I actually think this episode was needed not for season 4, but for season 5. With Dawn's introduction to the group, and how one spell can change everyone's perception and memory of one person, I think it helps with making it feel less out of the blue. It established the idea more for the audience.

Of course Buffy was affected more than everyone else by Jonathan inserting himself into everyone's memories as the hero of every story. They all kept their status as support, and comic relief sidekicks, but Buffy had to drop down to that level too, in order for Jonathan to elevate himself.

"A world with nothing but shrimp. I tired of that one quickly." Well played, Ian! Well played.

Jonathan was the one who handed Buffy the protector trophy. He idealises Buffy, but he is also jealous of her. It is not hard to see where he comes from. Being the one who other people can choose to be kind to or ignore at their leisure must be hard. Therefore, he wants to make himself Buffy and make Buffy into himself.

Using Jonathan for a story twist like this actually proves how resourceful this show is. I always say, even Harmony had an arc that had some sort of meaning in this show.

Did anyone else think when they first saw superstar episode its like they missed an episode or something, very unique episode.

I love how this show takes characters that would just reccurr one time in any other show, and make them have regular appearances and hell, even own plotlines.

Buffy: I guess people didn't like being the little actors in your Sock Puppet Theatre. Jonathan: No. You weren't socks. We were friends.

Loooooooved the suggested foreshadowing of who Jonathan may have met in counselling! Such a lovely, subtle way to plot future character and plot development.

I like this episode mainly because I struggle to think of any other show that could get away with an episode in which a character who had previously been basically an extra, becomes a mary sue self-insert within the plot. This kind of bizarre experimental attitude is one of my favorite things about Buffy in general. It's also why I think season four is highly underrated, as it features the highest proportion of weird experimental episodes, and most of them are really good.

Remember when Danny Strong won the Emmy for writing that movie about Sarah Palin? When he was on stage giving his speech I was thinking of this episode.

oh my goodness the "counseling for troubled kids" thing!! i've never thought about that before. i'm rewatching season 6 so the trio is fresh in my mind and WOW that makes sense.

That "Wonder who else he might have met there" at the end literally made my brain have a little explosion at the end like woah. I've watched this show so many times and always just kind of thought of that as a throw away line. But it could indeed be the set up for The Trio in season 6. I think yes they knew one another from school but the therapy could easily be a way they re-connected and what brought their pain to the surface and a chance for revenge.

Fantasy Johnathan didn't flinch when he figured out killing the demon would turn him back into a dweeb. It wasn't enough to be seen as a hero, he wanted to actually be one.

"You know, Andrews brother."

Brad Kane is also the singing voice of Disney's Aladdin

i've always said this is one of the more underrated episodes. all he ever wanted was a sense of camaraderie and fulfillment but god forbid they should acknowledge his existence for more than two seconds. as such, he fell in with the wrong crowd and wound up dead. he deserved so much better

To add to the “punishment for Buffy saving him” theory. There is mention in this episode of Buffy giving Jonathan the class protector award. She is made grateful for his presence and not the other way around.

Jonathan's walk in the intro = Angel intro

Maybe Buffy's abilities were reduced so the actual slayer can't meddle with the curse. As proven, if anyone can break it, it's her.

Rewarded for staying up late.

Also, Jonathan claimed Buffy's class protector umbrella as his, doublt painful cause he actually gave it to her :(

I really appreciate your perspective on Buffy and Riley having both been uniquely wronged by Faith. I also always appreciate your ability to separate a character’s behavior within a plot from that behavior’s objective morality. As you pointed out, Buffy’s reaction to Riley’s assault may have been wrong and misguided, but it was very human, realistic, and served the broader plot and ethical discussion we are having now.

I never realized the counseling could have been where he met Andrew or Warren. When I thought about that line I was usually distracted by if I could be disappointed in Buffy or if that was unfair to her. Not to say she owed him her attention, but why didn't they ever hang out after this episode? Jonathan gave up everything he gained from the spell when he learned the monster put people in danger, and he did want friends instead of puppets. He's a good guy and lonely and Buffy helped him from a suicide attempt, and she isn't bitter at the end of the episode and cutting him off as punishment--it's more like she doesn't even think about how much he wants friends when she walks away and never looks back. If he had other friends, he never would have gotten involved with villainy in S6. It would have been in character for her to be supportive and friendly to an underdog, see Willow, so acknowledging him at the clocktower and here and then brushing him off as not her problem seems odd. Just his whole speech in S7 before Andrew... Jonathan cares. If only he'd had a chance. And it felt like this here could have been a chance!

spike and angel are both pretty hairless too, no?

I love just about everything about this episode except for Adam, and even that was purely wasted potential. I actually really like the dialogue between Adam and his vampire buddy, and I feel like his entire storyline would have been so much better if he’d had that guy to bounce his dialogue off of instead of just monologuing everything. Also, I was kind of hoping that since Adam and Buffy are the only two that can sense that something is wrong with this timeline, that they would have to work together to get back to normal. Could have been some interesting debate and philosophy about motivation there - Buffy would be doing it out of care for her friends and a desire to not be controlled, whereas Adam would be doing it purely in search of The Truth. Ah well. Season 4 be season 4.

Oh My Chuck I didn't know God was in this episode

This episode introduced me to Serenade in Blue, for which I'll be eternally grateful.

Yeah, a new Buffy video!! I discovered your channel a few months ago and, of course, it gave me the urge to dive again into the wonderful world of Sunnydale... Thanks a lot for that and for your comments, always interesting and clever... Rediscovering the show after a few years, I notice that I see it differently as I gain life experience and "wisdom"... Again, thanks for your work, so nice to have a virtual companion in this adventure!

I cannot even begin to express how excited I get when I see a new TPN Buffy or Angel guide uploaded. It is an embarrassingly high level of excitement.

I always thought the most interesting thing about this episode was that it makes the audience the focus of the morality narrative. Superstar took a character/actor who most viewers don't remember exists on the first time through and used them to explore the perils of enacting the heroic fantasies which draw the vicarious viewers of the superhero genre. Jonathan's struggles with self-esteem, benign normality and ongoing yet mostly forgotten presence make him a great choice as an embodiment of that audience. It's the place most of us come from when we watch superhero films. His motivation to want to make himself the real-life superhero is believable and substantiated in canon, but also the literal, extreme fulfilment of what viewers of superhero shows and films go for. The way his fantasy plays out in mostly real-world terms further emphasises that this episode is aimed at criticising and warning the audience about their actual fantasies. Despite being such a fantastical episode, it actually steps more directly into the audience's world than the normal Buffy approach of shrouding within superhero metaphor through the use of Jonathan. It's also another example of Buffy the show's self-awareness and self-critique in that it's criticising those of its own viewers who are watching the show for the wrong reasons: I.e. As wish-fulfilment rather than morality and the acceptance of adult responsibility. Perhaps that's what makes it an uncomfortable watch at times: calling the audience out on its fantasies. This episode was a powerful contrast of the standard 'isnt power great?!' superhero wish fulfilment with the depth of Buffy's very serious, human superhero depiction. Buffy's approach is the idea of superheroism as a burden and a responsibility rather than a joyride. The Dark Knight is probably the best Buffy-like comparison in terms of superheroism with consequences. Superstar does rather come from leftfield in terms of the season arc but it does a solid job of demonstrating how power always has consequences, no matter how thorough your spell might be.

I so hoped Jonathan would have become a major/recurring cast member after this eps. He would have been a good addition to the gang and a perfect play off of Xander

Buffy in this episode to me always felt reminiscent of her when her powers were taken to go through the ritual ordered by the watchers council. (Before she knows what happened.) She lost a lot of her confidence when she suddenly couldn't access her full power, when things like throwing weapons didn't simply come from an instinctual level. (Keep in mind that most Slayers would start their training as children and be technically proficient before they ever gain their powers. Buffy's example shows that the training is kind of superfluous when it comes right down to it. But it seems like there are inconsistencies on that point.) I'm not sure Jonathan meant to depower her but if he wanted to be the class protector in her stead, he needed a power vacuum to slip into. What happened to the actor who really starred in "The Matrix" in this universe? We'll never know because he's more invisible to us than Jonathan ever was. He doesn't matter for the series. He is completely out of the picture. The people around Buffy maintain arguably more of their selves because they are not the ones taking the role Jonathan wanted. I often puzzled over the way Angel developed throughout the Buffy and Angel series. Compare his self from the first season of Buffy to the way he acts on Angel and you may wonder how those can be depictions of the same character. Buffy in a universe centered around Jonathan can't be empowered in the same way. She is blocked from her natural path. I rambled on for quite some time now and I start wondering if I even made sense. Some of my original thoughts that I wanted to state have vanished, other thoughts have weaseled in. I'll just end it here.

THESE ARE LIES

Considering how successful Danny Strong ended up, it's sort of like we're living in a version of this episode in real life.

I felt bad about getting up late until I picked up my phone, saw this was online and realised had gone out to go be a human on time I would have had to wait until I got home to watch it. Yay oversleeping!

“Andrew’s brother”??? I think you mean Tucker’s brother’s brother.

"These are lies" is such a good meme.

While I do completely understand and agree with your assessment of Buffy being sidelined in this episode (and I have issues with Jonathan's relationship with the twins due to the idea of consent under deception / mind control), I do like this episode because it commentates not just on "Mary Sue" author insert characters, but also on the decades of main characters being male fantasies: James Bond, Batman, Luke Skywalker, Scott Pilgrim. More often than not, people just call male 'Mary Sue' characters "The Hero/Chosen One." Meanwhile, female characters like Buffy and Wonder Woman and Rey are constantly questioned and written off as Mary Sues. I also felt like it commented how the women around these men are often infantilized or made into damsel to make the men appear more capable, even when the female characters are more capable in the actual text (aka the Trinity Syndrome). But yeah, they definitely could have had this without completely humiliating Buffy.

I LOVE it when shows change up their intros. Also, love how Johnathon has always been there from the beginning.

I love this episode, Jane Espenson is my favorite writer of the show, not counting Joss Whedon.

Good review. Strangely for me. I always forget about this episode in my rewatches, despite how important it would be for later in the series.

Arrows felt like a theme for this episode, the subtext if you will ;)

Buffy had to change so much because the spell Jonathan cast made him the center of his universe. And *his universe* isn't *our* universe. He lived in the Buffyverse, of which Buffy is the literal, actual center. He wasn't just altering a corner of her life, like who was in the magazines she read. He practically switched places with her. That's why she takes the change so hard, too: Buffy's not good with sharing the spotlight. Or sandwiches. Or anything, really. Like when Faith first came to town and everyone paid attention to her so Buffy felt like Faith was stealing her life, or when she had to share a room with Cathy and began measuring her toenails, or when she began to realize Dawn wasn't supposed to be there because everyone paid extra attention to her and let her get away with stuff. Spuffy Sidebar: In the original shooting script, there was not yet a moment of any kind between Spike and Buffy, just him calling her Betty and otherwise ignoring her, focusing on Jonathan instead. Seems like at least this bit of foreshadowing was a late edition.

Can't wait until you get to season 5! I love your channel

Can we talk about the elephant in the room in the two twins Jonathon sleeps with? Seems like a small thing but honestly is something the show never acknowledges and makes Jonathon a bit worse than the show wants us to think about him. I mean.. these women definitely could not consent.

oh very very well played sir!!!! that Illyria nod was perfect and made me twinge in the heart hole with memories of WESLEY!!!!!!! OH GOD MEMORIES!!!!

Your reviews are just so on point on man!!!

Let‘s not forget the Jonathan swimsuit calendar belonged to Giles XD XD

I wonder if this isn't also an interesting consequence to The Prom/Graduation Day pt 2. Jonathan showed no interest in magic before, but after the open acknowledgment of the supernatural in Sunnydale, (and fighting Giant Snake Mayor), he uses a massive spell to alter reality. And I think this episode is one of the more interesting examinations of power. Who has it, how, and why. The consequences and responsibility of power. Jonathan is both Maggie Walsh and Adam here: the creator of an unnatural power and the power itself. Just like they had to steal powers from others, Jonathan has to steal powers from Buffy? And Jonathan's decision to sacrifice himself to end the monster he created would have meant more if Walsh was still around. Maybe this was planned before she left and they decided not to seriously rework it.

I guess this was Jonathan's "The Zeppo", and I can think of it as a S4 counterpart to "The Wish".

Your last line gave me chills.

This is one of my favorite episodes.

l watched the show without benefit of internet chat rooms and critiques - also no spoilers. Every ep was a surprise to me which was great! l was, and am, basically a squealing fangirl who likes it all (except for those few episodes...) l'm loving watching these reviews now because it helps add more dimension and FINALLY l can explain to people why 'Buffy' is so great. l don't feel like Jonathan wanted to deprive Buffy, but that he desired to be as powerful, as heroic, and as connected to friends as she is. He's never felt a part of something which is why he got pulled into the trio. For the belonging. Ugh, l can't explain it very well. "Squealing fangirl". lol

I dunno, Ian, I really like this episode,,,in fact, it's one of my favorites. I've always liked stories that turn the "zeitgeist mythology" of any given series on its ear--YESTERDAY'S ENTERPRISE on ST:TNG, for example, and the old WHAT IF...? comic series from Marvel, and the "Elseworlds" graphic novels from DC. And it's natural that Jonathan should be the protaganist...the nerdy outsider who more than anything else wants to belong, to be admired, to be looked up to...we've all been there at some point in our lives, haven't we? My next comment is definitely spoilery, but I'll try to hide it as much as possible (though at this point, two decades since the show first aired, I should think everyone here knows the rest of Jonathan's story...) SPOILER SPACE: * * * * * * * * * I never really got why Jonathan was part of the Trio. It never made sense to me, given his character and loyalty to Buffy--remember, he was the "emcee" who gave her, on behalf of the whole school, the umbrella at the prom. I get that it was the idea of belonging, of being part of his very own "clique," that appealed to him, but he was never someone who wanted to actively hurt others...the twist in "Earshot" was that he was going to kill HIMSELF, not others. Bottom line, I've often wished that it was Jonathan, and not Andrew, who featured so prominently in Season 7.

You know, every Buffy review that you've done lately has been sharp -- props. Especially since you have expressed your insecurity about your artistic execution earlier in the channel's life. It seems you may have really found your voice in the last ~year, and I think congratulations are in order. Also, why is it every time Evil Willow is on screen I am fixated on her? ...don't answer that.

I was struck this time by how Danny Strong visually conveys Jonathan's return to anonymity. It's not just the loss of the expensive clothing and air of self-assurance. At 10:44, when Jonathan is talking to Buffy, he's wearing his bangs in "little-kid" style -- cut high on the forehead and combed forward in a gapless Spock fringe -- that make his face look markedly rounder and more childish. Plus, he's wearing a yellow striped T-shirt that reminds me irresistibly of Charlie Brown. These powerfully signal Jonathan's immaturity without the character saying a word.

i like how that even though WE know TPN knows what happens in the show later, he comments on the foreshadowing by making such /hopeful/ comments eg "I'm sure that won't come up again" idk my brain isn't working this late but I rlly like it

Another brilliant guide Ian, thank you!!! Even though you killed me at 6:00 !!

To add to the consent discussion from Who Are You?, Jonathan was with the twins via deception, so they are victims too.

That Buffy fell further and harder than the rest of the Scoobies makes sense. The Scoobies are treating her as the helpless, hapless dumb blonde who constantly needs to be rescued that she would be IF someone else was constantly swooping in to steal all her glory. This is Buffy who has never had the idea or realization that saves the gang, never made the desperate last stand that saved the day, never earned the respect and admiration of her peers -- and more importantly, never learned and grew more confident from those experiences. This isn't the Buffy who killed her first love to save the world, this is the Buffy who cowered helplessly in the corner while Jonathon stopped Angel from destroying the world. Who learned over and over that she's isn't good enough or strong enough to carry the weight of being a hero. The rest of the Scoobies seem largely unchanged because they are planets that orbit a star. Changing the star from Buffy to Jonathon doesn't affect them very much. Buffy is a star that's been demoted to planet.

Jonathan basically made himself an in universe Gary Stu in this episode. Treated as perfect, friends with every guy, loved by every woman, all the weapons and powers needed to fight evil, portrayed as always right and never wrong, having everyone go on about how great he is and treated like he has no flaws.

11 minutes of perfection! The only Guides I'm dreading are Seeing Red and Empty Places - the episodes aren't bad, just unbearable.

interesting notice for me on this: Spike associates romance, sex, and violence together...but so does (vampire) Dru, I mean, if this was humans the whole thing about Spike torturing Drew back into "liking" him would fit an abuse victim who gets repeatedly gas-light and scared into coming back, but Dru is not a human, she's a pre-cognitive vampire, and is literally Spike's sire, I'd argue that changes the dynamic a bit. I am not suggesting that Dru actually wants to be in what, in humans, would be a very abusive relationship - but I am suggesting that her death was extremely violent, sexual, and non-consensual, and she sires a vampire who fits that in a way that another sire couple (Angelus and Darla) don't with each other to that degree - within the lore vampires maintain a connection to their sire line even when all human connections are lost, in some ways the sire line connection is the closest innate thing they have to love...so, does that mean the only conception they get that's left of what love can be from their humanity is somewhat based on how their sire turned them?

I never understood why Jonathan was never welcomed into the scoobies. I think he would of been a great addition instead of "spoiler" in season 7.

Reading the new Buffy comics now, I always chuckle when they mention the world without shrimp in the series :)

I read Buffy's status drop as if Johnathon is replacing Buffy with himself, or trading places. I think it says a lot about how he might perceive himself as on the fringe of a Buffy-centric world. Her saving him certainly would put her in a different light from his perspective. Because he is taking up the roll she possessed so completely, Buffy's physical and social power has to be taken away enough to make room.

Sometimes there are little beats that I miss like Jonathan's councilors meetings, and when I do notice them, a pit forms in my stomach. Can't wait.

Holy crap I never new that Rob Benedict was also in Buffy! Can't believe I didn't recognise him.

Are we gonna get both angel episodes (the ones with faith) back to back?

Or they could be bisexual? The show does suffer from quiet a lot of bisexual erasure

It's interesting how buffy's hair (in the first scene) is styled the way faith styled buffy's hair when she took over her body. Like faith is second to buffy. In this reality, buffy is second to Johnathan.

I feel like my memory is failing me: Who could Johnathan have met in counseling?

Ian I missed you bud. Are going to do a video talking about the new Buffy series?

This episode was the one that really foreshadowed Jonathan's end. In the end, he was a victim of his own protracted childhood.

This is the second episode in a row with rape, but the rape is never called out in this one.

One of my faves. Johnathan was great.

gods now I can't get hairless Riley out of my head

I like to think of this episode as a test drive before the........dawn ;)

It's funny, I always saw Buffy's sudden lack in slayer capabilities to be a result of Jonathan's spell rewriting history. So, in his new reality, from the very beginning of the season 1 (potentially) he would have been just as skilled and popular, maybe even more 'naturally' skilled at fighting than Buffy, even in the early days. Giles would have paid more attention to Jonathan in this reality, maybe effecting the training and experience Buffy would have received from him. So Buffy would never have ended up learning and becoming the fighter we know her to be by season four. She may have been really thwarted by her lack of confidence, and just ended up being really shit at slayer duties.

Eh, I'd say the regular hero of a series being clubbed with the incompetence stick is as much a trope of self-insertion fanfics as anything else. Think of it as something like the Worf-effect, the easiest way to show how cool and powerful your new character is is to have them swoop in and save the regular hero of the story. And since most SI authors aren't good enough to come up with a really believable way for that to happen and since even afterwards you need to justify having the cool new character stay around... lots and lots of clubbings. The regular hero should count themselves fortunate if they're still able to tie their shoelaces in the morning.

Most males in Buffy are distractingly hairless, even Angel and Spike. The only one that has SOME body hair is Xander. It's a byproduct of the late 90s and early 00s when being hairy was considered unappealing and all men became metrosexual, waxed and needed to have a 6 pack.

What did you mean by Johnathan having met other people in counseling?

Ok so I read the comments and now know that 'wonder who else could've been there' refers to Andrew and ... the other one ... but I fully thought you were talking about Normal Again, the third 'alternate reality' episode

It's one of my favorites

Im Sorry. I really should know who else he should've seen in Counseling but i cannot remember. Can someone just tell me?

Omg I never thought of the camp for troubled children

Brad Kane was also the singing voice of Aladdin!

Greatly enjoying these videos. I don't get your use of "posthumous" though.

Great video. This isn't the first time we've seen magic effect Buffy differently than others. In Ted, the magic cooking seemed to have the opposite effect than intended, making her grumpier and more suspicious. I wonder if her slayer abilities interact with certain kinds of magic oddly. Not Willow's magic though.

There’s some weird audio jumble going on at 3:50. Is that just me?

Why do I feel like I’ve ever seen this episode before? I’ve binged buffy multiple times yet I do not remember this episode

I, beeing only on the second watch through after years, didn't get the context of the inserted scene where Willow intefrogates Jonathan. Would s.o. enlighten me please?

Just like in season 6 when the trio viewed Buffy as the thing that comes in between them are their supervillain-ness, Jonathan saw her as that too and thus he had to bring deer down and make the rest of the Scooby gang doubt her so that she doesn’t undo his spell.

Both Angel and Spike were also completely hairless (and Spike conforms way more as a “Ken doll physically). That’s been the standard for action-hero-y, hunky men under pressure to conform to male beauty standards in Hollywood for decades now: muscular and hairless. You’re right, that _was_ a very odd thing to fixate (and subtly criticize him) on. And kinda ironic given some of the themes of this episode.

5:51 Not for James Marsters, ever. Though I would really love for him to play a role as a cop and the case revolves around events similar to a later episode.

Interestingly I saw it that he made it so that he was the Slayer, the way a many a man would typically behave as a Slayer (or Faith) using their powers for self-aggrandizement, as opposed to Buffy's selfless use of her power. If I recall it is the only reason I could come up with as to why he would have had any knowledge of Initiative or Adam. Unless he was in Slayer role he would have had no knowledge about them.

The reason Buffy seems to have been so inadvertently depowered and affected in Johnathan's spell is because.....Johnathan is the star of the show. Buffy is a supporting character. Buffy never had to find the inner strength to defeat the Master. Johnathan defeated him after the Master killed her to escape while Xander and Angel saved her from death. Buffy never killed Angel to save the world in season 2. Johnathan killed him after Buffy couldn't, and moreover provided moral support to her when Buffy fell apart mid way thru the season. or Buffy DID kill Angel but only because Johnathan took out the rest of the hostile vampires for her while she had her heart to heart with Angel. In season three Johnathan graduated. Not Buffy. Johnathan had to find a way to defeat the Mayor, and enlisted the aid of Buffy along with Xander, Willow, Angel, Oz, Larry, Lesley, etc. Buffy was standing next to Angel and Percy in the scene where Angel's blocking force engaged the Mayor's vampires. Moreover it was Johnathan that finally convinced Angel he needed to leave Sunnydale for the good of Buffy. Basically Buffy wasn't nerfed by Johnathan's spell. She never reached her full potential because Johnathan was always there saving everybody.

To explain Buffy’s action vs everyone else’s. Due to friends, I’ve read my fair share of bad fan fictions. As well as bad books from the goodwill. It’s a combo of the poorly written hero who’s great at everything. The kind where you realize that there aren’t enough hours in the day to be doing/practicing all those things. Combo that with a fan of an already established hero, that hero gets majorly nerfed so that the fan can shine. The fan becomes the most powerful entity in that world. Though it would have been fun to see Adam just knock jonathan across the room.

I think that this was a tribute in a lot of ways to Mary Sue fanfic, which often depowers the hero in favor of the Sue, sometimes maliciously ("Harry Potter is really just a stupid jock while Draco and I are the real heroes!") sometimes just as a result of having to have that character fail for the Sue to really shine ("Oh, Wesley, we could never have saved the Enterprise without you!"). It also feeds into the season's theme of trying to force other people into a desired behavior, this time through the coercive spell instead of the coercive tech. The monster was a plot Macguffin, sure, but the real plot was Buffy figuring out that "reality" wasn't real and Jonathan realizing that he simply can't steal this recognition. The monster was just a thing to beat up at the climax to symbolize that. (A lot of the one-offs have kind of silly monsters... the demon in Band Candy, anyone?) It's not my favorite, but I do think it fits pretty well. I don't even mind Adam summarizing the theme of things being "off."