I Robot ... You Jane

Written by Ashley Gable & Thomas A. Swyden

Directed by Stephen Posey

Original Air Date 4/28/97

"I Robot..." is a high-concept episode that tries to reach deep and ultimately fails. This is a personal bias, but my basic rule on Buffy is that any episode centering around Willow is going to be a downer. Willow is a downer and she remains so for seven season. The only episode centering around her worth watching is "Tabula Rasa."

The story uses technology circa 1997 as a Macguffin. The gang is scanning books into the library computer, and one of the books, unknown to the gang, has the demon Moloch locked inside it. The only way to release Moloch is to read the book, which the scanner does, releasing Moloch onto the Internet.

Moloch disguises himself online as Malcolm and begins courting Willow, who of course is stupid enough to fall for it hook, line and sinker. She is upset with Buffy, because Buffy doesn't buy into her online relationship. As is almost always the case, Willow is upset by Buffy's skepticism, even though Buffy is right.

The key element to this episode is that it's the getting to know you episode of Miss Calendar, the computer science teacher who will eventually become Giles' girlfriend, only to the be killed by Angel in a most brutal fashion in season two. The killing off of central characters in the Buffyverse is key to its success, but like Jonathan in season seven, I was aghast at the death of Miss Calendar after she became the second-most effective adult on the show, after Giles.

The episode means well. It carries on the debate about information and access to it, Giles coming from the party that believes information should be attained through books, where the smell and texture of them gives sensory context to learning. Miss Calendar speaks for "today's" generation, people my age who have grown up with computers who understand their flaws, but also understand they are now the primary conduit from which information is passed.

To watch most Buffy episodes is to get a timelessness. They don't date easily, because they primarily stay locked into a constructed world that could just as easily have been a few years ago as a few years from now.

Throwing computers into the mix changes that. The episode looks, feels and sounds dated, and of all the episodes this one holds up least best to any kind of scrutiny because, well, it's so 1997.

Willow and computers is a theme in Buffy throughout high school, before reappearing the deeper Willow gets into Wicca. Intentionally or otherwise, the early episodes in the series establish Willow's desire for power. She is envious of Buffy for the native power Buffy possesses, and like all mortals, Willow has to seek out her own arena to get her own power. Computers get her started down this route before she becomes a very powerful witch.

After the first three or four episodes, I did not care for Willow, a theme that would continue for seven years watching the show. Whedon and company would have done Buffy fans a great service killing Willow off when they had the chance in season six, but instead played up a ham-handed redemption theme throughout the schizophrenic season seven. Willow's shallowness is preserved in every season, though it probably peaks in season four's Halloween episode during her "I'm not your side-kick" speech.

Basic rules of Buffy establish that any episodes centering on Xander, Spike, Cordelia and Anya are going to be good, whereas episodes centering on Willow, Oz, Angel, or Riley are not going to be good. Exceptions can be found to this idea, but for the most part it holds steady throghout the shows run.

I guess Willow, Oz, Angel and Riley are the writers' attempts at giving us a bit of soapy melodrama. Some fans are massive Angel fetishists, as would be evidenced by the good following Angel's spinoff received. However, the Buffyverse retains homeostasis only when the recognition of Buffy's power is preserved and when due credit is given. Willow off-sets that power and her episodes are annoying at best, off-putting in their more extreme.