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Spike comes back to be depressed and drunk, and love goes sour for everybody.
"Lover's Walk"
On SAT scores: I am smarter than Willow! On the verbal. Buffy is smarter than me, though, on all counts. Sigh. Not that I have ever used by SAT scores for anything ever.
Spike is back! I wonder if he keeps driving over that Welcome to Sunnydale sign on purpose.
Willow gets a Pez dispenser from Oz and is really, really happy about it. I don't really like Pez. It's all style and no substance.
Buffy asks if this latest Watchers' retreat is in the Yukon, and Giles says it is near there? Or just similar to it? Because, the site is chosen because of "druidic rituals" there, and I would be surprised if there were druids in the Yukon.
Buffy, about Angel: "Nothing's going to happen." Willow, about a bowling group date: "Something's going to happen!" This show is really fond of that joke.
Did Spike know that Angel was back, living in this mansion, or did he just wander by out of nostalgia? He doesn't seem very surprised, but then he is still drunk. And almost incinerated when he passes out in that...courtyard? Ouch.
Hey, the Magic Shop! I think. Wait, no. The set isn't configured in the right way. But it looks a lot like it, enough to make me think the Magic Shop proper is this magic shop set reworked. But is it the same magic shop from last season?
Xander says he doesn't have good luck with love spells, but I wouldn't know about that, thanks a lot, FX. This does seem like kind of a bad idea anyway, though. Luckily the argument is broken up by a vampire attack. Did Spike just follow Willow back here, then? But it was daytime when they were at the shop.
Spike isn't a very effective force of evil when he is sad. He is seeking comfort from Willow, even. Well, and threatening to either kill or rape her, I'm not completely sure. Maybe both. Creepy. She handles the situation pretty well, all things considered.
"Go find Giles!" So I guess this retreat isn't in Canada, then.
Spike is in Buffy's house. Another thing I should have probably seen coming. Buffy too, for that matter. They've got a handy vampire-uninviting ritual. I guess with the running away and the kind of awkward homecoming she just didn't get around to it.
Now Spike is confiding in Joyce? Huh. I wonder if this episode came about when the writers thought they might like Spike to become something other than just a villain, or if the move to make Spike something else because they liked how this episode worked? And, again, Angel just happens to walk by the house while Spike and Joyce are sharing some hot chocolate? Or does he walk past Buffy's house a lot. Gee, I can't imagine why her mother thinks he is creepy.
Now they must work together, and it is lots of fun. For me, I mean. Between the three of them they do a pretty good job beating up the whole squad of Mayor-employed vampires. Buffy should always take someone else with superpowers with her when she goes out to save the world. Like, say, that other slayer in town.
Oz being able to smell Willow from a moving van is kind of weird. Good thing the abandoned (and now gutted by fire) factory is on the way to the Watcher retreat. And, of course, he and Cordelia show up just when Xander and Willow are kissing. Kissing leads to trouble! And, in Cordelia's case, to a fall through collapsing stairs and a length of rebar through the abdomin. Ouch. (Incidently, abdomin didn't look right to me, so I ran it through Google, which asked me if I meant to type abdominal. This is the first time Google has suggested that the thing I am searching for is simply not popular enough to bother with, rather than simply misspelled.)
Will Cordelia be OK? Cut to a funeral, which Buffy and Willow then walk past saying "Good thing Cordelia is OK!" That's just mean. Also, I'd like to know what Buffy thinks of Willow and Xander as a potential item, since she spent so much time in the past suggesting Willow try acheiving such, if she really wanted to.
Relationship status: All broken. Sad.
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Cordelia wishes Buffy never came to Sunnydale, and things, rather predictably, go to hell. HA HA HA! BECAUSE OF THE HELLMOUTH, SEE? I should write for TV Guide. Oh, and Anya shows up!
"The Wish"
Buffy, Xander, and Willow fight a demon in the park. Only, it looks like they've brought a cooler and some snacks. So, did they bring food to this demon fight, or did the demon interrupt their picnic?
Cordelia's first day back at school after her impaling (and breakup), and suddenly Anya has shown up in her circle of friends. Who quickly betray her! They are really fickle. And then hunky guy insults her too. Xander is like popularity SARS.
Is it ironic that Anya shows up originally to wreak vengeance on Xander?
Cordelia's logic seems really flawed. If only Buffy weren't here, you wouldn't have been attacked by vampires and demons? Of course you would have. Despite what certain characters claim, Sunnydale has obviously never been a monster-free zone. I don't even need a dark parallel universe to know that.
Cordelia seems to adapt to being shunted into a different reality pretty well. "Oh, the Bronze isn't cool in this reality." Good for her. And then, after wandering home in the dark (How far away does she live from the school, anyway? If everyone is concerned about vampire attacks, shouldn't the school put some money into expanding its bus service?), she quickly realizes that this reality sucks.
So Buffy is still alive, she's just off being like Faith (bitter, not listening to the Watchers) in Cleveland? Shouldn't Sunnydale be the #1 Watcher priority? The Hellmouth is there! Every apocalyptic scheme ever hatched requires the Hellmouth! At least, until Angel gets his spinoff. I'm just saying the Watchers should be all over Sunnydale, wish or no wish.
Oh no, this Buffy has a small scar, or possibly a minor cleft palate. A sure sign of her tough-as-nails attitude.
At this point in my notes I have written "Ooh!" but I can't remember why. Embarrassing. Maybe it had something to do with Angel. I'm not sure. Incidently, Vampire Willow works a lot better than Vampire Xander, who kind of looks like he should be a villain in a stage production of Grease. Assuming Grease has villains. He's not that bad, though.
Where's Darla in all this? Or the Mayor? With the Master out and about after the harvest, Spike and Drusilla would probably not show up for their St. Whoever festival, since that was all dependant upon Sunnydale not really having a head vampire anymore. (Not counting Colin.) But Darla really should be there, unless she's dead. But who killed her? I guess maybe Angel.
With all this talk about mass production and bringing vampires into the modern age, the Master is like the vampire Lenin. Neat. I've wondered why vampires haven't tried founding their own nation, even if they would have to do so covertly.
Anyanka spans multiple universes, it seems. And she seems to approve of everything being awful in Sunnydale, and maybe even Cordelia being dead. This is not quite how she is later portrayed. And her evil voice seems kind of overdone.
The episode ends with a really cool slow motion/happy music fight scene in an attempt to inject a little John Woo into things, I guess. It is good. Especially the vampire death effects. Buffy dies in yet another quick head twist. That is a very popular move, it seems, among vampires. But, luckily, all is well once Anyanka's necklace is smashed. Except for Anyanka.
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quote:But is it the same magic shop from last season?
Yes, I think this is mentioned in season 4.
quote:Shouldn't Sunnydale be the #1 Watcher priority?
Did they mention that the hellmouth was in Sunnydale. Maybe the parallel universe's hellmouth is in Cleveland.
Forget that theory. I've checked the script:
quote:GILES Yes, I'm aware that there's a great deal of demonic activity in Cleveland. It... Well, it happens, you know, that, that Sunnydale is on a Hellmouth.
-------------------- "Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, no matter what - never face the facts." - Ruth Gordon
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I wouldn't think Buffy's physical location would alter that fact. Plus, the best part of that line: "Well, it happens, you know, that, that Sunnydale is on a Hellmouth. It is so!"
And how does one account for the door of this magic shop being near the wall instead of in the middle of the room? Eh? Eh?
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Angel has bad dreams and hallucinations brought on by the First Evil, which seems like it should be scarier than it is. Oz and Willow get back together.
"Amends"
Angel and Buffy just randomly run into each other on the street? Yet Sunnydale is a big school?
Xander should keep his voice down while discussing Angel in the hallway. Not that such a thing should be at all shocking to any of the students, but what happened to everyone worrying about secret identities?
The reason I think people like Oz is because he is one of the most reasonable people on the show. An episode or two ago he told Willow he was not ready to talk to her. Now he is ready, and they talk. Meanwhile Xander and Cordelia take a less considered approach to post-breakup reparations.
Angel at Giles' house is a tense scene.
Research montage!
According to the spooky and ethereal Jenny Calendar, Angel was a "drunken whoring layabout" prior to becoming a vampire. But those things are hardly in the same league. What's so bad about being a layabout?
The First Evil, huh? It doesn't really feel integral to this story. Angel was brought back by the spirit of Satan, or whatever? But then he isn't. So we've trotted out the worst thing just to give Angel and Buffy a chance at reconciliation? This whole episode feels pretty ominious, though. How did it seem at the time?
Faith is pretty thoughtful to bring Christmas gifts. For a hard-living runaway, I mean.
Bad news: The Angel POV Cam zooms in on the bed, then Buffy's neck, then Buffy's neck again.
Buffy ends things with a long speech. Then it snows and everything is ok. Is this supposed to be magic snow?
Once again, I seem to have trouble finding things to say about the thoughtful introspective episodes. "Look, a sex scene that turns creepy and murderous!" "Look, a discussion on when a couple should have sex!" Also, there was some sex, if someone is keeping a scorecard. But just dream sex. Oh, and Willow's parents are out of town often, which is convenient.
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Some kids are dead, and Sunnydale reacts kind of like a real town might, which is to say they completely overreact by Sunnydale standards. But, that's OK because their reactions are all provoked by Hansel and Gretel, who happen to make up some kind of gestalt demon.
"Gingerbread"
Buffy, to her mother, who thinks she should experience some slaying finally: "The slaying is kind of an alone thing." Traditionally, perhaps, but not the way Buffy does it. Though, I mean, she just wants her mother not to get killed, so I'm not holding it against her.
Buffy, to her mother, post dead children: "Just try to calm down." Next scene, Buffy to Giles: "Don't tell me to calm down!" See?
Hey, since when is Amy in the gang and privy to all the secrets? And since when does anyone in Sunnydale really care about some dead people? Even dead kids? I like the Mayor getting a little concerned at the idea of the voters going on an all out anti-magic campaign.
"Neck rupture." They must have a whole seperate vocabulary inside Sunnydale hospitals.
It's a goth crackdown. So even the students are in on this? Yeah, they sure haven't seen anyone get killed by magical forces before. Hey, I wonder if Sunnydale is going to pass an ordinance banning The Cure? Or gothy bands in general? Because, here's me in Sunnydale: Willow: "Oh my God, they're burning Morrissey albums!" Simon: "Good." But I kid.
Buffy gets respect and fear from the student body? That is a new development. Entirely warrented, but new.
Ok, here's the thing. Magic is real. All sorts of mystical entities actually exist. There is more than one plain of existence. And they choose now to all freak out? Though Buffy's mom has a small point when she says that the slayer thing isn't quite working out as well as it could be. Though, she has saved the world multiple times.
Well, hey, creepy undead kids. So I guess this is all just a posession thing. Or is it the First Evil? No. But, it could very easily have been. I wonder...
I like how that one kid is holding a bottle of choloroform whose label says, simply, "Choloroform." From the makers of Bleach brand bleach.
Cordelia gets to help save the day because she's been so unrelentingly mean lately. Xander and Oz get to fall down because it is funny. Giles gets to speak German because it is funny. OK, probably not, but it made me smile for some reason. And Amy is now a rat. Was that what she was aiming for? Because it did work in the short run. Her family is unlucky when it comes to magic. And what is her father supposed to think? That she just disappeared? That's sad.
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This episode is even more sad. Buffy gets her powers taken away as part of a Watcher test that doesn't seem well thought out at all. Then Giles gets fired. As a Watcher, that is.
"Helpless"
Buffy still likes ice skating. I hate ice skating. It is awful. Oz is into it, but he likes the ice more than the skating? He could just go play with the freezer, then.
Uh oh, ominous British people are bricking up windows. And hey, it's TV's Malcolm Reed, late of Enterprise.
Giles has a crystal that hypnotizes you when you look at it. Awesome. Though, what's this? He is putting it to apparently evil purposes. Boo! Then he drugs Buffy. This surely won't have negative consequences. And Giles is a bad liar.
This particular Watcher test is a dozen centuries old? That's pretty old. I wonder how many slayers live to be 18 to take it? How old was Kendra?
I figured they were keeping the vampire in a box drugged, but I guess he needs his pills. This is a pretty sloppy operation for a 1200 year old test.
The guy who doesn't become a vampire gets chopped up badly enough to gross out Giles, eh?
Here's the thing: Buffy's powers are sapped by the drug. But, shouldn't she still have her aim? Or her fighting moves? It sure doesn't seem that way. And at the beginning she seemed to lose herself before we got any sign that she had been drugged. So what exactly is going on here?
Buffy tends to overreact, or at least express herself in a manner that could be more tactful, but here, yelling at Giles? She's pretty much totally justified.
I admire Buffy's courage here, but, she does have at least one superpowered friend who would be more than willing to help her out, and several nonsuperpowered friends who would be willing to help anyway. That would take away from the really creepy fight in the bricked up and locked house, I suppose.
After knocking vampire Watcher out, Buffy should really stake him. I mean, vampires heal quickly.
The body which sent Giles running doesn't seem to phase Buffy. She prioritizes well, and is observent. For instance, grabbing crazy vampire-formerly-in-a-box's pills? Great idea. Swapping his water with holy water? Even better. I'd think he'd notice it while swallowing, though.
And then Giles shows up only to be attacked by...who? Is that the vampire Buffy knocked out? I told you she should have staked him.
This was a pretty traumatic experience for Buffy, but she should remember that Xander, among others, wind up having to do this sort of thing fairly often. Albeit without the crushing personal betrayal.
To sum up: Crushing personal betrayal.
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"Now Spike is confiding in Joyce? Huh. I wonder if this episode came about when the writers thought they might like Spike to become something other than just a villain, or if the move to make Spike something else because they liked how this episode worked?"
Apparently, when he was originally introduced, it was always planned that he'd die (like the Master, and the Mayor, and so forth). But they just loved him too much, so he left. I'm not sure when they decided to keep him around more permenantly. I'd say not even at the start of season 4.
"At this point in my notes I have written "Ooh!" but I can't remember why."
Perhaps it was when the Master first appeared? That made me go "oooh". Or maybe it was because they killed Cordelia (and quite early, too).
I think Joss said the reason Darla wasn't in the episode was because it would take away from the evil Xander-Willow double-act. But he also said that Angel probably killed her (again).
"According to the spooky and ethereal Jenny Calendar, Angel was a "drunken whoring layabout" prior to becoming a vampire. But those things are hardly in the same league. What's so bad about being a layabout?"
HIS FIRST NAME IS LIAM! I therefore beat you on the witty "he's just like me" humour-a-thon.
"Buffy ends things with a long speech. Then it snows and everything is ok. Is this supposed to be magic snow?"
Yes. I think it's suppossed to be the initial creation of the idea of "The Powers That Be", who pop up on Angel. So, yeah, magic snow that saves Angel because he has a task to do.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
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Xander falls in with a bad crowd who happen to be zombies, and learns an important lesson about self-reliance. Also he has sex with Faith. Meanwhile, the world is going to end, but then it doesn't.
"The Zeppo"
Buffy's experience last week has made her more concerned for Xander's well-being. But Willow is apparently more than welcome in the thick of things, even though her sole power consists of making things foggy. Other than that, things seem pretty much business as usual, despite Giles no longer working for the Watchers. (The sole line from "Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer": "You're fired.") What use do the Watchers serve again?
Xander is comically unpopular! I'm not at all sure I buy Cordelia having any knowledge at all of Zeppo Marx, though. I barely know who Zeppo Marx is. I had to look him up to get the jokes.
My problem with this episode begins right around here, more or less. To recap: There is a group of weird female demons who want to open the Hellmouth and make everything bad. Well, ok, that's common enough. But, suddenly, it is the Most Serious Threat Ever. The Sisterhood of Mean are described as being incredibly tough, though we don't really see much of that. Meanwhile, Xander has an adventure of his own that's much more comical, and the MSTE is just there for comic contrast. In theory this works, but in practice, I felt a bit cheated. It was very boy-who-cried-wolfesque. Because if this was so scary and harsh, then how worried was I supposed to be about the Judge, or the Master, or that stone demon with the big mouth?
Another example: Giles knows a spirit that sees the future? Since when? Shouldn't they be going to this thing more often? "Hey spirit, this Judge guy can't be beaten by any weapon." "Any weapon FORGED. HINT HINT." This scene seems here mostly so that Xander, fresh from participating in a zombie-raising, can have a scene where he doesn't tell Giles what's going on, even though it would make sense to do so.
Is the name of the magic store Willow walks out of "Uncle Bob's Magic Cabinet?"
Xander: "Buffy will know what to do." Buffy: "I don't know what to do!" There's one in every episode.
Despite not thinking that these two stories mesh very well, I really like The Adventures of Xander, though some of the jokes depend on him being painfully slow on the uptake. "Wait a minute...they're not baking any cake." I still laughed, of course. I also kind of enjoyed the apocalypse going on in the background while he was busy with important things like foiling zombie troublemakers. I don't know.
In my notes, from the scene where Xander chases a zombie down a hallway and around a corner only to come running back, zombie close behind, both pursued by the Sisterhood of Mean: "Han Solo!" Because, see, that scene is my favorite part of Star Wars, and quite possibly the pinnacle of George Lucas' creative career.
Despite all this talk of Xander not being up to the challenge of saving the world (which I think is largely fair), he seems to do pretty well fighting for his life. A lot better than I would do, I'm sure.
Xander has adapted, Borg-like, to Cordelia's powers of belittlement. Good for him.
Lessons I learned: I am not as smart about movies as the stereotypically shallow girl, nor as tough as the stereotypically nerdy boy. Thanks a lot, TV.
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Buffy decides to be more like Faith for reasons I'm not very clear on, a new Watcher arrives, and Faith kills the Deputy Mayor, though it is an accident, and she doesn't know who he is at the time.
"Bad Girls"
These are some oddly dressed vampires. And they have swords! I guess that explains the vaguely knightlike get-up. And good for them. Vampires should carry weapons more often.
It's another peak inside the Mayor's closet of evil...and sanitary napkins. Huh.
I don't really see why Buffy should feel obligated to do anything the Watchers say. They haven't been very trustworthy, and it isn't like she volunteered. I see they must teach that eyeglass-removal move at Watcher school.
Faith wanders into the library and then wanders back out. This is during school hours. So she's officially attending now? I wonder what the other students make of her. Buffy, for instance, apparently has a bit of respect from the rest of the student body, for her various acts of heroism. What about Faith? Is she just the weird girl who seems to be from Boston despite clearly enunciating her R's?
Buffy should have searched the crypt for this magic amulet in the daytime. That might lower the chances of being surprised by a group of vampires. And are they calling these guys the Illuminati? That's kind of odd.
Buffy, on the fight against large numbers of sword-wielding vampires: "I don't think I'm explaining it well." Xander: "You're explaining it a lot though." I approve of this joke. I do not, however, approve of Xander's very TV eye twitch whenever Faith's name is mentioned.
Now Buffy is just sneaking right out of class to go on slaying adventures with Faith? That doesn't seem very wise. Now they're at a rave! Is it an evil rave? No, apparently not. Still, that is a kind of weird choice of imagery. Look, they are cutting class! Now they are dancing closely with boys! They are bad girls! Right.
Balthazar is one fat demon. I presume what's going on here is that the Mayor beat him up, or whatever, and kicked his vampire society out of town. Was he always this fat? He seems to have magic, uh, grabbing powers. I thought maybe he was a vampire himself, like in the movie Blade. But apparently not. Anyway, what I'm getting at is, was he crippled as a result, spending the next century eating and not getting any exercise? Or is he a slob demon or something? He doesn't seem very happy.
Now Faith and Buffy are breaking into a well-armed sports store located right across the street from the current abandoned warehouse/demon headquarters. To get weapons? But the library is full of weapons! Buffy has a whole crate herself, at home. Then the cops show up. Good for them, I suppose. But, hey cops, right next door there's a crazy murderous gang. And your boss even wants them wiped out. Incidently, if I was the Mayor, I'd think about having a special team of police officers that was made up of vampires or something. They could go around and take care of things without having to be all sneaky and covert about it. I mean, other than having to operate at night. But I'm sure, in Sunnydale, an explanation for that could be made up.
So, Buffy is now known to police not only as that girl once wanted for murder, but as that girl who was in a squad car just before it mysteriously crashed. Aren't the cops going to follow up on this? I guess not.
The lesson here is, it is really unhealthy to be lurking in the shadows in an alley in Sunnydale at night, no matter who you are. The Deputy Mayor was sort of evil, though, I think. So at least there's that.
Then there's a denouement, which features a fight and Balthazar getting electrocuted and some nice sword work from Giles, but I didn't write anything down about it.
Faith is on a bad track.
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-------------------- "Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, no matter what - never face the facts." - Ruth Gordon
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quote: Another example: Giles knows a spirit that sees the future? Since when? Shouldn't they be going to this thing more often? "Hey spirit, this Judge guy can't be beaten by any weapon." "Any weapon FORGED. HINT HINT." This scene seems here mostly so that Xander, fresh from participating in a zombie-raising, can have a scene where he doesn't tell Giles what's going on, even though it would make sense to do so.
They get annoyed if you call on them to often.
quote: Xander is comically unpopular! I'm not at all sure I buy Cordelia having any knowledge at all of Zeppo Marx, though. I barely know who Zeppo Marx is. I had to look him up to get the jokes.
I think that became semi popular slang. I don't know what brought it on. I'm a fan of the Brothers, so I knew about Zeppo and Gummo. Gummo is another brother, he didn't make the jump from Vaudeville to moives with the others.
-------------------- Sparky:: Think! Question Authority, Authoritatively. “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” EMSparks
Shalamar: To save face, keep lower half shut.
Registered: Jun 1999
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Evil spoiler person! Now you have made me afraid to come in to this thread, lest my eyes wander upwards and be tainted. Curse you.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
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