Agatha All Along: Seekest Thou the Road

 "Did you know that it's a universally acknowledged truth that a lasy cop cannot be good at her job and have a happy home life at the same time"

Just one episode... and, yeah, on present evidence this is going to be as good as WandaVision. Jac Schaeffer, at this point, can seemingly do no wrong.

We 're in Westview, and Agatha is apparently a maverick detective in a cop show, which allows for all sorts of fun with the genre and winys to the fourth wall, from assaulting a suspect to a boss who boss who appears to be the very person for whom the word "lugubrious" was coined. Best of all, of course, is the spoof opening titles proclaiming the show to be based on a Danish original, a nice genre touch.

Of course, we don't see the face of the mudrdered woman... but, of course, it's Wanda. And hints of both Wanda and the Darkhold slowly penetrate through the layers of Agatha's reality in time for a showdown with the rather awesome Rio Vidal.I have no idea where this is going, but it's awesome. The closing titles themselves, with Donovan and every witch in popular culture to which Disney has access, are a thing of wonder. More please.

WandaVision: The Series Finale

 "Your power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme. It is your destiny to destroy the world."

Now that's how you do a series finale. Satisfying, action-packed, eventful, and full of several little geeky Easter Eggs.

The main A plot is, of course, the battle between Wanda and Agatha, which is epic, cool and full of revelations. The Darkhold makes its MCU debut, and Agatha claims that the Scarlet Witch has her own chapter... and gives the above quote. Ominoud. As is the fact that we end up with a maturer Wanda, having accepted what she's done and the people she's hurt (the scene where the citizens of Westview literally beg Wanda is both powerful and necessary), flying away to explore the full extent of her magical nature. Agatha's fate is an act of almost fairytale cruelty, forced to live indefinitely as her sitcom character.

Then there's the white Vision. Those of us who remember John Byrne's run on West Coast Avengers at the end of the '80s are well aware we need to be alarmed. But in the end we get a fight between Visions which is both cool and satisfyingly resolved.

It's a busy episode, perhaps. Darcy skewers naughty old Hayward but that brief moment is pretty much all that we see of her. Woo gets to look cool in the end, and Monica (still not Captain Marvel- yet) gets a nice little post-credits sequence with a Skrull. But it is, in the MCU way, perfectly balanced between story beats, action and character. 

It's true that Wanda (and Vizh) seem to get over the twins not being real a little too easily. But overall this is a superb ending to a magnificent series.

WandaVision: Don't Touch That Dial

 "Are you using your night vision, Vision?"

For a second wek in a row we get a genuinely funny piece of retro comedy... bt it's becoming more obvious that none of this is actually reality, and that it may represent a world that Wanda has retreated into in order to avoid an unpleasant reality.

The comedy is similar to last time, and represents more of '50s suburbia, and we're introduced to more of Wanda and Vizh's neighbours as they try to fit in. The comedy is great, with a stage magic act going all Tommy Cooper in entertaining fashion. Emma Caulfield from Buffy has a great part, too.

And yet... things from the real world are blending in. For the second episode in a week we get a mock advert- this time not Stark Industries but Strucker. And there's a scary moment at the end where the menacing noises from the start seem to be caused by a bloke in a hazmat suit emerging from a manhole... until Wanda seems to panic and alter reality. Hmm.

And Wanda is, impossibly, pregnant. Tommy and Billy, from that '80s Bill Mantlo limited series? Leading potentially to... well, what John Byrne went on to do in West Coast Avengers?

Regardless, this is magnificently original, brave and superb telly.

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: 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: Storyteller

"Why can't you just masturbate like the rest of us?"

We’ve just had an episode of Angel all about redemption; now it’s time for Buffy, and Andrew, to do the same. And who better to handle the required mix of comedy and serious themes than Jane Espenson?

It’s always risky to handle a character like Andrew who is, as we are forcefully reminded, a murderer,   and use him as a comic foil. It’s to Buffy’s credit that, looked at overall, they get the balance right. It’s clever to frame the episode around Andrew filming the Scoobies for a supposed documentary, to have all kinds of funny and court-wall breaking fun, but then to undercut that, as the episode does, that Andrew is simply playing the outside observer role to escape from the terrible thing he did when being active. He tells stories to his own advantage, and this is where Buffy forces him to face up to the truth.

The ending is edgy, of course, as Buffy seems about to kill him- again emphasising the hard edge she’s had of late, with the prospect of the biggest armageddon yet. And we end with the unanswered question of “What if the tears didn’t work?”

This is all cleverly mixed in with the urgent need to close that door in the cellar, of course, which is causing unsustainably enormous Hellmouth activity. This loose end is tied up, but Robin’s vengeful hatred for Spike continues. And it appears that Anya and Xander may be reconciling as they have some good sex- is this a one-off, or...?

Jane Espenson seldom disappoints. Is this her last episode? Is this the last light-hearted episode? It’s tome to ask those questions: not too long to go now.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Get It Done

“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”.

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: Potential

"You're not special. You're extraordinary."

Not all Buffy episodes can stand out. Yes, Buffy is an extraordinary series, but you can't fill 22 episodes a year without pausing for breath. This episode pretty much admits that, as Buffy tells us the First is in temporary, plot-convenient "remission" So we get a somewhat going-through-the motions in which Buffy teaches the potentials how to fight, Dawn thinks that for a moment she might be a potential, and Anya gets some cracking lines.

It's not an episode, in contrast to usual, which lingers in the memory or adds many memorable scenes, that wonderful moment at the end excepted where Xander and Dawn get this wonderful scene together about being the only two Scoobies without superpowers. It adds nothing to the arc either, really, although it's obvious that Andrew is gradually shifting as a character from threat to comic relief.

Still, even an eminently skippable episode is never actively bad, and certainly kept me entertained. I still worry that the presence of the potentials means we spend a bit less time with the characters we know and love, yes, but I'm very much warming to this season.

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: Never Leave Me

"That.s the worst attempt at pig slaughtering I've ever seen..."

So the big bad gets a name: the First, a one off baddie from way back in Season Two, which I blogged many years ago when I was single and childless. Something tells me this time round that snow and Christmas miracles may be in short supply.

This is a big arc episode with a job to do in moving the arc plot forward- the Scoobies need to learn who they’re up against, Andrew needs to become a comic relief prisoner of theirs (love the interrogations) and Spike needs to be captured by those monks for his blood to be used to resurrect that ancient vampire thing. All of this is achieved with some witty dialogue, a top comedy scene where Willow totally owns Andrew, and a lot of deep and superb dialogue between Buffy and Spike, who now knows self-loathing.

The cliffhanger with Giles isn’t resolved; we’re left hanging a while longer. But Quentin Travers and the WTchers’ Council appear, they’re hiding stuff from Buffy, and they’re off to Sunnydale to face the First. They all wear extremely old-fashioned, tweedy clothes that were last popular, pheasant-shooting types aside, with my grandparents’ generation, the ones who fought in the war. As late as 2003 this is a stereotype Americans have of the British, arguably much less so now.

Meanwhile, we get to see the Principal being cool but also see him discovering the body of The unsuccessfully sacrificed Jonathan, whom he buries. We now know there’s more to him than it seems... but what?

A very functional episode on what it has to do, then. But Buffy does functional with aplomb.

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: Him

"Bollocks to the whole thing..."

I've made allowances for the fact I'm not hugely into teen relationship drama, and this is a poor episode. Sorry. But this is where I do that thing I often do with poor episodes of Buffy in pointing out how the dialogue, characterisation, acting and wit are nevertheless top notch as ever. Even a superior show like Buffy, with 22 episodes per season, has its turds. But, my God, it polishes them well.

This episode is all about Dawn getting an enormous teenage crush on a boy at school with a magic sports jacket thingy, the type that badly dressed American "jocks" always wear and somehow get the girls in spite of the fact that it's a truly awful look. So, yeah, the metaphor is a bit blunt here, and the whole thing is a bit of a clumsy flashback to the high school metaphors of old, using the convenient fact that Dawn is a convenient peg on which to hang such things. Nothing arc-wise happens either, so it's an eminently skippable episode. At least it's a Dawn episode in which Michelle Trachtenberg gets to genuinely shine.

So, anything to notice here? Well, firstly,once again we get one of the things I most dislike about late period Buffy; acting as though Willow is just straightforwardly gay. I know sexual orientation on telly was in a more basic phase 15 years ago, but retconning her past like this just erases bisexuality and treats sexual orientation as a binary thing. Secondly, we get the Breeders- yes, THE BREEDERS, playing at the Bronze, and no one even worships at their feet or anything, which is deeply wrong, as Kim and Kelley are goddesses.

So, yeah, worth it for the Breeders. The other scenes? Not so much. But a bad episode like this doesn't take away from Buffy being a truly great show; it simply means that 22 episodes a season is too bleeding many.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Selfless

"This isn't springy, high-flying fun!"

So here comes the Anya episode we were sort of expecting, and it's simultaneously hilarious and tragic. That'll be Buffy, then.

The hilarious bits are, of course, the flashbacks, starting with "Aud" back in 800 AD with her very Viking husband Olaf who we have, of course, met before. I love the Old Norse with witty translated dialogue, and the sepia tones with scratched picture quality- and the fact that Anya has always been Anya. The tale of how she became a vengeance demon may have no surprises but it’s fun, and that’s the point; the rest of the episode is pretty grim. Anya is back to her killing ways as a vengeance demon, guilt notwithstanding, and it seems Buffy has to kill her. This leads to a gripping argument between her and Xander which, the rather Judge Dredd line “I am the law” aside, is fascinating in both how Buffy as the Slayer is, in the end, always alone with the hard decisions- and, of course, she once had to send Angel (he gets a mention, despite the different network!) to Hell. It also eves that, hard though things may be, Buffy is over last season’s angst.

Other stuff happens; there’s a big CGI spider; Spike is still consumed with guilt over his attempted rape of Buffy; and Willow’s eyes and attitude go a bit Dark Willow for a few seconds as she casts a protection spell: interesting.

It’s Willow who summons D’Hoffryn to solve the whole mess; Anya is able to reverse the deaths she has caused, but for magic there is always a price. And, D’Hoffryn being the boss from Hell, literally, he lets Anya think she’s sacrificing herself only to sacrifice Halfrek instead, her best friend, just to be a bastard, and then fires her for good measure. I’m sure we’ve all had a manager like that at some point.

We end on a hopeful note, perhaps, with a strangely non-awkward scene between Anya and Xander, but are reminded, again, that “from beneath you, it devours”. Yep. That’ll be another bloody good episode.

Buffy the Vampire: Same Time, Same Place

"I thought you were with Giles, studying not to kill people?"

This is, of course, an episode all about Willow and her return to Sunnydale. Naturally, Alyson Hannigan gets (and deserves) lots of screen time after the token cameos of the previous episodes. Naturally, there's a magical twist as neither Willow nor the Scoobies can see each other, and there's a nasty troll in town that flays people.

It's also a Jane Espenson episode and Espenson is, Joss Whedon notwithstanding, the other "name" writer on Buffy. This episode makes it obvious why; there's her trademark witty dialogue, of course, but that's not the only way she really gets Buffy. Unlike Whedon she tends not to do the format-busting episodes, but takes a very, very Buffy idea, traditionally, as here, a rather obvious metaphor, and moulds into something superbly crafted, funny and heartwrenching all at once.

This episode is awfully clever in how it handles the conceit that Willow and the others can't see each other- the opening scene in the airport, and the scene with spike in the school basement, are masterful. It's awfully convenient to the plot, though, that Anya can see everyone...

Other stuff happens, of course. Dawn is starting to not be an annoying teenager and actually do Scooby stuff, such as the solid research she does here, and Michelle Trachtenberg gets to show that she's rather good at comedy. Anya is still having trouble at work. But when it's all over, and Willow has suffered an awful lot, what makes your eyes well up a bit is Alyson Hannigan's bloody brilliant acting as Willow is so very happy to be accepted again by her friends. So, yeah, the season pretty much continues to be amazing.

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.