Buffy 1.11 out of mind, out of sight
Spoilers
Buffy starts this episode by tripping and spoiling ancient weapons all over the floor. She explains it away (or tries to) by saying it's for a show and tell, and I think she should've said nothing. Just pretend it's totally normal she's carrying all that.
Anyway they mentioned the May Queen thing, and I'm guessing this is going to be a major thing between Buffy and Cordelia. And Harmony is still sidekick number 1, being all sweet, for now, to her Queen b.
She's saying buffy always hangs out in that creepy library with that creepy librarian. And I can't fault her. We all know what's going on, but if we didn't, this would look so weird!
In class they go over this text, a text about treating people differently and cruelly and if it's fair if they feel hurt or want justice.
Cordelia, once again, makes it about her, calls other people whiney and selfish for feeling angry with their mistreatment, while of course pointing out things are worse for her when she's harming someone else. Cordelia is smart. We know later she sees more than we think. So this is a choice.
She knows no matter how big her statement is, people either don't dare to question her because they fear her retaliation, or they don't because they think she's simply too vain and shallow to learn better. Either way, she has learnt she can get away with it.
I know a lot of people in the fandom love Cordelia. I wasn't one of them. I didn't even put her in my top 5. I often disliked her, but she's had her moments. I wonder if now, so many years later I will feel differently.
Sometimes I know I could have liked a character, I can pinpoint their good things if I have to but I still don't like or care for them. Cordelia is one of those people where it is easy to see how funny she is and how much she cares later, and yet I still don't love her. Then again, I like her more than Anya, so this might make or break it for you (if anyone's reading this!) I'm not an Anya fan. I really really disliked her back in the day. Anyway I'm going off course. But I think I'm the opposite of a lot of the fans where I don't like the most popular ones (like Wesley!) and love the hated ones (like Connor, defense squad number one!). I will try to be a little unbiased at times, but I'm going to be ranting sooner or later.
Cordelia's boyfriend is in the locker room being a sleazeball and suddenly gets beat up by a bat. Not the flying animal kind, but a baseball bat and no one's there. Oh no, whatever will it be?? (Spoiler: I know already)
I need to point out how nice the literature teacher was to Cordelia. This will be important later. But we see how nice and smart Cordelia can be. If she wants to. And teachers seem to love her back. She actually does her homework and gets involved.
…So why isn't she friends with Willow? Well, Willow dresses weird and is the shy nerdy kind. While Cordelia covers her smart with bitchiness and style. She's answering in class but in a way that doesn't contradict her popular persona.
Clea Duvall’s name gets credited, and I am suddenly wondering if she was also in 10 Inch Hero, I need to look it up. (Result: she is)
Back to Cordelia, bitchiness on. Refusing to give Buffy even that stupid chocolate she's spreading for votes is so petty. Would people really vote for her anyway? We never had any contests like this in any of my schools, but I'm sure the majority of the students would not vote for a popular one unless they were actually really nice.
It's weird to see Buffy suddenly acting a little smaller, like she actually cares about what Cordelia says. I know there's a theme in this episode, but by now I figured Buffy was long over being accepted into this clique. Cordelia's awful and there's nothing to gain from being her friend. Buffy might be seen as the weirdo and that's something I understand she struggles with in general (knowing she would easily be popular without her calling), but she has hit back at this girl plenty and yet she's now looking lost and hurt.
Then Xander and Willow are telling inside jokes while Buffy tries to join in but of course hasn't been there to get them. The theme is feeling left out, not fitting in, and sometimes the subtlety in the first season(s) is like a hammer to the nose. It's fine, but it doesn't stir my deep urge to analyze…well it does, because I'm still ranting, but it's not stuff anyone else can't see. It's all very clear.
A lot of things are tied to Buffy, she's the slayer of course, but in these kind of episodes Willow or even Xander would fit better. We already see they've been dealing with feeling like the outcast more. Of course, Buffy is dealing with having moved to Sunnydale recently, has gone from popular girl to being the weirdo, and even with her friends she is the one who intrudes on their dynamics.
Oh, principal Snyder…”there are no dead students here…this week” that's a good slogan, and one the parents who enroll their kids there probably tell themselves.
Cordelia missed a class because she went to visit Mitch (the boyfriend who got beat up) in the hospital, was she even allowed? Apparently no one cares, not even Snyder who's pretty strict on anyone else, especially Buffy. And of course she worries about how he's going to look in the pictures. FLASHBACK!: Harmony and Cordelia are taking in the exact same place, and get interrupted.
Why do loners always try to befriend the popular ones? No really, I see these people trying to make friends and instead of going for the quieter, kinder groups, they sometimes keep searching out the ones that seem to dislike them the most. Is it the idea that if they win them over, they will suddenly feel happier? Because they will receive the worst rejection. It's so sad, but sometimes you also feel like they kind of had it coming. When it's obvious someone hates you or will not be kind to you, please don't keep trying to push yourself on that group. You're just going to get hurt and laughed at.
As Buffy asks to talk to Cordelia, Harmony starts to say something mean and gets thrown down a stairs. It's supposed to be either really shocking or pleasing, and as I remember some bullies from my past, I can't help but not care that it happens to her. Harmony is still the lesser one, but that's because she's number 2 in line. She's a follower.
We hear a girl laughing on top of the stairs and a door closes.
If you were invisible, would you stay in school? We're not Twilight vampires here. There are other, more interesting places to stay. On the other hand, you'd want to know how everyone's doing. So maybe I would also stay behind and stalk my bullies. Would I turn violent? I'm sure I would help those I would like. But if I didn't? I'm not sure if go crazy and murderous. On the other hand…if no one cares or even sees me and you spent a year, or more completely alone, unseen, unheard…you might go crazy.
Continuing, there's 2 men in suits on school grounds and no one looks over and thinks it is weird. They're really looking out of place, but everyone's like, there's murder every week, this isn't abnormal. I would at least think, these 2 are here to find their next victim, but no one seems to notice them. Yet, they are not turning invisible! He he. Of course they're together so they can look over and talk and make sure they don't follow the same fate this monster of the week had.
We get a cool scene where Giles looks into a glass reflection and sees no one and then looks next to him and Angel’s there. Shock effect!
I'm also waiting for Giles to actually think back on his training, because I'm sure it would've mentioned Angel, and I remember him talking about Angelus and his evil doings, but here everyone's like “Oh he's a good vampire, alright” and moves on. But he's one of the famous ones right? You'd think Giles would try and get information about this vampire with a soul…do they know he has one, or is it just ‘good vampire’ only still?
Giles thinks it's kind of poetic that a vampire’s in love with a Slayer. I'm a Bangel shipper, I think they're otp, that they’re soulmates and eventually might be together and be happy. But Giles, you're a responsible adult, her Watcher, and maybe should react more like, ‘okay yes kind of cute that you love the one that's supposed to kill you but you're also older than her and dangerous and we don't know you very well, so this distance you created might actually be healthy’.
But this is fiction! Where unhealthy relationships are interesting and exciting. Where vampires and Slayers fall in love or become friends and allies, and we can root for them! Because it isn't real and sometimes living through fiction makes you understand what is healthier for you in real life. Could you live like this? Of course not, that's why we fantasize from a safe place and no one gets harmed.
And I'm once again reminding myself that I want to review in a much shorter post, and failing tremendously, and how no one will read this because it's long and I'm not as funny as I can be. And I haven't even finished the episode!
Giles and Angel are being so pleasant here and Giles is a bit in awe of him, both because he's not feeding on humans and is willing to help, it's sad guys. On holiday I watched a bit of the episodes of S2 they showed on TV and I watched Giles tied to a chair being tortured by Angel…so unhappy times are approaching.
FLASHBACK again! Cordelia's group literally moves their way to stand next to invisible girl to talk and yet tell her off when she tries to participate. Then Cordelia says the same things the girl is saying and they're all laughing, and she's laughing along and it's a little pathetic, and you get it, you do, but you want her to stop pursuing this group and try to find other friends. It's just painful to watch. And her smile drops when they're gone, because she knows! She's lonely and unloved and it's not working. And the thing is, she's pretty, she got pretty clothes, she's not stupid, technically she shouldn't be this unliked. And yet she is.
And that desperation just drips out from her, she's socially awkward and it's setting her back, but not trying means she's lonely, so she's keeps going and making it worse.
Anyway, away from trauma and in the present, suit guys are there again, super unsubtle just standing there in the middle. They’re just there, it looks so stupid. But this time they're noticed.
Buffy mentions Marcie, how she went missing and played the flute, something Buffy heard when she went looking for her. Next search she's doing, she realizes Marcie hides in the ceiling. She's set up a living space there, Buffy goes through her stuff and we hear breathing and watch a camera behind her.
Buffy looks through her yearbook and mentions her name. It probably saved her life because Marcie is behind her with a knife about to stab her but she lowers it. Probably because Buffy isn't a bully, instead Cordelia and co. bully Buffy, and Buffy stands up for others. But seeing Marcie’s stuff, looking for her, saying her name, it's what she wanted, to be seen, to be heard!
Next scene is the nice teacher that wants to help Cordelia. She's being suffocated by a plastic bag, but Cordelia finds her and helps her. Listen, Marcie writes on the board. The teacher never even heard her in class. It's really tragic to see her hand fading during class and no one sees anything.
She turned invisible because everyone ignored her presence. But Cordelia is her target. They're going to use her as bait. Giles, being a responsible adult, objects. Kidding! He goes along with it immediately. Not a protest or doubt in sight. You gotta love this.
Of course the whole group doesn't think Marcie can hear them. Sorry but that would be my biggest paranoid thought, she might be listening. I am disappointed with how easy they're making it for her. Now she knows the plans.
And we're getting a rare insight in Cordelia understanding loneliness and knowing her popularity is shallow. It's armor though and she's wearing it.
Xander, Willow and Giles get tricked and nearly killed. Meanwhile Cordelia gets lifted into the ceiling and wow how strong is Marcie?? Buffy tries to help, but Marcie pushes her and she falls through the ceiling and then gets stabbed by a syringe, passing out. When she comes to both her and Cordelia are tied to chairs. Cordelia mentioned her face is numb. She can still talk without any problems though, if someone used some paralysis of any kind, like we get at the dentist, wouldn't you have trouble moving your face, right? I'm not a doctor so I don't know for sure.
The feeling it gives me is that she's going to get cut up. Oh btw, Marcie has dragged both girls all the way to the bronze…she's very dramatic, but it's a little ridiculous. How did she get them all the way there?
Marcie is villain speeching, and yes she is indeed going to cut up Cordelia's face, how nice of her to numb it first. Seems a little unnecessary if you really want to punish someone, but I'm sensitive so I appreciate it!
Turns out she only did it so she wouldn't faint😕 bad Marcie. I still don't get how easily she can punch Buffy, I know it's the element of surprise but she shouldn't be this strong. She's only invisible, no other powers.
Oh Angel!! Angel shows up saving the other 3! What's he even doing there?
Buffy gets beaten until she stills and listens and defeats Marcie easily. And then the 2 suits show up. Conveniently late. Like they've been waiting to step in, after testing theories of something. They didn't step in when Cordelia was about to get Joker-smiled!! Where were they then?
‘FBI, nobody move’. Well they couldn't 10 seconds ago, would've been nice if you stepped in then! And they'll take it from there, when there's no risk for themselves.
Agent Doyle…👀☝🏻😮💨 no, I'm not ready for that.
They say they can rehabilitate her, and in time let her be part of society again.
They're kidding! They're going to train her as an assassin! Yay. Are we going to help this 16 year old girl who got so ignored she turned invisible? No, let's use her instead.
At a secret facility, we see Marcie being led to an empty classroom, but wait no, there are all invisible teenagers greeting her. And as she opens her book we see assassination and infiltration or something and she says “cool”. Because she's okay with killing I guess. Why not for the government.
Look, we're talking about how sad it is that she had no friends and no one noticed her, but what about her parents? Not one word about them. They would see and love her, right? Or maybe not and that's what caused the real problems. This was just a really sad episode. Clunky at times perhaps, maybe theatrical at others, the message is clear, but mostly we've all felt lonely, we all knew lonely people, we can all picture some kids during our school days that could fit Marcie's journey, and maybe they could be showing more of Marcie herself, but it's a story that left me uneasy. Maybe we all could use that reminder to be nicer to the lonely people we encounter sometimes.
(... Problem is, sometimes you can't get rid of them afterwards, so also, be careful and safe!)
