"It's the end of the world."
"AGAIN???!!!"
Oi. I like Slayer. I saw them live back at Ozzfest '98, although there was no way I was going to brave a Slayer moshpit. I'm only little; I didn't fancy my chances of getting out alive. I'm a little annoyed at Forrest this week for describing them as "Thrash band. Anvil-heavy guitar rock with delusions of Black Sabbath." Grrr. Incidentally, I saw Black Sabbath at that Ozzfest, too. The original line-up. Even Bill Ward put in an appearance. Oh yes. But, alas, Buffy isn't too metal-heavy. At least the soundtrack at the party almost makes up for it: we have both the Hellacopters and Echobelly. Result!
Music aside, this is another good 'un. Yes, it can't hold a candle to Hush, but neither can many things. The whole structure is awfully clever, for a start- a deliberately hackneyed ritual-that-will-cause-the-apocalypse plot allows the show to poke fun at its own clichés, but more interestingly the familiar tropes allow us to see the carefully contrasted methods of the Scoobies and the Initiative to solving the same problem. Hence the long section cutting between the two groups planning their reactions to the three nasty demons in their distinctive ways.
Dovetailing nicely into this framework is another contrast, between Buffy and Riley. The episode actually picks off from the very moment the last episode ends, and there is awkwardness. Buffy very nearly dumps Riley, but he persuades her not to, albeit by methods which seem at times to cross the line into creepiness. This all feeds back into that old, familiar dichotomy: would Buffy be better off alone or do her friends make her stronger? You would have thought that The Wish, with its bitter, doomed Buffy, would have answered that for good, at least as far as the audience is concerned, but Buffy still has a worrying habit of cutting off her friends at moments of real desperation.
Riley makes a few telling points- part of this is indeed because of the bad stuff with her former boyfriend- but I'm not convinced he wins the argument. She eventually takes him back, but that isn't why. It's just lust, and he's just a rebound. Buffy will never love him as she loved Angel and he's the one who'll end up getting hurt. That's obvious from the start.
This theme sort of links to Spike's monologue at Willow (speaking of whom, where's Tara?) and Xander (speaking of whom, where's Anya?), trying to convince them that they're no use to her. Thing is though, it's Spike who's useless, to the point of attempting suicide. Only when he realises that he can do bad stuff to evil demons does he cheer up. Spike, against his better nature, is forced to be a hero. It's a nice and amusing character development and, yes, a positive step, but a line has been crossed. Never again can Spike be a full-on murdering baddie.
Oh, and "fag off"? Er, that means "cigarette off". It's gobbledegook.
Also, comments about Slayer aside, I really, really like Forrest. He's witty, cool, and I suspect a bit of a Mary Sue through whom Joss Whedon himself can exist vicariously in his own fiction. Riley is the boss, but Forrest just seems so much more intelligent and together. And I loved his riff on the Slayer being a myth and demons and vampires just being part of the animal kingdom!
Better than anything in the whole world, though, is spike's unconvincing American accent. James Marsters, an American actor, playing a Brit doing an unconvincing version of Marsters' own natural accent; surely the hardest task any actor has ever been called to perform!
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