Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"Listening to Fear"

Airdate: November 28, 2000

When I read that this episode was all about a freaky creature from outer space crashing to Earth, I must admit I was apprehensive. I mean, if wanted to see aliens and their zany hair, I'd just tune in to Roswell. I found the entire idea disturbing. Aliens? On my show? On Buffy? There couldn't be any good there.

The Summers girls bond over alien creature-killing.

But, I'm big enough to admit it. I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

This second episode written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner (who also brought us the Spike-y goodness of "Out Of My Mind") is another solid entry, with not just thrills and chills but also a very cool monster from outer space.

Buffy's mom isn't doing so well in this episode; her tumor is pressing against her brain and causing all sorts of strange verbal outbursts. She's scheduled for surgery in two days time, but wants to go home and get away from the hospital until then. Buffy's preoccupied with her mother, so the Scoobies take over the patrolling for her, which is when they find the meteor, which happens to be hollow, and now empty. Riley, meanwhile, is continuing his downward spiral, missing patrols and spending his time feeding vampires like he's some kind of soup kitchen for blood-suckers. When the group discovers the meteor -- and the wandering mental patient that the meteor's inhabitant made its first victim -- he urges the others to go off and do some research, but once they're gone, he calls in the Initiative.

The Scoobies discover the meteor's purpose soon enough: it carries a Queller demon, which quells insanity by killing the insane people. The explanation slides in just enough on the side of horror that it fits very well into the Buffy universe without taking an all-out slide into science fiction. Somebody's called this demon and set it loose on the populace, and after killing all of the mental patients in the hospital, it tags along when Buffy takes her mother home.

While Riley runs around with his Initiative friends, trying to find the monster and not let on to the Scoobies that he's called the military into it, the creature is inside Buffy's house, slinking about and getting ready to kill Joyce. Dawn interrupts it before it can finish the job -- it sprays some sort gross alien saliva over the victim's face to suffocate them -- and Buffy kicks the thing's ass, with a little help from Spike, who happened to be lurking in her basement, stealing things. Riley busts in with the Initiative soldiers, which is bound to have some consequences in later episodes, and Buffy soon takes her mother back to the hospital. But Joyce's brush with madness has already had its effects: like the other crazies in town (and there's a lot of them, since Glory showed up), Joyce is able to see, in her moments of madness, that Dawn is definitely not what she appears to be. In a touching scene, she asks Buffy about it, and the Slayer admits that her little sister isn't really her little sister. And finally, we're treated to a small tidbit about hospital intern Ben: somehow he knows Glory, and for some reason he was the one to call the Queller demon. Curiouser and curioser.

There's a lot of cool to be had in this episode, but what really struck me was the performance by Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers), whose previous role on the show was mostly confined to either being the oblivious mom or being the completely freaked out bitchy mom. Neither was incredibly flattering for character or actress, but now Sutherland finally gets the chance to show her stuff. Joyce's outbursts are startling and utterly convincing, and even the most hard-hearted of viewers can't help but be moved by the dramatic portrayal of Joyce's illness.

Michelle Trachtenburg isn't half bad here, either, and yes, I'll admit -- now that Dawn has finally moved past her annoying, whining, acting-eight-years-old stage and become more of an actual teenager, she's kind of growing on me. Not in a "boy, I like her" kind of way, but it's rather more, "huh, I don't want to kill her anymore. Where's the Cheetos?" Sarah Michelle Gellar also pulls it together nicely, showing us a Buffy who's trying hard to keep it together and be the strong one while her life is falling apart.

This is really a story about the Summers women, and the supporting cast don't have much to do, most notably James Marsters, present but for the grace of his contract, who shares one short scene with Gellar that the episode probably would've done just as well without. Thrusting the character in like that gave the scene a very strained feel to it, but far be it from me to not appreciate any Buffy/Spike action that I'm given.

Of very special note is the demon itself, which is one of the most incredibly bad-ass critters ever seen on Buffy. A definite departure from the terribly lame CGI and rubber snake-man in "Shadow", this little creature is masterfully done. It's like a cross between the Flukeman and Fiji Mermaid, both familiar to X-Files fans, with a nice cockroach-y look thrown in for good measure. Plus, it crawls on ceilings and makes creepy little squealy noises. I almost want to get one and keep it as a pet. A saliva-shooting, creepy-looking, alien from outer space sort of pet. Once I'm seen walking that thing around the block, I won't have to worry about burglars anymore.

-- Lisa Kincaid

Buffy the Vampire Slayer airs at 8/7c, Tuesdays on the WB.

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