Buffy Episode 3.4: Beauty and the Beasts

Welcome to our discussion of Buffy Season 3 Episode 4: Beauty and the Beasts; wherein all men are beasts, Buffy.

Our drinks this time are the Toxic Heteronormatini and the Irish Tourist—for recipes make sure to check out our Buffytails page at www.worldwithoutshrimp.com. 

Now on to the show: after Snard reinforces her theory of episode 3 being from Angel’s point of view, we begin our long-running discussion of episode order and how they match a similar pattern on Buffy’s journey through each season. This episode is working under almost pure metaphor for all of our poor scoobies, and we realize early on that it might just be the queerest episode of Buffy—and possibly television—ever. Faith has shown up and presented herself as a possible love interest for Buffy, and so our cast and parts of Buffy suddenly halt and catch fire in their attempt at reinforcing heteronormativity. 

Please make sure to take advantage of the amazing deal on Plottr our friend Cameron Sutter is offering for National Novel writing month and help support our podcast at the same time. Also, if you want to read more about writing and track Snard's National Novel Writing Month, make sure to visit www.michelletuckett.com. 

Thank you as always, for listening, sharing, commenting, and generally being the best Gentle Listeners in all the land. Stay tuned next time for Season 3 Episode 5: Homecoming.

Buffy Episode 2.15: Phases

In today’s episode, Buffy is going through a few things and so is our new Scooby Oz. That’s right, it’s Buffy Season 2, Episode 15: Phases: Wherein Angelus, Larry the Closet Case, a werewolf hunter named Kane, and Oz all give us different versions of the “all men are beasts” theory later posited by Faith is Season 3. 

And really, the subtitle says just about all we can say. This episode works both to examine toxic masculinity as well as showing us the inner workings of Buffy dealing with the loss of Angel to Angelus in beautifully orchestrated metaphor through the Scoobies, as well as the reflection that a beast doesn’t have to be a monster, as Oz proves. We also get to see Cordy and Willow bond over their tipping of the gender norm tables and that scene never gets old (“Who do they think they are?” “A couple of guys.”)

As always, please keep commenting, liking, sharing, reviewing, and all the other wonderful things you do to help boost our signal and give us feedback. And you can always contact us directly on info@diogenseclubpodcast.com. 

Also, keep in mind that sometime this week or next, Michelle/Snard will have finished re-mastering the sound on our old episodes and will be refreshing the podcast feed, so if things go all wonky, that’s why.