Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Unaired Pilot

 "Hey, you forgot your... stake..."

Yep. Many years after blogging the entire Buffyverse I've finally managed to get access to the unaired original pilot. Where did I find it, you ask?

Oh, look, a squirrel.

Anyway, this is short, sweet and rather cheap-looking, but nevertheless full of the Joss Whedon wit and brilliance (regardless of his very serious flaws as a human being that have leaked in recent months) that we've come to know. It is, essentially, a very truncated version of Welcome to the Hellmouth, complete with the nice bit of misdirection in the opening scene.

The main differences involve the music (the opening titles are "Salvation" by Rancid, which is well cool) and the casting of Willow. It's encouraging that Riff Regan is no stick insect and is a rare example of a woman with a real body shape on television, but acting-wise, although solid, she's no Alyson Hannigan. It's understandable that they recast the part.

Otherwise, though, it's surprising how fully-formed this all feels, from the concept to the characters to the little details like "Dingoes Ate My Baby". A wondefrful little artifact.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen

“Oh, you know me. Not much on the damselling."

So, this is it, after seven extraordinary and eventful years... and, with this being American network television, we still get the usual 42 minutes. Still, Joss himself is back to write and direct, so we know this will be good. and it bloody well is.

144 episodes ago we began our voyeuristic adventures of the Chosen One, a valley girl, a character always quick with a quip, but fundamentally (as we were often reminded) alone. She experienced lots of fun, lots of angst, lots of excitement, lots of peril and was always a walking feminist statement, a girl who didn’t need a man to rescue her.

The way we end here is the perfect distillation of all that and the perfect feminist statement. Buffy wins by socking it to the patriarchy, by questioning why on Earth there needs to be just the one Slayer just because a bunch of old people with penises said so, and using Willow’s gloriously feminine magic to smash that particular glass ceiling and make damn sure that every Pitentisl becomes a Slayer, now.

Oh, and if that weren’t enough, Buffy starts the episode by affectionately telling Angel to bugger off back to his own show and killing Caleb with a sword to the bollocks. You’ll excuse me if I don’t get up right now, but that’s quite the statement of intent.

There’s nuance, too, of course. The final episode takes time for Buffyvto golf out hope of getting together with Angel one day, to spend one last night with Spike, to imagine both of them wrestling with oil involved. We get to see Kennedy being a lovely girlfriend to Willow again in the night before battle, and signs that Robin may actually have been able to seduce Faith into seeing him as more than a one night stand. Shouldn’t she be off back to prison at the end, though? She’s no longer needed, and there’s more atonement that needs doing. This is the only sour note.

There’s more. We get the D&D scene, Giles gets one last “The Earth is definitely doomed” for old times sake, and Anya gets a heroic death saving Andrew. And then, of course, there’s Spike’s heroic sacrifice, with those heartrending last words as he gently tells Buffy that actually, he knows she doesn’t really love him but he appreciates the little white lie.

And so Sunnydale is gone, just a crater. No more High School, no more Hellmouth, no more mall, no more Bronze. I’ll miss the place. Thank you, Joss Whedon. He’s had a long and magnificent career but let’s not be silly: Buffy is his masterpiece.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: End of Days

"Oh! Jaffa Cakes!"

 This is the penultimate episode of Buffy. Ever. So it’s back to good old feminist basics.

All the agency here is female. Yes, Buffy is back, and implicitly the leader again with the agreement of all including Faith, but this time she’s armed with a kick ass MacGuffin and with a largely female gang against a massive evil whose main fighter is a deeply misogynistic man. Her male allies tacitly accept that it’s not about them- Xander leaves town with Dawn to protect her; Giles accepts that research would be better conducted by Willow’s feminine magic, and Andrew is, well, Andrew. Even Angel, turning up at the end, accepts that the fight against Caleb must be Buffy’s alone. Everywhere, female agency abounds.

Which is not to say that all goes well; more redshirt Potentials die. Or that men don’t matter; Spike declares his love for Buffy once more in a meaningful scene. Yet this is a love scene in which traditional gender roles are reversed, with Spike as the supplicant wanting to tie down the hero. But this episodeis one last focus on what the show is about before the last episode where Stuff Happens. Buffy even talks to a mysterious ancient woman who represents the feminine power behind those ancient men who created the acids Slayer and became the Watchers, implying through riddle-like speech that Buffy can only beat the First by doing things differently, perhaps smashing the a Patriarchy a little more.

Other stuff happens, of course. Kennedy looks fated to be an awesome warrior. Anya’s bedside manner is a wonder to behold. Andrew thinks he’ll die in the final battle and seems to have made his peace with that. But we’re all set for that last finale, in terms both of plot and theme. Let’s go...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Touched

"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.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Empty Places

"I keep waiting for my other senses to improve 50%. That'll kick in any day now."

The end is nigh, and after six previous seasons we know that the narrative requires a wedge between the Scoobies in afvance of the final battle. We’ve already seen a bit of this with the ongoing estrangement between Buffy and Giles, but the end of this episode sees this sort of thing taken to its devastating extreme, with Buffy being kicked out of her own home by her own sister.

It’s made very clear that things are dire. There’s a mass exodus from Sunnyvale, including Clem. School is closed. No one has any way of fighting back against the horrible misogynistic Caleb, whose dialogue is horrifying and who represents an acting triumph from the great Nathan Fillion.

There’s a little humour early on, yes, with Anya’s lecture which ends up with Andrew writing “break-up sex on the board, but otherwise things are unrelentingly grim. Thevdull teality of Xander losing an eye really hits home; it’s devastating to see Willow about to cry when Xander makes a quip about being spared Jaws 3-D, and Xander simply saying “Please don’t.”

Morale is rock bottom, and Faith’s attempt to cheer up the troops by taking them to the Bronze goes horribly wrong. The police are carefully stated to be “Hellmouthed” and shown to be brutal and corrupt so that we root for Faith against them. Fair enough. But I still expect her to return to prison when this is all over. As we established long ago, slayers are no better than other people and shouldn’t have privileged status.

Faith and Robin seem to connect. And Spike and Andrew go off on a mission that may provide useful knowledge against Caleb. But things are miserable, especially after Xander Returns with that horrible injury. So the response to Buffy’s plan- to attack the Vineyard again because it’s obviously important- meets a negative response from even those closest to her. Buffy doesn’t help herself by saying the wrong things; slayers are no better than other people. It’s a hard hitting ending, but Buffy gets the last word, pointing out that Faith now has to cope with the burden of leadership.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dirty Girls

"Why would Faith kill a person who studies Vulcans?"

Wow. That’s an amazingly compact but efficient “previously on” that manages to cover an awful lot of ground. I’m impressed.

Everything about this ominously serious episodes points to something shocking terrible happening. From the constant reminders of how the Potentials are untested, to Xander’s rousing speech about how Buffy cares about their lives which makes it certain that something bad will happen to him, to the atmosphere of doom and gloom, we expect something tragic to happen.

In the meantime we get introduced to the darkly misogynistic and manipulative Caleb, a superb preacher-like villain played by the ever-superb Nathan Fillion, recent refugee from Firefly. Caleb gives a face and personality to the First, somethingbthat was previously missing, and is both enormously charismatic and (as we shockingly see at the end) strong enough to swat away slayers like flies. We also have Faith’s awkward return to Sunnyvale, where under the circumstances she’s certainly welcome but doesn’t fit in. But she and Spike bond over their shared bad past, their shared kinky natures, and the revelation that they have in fact had some incredible sex in the past when Faith was pretending to be Buffy. First impressions and all that...

It’s weird, although inevitable, to see Faith and Dawn recognise each other though.

We also see Buffy and Robin reconcile, although he fires her; she has far more important things to do.  But much of the interaction concerns the wisdom of Buffy’s proposed attack on Caleb- both Giles (still in the doghouse) and Xander disagree, which I’m sure is something we will return to next episode. But we end with the assault on the First and, of course, evedything goes wrong as a redshirt Potential is killed- and Xander loses an eye.

A tensexand superb bit of telly, then, that makes it clear we’re now entering the final stretch.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lies My Parents Told Me

"Darling, it's who you'll always be- a limp, sentimental fool."

Yet again, as we often see this season, an episode has a title that is dnably clever, the more so the more you think about it. Parents lying to their offspring, real or symbolic, is at the heart of everything.

Plot-wise, of course, this is the heavily-signposted episode where Robin finally attempts to get revenge on Spike for his mother Nikki’s death, enabled by Giles (whose attitude is again heavily signposted), who betrays Buffy in doing so. In doing so, of course, what Robin achieves is only to finally cure Spike of the First’s trigger.

But beyond these bare facts it’s all about parents lying to their children. In flashbacks from
The 1880s we see young William reading bad poetry to his doting mother, and then again we see him newly camped by good old Drusilla, eagerly giving everlasting undead existence to his beloved mother. But then, bereft of a soul, his now evil mother says deeply wounding things to him, so effective that the First is able to use her lullaby as a trigger even today.

And yet this is, of course, a lie. Those things were not said by his mother but by a demon. That’s fairly obvious. More subtle, as Spike says, is what Nikki says to Robin; like Buffy, she is in the final analysis alonevin the decision she makes and, as per the phrase that both she and Buffy use, “the mission is what matters.” I’m sure she loved her son, but he certainly didn’t come first, and that must hurt.

Finally there’s the symbolic father/daughter relationship between Buffy and Giles, who have been particularly close lately. It’s not the first time he’s betrayed her, of course, but this time he isn’t being forced to do so, which makes it worse. Yes, he has his reasons, but he goes behind Buffy’s back and lies to her. She clearly finds this hard to forgive, as the final symbolic closing of the door shows.

All very impressive, then, even if a lot of regular characters get rather little to do. But it’s worrying that a central relationship between two of the Scoobies is seriously damaged just before what looks like the biggest armageddon yet...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: First Date

"Like a bidet of evil..."

Jane Espenson writes again as we get a light-hearted episode before things are clearly about to get very desperate as the First has returned from its plot-convenient mid-season hiatus. This is so obvious that Giles spends the entire episode acting as Greek chorus and bollocking everyone about not taking it all seriously enough.

So we have a light-hearted plot in which Xander gets a date with a nice girl who turns out to be nice, sort of, but also homicidally and kinkily demonic. Oh, and Buffy gets asked out on an awkward date with Principal Wood. The script seems to gloss over the power imbalance of dating one’s boss, and Willow even suggests he may be asking her out to offer a promotion without suggesting this may be in any way a bit dodgy but hey, it’s 2003.

Anyway, we slowly find out that he has a load of weapons hidden in his office, he can fight camps, knows Buffy is the Slayer and- the bombshell- is the son of a Slayer himself, orphaned at four and raised by his mum’s Watcher. It’s a compelling backstory, and soon he joins Buffy and (awkwardly) Spike in resolving the Xander plot.

However, we get quite a conclusion in which the First reveals that, as we saw in Fool for Love, his mother was killed by none other than Spike. Ouch.

Elsewhere, we finally get a rather cheaty resolution to that Giles cliffhanger, Andrew gets to prove his loyalty to the Scoobies, there’s some comedy with the Scoobies being vaguely racist to a Potential from China, and Giles is appalled that (surprise) Buffy chose to have Spike’s chip removed. It’s an excellent episode but a foreboding one.

Except... is it me or is Xander’s tirade about only ever dating evil types so Willow should turn him gay a little bit not at all ok? At least Alyson Hannigan has the sense to act appalled. But you certainly wouldn’t get a scene like this in 2018.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Killer in Me

"Who you gonna call... God, that phrase is never gonna be usable again, is it?"

What an unexpected excellent episode. A heartbreaking but also lovely Willow A-plot, a cleverly set up Giles comedy subplot, and also some stuff about Spike's chip. It's cleverly constructed, full of great lines, warm, affecting, funny; all the things we know about Buffy. Yes, last episode was so-so, an inevitability for even the best series when you have a ridiculous 22 episodes per season. This is the opposite, an encapsulation of the things we so love about Buffy.

The silly Giles sub-plot, as ever presenting much-needed levity and balance, is clever, explaining why that cliffhanger several episodes ago was never resolved. It gives the remaining characters something to do by giving them a reason to suspect Giles of being the First. It leads to the classic line “You think I’m evil if I bring a bunch of girls on a camping trip and don’t touch them?” Of course, it also gets those bloody annoying Potentials out of the way.

We also get Spike having potentially fatal issues with his chip, culminating in some people we don’t know from the Initiative giving Buffy a choice between repairing the chip and getting rid of it. We don’t yet find out, but I suspect she’ll choose the latter.

Finally, we get Kennedy’s rather lovely and romantic pursuit of a Willow who, in spite of everything and all her power, is touchingly innocent. This is what starts their relationship going but it’s also clever to have Amy curse her in such a way that, guilt-ridden, her subconscious chooses her own punishment- to turn into Warren. It’s nice that Amy gets a nuanced motive- “She almost destroyed the world and everyone just keeps on loving her?”, but perfect that the whole thing is solved, like the magic fairy tale Kennedy keeps talking about, by love’s true kiss.

Can we have loads more like this, please?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Showtime

“I’m the thing that monsters have nightmares about...”

Part two of an implicit two parter plays out this episode as Buffy finally defeats the Turok-Han, beheading it with the help of some handy CGI. It’s not just about the fighting, though; a clever flashback shows us that the point was also to raise some much-needed morale for the growing and increasingly annoying presence of loads and loads of “potentials”. It’s a well-crafted and strong episode, but are we going to have a house full of teenage girl redshirts for the rest of the final season?

Only one of the potentials- Kennedy- is getting fleshed out, and it’s clear that she, older than the others, is being developed as a love interest for Willow, as part of her gradual healing process. On a similar note Willow also gets to use a shielding spell, using magic in combat for the first time since all that unpleasantness.

Meanwhile Andrew is shifting into the role of comic relief, explaining to an unimpressed Dawn how Timothy Dalton is an underrated Bond. All this is very Buffy. Perhaps more pertinent is Giles’ and Anya’s little sideshow, where they consult a convenient oracle about the First’s weaknesses, only to find that it has none and cannot be defeated. Ouch. Even worse, the reason the  First is only striking now is precisely because of the Scoobies’ decision to resurrect Buffy last season- will we be getting any more detail on this? Either way, it’s a bombshell; bringing Buffy back has potentially doomed the world. I’m sure there will be reverberations.

The season is, I think, on an upswing, with a clear threat and big stuff happening. It’s just that, we’ll, can’t we cull a few potentials please?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bring on the Night

“Sorry to barge in. Afraid we have a slight... apocalypse.”

This is, there's no doubt about it, an Important Episode. In fact, it's quite bewilderingly eventful and changes the status quo quite dramatically. I know it's just pre-Christmas (with the briefest of nods to the season) and there would have been a wait of a couple of weeks until the next episode, but so much happens, it ends in Buffy doing a big speech, it's all rather well done but still trying to squeeze in an awful lot, and feels awfully like more of a mid-season break is about to happen.

Still, stuff happens, and while episodes with loads to do are never amongst the greatest they seldom disappoint. This episode certainly doesn’t, and is something of an assault on the senses. Giles’ Return is somewhat overshadowed by the fact he brought with him two “potential” slayers- Kennedy and the British and somewhat anonymous Annabelle and Molly. It seems the First is out to destroy the entire infrastructure of slayerdom, destroying the Watchers’ Council (so what were Travis and co up to when we last saw them?) and all the potential slayers, hence all those scenes of running girls being pursued by monks. One has to ask why no previous Big Bad has though of doing this over the last several centuries. Still, for now, there are four extra people in Buffy’s crowded house and the whole dynamic is suddenly very different.

Oh, and the First is busy pretending to be Joyce. Drusilla and all sorts as it tortures Spike, Who is a is to endure because of Buffy’s faith in him; corny but it works.

And that ancient creature resurrected last episode was a Turok-Han, a kind of Neanderthal Vampire which so far seems unbeatable, although if it’s extinct there must be a reason why? Still, Buffy doesn’t win, and is badly hurt. Cue an episode ending with a big inspiring speech then. It all dies the trick, but things suddenly feel rather odd.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sleeper

"Man, I hate playing vampire towns..."

Wow. The first misfire of the season, really. And just after Angel appears to have done the same.

So what's wrong with this episode which, after all, develops the season arc a fair bit? I think it's simply that the premise doesn't work dramatically. The whole episode revolves around the whole gang trying to ascertain whether the newly ensouled "Billy Idol" in their midst is killing again, yet we sort of know the answer from the start. Yes, it's all the fault of that nasty, psychologically cruel Big Bad who spent last episode being so mean but, again, we knew that. There isn't really any dramatic tension, yet the whole episode is structured around it anyway. It simply doesn't work and the episode succeeds only in the sense of getting the arc plot from A to B, with Buffy using a rather broken Spike as bait.

We also get scenes set in London- hence black taxi cabs and red phone boxes- where a hooded figure is killing people presumably linked to the Watchers' Council, as none other than Giles discovers, and stars in his own axe-related cliffhanger to boot. Otherwise the episode is fairly meh, unusually devoid of sparkle with the dialogue and not really developing much, character-wise. Was something rushed with the writing? Is this the first sign of Joss Whedon taking on too much with the addition of Firefly, or, well, the other thing that was going on? I'm hoping this is just one duff episode. Things have been great up until now.

Still, the arc is humming nicely and Giles is clearly back soon. Let's hope this is indeed a one-off.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Beneath You

"Is there anyone here who hasn't slept together?"

Joss Whedon may have stepped back to let underlings write and direct- we mortals are lucky to have his occasional work at which to marvel, but a Whedon episode is, alas, an increasingly rare best. It's encouraging, though, that this second episode maintains the standard both in terms of episode quality and what looks like an intriguing arc plot. And the characterisation and dialogue, while sub-Whedon, are nevertheless bloody good.

The basic plot is, of course, simple- Anya turns the ex of a wronged woman, Nancy, into a bloody great scary worm monster that is stalking her, and this is eventually resolved by a row between Anya and Xander which persuades her to reverse the spell, although we get some very strong hints that she's going to be in trouble at work. D'Hoffryn may be about to give her a bad appraisal, no doubt.

All beneath everything, though, is the clear implication that something is coming: something big, bad and subterranean. Echoing last episode's opening, with a young woman in Istanbul being chased and caught by some dodgy monks, we now have a similar opening in Frankfurt, this time to the background of the sort of hardcore techno that we metalheads tend to sometimes like: personally, I'm partial to Evil Activities, although I do gigs, not raves.

Anyway, this is now a pattern. And Buffy is seeing things in her dreams. Willow, too, knows what's coming, and her contractual cameo with Giles- in picturesque England with  a peaceful musical background- establishes both this and how nervous she is about facing her friends again. She and Giles have a lovely bond, though.

Other threads include Buffy's little sinecure as school counsellor, courtesy of the mysterious yet cool new Principal. We're teased with the obvious fact that there's an agenda here to which we're not yet privy. Xander gets what may or may not be a future love interest. And Buffy finally learns that Spike now has a soul- and why: so that he could be "the kind of man who could nev...". This is quite intense territory, coming soon after Buffy flat out says to him what he tried to do. I hope this is treated with sensitivity and the fantasy elements don’t diminish the way the rape storyline is handled. Still, an awesome episode.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lessons

"And stay away from hyena people. And any lizardy-type athletes..."

And so we're back to Buffy, and at last we're starting the final season. It's fantastic to find that this episode is written by Joss Whedon himself. Whatever happens later on, this season gets a fantastic start with a script so quotable it made choosing the quote a real problem. I mean, I could have gone for "Synchronised swimming. Complete mystery to me", which is a comment I have much sympathy with me.

We start, though, with a mysterious sequence in Istanbul where some cliche baddie monks catch a girl and brandish what looks awfully like a sacrificial knife. It looks potentially both nasty and arc-related; we will see.

We then move, following how last season ended, to Buffy teaching Dawn how to fight vampires, which is nice to see. And of course a contractual scene with Willow and Giles in the inevitably picturesque English countryside, where Willow is being taught to control her powers by an apparently cool yet unseen coven led by a suspiciously Marvelesque "Miss Harkness". Willow seems pretty together now, getting used to living with the guilt, the fear and Giles going "all Dumbledore" on her. Interesting that Giles mentions in passing that Willow's magic is not an addiction; an acknowledgement that it was always a clumsy metaphor?

But the big thing is the re-opening of Sunnydale High and the baddie of the week- some zombie-ghosts of people Buffy failed to save. Dawn's first day at school seems to parallel Buffy's, to the extent of her acquiring friends to parallel Willow and Xander, although fortunately there's no Jesse figure. The new Principal seems mysterious and interesting; he seems rather quick to offer Buffy a job as counsellor. I'm sure we will learn more.

Oh, and we find a confused Spike, or rather William, very vulnerable and completely losing his cool. But something is coming, something which Willow feels through the Earth and which Spike sees as brief cameos by Warren, Glory, Adam, Mayor Wilkins, Drusilla and the Master. Something which sets up the season to come with some elegant breaking of the fourth wall. There promises to be, indeed, quite a ride...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Grave

“Is this the master plan? You’re gonna stop me by telling me by telling me that you love me?”

The above quote hints at the flimsiness of the plot here; Giles comes back to Sunnydale, having borrowed a fair bit of magic from some old biddies in the West Country, but while trying to stop Willow he “accidentally” lets her borrow that power. Oops. Willow is this overwhelmed and decides to destroy the world and end its suffering, aided by an ancient pagan temple that conveniently appears. Except that, as Giles has apparently planned, Xander gets to save the day as per the quote; having spent the best parrot two episodes bemoaning his own uselessness, he saves the world.

And that’s it. Summarised like that it looks a bit pants and, if this were a series based on plot, plot, plot, it would be. Except the episode happens to be a bit awesome. That’s because the cheerfully rubbish plot is just something around which to hang the characters, who have always been the focus. That makes this an appropriate season finale.

We shall see how Willow heals next season, but so much else happens. The connection between Buffy and the prodigal Giles is wonderful, and joyous from the moment Giles starts laughing. They have a lovely father/daughter relationship, and father/daughter relationships are the best thing ever. It’s also lovely to see Buffy and a surprisingly capable Dawn fight zombies in a crypt, whereupon Buffy finally realised that her sister doesn’t need protecting; Dawn kicks ass. It’s also nice to see the season ending as it began, with Buffy crawling up out of a grave.

We end with loads of juxtaposed hugs- the Scooboies are battered, wounded, but together. And then, finally, we see Spike passing his trials- and having his soul returned..

A satisfying end to a season which, while not up there with the best, is on the whole rather good.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tabula Rasa

"Magic's all balderdash and chicanery!"

It's the morning after the musical before. After all the heaviness of the revelations we need a light episode, and that's what we get. And it's so very appropriate at this of all moments that the comedy should arise from a series of misunderstandings from a spell of (what else?) forgetting. And yet the cause of the comedy is also the cause of the quietly devastating ending; after trying to violate Tara a second time by trying to make her magical forget, Willow has ruined everything, and Tara wordlessly leaves her. It's utterly heartbreaking. All this,and Giles quietly slips away to Blighty at the end.

Buffy is, of course, in denial about that kiss with Spike ("All Gone with the Wind with the rising music and the rising..."), which proves that it's definitely going to be a thing in coming episodes. On the subject of Spike, though, it seems he owns forty kittens to a loan shark. Literally. A walking shark in a suit. And yes, it may have seemed like a good idea on the page, but... really? This is the most cringeworthy bit of prosthetic I've ever seen on Buffy. But let's move on. 

The forgetting spell, of course, affects the whole gang, and hilarity ensues. I love Spike's sudden realisation that he's British ("Blimey, shagging..."), although why he should assume he's American by default I have no idea. A bit of mild if harmless scripting chauvinism, methinks!

Still, any episode with Giles fighting a Ray Harryhausen skeleton has to be a winner. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling

"She needs back-up. Anya, Tara..."

The metatextual joke in the above quote is that, yes, Giles is sending two of the gang to help Buffy against a demon baddie, but they are doing so in the capacity of... backing singers. That's one of many wonderful metatextual touches in this, the best ever episode of Buffy and a piece of televisual history, written and helmed for our delectation by Joss Whedon himself. My favourite metatextual joke is that the underling captured by Spike and questioned about the baddie's intentions seems about to deliver the info in the form of a song after much build-up, but then simply tells them.

Like the second-best episode, Hush, this episode relies on an unusual form- the fact that it is structured like a musical, with characters bursting into song- and marries this to content. Songs in musicals are generally about the singer's  innermost feelings, but here this means that everyone's innermost secrets are revealed to all and sundry. Hence Tara learns that Willow has used magic to manipulate her mind. Hence the outing of Xander and Anya's mutual doubts about their marriage ("I love her tight... embrace, tight embrace!"). Hence Giles' decision to leave, so Buffy can get used to not relying on him as a crutch. And hence (this is the biggie) everyone learning that they brought Buffy back, not from a Hell, but from a Heaven. The episode ends with the characters, and their relationships, shattered.

There are some nice structural touches. The opening medley of short scenes is without dialogue, contrasting the status quo where there is a lack of communication to the excess of communication that follows. And an alienated Buffy sneaks off from the big show-stopper to share a dramatic final kiss with Spike.

It would be remiss of me not to praise the awesomeness of the songs, again by that Rebaissance man, Joss Whedon, or the equally awesome singing voices of certain cast members. But this episode is awesome because it is metatextual. This may be the highlight of Whedon's TV career.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: All the Way

"I'm gonna marry that girl."

I really can't put my finger on why this episode underwhelmed me. The misdirection with the old man was clever, and it's nice to have a low stakes episode with nothing more than two ordinary vampires as the main adversary. And it's especially nice to have the old "monsters as metaphors for teenage stuff" back in Buffy; here the vampires stand for that terrifying thing that is the sexuality of teenage boys. And yet... the episode failed to sparkle. As you probably noticed, I couldn't find a particularly good quote.

This is where Xander and Anya finally announce their engagement, and Xander is, again, terrified and really not ready, as Nicholas Brendon's superb performance shows. Talk about buying houses, babies and a full-on grown-up life terrifies him... but then he's only 20, and only proposed because the world was about to end.  I may be excited about fatherhood now (my wife is 40 weeks and four days and I can't stand waiting!!!), but then I'm 37. At 20 I wasn't particularly mature. Few young men are. 

Maturity and the responsibilities of young adulthood are, of course, the themes of the season, also popping up in how Buffy (also 20) is trying to be guardian to Dawn, and not managing very well. Most obviously, she leaves the disciplining to Giles.

Dawn, too, is getting older, and the "a" plot of the episode concerns her cliched first kiss and burgeoning sexuality, but fortunately she learns her lesson: boys are monsters.

Most importantly though, arc-wise, is that Willow is increasingly using magic for trivial things, and that she and Tara fall out about it. Badly. So Willow crosses a line, casting a spell to make Tara forget the quarrel. That puts her beyond the pale. We know there will be consequences, which I await with bated breath...

(We see the Bronze! How long has it been?)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Life Serial

"Stop touching my magic bone!"

Last night we were introduced to our three, er, suoervillains; this time we get to know a bit better and discover which one of them has the righteous opinion on the best James Bond- no love for George Lazenby?

We learn absolutely nothing about how Buffy and Angel's reunion went, and this vagueness is turned into a joke; not a bad way of handling the fact that Buffy is now airing on the WB while Angel is still on Fox, presumably necessitating a bit of the old arm's length treatment. 

A big theme of this episode is what, besides slaying, Buffy is going to do with her life. She tries returning to uni, working on a construction site and working in the Magic Box, but none of these quite works, and not entirely because of the machinations of our dastardly trio. All three situations are, however, hugely amusing. Jane Espenson can do that to a script.

This script sparkles, and I'm not just saying that because of the kittens, or Buffy's description of Spike as a "neutered vampire that cheats at kitten poker". I'm enjoying this season, despite my reservations about the way geeks are presented. I can even forgive Giles suddenly solving Buffy's money worries with a deus ex machina cheque. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Flooded

"So... You guys wanna team up and take over Sunnydale?"

Never has a flooded basement been more redolent with obvious metaphor; Buffy has returned to the Hell of life and adult responsibilities from a stress-free afterlife, and all the pressures of adulthood- especially her overwhelming money troubles- are drowning her. Meanwhile, our three baddies for the season, introduced here, are intended as a contrast. 

I have a bone to pick with the use of Jonathan, Andrew and Warren; they are geeks, and this is clearly intended to symbolise that they are unable to put away childish things. I'm a bit offended by that. I'm a geek (I mean, I do this blog), and I have responsible job, a mortgage and a wife. Oh, and any day now I'm due to become a father, something which is rather tending to dominate my every waking moment. I'm a fully functioning adult who happens to like geeky things. I'm a bit offended by the implied insult here and so, I would imagine, are many of the viewers. Buffy fans, after all, tend to be geeks.

Anyway...

There are a lot of things to note here. I note that Buffy is partly broke because her mother's medical bills are up her inheritance, for example. Thank Bevan we have the NHS in this country. We also have an interesting argument between Xander and Anya about whether they should announce their engagement, and he clearly has cold feet, nervous about the adult responsibilities it symbolises. Once again the theme rears its head.

Most dramatically Giles is back, and giving Willow a real bollocking for what she's done, which takes her aback somewhat. Worse, she implicitly threatens him for doing this before realising what she's done. We're getting plenty of hints that Willow is heading to a very dark place this season.

It's lovely to see Giles with Buffy, though; there's no doubt that he's her real dad, blood relative or not. Still, Buffy is not quite able to confide in him as she can with Spike. And she's still very emotionally dulled, although that could just be Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting.

We get quite a cliffhanger, though; Angel wants to see Buffy in an intra-network crossover...