Buffy the Vampire Slayer S1 EP8

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Season 1 Episode 8

"I Robot...You Jane"

Original Airdate: April 28, 1997

Summary: In 1418, a group of Italian priests use magick to trap the demon Moloch in a book, only to be released if the book is ever read aloud. In 1997 Sunnydale, the computer teacher, Ms. Calendar, is working on a project to digitally scan all the books in the library. When a new arrival, in a strange language, is scanned, Moloch is released into the computer... and into every computer connected to it. Now Buffy must face Moloch's human minions, while Giles must figure out how to exorcise a demon from the Internet.

Meanwhile, Willow meets a nice boy online. His name is Malcolm...

Review:  Another weak episode of the season, another movie-of-the-week episode, this time it's centered around Willow. She gets her first "boyfriend," someone she met online. It just goes to show that sometimes online dating is not always a good thing, however this was several years ago when this episode came out and online dating was sincerely frowned upon, anyway more on the episode. Now that Willow has someone in her life, Xander is jealous. But still something is just off about this guy.  Buffy notices that it's not just Willow, but 2 of the other "computer geeks" are also acting weird. 

One thing I love about this episode is the sexual tension between Jenny Calendar and Rupert Giles. This is where they begin. I remember when I first saw this episode and Giles said "There's a demon in the internet" and Jenny said "I know." I immediately thought that she planted the book, and then we find out that she is a technopagan. Awesome! 

This is a great Willow episode, mostly I have no complaints, just that in the end it gets hard to see. The color is not as bad as most, only in a few spots. The story line is a little weak, but the over all message of the episode is pretty clear. Careful with the people you meet online. I give this episode a 6/10.

Quote of the Episode: 

Xander: I mean... sure, he says he is a high school student -- but I could say I'm a high school student.
Buffy: You are.
Xander: Okay, but I could also say that I'm an elderly Dutch woman... Get me? And who's to say I'm not if I'm in the elderly Dutch chat room?
Buffy: I get your point... (beat) I get your point! This guy could be anybody -- I mean he could be weird, or crazy, or old, or... he could be a circus freak -- he's probably a circus freak!