“Did you know that the ancient Sumerians did not speak English?”
“They’re worse than the French...”
A subtle, interesting and quietly packed episode this time as we start out all light, fluffy and full of Whedonesque with until, suddenly, the mood completely changes with Chloe, a Potential, being found hanged after being talked to death by the first, an event which is profoundly unbearable in all sort of ways.
Even worse is Buffy’s harsh speech about everyone not pulling their weight. Which is somewhat hypocritical (as Xander implies) after her recent antics, and certainly not respectful of the dead, but seems to be the much-needed shock everyone needs, which the absent Giles’ gentler rebuke last episode seemingly wasn’t.
This is the episode where Principal Wood both gets fully introduced to the Scoobies and acquires a first name, Robin. I like him a lot as a character. He has, of course, an ulterior motive in avenging his mother against Spike, but he is genuine and his wit fits right in. It’s also showing Andrew, yet again, as a comic foil.
The main event, though, is the bag bequeathed by Robin from his mother to Buffy, which uses magic puppetry to send her to a magical evocation of the past, although not without some sudden and impressive Sumerian linguistic skills from Dawn. Here she finds the three ancient me. Who created the first Slayer and reveals the whole set-up, and implicitly the whole infrastructure of slayers and watchers, to be deeply patriarchal and to involve the violation of non-consenting young girls, a rather damning indictment which simply has to be followed up. Buffy angrily rejects their help butvis left wondering if she did the right thing, being given a glimpse of the massive army of the First, which looks just like hordes of orcs in Mordor. The stakes could not be higher.
On the plus side, Willow is also tested and manages to use magic to bring Buffy back, even if Kennedy is somewhat shocked at the power she has. But both Willow and Spike are rebuked throughout for holding back and, with the First looming, the overall impression is that “it’s not enough”.
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