Buffy: What's My Line? Part 1 (2.9)

It's a little clumsy, I guess, but Buffy has a case of the sads because she feels as if she's permanently stuck in her role as the Slayer. And while her friends are learning about their potential careers and setting up at least an idea of the future, Buffy feels as if she can't. Her destiny has already been decided, and nothing that comes her way will ever be able to take precedence over her slaying duties. It's more than a little convenient that into this puddle of navel-gazing comes her exact destiny double: Keen-dra the Vamp-eer Slay-eer! But more on that in a bit. Buffy is still at that crossroads where she wants to keep her normal life as intact as possible, and whines about it constantly. The ice skating sequence is a perfect metaphor for her life. She's free, like a regular teenage girl, until a giant boogeyman appears and tries to kill her. After killing him, she makes out with a vampire. The girl's got problems.

I never understood the hoodoo over Kendra's accent. Sure, it's pretty distracting, but Bianca Lawson is so slinky and kick-ass in her first appearance that it kind of drowns out her voice. Plus, the accent does give Kendra an otherworldly quality. The cliffhanger to this episode is a doozy, an unexpected twist ending which leaves the audience just as open-mouthed as Buffy is.

The career drive allows for several moments of character-related comedy. Buffy is recommended to pursue law enforcement, Willow's involved with computers, Xander is a prison guard, and Cordelia as a motivational speaker. Only Xander's feels a little 'off'. We also see Oz and Willow thrown together once again, the fates clearly having plans for these two.

At the same time, Buffy and Angel are growing closer. Hitting rock bottom, Buffy doesn't turn to her friends or mentor, but to Angel. And kissing him in vamp-face has to be saying something. She can face the monster within in? Learning of his past hasn't turned her off? It's interesting. There isn't a whole lot to say about the opening segment of Buffy's first two-parter, but it's a confident, breezy exercise with some neat character moments, squicky bad guys (Wormy still gives me the creeps, even after all these years) and that awesome cliffhanger. A

Credits
Guest stars Seth Green (Oz); James Marsters (Spike); Eric Saiet (Dalton); Kelly Connell (Norman Pfister); Bianca Lawson (Kendra); Saverio Guerra (Willy); Juliet Landau (Drusilla); Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder)
Writers Howard Gordon, Marti Noxon Director David Solomon