Saturday 6 April 2013

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Checkpoint



“He could seduce her and BANG the key out of her!”

This is a bloody good episode, all about the appearance of power versus the reality of power. The conclusion, and Buffy’s speech, is a powerful and hard hitting message. The council, though they may appear to be authority figures, are in fact completely dependent on Buffy. Even Glory needs something from Buffy and she is, as we learn at the end, pretty damn powerful. The Council, who everyone starts off being desperate to appease, end up as Buffy’s bitches. Technically, this means that Buffy can order them about to do research and stuff, although I suspect this will not be picked up on.

It turns out that Glory, being as powerful and capricious as a god from the Greek myths, is, in fact, a god. Oh dear. Not only that, but she uses her first appearance to express regret at the fact she’s done sod all for a few episodes, and that she now needs to fulfil her duty as the season’s Big Bad to get the season arc moving forward.

This is an important episode for the father/daughter relationship between Buffy and Giles; it is he, far more than her, who expresses fury at the blackmailing tactics of his former employers. He ends up reinstated as her Watcher, with full back-pay, while the loathsome Quentin Travers is at last humiliated.

I love the scene in which the Watchers interrogate Willow and Tara about their relationship, played perfectly to comic effect by Alyson Hannigan and Amber Benson, although not as much as the Watcher who fancies Spike. Ooh-err! I also love Giles’ use of the phrase “Poncey sods!”, which we Brits obviously use all the time. Most of all, I love the way Spike and Joyce bond over Passions, whatever that is.

Bloody good stuff. Roll on the next one.

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