When I last left you, I was halfway through Buffy’s second season. Well, I’ve finished up the second half, and not only I am still really enjoying the show, but it seems to have made a major turn towards some truly great, dark stuff in these episodes. The hokeyness continues to a degree in some stand-alone episodes, but it is certainly balanced out by the whole Angel-turns-evil arc.
Buffy isn’t the first TV show to deal with its teen characters having sex, but whereas other shows go for the more the clichéd, “sex is a big step” or “sex can lead to you getting pregnant,” here the message is that “having sex can cause your boyfriend to become so happy that his ancient gypsy curse is reversed and he loses his soul again and becomes totally evil.” Wow, talk about morning after regret! Angel’s change back to his former Angelus state was a total shock, as was the fact that the show stuck to the change for a while, as opposed to resolving the situation immediately.

And the show is not shy about making Evil Angel SUPER evil. His murder of Jenny was a cold and vicious surprise, but it cemented the need for Buffy to kill her former lover. The season finale two-parter resolves the Angel storyline in the most dramatic way possible, with Angel’s soul being restored, only too late, and Buffy is forced to send him to hell to save the world. Although I couldn’t help but think that if she spent a little less time making out with the guy as the hell vortex got larger, maybe Buffy could have just put some of Nice Angel’s blood on the blade and turned Acathla back to stone that way. Still, it was a gut-wrenching ending, and the reveal of Buffy skipping town was a nice touch, except for the slow pan from the bus traveling down the highway to the sign that read “Now Leaving Sunnydale.” I know, it’s my same old nitpicky gripe, but I hate it when smart shows (literally) spell things out for their audience.

I was sad to see Kendra the Vampire Slayer be disposed of so easily, and I was disappointed in how unsupportive Joyce was after learning the truth about her daughter, but I suppose that was keeping her in character. I truly love how Xander has become the voice of reason in the show, telling the truths that no one wants to hear; the way he reasoned that Angel did not deserve to be saved had some real merit. I would think even for Buffy, who loves Angel, it would be more humane to kill him than allow him to be re-cursed, forcing him to deal with the memories of all the horrible things he had done.

But I digress. There were still some slower moments in the second half of the season. Like the eggs that control people’s minds! Or the time that the swim team becomes sea monsters! The school’s haunting by the star-crossed lovers and the werewolf episodes seemed destined to be cheesfests, but were executed surprisingly smoothly. The Valentine’s Day episode, where Xander makes every woman in town fall in love with him, was a little too reminiscent of an old Saved by the Bell episode for my taste, but the way they threw Drusilla into the mix gave it a nice twist.

I’m bummed that I already know that Angel is still alive (or undead) based on the fact that I am aware of his spinoff show, and I saw Spike on one of those DVD boxsets, so their return to the fold won’t be a shock, but I’m still curious to see HOW it all happens. I’m also hoping that the principal’s motivations will become clearer, that we’ll see more of Oz the werewolf, and that we’ll get some backstory on Whistler.

And maybe Cordelia in a bikini.

On to Season Three!