YMMV / Buffy the Vampire Slayer S1E8 "I Robot, You Jane"

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The episode ends with Buffy, Willow, and Xander bemoaning how hard it is to have a nice, normal, happy relationship on the Hellmouth. It's fairly lighthearted as none of the character's failed relationships to date were actually that traumatic, but considering all that happens over the next seven seasons it's really painful. It also seems like a Lampshade Hanging when, just after the characters have finished saying how hard it is to have a happy relationship, the episode closes out to Joss Whedon's Executive Producer credit, but given that Whedon wasn't really known for putting characters through hell just yet, it's probably unintentional.
  • It wasn't known to the audience, but seeing as the executives had already shot down his plan to have Eric Balfour in the opening credits (later done with Tara instead) and he had planned to kill Joyce in Season One just to make Buffy's life harder, it's safe to say that the writing staff knew how cruel he was already.
  • And that's not even considering the fact that that episode is Jenny Calendar's first appearance.
  • Casual mentioning of total internet control comes down as pretty harsh in a time when the concept of "internet freedom" is under severe pressure.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A Joss Whedon production about a villain loose on the internet who later builds himself a robot body? Is this Buffy or Avengers: Age of Ultron? Moloch's robot body even bears a resemblance to movie Ultron's.
• Magnificent Bastard: Moloch the Corruptor is an ancient demon who convinces humans to follow him through promises of his love. Accidentally released into the internet, Moloch revels in his new power through various methods, from small things like changing a student's history paper to big things like tying the Vatican up in a bank error. Manipulating computer geniuses Dave and Fritz to his cause, Moloch orders them to kill Buffy when he learns that she's the Slayer; when Dave saves her instead, he has Fritz kill him and make it look like a suicide. After convincing research facility Calax to build him a physical body, he has Willow kidnapped so she can witness his rebirth, and after professing his love for her, he offers her a place at his side. Genuinely capable of loving humans, Moloch is the first proof that not all demons are pure evil.
• Narm: The entire episode was pretty bad even at the time, and has only grown worse with how dated all the references to the state of the Internet at the time have become. This is especially clear in the climax, where Moloch's robot body deliberately looks ridiculous to illustrate how out of place he is in modern times, but it's now almost impossible to pick this out from all the unintentional silliness it's surrounded by.
• Values Resonance: While the episode is clearly made in the late ninties and occasionally veers into New Media Are Evil territory, the basic message of the episode - about being careful online, as people aren't always who they say they are - is more relevant now in an era when every teenager spends most of their time online, than it was when it aired back in 1997, when the internet was still a fringe interest and social media wasn't really a thing.
  Xander: I mean, sure, he says he's a high school student, but I can say I'm a high school student.
  Buffy: You are.
  Xander: Okay, but I can also say that I'm an elderly Dutch woman. Get me? I mean, who's to say I'm not if I'm in the elderly Dutch chat room?
  Buffy: I get your point. I get your point! Oh, this guy could be anybody.

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