I am in for a treat of a lifetime...one of my good friends has agreed to watch the entirety (we'll see, but so far so strong) of Buffy with me. I've seen the show probably around 5ish times, I think, with a handful of eps countless times. But I've never had the pleasure of living through someone else's viewership and it is INCREDIBLE. Getting to vicariously live through his first-time reactions has been a dream.
Anyway, last night we finally crossed the threshold of emotional devistation and reached Passion. His call on the episode, right when Buffy gives Jenny permission to go after Giles again, was hoping that Jenny was being truthful this time when she said she wanted to help Buffy and make up the betrayal from Surprise. I loved this take. Jenny has been shady for some time now. Obviously since Surprise, but even since The Dark Age the show's been seeding that something is up with her, and the back-and-forth of her and Giles' relationship has really fuelled that fire.
The best part of the episode though, is our mutual crush on Jenny. Since getting older, Jenny Calendar has grown on me as a character. I do wish the show gave her more space in her heritage (it's always felt last-minute to me, and I wished we had slightly more foreshadowing on her Roma heritage--would have been much-needed representation; but to love the thing is to criticize it etc etc etc). Nevertheless, I can't help but think she's such a cool cat. You would have caught me hanging out in her classroom when I was in high school 100%. My friend heartily agreed, and loved to expouse on how much he loved her.
***HEAVY SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT!!***
When we got to THE SHOT, his first reaction was 'That's so crazy haha. Because Jenny isn't dead. Duh." I could hear the sarcasm in his voice, obviously, we both knew she was, but his insistance that she wasn't absolutely sent me. And then of course, on seeing Giles reaction, he kept insisting she would somehow make it out of this.
So after the episode ends I paused on our watch-through and he just goes, "WHAT THE F*** STORM! F***! F***!" with me cackling in the background. I pointed out his reaction to Flutie dying in The Pack and he goes, "That was different because I DIDN'T HAVE A CRUSH ON FLUTIE!" I do love how hard he took that death though, his reaction was very much the same ("Wow, they really just f***ing killed him I guess"). I can't wait until we get to Becoming Pt1 and 2.
Anyway, Passion rules. I've come around to it so much more since my initial viewing. Buffy really takes off after 2x3 and 2x7, and obviously 2x13 is an incredible turning point, but I'd argue 2x17 is where Buffy locks in everything about it that is so perfect--the unwillingness to hold back, the twist of the knife (ugh, Giles' reaction), and even the little details (Jenny foreshadowing the floppy disk at the beginning of the episode with 'And I want a paper copy and a disk copy', Joyce and Buffy talking about Buffy's first time, Angel spying on Buffy and Willow's reactions to the news). It's just a masterpiece.