Cordelia Chase:
Cordelia Chase:
Anne; Dead Man's Party; Faith, Hope, and Trick; All Men Are Beasts (aka Beauty & The Beasts); Homecoming; Band Candy; Revelations; Lovers Walk; The Wish; Amends; Gingerbread; Helpless; The Zeppo; Bad Girls; Consequences; Doppelgangland; Enemies; Earshot; Choices; The Prom; Graduation part I; Graduation part II
NOTE: Season 3 is Cordy's last as a regular in Sunnydale. If she appears in any crossovers, or if one of the gang runs into her elsewhere, mention may be made of it on her character page. (I will not be covering "Angel" so I can't update her page in that context, barring any crossovers, etc.)
In Anne, Cordy's just returned from spending summer vacation away from Sunnydale...she and Xander are awkward around each other at first, but soon fall (literally!) back into their old ways. Cordy helps stake a vamp when she jumps on it from behind and sends it on top of Xander's stake.
In DMP, Cordy tries to help Buffy out when everyone, especially Xander, is riding Buffy at her own welcome back party. She also outs herself as "the dip" -- that's what she brings to parties. She stirs it and brings it. Cordy knows what it means to cover someone's back, too...she stays to help Oz even though he's told her to go ahead. Maybe becoming a little less selfish? Maybe this is why she and Xander are a good couple..they don't abandon their friends when they're in trouble -- we don't count when Xander told her to flee in Becoming. Actually I'm just writing this off-the-cuff so who knows. In any case, she was big on helping the gang in the alley at the start of the show.
FHT showcases Cordy as catwoman. (No, I don't mean her Partytown costume.) She reins Xander in when he gets caught up in Faith's tawdry tales, and she later remarks to no one in particular about how that can't be Faith's real hair color. Heh. Again, nice to know some things never change.
Cordy's not real visible in AMAB. She sort of comments on Oz's possibly being the killer, unless I'm wrong..and later she reveals that she had no idea that Pete was really a monster! You know, since there wasn't really any big character development for her in this ep., I'd just like to take this opportunity to say I know that I keep switching back and forth between saying All Men Are Beasts and Beauty & The Beasts. Hm.
It's May Queen time again in Homecoming. Okay, not exactly. Cordy pulls out all the stops in her effort to be voted Homecoming Queen...her attention to this duty makes her negligent in telling Buffy about class photos....basically, Cordy runs into two possible vote-for-her folks, Bobby and Mashad.
Anyway, Cordy and Buffy end up running and fighting for their lives due to SlayerFest '98. Quality bonding time. Cordy tells Buffy that she thinks she loves Xander, and she also begins to understand a bit more about Buffy's internal conflict of Slayer vs. Average Student Chick.
Remember how Cordy bit a vamp's arm in Prophecy Girl? Here, Cordy gets in Lyle Gorch's face and tells him that she's stronger than Buffy...and..her tactic works; Lyle flees. Cordy's not as much of a screamer as she used to be. That's interesting.
In BC, Cordy once again makes an allusion to her love for Xander...she does this to Buffy while they're in class. She refers to the time Before Xander as "BX", and yet, she's unaware that Xander and Willow kissed in Homecoming, and worse still, she doesn't know that they're playing footsie right behind her in class! Cordy also tells the gang that she tests well, and is annoyed when no one really believes her. Heh.
If you're looking for No Cordelia, Revelations is the ep. for you. I mean, she says a few things to Buffy about her not trusting Buffy around Angel, since Angel is back, but she's really not seen much at all this time out. Oh well. Guess she deserves a little downtime, given what happens next to her...
Lovers Walk is the most heartwrenching Cordy ep. of late. We've already seen her expressing her love for Xander (to Buffy anyway, and I guess to him, when he sees her locker full o' couple pictures of them) -- so there's the perfect buildup to make her world come crashing down..literally. Basically, when Cordy and Oz go looking for their respective mates to go on their double date, they happen upon Willow and Xander in a clinch in the basement of the old warehouse. Cordy is hurt beyond words...well, except for "Oh, God.." and she flees the scene.
Basically she crashes through the floor and is kind of impaled in the intestinal/gut area...which makes sense. What's interesting I think is when she tells Xander that she can't see. Not only does it bring to mind her bout with temporary silver-eyed blindness in The Witch, but it also seems like it could refer to the fact that she was oblivious to the W/X tension of late. (I mean, heck. In Band Candy, they practically are under her nose!)
Anyway, it's in this episode that Cordy and Oz hang out some, which provides some good moments...and also this is the episode where Cordy breaks up with Xander. At least, that's implied, when she tells him, "Stay away from me." As of this writing, she's in the hospital from impalement injuries. Get well soon, Queen C!
I'd just like to add that while it took a looong time for me to like Cordy, this ep. really made me feel for her. Like, lots.
The Wish features Cordy as desperate, scorned woman. Okay, I mean, she's ripping up pictures of her and Xander (et al), and burning Xander's image. (Maybe she shoulda gone to the Magic Shop, too...). And then she's at school dressed to the nines. Or, four-and-a-halfs? Halves? When Harmony and the cats seem to console her at first, they're really just setting her up to be the laughingstock. When Cordy tries to make Xander jealous by manuevering around John Lee, that fails too, sorta.
Cordy tells this chick Anya that everything is Buffy's fault, and she unknowingly thrusts everyone into Hellmouth Sans Buffy world..and it sucks. It takes a while for her to get oriented, but it seems like everything's good at first: she's still Queen C of the school. Anyway, when she figures out the freakiness, she goes to Giles for help...but it's too late. She dies at an all-you-can-suck Suckfest a la vamps Willow and Xander. How appropriate.Fortunately the spell is reversed by Giles, so she ends up back in Sunnydale, still making spiteful-type wishes. One funny thing to note is when she approaches Xander vamp and refers to Buffy, she has to employ sarcasm: "No, Buffy the dog-faced girl." She must have a thing about dog-faced things...she said dog-faced in Halloween. And if you think about it, Xander was a "dogface" in Halloween, too. Neat.
Amends features Evil Cordy. Here she plows over her hurt again by being nasty to Xander in front of folks. She brags about leaving Sunnydale for Christmas to go skiing...something I've never ever done, btw, and which I'm not sorry about. Then she breaks a confidence that Xander shared with her and outs his dysfunctional alkie-type family. If you weren't sure before..the bitca is back! And hey! She missed the big snowfall in Sunnydale, too.
Gingerbread is a pretty good Cordy outing. While she does pass off snide remarks to Buffy about Buffy & Co., and also does her name-calling description thing about witchy Michael, Cordy knows where to go when the town runs amok. We know Cordy's going to be involved because she freaks during the locker search. Okay, sure, it's cause she doesn't want anyone's "janitor mitts" on her imported hairspray, but c'mon.
Cordy's the one who revives the yet-again-passed-out Giles, and she has the pleasure of riding in the Gilesmobile, too. Oh. And she makes a potion thing as directed by Giles. Probably the funniest moment, to me anyway, is when she has to break the glass to get at the fire equipment in City Hall. You just know she doesn't want to go there -- by "there" I mean breaking the glass using only herself -- but has to. Then she gets to turn the hose on the crowd, Buffy, and Willow. I had to wonder if she took any pleasure in dousing Willow...Quotes from her will arrive sometime soon on the episode page. Also interesting is that she gets to witness Xander fall through the ceiling. Only..nothing was there to go through his guts. Oh well.
In Helpless, Cordy gets to hit on a guy..literally. When Buffy steps in to get rid of some jerk who's hassling Cordy, she finds out what it's like to be on the receiving end of major ouches. So Cordy comes to her defense and starts hitting on the guy with her fists. Frankly, I'm surprised she just didn't bite him on the arm.
Anyhoo, Cordy arrives at the library later on to research a paper on Bosnia. More hysterical quotes from her...the semi-blase attitude/question about the world's ending. And since she just walked on in the aftermath of the Giles/Buffy tiff, she doesn't know what's up and tries to tell Buffy who Giles is. (Ep. page will have these quotes, too..sometime soon.) But Cordy at least isn't one to hold a grudge (much) with Buffy. When Buffy asks Cordy for a ride home, Cordy says, "Of course." Cordy also admits to being on the rebound in this episode.
Cordelia's one of the driving factors in The Zeppo. Sure, the gang's seeming "don't help us, we'll help you" drives Xander a bit, but it's Cordy's relentless taunting of him also that drives Xander to discover his inner cool. Cordy calls Xander The Zeppo, basically tells him that he has nothing to offer the Slayerettes -- yeah, like the nail file and heels were a big help? -- and she also makes fun of his car choice after he's become Wheel Man.
The next day when Cordy does the verbal attack on Xander, he pretty much ignores her. She's stunned, to say the least. What was also neat about this episode was seeing Cordy in the doughnut/bakery shop. She even makes fun of Xander for that..for being on a snack run for the group. It's cool to finally see the place where everyone goes for their little powdered donuts, their jelly doughnuts, their hospital donuts. Donuts are such a big part of this show, y'know.
BG isn't a huge Cordy outing. Again she arrives to insult Xander in front of the gang. This time, they're all talking about college acceptances, etc., when Cordy comes by to rank on Xander's planning for life as a loser. He tells her that her future is assured by marketing her line of hooker wear. To which she replies, "Well, Xander, I could dress more like you, but, oh, my father has a job." Yowtch. That's pretty much it for her in this episode.
In Consequences, Cordy waltzes into the library and gets to make the acquaintance of new Watcher Wesley Wyndam-Price. She's kind of smitten a little and it would appear as though she's had the same effect on Wesley, who at first believes she's a teacher. If she's not just being coy, then it's in this episode that we learn that Cordy likes "a man with two last names."
Doppelgangland would seem to provide Cordy with yet another excuse to go into the library after-hours, and dressed to the nines. Here she calls out to Giles, then Wesley, saying she's returning a book, I think. I don't know, but maybe book return deposit slots are too passe for Cordy; or maybe she just wanted to pay an overdue fine. She did mention to Buffy in Band Candy that she had a really big fine one year and that Giles made her pay it...
Anyhoo, Cordy sees vampWillow, who she believes to be just Willow, locked in the book cage. She goes to get the key to let her out, then thinks better of the sitch. She decides to give Willow a lecture on the ethics of boyfriend stealing. Too funny. When vampWillow chases Cordy down to make a snack of her, Wesley arrives on the scene to save her. Cordy doesn't appear to be upset by the apparent death of Willow, but hey. I could be wrong. Maybe she was just asking Wesley if he was busy so he could console her in her time of need? It could happen. Maybe.
In Enemies, Cordy has signed on yet again to help the Slayerettes..and this time, it's personal. Basically she's going all out to try to get Wesley to notice her, etc. She asks him for help on some schoolwork, and then mentions that she does her best studying at good restaurants, etc. Then she also tells the gang to be quiet so Wesley and his wonderful voice can continue conducting the meeting. And she's way blatant about wanting to be on Wesley's team when they go on a research party at the town hall. She still insults Xander, though, and later when Xander blames Wesley for the new Angelus/Faith liaison, Cordy tries to defend Wesley, saying it's not his fault. But Xander replies that it is his fault, since Faith is his other charge. Yee. That's it for Cordy this time out, pretty much.
Earshot is a hysterical Cordy outing, if only because we learn that she is not one to temper her thoughts before speaking them. The chick says what she's thinking...or if she doesn't, her thoughts are pretty much self-centered..I'm thinking here of the ones when she's thinking she's cold, while they're outside over Buffy, who's passed out. Well I guess after all..."Tact is just not saying true stuff...I'll pass." (May need to fix quote, but you get the idea.)
When Cordy goes to question Mr. Beach for the profiles to see if he's planning to kill everyone, she just pretty much says, "Hi, Mr. Beach, I was just wondering if you were planning to kill a bunch of people tomorrow. Oh, it's for the yearbook." (Again must check quote.) Heh. As if anyone would answer that truthfully, too. Heh.
Anyhoo, this is also the first time we've seen Cordy as cheerleader since...if I'm not mistaken, season 2..and possibly even the episode Some Assembly Required. Cordy's all about the cheerleaders this time..she can't understand why no one writes in to the Sunnydale High Sentinel to praise them. But she's also the one who finds the letter from Jonathan, that makes the gang think he's the one who's about to off all the students. Even if he wasn't the killer, it's good she found that note...otherwise Buffy might not have been able to get to him in time to stop his suicide.
Some big Cordy revelations in Choices. She's still a bitter young woman to the gang, that's not the revelation. But when Xander comes to bug her some more, saying she must be bitter because she didn't get into any schools, she tells him that she got into: USC, Colorado State, Duke, and Columbia. It's in this episode that we learn that Cordy has a job in a dress shop. No one else knows about it, and I must admit it was freaky to learn about it. She basically has to restock shelves and sweep and stuff. Hm. This is pretty late in the season to learn about this new development, but maybe it's crucial or something...either to this show or to the new Angel spinoff...
In The Prom, Cordy functions as big-time Slayerette. It's her keen observation about the hellhound's attacking of the formalwear that helps the gang understand what MOTW they're up against. Of course, no one pays her any mind at first, but hey...they eventually caught up.
What's cool about this episode is also how Cordy and Xander interact. Cordy tells Xander about her family's going bankrupt and how she has to work to buy a lousy prom dress on layaway. She trusts that he'll go report to his friends about her condition, but Xander surprises her by not saying anything. It's interesting to see Cordy still making a play for Wesley while at the same time, doing the sort of amends thing with Xander. Not only did Xander keep her secret, but he also bought her prom dress for her. Now that she sees life from the other end of the cellular phone -- hey it's late and I have no idea what I'm saying -- it'll be interesting to see what happens to her character. Oh, yeah..it was also cool to see Cordy going stag to the Prom. That would not have happened first season, I bet. Also it was kind of amusing to see her standing with the Watchers while Buffy was getting her award.
Cordy's not really seen much in Graduation Part I. We do learn that she hates the color of the gowns the class is expected to wear. We later see her come up to Xander after Anya's decided to leave town. She looks totally unflappable -- hey, she's gone Oz -- when Xander explains that Anya's worried about dying during the Ascension tomorrow. She just kind of says "oh" and then asks if Xander's going to go to 5th period. He says no, she says she's not going either, and that's it. Too funny. I wonder if they ended up skipping class together? Hm.
Graduation part 2 is not a huge Cordy ep., but it does feature some of her finest moments. Not only does she amuse with her ideas about how to conquer the Mayor -- Ebola, anyone? -- but it's also cool to see her sort of listening to and interacting with Oz during the scene in the library. It's not that she hasn't interacted with him before, it just cracks me up when she does.
Cordy sits near Xander during graduation, which is also amusing.
This episode marks Cordy's first real time staking a vamp by herself, with no Slayerettes to help her. (At least, I think.) Perhaps she's been upgraded from bait? No other huge Cordy revelations in this episode.
Previous Cordelia Character Page (Seasons 1 and 2).
Story Arc: Xander & Cordelia
The ABCs of Sunnydale
