March 25th, 2010
Some Assembly Required
This episode was not bad for a Bride of Frankenstein knockoff. Because it could have been bad…really bad. There are moments when I thought it was going to veer off into the Forest of Suck. Then it would pivot back to the Path of Not Bad.
Buffy discovers an empty grave that was not vacated by a vampire. Drag marks leading away from the grave tell her that they have a grave robber on their hands. She takes this fun fact back to the Scooby Gang. Willow checks out this crazy thing called the internet and finds that three cheerleaders died in a car accident the week before.
It turns out, a budding sociopath and a science geek dug up the cheerleaders to make a Frankengirl for the science geek’s Frankenbrother. The dead cheerleaders (that’s a band name if I ever heard one) provided them with all the body parts except for the head. Enter Cordelia.
Buffy arrives just in time to prevent Cordy’s beheading. She and Frankenbrother fight for a while. Then he runs off to die in the fire.
Like I said earlier, this one could have been really bad. However, there are plenty of saving graces. Giles gets a great line about how zombies don’t eat flesh. The science geek’s dead-eyed mother sitting on her couch in her housecoat while watching game tapes of her dead son while chain smoking is priceless. And the science geek’s motivation for doing what he does is convincing.
While it doesn’t completely win me over, it’s really not that bad of a way to spend forty-five minutes. I give it a C.