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Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Episode 7.06, "Him"
Written by Drew Z. Greenberg
Directed by Michael Gershman
Original Air Date: November 5, 2002

"His physical presence has a penis!" - Anya
"I can work around it!" – Willow

Good lord, this hour of Buffy had so many quick quips and situations in it I can’t even hope to have caught every little thing. This week Buffy was really lighthearted, save a couple moments. It was basically "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" told from the perspective of those that were bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. At times it was quite funny and at least once it was a little disgusting, but overall it was a good episode.

The episode opens with Buffy arranging for Spike to stay with Xander. She claims she doesn’t love him anymore, she just feels for him, and that the school basement was driving him crazy. I guess it makes sense that she doesn’t want him to get any crazier since he can still physically hurt her. Also, it could be funny pairing Xander and Spike back up the way it was in season four when he lived in Xander’s basement. In any event, Buffy insists to Dawn that it’s complicated like all relationships are. Dawn says she can’t understand that and doesn’t see the point. So you know she’s gonna learn the point before the episode is over.

Enter RJ. He’s a jock with a letterman’s jacket. The jacket was handed down from his dad to RJ’s brother to RJ. It just happens to be a magical family heirloom. Whoever wears the jacket gets people to fall in love with them. RJ doesn’t seem to realize this (at least it’s played that way); he just wears the jacket his brother gave to him. Anyway, RJ attracts Dawn. Dawn is so madly in love that she shoves another member of the football team (someone that was going to start next week instead of RJ) down some stairs and claims not to have done it just so RJ will start. The two go out on a date at the Bronze where Buffy, Xander, and Willow see the two dancing. Dawn is dressed far more… mature than usual at the Bronze. Before Xander and Willow realize it is Dawn, they had already given her a nice look over from behind. When the two realize who they were checking out, both are shocked. It was pretty funny.

Buffy decides to have a talk with RJ and inevitably falls for him the second he slips his jacket back on. This is where that disgusting moment of the episode I mentioned above comes in. Joss Whedon and company must have a cradle-robbing kick going right now between the goings on in Angel and the stuff happening in Sunnydale this week. Seeing Buffy straddling RJ when she’s supposed to be a counselor and he’s a student just doesn’t sit right. It was played for laughs but didn’t elicit one from me.

After that gross little bit, the episode picks back up once Dawn finds out about Buffy and RJ. Buffy channels some serious Buffy-bot in her discussion with Dawn. "You’re the one that constructed this elaborate fantasy about you and my lover," says Buffy. The actual delivery of lines like that made it twice as funny. Not content to have a triangle, the show turns it into a pentagon when Willow and Anya get involved. All four try to prove their love for RJ. Buffy decides to kill Principal Wood since he’s always giving RJ a hard time…. with a bazooka. Willow decides to remedy RJ’s gender problem because "he doesn’t have to be" a guy. She does so by invoking the powers of Hecate (who doesn’t like having spells directed at her interrupted). Anya becomes a cat-burglar and robs a series of banks and various other places presumably to get his attention with loads of money. Dawn (the drama queen that she is) lays on a set of rail road tracks to await an oncoming train. Her love was worth dying for, she claims. The presentation of this is one of the episodes funniest moments. The screen splits four ways and shows each person’s actions as they set about doing what they must to get RJ. Buffy’s quadrant of the screen was the funniest in my opinion. Seeing her hop out of a jeep (which she drove badly, nice continuity nod) with a bazooka was priceless. Talk about overkill. Oh, did I mention the Shaft-esque music playing to accompany this scene? Priceless.

The events are all interrupted by Xander and Spike when they come to the rescue. All the while, Willow and Buffy are worried that Anya is out winning RJ’s heart while they’re trying to find Dawn. Buffy "wouldn’t put it past [Anya]; she’s recently evil, ya know?" Willow retorts, "Well, so am I! Why should I miss out?" There was definitely some funny stuff happening this episode. It all comes to a screeching halt right there as Buffy runs to save Dawn from the train. She does, they have a heart to heart, and some of the funny returns. Shortly thereafter, Xander and Spike clumsily steal the jacket from RJ and burn it back at the Summers’ residence. Everyone asks what Anya did to prove her love once they’ve all met back up. She claims to have written an epic poem for him. A radio report comes on saying that a night time burglar that plagued Sunnydale was still at large. Anya promptly turns off the radio. Episode over.

I think I pretty much covered the bulk of stuff happening. It was just a funny episode with not too much substance to it. Pure filler, obviously, but pretty funny regardless. A few important things did happen such as Spike moving in with Xander, and Anya being re-integrated into the group (though Buffy just stopping by to see her after she was ready to kill her last week irked me). D’hoffryn also sent a demon to kill Anya which Buffy promptly dealt with. That was really about it as far as important things happening. I already mentioned most of the good and bad that happened this episode, the unfunny parts weren’t that great, but the funny stuff more than made up for it. Seeing Buffy act like she did tonight makes me wish they’d put Buffy-bot back together again just for a few laughs. That’s pretty much it, so what’s left but to give the review? This episode gets an:

Episode Rating: 8 out of 10.

- Brandon "Pyronics" Delancey KNEW there was something up with those letterman jackets!

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