Summary: Here is the Hellmouth Podcast for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, Season 4 Episode 5 - Beer Bad. This podcast will go down in Hellmouth Empire History as one of the darker days in our empires glorious volumes of Whedonhood. But alas here it is for your listening entertainment if that is what you want to call it. HMPC 0405 “Beer Bad” - Buffy The Vampire Slayer * Hello Sunnydale and welcome to the Hellmouth Podcast for the Buffy The Vampire Slayer Series, Season 4 Episode 5 titled “Beer Bad” * 2-Minute Buffy * Willow and Oz go through some tough times in this episode as they see the band Shy at the bronze, with lead singer Veruca (that girl is poison) * Seems that there is the tiniest bit of distancing happening. * Xander has found decent employment as the bartender at the college pub and is really taking this role seriously in terms of how it will make him popular and get him chicks. * Buffy is STILL not over Parker *bastard. But fortunately this storyline is going to come to an end somewhat by the end of this episode. * Buffy sees Parker at the local pub and it is depressing. She meets up with some other equally obnoxious college guys and drinks her sorrows away. * Turns out beer is good, its foamy and it also is a recipe for turning college kids into cavemen and women. * Parker tries to put the moves on Willow who shoots him down just in time to be trapped in a fiery inferno with the newly created cavemen. * Buffy saves them all including Parker unfortunately. * Xander will have to find another job, Parker will have to find another conquest, and Buffy will have to find some aspirin but when she wakes up in the morning she will be over Parker and we can all breathe a sigh of relief… * End Episode * Missy’s Fun Facts from Down Under * Xander's fake ID is a mock-up of an Ohio driver's license, with a zip code (43226) located on the far north side of Columbus. * Kal Penn stars in this episode as a Caveman/fratguy.(Of Harold and Kumar fame) * Right after the opening credits, when they show a shot of outside the campus, you can see Buffy in the bottom left corner of the screen. It is from when first episode of season four when she's outside looking confused (the scene with the colored folders). * The music video Buffy was watching was Luscious Jackson's video for "Lady Fingers." Jill Cunniff, one of the vocalists for the band, knew Joss Whedon as a child (Mentioned in issue #5 of the official BtVS magazine). * The name of Veruca's band is Shy, but the music is actually done by the real band THC. * This episode received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series in the 52nd Annual Emmy Awards. * So let’s get to the disussion * Buffy explores the ID * Parker is the ID to some extent * Buffy has the opportunity to save or leave Parker in the fire and in her cave-woman state she saves him. * Buffy’s dream at beginning of episode comes true * Interesting statement that Buffy makes when she says that she “knew what Parker was” before she slept with him. * The college kids in this episode remind me of Good Will Hunting. They really play up the superiority aspect of college kids. Then when they turn into cavemen they are idiots. * Once they turn into cavemen there is a period of this episode that feels a little bit like caveman antics are filler. * Xander takes a step towards figuring out who he is if he isn’t a college kid. * The scene with Parker and Willow makes me hate him even more. * Oz and Willow go to Bronze, Veruca’s band is playing and then Oz sits in with them. She is almost hypnotizing to him * Rate the episode * Bonus point for Buffy hitting Parker on the head with a stick to bring this storyline to a close. * Bonus point for so many classic Buffy moments and quotes in one episode. * Bonus point for Willow calling Parker to the carpet * Lose a point for Oz’s behavior.
