Ok, so now ask Cordelia what happens when Buffy dies again. How does she answer?
I’m not saying I believe Buffy’s death will cause another calling, but I don’t think the show has clearly spelled it out. It is an open question.
I think some people are getting a little too… Dungeons and Dragons with their thinking re: Buffy killing Neanderatu. Like they’re both lists of stats that you add up and whoever has the biggest number automatically wins the fight. There’s also luck, and strategy, and emotional state. The first two times, Buffy was surprised by the vamp. And she still did okay, until she went for the death blow in each fight and was surprised when it didn’t work. Third fight: she knows the vamps moves, she knows what won’t work on it, and she’s chosen her ground carefully and is finally ready for the fight when it comes. And don’t discount the influence of her “declaration of war” on her fighting. The show has consistently shown that Buffy’s emotional state directly impacts how well she fights. Look at the Season Four premiere, where Buffy is feeling so out of sorts at college she almost gets killed by a run-of-the-mill vampire who’s apparently not even fifty years old yet. Then the vamp breaks Buffy’s umbrella trophy, Buffy gets pissed off, and kicks every ass in a two-mile radius.
As for the Slayer line of succession, I’m in the “There could still be another Slayer” line of thought. Actually, the whole “only one at a time” thing bothered me: I started watching in season five, and at the time thought that there were lots of Slayers all over the world. When I backtracked and caught up on the earlie stuff, I was disappointed at that part. It’d be interesting if this season wraps up with a fundamental change in the nature of Slayers, and all the SITs activate. Although what I think will actually happen is that Buffy will somehow renounce her Slayer powers, becoming normal, and Faith becomes the only Slayer. Faith then sacrifices her life, and the Slayer powers pass on to whoever they think is most likely to be able to carry the series. (Faith might survive if they decide not to continue the show, but I’m pretty sure she’s a goner. No way she still breaths if they go for Season Eight.)
As for why the second return from the dead was responsible for the FE’s move and not the first, the first time Buffy was brought back by natural means: good old mouth-to-mouth. The second time, magic was used, which is by definition a violation of the natural order. It could also have something to do with all those crazy magical energies that were blazing around and through Buffy when she did her big dive. Probably the same thing that gave her that “cellular suntan” that let Spike smack her around.
One other interesting tidbit. When NotEve sends the Neanderatu to the Sommer’s household, she says, “Kill them all, except for her!” Her who? Buffy is the obvious choice. She has to stay alive long enough for the FE to complete it’s plan. Also explains why Neanderatu didn’t kill her when she was trapped under those bricks. Or it could be Willow. Maybe she’s important because she was the one who brought Buffy back. Lastly, I’m thinking Dawn, because of her being The Key. They have to do something with that before they end the show. I suppose it could be one particular SIT. Maybe the FE somehow knows which one in particular will be the next Slayer. Seems unlikely, though.
I thought she meant for the Ubervamp to bring Buffy back, so that they could kill her in front of Spike. That would be the icing on the cake, and in his mad grief, he would agree to go evil. (Well, I don’t believe that, but I believe the First is stupid enough to believe it.)
Makes me think of the Jonathan episode where he used that spell to make him the coolest guy in the world or whatever only to have a baddie come about.
Y’know, I was thinking about Buffy today (and who here doesn’t think about Buffy while going about their daily lives?), and it occurred to me that it was quite silly for the Ubervamp to be able to break through Willow’s spell. I mean, this still is the same chick that went toe-to-magical-toe with a Hellgod, so why would a lowly demon be able to break through, right? Then, of course, I realized the complete illogic of this, because it was all part of the plan, yeah? So then, and this is where all this long-windedness is heading, I thought that maybe that was one of the reasons that Buffy was able to not get her ass quite as kicked in this time, because that spell probably weakened the Ubervamp somehow. Or possibly not, but that makes me feel better about Buffy’s relatively easy spanking of the Nosferatu reject.
As for whom the First Evil was referring to with the “except for her,” I’m thinking it was Buffy. Why? Well, when the Vamp-with-a-capital-V realized, in the street, that it was fighting only the Slayer, it turned and went after more tender meat. So Buffy wasn’t the target…
Wow. Fox is advertising a show that comes on Fridays at eight. Hmm, wonder why they never tried that with Firefly?!
Or in Wrecked when all the bad “addictive” magic resulted in that demon.
Just saw the overnights for BtVS. Worse ratings in five years.
I’m going ot go out on a limb and say that Buffy will not be coming back for an eighth season, and there will not be a spinoff. I doubt these ratings are going to get any better.
I personally think they’re so bad because we’re halfway through the season and Spike is still being tortured and S6 ugliness really turned off a lot of fans, and they’re simply not being drawn back.
Also, UPN is not promoting much, and when they do, the promos are horrible.
I think after this year, ME is going to be fucked. I heard things are also looking bad for Angel, and UPN just turned down Firefly.
A world without ME…sigh…I don’t even want to picture it.
For Adam, Buffy merged with Giles and Willow to create UberBuffy and defeat him. For Glory there was lots of stuff going on, plus a Troll God hammer. These were foes that completely outclassed her and she came up with a plan to defeat them. I don’t remember the details of the others, but Angel and Spike were never in a class above her like Adam, Glory, and the Ubervamp seemed to be.
This time there was no plan, no preperation (other than selling tickets for ThunderDome), nothing different, she just fought better. Sorry, but that fell flat with me. It felt like poor writing and a build up without a payoff.
Well, I think MIller addressed that. She knew what wouldn’t kill it. She was fighting it on her terms, in the place she picked. She was angry, worried about Spike, concerned about the girls that are all of a sudden her responsibility. (Remember her speech to Kendra? You need anger to be effective.) I think Buffy had all the advantages in this situation.
I think Buffy killed the Ubervamp by cumulative damage. First she spritzed him with holy water, then she staked him with the arrow, then she stabbed him in the eye, then she decapitated him. Add in the sunlight from a few days ago and, by my count, the only thing missing from the list of ways to kill vampires is fire.
Anyway, I think it might be time to end Buffy. Maybe it could be made into a series of series, like Star Trek, only without Voyager. That way, they could try out new themes - so far we’ve had growing up and redemption.
Pigs in Space, you missed “family”. I guess some people would put it under “growing up”, but I would say it’s a stretch cause even grown-ups have families.
Agreed. And it’s not like she wiped the floor with Ubie – he still almost killed her, despite all the factors in her favor. Given her desire to inspire the SITs, though, she was hardly going to cap off her victory by collapsing into a well-worn heap. The breezier she looked, the more the SITs would be inspired.
Her on-the-spot resourcefulness (using the crossbow bolt as an eye gouge, plus decapitating with razor wire) is well documented, and it saved the day again.
On another note, much as I liked Tara, Kennedy & Willow have established convincing chemistry with far less effort than was required for T&W.
And why in the name of heaven didn’t she try that sooner? She knew it didn’t like the sun; it’s not a huge leap of logic to realize it might be flammable. I know the second fight with Ubie was also a surprise (in that she knew he was out there but didn’t know where he was), but you’d think a bright Slayer would keep a Zippo in her pocket.
There isn’t enough vamp burning on this show. It’s like there’s a whole road of vampire death the Scoobs aren’t even travelling. I mean, when was the last time someone even tried it? Bargaining I?
[sub][sup]I know, I know…it costs money to set stunt men on fire. Blah blah blah. It costs money to do that dust effect, too! I like flaming vampires! More burning![/sub][/sup]
But back then, ME had to establish that Willow was indeed gay. And she herself was “coming out” and showing her ambivalence about this was also important. No need for that now.
I agree with Pepper about Spike. The show is good, but there isn’t all that much … wit this year. It’s pretty much doom, doom, doom.
Juniper200. I’ve noticed that there are fewer special effects shot. We know the dusting costs money, but there once was at least one dusting per episode. Sometimes many. No real mass scenes. Even morphying (sp?) has been cut down. This week, the transition from Morphy!Eve to Morphy!Buffy wasn’t morphed, but made by simple editing - and bad editing at that.
So maybe UPN has cancelled. Which means they see the end of the budget and have to restrict it (and I do know how to fix a budget so you can do what you want to do now, and pay for it later - by making some cheaper shows at the beginning of next season).
I wonder if it wasn’t the move from The WB that spelled disaster for the show. So why did the WB turn down it’s option?
I think Angel might get one more season. But then, that’s it.
Also. Re: scheduling.
So after Christmas, we get one show, the week after it’s pre-empted. The another show, and the week after that is pre-empted too. When a network think that the loyal fan-base will put up with anything, and constantly get screwed by poor scheduling, there is trouble ahead.
Two thoughts:
UPN did a horrible job promoting this episode. I was not even sure a new episode was going to be on until that day. Lets see what happens when the next new episode is played.
I heard just the opposite for Angel, that the WB was quite pleased with its performance on a very tough Sunday night. The time slot move may even help the show (although moving to tuesday at 9 P.M. would have been better. . . .) I saw that at Tvguide.com. I think I posted a link here as well at the time. Also with Firefly, the stupid cartoon, and Ripper no longer distracting Joss (R.I.P. Firefly 
) Angel show get more Jossy goodness (Especially with the loss of the other producer). If they do rap up Buffy this season, that will allow even more Joss for Angel.
My prediction- SMG’s movie career is going nowhere (as is her husbands who seems to be last year’s flavor), Joss is down to 2 shows, and UPN needs quality shows (especially with the rapid ratings destruction of “Enterprise”), and the producers sure would like another season for DVD and syndication sales. So based on those factors expect next year to be the last, not this year.
Angel will keep trucking for at least 2 more seasons, IMHO. Now if the damn WB would just pick a night and stick with it. :mad:
Maybe Buff coulda sent nosfervamp to Enterprise, where Tripp and that puking alien didn’t know enough to get outta the sun!
In that prior fight, nosfer really handed it to Buff. Wasn’t even close. Threw her threw a frigging cement block wall! Why didn’t he finish her off then?
IMO, if an opponent thrashes you THAT seriously, its gonna take a little more than attitude to prevail when next you meet. Barring a major change of strategy or weaponry, neither of which Buffy employed.
Exactly my point – I’m wondering if Buffy’s choice of a new slayer is what Joyce was referring to.
That, combined with the idea that Giles is dead and both Giles and Joyce are emissaries of The First Good or some other such nonsense, comprises my wild-assed speculation about the show.
Daniel
I completely agree with violation of the natural order as an explanation; it’s what I thought after Anya and Giles met with the giant eyeball(s). I’m craving some serious revolution to Buffy “coming back wrong,” and a follow-up to Giles reaming out Willow after bringing Buffy back (“You stupid girl . . . you have no idea what you’ve done.”).
YES! You post made me chuckle.
Well, the reason I’m worried about Angel is because I’ve read the spoilers for the next like, 5 episodes . Plus the move to Wednesday nights opposite The West Wing and The Amazing Race is not going ot help matters.
UPN also loses 1 million dollars per episode on Buffy.