606 | All the Way

Andy: Buffy finally feels like it is moving along this season towards some better themes. I like the focus on Willow and her attitude about the use of magic. Could make for some interesting episode later on, especially if more characters were involved. What Willow needs is for the TAC to some in with some videos about the dangers of magic and what happens when it goes wrong. Giles seems to be concerned about something else though. I hope it’s not too bad. Buffy is very reassured by his presence and is not willing to take on any responsiblility yet (which is understandable) but Dawn is looking to her for parental approval and rebellion. The fight scene which ended with the vampire dying from the car door was terrible. It looked so staged to use the car door as the finishing move. I thought Buffy would run to protect her sister (who can take care of herself) rather than fight some anonymous bad guy. A better episode than previous one’s and it is hopefully building towards something.

Mattt: Not a bad episode. A bit too much Tara, but then she did fall for the Jedi mind trick so HAHAHA. I did feel sorry for Dawn though. It’s her own fault really. If she had a little cross necklace like Buffy she’d have known sooo much sooner. And I’m dissapointed about the old guy. I want to know what evil stuff he was going to get up to.

Tom: Buffy‘s been going on for five and a bit years now, so it’s only natural that they’ve amassed a few stereotypes. It smacks of carelessness, however, to have almost all of them in one episode.

• Buffy’s friends have all paired up and she feels left out.
• Someone has to stake a vampire which they have feelings for.
• The aforementioned staking is a surprise to the vampire, as the person had the stake stuck between their bodies.
• There is a very threatening, obvious evil-doer set up at the start of the episode, which astounds us all when it turns out to be in fact innocent, and the victim of the REAL villain of the piece.
• One of the characters does something a bit naughty, and gets punished by a supernatural element of Sunnydale.

Let’s also not forget how crap the fight scene was, with no one running to help the person they came to save, and Buffy and Spike having difficulty dispatching some fairly run of the mill vamps, even when Dawn’s life depends on it. Add some fairly awful acting from the guest stars and you have one of the crappiest episodes for a while. Its single redeeming feature was the Willow subplot. Good on Tara for having a go at yelling at her, even if she won’t remember…

607 | Once More, With Feeling

Andy: I loved it. It was very funny and emotional. The singing allowed greater expression of feelings than in a normal episode so it kept the overall plot moving well despite a rather simple plot for this episode. A sad ending though. Willow had better watch herself, Tara’s onto her. I liked the duets. They showed an interesting resonance between Giles and Tara. Should be good to watch in future episodes. I don’t like this Buffy/Spike business.

Tom: Now this is more like it. Imaginative, funny, moving stuff. All the developments we see in this episode flow beautifully from past episodes. Great singing from Tara and Giles, fairly good singing from Spike, Anya and Buffy. Xander obviously not so good, but I feel that’s in character anyway! I’ve had the first song in my head all week — some very clever lyrics there. Joss Whedon may well be a genius. Watch out in the showdown with that demon guy for Tara running into a pole by accident and hiding behind it! Also listen to the parking ticket song as long as possible after the others walk away…

608 | Tabula Rosa

Andy: I don’t think Joan is going to find inner peace anytime soon especially since Giles left. Same goes for Willow, who I think is a bit drippy. A nice dig at Angel by Spike and Joan who have no trouble dispatching a group of vampires, unlike a couple of weeks ago. I still don’t like this Joan Spike business.

Jackson: Arguably one of the best episodes ever. Very well done, very funny, very sad, and the most refreshing episode we’ve had in a long time (from a character and plot standpoint). I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun watching them all. Priceless moments between the new “family” — Giles telling his “son” Spike good luck was just beautiful, and the farewell scenes were brilliantly handled. Poignant but not sentimental — heart-wrenching but not mushy (probably because Giles and Tara didn’t actually get to say goodbye at all). I loved it. The musical was a bit of fun, but this episode has restored my faith in the show.

Tom: Nice to see a musical montage again on Buffy — it made for a good, restrained ending. Willow’s descent into magic addiction is well handled, but depressing to watch. I loved the acting between her and Tara when the memories came back. Both did a fine job. Sadly, Amber Benson has done some of her best work in the last two episodes, and now leaves. Couldn’t they have given her this kind of material, oh, say, two years ago? I loved the dig at Angel! Randy Giles was also impressive in this episode, though I would have expected him to kill that shark guy at the end, not be nice to him. I think he’s gone soft-er. Two good episodes in a row — I’ve almost forgotten how bad All the Way was.

609 | Smashed

Andy: I don’t really like Spike. He does have some funny lines but he’s become a bit pathetic. I’m no longer going to comment on Joan/Spike. It doesn’t bear thinking about. Willow is in self-denial (it’s always the responsible types you have to look out for) I don’t imagine she’ll recover anytime soon especially with ratgirl hanging around. This season looks like it is going to be focusing on depressing themes so I’m going to only pay attention to the nice characters Xander, Anya, Dawn and Tara. I’m not too keen on a season of sad episodes. It’s a shame that Giles left. I liked the Xander + D&D book bit.

Tom: I never thought I’d watch an episode where some of my favourite bits involved Tara! It’s become apparent over the last few weeks that when they actually give her stuff to do she’s quite good. And she’s being a far better role model to Dawn than either Buffy or Willow! All teenagers should know not to turn evil and not to bonk evil. But more on that later. Xander and Anya are a bit more useful as the characters who know everyone’s going dumb. Willow may be treading in dangerous territory, but I still want to operate my Mac like she can. Can she set what colour the glowing stuff is? Is she running OS 9 or X up there? But enough procrastinating, let’s get to the big controversial aspect of the episode.

Simply put, there is NO WAY Andrew could have seen every episode of Doctor Who. Most of the sixties episodes were junked before he was born. And the argument about DVD makes no sense — only 3 stories of Who are available in America on DVD. Lazy writing. I’m shocked.

While I’m here, let’s talk about Buffy and Spike. I was surprised when A Beautiful Mind revealed you can simply ask beautiful women to have sex with you and they will. Now I find that verbally and physically abusing them works too. I’ve been barking up the wrong tree it seems. It was a bit galling to watch, and shocking, but I believe that was the idea. Spike was very lucky in a rundown building not to get staked, considering the high mortality rate of most vampires in such situations.

610 | Wrecked

“Last night… was the most perverse… degrading experience of my life.”
“Yeah. Me too.”

Andy: Poor Dawny. I hope she now knows better than to hang out with druggies like Strawberry and Rack. I hadn’t realised that Strawberry was a telepath working for the Shadows. I must have missed an episode. I’m not sure if Buffy is able to beat up the Shadows by herself. Buffy’s fighting style looks like it is getting worse this season. She appears to stop paying attention halfway through. I’d have thought that after so many years as a slayer she’d be able to quickly dispatch most monsters. Perhaps they should get in contact with someone from Jet Li’s The One (about fight choreographing not plot devices). Xander and what’s-her-face are slowly being edged out. Unless something bad happens to them I doubt they’ll get much screen time.

Tom: Buffy is definitely improving. A good episode, with a great performance by Alyson Hannigan, but things seemed a bit rushed. Amy seems to have made the transition from rat to junkie in two days, which is a surprise. Perhaps she saw Traffic too. Willow too seems to have advanced rather quickly — she’s become Rack’s favourite so soon? It just feels like the Willow/Amy plot should have been threaded across two episodes instead of being boxed into this one. That aside however, it’s handled fairly well, and Dawn’s reaction to Willow’s extreme crapness was damn cool. I’m enjoying how crummy everyone’s life is, but Xander and Anya do seem a bit left out. One side issue: the “Previously, on Buffy”s are getting stupid. Or rather, they seem to think we are. What was the point of showing us the nerd trio just to explain one line about freezing and diamonds to us? Soon they’ll take up most of the episode.

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This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Tuesday, April 9th, 2002. It concerns such pressing issues as . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.