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(More customer reviews)It seems a bit superfluous to me that in the United Kingdom they had these "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Slayer Collection" DVDs, because our fellow fans across the pond had each season of "BtVS" out on DVD long before we got them. So why would they need these DVDs that offered four choice episodes for each of the main characters? That being said the intellectual exercise is to judge how good of a job they did in selecting this particular quartet of episodes highlight the comedy stylings of Miss Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter). Since she left Sunnydale and "BtVS" after graduation to go to Los Angeles and end up on "Angel," they only had to pick from the first three seasons of "BtVS":
"Out of Mind, Out of Sight" (a.k.a. "Invisible Girl") is the perfect choice for a Cordelia episode from the abbreviated first season. Cordelia and her friends are being attacked by an invisible force, and Buffy and the gang figure out it is Marcie Ross, a girl that no one remembers although they all had classes with her (they all signed her yearbook with "Have a nice summer," which is not a good sign). Cordelia and Buffy are taken prisoner by Marcie, who plans to disfigure her chief tormentor. However, Buffy saves Cordy and Marcie is taken away by the government to be "rehabilitated." This is a key episode in terms of setting up Cordelia to become a Scooby in the second season because it confirms that Buffy can deal with weird stuff like this.
Your first guess for a second season Cordelia episode might be "Reptile Boy," but instead it is "What's My Line? Part 2," which is the one where Cordelia and Xander are trapped in Buff's basement by one of the Tarakan assassins. They get into a giant fight and end up kissing for the first time. Certainly a key moment for Cordy, but I think "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" is her best episode from that season (plus Buffy and Kendra are clearly the focus of what is obviously the second half of a two-part story).
The third season was senior year and so it is not surprising that the two episodes selected reflect the social high points of that last year of high school. "Homecoming" starts with Cordy and Buffy waging war to see who becomes Homecoming queen at Sunnydale High, with everybody else caught in the middle. The Scoobies decided to put the two in a limo together, hoping that they will make up. But Mr. Trick was expecting it to be Buffy and Faith together in the car and so it is that Cordy becomes part of Slayerfest '98, which involves a bunch of little bads showing up to hunt down and bag a slayer or two. This sets up one of Cordy's best scenes when she explains why a ticked off would be Prom Queen is a lot more dangerous than a Vampire Slayer. Definitely a top four Cordelia episode
"The Prom" does have a couple of nice moments when Cordelia realizes that Xander has made sure she looks spectacular for the big dance, and watching Wesley weigh the ethics of asking her to dance is okay, but Cordy really is a minor player in this one. The emphasis is on Buffy, who is determined that since they all might be killed when the Mayor ascends the least she can do is make sure her friends have a hellhound-free prom. The two great moments in this one are when Buffy receives a special award from the senior class and when Angel shows up in a tux (the selection the Sundays of covering the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" is a Top 10 nominee for best use of a song on "BtVS," just on the strength of the tragically ironic line, "Let's do some living, after we've died").
Even though she dies halfway through the episode, "The Wish" is a better choice than "The Prom," even though the last half of that way is all about Vamp Willow wearing leather. My final verdict is that this DVD ends up having two of the four Cordelia episodes that should be here with the first and third selections. The second is a second tier Cordelia episode, but the fourth is on the third level by that standard, although overall it is the best episodes here, which is why I ended up rounding up on this one.
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