Buffy: "I didn't even realize it was December. Maybe when we get home, we should decorate the rubble." Wow. Bummer. I'm not sure what upsets me more: that Spike is still being tortured, or that something is terribly wrong with Giles.
Giles seemed... off. We never did see what happened with the axe. He didn't hug Buffy; he didn't touch anyone. It also seemed uncharacteristic for Giles to burgle the Council just to retrieve useless information. And why didn't he pull Buffy out of the hole in the Xmas tree lot? Why didn't he take her to the hospital if she was bleeding internally? For that matter, why did he dump the whole problem on Buffy in the first place, when it was clear she was out of her depth?
On the other hand, Giles did bring the British Invasion/Next Generation to Sunnydale, and he did give the Scoobies valuable info about the First and the Ubervamp. But you could also see it as bringing victims directly to the First, and feeding the Scoobies information they would have found out anyway.
Is Giles dead? Is he the First, too, playing some kind of sick game with Buffy? Or is Joss just trying to freak us all out because he knows we'll pick up on this stuff?
Why is the First so determined to turn Spike? Or, is the First trying to turn Spike? Is it more complicated than that? (And hey, hey, by the way, why try to drown someone who doesn't breathe? And why would "Dru" come on to Spike sexually if she can't touch him?)
The Slayers-in-Training have finally arrived -- Annabelle, Kennedy, and Molly -- and Annabelle has already bitten the dust. I did like Kennedy, the brassy one who came on to Willow and insisted on weapons. But on the whole, we didn't learn much about them except that they like to eat, they want weapons, and they had Watchers. (If they all had Watchers, how come Buffy didn't have a Watcher until she was Called?)
What's with Principal Wood? Did he consciously bury Jonathan's body? What did he mean when he was talking about seeing true evil and never being the same afterward? Does he have something to do with the First and the Goat-Headed Badness, or... thought... does he think Buffy has something to do with it, and that's why he's watching her and feeling her out? He mentioned loving mysteries. He's trying to figure Buffy out, isn't he?
The second time I watched this episode, I noticed that there were several mentions of sunrise and sunset: Giles appearing in front of the sunrise in the Xmas tree lot, Joyce mentioning the inevitability of the sun coming up and going down, and those were just two, there were more. This can't be a coincidence. Is there something about the First that has to do with sunrise and sunset?
So Buffy really got her ass kicked, which doesn't happen all that often. The Ubervamp or Neando-vamp, Turok-Han, whatever, cannot be staked, it seems. (What about sunlight and decapitation?) Poor, battered, insomniac Buffy, complete with internal bleeding, has declared war; she's going to arm her junior slayers and take the fight to the First. Very cool.
Bits and pieces:
-- It was somewhat cute, Xander and Andrew connecting with the comics. Looked like Anya and Dawn were connecting with abusing Andrew, too.
-- Why bury the Goat-headed Badness Satanic manhole cover again? I'm thinking barn door here. Unless there are more Bad Things coming. Didn't "Dru" say that more bad things were coming from underneath?
-- It occurred to me that if this is the last year and they're thinking spinoff, the Slayers-in-training might be auditioning.
Quotes:
Dawn: "There's blood on this. Lots. Looks like The First made another sacrifice. Or a music video."
Giles: "Sorry to barge in. We have a slight apocalypse."
Anya: "And you blew the Council up. See, this is what happens when you're all stuffy and repressed. You overreact."
Giles: "I'm afraid it falls to you, Buffy. Sorry. I mean, we'll do what we can, but you're the only one who has the strength to protect these girls -- and the world -- against what's coming."
Xander: "But no pressure."
Buffy: "What can I say, I just love those evil, evil movies. Like Exorcist, you know, Blair Witch..."
Wood: "Hmm. As opposed to Rob Schneider's oeuvre."
Buffy: "Different kind of evil."
Willow: "Xander, newbies. Let's ease them in to the whole jokes in the face of death thing."
Xander: "Who's joking? That pantry thing could work. Are you saying M. Night Shyamalan lied to us?"
Andrew: "I admit I went over to the dark side, but just to pick up a few things, and now I'm back."
Another good episode, even though it gave us more questions than answers. Three out of four stakes,
Billie
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Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.
Bad Bad Accents.
ReplyDelete"There's only one thing more powerful than evil... and that's us."
ReplyDelete*Cue outside shot of the Summers household as it explodes*
Sorry lol.. couldn't help imagining it. It only happened last episode and now it's all I'm primed to expect with the starts of rousing speeches. I better re-adjust.
I liked it even more than the last one. The fight scene had some cool moves from the Ubervamp even though I hated him railing on Buffy. The shot of her being uncovered under the rubble after the fight was really upsetting visually. Yes, even more than seeing her corpse getting healed up or her dead body at the end of The Gift. Great work on that.
Buffy: "But if you don't tell us what we need to know, then I'm gonna offer you to The First on a platter and let him chop you into tiny pieces."
Andrew:"................The First what?"
Andrew had this frozen sweaty expression like he knows who and what Buffy's talking about, and then he asks completely befuddled, lol. I loved it. Had to rewatch it a few times.
I loved that disturbing shot of Wood staring at Buffy through the window after she gets absentminded with one of the students because she was thinking about Joyce. His eye area looked illuminated between the partings in the blinds.
Poor, Spike. I hate watching torture. The First gives both barrels to Spike, physical by the ubervamp and mental by Drusilla, no pun intended. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThe ubervamp’s physical torture was beating, cutting and drowning. I’ve wondered about the drowning part too, Billie. I guess that even though Spike doesn’t have to breathe, the powerlessness and discomfort was torture. Dru/the First tried to twist his mind with words such as, “Tried to enlighten little Buffy, didn’t you? Spilled, spilled, spilled our secrets like seed.” Kinda hitting below the belt, so to speak.
The words Buffy spoke to Spike about believing in him had been delivered just in time. Interesting that Buffy told Spike the reason he was still alive was because she’d seen him change. Drusilla/the First said the reason he was still alive was because she/he wasn’t done with him yet. Spike knows which one he believes and tells Drusilla /the First he’s out. They couldn’t pull his strings any more. (Although technically they can because he still has the trigger…)
Buffy herself feels the urgency to rescue Spike, sacrificing sleep and her own safety to keep working. But Spike’s torture makes Andrew’s captivity by the scoobies look like child’s play. At least they found the seal and Giles brought some intel on the First and what it wants. Just no help in defeating it, other than it’s up to Buffy, and victory over even just the ubervamp is looking bleak. But dang, she’s going to take the battle to them. Shut up, Drusilla. It’ll be a nice Christmas present for Spike if Buffy wins.
Oh, and excellent use of the word “burgle,” Billie. :)