Buffy the Vampire Slayer Talk || s3e18 "Earshot" 

took christmas off but we back!! hope everyone had a good holiday!! :)

I love that school newspaper headline. "Apathy on the rise; nobody cares."

One tiny bit I love: Xander is SO panicked by Buffy being able to read his mind that he doesn't even get the multiplication tables right when he's trying to distract himself.

Probably the most underrated Buffy ep. Not bc people think it's bad but bc it's really, really good!

"Oh, but that would have made sense." This is still my most-used Buffy quote. And Buffy's brow-raise is one of my most-used gifs.

"Apathy on the rise, no one cares." 😄

I love that in this episode you can see Cordelia really just says what she thinks. "I think it, I say it!" An Icon.

I love Oz reading the review and is, "It's fair." He's one of the most mellow characters ever 😂

Further evidence that Cordelia isn't stupid, she's just honest! "Tact is just not saying true stuff." - Cordelia Chase

I like how when Buffy's mom realized Buffy could read minds, her mind immediately went to the one secret she did not want Buffy to find out.

Buffy's line, "but that would've made sense" is one of my favourite quotes from her in the series. I hope it makes it onto the board next episode.

I was in high school when Columbine happened, and I remember this not being aired. Such a shame, but because it's such a great episode. The message about how everyone is caught up in their own problems and just to get through it all rings true even now. 12:10 And that's my favorite part of of the episode. Giles walking into a tree wasn't in the script; Anthony Stewart Head just added it in at the last minute.

Xander knew that the lunch lady was the one doing it. He actually guessed that she was the one at the start of the investigation.

"I'm just stressed out...I might as well get stressed out about a fictional show." That pretty much sums up what I think draws us to shows like Buffy. It's catharsis! In The Poetics, Aristotle wrote that viewing tragic plays gives people an emotional release from their own stresses, anxieties, and fears. By watching characters go through emotionally charged events and empathizing with them, viewers get a relief from their own negative emotions. Why do we watch characters experience difficulties (sometimes heroically but also tragically)? Because it makes us feel better, not at the character's expense, but because we connect with them and feel for what they are going through.

I remember seeing this episode for the first time and the johnathon scene just hitting me so freaking heavy. Man. Not many series could pull off a plot like this and keep the humor perfectly balanced besides Btvs. And the proximity of the scheduled release for this and Columbine happening has always been so crazy to me. Just wild. For those of us who remember Columbine and witnessed the growth in frequency of school shootings.. I think this episode definitely hits us a little harder. The world is so different since then.

Cordelia "tact is just not saying true stuff" Chase saying exactly what she thinks lol

Jane Espenson is such a great writer, and not just on Buffy. She has at least one great episode of Battlestar Galactica as well. Also, Sarah and David are scorching hot in this episode; makeup, hair, lighting, all on point.

Loved the shocked look on Buffy’s face when she found out about her mom and Giles in the Band Candy episode😂 Sarah Gellar pulled it off beautifully

Your reaction to Buffy reading Joyce's mind about Giles KILLED me! OMG, you broke up so much! I love Joyce's expressions as she's leaving Buffy's room. One of my favorite Buffy moments ever! Great reaction (as always), keep being you! :)

It's crazy how much Columbine changed things. I just found out the movie Scream 3, was suppose to have an entirely different plot but due to columbine, hollywood told them to change the entire plot. they had to change the plot + make it less scary and more funny. which ultimately made scream 3 the worst one.

The poor kid is played by Danny Strong. He has two Emmys for writing Game Change. He also wrote the last two Hunger Games films.

SMG tried hard to get this episode to air on time, but she was overruled. IIRC, this episode eventually aired shortly before S4 started. I think if Jonathan hadn't brought a rifle to campus and instead brought a handgun, /maybe/ it would have been aired on time, and that is a big maybe. I personally think what was harder to justify was the Scoobies' nonchalant talk about school shootings, Oz even says they were bordering on trendy, and such a line really would not have sat well so soon after Columbine. Also, fun fact, Jane Espenson had the scene with Joyce and Buffy because people kept asking her whether or not Giles and Joyce had sex in Band Candy.

9:27 - "APATHY ON THE RISE, NO ONE CARES" Very clever.

This episode also explains to a large extent the awkwardness between Giles and Joyce at the end of 'Band Candy', especially when Buffy said that she got to them before they did anything,

Buffy reading her mom's mind was both the best and worst thing ever right along with Giles' reaction when he got busted.

Deadass broke my fkn nail by clicking so fast wtf

Joss wrote the literature class scenes and the Buffy-Jonathan moment in the tower. This is Jane Espenson favorite episode.

Another fantastic episode. Right on the money regarding teenage boys; Willow going back to being insecure while reading Oz and Buffy's face; Wesley's look of embarrassment...with that look by Buffy; Buffy's scene with Joyce is pure gold; Xander still cares for Cordy; 2 fantastic 'villain' twists; and Buffy actually growing as a person after being in so many people's heads for a day. Also noted that Xander prevented other kids from eating when he found out. Oz I regard as also a typical teenage boy, having deep thoughts. Some guys when they zone out are thinking stuff like that or money related, when a girl interrupts and goes "what are you thinking about?" Honestly, it'll take longer to explain, so we just reply "nothing". Regarding school shootings, other commenters and yourself pretty much covered it.

Hiii!! Awesome reaction, it was so fun!! I love the “does he not think” comment XD Also just wanted to thank you for putting a trigger warning at the beginning! It’s not something many reactors do so it’s really great that you did. I’ve already seen the episode and I’m not particularly bothered by the contents (not that it’s not disturbing, but I wouldn’t be triggered by it) but if someone was watching for the first time then they might need to know that. Sooo this is a long way of saying thank you, that was a really awesome thing to do! :D

When you think about it, there's probably someone evil in every cafeteria you've ever been in...

I was at Penn State in 1996 when they had the sniper shooter. 1 student died, one student injured. I remember another student found a bullet in one of their books that was in their backpack. They even found bullets in the window ledge of the church across the street from the lawn where the shooting took place. One of my good friends was friends with the shooter. Every one was shocked. To this day, I know where I was when it happened (but didn't know it happened until later even though I was in a set of buildings across from the building the lawn is behind). First known school shooting (in the US) happened in 1764. It is sad for kids/young adults now a days to have to worry about being shot one day. It's sad to have to sell bullet proof backpacks, have active shooter drills, or for the even younger ones to cry because they are afraid of what will happen. But youth are resilient and maybe one day, these will be things they won't have to think about.

I just noticed that you have acquired a jadeite coffee mug, like the one Giles has. Well done! I have one myself, for the very same reason.

Hi Alley, really enjoying your experience with Buffy, been watching since your episode 1 reaction. Given that its a show i grew up with when i was a teenager and have watched many times since (the latest being about 6 months ago, hence why i watch reaction videos instead) I look forward to your future reactions and hopefully Angel also. Anyway, happy new year and all the best to you and yours.

Me, watching Xander in Nightmares: No one reacts like that to a piece of candy! Xander, two season later trying to stop imminent massmurder: Oh, Jell-o! I just didnt know him back then.

Earshot is weirdly crucial to this season’s climax. Buffy needed this to learn empathy, and to understand everyone in the school on a deeper level.

This episode, really flexes it’s dynamic-narrative muscle from humor, maudlin, mystery, psychological-angst and the brutal honesty of a universal truth about life, only to Straight-up rocket back to humor and cap off with The ending Buffy-“Maybe if you’re not to busy Seepling. WITH. My Mother(!)” Giles-Oofff So good.

"We talked, and then he tore out the heart of a demon and fed it to me, and then we talked some more." "You see, that's how it should work." In the episode commentary, Jane Espenson talks about how they deliberately made Buffy unable to read the one mind she really, really wanted to read, her significant other. Greetings from the other side of November 4; thank God it worked out after all. My Dad and I had our hardest time ever voting (the week before), and after voting we got a celebratory pizza. .

I remember when this episode got pulled in the wake of the Columbine shooting. Not having seen the episode (obviously) I assumed it somehow dealt with the subject of school shootings in an insensitive way or made fun of the subject somehow. It eventually aired a few months later and when I watched it, I was surprised that it was actually a very well done episode and not insensitive at all. It's one of my favorite episodes now. Love the scene with Buffy and Jonathan in the tower - "Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own. ..If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It's not. It's deafening. "

I LOVE the laugh at the "you had sex with Giles?!" bit

No-one noticed xander guessed right when he said "I've been saying it for years lunch lady Doris is going to kill us off with her mulligan stew" just got the food wrong

OMG I LOVE THIS ONE OZ IS SO FUNNY IN HERE 😂

I was weirdly super disappointed that there wasn’t the cat collar jingle when we saw Angel. Bring it back!

I hadn't realized this episode was delayed until a couple years after the fact. I didn't start watching Buffy until the summer between this season and the next. FX would run 2 Buffy reruns each weekday, in the late afternoon/early evening. I somehow stumbled into one and got hooked. When I finally saw this episode, I just thought it was an ordinary rerun.

Epic episode. My favourite line was 'TWICE!' Joss does love his Shakespeare so you might like to check out his version of 'Much ado about nothing' filmed at his house while filming 'Avengers'...you know, for the psychology.

I love this episode. I live in the UK so was lucky enough to watch this in its proper place in the season. At the time I was so annoyed on behalf of Buffy fans in the US because I think the message in Earshot, particularly Buffy's speech to Jonathon, would have resonated with the US public, including the Columbine survivors. Apparently SMG tried to push WB to air it for that reason. Trying to repress difficult themes and bad feelings doesn't make problems go away (another episode theme)

Alley I have to say I love your channel so much! Because you have such a keen eye on details that both make me laugh and think. Your channel is rising to the top of my favorites list! I hope you enjoy your day!

and aw man you´re making me laugh.. thank you! Gorgeous entertainment!

I love that thumbnail more than any I've ever seen. I already saw this on Patreon but had to come here to say that.

I broke into my own house to watch this. Left a church group and everything

The earliest school shooting I know about was in Cleveland in 1979. There was a song by The Boomtown Rats about it called 'I Don't Like Mondays'.

Apathy on the rise, no one cares.

good morning -9am in Berlin (Germany) ^^ thank you for this new episode :)

When Angel's mind was completely silent, "does he just not think?" im dying. He probably made up the vamp explanation to excuse his no thoughts head empty

Alley, your reactions are always priceless. You've become a bright spot in a dark time, and I'm ever so grateful. It speaks poorly of 21st-century America that we've become so desensitized to school shootings, other mass shootings and just gun violence in general. I lived in Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s, and I'd hear automatic weapons firing in the distance almost every night. The TV news didn't even bother to mention shootings unless the number of dead was unusually high, one or more of the victims was either very young or very old, or there was some circumstance that made that particular shooting extra-tragic. Now, I live in a more "conservative" part of the country, and I'm absolutely horrified by the people around me. There's an appalling percentage of pick-up trucks on every street with stickers promoting guns on one side of the back window, stickers promoting Jesus on the other side, and stickers promoting a certain Republican in the middle. Every time I hear somebody popping off about how "liberals are coming to take our guns", I want to grab them by their lapels and shake some sense into them. But I can't, because every single one of them is wearing a pistol on their hip. There is no upside to being right if you're too dead to enjoy it. Sorry about that - it's just that around here, I don't dare say any of that out loud.

'you're a very complex man arentcha' had me choking on my coffee

It was shockingly accurate. The first preview of this episode aired on April 20, 1999, the day of Columbine. So it would have actually aired a week, not a month, later.

The wb pulling the episode sucked so hard at the time...I was so obsessed to find out what happened that I immediately went on eBay and ordered a bootleg copy on vhs (way before streaming and torrent days) from Canada, it aired there but not here in the US,so I could watch it 😝

Everybody's internal monologue is them talking to themselves...by definition.

I literally cried when this originally didn't air and we just got a rerun. I was so sad I loved this show!

Great episode, imo. It really does start off sooo funny. And love that it wraps back around to humor with Giles running into a tree. It was crazy, when Columbine happened. I wasn't even ready to watch tv when that happened (I'm from CO, was a Jr in highschool, it was a little close to home) so I'm glad it was delayed at the time.

Could I strongly suggest you read "Columbine" by Dave Cullen? He spent ten years researching the book, and so much of what I at least thought was true wasn't. Columbine, along with 9/11, changed so much about what those of us that lived through it thought about the world and about America.

ON THE HOOD OF A POLICE CAR?!?!?!? TWICE?!?!?!?!

9:03 - Absolute gold.

In the lunch lady fight scene...worlds worst stunt double...

Another awesome Jane Espenson episode 😁🙃😎👍

This makes it in to my top 30 episodes of Buffy as does a good third of seasion 3.

Giles walking into the tree was actually real. It happened so they kept it in. So I read anyways. This is one of my fave episodes

Oh Jonathan. Blew my mind when I found out that geeky kid from my favorite TV show of all time ended up being such a badass producer and creator. He produced the show Empire.

I know I'm late AF to this discussion, but for those wondering, I watched the show from season 1 episode 1 through the finale its first run through on tv. It came on when I was 7 and left the air when I was 13. This episode was originally slated to air on April 27, 1999, but Columbine happened on April 20, 1999. The episode "Choices" aired as planned on May 4, 1999. Please note that "Graduation Day Part 2" was also delayed due to a SECOND school shooting. GDP2 wasn't aired until July and THIS episode had to wait until SEPTEMBER, RIGHT before season 4 started.

i just love that look Buffy gives Wesley...that is award winning she should have got an oscar just for that cheeky look. i've read a lot of teen murder mysteries and statistically the most likely teen to commit a crime (or shooting perhaps) is: popular kids (desperate to maintain status), Loners (desperate for attention), school journalist/ newspaper (have a tendency to lack empathy and use articles to ruin their classmates)

My favorite part of the episode was when Buffy read Joyce's thoughts. And said "You had sex with Giles?" "on the hood of a police car?" "Twice?" Also I loved your reaction.

Na Oz doesn't have an existential crisis. Oz just being Oz. ^_^ Happy they didn't kill him of instead of Jenny.

Needed something to watch while on the way home, thanks alley

Welcome back -- Love to see you react to this one. If you look, you can find Jonathon in Season 1 Episode 1. He's been there almost 3 years, and you don't know his name? Just shows what an excellent job he has been doing, as the one that just doesn't register. The actual bad guy of the episode was so random, that shot with 'Rat Poison' was so cartoonish and brilliant. Isn't this the same lunch lady who was chasing Zander with a rolling pin (along with every other female around) just a few episodes ago? God I love this show.

Enjoyed watching your reviews this year, happy to have had your first Buffy vid pop up in my feed :)

Just realised xander did the classic scooby doo Segway. “ Jello”. Then uncovers the baddy.

As funny as this episode is, it also really sad and really important. That scene when Buffy is thinking 'how else would i know what's in your mind?' and Angel says "JUST ASK ME", explain a lot in this episode. Trying to tell us that all we need is paying a little more intention to the people around us, so we hopefully won't get another person who kills himself.

This was what made me fall in love with Johnathan as much as I do. I wish he never died

Can I just say (again if I've commented before) I absolutely love your reactions to the episodes. Your breakdowns and connections to overarching themes make me see the eps with new eyes years later haha. I remember thinking, can you imagine walking through the courtyard and some rando is parkouring her way up the tower out of the blue? Also I never realized this ep didn't air right after Columbine. I remember the fallout when that news broke and it was a weird sort of wave of concern that just sorta came over everyone if you were in a public school at the time.

Gotta give some love to Jonathan!

I loved Xander and Oz thoughts

This is one of my favorite episodes. Buffy hearing Oz and Cordelia's thoughts alone are iconic... but then Joyce not wanting to stay around because she didn't want Buffy to find out about her and Giles from Band Candy hahaha. I honestly love the continuity of this show. Stuff actually gets carried over from old episodes!!

As a non American, I think this episode was aired without delays around the world.

As a non-American who was I think 11 at that time Columbine happened (2000?), that one felt different. It was all over the news across Europe and it was like "a big thing" (bigger story than other school shootings I mean). And it sparked a real conversation about gun control that as we all know didn't end up doing much. But school shootings were (starting to be?) common there, which makes the fact that this was 20 (!) years ago even more depressing. It's like the racial injustice protests, that happen on particular occasions (in like more heartbreaking cases than they usually are), while things haven't really changed that much in the past 2 decades. :( But anyway, politics and social issues aside, this was a great (and poignant?) episode. I felt for Jonathan, and Buffy's speech when she was trying to stop him got me emotional when I watched it. xD Also, isn't "overthinking shit" our motto for 2020? Or every other year.

I really enjoy this episode however who climbs a tower in a very public area to shoot themselves with a sniper rifle? They seemed so married to their misdirection that they just threw logic out the window.

Sometimes its like Xander can just sense evil. Like when Angel lost his soul. His first guess here at mass murder was the lunch lady.

"was it a boy demon?"

I'm sure someone mentioned this over on Patreon but Giles running into the tree was a mistake but it was too funny not to leave in.

12:29 Columbine happened on April 20th, 1999. This episode was supposed to air on April 27, 1999.

Love your reaction to this episode!!

"What's a Stevedor?"

LOL, my mind goes to that exact scene when trying to figure out which is slander and liable. :P

I think there was something like 10 school shootings that year, Columbine being the most notorious, it was very much in the news. BTW, the season finale also had a delay in airing (someone can tell you why for that one after you've seen it). Buffys speech to Jonathan is probably one of my favorite speeches out of the whole series, so this episode does resonate very strongly with me and I really like the look on the newspaper editors face when Buffy and the gang start working out who the killer will be, very matter of fact and focused like they do this all the time (because they kinda do). It's the look I'd expect someone to have just randomly wandering into a superhero universe and seeing Batman or The Avengers do their regular routines

We need to point out Willow constantly pushing Jonathan and interrogating him along with his already low confidence caused him to want to kill himself. People tend to hate on Xander but Willow is just a really bad person a lot of times, A lot of people sympathize for Jonathan. But if he had actually did something bad all sympathy would be gone.

Thanks again Alley, looking forward to the season review.

This is one of my fav episodes angel comes threw like a boss for Buffy

Hello. Happy New Year🥳. We’re slouching through the season slowly but efficiently. I hope that thing between Giles and Joyce doesn’t lead to 🧒.

I may have said this before, but, if you ever end up searching for another "demon hunter" type of show, it would be great to see you react to either FRINGE or Grimm.

i Love this episode its one of my Favourites

If no one else has mentioned it, that lunch lady was also in the episode "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" - she was among the ladies chasing Xander (she was wielding a rolling pin as a weapon. LOL. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l5123Co_Tk4.html )