In the last season of Buffy, everyone moved on with their lives after school, but two of the gang were left behind. Neither Giles nor Xander seemed to have much of a purpose, and Buffy’s adventures tended to centre around college, a place where Giles and Xander had no real reason to be. It didn’t seem like Buffy needed either of them very much any more, and Xander was failing at being an adult, directionless and unsuccessful. This needed fixing. Last week, we saw Giles given a new purpose in life, already restored to the position of Buffy’s Watcher, and starting a new business venture with the magic shop, which also provides the gang with a place to get together. This week it’s time to fix the problem of Xander.

There’s only so long a character can be the butt of all the jokes before it starts to wear a little thin, and the viewers’ enjoyment of the comedy can shift over time towards dislike or dissatisfaction with a character who just doesn’t learn, or grow as a person. At some point, Xander needed to achieve something, and this is his moment. By the end of the episode, he has his own place to live, rather than his parents’ basement, and has been promoted in his job, on his own merits. In order to achieve that, his personality is literally split in two, but crucially the groundwork had already been laid. There is nothing magical about the promotion, and it had clearly been decided by his boss before the split occurred. This makes an important point: Xander is capable of more than being just the loser that he complained about being in Buffy vs Dracula.

Although it’s a huge amount of fun seeing the two Xanders, there are problems with the execution of the idea. Star Trek fans are the butt of a joke, when they are compared to basement dwellers (“There comes a time where you either have to move on, or buy yourself a Klingon costume and just go with it.”), but ironically this episode is a rehash of a Star Trek idea, and the point of the split identity is lost slightly here. I’m not for one second suggesting that the Star Trek version of this story is superior, but it does at least show how the two halves of Kirk’s personality in isolation are both flawed. Only the complete person is capable of success. The problem with the Xander iteration of the idea is that the smooth operator does everything right. He gets his promotion and his new apartment. Everyone likes him and women are attracted to him. There’s really no downside to that version of Xander, and it’s like the other side of his personality was holding him back, and is best discarded. There should have been a lot more acknowledgement that both sides of his personality are necessary for Xander to be the Xander whom his friends know and love.

This is a crucial mistake, but it is ameliorated greatly by the fact that the story is told from the perspective of the unsuccessful Xander, with the other one painted as the enemy. Although he isn’t really anyone’s enemy (and that’s a very clever misdirection and twist), it makes loser Xander the audience perspective character. We like him and we don’t like the other one. Whilst the other characters might see nothing wrong with successful Xander, for the viewers he’s boring and a bit creepy. So at least the point is made for the viewers that both sides of Xander are needed for him to be the person we actually want to watch, and this works well as a reaffirmation of the qualities that earn Xander his place in the series. That’s important, after a long run of episodes in which he often felt redundant to the story.

That brings us to Spike, because he is becoming to Season Five what Xander and Giles were to Season Four. He is purposeless, separated from the other main characters in the series, and has become the butt of the jokes. This week he starts going a bit weird, with his pretend Buffy mannequin. It’s odd to see the same mistake being repeated, having just fixed the problem of Giles and Xander (or at least began that healing process). Last week, Spike was a punch bag for Buffy. This week he’s a loser who scavenges at the tip and indulges in lonely fantasies. It was frustrating to see Xander and Giles sidelined last year. Seeing the same happen to the best character this show has ever given us is bordering on insufferable. In a show with such incredibly skilled writing, it’s a surprise to see the same mistake being made, all over again. When will it be Spike’s turn to find his purpose in life… or death?   RP

The view from the Sunnydale Press:

The Replacement might have been one of my favorite episodes of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer.  I suspect it wasn’t intended to remind me of another series, but I had a wholly different take on this one and I loved it probably for the wrong reasons.  That’s saying something because early on, I was really disappointed with Giles, who encounters a demon in his new shop and immediately tries to attack it.  Now, yeah, I get it: demons are bad, but spinoff series Angel has been going out of its way to let us know that not all demons actually are bad and by this point we’re a full season into that show, so it’s nothing new.  So when Giles turns around and sees a polite, non-hostile demon standing behind him, I was disheartened by his reaction.  I never like it when the good guys raise their hands in combat first.  Although, it does lead to Toth (the demon) politely pointing out that the statue he’s about to use as a weapon is a fertility goddess and that was funny.   So let’s talk about the latest demon… is it me, or has this series shifted from being about slaying vampires to demon hunting?   Buffy: The Demon Slayer.  (I’m sure it’s still heavier on the Vampire body count, but by how many?  2 to 1??)

So, all that aside, what really won me over was that Toth isn’t who he seems…  Toth intends to split Buffy in two so that her human side and her slayer side would be separated and it would kill both.  Alas, he misses with his Staff of Archon and hits Xander by accident.  So, diligently,  I broke out my ancient Assyrian translator and the name Toth is roughly “Richard Matheson”.  Huh?  Ok, to be fair, that’s because it’s impossible not to draw connections between this episode and the classic Star Trek episode The Enemy Within, written by Matheson himself.  (Although I was also reminder of Return of the Archons based on that staff Toth carries.)  The Enemy Within is an all time favorite of mine because I think it’s got such merit to the point.  When Kirk finds himself separated into two halves, he struggles to survive.  The strong Kirk can’t exist without the weak one nor can the weak continue without the strong.  I do believe we have to have both sides of our personalities to survive.  For Xander, this also allows us to dive into the meaning of the episode but more on that in a second because a question has to be asked.  With Trek, the transporter malfunctions and the second Kirk appears shortly after people have cleared the transporter room but I don’t understand this one: Xander is helped up from the rubbish mound, but … there was still a Xander left behind?  Did no one notice that when he was helped up, that he was also still lying down??  That didn’t work nearly as well as Kirk’s situation!   However, thematically, it might be far better as an example of real life.

Standard production issues aside, the connection to Trek isn’t just superficial.  Xander and Xander stand next to each other wearing a gold and a green t-shirt, evoking the colors of Shatner’s shirts in season one.  Also, the Xander’s actually make a reference to Trek with the “Kill us both, Spock” comment.  (For what it’s worth, writer Jane Espenson is a fan of classic Trek.  However, I don’t know why a fan would write a line about the stigma that exists around Trek fandom when Xander makes a comment about living in the basement: he should just get himself a Klingon costume and be done with it.  Always weird to me when the fans make fun of themselves like that and I think it genuinely created a bad image for SF Fans across the board for a very long time.)  But that wasn’t the only shot in the arm for this episode.  During Xander’s packing, he makes a comment about his Babylon 5 collectors plates.  I knew I liked Xander.  And yet, Xander doesn’t feel that same confidence, which leads us to the point of the episode.

“I’m just another great humiliation.”  Like many of us, Xander has self-doubt, but it’s exacerbated by the fact that all of his friends are moving on and he’s stuck in his parents basement.  His parents are at least verbally abusive (although we’ve seen indication that his father may be physically as well) and it causes him embarrassment while he has his friends over.  He knows his job is potentially coming to an end and Anya wants him to move out, but he has no credit and no prospects.  That weights heavily on him, but Xander is also a smart guy, loyal, funny, and frequently the heart of the Scooby gang.   That’s true of most people; they are not defined by one thing and this series gives us a terrific forum for looking at that in more practical terms than captaining a starship.  Unlike Kirk, we are all – or have all been at one time or another – Xander.  We’ve seen our friends getting better jobs, finding a significant other faster, and in general having better luck in life and, while we wish them the best, it hurts because we can’t help but have self-doubt.  Xander is the mirror for the audience; the identification figure that we all remember being at one time or another.  This is the sort of writing that elevated classic Star Trek and could really help give this series a similar longevity.  Yes, I feel like the series is back on track with its look at real life issues.

“Oh dear lord!”  I can’t finish there, however, because one of the things I enjoy the most is the comedy.  I don’t want it to become all-pervading but the subtle lines are outstanding.  “I said, ‘oh dear lord’”.  Yes, Giles has a double-win this week, once when trying to get the attention of the group and earlier, when Willow walks right into his house and he mumbles that he knows he locked the door.  The cast continues to impress me week after week.  So between a great cast, the departure of the non-villain Adam, and real life issues being addressed, I can’t wait to see more of season 5.  Oh, and what’s this?  Riley realizes Buffy doesn’t love him?  Can we also be getting rid of our most cardboard character – just when he brought something important to the table?  (That’s how Adric died, you know!)    ML

Read next in the Junkyard… Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Out of My Mind