Go Fish

With a smile, wink, and nod to a classic horror creature, the Buffy version here does provide a few twists with explanation. Although many of the ideas seem short on refinement as well as execution, solid writing still prevails. Creatures were actually alright by me, with a faithful rendition to the original. A little re-hash as far as the after-school theme which reminded me a little of the earlier frat party.

Cordelia got the best one-liner joke and surprisingly endearing scene when Xander appeared to be a monster. Unlike Buffy, Cordelia was not about to let her boyfriend's change deter her perseverance in making a relationship work. Admirable, even if it were impossible. Xander too was a fun character to watch in this episode. Entertaining, off-beat, I'm fine with this episode as long as it didn't cause the series to go unfinished.

This episode is nothing special, I would probably rate it a 6 but Willow's line "really? Me? I'll crack him like an egg" makes the whole episode. It's the little things :)

Something is skinning the members of the Sunnydale High School Swim Team - who are winning this season for the first time in many years - and eating them alive, bones internal organs and all. Only the skin and clothes are left behind. Then Xander runs into the monster right after one of the killings. The monster looks as close as you can get to the Creature from the Black Lagoon without Universal Pictures being able to sue Warner Brothers.

So, Buffy decides to follow the surviving best member of the swim team around to see if the monster strikes again. That monster doesn't appear, but Angelus does and attempts to eat said swim team member as he leaves The Bronze. However, there is something revolting to Angelus about the guy's blood because he releases the guy and begins to spit out his blood. Complications ensue.

This episode has nothing to do with the character development of the main cast or the progression of the season story arc involving Angel/Angelus. Outside of the short appearance of Angelus trying to eat the swim team member, David Boreanaz is not even in this episode. It was obviously made just to fill the quota of 22 season episodes in the run up to the big season two finale.

That doesn't mean it's lacking any good points. There's Willow trying to scare Jonathan into confessing (the Scoobies think he may have conjured up the fish monster as revenge for the swim team members bullying him) and failing badly. And most importantly, Cordelia shows more empathy than I thought her capable of when she thinks that something bad has happened to Xander and she might have been the cause. Finally, there is Xander in speedos.

Not sure why this episode gets so much hate? Has some of the best lines of the entire show

The skin's the best part! High cholesterol vampires! Love this episode

It's tough to stick a monster episode toward the end of the season when we're dying for more Angel-Spike-Drusilla stuff. If this were a season 1 episode, it'd be one of the better ones, but it's a late season 2 episode, so its placement hurts it. But overall, I found it quite funny and fun and entertaining. Love the scene where Cordelia thinks Xander is a fish monster!