Buffy meets some friends at the mall, Xander has a surprise for lunch while Willow and Cordy find a new mother Our movie commentary channel: / @samandmariachannel
I was substitute teaching at a high school where the school district spent major bucks on robotic babies. They were attached to a kid's wrist and programed to cry at odd hours and a computer chip logged how long it look the teen boy or girl to respond to the baby's cry; if the baby was ever shaken; and if the "parent" tried to unattach themselves from the baby. Friday everyone was oohing and aahing over their baby. Monday morning, kids were lined up before class, wanting someone to unattach them from their baby, lol.
God, I remember those. I had twin robot babies with a full arm cast, got in trouble for having to remove one of my bracelets and do it by hand because it was physically impossible to tap it to the exact spot on the doll with only one arm 😂
I love this channel so much. I love Buffy and I love rewatching it again through your eyes. You guys are fun but also insightful. Plus, I am so, so, so anxious for Sam to see certain upcoming episodes.
I know I'm in the minority on this one but I kind of low-key love it. It's creepy and funny...and the Gorch brothers are hystical. I love the fact that the writers are cleverly referencing the classic Western/slaugherfest that is "The Wild Bunch."
I always was reminded of the Alien series when the creatures hatched out of the eggs in this episode. The way it jumped out and the way it crawled around just always took me to those movies.
I took a child development course when I was in 9th or 10th grade. I decided to do an extra credit project which involved bringing home a baby model (doll) that was computerized to resemble a real new born. It was an interesting experience.......
Invasion of the Body Snatchers was 1978. Sutherland is AWESOME in that flick. But this episode is AWESOME!!! Great Reactions and thanx for sharing them with us.
There was also Body Snatchers from 1993 which is another adaptation of the same story. I imagine that the concept was very much an inspiration for this episode.
Aussie here. Never did the egg thing, but when I did Early Childhood Studies in Yr 9, I did take the baby doll home for a night (it cries and you need to stick a key in it's back when it does). It cried every 15 minutes.
Im hoping your parents for understanding and didnt give you trouble for something the school was requiring. Sometimes I wonder what the schools are thinking cause for so many students with bad home lives projects like that can cause all kinds of trouble. I still remember being pissed when I found out my friend had to stay at her adult sister's house for the week she had her doll because if she'd brought that thing home and it caught her abusive mother's attention at the wrong time it could have triggered all kinds of trouble. She ended up wearing out her welcome at her sisters as well. She shouldn't have had to burn up access to a safe space just to avoid failing a class (because some jerk decided that project should be an outrageous portion of the grade.) Then a couple years later I met this girl, 18 and pregnant. Some genius decided that as part of a program to get help and support as a a to be mom without a support network that she needed to prove her parenting ability/gain experience with one of those dolls. Because what a pregnant teen in her early third trimester really needs is the added attention and judgment of strangers seeing her care for the doll plus glaring when it cries or makes noise, having to give up time for self care (and really anything else), and the inturpted nights sleep while her body is dealing with the real child growing inside her. All of this while stressing about the judgment you'll get from the organization thats meant to be helping you if their little robot baby doesnt present reading they appove of. Now when I think of those dolls I just get pissed.
@34:00 - re: Invasion of the Body Snatchers -- The original novel, "The Body Snatchers", was a serial story in 1954. The have been film versions in 1956, 1978, 1993, and 2007, plus adaptations in 1998 (The Faculty) and 2019 (Assimilate). The 1978 version with Donald Sutherland is probably the best known. Additionally, SF grandmaster Robert A Heinlein had a very similar concept in "The Puppet Masters" (1951), but it didn't get a mainstream film of the same name until 1994 (also starring Sutherland), after the author's death, so it isn't as well known. There have also been a number of other SF properties that have borrowed heavily from Puppet Masters, including a Roger Corman film that paid Heinlein $5,000 to settle a larger suit.
You’d be surprised how many people miss or are confused by that shot of the couple on the escalator at the beginning. Not that it did tip me off the first time I watched the episode, but upon rewatch, the part that should tip Buffy off that Willow’s been affected by her egg is that Willow said she put it in the fridge. I think Willow would have most definitely viewed that as cheating on the project.
I agree with you reaction, but nobody says this. The only problem I have with no reflection is, why do the clothes go blank also? The clothes are not Vampires. Angel reflections, no clothes are reflected there either. Just makes ya think about that.
@@donnilloyd1355 This gets explained in S3E18 "Earshot". It's not the point of the conversation, it's just slipped in there. The gist being: it's a mystical effect on the mind's eye. ❤🧡💛💚💙💜
In the U.S. chickens aren't vaccinated against salmonella (*sigh* I know, I know). As a result, they have to be washed immediately which also washes off the eggs' protective layer making them more susceptible to bacteria. It is therefor recommended to keep eggs refrigerated in order to keep them from becoming contaminated & from spoiling. Honestly, Buffy keeping her egg out of the fridge makes far less sense. It would be pretty gross after a day or so. Two hours at room temperature on a clean surface MAX. After that it's not safe for consumption. ❤🧡💛💚💙💜
I don't think that "unwanted pregnancies are bad" is such a wrong message. In fact, I don't believe that "unwanted anything is bad" is a wrong message. The teacher clearly said that there are many consequences to consider, and Willow just guessed one. Nobody was implying that it's the only one. As for "number one", when people talk statistics as he was, they're talking about the most frequently occurring cases, not a personal preference / opinion chart on the gravity of the issue. And he was again correct. The chances of getting pregnant are immensely higher than the chances of getting an incurable STD. Lastly, having a daughter who is dating can be the cause of many worries for a family, I don't even see how this is a debate. From just simply worrying all night not knowing where she is and what she's doing, to the two gigantic aforementioned issues above, to having to deal with a violent boyfriend but at the same time trying to not overstep your boundaries, to having that relationship where they break up and get back together a million times a year and every single time any plan you had has to be posponed because she needs to be melancholic again and also she asks for your opinion only to ignore it over and over and over again only to cry and ask herself why things went badly over and over and over again, to her dating a gay man who lies to her and systematically does so only with girls who have their own property house, to all the emotional turmoil that all of this causes. These are not random examples, by the way. These are all things we had to deal with, having a young girl. 🙄 PS: Also, "Machiavellian" literally means "cunning, scheming, manipulative and unscrupulous". Because he was. It's in the dictionary.
Quick correction, Machiavelli was not manipulative nor unscrupulous. He was anti-monarchist who lived under a monarchy. His writings are not a guide of what to do, but rather a guide of what not to do. But he had to write it carefully lest he lose his head.
Queenslander here - We never had the egg thing in the 80's, teachers cars would've worn it if we did. One of my daughters did have an Early Childhood class that sent here home with a doll that cried and needed changing tho.
In my highschool there was an elective class that did the egg thing and it you went to the technical school for childcare they had like robot babies that would record how you took care of them. They'd like cry in the middle of the night and need to be bottle fed and stuff. Most kids did not have to do either. I do remember the eggs were signed by the teacher so you couldn't get a new one if you broke it and I'm pretty sure those kids had to carry their egg around school all day so they couldn't just put it in the fridge and forget about it. The original invasion of the body snatchers came out in the 50s but the one with Donald Sutherland came out in the 70s I think. Not my favorite episode but lots of fun watching you guys react to it.
One other reference here -- "Men in Black" (1997) came out the summer before this ep aired, so of course, Buffy's final method of dealing with the Mama Bezoar had some similarities! This ep I was always amused by, mostly for Buffy and Xander dealing with things without the brain trust, and still managing to get stuff done (but with a lot more flailing.)
I'm Canadian and we never did the whole egg parenting thing at my school, but then I was in high school from 2009-2012 and not in the 90s, so that's also a factor.
I didn’t think my parents were cringe when I was a kid. They did so many things well. Loved to watch them dance when we went to dinner as a family at a place with a dance floor (this was the 1970’s). I had jobs at both of their workplaces during my teenage years. They seemed so in their element - so proficient at their jobs. At the same time, I thought they were so not cool. I thought their taste in music was awful. But I did recognize they were great people.
One thing to think about is that Buffy is a teen, yes, but one who has had to mature supernaturally fast -- to a degree that no real-life teen ever has or will. More and more she is having trouble relating to her peers because they haven't been through what she's been through. Angel is hundreds of years old, but as a vampire, he was only human until he was 20-something and, as a vampire, he really is incapable of maturing emotionally past his human age (canonically). And he wasn't the most mature 20-something when he was human, we will learn. So the difference in their emotional maturity is really not that big. As far as physical strength, Buffy is stronger, which counters the experience imbalance a bit. The problem with relationships with an imbalance in experience/maturity/power is not inherent, it's that the partner with more experience/maturity/power will use that imbalance to manipulate the other one and take advantage, something that is not happening in the Buffy/Angel relationship at all.
"Buffy...has had to mature...to a degree that no real-life teen ever has.." that's just not so. having real responsibility at that age is unusual in our society, but wouldn't have been in earlier societies.
@@sirmoonslosthismind There's no one teen -- or adult, really -- who's ever been responsible for keeping the world from ending even once, let alone repeatedly.
@@maidden first, "keeping the world from ending" is often an exaggeration. for example, we see in _the wish_ that the master hasn't done anything even remotely close to ending the world. second, no adult? really? i assure you, multiple biological and nuclear weapons officials would beg to differ. our world has nearly ended, much more completely than most of buffy's foes ever threatened to, multiple times, and sometimes it has been a single person who's prevented it.
Even though it’s not the best episode of the series, this one always held nostalgia for me (along with Ted and What’s my Line Again?) because they’re the 4 episodes I always remembers from when I was a kid, considering the show came out when I was only 4 lol
In the extended version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Snape asks Harry what a Bezoar is used for it can neutralise most poisons which Harry uses to save Ron from the Meade Slughorn gives him in Half Blood Prince.
Sometimes I hate youtube notifications. I'm subscribed to the channel _and_ I asked my homepage to notify my of this video specifically. I didn't get a notification. RU-vid does this to me from time to time and it drives me nuts when it happens.
In Aus myself, Sam, and my high school definitely did not do the egg thing. Not sure if it’s more of a US thing or not? Anyone from any other country, do you guys do it in high school?
Sam finally noticed that Jonathan is constantly in danger. 😂 This is not the best episode of S2 by a long shot, but I do like the Gorch brothers and the enemies to lovers deal that Xander and Cordelia have going on. 😂 Oh, and I was a single mom for the egg project since I didn't want to partner with the guy my teacher assigned me to. 😂 It was a total waste of a project. I cushioned that egg in a recipe box and it never saw the light of day for as long as that project lasted. There was no journaling or anything like they show here in the episode. My hamster was more work than that egg. 🙄
So many things work better than egg care or similar projects for teaching the lessons they supposedly provide. Its one of those things Im hoping will be phased out of schools completely some day yet doubt it given how much hangs around that shouldn't
Oh this episode was the first one that made me feel the hibbijibbies. Also education and information is always better than prohibition and the "abstinence is the solution" discourse. Here in brazil we barely have sex ed classes and some parents are acrively against it thibking it will encorage their kids to have sex. Some of them will have sex no matter what to do, havin knowledge around the situation and of your own body, learning about consent and safe sex can prevent a lot of horrible (and avoidable) situations. Speaking from experience.
UK resident. We never did this egg/doll/sack of flour sex ed stuff. I assumed it was just a US education system thing. Where I’m from they told you about STDs and pregnancy and sanitation and recommended condoms and going to your doctor about birth control.
We never did anything like this when I was in high school, and I'm a year older than Sarah Michelle Gellar in real life. Watching this today, though, it occurs to me that there are some gaps in the logic of the episode. If all of the students except for Buffy had a partner, that would mean that only half of them have an egg at any given time, and only the students in that class would have an egg, although of course that teacher could teach multiple periods of the same class during the day - six or seven classes worth, but that would still leave out a giant chunk of the Sunnydale student body. And then we have the adults. How did they get eggs? Or did the creatures just get attached to them randomly throughout the day by students who had eggs? And where did all of the extra eggs come from if that's the case for the adults and for any students who didn't get eggs in class? To use modern parlance, the math isn't mathing. And clearly I'm thinking far too much about the logic of an episode about a teenage vampire slayer and demon eggs.
never heard anyone in aus doing the fake baby raising thing have only seen it on tv, my school did pretty comprehensive sex ed in the 2000s but some schools were better then others
7:31 South Aussie and SACE curriculum only gave teens the baby dolls if they had chosen home economics as an elective in year [aka grade] 11 (second to last year for those unfamiliar, student age approx 16yrs old). So glad I didn’t have to do that, but they’d had sufficient s3x ed from years 4 to 10 any way (age 9 to 15)
The ORIGINAL Invasion of the Body Snatchers was 1956, so no, this was definitely not ground-breaking. That original version is excellent, as was the 1978 remake with Donald Sutherland - both are well worth seeing.
Sex education in America is often lacking. But it varies a lot based on location. There are schools in America where the entire sex education is a single 1 hour all school gathering in an auditorium where the presenter has one female student come up to the stage, wrap her in Seran wrap and then tell the student body that when a girl has sex, she is like all the lint stuck to the Seran wrap. and then the students go back to their regular classes.
Im aussie I never did the egg thing but I also missed a lot of the sex ed stuff(health issues so I missed a bunch of school) I dont think any of my friends did though In fairness, for teens one of the biggest issues with sex is pregnancy, then stds/stis, at least it couldve led to safe sex talks & they werent teaching abstinence only like a lot of other US states STILL do
Tumor spider sounds like something I’d expect from a David Wong novel. Spoilers…. But I have my suspicions that “Undisclosed” sounds like it’s on a Hellmouth like Sunnydale. All the creepy things popping in apparently from demon dimensions, etc., Only, more R-rated. From the description of the climate I’ve been wondering if Undisclosed is near Cleveland, assuming Sunnydale is in the same universe.
You're confusing your experience and norms from when you were teens with that of what was in the 90's, while the concern for STD's was high it was not nearly has high as the concern about unexpected pregnancies. As generally only the super promiscuous and those they slept with were affected, hook up culture in HS was not the thing it was in your time or it is now. Getting pregnant was a bigger possibility and carried with it a huge stigma along with stigmas involved in keeping or aborting with unlike in your time or the current generation abortion was not seen as simple birth control. plan b was not available until the late 90's and required a prescription. I knew a number of girls who ended up pregnant in HS and heard no rumors or reports of STD's. PS... My HS didn't do either the egg thing or a baby doll thing.
One school in my district ended up making a whole program for teen moms because they had so many. It really was a big thing in the 90’s/00’s. I don’t think this episode was trying to make that its “message.” The egg baby project was indeed a thing American schools did that they could do a fun story with, and that was just a way to shoehorn it into Buffy’s experience. Also…pregnancy is a potential consequence of sex, so being aghast it’s being taught is…surprising. There are a lot of issues with America’s sex ed, but there is room for precautionary lessons. If nothing else than to say why contraceptives are important to do correctly. (Granted, taking care of an egg isn’t really going to be that much of a lesson, but the Buffy writers didn’t create America’s education system. They were just writing stories we could relate to at the time.)
So, wow. Some very wrong things here. 1st, Plan B has never, and still isn't considered just "simple birth control." STD's where a thing people were concerned about. AIDs being a big one at the time. And lastly, this show is set in the era where hookup culture became a recognized thing, though it was hardly new at the time.
Aussie here we never had the egg raising thing at my school or any other pseudo parenting thing. We had sex ed which was fairly decent for the 200o's and that's it. The whole teaching kids to be parents thing in media seems odd to me. Are they simply trying to say look how hard being a parent is to teens to preach abstinence? While Buffy's I only see you speech to Angel had me a little concerned I kind of get it. It is a very bleak future for a slayer it's assumed that they will likely die early in life and she is focusing on something she feels she can realistically have. Keeping being a slayer from her mum is a difficult situation for Buffy and also for Joyce.
Another aussie here! Never did the egg thing and just thought it was an American thing. This was always an episode I wanted to skip, as well as the one called 'Go Fish' just eh
While I Do see what you mean about this episode and the sex ed class, agree or not, it was accurate i the 90's to what real life sex ed classes in America were teaching, and even today many states remain overly fixated on that one aspect...
I always see this egg assignment in shows in tvs, but we never did any of that..and I grew up during the time when it was suppose to be a thing? I hated this episode lol, it was so creepy, like body snatchers combined with aliens hehe
@@anangelcalledtoday8750 That was just Cordelia’s excuse for making out with Xander, honestly. The teacher is the one who knocks out the security guard with a pickaxe. He was just digging up eggs to infect more people.
@@RB-vo4gi he looks controlled tho and they're all out of class because he didn't show, I'm not exactly disagreeing with you it makes sense I just think it's too boring of a 'villain'
@@anangelcalledtoday8750 At this point, I’m not really sure what you’re confused about. The teacher wasn’t dead, he was controlled by the Bezoar just like everyone else. It’s implied he was the first one infected, so he could spread it to the rest of the school by giving eggs to the students and hiding eggs around the school for the teachers. He wasn’t killed on the day he didn’t show up to school, he was digging for more eggs, which is why he was in the basement to attack the security guard. He’s not any more of a bad guy than the rest of the people in this episode who got infected. The bezoar is the bad guy: a “monster of the week.”
I just want to start of by thanking you both for the reaction and wishing you both a good coming year because what follows is a rant. Anyone who wants to skip feel free. I just needed to get some frustration triggered by this episode out. So often the show presents things Joyce does as reasonable due to her not knowing Buffy is a slayer and it just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Early seasons Joyce genuinely frustrates me. I think it would bug me less if the show and especially the fandom were more willingnto own up to Joyce's true short comings. Especially with the fandom. So many things are ignored and she's put on a pedestal but she objectively isnt a good mom. First off, she just makes so many assumptions. Especially in this epiosde. Think you kid was lying ahout a phone call? Star 69 and check instead of just deciding it so. Buffy seems get distracted and forgets the dress? Yeah just assume she got distracted by a boy and insult her by making it clear you think she only thinks about boys and fashion. Shut down a chance for her to even explain or defend herself. Also, given she isnt going to be talking about Angel,what boys is Buffy supposed to have been going on and on about for Joyxe to have made that assumption on? Forgot not knowing Buffy's the slayer. She doesnt really seem to know anything about her own daughter period, on a level that says it was around before Buffy became the slayer. So much of what she does feels so superficial and preformative when it comes to the harder side of parenting and what it would mean to have a teenage daughter like Buffy based on what Joyce does know. Joyce doesnt know her kid, doesnt know whats going on with her, and generally seems okay with that given the lack of action she takes to make things better. I know this is done to service the creatives behind the scenees' desire for a show focused on the teens with the adults as window dressing but that d9esnt change that this is what we are shown of the character so within the world of Buffy this is the truth of how it is. I get people liking the character. I just wish she wouldnt get so much slack because she is liked.
Joyce doesn't know what is going on in her daughter's life (outside of the Slayer parts) largely because Buffy suffers from depression. very few people know what is really going on in the lives of people who suffer from depression. Including parents and other loved ones.
you kinda spoiled him with the ending even if it's seconds :P same with the fact that buffy did die on ep 9 as that was revealed in the next episode and first time watchers usually don't put 2 and 2 together
There were some students who experienced negative consequences with the egg experiment when some kids took it too seriously and had some psychological effects and depression from that.
High rates of teen pregnancy is a big issue, and has been growing over the years so I dont get what the problem is with this episode. When I was in middle school (not high school) they made us take care of and carry around a bad of flour, not eggs.
Yep. I taught high school 1997 - 2013 and there were plenty of smart girls who were on a college path who got pregnant and never went to college. If they did later, college is much harder when you have a kid to take care of.
Plus teen pregnancies can be a big health risk since the body might not be fully matured to safely birth the child. But I agree that life threatening std’s should probably be the #1 consequence.
I won't speak for Maria but my biggest issue is how often pregnancy is presented as this big scary threatas a deterant to teens in the hopes of pushing abstinence. Not only has this been proven ineffective at protecting kids and teens but it means they go into adulthood without information people should have. (The other major issue is that pregnancy as a threat doesnt land for a lot of people the way it will others. Plenty of het cis guys or lgbtq+ folk may shrug it off.) With so much focus on pushing the fear of pregnancy safe sex talk is often overly focused on it rather than overall heath and safty. Sorry this isnt indepth enough or a great explination but Im sick and distracted with the new years fireworks going off.
ALSO this is entirely personal but i was never a fan of vampire x young girl couple thing, buut like IF you're gonna date a human at least dont date a minor lol i just do not like the angel buffy relationship.
This episode is just disgusting. Im honestly just watching to help your algorithm lol This is one of the few episodes I just want to appologize to the reactors that have to endure it
Maybe the vampires we see aren't scared of the Slayer bc they're all extra-big economy size. We mostly see vampires attacking the weak, like most predators, so most vampires are probably Darlas, not Angels. The big buff ones probably feel extra invincible.
