Buffy the Vampire Slayer: As You Were

“My hat has a cow.”

Riley’s back. I bet that was a surprise. Let’s face it, Buffy is known for its well-rounded characters but Riley, well, he’s a bit of a cipher, isn’t he?

But at least he’s got his life together, with a cool job and a fulfilling marriage. Buffy has none of that. In fact, her future looks extremely bleak, and she’s only 21. Stuck in a dead end job, with even vampires complaining about the smell, she's getting increasingly isolated with her friends, has no time to look after Dawn, and her only outlet in inevitably meaningless sex with Spike. Although it certainly sounds like rather good sex...

So when Riley turns up and whisks Buffy off on a fast-paced mission it's a welcome distraction, and the sexual tension is certainly there. Until Riley's (pretty cool) wife Sam  turns up. Oops.

(Incidentally, it's both interesting and odd to see Riley and Dawn "remember" each other although they have technically never met. It's only moments like this that you realise how short a time Dawn has existed.)

But my, it's embarrassing for Buffy to be caught in bed with Spike by Riley and Sam. Especially as Spike seems to be the villain of the piece this week because, you know, still evil.

It's an awkward parting with Riley, yet also a sweet one, and one with closure. And, of course, Buffy finally breaks up with Spike, albeit in a way which feels contrived. An episode full of stuff, but perhaps one that could have done with a bit more polish on the script at times. Good telly, but not as good as we usually see on Buffy.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Into the Woods

“I’m only sleeping over here so Buffy and Riley can boink!”

Joyce is okay, as we knew she would be. That doesn’t stop everyone worrying, though, and it doesn’t stop it becoming ever more obvious that Buffy is not confiding in Riley. She hasn’t even cried in front of him. After Joyce has her successful surgery, they have a romantic night together. He makes love to her, she has sex with him and Spike does his voyeur thing while chain smoking. But when Riley discreetly leaves for his vampire brothel, Spike takes the opportunity to drop his rival in it and take Buffy to the premises. She is not pleased.

Conveniently, it is this episode in which Graham and his squad of soldiers offer Riley a job, far away in Belize, giving him a convenient exit from the series. The way the episode plays out is heart breaking, though. Buffy and Riley have a stand up row in which everything is aired and Riley resolves to leave. It’s only when Xander, a true friend, has a deep chat with Buffy that she realises the root of everything: to her, he has just been a convenient rebound shag, whereas to him, she is the love of his life. He could be the love of her life if only she wanted it. She realises too late and, in a moment of maximum drama, he flies off in a helicopter, not seeing her running towards him. I didn’t cry. Honest.

There are funny bits in this episode- I love the bit where Buffy and Joyce use bible study as a metaphor for sex! But this one’s a right weepy. Now that Riley is out of the way, what will Spike do?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Listening to Fear

“Because it is a killer snot monster from outer space. I did not say that.”

I’ll be honest; this is the weakest Buffy episode for some time. That doesn’t mean it’s awful, just not up to the current excellent standard. If anything, that’s a testament to the quality of this season. Certainly, we get an awful lot of arc stuff going on.

This episode is essentially about Joyce’s illness, showing us how serious it is, and graphically demonstrating the effects of serious illness on people and their families. This week’s monster/metaphor is the demon that preys on people with mental health issues. It’s shocking for us to see Joyce switching between lucid phases and nonsensical ranting. To see a mother figure reduced to this, a childlike dependence, is terrifying for us, especially as we see it from the point of view of her two daughters.

This in itself puts pressure on Buffy to the extent that her college work appears to be slipping alarmingly. This, together with patrolling, is too much. This stressful confluence of events highlights how she instinctively does not confide in Riley. She doesn’t love him. Riley, meanwhile, is establishing contact with his old mate Graham from the Initiative and his gang of soldiers. He is also, of course, still visiting his vampire brothel. This can’t end well.

It’s nice, among all this foreboding, to see such a lovely scene between Willow and Tara in which they come up with silly names for constellations. These two, seem to have no problem between them. They’ll be happy ever after, right?

It’s fun to see the metatextual fun the script has by teasing us with the fact that the demon arrives in a meteorite. We’re made to ask whether or not to expect a science fiction based threat in this fantasy show. This seems to confuse the characters as much as it confuses us.

We end with two interesting events. Joyce, now lucid still remembers that Dawn is not real, but still loves her as her own daughter. Worryingly, she makes Buffy promise to look after Dawn should anything happen to her. Foreboding much? We also learn more about Ben, the hospital orderly, who turns out to have summoned the Queller Demon. He does it “because I’m cleaning up Glory’s mess, just like I’ve done all my life.” What does this mean? If this isn’t enough drama to end with, Joyce is about to go in for brain surgery. I love this season.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Shadow

“You told me snakey wakey would find my key!”

Things are getting so damn tense that something is going to explode. There are three plot threads being dove-tailed during this episode, all of which appear to be near crisis point.

The first thread is the increasingly doomed relationship between Buffy and Riley. The “Previously on” is all about how they are slowly moving apart, and this episode sees Buffy choosing not to confide in Riley about her mother’s illness. Most revealing of all is the tense conversation between Riley and Spike in which Spike tells him bluntly what is going on. Spike may be cruel in what he says but, as always, he is spot on. Spike, for all his faults is a flawless judge of character. The two of them are doomed.

Worse, Riley is drinking in vampire haunts again. Worse still, he’s allowing himself to be bitten. This is an obvious metaphor for prostitution and/or recreational drug use. One slight issue I have with Buffy these days is that the metaphors, being about early adulthood rather than a high school environment are necessarily broader.

Nevertheless, I’m glad they’re there.

Thread number two is Joyce’s worsening prognosis. It’s a brain tumour. This is not magic, it’s simple medical reality, and none of the Scoobies’ superpowers can do a thing about it. This makes Buffy feel helpless.  Of course, this being television drama, a character getting a potentially fatal condition does not stand much chance of survival. Even while Joyce still lives, however, it is Buffy who has to look after Dawn. Her life has just become even more complicated and stressful.

Meanwhile, of course, Glory, being this season’s “Big bad” is not going to stop doing her thing because Buffy has problems. Like a true baddie, she viciously and cruelly walks into Giles’ shop and pays for some stuff. Can you imagine anything more evil than that?! Oh, and there’s also a snake which looks like something from a Ray Harryhausen film. This gives Buffy something to kick the crap out of. She needs something like that right now.

It’s all kicking off. I’m excited. It won’t be pretty.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love

“The only reason you’ve lasted as long as you have is you’ve got ties to the world.”

This is, of course, one of the most acclaimed Buffy episodes out there, rightly renowned for its development of Buffy and Spike as characters and for some extremely clever use of structure and recurring motifs. And I can see why there is very real brilliance here, brilliance which I’m going to spend the next few paragraphs outlining. But here’s the thing: I don’t like this episode. However well-executed it is, I don’t agree with what it’s trying to do.

I have to admit, though, the treatment of Spike is genius, and adds depth and dimension to a character who, when he first appeared in School Hard, was little more than a punk-style reaction to all of the ritual-obsessed, identikit dullard vampire characters that had been appearing up to that point. His individuality and flair was a refreshing alternative and a deliberate contrast, as well as something of a metatextual commentary on the tropes. Beyond this, though, the character had little depth, beyond certain broad brush character traits such as being a good judge of character, something which has always been consistent; Spike’s summaries of people’s behaviour and psychologies are often cruel but always accurate.

Beyond that, though, he’s not had much depth as a fairly flat character. But, now that James Marsters is in the credits, that has to change. And this is the episode that completes the metamorphosis.

The episode doesn’t just give William a backstory, it injects a note of tragedy into the character’s past and establishes parallel in the present day; his rejection by Cecily as a shy, Victorian poet is paralleled by Buffy’s rejection of him as a bad-ass, but emasculated (by the chip in his head) vampire. It’s a big, big retcon which rewrites the character significantly and gives him a vulnerability which he never had before. This is dangerous: it threatens all the things which made Spike so cool and well-liked. But let’s reserve judgement until we see how the character gets developed from now on.

The Victorian scenes are cool, of course, mainly because of Drusilla’s delightful wackiness, as always. I never had Spike pegged as a Yorkshireman, mind: both his accent and his being a Man U supporter sort of imply that he’s a southerner. But there’s a nice contrast between Spike as unreliable narrator and the fixed, immutable voice of the narrator that we see in the flashbacks.

However much he may be in denial about his own past, though, Spike is dead right in his analysis of the Slayers he’s known (and killed!), including Buffy: all of them have a death wish, including Buffy. She’s just a little insulated from it because she has family and friends. And, incidentally, I love the way that Spike, while killing the 1977 slayer in New York, speaks to Buffy in the present.

There are several flashbacks: Yorkshire in 1880, China in 1900 (although why a bunch of vampires would go to China at that particular point in time is beyond me) and New York in 1977 are the main ones. It’s strange, and fantastic, to see David Boreanaz in Buffy again (although, as we’ll see in our next episode of Angel, there’s a rather clever little crossover thing going on with the flashbacks), and bizarre to see Darla for the first time since Season One. It’s great to see the interaction between Drusilla, Spike, Darla and Angelus during various times in history (one of which, of course, is post- Gypsy curse, as the next episode of Angel will explore!) and, yes, bizarre to see the break-up between Spike and Drusilla in 1998.

Thing is, though… this is what we Doctor Who fans call fanwank: an excessive and solipsistic obsession with a given show’s own mythology. The character development here is superb, but it doesn’t relate to anything beyond that. Buffy is a show which, at its best, comments on society (especially adolescence and young adulthood) through the use of magic and monsters as metaphor: the last episode before this one, Family, is a prime example. This episode, however well-written, well-made and genuinely beautiful, has nothing to say about the wider world beyond itself. It is, ultimately, just a very good example of navel-gazing.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Family

“Well, I found myself in a sort of more patriarchal role. Pointing and scowling.”

So, at last we get an episode focussing on Tara, and one that confirms the suspicions I’ve gleaned from the subtleties of Amber Benson’s superb performance; she comes from a family history of abuse. Even better is that the Tara episode is both written and directed by Joss Whedon himself. She’s made it at last.

It’s a slow reveal, but from our first glimpse of Tara’s unpleasant brother we know that her family are controlling, stifling, and horribly patriarchal, going by the notion that “The women in our family have demons in them.” It’s an obvious metaphor for patriarchy in all its worst forms. There’s also an obvious metaphor for family homophobia, too, in which Tara’s magic stands for her sexuality: Tara’s father says that she has “evil” in  her. And Tara’s true family, who accept her, are the Scoobies. So far, so nice and fluffy. And yet, beyond Willow, the Scoobies are awkward with her and, liberal though they are, are just as awkward with accepting that their old friend Willow is in a same sex relationship. It’s an important message; homophobia, like racism and other prejudices, goes beyond the more obvious bigotry.

In other news this episode, Tara’s party has My Vitriol playing in the background. Blimey. I hadn’t even thought about that band for years. We also have Buffy moving to her mum’s, as Joyce is ill. Will she be able to keep up with her studies? And Riley seems more and more emasculated, taking up more and more of a traditionally female role in his and Buffy’s relationship. Worse, Willow tells Giles about Dawn being the “key”, but not Riley. As I’ve always said, she doesn’t love him. And now he’s visiting vampire bars. Worrying.

Buffy the Vampire Player: Out of My Mind

"Isn't this better than using a flashlight like a doofus."

Yes, the Buffy reviews are back. From now on it's a cycle of Buffy / Angel / Grimm / Dollhouse (starting soon!), interspersed with a movie whenever I feel like it, plus new episodes of Doctor Who once they start on 30th March. I'm going to be very busy.

This episode surprised me a little; I assumed Riley was about to be dumped, but instead things just continue to fester between him and Buffy. However much she may be in denial and try to convince herself that she loves him, Buffy sees him as in the way: even Spike notices and, as we know, Spike is a perceptive judge of character. The whole a-plot about Riley's dangerously fast heartbeat is so tragic; he's risking his life to be more than normal, so that Buffy will love him. But she never has. Buffy reveals an awful lot more than she intends when she insists that sex with him is "relaxing". Graham is right in what he says at the end: Riley doesn't belong in a passive role as "the mission's boyfriend".

It's interesting to see Giles set up, after a year and a bit of unemployment, as proprietor of Sunnydale's magic shop, with lots of help from his friend. Anya's capitalist side, subtly hinted at until now, comes to the fore as Giles offers her a job. But the stand-out character of the episode, for me, is Harmony. She's taken up smoking because, like, that's what baddies do, but is horrified to learn that she's smoking in a "no smoking" area. She's as endearingly thick as ever, and her rapport with Spike is sheer perfection. Spike, meanwhile, is getting a lot of development vat this point: he's obsessed with Buffy, and only at the end of the episode do we realise how far his obsession has gone. This is very, very, interesting.

It's also becoming noticeable that Willow's use of magic is becoming excessive; this is something to watch. And Buffy's mother, once again, is not well. Is this supernatural, or something else...?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Replacement

"If Xander kills himself, he's dead!"

I suppose we can say that the four core characters of this show are Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles. All other characters are to some extent secondary. And yet, of those four, Xander arguably has the least depth by some way. His role is of the archetypal clown, the comic relief, and as the other characters become ever more superpowered and uber-cool, it's becoming increasingly urgent for the character to get some development beyond his well-established self-doubt, notwithstanding Nicholas Brendon's superb performance.

Convenient, then, that Brendon should happen to have a twin brother to share on-screen duties, because this episode may be a first step in exactly that direction. The conceit is quite clever; we're led, by misdirection, to suppose that a demon imposter has stolen Xander's life and is humiliating him by living it better than he can. Yet it turns out that both Xanders are real, it's just that one has all the confidence. But it's Xander, not one particular half of him, who gains the promotion and gets a really, really nice apartment. He's moving up in the world.

Incidentally, this is an interesting time for me to watch this episode; I've recently found a new flat myself, and on Monday I'm going to move in, along with a certain lovely lady. I have to say that the viewing went a lot more smoothly for me, but my place is about a tenth the size of Xander's palatial luxury penthouse! I suppose that's the difference between the USA (population density 89 people per square mile)) and the UK (population density 663 people per square mile). Land is much cheaper over there./ Although I'm still not sure that a construction worker would really be able to afford a place like that.

Anya, too, gets a modicum of character development; she's becoming aware of her own mortality, and wants to settle down and do stuff. Meanwhile, Giles is now running the magic shop and Willow seems to be puzzlingly Tara-less. Spike's anger at Buffy continues to fester while his lifestyle gets grubbier and grubbier. Oh, and Riley gets the best line in a sparkling Jane Espenson script: "Doesn't it make everyone want to lock them into separate rooms and do experiments on them?"

But the main concern is the appearance of obvious cracks in the Buffy / Riley relationship; the line "Shall we split up?" is uttered at one point, which seems ominous. And the episode ends on Riley confessing how much he loves Buffy but admitting that "She doesn't love me." They're going to split up next episode, aren't they...?

Bufffy the Vampire Slayer: Real Me

"She and Willow are both witches. They do spells and stuff, which is so much cooler than slaying. I told Mom one time I wish they'd teach me some of the things they do together. And-and then she got really quiet and made me go upstairs."

It was sooooo hard to settle on a quote for this one. The dialogue sparkled, especially with Dawn narrating much of the episode. This is one of the most fun episodes ever, and probably the biggest, best and most in-your-face retcon of all time. The character is likeable and fun from the start, and Michelle Trachtenberg (immediately in the opening titles, which are more crowded than ever) is fantastic. David Fury's script is superb, managing to be funny and ecomomically told while having to put across an awful lot of exposition. The device of Dawn narrating how she feels about all the regulars is a hugely efficient shorthand, as well as being fun and nicely metatextual.

There's absolutely no explanation as to how or why reality has shifted; Dawn has suddenly been there all the time, and Buffy's life is even more complicated. This is starting to have consequences; her University studies are starting to suffer, and so is her doomed relationship with Riley. She seems to be living at the family home now, a worrying indication of distance from her studies. And her new Slayer studies with Giles are one extra thing to add to the mix.

It looks as though Giles may be staying after all. He has a flashy new car, for one think. And the convenient death of the magic shop owner, along with the apparently huge profit margins, lead him to take over as manager, even though, as Buffy points out, "Most magic shop owners in Sunnydale have the life expectancy of a Spinal Tap drummer." I'm not sure how, legally and financially, he's in a position to but the business, and from whom, but let's not ask such awkward questions.

Oh, and Harmony as a Big Bad with minions is great. I love Buffy's reaction!

Other characters have interesting moments, too: Tara still feels herself to be a non-Scooby. Xander now has a steady job in construction, and is still a little plagued by his ongoing self-doubt issues, which were emphasised last episode. But the focus, obviously, is on Dawn, establishing who she is and how she relates to everyone. Some mystery is established, too- we learn that Dawn has a secret. And who is this dishevelled man who tells her that she doesn't belong here? It's only the second episode, and the season arc is well under way.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy vs. Dracula

"You are strange and off-putting. Go now."

A new season, then. There's no need for things to get going immediately, so we need a fun episode to start with, perhaps setting in motion a few minor plot arcs. At first sight these seem to be the tension between Giles' need top return to Blighty and Buffy's need for him to help her, again as Watcher, with her newfound suspicions of "darkness" within her role as Slayer. Oh, and Buffy and Riley are drifting apart; the pre-titles sequence confirms this in the blatant contrast between the speedily shot scenes of her "hunting" and the slow, peaceful scenes of her in bed with Riley. The subtext seems to be that he really isn't her type.

There's another arc thing at the very end, but… let's leave that for the moment.

So, Dracula. To show the most famous vampire in all of fiction, and use the character to make loads of metatextual points about the tropes of the vampire in fiction, is a sign that the show is really riding high with confidence. Obviously, there are parallels with the novel, and early twentieth century stage play but, in a nod to those early episodes which homaged universal movies, the main influence is clearly Tod Browning's Dracula, right down to Xander as Renfield, although there are also nods to the Hammer version in the ridiculously strong erotic charge to the scenes of Dracula feeding on Buffy. Best of all, of course, is the fact that Buffy knows he always comes back and makes sure she kills him properly; she's seen the movies.

There's also something else going on, though: Dracula, with his slow, seductive sexual ways of sucking blood from his invariably female victims almost seeming to imply that all other vampires in Buffy are bloody awful lovers, his unexplained turning into a bat, his three concubines, and his fancy home, simply doesn't fit the definition of a Buffy vampire. We're clearly intended to see him as a vampire from another fictional set of rules (everyone is star struck, which hints at this, and is funny to boot) and, I think, we're intended to see the influence of Anne Rice as well as Bram Stoker. This is Buffy, upholder of the old fashioned evil vampires, taking a dig at the whole vampire romance genre that has since become so ubiquitous. I rather suspect that we're supposed to agree with Spike. A show which mentions the Count from Sesame Street is not a show which means to take Dracula seriously…

So, it's an episode that had to happen, and a rather entertaining bit of meta-textual, and really rather erotic, fun. But what's this? Who's this young girl who everyone seems to think is Buffy's sister…?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Restless

"Sometimes, I think about two women doing a spell. Then I do a spell by myself…"

Wow. Don't get me wrong, that was brilliant, but it was well weird. For the first time, the Season Finale is not a climax but an epilogue. It's a radical departure from the expected format but, then again, what else would you expect from an episode both written and directed by Joss Whedon.

Obviously, the whole conceit of the first Slayer, and the threat she poses, is all bound up with the idea that Buffy's strength comes from her friends first and foremost: the first Slayer is "not the source of [her] power". This rather brilliantly means that the adversary is easy to defeat, and we can concentrate on the fun to be had in our four protagonists' weird dreams. There are also probably loads of allusions to Apocalypse Now but, er, I haven't actually seen that yet. I will, soonish.

It's a bit convenient that Riley is no longer in trouble with the US government, but it was probably a necessary bit of handwaving. Given the overall coolness of the episode, I'm willing to overlook it. Especially as we get to see not only Joyce and Oz, but also Harmony, Principal Snyder and even a make-up free version of Adam. There are also lots of nods back to earlier in the series- Willow's dream harks back to The Puppet Show way back in the early days, while the sequence of Giles hypnotising Buffy recalls his betrayal of her in Helpless, which is without a doubt the fulcrum of his entire arc. There are some really nice touches, from Willows beautiful calligraphy of a Sappho poem, in Ancient Greek, on Tara's body- fairly obvious subtext there!- to the many other suggestions of sexual guilt and fear of homophobic hostility. And the insecurities of her nerdy past haven't gone away either.

Xander's dream, like Willows, focuses on something that's been shown all season, namely concerns about his direction in life. The scene where everyone starts talking French is a sign that he feels undereducated compared to his peers, and that he's slipping behind. The bit with Giles and Spike on swings, though, is just random coolness. And Giles' dream is a wonderful deconstruction of his exposition-spouting narrative function, managing to combine this with his recent musical exploits by having him sing the exposition. Also, Anya's stand up is gleefully toe-curling. The people waving lighters are a nice touch too, although they don't half date the episode; no one waves lighters at gigs these days, because no bugger smokes.

Buffy's dream, obviously, does all the stuff that I mentioned in the first couple of paragraphs. But there's also an interesting examination of a potential fault line with Riley, with whom I still don't think she's going to stay for long. He's identified with evil government conspiracies, whether they involve thinking coffee makers or not. There's also the hilarious scene with Joyce living in a hole in the wall, a clear signpost towards Buffy's guilt at neglecting her supportive mother.

Finally, there are more interesting hints towards the future and things that will happen, alluding to the bed that appeared in our last dream sequence at the end of last season between Buffy and Faith. Something's going to happen…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Primeval

"I think we've all sort of drifted apart this year, don't you?"

Now that was a satisfying season finale. Interestingly, it wasn't the last episode of the season, but let's gloss over that for now. This was the perfect conclusion to all the themes of the season and a suitably dramatic ending. It also bears a suspicious resemblance to Whedon's later superb The Cabin in the Woods, what with a secret installation being overrun by demons, but never mind. This is bloody good telly.

I'm glad that Riley hasn't betrayed Buffy of his free will, but because of his "behaviour modifier". Considerable more icky yet cool, though, are zombie Forrester and, especially, zombie Maggie Walsh. Zombie Forrester, in particular- zombified, but alive- is in a situation which is no doubt intended as a direct parallel to vampirism. Zombies, after all, are undead too, just physically stronger and rather less sexy. Adam's plan is pleasingly Bond villain, too: get demon and human to kill each other so he can use the parts left behind to raise an army of zombies like himself. Bwahaha!

It's good to see the four principle Scoobies quickly figure out that Spike has played them- Buffy, in particular, shows loads of cleverness- and then rather movingly start to work out their issues both literally (what a lovely conversation between Buffy and Willow..!) and metaphorically, what with that weird combination spell thingy which gives the combined entity really glowy eyes, and loads of really cool superpowers for some reason. The concluding fight with Adam is epic. You have to respect any scene that involves the ripping out of a still-beating uranium heart. You just don't see that sort of thing often enough. It's interesting, though, that the spell casts the four Scoobies as archetypes- Willow is the "spirit", Xander the "heart", Giles the "mind" and Buffy the "hand". Again, there are distinct similarities to The Cabin in the Woods…

All this- plus some amusing scenes of a hung-over Giles and a rather cute scene with Anya telling Xander, who's worried that he may indeed be a directionless loser, that she loves him- leads to a satisfying finale which leaves one wondering what the Hell is going to happen in the final episode of the Season. The final scene, with the Initiative being quietly un-happened by shadowy government figures, is delightfully zeitgeisty in an X-Files sort of way, too. What now?