Last week, I wrote about ten overrated episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You might have read it and wondered why I love the show so much if I spent one post complaining about the episodes that weren’t as good as people said they were. Well, now it’s time for me to do the opposite and post about 10 underrated episodes, the diamond in the rough gems that popular opinion condemns but I enjoy. These are not listed in order of personal preference (as #7 is my favorite of the bunch), but in order of how popular opinion ranks these episodes in proportion to how I rank these episodes. That made sense in my head.
10) “Doublemeat Palace”
People call this episode “cheesy,” and I say, “You say cheesy like it’s a bad thing.” This season six episode has a very season one feel, with bad special effects and a B-movie premise. The bad guy is a penis monster that comes from the head of a mild-mannered looking character, and then the penis monster is killed by the lesbian character. It’s so over-the-top silly and ridiculous that I can’t help but enjoy it. I also like the Willow and Amy scenes, and Anya starting to recognize that being with Xander might not be the best thing for her.
9) “Go Fish”
This episode has the misfortune of being placed between “I Only Have Eyes for You” and the epic “Becoming” two-parter, and it suffers in comparison to those transformative stories. On its own, “Go Fish” is very entertaining. Xander wears a Speedo, Cordelia gives “Xander” a touching speech about how much she’ll still like him and take care of him even if he’s a fish monster, and Buffy gets to flirt with Wentworth Miller. How can I not enjoy this silly one-off?
8) “Him”
Yes, I know this season seven diversion is only a ripoff of season two’s “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered,” but as BB&B is my favorite episode, a ripoff is still going to be quite funny. The use of “Theme from A Summer Place” makes me laugh every time, and the background action of Buffy and Spike fighting over the bazooka while Principal Wood sits in his office completely unaware is one of the best bits of physical comedy the show has done.
7) “Storyteller”
Alternate title: ” ‘Superstar’ done right.” It took a long time for Andrew to grow on me the first time I watched the series, but now I adore him. I couldn’t resist – he’s essentially the Milhouse of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I relate to his impulse to turn everything into a story and immerse himself in fiction far, far too well. Tom Lenk is a very good actor who sells every moment he’s given, whether it’s comedy or pathos, and I always giggle when he calls Buffy the “Slayer of VamPYres.” (Besides, he’s obviously completely in love with Xander, so how can I dislike him?) I truly think this is not only an underrated episode, but one of the series’ best. Easily in my top 20.
6) “Inca Mummy Girl”
I have sentimental attachment to “Inca Mummy Girl” because it was the very first episode I watched. At the time, I thought Willow and Oz were the cutest things ever and I didn’t much care about Xander, Cordelia, or Buffy. How opinions change over the years! But Oz noticing Willow while she pines for Xander is still one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I also like that the villain of the week is fairly sympathetic and parallels Buffy’s journey.
5) “Anne”
Some people talk about “Anne” as though it was a huge letdown after “Becoming Part 2,” and I think that’s really unfair. Any episode would be a letdown after “Becoming Part 2,” but this is a strong season opener with a gorgeously choreographed fight scene. I like Lily, I like Xander/Cordelia smooches, and most of all, I love Buffy owning and embracing her Slayer identity.
4) “Gingerbread”
This is my favorite episode of season three. Already I hear protests: “But but but Faith and Graduation and Earshot and The Wish and Dopplegangland!” Trust me, I love all of those episodes, and I think season three in general has very strong individual episodes. Unfortunately, I hate the way the show depicts Angel and the Buffy/Angel relationship in season three, and his very presence taints all of those other episodes for me. “Gingerbread” is the only season three episode where Angel doesn’t annoy me, when he and Buffy have a conversation that isn’t about their doomed soulmate love or whatever, AND I love everything else about the episode, too. It uses a twist on a classic fairy tale to comment on mob mentality and witch hunts, to a very creepy and scary effect. It’s also very funny and uses the entire cast to great effect, whether it’s through watching Willow interact with her mother, Xander and Oz’s brilliant plan to rescue the girls, or Giles and Cordelia saving the day.
3) “Buffy vs. Dracula”
Utterly stupid, utterly silly, and utterly enjoyable, whether it’s Giles in the “chick pit” (and Riley being momentarily enjoyable to watch), Xander and his comments about the “Great Master…bator,” or one of the biggest WTF?! episode endings of television history. I don’t much care for what happened after that ending but the ending itself is pretty cool. On a shallow note, Sarah Michelle Gellar is also gorgeous in this one with her best hair ever.
2) “Some Assembly Required”
No one remembers about this one, and that makes me sad. Again, the villain of the week is not totally monstrous but rather sympathetic, even though we condemn his actions. Angel is a complete dork which is how I like him best, and…oh fine, I’ll admit it, I really love watching Xander save Cordelia from the fire, Cordelia giving a completely sincere thank you, and Xander blowing her off mid-sentence followed by her pulling a face and leaving. It makes me laugh SO HARD.
1) “Bad Eggs”
People say this is the worst episode of the best season. These people are wrong. Think about it for a minute: this episode takes the classic, stereotypical high school plot line of teenagers looking after eggs/sacks of flour/baby dolls for health class. Any other TV show has their characters Learn Important Lessons about parenting and themselves and responsibility and all that garbage, or else pairs two antagonistic characters together and have them Find A New Appreciation for each other.
But no, Buffy avoids all of those Very Important Lessons and turns the “pretend the egg is your baby” episode into a parody of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
No deep meaning, no lessons learned, no growing as people whatsoever, just silliness. And I LOVE IT.
Really, how can I not? The moment where a possessed Giles puts the Bezoar baby on Joyce’s back and the SCARY MUSIC plays is so ridiculous and funny. Xander and Cordelia make out in a closet. Buffy and Xander have a moment where they’re the only two people not possessed and realize they have no clue how to proceed, since the people on their team who are actually good at research and book-learning are working for the Bezoar. And the dialogue!
XANDER: Can I just say, “Gyugggh!”
BUFFY: I see your “Gyugggh” and raise you an “Nyagggh!”
GILES: I suppose there is a certain Machiavellian ingenuity to your transgression.
XANDER: I resent that!…or possibly, “Thank you.”
BUFFY: So your egg isn’t acting weird or anything?
CORDELIA: It isn’t acting anything. It’s an egg, Buffy. It doesn’t emote.
And my favorite moment in the whole episode, which is all in the delivery –
LYLE GORCH: This is all YOUR fault!
BUFFY: How?!
“Bad Eggs” is so much fun. I’m going to watch it tonight.
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I like almost nothing about season seven (some of Selfless and the last shot of Buffy smiling is probably it), and Him and Storyteller are no exception–I find the first cringe-inducing (which can be good, but not when the same cringe covers like thirty straight minutes of the episode), and the second incredibly ham-fisted in its theme-work (I’ve seen it only once, but doesn’t Buffy at one point say something like “You’re always telling stories!”?) and resolution. I basically like Doublemeat Palace, Anne, and Buffy vs. Dracula, and can appreciate the rest as cute or inoffensive. (Go Fish actually starts off pretty intense with its depiction of sexual harassment/assault, victim blaming, slut-shaming, etc., but most of that transforms into a story about unfair jock privilege, which isn’t quite the same thing, so though it’s not really bad in its own right, it does stand out as sort of colossal missed opportunity or dropped ball, depending on how you look at it.)
My list would probably include:
When She Was Bad, which I think is an incredibly effective character piece for Buffy (and which Sarah Michelle Gellar sells the hell out of), even if no one else seems to agree; Ted, which is basically perfect and devastating until Ted returns and is revealed to be a robot, at which point it basically loses everything great about it, but stays harmless enough; and Listening to Fear, which is genuinely scary, develops Buffy and Riley’s relationship in a really interesting way (even if that gets undone in Into the Woods), and gives us the incredible scene of Buffy breaking down while doing the dishes.
I love season seven. I didn’t the first time I watched it, but then I watched the series again from beginning to end about four years later, and I completely changed my mind about it. It’s now my second favorite season overall (behind S2, which is amazing all the way through).
In “Storyteller,” Buffy does comment on Andrew always telling stories, in a very character-specific way – he’s framing his documentary in a way that implies that no one is responsible for anything because everyone’s following a script, and in the end, he has to face the fact that he killed his only friend for no reason. It worked for me – I love stories about stories and this was no exception.
As to your choices, I adore “When She Was Bad” – it’s my favorite season opener and also in my top 20 favorites. “Ted” is also great even with the copout ending, because John Ritter is very creepy. “Listening to Fear” is the one I always confuse with “Shadow,” but I do love that scene of Buffy crying and doing the dishes. Kristine Sutherland is great in that episode, too – one probably the least cringe-inducing portrayal of madness in BtVS history!
>>Alternate title: ” ‘Superstar’ done right.” <<<
Ohmygosh that is IT exactly, Superstar is this flat unfunny bore that only lights up when Betty/Spike bicker. What I love about Storyteller though is how POIGNANT it is, I do not lie when I say I thought Lenk deserved a special "guest" Emmy nom. Throughout the whole epsisode you see the cracks in this funny facade he's putting forth, and when he breaks down on the seal I cry almost every time. Having said that I'm not sure I think of it as underrated, especially critically it was pretty highly praised.
I am riding some kind of emotional way because recalling most of these got me choked up a little probably because I think so many of them are Buffy
My own list would overlap with yours a lot of course; Inca Mummy Girl, Some Assembly Required, Bad Eggs, Buffy v. Dracula, but I'd swap the rest for Listening to Fear, Flooded, Touched, and from season one The Witch (She's a Witchy!), and especially Teacher's Pet. I think that one is so important to me because Buffy loses this one authority figure who really believes in her potential/actual *intelligence*. Smidgette just KILLS me in that whole thing with how sad she is, and how determined she is to do the book work to figure it out. That it's also this wonderfully cheesy shadows on the wall sex monster out for Xander's bod is all the better.
Having said that I’m not sure I think of it as underrated, especially critically it was pretty highly praised.
Good point. When it comes to season 7 episodes, I can’t really tell which episodes are over- or under-rated since the portion of fandom that hates S7 is so loud, heh. I could easily list “Season 7” as an underrated episode.
As for your choices – “Listening to Fear” is one that always mushes up with “Shadow” in my mind and I can’t always remember what happened in which one. I do know LtF has Buffy and Spike holding hands in front of Riley (yay!) and I think SMG and Kristine Sutherland kill it in the acting department, but I remember enjoying little moments in LtF more than the whole thing. I’m watching it again soon, though, so maybe I’ll change my mind. “Flooded” has that great Willow-Giles scene, Trio action, Buffy and Spike on the porch – yeah, that’s a good’un. The scene in “Touched” is one of my favorites of the series, but I don’t know how I feel about the episode as a whole. I still don’t believe that the Scoobs would be all cavalier and whatever about not knowing where Buffy is, that Faith would be more worried about her than Xander and Willow would.
“The Witch” is great and I think it’s one that people often forget about. “Teacher’s Pet” is also a lot of fun and I felt so sad about Dr. Gregory. We’ve also got an unintentionally hilarious moment after the girls discover Dr. Gregory’s body, and Giles gives a glass of water to Buffy but not to Willow! Hee.
Okay that one sentence should read “Buff centric”. Need more coffee.
Inca Mummy Girl was also the first one I watched. I didn’t even know it was Buffy since I wasn’t really allowed to watch the show at the time but I enjoyed it and it made enough sense by itself that I could watch it knowing nothing else about the show.
Most things I’ve read in the past week or so on Buffy place season 5 as the best and I think I agree but I really enjoyed season 2 as well. I think for me season 5 would rank higher because of Spike, though I like him in season 2 also. I am not sure which one is more cohesive over all.
Dracula is awesome though, and Bad Eggs was so fun. I am surprised that Storyteller isn’t popular as I thought it was a great episode. Andrew was always my favorite of the Trio, the one with the most growth. I feel bad for Jonathon, but we got the better deal with Andrew in the long run.
I forget where you ranked season 6, but I have been re watching it with my spouse and I like it a lot more on a second viewing. It isn’t easy or fun to watch by any means, but it has a strength in its painfulness I admire. Smashed is one such episode that is brutally honest about the flaws of the characters. Its such a great contrast point for the end of season 7 when they are finally resolved in their growth. But again, I don’t know what the popularity of the various episodes are to judge if they are over or under rated or not.
Season 2 is my favorite season – I can hardly think of an episode I don’t like and I enjoy the different arcs for every single character on the show. Season 5 has far too much Riley and Dawn – Dawn gets on my nerves and I seriously HATE Riley. I also think Glory/Ben is not every interesting of a villain, and the plot makes no sense. But in terms of character growth for Buffy herself, it’s a great season, and it makes me understand her in ways that I hadn’t before.
Season 6 is a little odd, in that it has some of the absolute best episodes of the series, ones that are dark and complex and morally ambiguous and painful, but it also has some of the absolute worst garbage episodes that are dreadfully boring. A very interesting, very uneven season. And I may have watched the last few minutes of “Smashed” more than any other scene in the series. I wonder why. 😉
Wait, Storyteller and Buffy vs. Dracula are underated? That’s sad; they were two of my favorite episodes in the show’s run.
Most of the episodes on this list are some of my favorite. I have Some Assembly Required on my DVR now. I can’t wait to re-watch it. Hell, I wish Logo would start showing the entire series again.
Inca Mummy Girl was my first episode too. At first I was glued to the television because I thought Xander was the cutest guy I ‘d ever seen. But after the whole kid crush deal, I became interested in the show and have loved it ever since.