Buffy: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (2.16)

There are always moments in high school where you wish you could just make something happen. Make somebody like you, make your tests go perfectly, make things a little easier for yourself on the social spectrum. Xander, the most obvious depiction on this show of 'ordinary' succumbs to that feeling here, using his supernatural connections to make Cordelia fall back in love with him. But because this is an awesome comedy episode, the spell immediately backfires. And it's a hoot.

The highlights of Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered are obviously Xander's interactions with pretty much the entire female cast. Buffy's attempted seduction of him is that moment where Sarah Michelle Gellar suddenly became this ridiculously hot icon, and the scene is so wrong that it's really, really hilarious. Then there's Joyce giving him a massage, Drusilla's pleas to turn him into a vampire, and Harmony's moral outrage that Cordelia would even consider dumping him. It's a genius concept which is drained of every comedic element possible, a standard the show lives up to for the next five seasons.

Great Angelus stuff here, too, and it's one of the few season two episodes not centered on Angelus that actually utilize him really well. I loved that Spike gave Dru a necklace for Valentine's Day, while Angelus gifted her the heart of a "quaint little shopgirl". And Angelus' puppy murder is horrifying. Yikes.

This works on a variety of levels, both as a depiction of teenage love gone awry and those familiar feelings of resentment and bitterness after a relationship falls apart, and as a reflection on how funny the show's writers are. Likewise, this is probably Nicholas Brendon's best work so far. A

Credits
Guest stars Seth Green (Oz); Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers); Robia LaMorte (Jenny Calendar); Elizabeth Anne Allen (Amy Madison); Mercedes McNab (Harmony Kendall); Lorna Scott (Miss Beakman); James Marsters (Spike); Juliet Landau (Drusilla)
Writer Marti Noxon Director James A. Contner