I think the message is pretty clearly intended to happen before the ropes. I think that the time should have been set better but if the message came before the ropes in terms of what we saw it wouldn’t have been as funny of a scene between Ashanti and Xander. Clearly the elapsed time between them starting out after him and them rescuing him isn’t that long (its absolute minimium would be, assuming Principle Wood’s time sense is good, 10 minutes).
Wood’s gaze did linger in the rear view mirror. I think that he wasn’t sure if Spike was a vampire, a reflectionless demon or the First (though later on it shows up in a mirror but that is something that it might over look on occasion, clearly the First is far from omniscient).
Oh and Otto Xander says “I’d need a snappy new wardrobe.” Then Giles freaks out on all of them.
Sorry, but his constant whining about “we can’t all be on dates and having fun” was stupid - were it not for Buffy’s date, they wouldn’t know the principle is on their side. I think that, what with all the miscegenation that’s going around, Giles is missing Olivia something fierce.
I’m with the people who said they liked the upbeat, snappy dialogue and the resolution of many loose ends. I was getting tired of all those.
IMHO the empty space in the mirror WAS what Principal Wood was staring at, but he trusted Buffy’s judgement and she obviously trusts Spike.
It bothers me when people are constantly dissecting the “acting” on the show. AFAIAC, if they sell their lines and don’t grate, it’s all good. It’s a weekly television show (one that is losing money), and I can’t imagine they get many takes. It’s not like I am paying sixty bucks a seat to watch them at Stratford.
I also got a HUGE kick out of seeing that tombstone marked “Snyder” in the graveyard. Probably an ancestor (can’t imagine there was anything left to bury), but still. It gave me a happy.
I know that. But Robin Wood is also the name of an artist, and she’s the one who drew the Robin Wood Tarot deck. Click on Robin Wood in the navigation frame on the left.
I don’t think enough people would recognize Robin Wood as the name of a tarot deck. And I can’t see how the principal is associated with rob-from-rich/steal-from-poor Robin Hood, although the similarity seems somehow signifigant.
I feel that the First gave away too much… and it was stupid. So, all it has to do is killl all the potentials. Obviously, it’s trying to end the slayer line. Lame. When it first appeared, I thought it would be a character that would be deep and unimaginable: that would blow open everything. Instead, it’s just another lame Big Bad trying to kill the slayer(s) so it can be evil. Lame.
Should I even bother with a poiler box? No? Ok then.
He heard the Bringer’s shoes squeaking as he crept up behind Giles, grabbed the handle of the axe as it neared him, then beat the Bringer back in true Ripper fashion and Mr. Bringer then found himself divorced from his head.
Is anybody else surprised at the overwelming lack of power that the First has? I mean, it couldn’t even tell that Andrew was lying or that the rest of the gang was listening. It’s main power seems to be manipulation. But even then, Andrew was able to resist without much problem. So when this Big Fight comes, will the FE actually be fighting, or will it just be instigating others to fight for it, and if so, why should Buffy have so much trouble fending off the regular group of vamps and demons???
It looks like TFE is trying to do the same thing Adam did : break up The Scoobies, and strip Buffy of her other assets, like Spike. The whole series has made a big deal of how Buffy’s strength lies in her ability to delegate and rely on someone other than herself; something no slayer has been able to do before (unless you read Tales Of The Slayer, but whatever). Buffy has rarely been alone when facing a Big Bad, hell, she got her very own army to help her take down Wilkins. Buffy can take on vamps and demons all by herself, but apocalypse (presuming that describes what TFE is building up to; aren’t they all)? That remains to be seen.
I’m with you there! After the past few episodes I was staring to think that the show was getting too Angelic. Weak, two-dimensional characters (the potential slayers) would get introduced and then just disappear. Major plot points (Giles is dead) would get introduced and then peter out with a weak one-liner (the lame camping with young girls bit), making it obvious that they were making the season up as they went along. Episodes would be filled with leaden attempts at levity or comic relief by having pointless, annoying conversations between the main cast trying to build them as characters or shoe-horn little bits of unnecessary trivia from past eps or goofy in-jokes, all directed in such a way to have every shot linger on its character just too long to be uncomfortable. And of course, all the overdramatic speeches.
This one seemed like they were finally getting back on track. The whole date talk at the beginning was actually entertaining and realistic, and had some genuine good lines (the bidet of evil). Buffy actually reacted as a real person would, by calling the principal a son of a bitch for setting her up against the vampires. And the obligatory fight scene at the end wasn’t just a lame tie-everything-up anti-climax, but actually forwarded the plot a little (Wood discovered Spike was a vampire).
I liked the Chinese slayer; yeah, she’s just there for comic relief, but in a rare twist for this season, she’s actually funny. And not just with the one-liner subtitles, but with everybody’s reaction to her. And, of course, it makes sense; they’ve supposedly been collecting girls from around the world but have yet to meet one who doesn’t speak English? As for her accent, I can’t imagine its being worse than the “southern” accent that one of the girls from a few episodes back was attempting. Made my teeth hurt. But I do have to wonder why Anya or Spike, who are both hundreds of years old and have been all around the world, never picked up one of the most commonly-spoken languages on the planet…
As soon as Wood said that his mother was a slayer, I knew that Spike had killed her. Still, it’s a relatively nice twist. And for once this season, I’m actually curious to see how it gets resolved. After the last two episodes I’d all but given up on the show.
Actually, I liked the way they handled this. I was genuinely surprised at the “are you wearing a wire?” bit; it was the kind of mostly-goofy, semi-intense, semi-ironic stuff that the show used to have all the time.
But anyway: one of the big themes they keep ramming down our throats this season is that they’ll only win if they work together. Whenever the First manipulated anyone else, like Spike or Andrew or Willow or Dawn, it was when they were alone and vulnerable. The only reason Andrew could resist was because he knew (or at least felt) that he was finally part of the group and had their support.
Especially as he was around during the Boxer Rebellion.
On a sidenote, principal Wood really must suck at doing research, because Spike sure never kept quiet about being the one vampire who killed two Slayers. And it seemed to me he had acquired quite a reputation for it in the demon community. You’d think that word about the actual details of the killings would get around.
As soon as Spike entered the restaurant (which was doing quite well for its secluded location), we were waiting for: “You killed my mother! Prepare to die!” and were sort of surprised it didn’t happen.
Although the scene was perfectly good standing alone, and perhaps should have been kept that way, I was thrilled to see them harken back to one of my favorite scenes in the whole series: the flashback subway battle between Punk Rock Spike and Blaxploitation Slayer. It made me wish Spike was still wearing that leather trench coat. But perhaps that would have been too much.
