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Title: A New Man
Description: Episode 68


laughitupfuzzball - September 23, 2006 03:44 PM (GMT)
At Buffy's 19th birthday party, Giles has a realization. He is an unemployed, middle-aged man hanging around with a bunch of teenagers. He feels even worse when he finds out that he is the only one who doesn't know about Riley and the Initiative. Feeling useless and insecure, he runs into Ethan Rayne, but the confrontation ends in drinks at the local pub rather than the usual fisticuffs. The next morning, Giles looks in the mirror and sees a massive Fyarl demon looking back at him...







prophecy girl - September 25, 2006 06:30 PM (GMT)
QUOTE
A new man

An episode about Giles dealing (or not dealing) with being a retired librarian and having to deal with the fact that maybe Buffy doesn’t really need him (as he is the last one to know about riley being part of the initiative). We also see an other part of himself (the drunk side was kind of shown in the dark age): maybe the demon curse was a way to show Giles inner demon on the screen (someone that no one would recognise, acting completely differently than the person everyone know, someone even his friend would be a scared of. And it’s great to have giles on the front line after spending so much time in the background (without much to do) and it gave us an amusing, entertaining episode and a new side of giles character.

The best bit being demon giles running after walsh (just after telling spike that he can’t/won’t let his dark feeling overtaking him).

I also like ethan ranting about going after giles and being caught because giles thought he heard something. And then the two best enemies go to the pub to have a drink. Ethan is once again fantastic but his arrest don’t really gave a great conclusion to his character.

Not the best of riley: comparing buffy to spider man, being out of the loop about buffy surprise party (you have to love his face when he walks in the room with his crossbow and trying to hide it), we finally learn how many demons/vampires the big bad marines had dealt with (just wonder how long he has been doing that job?), funny for a guy who have the key of all the shops in sunnydale, access the 911 call, can hack the hotels’s register and can sent ethan raynes to aera 51 with a phone call.

A short but interesting rose scene between willow and tara: there is more between these two that we actually see (mostly due to willow actions: lying to buffy about her whereabout for one thing)

And well there is more about the initiative that we know about: due to the last image of the episode: walsh entering the room 314, something raynes was saying the demons were afraid of.


:thumbsup:

John Brawn - September 29, 2006 09:13 PM (GMT)
A New Man is beautifully crafted establishing Giles alienation really quickly from Riley's self-acknowledged faux pas to Maggie's brilliant put downs. The episode really put a smile on my face as his alienation quickly manifests in a typically efficient Buffy metaphor. I cannot quite recall but is there a turn of phrase about the 'greenhorned demon' rearing its ugly head? Something like that anyway. It is all about Giles feeling alienated and marginalised from the rest of the scoobies hence his dubious strategy of storming off to the crypt with Xander and Willow to confront the demon and somehow prove himself.

Buffy really shows her colours here as a true American pragmatist. When the scoobies meet in Giles apartment Buffy 'falsifies' reality to make it suitably 'ready for action'. Sometimes 'falsehood' is preferable to 'truth' for the sake of creatures like ourselves. Jane Espenson is something of a clever clogs.

Riley again seemed really sweet and I found his comment about Buffy being 'Spiderman strong' goofy and charming. It establishes him as someone fully differentiated from Angel which can only be a good thing. 7/10. sk

Hovis - October 16, 2006 05:11 PM (GMT)
Another cracker, and very, very funny. No prizes for guessing the writer is Jane Espenson.

Some great lines of course. Walsh's "It's only our methods that differ. We use the latest in scientific technology and state-of-the-art weaponry. You, if I understand correctly, poke them with a sharp stick" is a cracker. It's topped only by Buffy's cringeworthy but laugh out loud exchange with Walsh - Walsh: "We thought you were a myth." Buffy: "You were myth-taken." Groan out loud, but I bet many of us have used that one, or will if we get the chance.

The comedy high point is a visual moment though, when Fyarl-Giles gets out of the car and scares Walsh. Silly and juvenile maybe, but very, very funny.

But aside from the comedy, there is some great stuff. Always fun to have Ethan turn up. Tony Head plays Giles' alienation beautifully. It's an onrunning theme of the last four seasons of the show. It's actually quite painful watching Giles trying to fit himself in and make himself useful, despite his being an outsider in so many ways - a Brit in America, the generation gap, ex-watcher, ex-librarian.

A great episode, tragedy and comedy in equal measure.

Interesting too to compare Buffy's recognition of Giles, with Giles reaction when the tables are turned a little later on.

Andrew :yahoo:




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