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: Conversations with Dead People

“I mean, I was afraid to talk to you in high school. And now we’re, like, mortal enemies.”

Here we have it, then; a proper arc episode, which develops the mysterious Big Bad. Oddly, there’s no Xander, one of the main trio of characters (behind the scenes issues?) or Anya. But the focus on Buffy, Dawn and Willow all individually, their paths crossing only thematically, makes them all the more emotionally vulnerable for being alone.

Dawn and Willow both get visitations from the dead which seem designed to undermine themabd the team for the upcoming hi-jinks. Fortunately Willow realises she isn’t talking to Tara when the suggestion to never do magic again is extended to a suggestion of suicide, puncturing the illusion. Dawn has no such epiphany, enduring an episode of poltergeisty weirdness only to be told by “Joyce” that Buffy will turn against her. Oh, and Andrew and Jonathan return to Sunnyvale, with Andrew being encouraged by “Adam” to kill an unsuspecting Jonathan, who dies serene.

Buffy’s story is cleverer, as a recently resurrected vampire turns out to be an old acquaintance and psych major, which leads to reminiscing and psychoanalysis; I love the scene where Buffy uses a tomb as a psychiatrist’s couch. These are great character scenes, establishing both Buffy’s inevitable superiority complex and the guilt she feels about it. And, just to add extra dramatic spice, Spike is killing and siring people again. Some monsters are unexpectedly people, but those we think of as people can also turn out to be monsters.

A change of direction, then, getting the arc back on track. And a bloody good episode.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Normal Again

"What, you think this isn't real just because of all the vampires, and demons, and ex-vengeance demons, and the sister that used to be a big ball of universe-destroying energy?"

Wow. This episode is right up there with the very best, with Hush and Once More with Feeling. It really is that good.

And the idea isn't even intrinsically brilliant. A demon that makes Buffy think she's in a mental institution and her vampire slaying life is just fantasy. It could have gone very, very wrong. Instead it's a real highlight of the series.

It all happens because Buffy gets a little too close to the Three Nerds, who panic and send after her a demon with a complicated name that is going to have her "tripping like a Ken Russell film festival". But her alternate reality is cleverly done; instead of playing up the horror of being stuck in a psychiatric institution we her her loving parents, Kristine Sutherland is back, and she gets the chance of a normal life instead of one from which she's recently become very, very detached.

It's fitting that we finally get an episode that's all about Buffy, although Xander somewhat sheepishly returns to slot back into his role convincingly enough, Anya is troublingly missing, and Willow continues to pine adorably over Tara. But we also get some superbly metatextual touches, as the doctor describes Buffy's delusion as "grand overblown conflicts against an assortment of monsters" and, in a nice touch, not only does Dawn not exist in the other world but the doctor refers to the "inconsistencies" caused by her being retconned into Buffy's reality. We even have it pointed out that, with all the gods and monsters that Buffy has faced and fought in the past, her current nemeses seem to be a trio of pathetic teenage boys.

It's all very real to Buffy, because she actually was briefly put into such an institution before, when she first encountered vampires. It's all very real how much she comes to question which reality is the true one and, by the time she is persuaded to lock Willow, Xander and Dawn in the cellar so the demon can eat them, the episode feels like a horror film with Buffy as the baddie. That's brilliantly done.

And yet the final scene is best of all, as the episode pulls back to suggest that, actually, maybe the institution was real...? Absolutely peerless telly.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Weight of the World

"I'm willing to wager, when all's said and done, Buffy likes it rough..."

Just one more episode after this, and Buffy's all catatonic and flashbacky. There's a certain amount of treading water until the finale here, but it's well enough executed to make a passable episode, if not a great one.

The theme here is guilt; Buffy's guilt for subconsciously giving in and, worse, momentarily wishing her own sister dead so that all this will just go away. Meanwhile, even Glory gets a bit of guilt leaking through from Ben. Buffy's the important one, though; she's the one with the brains and, indeed, character traits.

So we get Willow going inside Buffy's head, and a bit of trippy symbolism passes the time. There are clues and, indeed, misdirection over the meaning of "Death is your gift", as the first slayer told Buffy. We will, of course, find out in the finale.

We end with Giles telling Buffy that there's only one way to beat Glory: kill Dawn. This is slightly undermined by our knowledge that you could also just kill Ben. But let's see what happens...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Body

“I don't understand. I don't understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean I knew her, and then she's, there's just a body, and I don't understand why she can't just get back in it and not be dead any more. It's stupid. It's mortal and stupid, and, and Xander's crying and not talking, and I was having fruit punch and I thought, well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever. And she'll never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever and no one will explain to me why."

Ok, deep breath. I can do this. Even though this episode hurts so much. DAMN YOU, WHEDON!

Joss himself write and directs, and sets such a sombre and unsettling mood, in large part through the extended use of silences to convey not only grief but also the awkwardness of not knowing what to do, what is socially acceptable, and to what extent we should broadcast our feelings when we lose a loved one. The scoobies are all young and just feeling their way through all this, and the episode consists, McLuhan-like, in characters not communicating and being incapable of reconciling their feelings, their feeling about how they should be feeling, and whatever the rules are supposed to be when the sky falls in. One theme of this episode is the silliness, and simultaneously the necessity of social conventions at times of extreme emotion. Anya may provide the comic relief in breaking these rules, but at least she’s being herself. This contrasts with Xander’s lack of eloquence as he punches the wall and Willow’s displaced distress over what to wear.

Another deep breath. New paragraph. And hopefully a shorter one.

The opening scenes are brutal, presenting Buffy and the viewer with a body, an object, that is not Joyce. We feel for Buffy in the eternity before the paramedics arrive and both we and her are punched in the face with the brutality of the language they use: ”Try not to disturb the body”. Even more brutal is Buffy having to break the news to Dawn. We know what’s coming as we see Dawn in her art class, adrift in the everyday concerns of a teenage girl, and as we hear her teacher speak of “The negative space around the object”. That’s a fair description of what this episode is about if ever I saw one.

We cut to scenes of the scoobies’ silent reactions to the news. We are not used to seeing them so helpless and distressed, but this is nothing so manageable as a monster. Death by natural causes is the most harrowing thing that has ever happened in Buffy, and it hits everything like a train. No one reacts well. No one really knows how to. Except Tara, who has experience bereavement before, and who seems less awkward with Buffy than before.  No one can cope with the lack of a simple linear cause or, in the case of Buffy, with not being able to know for certain that there is nothing she could have done.

Her mother “probably” didn’t suffer. Probably. Such a cruel word.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I Was Made to Love You

“I go online sometimes, but everyone’s spelling is so depressing.”

I know it’s been a while, but we’ve just moved in to a new house and I’ve just had a massive exam for work, all in the last two weeks. The blog will return to normal as life returns to normal and the cardboard boxes slowly get emptied. In the meantime, here’s an episode of Buffy for your delight and edification.

Yes, I realise that the concept of Warren making a science fiction sex robot has some serious things to say about the objectification of women, but there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s a very silly idea, Yes, it is a comedy episode, and the witty lines are of a standard one would expect from Jane Espenson, but it’s hard to shake the suspicion that she deliberately set herself the challenging task of writing a quality episode from what she knew was a silly idea. This is not an easy task, and, brilliant writer though she is and excellently written though this script may be, the episode does not succeed in overcoming the intrinsic silliness.

The idea almost redeems itself, however, with a wonderfully metatextual joke as the scoobies just accept the existence of the robot with a knowing wink to the conventions of the genre within which they exist: Buffy usually deals with the tropes of horror, not sci-fi. The only character who does not react in this post-modern fashion is Warren himself, both because of his character and because he seems, at this point, to belong in sci-fi rather than horror.

Aside from all this we have character stuff. Early on there is a surprisingly mature conversation between Buffy and Xander which further deepens the trend in recent episodes to emphasise Xander’s sudden maturity, what with his job and that. His comments to Buffy seem surprisingly worldly-wise, but the recent development of the character  means this does not seem out of place. I also like the fact that uber-capitalist Anya has been making heaps of money with online trading. Oh, and there’s a rather interesting scene in which Giles, rather menacingly, threatens Spike with bad things if he does not leave Buffy alone. My girlfriend rather enjoyed Giles and Spike’s male on male encounter…

The episode begins with Joyce beginning to throw herself into life again after her recent brain issues. She’s beginning to throw herself back into dating and beginning to look more like her old self. Or so we thought. The ending of the episode is one of the most upsettingly shocking things I have ever seen on television, but I’ll let you make that decision for yourself.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Crush

“I feel safe with you.”

“Take that back!!!”

I’m tempted to start this review by saying “ooooooooh! Is that the Bronze? It’s been ages”, but I don’t think that’s really what this episode is about. What we have here is Spike and his rather complicated relationships with Buffy, Drusilla, and Harmony. It’s not so much a love triangle as a love square. Life is complicated if you’re a vampire with a chip in your head.

Not that it seems as though Spike has any chance whatsoever with Buffy. Yes, he may be smoking and stalking a lot, and he may get on well with Buffy’s sister and, indeed, her mother, but she gives him about the biggest rejection in the entire history of humanity. Harmony does want him, but, well, she’s Harmony. Unsurprisingly, he dumps her as soon as Drusilla’s back on the scene.

Ah yes, Drusilla. I’ve always liked her, but I’ve been liking her all the more since she started appearing in Angel and, conveniently, she goes and explains the plot of Angel season two for the benefit of Spike and any viewers who haven’t been following the sister show! Drusilla seems to believe that Spike has not lost his killer instincts, chip or no chip. Indeed, it seems as though he does actually kill someone in that rather erotic killing scene in the Bronze with Drusilla’s help, of course. But the real fun comes when he ties up both his women and opens his heart to them, threatening to kill Drusilla for Buffy. This is both romantic and kinky. Of course, the best thing about the whole scene is Drusilla’s reactions.

The best thing about the whole episode, though, is that Xander is jealous of Spike for taking his place as Dawn’s crush! The whole thing is pretty cool. I’m enjoying this season. I can’t believe it’s nearly over.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Blood Ties

“I wasn’t lurkin’, I was standing about… Whole different vibe!”

It’s Buffy’s twentieth birthday, and we all know nothing bad ever happens on Buffy’s birthday! Also, Dawn is wearing a t-shirt with “little miss drama” on it, which in no way implies any major explosions! Oh, and the Scoobies are currently digesting the news that Glory is a god. All is clearly going to be sweetness and light.

The core of the episode consists of Dawn, a hormone-ridden fourteen year old girl, having a major teenage existential crisis, involving the destruction of her entire bedroom, tears, tantrums and all that. While there’s a certain amount of metaphor here, most teenage girls do not suddenly realise that they are a kind of mystical key which has only been in existence for six months and around which reality has shifted to give her a real existence and history. That’s a lot to deal with at fourteen.

This is a very arcy episode indeed, culminating in a very brave Dawn having a long and dangerous conversation with Glory. Oh Yeah…… BEN IS GLORY!!!!! WTF?!?!?!??!!?

Spike is continuing with his habit of standing outside of Buffy’s house smoking and stalking. The dynamic between him and Dawn is fascinating: he’s the only one who doesn’t speak to her as an authority figure, and Buffy doesn’t like this at all. Interestingly, Spike is the only person whose attitude to Dawn does not change. Typically of this show, it is only extreme peril that reconciles Dawn with Buffy and everybody.

Aside from the obvious revelations, we learn some more things in this episode. Glory has limited powers while in human form, and only retains what sanity she has by taking it from others, as we have constantly seen throughout the season. She’s only defeated by being teleported (another example of Willow becoming worryingly dependent on magic), and it’s hard to see how the Scoobies can possibly win at this point.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Checkpoint

“He could seduce her and BANG the key out of her!”

This is a bloody good episode, all about the appearance of power versus the reality of power. The conclusion, and Buffy’s speech, is a powerful and hard hitting message. The council, though they may appear to be authority figures, are in fact completely dependent on Buffy. Even Glory needs something from Buffy and she is, as we learn at the end, pretty damn powerful. The Council, who everyone starts off being desperate to appease, end up as Buffy’s bitches. Technically, this means that Buffy can order them about to do research and stuff, although I suspect this will not be picked up on.

It turns out that Glory, being as powerful and capricious as a god from the Greek myths, is, in fact, a god. Oh dear. Not only that, but she uses her first appearance to express regret at the fact she’s done sod all for a few episodes, and that she now needs to fulfil her duty as the season’s Big Bad to get the season arc moving forward.

This is an important episode for the father/daughter relationship between Buffy and Giles; it is he, far more than her, who expresses fury at the blackmailing tactics of his former employers. He ends up reinstated as her Watcher, with full back-pay, while the loathsome Quentin Travers is at last humiliated.

I love the scene in which the Watchers interrogate Willow and Tara about their relationship, played perfectly to comic effect by Alyson Hannigan and Amber Benson, although not as much as the Watcher who fancies Spike. Ooh-err! I also love Giles’ use of the phrase “Poncey sods!”, which we Brits obviously use all the time. Most of all, I love the way Spike and Joyce bond over Passions, whatever that is.

Bloody good stuff. Roll on the next one.