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The Zeppo :

Essayist Emily (last name not given) of the site InsectReflection.com 

compares Jack O'Toole and Xander and their respective views of masculinity:

Even undead, he's still more schoolyard bully than horrific monster, but that makes him a more direct danger to Xander, as he can impose emasculation directly onto him. 

This emasculation is coded homo-erotically, in an Ancient-Greece sense. O'Toole threatens to "take" Xander, grabs him from behind, holds up a penetrative object and asks him where he "wants it". 

Xander's immediate insistence that he and Jack were "rasslin', but not in a gay way" stems from his intertwined fear of emasculation and homosexuality. ... 

This whole episode is an exercise in 

"be careful what you wish for", in which Xander achieves successful masculinity, and has a terrible time because of it.

Theresa Basile compares him with the 

brave hobbit Sam in The Lord of the Rings and writes, 

"He’s a would-be 'man's man' – 

obsessed with being manly – 

whose only close friends are women. 

He's both a perpetrator and victim of 

sexual assault and/or violation of consent. 

He's both attracted to and 

intimidated by strong women. 

He jokes about objectifying women 

and viewing sex as some sort of game, 

but in more intimate moments, seems 

to value romance and real connection. 

He's a willing participant 

in The Patriarchy and also 

a victim of it."

Cultural references

InsectReflection.com notes that the earlier episode 

"'Helpless' directly compared Buffy to Superman – 

a comparison that has been made before since 

'Never Kill a Boy on the First Date' – and 

'The Zeppo' follows up on that by comparing Xander 

to Jimmy Olsen,' Superman's sidekick. 

He has accepted Buffy's role as Hero, but is struggling 

to find his own role within the same genre structure."

Continuity

Buffy's crinkly, crimped hair signals that the episode 

contains characters who are different than usual, 

a little "off" or under a spell. 

See, for example, "Something Blue," "This Year's Girl," 

"Who Are You?," "Superstar," and 

"Where the Wild Things Are."

Reception and influence

Vox ranked it at #34 of the 144 Buffy episodes, writing that "this episode, which sees him sidelined by his friends as they try to stop yet another impending apocalypse, is truly Xander-centric: Isolated from the gang, he falls in with a bad (read: dead) crowd, has a, uh, romantic encounter with Faith, and eventually averts an apocalypse of his own. ... But the episode reminds us that he charges into battle beside his friends time and again not because he’s gifted, or tasked by some higher power, but because he chooses to. Which is, in some ways, even more noble."

Noel Murray of The A.V. Club wrote that "The Zeppo" had become a favorite episode of his, saying, "What I loved about 'The Zeppo' is how Xander's feelings of abandonment pervade the structure of the episode, which is filled with moments that are (intentionally) dramatically unsatisfying." 

In Entertainment Weekly's list of the 25 best Whedonverse episodes—including episodes from Buffy, as well as Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse—"The Zeppo" placed at No. 23. TV Squad's Keith McDuffee listed "The Zeppo" as the fifth best episode of the series. The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Makeup in a Series.

Theresa Basile calls it an overrated episode, saying, 

"This is the boy who brought Buffy 

back to life in 'Prophecy Girl,' 

helped her save Willow/Cordelia/Giles/Jenny 

in 'When She Was Bad,' 

constantly patrolled with her throughout season two, 

pulled Cordelia out of a fire, and rescued Giles 

in 'Becoming Part 2,' all without the aid 

of supernatural powers – 

and all of a sudden, he’s a useless drain 

on the Scooby gang

 whom they need to protect? 

They sacrifice character for the sake of a fairly weak parody that 

doesn’t actually become funny until the final act." On the other hand, she liked "the zombie frat boys who enjoy Walker, Texas Ranger, because that is some 

inspired silliness right there."

InsectReflection.com notes, "This episode is quietly a turning point for Xander's character. More than that, it’s quietly one of the best and most unique episodes in the series. ... This is, in fact, an episode of Xander the Zombie Fighter, inside which occurs an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

The episode has proved influential on later television writers. In his "Production Notes: Doodles in the Margins of Time", Doctor Who executive producer Russell T Davies said that he was inspired by "The Zeppo", along with the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Lower Decks", when writing the 2006 "Doctor-lite" episode "Love & Monsters", which started an annual tradition for an episode with little involvement of the lead cast. Joss Whedon himself cites it as influential to his later series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.