Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Gone

Xander: "You know, kidding aside, Spike, you really should get a girlfriend."

Definitely Buffy Lite. The title was certainly appropriate: first, several inches of Buffy's hair disappeared, then Buffy herself disappeared... and then her determination to resist Spike seemed to disappear, too. At least momentarily.

I loved what Buffy did to the social worker. Good for Buffy. Okay, an unemployed vampire slayer with supernatural problematic friends probably isn't the best guardian for a teenager with problems, but Dawn isn't exactly a normal teenager anyway. And being yanked away from the only remaining person in her family would undoubtedly make her worse, right?

This couldn't have been an easy episode for the effects department. James Marsters did manage to pull off doing love scenes all by himself, though. I noticed he was wearing "real" clothes for a change, probably so that invisible Buffy could tear off his shirt. He's also started wearing jewelry in the past few episodes, probably so that when he's naked, he's at least wearing something. Am I talking too much about Spike and his lack of clothing, perhaps?

Is Xander totally dense? Not long after catching Spike touching Buffy in the kitchen, he goes to Spike's crypt to tell Spike that Buffy is now invisible, sees Spike naked in bed doing (*ahem*) what he was doing, and doesn't make the connection?

Willow now knows where the Lair is, and Buffy knows who the Nerds of Doom are. At least the Scoobies won't have to keep researching frost monsters and exploding lint now.

Bits and quotes:

-- I noticed Buffy's wig right away, but it was still a good one. Would I have noticed it if I hadn't heard about Sarah Michelle Gellar getting her hair cut? Probably not.

-- Speaking of hair, Anya's looked almost normal again.

-- Willow, valiantly resisting her addiction, was very much herself again throughout this entire episode. It made me realize how much I miss the old Willow.

-- Was the parking cop guy the same one that was in the musical?

-- The season one episode about an invisible girl was mentioned.

Quotes:

Buffy: "Dawn, it's magic clearance. Everything must go."
Dawn: "But they're just candles!"
Buffy: "Well, yeah, you know, to you and me they're just candles, but to witches they're like... bongs."

Andrew: "I pictured something cooler. More ILM, less Ed Wood."

Willow: "Okay, I deserve the wrath of Dawn, but why is she taking it out on you?"

Spike: "Ah-ah-ah! This flapjack's not ready to be flipped."

Xander: "Well, come on, Will. Some of the spells you've done have caused some weird stuff to happen to each of us at one time or another. And let's not forget the recent forgetting."

Buffy: "So you three have, what, banded together to be pains in my ass?"
Warren: "We're your arch-nemesises ... ses."

Dan didn't like this episode very much. Okay, I'll grant that it was lame after the intensity of the last few, but I giggled a lot – probably because Buffy had so much fun, and she was really in desperate need of some.

Two out of four stakes,

Billie
---
Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.

5 comments:

  1. I liked it mostly because of the Willow part - I was getting completely tired of Dark Magic Willow and was glad to see her acting like herself again. I really hope this is going to be a permanent reversion to the norm; the magic/drug thing was an incredible drag.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Dan on this one. It's one of those episodes that make me wonder what the hell the writers were thinking. It's so silly, and not the good kind of silly. And SMG's voice acting is off most of the times.

    I know Xander is not the brightest guy, but it's a disservice to make him so dumb to the point that he doesn't realize Buffy and Spike are having sex. Bad character writing, sorry about it.

    There are some good moments. It's nice to see good old Willow back and I like that Buffy decided to have some fun. The final scene is lovely.

    But that "comedy" when Buffy taunts the social worker? And the invisible fight? No, next.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm biased, this was the first episode of the season I've ever caught on TV. The humor's all juvenile and lame to be sure but I still liked all of it lol. SMG being cute if not particularly funny.

    Dawn's gone back to sucking again, unfortunately. Did not like her snide little comments to Buffy about not helping Willow. I know it's totally in character to finger-point in such an infuriating way, but really what could Buffy have done to stop it? Kick Willow out earlier? That'd just mean she'd be completely alone when she hit rock bottom. You're back on my shit-list, Dawn! Dis ain't how you treat someone whose bot-double (RIP ;-;) you cuddled with at least once on a lonely night.

    And while it was nice to see Willow back to her old self I still thought Xander was right to wonder whether Buffy's invisibility was another one of Willow's screw-ups.

    It's a shame invisibility isn't viable as a battle option because an invisible Slayer definitely would be something to behold (and it's just funny to imagine all the future fights shot this way).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes to the general consensus that Xander was waaaay too clueless for even Xander. It was disrespectful to his character, to catch Buffy & Spike twice in, um, action, and not pick up on either trist. I cringed during Xander’s tirade about how only a complete loser, simpleton or nutsack would ever hook up with Spike. And that after having just caught them in their touchy feelies. Gotta say, Spike showed considerable self restraint. In that matter at least.

    But in the crypt…..why was Xander so blind? And deaf? You could even hear Buffy cry out at Spike’s “push up.” Yeah, all of that was more cringy and embarrassing than funny. I agree with Spike. “Bloody stupid.”

    I did feel sorry for Buffy in losing track of what day it was. Such a common thing for those in grief, stress, and trauma. So are bad choices and there’s a lot of them in this episode. The social worker, Spike, the parking cop and even Dawn suffered because of them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous, your comment was fine, but it spoiled the end of the sixth season. We sort of have a time travel site here -- people can try shows for the first time and read along here because we don't allow spoilers for later episodes.

    Please feel free to post your comment without the ending, if you like.

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.