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Wednesday discovered the Angel S1 Writers Hoodwinked the Audience (& Vertigo is gone!)
Now, I just have to decide if I want to keep the ENT appointment on Monday. I'm thinking it's probably a good idea, since I've had the vertigo twice this fall - and both times associated with severe sinus congestion and weather fluctuations.
But, it's nice that it is blessedly gone now. The pills I was taking for it - really did help. Along with the nasal spray.
Already decided to switch the Personal Day from Friday to Monday. Works better all around.
Buffy S4/Angel S1 Rewatch
It's worth keeping in mind that the two shows have definitively different tones and are different genres. Angel is paranormal horror noir, while Buffy is paranormal horror romance (well, romantic horror at any rate).
Angel S1 makes it a lot clearer than I thought, mainly because the Angel fandom kept insisting it was the Classical Hero's Journey (all evidence to the contrary). I can kind of see why they thought that? And Whedon didn't help. But if anything they are undercutting that trope in Angel.
Blind Date, the 21st episode of Angel S1 - is another WRH episode, which are by far the best episodes in the season. And it is an arc episode.
The episode has all the main arc players except for Kate (who I think the writers were re-thinking as a potential romance at this point, Angel isn't really a romance? Nor does Angel really need one?). Gunn is there instead of Kate, in the thankless role of distraction - playing up the stereotypes.
What is interesting about the episode is how cleverly the writers manage to hoodwink their audience. I didn't realize they did it - when I first watched ages ago, when it aired live. I wished I had, I would have kept watching, instead of jumping in and out of it like I did - skipping episodes. When I first saw it live, and even the second time I saw it prior to seeing Season 4, I didn't see the twist. They completely fooled me along with the fandom. I thought the episode was lame and it annoyed me. Now that I see the twist. It's kind of hilarious and rather clever. And perfectly foils the characters. I see it now, of course. After having seen S5 several times, it's pretty obvious - but it wasn't then.
Holland (one of the Partners) comes to the earnest and power hungry, Junior Associate, Lindsey (portrayed with wide-eyed innocence by Christian Kane later of Leverage fame), with an assignment. He's supposed to find a way to get a blind assassin cleared of killing three blind kids who are seerers.
Find some sort of avenue to get her cleared of this horrible up-coming crime.
Lindsey, horrified, predictably goes running off to Angel to get him to save the poor kids. But to do so - they have to break into WRH Law Firm. Lindsey comes up with the plan to break in to WRH's fault in order to get the files on the kids and where they are, and how to save them from the blind assassin. Lindsey lets Angel know that he needs a diversion - a vampiric one - since WRH has in place "detection of when a vampire is on the premises". Angel hires Gunn and Gunn provides the vampire diversion.
Everything is in place - Lindsey and Angel break in. Angel goes downstairs takes the files, puts them in the brief case...except for one problem? He sees an ancient scroll container hanging there, is drawn to it, and immediately grabs it. (Angel: oh, cool scroll in evil law firm safe, I think I'll grab it.) He sets off the alarms, resulting in Lindsey being detained along with the other Junior Associates, and takes off. Meanwhile, Holland has mind readers read the Junior Associates, and surprisingly kill the annoying disposable one (btw all three including Holland die before the end of the series, which I find interesting in retrospect), is killed in front of Lindsey and Lilah. And Lindsey is kept behind - they basically tell Lindsey that they know what he did. But they don't kill him, more to the point - they let him go find Angel and continue with his plan to save the kids.
And I'm thinking - damn, that's what this was about all along? WRH wanted Angel to grab their scroll about the Shanshu Prophecy?? Why didn't I see it the first round? WRH didn't care about the kids or the assassin, they just wanted Angel to grab that scroll. To be fair to WRH, they'd tried just about everything to get rid of that pesky Angel - and finally decided to play hard ball and manipulate him. And they used killing of the kids to manipulate or hoodwink Lindsey into persuading Angel to break into their fault. Cleverly, they don't tell Angel about the scroll - they just let it hang there for him to accidentally see - and leave it up to Angel to grab it or not. And Angel being Angel, he can't refuse. It's his fatal flaw - it's about him and calls to him.
And since we're in Angel and Lindsey's pov, we don't see it. Also, it's cleverly done - Lindsey doesn't know about the scroll. We don't know about it. It's placed with other artifacts. It's easily dismissed. And Angel, Wes, Cordy and Lindsey (if he was ever told about it) would most likely think WRH didn't want Angel to get it and was hiding it from him. After all it has an alarm on it.
So I think, maybe I'm wrong about this? But this is so noir, and there needs to be a twist, even if its a bad twist. All the other episodes have one, even the Faith episodes. Maybe it's the kids. (It's not the kids - they save them, they are cute little kids, there's no twist in there with the kids and the assassine.)
At the end of the episode though - comes the twist. Lindsey approaches Holland, believing he's fired, and delivers the files stating he has copies and enough on WRH that they need to just leave him alone. All he wants is out. Holland smiles slyly, and says, "you thought you were fired? No, we're not firing you. We're promoting you. You can even have my office if you decide to stay. It's up to you. I choose you because you have potential. Choose to walk through those doors, shut them and stay or leave up to you.
Great job by the way. I've been promoted and am going upstairs."
Meanwhile, Wes, as predicted has deciphered part of the scroll and determined that it is about Angel, and the kids are in the scroll...which is the Shanshu Prophecy.
The Writers hoodwinked the audience, and WRF hoodwinked Angel. It's not perfectly done - I actually think they did it too well, because a good portion of the fandom truly bought the shanshu prophecy hook line and sinker and still does. Which is hilarious once you see it? (I don't know why I didn't years ago - it's kind of obvious now.) And very noir - lots of 1930s and 40s cliff-hanger adventure noir films, and novels did this sort of trope over and over. The Noir Hero finds a secret scroll that he believes will save him, if he accomplishes these things...except...it just leads to his doom (and unfortunately everyone around him who also buys into it). Or he has to sacrifice it - in order to save himself. (See Indiana Jones and the Mummy films.) I can see the fatal flaws in Wes, Cordelia, Gunn, Lindsey and Angel in this season...that inevitably lead to their downfall.
It's a clever twist - but to pick up on it, you have to watch the last scene with Holland and Lindsey closely, and it's not quite as well written as others. May be why so many people missed it?
Buffy S4: New Moon Rising - there's several things the writers need to accomplish in this episode. In a way, Blind Date is easier? I liked it a lot better, because it's nice and twisty, and they hoodwink the lead characters and audience. And once you see it - it's hilarious. I love episodes like that. With hidden twists. Even if I don't see it until years later and I was also hoodwinked. I think I would have enjoyed the series more the first go-around, if I'd seen the twist and not been hoodwinked.
In New Moon Rising - they need to somehow get Adam and Spike together. Also firmly shut the door on the Willow/Oz romance, and open it on the Willow/Tara (also firmly state that this is a romantic relationship and have Willow come out of the closet to Buffy). And, get Riley to cut ties with the Initiative. (Not to worry, he returns in S5. Take the boy out of the military, but you can't take the military out of the boy - which is kind of clear in this episode.)
It's a very plotty episode, so not the best. Much like S3 - the arc episodes aren't as good. The problem here is Riley/Adam and the Initiative, while in S3 it was the Mayor/Faith (although I liked the Mayor/Faith better than Riley/Adam - I like S4 better than S3, mainly due to the characters, and the situation).
That said - this episode is among the better arc episodes, and works better than a lot of the previous ones did in hitting all the crucial points. Not sure who wrote it? Ah, Marti Noxon. (Jeannine Renishaw wrote Blind Date Angel s1). Explains a lot. Noxon wrote Willow/Tara the best.
Oz/Willow/Tara - the Buffy writers are not fans of the love triangle. They kill it before it ever takes off. Seth Green more or less hands the reigns over to Amber Benson, by wanting out of the show and asking to be written out in early part of S4. He agrees to come back for one episode. (Interestingly enough he is open to reprising the roll in the sequel being filmed now. Make of that what you will.) In doing so, he unwittingly saves his character from "death by writer to advance a lead character's arc", because he left too soon. If he was willing to wait another year or two - he'd have been killed off. (Whedon liked the idea of turning Willow dark and had plotted that out in S3. Whomever Willow was with, Whedon would kill off to turn Willow dark. It probably would have been a wee bit more politically correct and less controversial - if it had been Oz.) Amber and Hannigan had great chemistry - and they were able to do a lot with them without showing all that much, and used magic as the metaphor for sex - far more than I remembered. (This also becomes problematic later, and may have been a wee bit short-sighted on the writers part. If you are going to use magic as a metaphor for Lesbian or Gay sex, you might not want to use it as a metaphor for power addiction not that long later (as in mid-S5?).) Let's face it - the whole Willow storyline is problematic. Is she bi-sexual or lesbian? I think bi-sexual via what I've seen in S4. She's attracted to both Oz and Tara. And is she addicted to magic or just poorly trained ?(Giles is not much of a teacher - he refuses to commit.) I don't think the writers know? And I think Whedon was "enamored" of the actress - too enamored, and that led to all sorts of issues relating to her arc, that may not have been an issue if he'd been a little less enamored.
Rumor has it that Benson and Hannigan didn't get along, partly due to the toxic set and Whedon's favoritism of certain actresses over others - according to more than one source, he pitted women against each other. And Benson strongly backed this, while Hannigan stayed silent. Nor are either in contact. Also, Whedon stated on Wild at Heart Commentary with Green, while they were in the midst of filming S6, that oddly enough there's better chemistry when people don't get along, although Oz/Willow were cute.
Green was commenting on his relationship with Willow, and how the actors had been friends previously and were comfortable with each other - and I thought at the time Whedon was referring to Spike/Buffy, I've since realized it was Willow/Tara, since Gellar and Marsters are friends, have stayed in touch, and got along fairly well for the most part.
The other issue with Willow/Tara - is Tara has taken over the Willow role. She's socially awkward, her wardrobe choices are well..I'm wondering about the wardrobe department? Granted Buffy is wearing tight khaki leather pants at one point. So...wardrobe? And her hair? It's S1 Willow all over again.
She even speaks like S1 Willow. And she's always in danger - she's now the damsel in distress. It's like Willow has fallen in love with the socially awkward version of herself? Which doesn't quite work for me. I'd have preferred someone more badass like Faith for Willow. I'm not quite sure what the writers are doing here? Why throw a character who is less secure and almost too much like Willow at Willow, as opposed to one who is more different?
OZ in some respects worked better - since he was very different from Willow. He wasn't socially awkward. He's the epitome of cool. And he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. But, admittedly there's more you can do with magic than werewolf. So I get that aspect.
I always had mixed feelings about Willow/Tara, and admittedly liked them better in S6, when Tara was more assertive and less insecure.
Spike/Adam - Spike is playing evil Spike from S2, again. And once again stealing the scenes. Actually Adam is tolerable because of Spike. Adam offers Spike a deal - he wants the slayer to be the leader of the humans, so he can defeat her and rule the world. Spike's like, whatever mate, as long as you get my chip out and let me kill folks again.
So Adam and Spike team up to help the Scooby Gang get into the Initiative to save OZ.
But little do they know, that once Riley discovers the werewolf is actually Oz, he decides to stand up to the Initiative and save him. He ends up in the Brig, but at least Green (OZ) gets to put on some clothes. Whedon really enjoys male nudity on these shows? Honestly all the male stars but Giles get nude repeatedly on this series. Marsters thought he was safe playing the Cordelia/Villain role, but no. Female nudity isn't really shown on Buffy, Angel yes, Buffy no.
It's notable that this is OZ's last appearance, he doesn't return at all.
Small wonder. He's tortured in this episode. The Initiative isn't nice to him. Poor guy is left nude in a cell, and experimented on with electricity.
Hence the reason, Riley gives him clothes and tries to rescue him.
Spike, Buffy, Xander, and Willow save Riley and OZ. Spike manages to get them into the Initiative through a back way provided by Adam. Adam (without the knowledge of the gang) assists Anya in shutting down the system, so they can get in and out.
There's a lot of hacking into computer systems in this episode and Blind Date, they even reference that both groups are doing it.
What's interesting here - is only Oz and Buffy are told about Willow and Tara. Honestly, why Xander, Anya, Riley, and even Buffy didn't pick up on it prior to now - I don't know? It's not like they were hiding it? Oz figures it out fairly quickly. But Willow has to make it clear to Buffy.
This doesn't really date well? Or maybe it does - in that is shows how dense and ignorant people were back then about homosexual and lesbian and bisexual relationships? People see what they want to see?
Also, it doesn't occur to anyone in the Scooby Gange that Spike might be in cohoots with Adam? Other vampires are? Why not Spike? He would have more to gain? He does cover himself rather well when they ask why he's helping them. And Spike is admittedly hard to predict, he's rather opportunistic, and unpredictable. They don't know what he'll do, and he's for some reason or other not plotting their down fall or plotting to get his chip out via other means. (I honestly don't think the writers knew what to do with the character and were making it up as they went along. And left a lot up to the actor to interpret and play with. Which resulted in the actor deciding that Spike was obviously in love with Buffy and couldn't bring himself to hurt her or her friends, or being the obsessive type, couldn't leave her either - all he could think about was her - so the chip wasn't his priority, Buffy was.. I only know this because, Marsters pretty much said as much in various interviews. He couldn't come up with any other logical rational or motivation behind his character's behavior so he went with that - so he kept playing up the romantic bit, and since he was really good at sparking chemistry with the other actors, and had a lot of chemistry with Buffy - the writers went, oh, this is interesting.)
Not a great episode, but it does have some interesting tid-bits here and there. And it appears to be setting up Spike as a cool villain, who can do serious damage to the Scooby Gang by double-crossing with brains not brawn.
Also manages to set up Willow/Tara, closes the door on Willow/OZ, but leaves the door open for Oz to return to the series. (Note Oz decided to leave because of Willow and the Initiative. When she asks when he's leaving, he states "pretty much now". She's the only reason he returned, and it's clearly not safe for him to remain. So hasta la vista OZ. (And thank god, otherwise Whedon would have killed him off. Run Tara Run.)
But, it's nice that it is blessedly gone now. The pills I was taking for it - really did help. Along with the nasal spray.
Already decided to switch the Personal Day from Friday to Monday. Works better all around.
Buffy S4/Angel S1 Rewatch
It's worth keeping in mind that the two shows have definitively different tones and are different genres. Angel is paranormal horror noir, while Buffy is paranormal horror romance (well, romantic horror at any rate).
Angel S1 makes it a lot clearer than I thought, mainly because the Angel fandom kept insisting it was the Classical Hero's Journey (all evidence to the contrary). I can kind of see why they thought that? And Whedon didn't help. But if anything they are undercutting that trope in Angel.
Blind Date, the 21st episode of Angel S1 - is another WRH episode, which are by far the best episodes in the season. And it is an arc episode.
The episode has all the main arc players except for Kate (who I think the writers were re-thinking as a potential romance at this point, Angel isn't really a romance? Nor does Angel really need one?). Gunn is there instead of Kate, in the thankless role of distraction - playing up the stereotypes.
What is interesting about the episode is how cleverly the writers manage to hoodwink their audience. I didn't realize they did it - when I first watched ages ago, when it aired live. I wished I had, I would have kept watching, instead of jumping in and out of it like I did - skipping episodes. When I first saw it live, and even the second time I saw it prior to seeing Season 4, I didn't see the twist. They completely fooled me along with the fandom. I thought the episode was lame and it annoyed me. Now that I see the twist. It's kind of hilarious and rather clever. And perfectly foils the characters. I see it now, of course. After having seen S5 several times, it's pretty obvious - but it wasn't then.
Holland (one of the Partners) comes to the earnest and power hungry, Junior Associate, Lindsey (portrayed with wide-eyed innocence by Christian Kane later of Leverage fame), with an assignment. He's supposed to find a way to get a blind assassin cleared of killing three blind kids who are seerers.
Find some sort of avenue to get her cleared of this horrible up-coming crime.
Lindsey, horrified, predictably goes running off to Angel to get him to save the poor kids. But to do so - they have to break into WRH Law Firm. Lindsey comes up with the plan to break in to WRH's fault in order to get the files on the kids and where they are, and how to save them from the blind assassin. Lindsey lets Angel know that he needs a diversion - a vampiric one - since WRH has in place "detection of when a vampire is on the premises". Angel hires Gunn and Gunn provides the vampire diversion.
Everything is in place - Lindsey and Angel break in. Angel goes downstairs takes the files, puts them in the brief case...except for one problem? He sees an ancient scroll container hanging there, is drawn to it, and immediately grabs it. (Angel: oh, cool scroll in evil law firm safe, I think I'll grab it.) He sets off the alarms, resulting in Lindsey being detained along with the other Junior Associates, and takes off. Meanwhile, Holland has mind readers read the Junior Associates, and surprisingly kill the annoying disposable one (btw all three including Holland die before the end of the series, which I find interesting in retrospect), is killed in front of Lindsey and Lilah. And Lindsey is kept behind - they basically tell Lindsey that they know what he did. But they don't kill him, more to the point - they let him go find Angel and continue with his plan to save the kids.
And I'm thinking - damn, that's what this was about all along? WRH wanted Angel to grab their scroll about the Shanshu Prophecy?? Why didn't I see it the first round? WRH didn't care about the kids or the assassin, they just wanted Angel to grab that scroll. To be fair to WRH, they'd tried just about everything to get rid of that pesky Angel - and finally decided to play hard ball and manipulate him. And they used killing of the kids to manipulate or hoodwink Lindsey into persuading Angel to break into their fault. Cleverly, they don't tell Angel about the scroll - they just let it hang there for him to accidentally see - and leave it up to Angel to grab it or not. And Angel being Angel, he can't refuse. It's his fatal flaw - it's about him and calls to him.
And since we're in Angel and Lindsey's pov, we don't see it. Also, it's cleverly done - Lindsey doesn't know about the scroll. We don't know about it. It's placed with other artifacts. It's easily dismissed. And Angel, Wes, Cordy and Lindsey (if he was ever told about it) would most likely think WRH didn't want Angel to get it and was hiding it from him. After all it has an alarm on it.
So I think, maybe I'm wrong about this? But this is so noir, and there needs to be a twist, even if its a bad twist. All the other episodes have one, even the Faith episodes. Maybe it's the kids. (It's not the kids - they save them, they are cute little kids, there's no twist in there with the kids and the assassine.)
At the end of the episode though - comes the twist. Lindsey approaches Holland, believing he's fired, and delivers the files stating he has copies and enough on WRH that they need to just leave him alone. All he wants is out. Holland smiles slyly, and says, "you thought you were fired? No, we're not firing you. We're promoting you. You can even have my office if you decide to stay. It's up to you. I choose you because you have potential. Choose to walk through those doors, shut them and stay or leave up to you.
Great job by the way. I've been promoted and am going upstairs."
Meanwhile, Wes, as predicted has deciphered part of the scroll and determined that it is about Angel, and the kids are in the scroll...which is the Shanshu Prophecy.
The Writers hoodwinked the audience, and WRF hoodwinked Angel. It's not perfectly done - I actually think they did it too well, because a good portion of the fandom truly bought the shanshu prophecy hook line and sinker and still does. Which is hilarious once you see it? (I don't know why I didn't years ago - it's kind of obvious now.) And very noir - lots of 1930s and 40s cliff-hanger adventure noir films, and novels did this sort of trope over and over. The Noir Hero finds a secret scroll that he believes will save him, if he accomplishes these things...except...it just leads to his doom (and unfortunately everyone around him who also buys into it). Or he has to sacrifice it - in order to save himself. (See Indiana Jones and the Mummy films.) I can see the fatal flaws in Wes, Cordelia, Gunn, Lindsey and Angel in this season...that inevitably lead to their downfall.
It's a clever twist - but to pick up on it, you have to watch the last scene with Holland and Lindsey closely, and it's not quite as well written as others. May be why so many people missed it?
Buffy S4: New Moon Rising - there's several things the writers need to accomplish in this episode. In a way, Blind Date is easier? I liked it a lot better, because it's nice and twisty, and they hoodwink the lead characters and audience. And once you see it - it's hilarious. I love episodes like that. With hidden twists. Even if I don't see it until years later and I was also hoodwinked. I think I would have enjoyed the series more the first go-around, if I'd seen the twist and not been hoodwinked.
In New Moon Rising - they need to somehow get Adam and Spike together. Also firmly shut the door on the Willow/Oz romance, and open it on the Willow/Tara (also firmly state that this is a romantic relationship and have Willow come out of the closet to Buffy). And, get Riley to cut ties with the Initiative. (Not to worry, he returns in S5. Take the boy out of the military, but you can't take the military out of the boy - which is kind of clear in this episode.)
It's a very plotty episode, so not the best. Much like S3 - the arc episodes aren't as good. The problem here is Riley/Adam and the Initiative, while in S3 it was the Mayor/Faith (although I liked the Mayor/Faith better than Riley/Adam - I like S4 better than S3, mainly due to the characters, and the situation).
That said - this episode is among the better arc episodes, and works better than a lot of the previous ones did in hitting all the crucial points. Not sure who wrote it? Ah, Marti Noxon. (Jeannine Renishaw wrote Blind Date Angel s1). Explains a lot. Noxon wrote Willow/Tara the best.
Oz/Willow/Tara - the Buffy writers are not fans of the love triangle. They kill it before it ever takes off. Seth Green more or less hands the reigns over to Amber Benson, by wanting out of the show and asking to be written out in early part of S4. He agrees to come back for one episode. (Interestingly enough he is open to reprising the roll in the sequel being filmed now. Make of that what you will.) In doing so, he unwittingly saves his character from "death by writer to advance a lead character's arc", because he left too soon. If he was willing to wait another year or two - he'd have been killed off. (Whedon liked the idea of turning Willow dark and had plotted that out in S3. Whomever Willow was with, Whedon would kill off to turn Willow dark. It probably would have been a wee bit more politically correct and less controversial - if it had been Oz.) Amber and Hannigan had great chemistry - and they were able to do a lot with them without showing all that much, and used magic as the metaphor for sex - far more than I remembered. (This also becomes problematic later, and may have been a wee bit short-sighted on the writers part. If you are going to use magic as a metaphor for Lesbian or Gay sex, you might not want to use it as a metaphor for power addiction not that long later (as in mid-S5?).) Let's face it - the whole Willow storyline is problematic. Is she bi-sexual or lesbian? I think bi-sexual via what I've seen in S4. She's attracted to both Oz and Tara. And is she addicted to magic or just poorly trained ?(Giles is not much of a teacher - he refuses to commit.) I don't think the writers know? And I think Whedon was "enamored" of the actress - too enamored, and that led to all sorts of issues relating to her arc, that may not have been an issue if he'd been a little less enamored.
Rumor has it that Benson and Hannigan didn't get along, partly due to the toxic set and Whedon's favoritism of certain actresses over others - according to more than one source, he pitted women against each other. And Benson strongly backed this, while Hannigan stayed silent. Nor are either in contact. Also, Whedon stated on Wild at Heart Commentary with Green, while they were in the midst of filming S6, that oddly enough there's better chemistry when people don't get along, although Oz/Willow were cute.
Green was commenting on his relationship with Willow, and how the actors had been friends previously and were comfortable with each other - and I thought at the time Whedon was referring to Spike/Buffy, I've since realized it was Willow/Tara, since Gellar and Marsters are friends, have stayed in touch, and got along fairly well for the most part.
The other issue with Willow/Tara - is Tara has taken over the Willow role. She's socially awkward, her wardrobe choices are well..I'm wondering about the wardrobe department? Granted Buffy is wearing tight khaki leather pants at one point. So...wardrobe? And her hair? It's S1 Willow all over again.
She even speaks like S1 Willow. And she's always in danger - she's now the damsel in distress. It's like Willow has fallen in love with the socially awkward version of herself? Which doesn't quite work for me. I'd have preferred someone more badass like Faith for Willow. I'm not quite sure what the writers are doing here? Why throw a character who is less secure and almost too much like Willow at Willow, as opposed to one who is more different?
OZ in some respects worked better - since he was very different from Willow. He wasn't socially awkward. He's the epitome of cool. And he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. But, admittedly there's more you can do with magic than werewolf. So I get that aspect.
I always had mixed feelings about Willow/Tara, and admittedly liked them better in S6, when Tara was more assertive and less insecure.
Spike/Adam - Spike is playing evil Spike from S2, again. And once again stealing the scenes. Actually Adam is tolerable because of Spike. Adam offers Spike a deal - he wants the slayer to be the leader of the humans, so he can defeat her and rule the world. Spike's like, whatever mate, as long as you get my chip out and let me kill folks again.
So Adam and Spike team up to help the Scooby Gang get into the Initiative to save OZ.
But little do they know, that once Riley discovers the werewolf is actually Oz, he decides to stand up to the Initiative and save him. He ends up in the Brig, but at least Green (OZ) gets to put on some clothes. Whedon really enjoys male nudity on these shows? Honestly all the male stars but Giles get nude repeatedly on this series. Marsters thought he was safe playing the Cordelia/Villain role, but no. Female nudity isn't really shown on Buffy, Angel yes, Buffy no.
It's notable that this is OZ's last appearance, he doesn't return at all.
Small wonder. He's tortured in this episode. The Initiative isn't nice to him. Poor guy is left nude in a cell, and experimented on with electricity.
Hence the reason, Riley gives him clothes and tries to rescue him.
Spike, Buffy, Xander, and Willow save Riley and OZ. Spike manages to get them into the Initiative through a back way provided by Adam. Adam (without the knowledge of the gang) assists Anya in shutting down the system, so they can get in and out.
There's a lot of hacking into computer systems in this episode and Blind Date, they even reference that both groups are doing it.
What's interesting here - is only Oz and Buffy are told about Willow and Tara. Honestly, why Xander, Anya, Riley, and even Buffy didn't pick up on it prior to now - I don't know? It's not like they were hiding it? Oz figures it out fairly quickly. But Willow has to make it clear to Buffy.
This doesn't really date well? Or maybe it does - in that is shows how dense and ignorant people were back then about homosexual and lesbian and bisexual relationships? People see what they want to see?
Also, it doesn't occur to anyone in the Scooby Gange that Spike might be in cohoots with Adam? Other vampires are? Why not Spike? He would have more to gain? He does cover himself rather well when they ask why he's helping them. And Spike is admittedly hard to predict, he's rather opportunistic, and unpredictable. They don't know what he'll do, and he's for some reason or other not plotting their down fall or plotting to get his chip out via other means. (I honestly don't think the writers knew what to do with the character and were making it up as they went along. And left a lot up to the actor to interpret and play with. Which resulted in the actor deciding that Spike was obviously in love with Buffy and couldn't bring himself to hurt her or her friends, or being the obsessive type, couldn't leave her either - all he could think about was her - so the chip wasn't his priority, Buffy was.. I only know this because, Marsters pretty much said as much in various interviews. He couldn't come up with any other logical rational or motivation behind his character's behavior so he went with that - so he kept playing up the romantic bit, and since he was really good at sparking chemistry with the other actors, and had a lot of chemistry with Buffy - the writers went, oh, this is interesting.)
Not a great episode, but it does have some interesting tid-bits here and there. And it appears to be setting up Spike as a cool villain, who can do serious damage to the Scooby Gang by double-crossing with brains not brawn.
Also manages to set up Willow/Tara, closes the door on Willow/OZ, but leaves the door open for Oz to return to the series. (Note Oz decided to leave because of Willow and the Initiative. When she asks when he's leaving, he states "pretty much now". She's the only reason he returned, and it's clearly not safe for him to remain. So hasta la vista OZ. (And thank god, otherwise Whedon would have killed him off. Run Tara Run.)