Buffy Season Eight: Retreat, Part 3

Willow: "We can all have futures, Buffy. Even you."

Synopsis:

It's "Storyteller" part two.

After trying unsuccessfully to convince Giles that Twilight has a spy amongst the hidden slayers, Andrew decides to expose said spy with his trusty videocamera. He starts with Bayarmaa, "Oz's exotic mate," who explains how the slayers are working on channeling their powers into nature through meditation and hard physical labor on the land, weaving and churning and taking apart the half-buried submarine.

Buffy and Faith are connecting over their misery as they clear a field, trying to move a huge boulder that is too heavy for them. (There is a Siamese cat sitting on the boulder.) Faith confesses, though, that she was unhappy with what she had to do as a slayer. Buffy confesses back that she is glad not to be in charge any more. At the same time, they acknowledge that every person they saved is important to them.

Andrew spies on Buffy and Xander. Xander tells Buffy he overheard her telling Giles about killing Willow in the future. This scene is full of romantic overtones, with Buffy and Xander lying on a hillside, their heads together. Buffy has a splinter and is really bothered by it. Her powers (and Faith's) are obviously gone. Already?

Andrew confronts Giles about their Willow problem, and then diagrams it on a flip-chart.

Andrew spies on Willow and Oz. Willow is frustrated that the meditation and channeling isn't working for her. (The baby is on Oz's lap, and beside them are two Siamese cats.) Willow feels that for her, it's hopeless. That she'll never be normal, never have children. Oz encourages her to try his methods, and trusts her to watch the baby. (Reminding me of Willow getting Dawn in a car accident back in season six.)

Willow, playing with the baby and all exuberant about a possible future as a real human being, is brought back to earth (so to speak) when Buffy confesses that she killed Future Dark Willow. Willow brushes it off. It was a possible future, not the one that will actually happen. Willow will make the no-magic thing work, no matter what. Clearly on a baby-induced high. (No Siamese cat in this scene; could be important.)

Buffy returns to tell Xander that she told Willow and it was all okay, and happens upon Xander kissing... Dawn. Bleah. (At least I thought it was Dawn. It's sometimes hard to tell one character from another in a comic.)

Andrew confesses to a roomful of slayers that he thought Willow was working for Twilight, but he was wrong and he's sorry, and the Siamese cat that was sitting on a slayer's lap vanishes. Apparently, it was Amy, who now knows a whole heckuva lot. To be continued.

Review:

Can they go back to being human? Can they have lives without magic, children like Oz did? Can they stay hidden in Tibet forever? Clearly, the answers to all three questions are "no." But we knew that, and this whole sojourn to Tibet feels pointless. All of the vampires and demons aren't going to go away; slayers are necessary, and using magic to fight magic makes sense.

Buffy told Willow the truth about killing her dark self in the future, and Willow decided that it couldn't be true. This sort of denial isn't exactly good for her. Willow might have been sidetracked by a bit of baby-phoria, but she's fallen into addiction twice, after all. I must admit it feels like Willow's situation is hopeless, and that's sad -- maybe her future fate is inescapable.

And Xander kissing Dawn? Nooooooooooooo! Especially since they were signaling pretty clearly that Buffy and Xander were finally heading toward something. Guess not. Not that I really wanted Buffy to go for Xander. For the eightieth time, could they please bring Spike back?

Bits and pieces:

-- The cover was Buffy and Willow, crosslegged and meditating. It was very reminiscent of Willow and Tara doing their sexy spell in "Who Are You?"

-- Buffy is wearing a Sesame Street shirt with the Count on it.

Quotes:

Dawn: "What do you suppose this says?"
Xander: "On the Chinese land mine? That says, 'This side toward enemy'."
Xander says that humans tend to point to the danger, not the safe. Like Andrew looking for a spy, perhaps? Except Andrew was right.

Andrew: "The next time I catch up with Xander, he's taking the time to just sit with his friend Buffy and yak." The next panel shows Buffy, Xander and a yak.

Oz: "We're just trying to teach you not to bottle up the poison inside you."
Willow: "But without the poison, what am I?"
Oz: "Okay, that was a telling statement."

On to part four,

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

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