What is going on with that hat?

Written by: Jane Espenson. Amy Madison... Elizabeth Anne Allen. Halfrek... Kali Rocha Summary: Buffy starts her new job at the DoubleMeat Palace and soon starts to suspect that something weird is going on. An employee just suddenly disappears and her suspicions of what the burger's secret ingredient is start to rise when the manager doesn't seem to care about the missing worker. Anya gets a visit from an old friend while Amy's meeting with Willow has a unpleasant turn.

The whole gang at the Doublemeat Palace. And again I ask, what is going on with that hat? I better not comment on that.

Quotes: Xander: Now I get Warren being the supervillainy type, but I thought Jonathan completely learned that lesson. I never even heard of this other guy. Willow: You should have seen their headquarters. It was like the nerd natural habitat. Xander: Welcome to today's episode of 'Go Money Go!' I hear it daily. Willow: Yep, for the rest of your life. Manny (the manager): Interesting, isn't it? Buffy: Oh yes! Like how the cow and the chicken come together even though they've never met. It's like Sleepless in Seattle if, if Meg and Tom were, like, minced. Anya: We're here to support your subsistence-level employment. Bravo. Buffy: (brings Xander a hamburger) There you go, and I double-sized it for ya. Xander: Oh, thank you! Buffy: And cut way back on the cat. Xander: Cat?! Buffy: Just kidding. Probably.

My review for the episode: This really is a boring episode, actually boring doesn't quite cover it which is very unfortunate since this is Buffy we're talking about. Usually you can find something good about every episode, even those that are less-than-great in the mid-season 6, but this one gave me a hard time in finding the good in it because it is a great example of how not to do an hour of television. If this had been anything other than Buffy I would have changed the channel because I was bored out of my mind from start to finish. But if I have to look for something good in this episode then I have to say that the clothes were nice, with the exception of Buffy's work uniform which wasn't even funny, but more on that later. I liked the shirt Spike was wearing, he looked good in it and at least this time James got to keep his clothes on for a change. So what else besides the clothes did I like in this episode? Not much, but Halfrek scaring the crap out of Xander and her head-tilts combined with hmm's when Anya tells her she's marrying Xander because she loves him and they're going to be 'very happy together', but unfortunately it didn't carry on to the second scene they were together. Also Buffy scaring Xander with the cat burger was funny only because of the way Sarah delivered her lines: “I cut way back on the cat.” “Just kidding.” “Probably.” So let's get to the reviewing part, I actually had very little memory of this episode when I started watching it for the second time in six years, and it looks like it was because there was very little worth remembering. This whole episode is about Buffy stepping into the working world and it looks like the only job she could get is in a hamburger joint with ridiculous outfits and apathetic freaks as co-workers. And now I'll complain about the work outfit because it is simply terrible . A cow hat with a chicken tail! Oh come on! Were the writers trying to find new ways to humiliate Buffy, because the outfit is not funny, like a lot of this episode isn't. But the scoobies visiting Buffy at her work was nice, maybe Anya should have hinted to Willow that maybe she too should get a job and stop mooching off of Buffy. But at least we get a quick mention of Buffy's stint as a waitress in L.A, unfortunately with some small retconning. And then we have a visit from Spike, manipulation and double entendres, but at least the shirt looks good on him while I'd like to feed him a sandwich because of the sunken cheeks. His comment about Buffy getting a job to prove she's normal is not true, she needs the job to live, to eat, to keep a roof over her head and to support a whining klepto sister and a recovering magic (crack) addict friend . Then later we get Buffy and Spike humping in a dirty alley in the midst of trash cans. There is nothing “sexy” about it and it's highly unhygienic . Buffy looks sad and distant, and couldn't the ME (Mutant Enemy) do even one episode without spuffy sex in it cause it did nothing to the story (what little of it there was) and I could have lived without seeing it. Finally something worth watching happens when Halfrek appears and scares the crap out of Xander. Her headtilts and hmms are funny as Anya explains why she's marrying Xander. In their next discussion Halfrek gets Anya to doubt her upcoming marriage and it should have been dealt more thoroughly because both her and Xander obviously have their doubts about it. In the beginning when Anya makes her speech about capitalism and Willow states that he will have to listen to her 'for the rest of your life' Xander looks a little freaked and later he seems to be pretty concerned about the fact that Anya's face looked like Halfrek's when she was a vengeance demon. Also Willow's situation wasn't handled properly. She's still suffering from magic(=drug) withdrawal being jittery and unable to concentrate, it's really getting old . I liked that Amy wanted her cage back, but that was the end of things that are likable about her. She gives Willow a magic(=crack) fix, but other than Willow melting things and being jittery there is no consequences of it. That really should have been dealt with, but at least it gave Willow an excuse to throw Amy out of her life cause the “If you really are my friend you better stay away from me. And you really aren't, you better stay away from me” was a cool moment for her. And again Dawn has nothing useful to do. It looks like her only purpose in this episode is to tell Buffy she smells funny and call her loser to Xander because she won't be a lawyer and has to work in a minimum wage job to support her shoplifting ass . Again I wonder why Buffy couldn't get a better job, I know she has no college education, but she's young, smart and strong so I believe she could have gotten a job somewhere else than a burger joint. Even though I liked the brief mention of her working as a waitress in LA, it didn't look like the diner had any 'funny funny health code violations', maybe I'm just become more distrustful of the writers, but maybe the retconning was a attempt to explain why Buffy didn't get a job somewhere else, like “look, she worked in a crappy place before so that's why she only got a demeaning job in a place like DMP now”. Or maybe I've just lost my fate in the writers after I've heard the shit that Jane Espenson and Marti Noxon spouted in interviews during the sixth season. To me it looks like DMP is the one with the 'funny funny health code violations' because I doubt cut human fingers in the grinder are really acceptable. Which makes me wonder whose finger it was, in a typical Btvs fashion the only guy that is nice to Buffy gets killed, but Gary was killed in the back alley so how would his finger end up into the grinder ? But at least it was an excuse for Willow to do something useful. And then we have the climax, if it can be called that, Buffy returns to the Doublemeat Palace to investigate and finds Manny's severed foot. What I don't understand is why does she keep carrying it around. And then we have the worst demon in the show's history, a crossbreed between alien (the thing that burst through the chest), a penis and a thing from a D-horror movie, nothing was done right with the demon and on top of it all it squirts fluids at it's victim. All I can say is: Oh come on! The fact that the old lady is the demon comes out of nowhere and the whole set up is just simply bad. And like most of this episode even the 'demon trying to kill Buffy' scene is slow and boring. I don't know if Willow rambling on in the intercom while Buffy's “fighting” the demon was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't and it's gnawing at Buffy's shoulder was pretty disturbing. And then it is the lesbian that defeats and kills the penis demon , not the slayer because she doesn't defeat it until the 15th episode and again I have to say: come on! The ending is... surprisingly: boring, but it tells a lot about Buffy's integrity that she just asks for her job back (a job she doesn't even like) instead of blackmailing money with the information that she's not supposed to know . But all in all this episode just leaves a sour taste to my mouth, it has lots of wasted potential, it's not funny, it's not dramatic and if I worked in a fast food place I'd be insulted. The workers were just apathetic and weirdos all on their own, they weren't under the influence of the demon or a spell, and Manny who was acting strangely and suspiciously, not caring about employees just suddenly disappearing without a reason, wasn't connected to the demon in any way and that's just bad . At least they could have made him the demon's supplier or something to explain his actions, but no. This was just a waste of 40 + minutes and it did nothing to further the story except give Buffy a job. 4 +

Title to 2nd Worst of the series. Title to Worst of the 6th season.

Previous episode

Screencaps

Back to HomePage

Back to Season 6

Next episode