if Xander was sympathizing with him (and quite possibly it was the writer's own hatred of jocks and principals at his own school using Xander as his voice, and implying the idea that he LIKED Cameron getting his nose busted, and later has Buffy talk about the special privileges jocks get and says it's been like that forever which is something an adult, like a scriptwriter, would say rather than an actual teenager who tend to overlook how much they have in common with previous generations).
Despite Xander's obvious dislike of Cameron, he still races to his shrieks right after. Whether he's brave or stupid (or hoping to enjoy witnessing Cameron's agonizing death) is for the viewer to decide.
😉 (As it was, given how hungry Cameron said he was, I'll have to assume his horrific change made him too slow to devour Xander so that he got away, a scene that we're not showed and I have to demand a penalty against the show for that.
😵 )
Xander imitating the mouth of the fish monster to Cordelia!
😀
Hmm, Cordelia saying, "You ran like a woman."
🙄 Still, that's in character for her, and there are girls (especially at that age) who talk like that. Still, Buffy's line of "whence it came" makes me forget it pretty fast.
Buffy holding the magazine upside down as she "discretely" watches Gage!
😀 'Course that's nothing compared to Willow's interrogation of Jonathan which I'm sure needs no description as I think that's about everyone's favorite scene. But I'm now wondering, did Willow INSPIRE Jonathan to "delve into the Black Arts" through that scene which would shape the character and series in later seasons?
😱
Angelus echoing Gage's view of Buffy (that he shared with his team) would also suggest that the writers don't sympathize with the team view, because otherwise a psychopathic demon has just become the mouth piece along with Snyder, Cam, and the Coach, who we're obviously supposed to see as the bad guys. (Gotta love Gage asking Buffy to walk him home.
😀 Hmm, wonder if Gage babbled on the phone to others, or to say a brother, which contributed to Buffy being named Class Protector in the next season?
🙂 )
And how could I forget Speedo Xander saying he could keep an eye on Gage and other swimmers when Buffy can't is followed by Willow, a little too excited, asking, "When you're nude?"
😀😀😀 (Willow is definitely not gay there.)
Buffy and Giles in the sewers...reminded me of how often demons and vampires use those, I wonder what the usual etiquette is when they run into each other by chance?
😕
For that matter, sewers below the swimming room? Sheesh. I wonder if any demons or vampires ever gaze up through the grates at that school to plan their next attacks, or sort of like smelling the meals to whet one's appetite.
😱 And would any of the kids (especially Buffy) sense the demonic eyes upon them? (For that matter, where exactly is the Hellmouth under the library in relation to those sewer tunnels? And does the Hellmouth actually draw in beasties from the sea? Are the students just damn lucky that barbed tentacles don't just rip through those grates around the school for a quick snack?)
I bet Animal Control has their hands full (and probably run by either a government agency posing as such, or some of those sports hunters that liked to hunt or dine on the supernatural beings as shown in S5 Angel).
Buffy's comments about breaking out the tartar sauce and getting in touch with their inner-halibut still good.
😀
As for locking the swim team up, what would've Giles have done if one of them then transformed?
😱 (Even better, if one did during a swim competition!)
As for Buffy's crack about doing it with the swim team, that sounds more like the self-depreciating humor Xander uses, though of course it wouldn't work for him. I'll presume that was just a tasteless joke thrown in by the writers as they neared their deadline, and I can see how it would seem clever on first examination if they're in a rush.
Damn, that coach is a sick bastard with that big grin on his face as he looks down hoping to see a gang rape by monsters at the very least. I think it would be ridiculous to think that we should sympathize with the coach at that moment or that the writers intended to say "Buffy had it coming."
Furthermore, I am now convinced that Passion of the Nerd is wrong about the coach being gangraped. Those monsters are crawling over each other to claw and drown the coach, not rip off his clothes or bind him.
But as a final thought, this story BEGS the question of how the coach got hold of those documents...I bet he has one hell of a backstory! Maybe the Initiative was moving in even then. We saw that the government came to get Invisible Girl (Marcy?) in season 1. Was the Coach one of their watchers? (Surely the Watchers Council isn't the only one who places their discrete agents to spy, and sometimes act.) 'Course it could be that Mayor Wilkins (who Snyder obviously reported to, and I liked the novel I read that said Snyder was placed there by Wilkins specifically to keep tabs on Buffy, with the Mayor getting nervous about Buffy as he prepared for his Ascension, but otherwise liking her to help keep the "chaotic elements down to manageable levels.") The Mayor could have all sorts of reasons for wanting the swim team experimented on, maybe even just bored. IDK, but the Coach new about these documents AND had at least some idea on how to "adjust the mixture," which begs the question of how he came to know all that AND get his hands on the formula.
Whatever the case, I bet he was a crack shot with that pistol...and that he ordered Buffy in with a gun strongly suggests he has some idea of what Buffy is, or at least "much stronger than she looks." (He sure didn't waste using a gun to order the nurse in.) That said, Xander beat him in a fight (skill and experience generally beats the raw strength and vigor of youth, though kids do heal faster), but that could be because Xander had gained some real life experience (and I like to think formal training "off screen") which increased his combat reflexes and skill, and might've also been enhanced from the special steroids (which could explain how he lifts Buffy up with one hand even with monsters trying to drag Buffy back down even as Buffy failed to bring the coach back up using both hands, but then perhaps Buffy only pretended to fail!), that he simply took the coach by surprise.