AOQ Review 2-18: "Killed By Death"
Arbitrar Of Quality
threads.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Season Two, Episode 18: "Killed By Death"
(or "THERE IS NO QUALITY. THERE IS ONLY ME.")
Writers: Dean Batali and Rob Des Hostel
Director: Deran Sarafian
We've got hospital hallways. We've got kids giving creepy messages
and being stalked by monsters. I liked this one better when it was
called "Nightmares."
Okay, so the two episodes aren't _that_ similar, really. And the
series is in a different place than it was then. I don't know how
much I initially bought into the idea that Season Two was a lot
"darker" than Season One (beyond WSWB, anyway), but when watching
the teaser of this one, I was aware that somewhere along the line the
tone had changed. We don't open with a light happy scene, we start
with Buffy unwilling to stop living under constant attack for even a
second, even when practically dead on her feet. D'ya think she ever
gets any sleep anymore? In a nice little scenelet, Buffy's friends
both save her from an attack by Angelus and need to be saved
themselves. Then we leave that nice dark background behind and head
off into another episode, one that seems like something out of Season
One, even going so far as to end with 3/4 of our high-school cast
lounging around watching cartoons.
Soon after the monster of the week first appears, an early highlight is
the discussion regarding whether Buffy's really seeing what she
thinks she's seeing around the time the kids die:
Giles: Death and disease are things, possibly the *only* things that,
that Buffy cannot fight. It's only natural for her to try to create
a... a defeatable opponent. Especially now, after... after Jenny.
Willow: That's true. But on the 'we live on the Hellmouth' side, these
kids may have seen a monster.
Point taken and other point taken. Giles' idea might have made for
an interesting show, but in the end, of course, it turns out to be a
demon (one that also killed Buff's cousin many moons ago, although
that has surprisingly little effect on anything else). This gets us
into our standard mold: ancient monster decides to put in an
appearance, Buffy kills it, roll credits. And that, as they say, is
that. (I started pondering whether the writers were trying to give
Buffy a bit of a break, let her have a rare chance at a simple enemy,
with a clear ugly shape, but if that's the case, it's
inappropriate. Keep piling on the psychological strain and see how she
adapts, that's the way to go.)
Now, I could talk at great length about how clearly Batali and Des
Hostel demonstrate that they know very little about either medicine or
hospitals, despite writing a script centered around them. I don't
want to belabor that point, since it's a background complaint, and
since we BTVS watchers know by now that Joss and company don't let
reality interfere with the stories they feel like telling. But an
annoying enough moment of sloppiness can legitimately hurt enjoyment.
Just a couple things I didn't like, then we can move on to the
characters:
1] 'I feel like sticking around for another day.' Yeah, hospitals
do that all the time.
2] "Dr. Backer was trying to inoculate the kids with a controlled
dosage of the same virus they already had... raising their temperatures
to burn the fever out of them."
Whaaaat? That doesn't even make enough sense to qualify as
"nonsense."
So some of you guys really want me to think that Cordelia has a lot of
depth to offer the series. I'm trying here, but she's jst so
fundamentally irritating. Consider the "get that thing done"
scene. Everyone else, even Xander, have toned down their wisecracking
as befits the situation. They're discussing the vampiric threat...
and this moron is stuck on "that thing" even when it's clear no
one's listening. Her one-track mind has apparently gotten stuck in a
loop. The net effect is like comic relief, only without the relief, or
the comedy. KBD has a few better Cordelia scenes too - her bit with
Giles in the library at least made me smile (because of Giles,
naturally). But she's still mostly only worth watching when we're
laughing at her... and a character who exists only to be mocked is not
a one at all.
Xander takes his guarding thing seriously, and is occasionally useful
as a result. Well, that's one way to sublimate your burning
attraction for someone. I like how he's still lusting intensely
after more than one chick at once; teenage crushes are like that.
Having a (sort of) steady girlfriend with whom things are still
sexually exciting may make some guys lose interest in every other
female in the world, but it doesn't work that way for many
seventeen-year-olds.
Angel isn't a major player here, but his presence is always felt.
Whether it's a calculated move or just a desire to have Boreanaz
appear every week (being an "also starring" and all), it's one of
those little ways in which the series' tone has changed a little, and
it's welcome.
Some people mentioned wondering if there was an attraction between
Joyce Summers and Giles during "Angel." This episode could serve
to rekindle that idea. Or not. Mrs. Quality thinks it'd be
interesting, if only because oh, no, Buffy's life isn't too
complicated. I'm neutral.
Lots of _Groundhog Day_ jokes were made 'round these parts during the
closeups of the clock in Buffy's fevre dream. Oh yeah, speaking of
movies, liked Xander's line about chess too; that was my alternate
title for the episode until I decided to go with the Pratchett knockoff
instead.
Most of KBD works all right as a reasonably paced action-horror story,
but the ending fight is just disappointing. A monster incarnation of
Death itself is attacking, seems immune to most of what Buffy's
thrown at it, it takes her down, and then she just kinda quietly snaps
its neck. Bleah. An underwhelming climax for an acceptable but
underachieving episode.
It's hard enough to objectively explain why humor is funny, but at
least one can usually make a distinction between high wit and a stupid
joke. But then there's the fact that some dumb jokes are funny to
some people (not others) and some are just dumb, and there is no way to
explain that. Why do I love _Kung Pow!_ when the whole movie consists
of about three jokes repeated ad nauseum? Why did my brother once love
_The Family Guy_ but now agree with me that it's way too hit-and-miss
to be worth watching? Explanations are futile. So I'm going to
start a section where in each relevant episode, I'll list the dumb
jokes that struck me as funny. Observe:
"This is really stupid but I laughed anyway" moments:
- Cordelia and the security guard ("have you been working out?")
- "Playing 'Doctor.'"
So...
One-sentence summary: Dictionary definition of "filler."
AOQ rating: Decent
[Season Two so far:
1) "When She Was Bad" - Good
2) "Some Assembly Required" - Weak
3) "School Hard" - Decent
4) "Inca Mummy Girl" - Good
5) "Reptile Boy" - Decent
6) "Halloween" - Good
7) "Lie To Me" - Good
8) "The Dark Age" - Good
9) "What's My Line (Part One)" - Good
10) "What's My Line (Part Two)" - Good
11) "Ted" - Excellent
12) "Bad Eggs" - Bad
13) "Surprise" - Decent
14) "Innocence" - Excellent
15) "Phases" - Decent
16) "Bewitched, Bothered, And Bewildered" - Bad
17) "Passion" - Good
18) "Killed By Death" - Decent]
BTR1701
"Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote:
> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> threads.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Two, Episode 18: "Killed By Death"
> (or "THERE IS NO QUALITY. THERE IS ONLY ME.")
> Writers: Dean Batali and Rob Des Hostel
Small nitpick: It's Rob des Hotel, not Hostel.
Don Sample
"Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote:
> 2] "Dr. Backer was trying to inoculate the kids with a controlled
> dosage of the same virus they already had... raising their temperatures
> to burn the fever out of them."
> Whaaaat? That doesn't even make enough sense to qualify as
> "nonsense."
There is some historical precedent for it. Back before antibiotics were
developed, syphilis was sometimes successfully treated by giving people
malaria. The high fever from the malaria killed the syphilis, and then
the malaria was treated with quinine.
--
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>
hopelessly devoted
> but the ending fight is just disappointing. A monster incarnation of
> Death itself is attacking, seems immune to most of what Buffy's
> thrown at it, it takes her down, and then she just kinda quietly snaps
> its neck. Bleah. An underwhelming climax for an acceptable but
> underachieving episode.
And it also didn't help that he sucked the "life" out of people through
his penetrating eyeballs. On a side note, since I have the one that
originally aired, the commercials were good.
MBangel10 (Melissa)
> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
> threads.
>
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Two, Episode 18: "Killed By Death"
> (or "THERE IS NO QUALITY. THERE IS ONLY ME.")
> Writers: Dean Batali and Rob Des Hostel
> Director: Deran Sarafian
>
Yep, filler. So, I thought I'd add some filler of my own. How about the
Entertainment Weekly review of this same episode that was published in
their Buffy Episode Guide of Seasons 1-3. Dated October 1, 1999. (To my
surprise, I came across this last night going through an old 'must keep'
magazine box.)
Killed by Death #30
PLOT: Flu-plagued Buffy ends up in the hospital and stumbles upon Der
Kindestod, a creature that sucks life out of sick children.
CRITIQUE: Another comedy-deficient outing, this one due to an annoyingly
self-serious tone (kids are dying, oh the humanity!). Even the demon's a
bust: Could he *be* more of a Freddy Krueger rip-off?
RATING: D
(I had to post this because I find it funny that THIS was the lowest
rating that they had for a Buffy episode, and Killed by Death was the
only one that received it.)
Carlos Moreno
>> 2] "Dr. Backer was trying to inoculate the kids with a controlled
>> dosage of the same virus they already had... raising their temperatures
>> to burn the fever out of them."
>> Whaaaat? That doesn't even make enough sense to qualify as
>> "nonsense."
>
> There is some historical precedent for it. Back before antibiotics were
> developed, syphilis was sometimes successfully treated by giving people
> malaria. The high fever from the malaria killed the syphilis, and then
> the malaria was treated with quinine.
And you should know, you were there? ;-)
I agree that the specific way -- an increased dosage *of the
same* virus -- was a bit off; but not even qualify as nonsense???
Overstatement, much?
Commenting on the review, I must say I kind of have a soft spot
for this episode -- I think it is one of the very few episodes
that are genuinely terrifying, genuinely macabre; give me
fantastic violent monsters or dead people haunting the place any
day of the week, it does not scare me at all -- but watching
child-Buffy see her cousin desperately screaming and suffocating
without either one being able to do anything about it? That scene
ranks all the way up with the best of Angelus' scenes -- easily
the scariest (genuinely scary) scene of the season.
Carlos
--
Scythe Matters
> Okay, so the two episodes aren't _that_ similar, really. And the
> series is in a different place than it was then.
That's true, and you identify the differences well. We're in agreement
on the ultimate rating. And we're sorta in agreement that it's a pause
-- what you call filler -- and thus not really worthy of extended analysis.
> (I started pondering whether the writers were trying to give
> Buffy a bit of a break, let her have a rare chance at a simple enemy,
> with a clear ugly shape, but if that's the case, it's
> inappropriate. Keep piling on the psychological strain and see how she
> adapts, that's the way to go.)
Ah, but after "Passion" you see that even Buffy must agree that
something has to be done. "Killed By Death" allows us to wait on that
"something" because Buffy is incapable of action.
> So some of you guys really want me to think that Cordelia has a lot of
> depth to offer the series. I'm trying here, but she's jst so
> fundamentally irritating. Consider the "get that thing done"
> scene. Everyone else, even Xander, have toned down their wisecracking
> as befits the situation. They're discussing the vampiric threat...
> and this moron is stuck on "that thing" even when it's clear no
> one's listening. Her one-track mind has apparently gotten stuck in a
> loop. The net effect is like comic relief, only without the relief, or
> the comedy.
Well, it's funny. Not side-splitting, no, but amusing. Those less
inclined to denial spent the next few Buffy-on-screen scenes looking for
"that thing." The power of suggestion...
But the depth: it's in the scenes with Xander. The fight ("watch my
back"), and the bringing of Krispy Kremes that follows it. The latter is
one of the best pieces of writing/acting in the entire episode, because
it says so much with so little.
> Xander takes his guarding thing seriously, and is occasionally useful
> as a result.
The confrontation with Angelus reveals (or, rather, confirms) some very
interesting things about his character. He must know he's going to lose
(and probably die), no matter what he says, and Angelus must know it
too. So what motivates him here, other than raw (and stupid) bravado?
Moreover, what motivates Angelus to not go ahead and attack anyway? And,
as a followup, we see a big uptick in Cordelia's respect for
him...without any actual dialogue pointing to that fact. Subtlety is
well-used in this episode...when it's used.
Which it isn't, always. I found the parallel childhood story completely
superfluous. Not bad, not good, just (literally) unnecessary.
> I like how he's still lusting intensely
> after more than one chick at once; teenage crushes are like that.
Yes. But there's more to it than just lust for Buffy. He's really seeing
himself in the role of her protector, as such, and this goes beyond his
attraction (though that's certainly part of it as well). Notice how he
not only volunteers for this duty, he voices a very rare tone of command
while doing so. There's some crucial character movement here.
> Having a (sort of) steady girlfriend with whom things are still
> sexually exciting may make some guys lose interest in every other
> female in the world, but it doesn't work that way for many
> seventeen-year-olds.
I wouldn't make too many assumptions about how "sexually exciting" (by
which I suppose I actually mean "active") his relationship with Cordy is.
> Some people mentioned wondering if there was an attraction between
> Joyce Summers and Giles during "Angel." This episode could serve
> to rekindle that idea. Or not. Mrs. Quality thinks it'd be
> interesting, if only because oh, no, Buffy's life isn't too
> complicated. I'm neutral.
It's a natural curiosity, given that season two has clearly devloped
Giles in the role of surrogate father (made explicit by Angelus in
"Passion") and we know her mother is actively looking...or, at least,
was...for companionship. The complications are, as you no doubt see,
myriad; potentially interesting, but also rather obviously easy to
mishandle.
> Most of KBD works all right as a reasonably paced action-horror story,
> but the ending fight is just disappointing. A monster incarnation of
> Death itself is attacking, seems immune to most of what Buffy's
> thrown at it, it takes her down, and then she just kinda quietly snaps
> its neck. Bleah.
Well, this is fight #2 against an invisible foe. They're difficult to
choreograph, as you can imagine, and "OOM,OOS" already used one of the
obvious outs (another being covering the entity with something visible).
However, the kill in this one fits the setup: Buffy isn't capable of a
regular fight. She's not going to be able to do her usual
pursue-and-kill given her illness, and she doesn't have the stamina for
an extended brawl. The solution, then, is to render the monster
stationary. The Buffy that the show is developing -- the one that
increasingly thinks rather than just bashes -- has learned the lessons
of the backstory and research and knows how the monster kills. She gives
it the opportunity to sit atop her "defeated" body and attempt to feed,
which is the only way she's going to be able to get it to sit still. And
then she kills it. I think it works very sensibly, and is a case where
the often-variable Slayer strength is actually well-considered in the
final balance of the battle.
Mike Zeares
Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
>
> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> Season Two, Episode 18: "Killed By Death"
> (or "THERE IS NO QUALITY. THERE IS ONLY ME.")
Heh. And now I'm having Buffy/Discworld crossover thoughts.
> Then we leave that nice dark background behind and head
> off into another episode, one that seems like something out of Season
> One, even going so far as to end with 3/4 of our high-school cast
> lounging around watching cartoons.
You're not wrong. It *was* a Season 1 episode, or was originally going
to be. It nearly didn't get made at all. It took some major rewriting
by Batali and Des Hotel to make it fit into this point of S2's arc,
since Angel was good when they started working on it. I think the
parts with evil Angel, i.e. the most rewritten, are about the only
things that really work in the ep.
> So some of you guys really want me to think that Cordelia has a lot of
> depth to offer the series.
I, as a big Cordelia fan, would never claim that she has a lot of
depth. She has almost no depth. That's the whole point of her. "Tact
is just not saying true stuff." Her job, in a nutshell, is to
tactlessly undercut the other characters, and to let us marvel at her
shallowness. And to occasionally provide the "inappropriate" comic
relief that is a staple of the show. Joss loves to totally undercut a
serious scene like that. Usually it's Xander. Anyway, as you
illustrate, it doesn't work for everyone. You're far from alone.
KBD has a few better Cordelia scenes too - her bit with
> Giles in the library at least made me smile (because of Giles,
> naturally). But she's still mostly only worth watching when we're
> laughing at her... and a character who exists only to be mocked is not
> a one at all.
I liked the silent scene where she brings Xander coffee and donuts.
Probably the best Cordelia scene so far. It showed that there really
was a human being in there, one that cares, in her own way. She's not
there *only* to be mocked anymore. She's part of Xander's life now,
and part of the gang. It's a slow process.
> Most of KBD works all right as a reasonably paced action-horror story,
> but the ending fight is just disappointing. A monster incarnation of
> Death itself is attacking, seems immune to most of what Buffy's
> thrown at it, it takes her down, and then she just kinda quietly snaps
> its neck. Bleah. An underwhelming climax for an acceptable but
> underachieving episode.
Can't argue with a word of that. I remember thinking, "That's it? She
just snaps its neck?" And I can't stand the screaming kids (I
generally can't stand kids on tv in general. Or in real life). I
usually fast-forward through the whole final scene. And much of the
rest of the ep, for that matter.
In S2, this ep was the last before 7 weeks of rerun hell. It wasn't
the greatest way to go into a hiatus.
-- Mike Zeares
kenm47
with the Bob Fosse hat (now he looks like the demented child of a
genetic cross of Lary David and Richard Lewis, but still with the Fosse
hat).
For me, it's improved with re-viewings. There's the nice moment with
Angelus where Xander gets to have a significant spine. There's Cordy
looking in books and proud that she "found" the monster. There's
finding out that Willow did not know how to play doctor, and Xander
indulged her. There's the continuity as to Buffy herself, or has
everyone forgotten how they thought she was looking sickly just before
this? There's the hint of something between Giles and Joyce.
ROT13:
Naq sbe zl zbarl, Ohssl'f "unir gb xvyy gur inzcverf" srirerq svg va
sebag bs Wblpr shegure haqrephgf gur Abezny Ntnva ergpba.
Btw, the "thing on her face" business I believe came out of SMG's own
comments about her own nose. A bit of an in joke (as usual, someone
will correct me if I'm wrong).
I like the flashbacks. We learn that Buffy liked playing hero long
before she was chosen. And we know she's had guilt about this Celia for
a while too, even though it wasn't her fault. Perhaps there's a lesson
here for our heroine? And, like Carlos (IIRC), I think the scene of
helpless kid Buffy while her loved cousin is murdered in front of her
is pretty damn creepy.
I still don't care for the kids screaming, but the killing of the
monster is fine with me. Buffy getting a snippet of closure? Quite
acceptable. Not a favorite Season 2 episode, but they can't all be on
top.
I go with somewhere between decent plus, and good minus. An OK episode
after a major one. Only four hours of Season 2 left!
Ken (Brooklyn)
Don Sample
"Mike Zeares" <mze...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> You're not wrong. It *was* a Season 1 episode, or was originally going
> to be. It nearly didn't get made at all. It took some major rewriting
> by Batali and Des Hotel to make it fit into this point of S2's arc,
> since Angel was good when they started working on it. I think the
> parts with evil Angel, i.e. the most rewritten, are about the only
> things that really work in the ep.
The draft script that's floating around for it is dated June 2, 1997,
which means it was written during the prep for season 2. It has souled
Angel in it, Cordy is a contributing member of the gang, and Xander and
Cordy's relationship seems to be pre-kiss. They just snark at each
other, without any sneaking off to visit closets, or anything like that.
(I stuck a copy of the draft script at
<http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/Stuff/kbddraft1.html>
if anyone is interested.)
Arbitrar Of Quality
> > BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
> > Season Two, Episode 18: "Killed By Death"
> > (or "THERE IS NO QUALITY. THERE IS ONLY ME.")
> > Writers: Dean Batali and Rob Des Hostel
>
> Small nitpick: It's Rob des Hotel, not Hostel.
Thanks.
-AOQ
Arbitrar Of Quality
> I wouldn't make too many assumptions about how "sexually exciting" (by
> which I suppose I actually mean "active") his relationship with Cordy is.
I don't know if they're sexually active per se at this point. But if
you're curious what my assumptions are at the moment, I'd say that
they're still at the point where there's a strong physical/hormonal
attraction, and they either have progressed or are ready to at any
moment progress (physically, I mean) past the making-out stage. I
think that's reasonable, barring any contradiction from future
episodes.
-AOQ
Arbitrar Of Quality
Interesting stuff. I recommend that those who don't despise KBD take a
quick look. I only shudder to think how much I wouldve hated Cordelia
had that version gotten filmed (and it's good to know the "[sick
people] take adavntage of you" bit comes from a less enlightened time.
>From elsewhere:
> 2] "Dr. Backer was trying to inoculate the kids with a controlled
> dosage of the same virus they already had... raising their temperatures
> to burn the fever out of them."
> Whaaaat? That doesn't even make enough sense to qualify as
> "nonsense."
"There is some historical precedent for it. Back before antibiotics
were
developed, syphilis was sometimes successfully treated by giving people
malaria. The high fever from the malaria killed the syphilis, and then
the malaria was treated with quinine."
That's not the problem. The problem is that fever is by definition a
hyperthermic (raised body temperature) state, so the idea of "burning
out" a fever is complete nonsense. Presumably they meant the
microorganism that's triggering the fever. I also really don't get how
giving the kinds more of the _same_ virus that they're already sick
from could possibly help.
What's weird, for those who haven't seen it, is that the draft script
has this instead:
DR. WILKINSON
At first, I objected to what Dr. Backer was doing.
It was way too radical. He devised a serum to raise the
kids' temperature above the normal fever level.
BUFFY
That doesn't seem good.
DR. WILKINSON
Well, a fever isn't necessarily bad. It's the body's way of
fighting off illness. But the children's virus is unusually strong.
Dr. Backer thought that by giving the kids a higher fever he could burn
out the virus.
Which is a much better fake-explanation than what we actually got.
Wonder why it got changed.
-AOQ
Mike Zeares
Don Sample wrote:
> In article <1140757510.5...@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
>
> The draft script that's floating around for it is dated June 2, 1997,
> which means it was written during the prep for season 2. It has souled
> Angel in it, Cordy is a contributing member of the gang, and Xander and
> Cordy's relationship seems to be pre-kiss. They just snark at each
> other, without any sneaking off to visit closets, or anything like that.
I was going from memory from something I read in, I believe, the first
volume of the Watcher's Guide (which I currently can't find to double
check), in an interview with Batali and Des Hotel. Maybe they meant
that they first pitched it in S1. Anyway, it had to be rewritten a lot
to fit into the late S2 arc.
-- Mike Zeares
Michael Ikeda
news:1140802750....@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
Checked that portion of Watcher's Guide 1. The relevant quote
would appear to be:
(begin quote)
"Killed by Death" was originally scheduled to be one of the first
thirteen episodes but there were production problems in that they
would have to shoot on a hospital location for at least half the
time, so they postponed it.
(end quote)
I think, however, that the phrase "first thirteen episodes" refers
to the first thirteen episodes of Season 2. Recall that
"Surprise" was episode 13.
--
Michael Ikeda mmi...@erols.com
"Telling a statistician not to use sampling is like telling an
astronomer they can't say there is a moon and stars"
Lynne Billard, past president American Statistical Association
One Bit Shy
news:vLednUberp3ZEGPe...@rcn.net...
> Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
> Well, this is fight #2 against an invisible foe. They're difficult to
> choreograph, as you can imagine, and "OOM,OOS" already used one of the
> obvious outs (another being covering the entity with something visible).
> However, the kill in this one fits the setup: Buffy isn't capable of a
> regular fight. She's not going to be able to do her usual pursue-and-kill
> given her illness, and she doesn't have the stamina for an extended brawl.
> The solution, then, is to render the monster stationary. The Buffy that
> the show is developing -- the one that increasingly thinks rather than
> just bashes -- has learned the lessons of the backstory and research and
> knows how the monster kills. She gives it the opportunity to sit atop her
> "defeated" body and attempt to feed, which is the only way she's going to
> be able to get it to sit still. And then she kills it. I think it works
> very sensibly, and is a case where the often-variable Slayer strength is
> actually well-considered in the final balance of the battle.
That's a really nice explanation. That helps me a lot. Especially since I
actually kind of liked the simple ghost story part of the show. Now it ends
better. Thanks.
OBS
Don Sample
"Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote:
> - Cordelia and the security guard ("have you been working out?")
I always thought that the guard looked like he might be Snyder's kid
brother or something.
Maybe Snyder got the job at Sunnydale High because he's the Mayor's
cousin, or brother in law or something like that. Kid brother got the
job watching the hospital. It's a less critical position since it's not
actually on the Hellmouth, but it still sees its share of weirdness.
(Victims of it, if nothing else.)
Apteryx
news:GZednfPEUsBT8mPe...@comcast.com...
Thanks for posting that. I think it was pretty much spot on. For me it
is the 22nd best episode of Season 2 (ie, the worst), although it still
manages to hold 121st place in my overall rating of BtVS episodes (ie,
there are 23 worse episodes, all from the last 4 seasons).
Another episode that is mostly filler, but falls below other such
episodes in the first 3 seasons by having less redeeming humour.
It may be a little unfair to give it a rating all its own below that of
any other. Although I agree that it is the weakest episode of the first
3 seasons, it is not all that far below Some Assembly Required, or a
certain early Season 3 episode.
--
Apteryx
Clairel
--Since you seem to accept minor corrections cheerfully, let me also
point out that the phrase isn't "ad nauseum"; it's "ad nauseam."
Seeing it misspelled always bugs me. Don't people realize that the
phrase is formed by taking the word nausea and adding the appropriate
case-ending (-m) so that it can be the object of the preposition "ad"?
There's no reason why a feminine noun such as "nausea" would ever wind
up with an accusative ending in "-um."
(By the way, I, like you, always thought KBD was a really blah episode
except for Xander's confrontation with Angelus in the hospital.)
Clairel
John Briggs
> Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:
>> BTR1701 wrote:
>>
>>>> BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
>>>> Season Two, Episode 18: "Killed By Death"
>>>> (or "THERE IS NO QUALITY. THERE IS ONLY ME.")
>>>> Writers: Dean Batali and Rob Des Hostel
>>>
>>> Small nitpick: It's Rob des Hotel, not Hostel.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
> --Since you seem to accept minor corrections cheerfully, let me also
> point out that the phrase isn't "ad nauseum"; it's "ad nauseam."
> Seeing it misspelled always bugs me. Don't people realize that the
> phrase is formed by taking the word nausea and adding the appropriate
> case-ending (-m) so that it can be the object of the preposition "ad"?
> There's no reason why a feminine noun such as "nausea" would ever wind
> up with an accusative ending in "-um."
Or dative. Genitive plural is "nausearum"
--
John Briggs
Bill Reid
John Briggs <john.b...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:lsjNf.11$J7...@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...
> Clairel wrote:
> >
> > --Since you seem to accept minor corrections cheerfully, let me also
> > point out that the phrase isn't "ad nauseum"; it's "ad nauseam."
> > Seeing it misspelled always bugs me. Don't people realize that the
> > phrase is formed by taking the word nausea and adding the appropriate
> > case-ending (-m) so that it can be the object of the preposition "ad"?
> > There's no reason why a feminine noun such as "nausea" would ever wind
> > up with an accusative ending in "-um."
>
> Or dative. Genitive plural is "nausearum"
>
want to throw up...
---
William Ernest Reid