Buffy Season Eight: Last Gleaming, Part 2

Spike: "So what do you say, luv... fancy a bit of exposition?"

Synopsis:

In his stateroom on the sphere ship, Spike fills Buffy in on the Seed of Wonder, which is the source of all the magic in the world. It has been in Sunnydale since before humans and before The First. The world was overrun with demons and horrors, a spillover from another dimension. The Seed kept the demons/monsters from seeping back into the old dimension. The Seed is like a key. (I'm getting Dawn flashbacks.) Or maybe it's a cork. (And now I'm getting Lost flashbacks.)

Spike says everything was good, until Buffy and Angel boinked and created Twilight (the place.) Buffy tells Spike that what happened with Angel made her feel completely out of control. Spike doesn't want to hear it but she says that he's the one she told all of her dark stuff to. They kiss -- except no, they don't, it's a tease. Buffy is fantasizing about kissing Spike, while Spike believes the romantic look on her face means she's thinking about Angel.

Spike has an answer to the problem but wants to wait and tell the entire group. He says Buffy should get to bed and she immediately fantasizes about the two of them in bed together. Very season six in Spike's crypt.

Meanwhile in Japan, Satsu is leading slayers in a fight against monsters and demons and Angel shows up to help. Angel zooming around fighting monsters says Buffy was right and he needed this.

Meanwhile in the ship/sphere's control room, Dawn is still trying not to think about the giant bugs. Xander suggests that if they survive, the two of them should move in together. Dawn says she has wanted that forever. The evil General (the former Twilight minion who is pretending to be on the Slayer side but really isn't) is eavesdropping.

Willow passes out and finds herself on that other plane with the snake-woman-person Aluwyn. (This is all confusing exposition.) According to Aluwyn, as long as the Seed is in its place (the Hellmouth), the status is quo. If it is *removed* (to another dimension, I'm guessing?) the gates of Hell open wide and demons and monsters will thrive. This is what Twilight wants. (Twilight the place, not Angel.) But destroy the Seed, and there is no avenue for evil to take to the world. No demons, no monsters -- and no magic. The vestiges of that magic would remain in the form of slayers already called, plus vampires -- but those drawing their power from elsewhere, as witches do, would lose it all. Willow tells Aluwyn that Buffy had a vision that someone would betray her and says Aluwyn knows who it is.

Willow wakes up and says, Buffy, we have to protect the Seed. Bad Willow, no biscuit.

The sphere ship arrives above the Sunnydale crater, and it's a real mess -- monsters and demons versus military, planes and bombs. Buffy jumps out of the ship and Spike grabs her around the waist and goes with her. Willow is about to take off, too, and Xander, Giles, Faith and Dawn say they want to go along.

Buffy and Spike fly underground (must have been an opening somewhere). The Master is there, and he whacks Buffy. Spike vamps out. The Master says that "It" said Buffy would come, but she was supposed to come with Angel. Spike distracts him and Buffy smacks him down.

Back to Angel. The world is looking like a battlefield. The higher being shows up in animal form again, calls Angel "Father" and tells him his work isn't done. It turns into a winged lion with a mane of green gas (a phoenix?) and tells Angel he must finish what he started.

Review:

I'm so confused. So much exposition. So much stupid, hard-to-follow exposition. When you get near the end of the series and you get tons of exposition, that means the writers haven't laid their groundwork.

And I hate that Willow is a bad guy again, although it was obviously coming. I don't know what is sadder -- that Willow decides that keeping her magic is more important than saving the world, or that I wasn't surprised she went that way. It's pretty much a rerun of season six, but without the makeover of the damned. Now if Joss Whedon had done what I told him to do and brought back Tara, this wouldn't be happening. (Yes, I read the "Willow" standalone, and I get that Willow said no to bringing Tara back. Disappointing.)

The obvious answer is destroying the Seed. Are we heading for a big giant re-set button? Slayers already called, plus vampires, and that would be pretty much it as far as the supernatural goes?

More lovely Buffy/Spike banter. Tell me again why she belongs with Angel? I do like that Angel was supposed to be with Buffy below Sunnydale, but she went with Spike instead. That felt right. It was the place where Spike gave his un-life to save the world, after all, the place where she told him she loved him, even if she didn't.

And Buffy still fantasizes about him. Knew it. Even though they're obviously just throwing a bone to the Buffy/Spike shippers, I still found Buffy's two mini-fantasies more enjoyable than an entire issue of Buffy and Angel having sex, and I'll stop talking about it now.

Bits and pieces:

-- Spike says he'll explain his spaceship some other time. Like when?

-- If you're interested in more detail about the "Willow" one-shot that talks about Tara, here's a synopsis: http://www.seanpaune.com/2010/01/12/buffy-season-8-willow-one-shot/

Quotes:

Spike: "Point is, bottle corked, world safe, nothing to fear. Unless a couple of super-powered morons who never got a higher education decide to shag a universe into existence."
Buffy: "That wasn't our fault!"
Spike: "Nobody said it was except me right now to your face."

Buffy: "... it was like... elemental. Like we were outside ourselves, in each other... like we were the wind that swept us up."
Spike: "Can you think of a single creature on any plane of existence that wants to hear this less?"

Buffy: "You're my dark place, Spike."

Buffy: "God, my brain's turning into Cinemax over here."

Buffy (in the air) "Spike's totally touching my butt."

On to part three, and only three issues to go. If you got a better grasp than I did on this Seed of Wonder crap, please post a comment and enlighten me!

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

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