"Your performance as a disgruntled minion was spot on"
"I'm method."
It’s an interesting way to do the episode just before the two part final battle, just after the episode in which our titular heroine has hit rock bottom, rejected by all her friends. In a way it’s catharis for last episode; in a way it’s also a way to get everyone to have sex before a big battle before some of them, and not all of them redshirt Potentials, will die. Perhaps it’s convenient that the First and Caleb are busy in their cave this episode, but it’s important that we slow down and do all this character stuff.
It’s uncomfortable without Buffy and Faith- crude, uneducated, is unsteady as leader. That much is clear. Her plan to kidnap a Bringer and make it talk is good, and Dawn’s linguistic skills in magic lore (Ottoman Turkish this week) are impressive, but they don’t discover anything not already found out by Spike, Andrew and Buffy.
As for Spike, he’s not happy with what he finds on his returns and has some harsh and truthful words for Willow’s blatantly practised speech (“You sad, sad, ungrateful traitors”), some fists for Faith, and some harsh words for them all. And when he finds Buffy he finds her so very down- Sarah Michelle Gellar does a scarily realistic performance as a depressed person.
But this is an episode about healing, so out he comes with the uplifting, cathartic pep talk, reminding Buffy who she is. And this leads to a cuddle, and then some healing sex.
Cue more healing sex back at the house, before the big battle. Faith and Robin- I called it- Willow and Kennedy, even Anya and Xander. It’s lovely, but by the laws of drama it must also be ominous.
So Buffy and Faith & co make simultaneous assaults on the vineyard, where a reenergised Buffy runs rings around Caleb by dancing like a butterfly. She discovers what looks like a useful MacGuffin. Unfortunately Faith finds a time bomb...
It’s starting.
No comments:
Post a Comment