Buffy: Beauty and the Beasts (3.4)

This wasn't good. I was reminded a lot of early season two here, episodes like Some Assembly Required, featuring flat one-episode characters who get wrapped up in thinly-drawn monster hoodoo and are so stupid that you don't care if they live or die. Beauty and the Beasts is a hollow attempt at depicting domestic violence in high school, featuring an angry teenage boy, his abused girlfriend, some magic goo which turns him into a beast, and lazy attempts at 'morals'. There's also an annoying "all men are beasts" message floating through, which is just offensive and way off compared to other metaphorical storytelling on this show.

The story unfolds pretty painfully, its nadir a horrible sequence in which Buffy lectures abuse victim Debbie until she gives up on her, leading Debbie to get murdered a couple of minutes later after she fails to realize what she's gotten herself wrapped up in. And no more "this is how it all went down" codas, show. It's so dramatically lazy.

Angel's return is handled in as bland a way as possible. I really wish this could have taken up the most time here, instead being cast aside for spousal abuse hijinks. This is a huge development for both the show and especially for Buffy herself, but it's casually dismissed. Equally dumb an idea came in the form of Buffy's kind counselor Mr. Platt, a character Buffy finds herself able to open up to, only for Platt to wind up dead before he's of any real use. Turns out he's just cannon fodder, despite the pretense of implying he could actually help Buffy.

By turns shallow and vomit-inducingly preachy, Beauty and the Beasts spins to its inevitable conclusion with few surprises and lazy characterization. When the highlight is a Scooby-Doo lunchbox, you know your script is in trouble. Probably the one truly awful episode this season. D

Credits
Guest stars Fab Filippo (Scott Hope); John Patrick White (Pete Klarner); Danielle Weeks (Debbie Foley); Phill Lewis (Mr. Platt); Eliza Dushku (Faith)
Writer Marti Noxon Director James Whitmore Jr.