Wow, what a cliffhanger! How do you post spoilers (in the black boxes)?
oh yeah…Spike is HOT!
NOOOOOOO!!! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!
[sub]meep. Rupert…[/sub]
Hey! What do you mean, our speculations? I was the one who suggested that all four of the dead people in the pairings were really Morphy!
And it looks as if I was mostly sorta (ok, about 2½ out of 4) right. Maybe 3½ out of 4, if you count the shramp as a Morphy-by-proxy.
Did anyone else notice that Spike’s accent kept slipping, especially on the more emotional deliveries?
'kay, guys. Say it with me now:
*And as I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Gossip,
I will fear no Spoiler; for Joss is with me;
His wit and fierce emotion shall comfort me;
He gives me great TV in the presence of wrestling and Big Brother;
He anoints my Tuesdays with Willow and Xander,
my laughter and tears overflow;
Surely Joss will sustain me all the days of my TV watching
And I will follow his career forever. Amen. *
Our Rupes will break out the Giles-Fu and escape and be well; ASH is contracted for 10(ish) episodes this season. He will not die in the first millisecond of the next episode. I feel this very strongly.
Morphy was extra-creepy this week, especially with the “There’s my boy!” and the Buffy-to-Spike shapeshifting. And while I’m all in favor of fluffy, lovey Spike, I do like evil Spike and it was nice to see him around again. Extra EvilPoints for mindfucking your own doppelganger!
Aimee Mann was nice and all that, but I thought her “I hate playing vampire towns!” line would have fit in better somewhere in the earlier seasons. The show just doesn’t have non-Scooblies acknowledge evil like that now. If it ever did, really.
But, to sum up:
In my non-spoiler-supported opinion, Giles will survive.
Morphy freaks me out
Thea was on the right track with the cigs
[sub][sup](Oh, and here’s the obligatory Marsters Ogling: did anyone else get a little faint while Anya was searching Spike’s room and the bedsheet was just barely doing it’s sheetly duties? Yum.)[/sub][/sup]
No, because his accent didn’t keep slipping. Souled!Spike has a different accent than Evil!Spike. There are at least 4 distinct SPike accents, to my count. 1) S2 Spike before James Marsters got it right. (He admitted thta it was bad in School Hard) 2)William 3)S4-6 and 4) Souled.
looks at clock and drums fingers nervously. 1 hour and 10 minutes to go.
Forgot my point. My point was that when he “slipped” it was Souled! accent reverting to William’s.
Damn I liked this episode. Ending and all. I was getting nervous because UPN is a bit flakey here and while I had Darmah & Greg on mute waiting for Buffy it cut out a few times. All was well through the episode but I’m curious if anyone else has moments were the episode physically looks slower and not in a slow motion way.
There was a next time on preview after UPN’s promotions for its “Girls Night Out” and so it looks like there is a new episode next week. Now just in case there are people who still haven’t seen it the rest of my commentary is in the black box.
Stupid, stupid Dawn don’t follow in Buffy’s footsteps. Full disclosure is how you avoid mind fucks from evil shape shifting things. You read and watch the right things to know that even! Damn your being made from Buffy and thus inheriting her key weakness.
I agree that Xander should have kept his togetherness and maturity and that when the writers turn him into King Mook it weakens episodes. Yes it was nice to have the episodes with Anya regaining her demoinc status but they are a result of Xander being badly written. I would have prefered a demon claiming to be Xander broke off the wedding and he hasn’t been able to convince her of it. It would be less lame than the low point of Xander Harris and while he doesn’t need to be perfect he should be more consistantly mature. This episode reminded me how much I hate it when Xander is mooked up.
Ok now that that’s out of my system I have to say I loved the mass vamp fight. The fact that they did seem like they were waiting for Spike brings up an interesting question. Was the Big Bad able to control them all or were they influenced by the fact that Spike was their Sire? Also Buffy should fight with a long stick that’s sharp on both end more often. If made out of a strong wood it is a really practical weapon for vamp fighitng. You don’t need to get as close, it has defensive uses and it is good in a mass fight.
I knew the dirty bastards were going to pull that cliff hanger. The moment I saw the robed dude appear I knew it. Of course Giles is going to do something amazingly cool to avoid it. Or he is going to be in future episodes as a form for the Big Bad to take for further head fucking. With a shapeshifting evil you can’t be sure that those signed on for episodes have characters who are safe.
All in all I agree with the 8 out of 10.
I thought that scene in the bronze was rather odd,it only convinces me further that there must be something controlling the whole city.
I mean how can you just ignore that.
Perhaps morphy has had a part in manipulating the whole city from the beginning.
That ending was evil! Evil I say!
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil
I loved the scene with Anya and Spike. “You think I’m fat!” and “Soulless Spike would have had me upside-down and halfway to Happyville!” I love Anya, she could carry a spin-off.
Billy Idol wannabe, love it.
I wasn’t upset by Xander, he’s right, Spike is a dangerous creature. Don’t forget, he just got punched out by Spike earlier in the episode and he knows how bad he was when he was bad. I’d question whether Buffy was keeping Spike alive because she loves him or because she needs the information he has. Look at it from Xander’s POV, just a few weeks ago she was willing to kill Anya after she killed people. But now all of a sudden with Spike she is ready to look the other way.
Another good point, when Buffy staked the last vamp, presumably the owner of the house “Sorry, it’s my job”
I don’t think Morphy controls things directly very much, it works more subtly. It didn’t need to control the vamps in the basement, it set the scene up and let nature take its course. It’s working on Spike with mind games, same with Willow and Dawn. It doesn’t act directly, at least not yet.
Still no clear idea about what Dawn saw. They played this up several times, do you trust what you heard even though it came from an evil source. Or was the source evil at all? But it would make sense for Dawn to come clean, she knows that well enough by now.
Giles, ah cliffhangers. That was a good one. “Gather them together”, that’s presumably all the proto-Slayers, right? Final battle or protection?
Wonderful use of Aimee Mann as well.
“I hate playing vampire towns”
I think taht statement pretty much sums up the public’s relationship with the supernatural in the buffyverse. They know it’s out there, they don’t really like it, but tehy don’t particularly care either.
Oh yes, indeedy I did.
Except Morphy!Spike said there is an order, and the Slayer wasn’t meant to get involved at this point, so for all we know, Spike completely fucked up the whole plan.
The problem with Xander is even though they all knew without a doubt that Anya was responsible for the gory, horrible deaths of like 12 people, (higher than Spike’s supposed body count) he sitll was all “we have to find another way, we can’t kill her,” blah blah blah.
But even though Spike didn’t choose to kill those people, even though they wouldn’t have had any evidence of it if Spike hadn’t had called Buffy, and even though Buffy insisted that something was controlling Spike, (she could sense the evil. I guess slayer senses come in handy…) Xander was still with the “kill kill kill.”
That’s why I think Xander is a jerk. When Anya chooses to kill a dozen people, (as well as all the other wishes she grants) they must find another way. But when Spike is forced to do it (and has a lower body count) he’s not worth their help. If anybody has a double standard, it’s Xander.
And another thing!
Spike not only didn’t fight Buffy, he called her and brought her to that which would damn him.
Anya was willing to fight her to the death.
Yes, Anya had a change of heart, and I was so completely moved by Anya that I forgave her and loved her again. But the whole thing with Anya and Spike were similiar in theme, but the actual context and situations were vastly different.
I knew it!!! I knew TETD was going to be manipulating Spike into doing very bad things. Even before I was spoiled, I knew it.
And I’m glad to see some people conceding I was right about the cigarettes. I sincerely hope the Peroxided One has quit smoking for good.
I loved it when Spike tasted Buffy’s blood from the cut on her arm (this was the first time Spike has ever tasted Buffy’s blood, after all the times they fought, shagged, hated each other 'til it made them quiver… oh, wait, that was Angel, sorry) and came to his senses. And I didn’t really thnk the mass vampire fight was much of a fight, more of a mass staking. Was it my imagination, or did it seem to anyone else like the vamps lost focus after Spike pulled back and curled up in the corner? It almost seemed that without their sire to give them their marching orders, they weren’t really up for the battle. And Spike opening his jacket, offering Buffy his heart in a very literal sense (make it quick, OK?) was beautiful.
Oh, and TETD-Spike singing was sooooo cool. OK, yeah, it was sweet seeing a bit of evil Spike, even if it was a TETD- generated illusion, and I really hate the nickname Morphy, BTW. I have no doubt left that TETD is the First Evil.
I actually thought Xander was cool in this episode, and I haven’t liked Xander since I first started watching the show, even before I saw my first Spike episode. He was trying very hard to be objective about Spike, even though his hatred of the Peroxided One was showing through the cracks a little bit. Xander was right, Spike was dangerous, and I think he will continue to be dangerous for at least a couple more episodes, even though he doesn’t want to be.
And the bit with Anya in Spike’s room (I’ve had some pretty big walk-in closets, some of which could have functioned as sleeping quarters, but that closet actually qualified as a small room) Tjat was priceless, the way Spike was trying to say no to her without hurting her feelings (actually, the do’s quite fetching). And all naked under the sheet which was just barely covering [sub]Little Spike[/sub]. Yep, definitely got some serious eye candy.
I actually liked the ending. Buffy and the Scoobies discussing Spike’s potential dangerousness and the reasons behind, the need for Buffy to stay close to Spike because Spike was the closest to TETD, and they need all the info they can get about it. And Spike huddled in a blanket in the next room, where he could obviously hear the conversation. Just dissatisfying enough to make me want to tune in next week to find out how it all washes out.
Oh, yeah, and I hate UPN’s perviews for next week’s show. I think I’m going to start turning the TV of before they come on.
“The Billy Idol wannabe?”
“Well, actually, Billy Idol stole his look from…”
I have to listen to Rebel Yell now.
Billy Idol, the other peroxide blonde with an English accent that makes me get all drooly. And Billy’s accent is real.
Good interview with Anthony Stewart Head in this week’s TV Guide. He confirms that he’s back for “nearly a dozen” episodes this season. There are no blatant spoilers in the article, just some general discussion about this season’s themes.
He does mention one very interesting thing (not a specific spoiler…very vague, but just in case:)
[spoiler]Asked if this season’s story arc is well-suited to be the show’s final season:
“Head: Definitely. It will bring the story full circle, basically. Whatever it is they decide to do, no matter how [the powers that be] spin the series, as far as our tale is concerned, it’s symmetrical. Part of the storyline will take us back to season two.”
What does that mean? The “First Evil” episode was Season 3, so it’s not that. I wonder what he’s referring to…?[/spoiler]
Gaspode, what line of Xander’s was it that particularly irked you?
Frink, who was big bad in Season 2? Yep, TETD and Cordelia’s monster are at least in cahoots, if not one in the same. There will be major crossovers here.
Hazel´: When they’re talking about it at the end and Xander says (more or less) “So an out-of-controll serial killer is OK?” It’s a typical Xander line. And when talking homework or dating, I think they’re funny. But this is a very serious moment and he can’t stop doing that. Annoying.
Thea. I know you hate the name Morphy, but it’s so much easier to type than TETD.
Morgyn: I was refering to Thea’s theory about the cigarettes. That’s all.
Ahhh. Freed from the black box.
It was very emotional this week. Spike baring his chest and then asking for help as probably the high point. My heart doesn’t go all pitter-patter over Spike, as some women here feel about it, but I really like the character.
Willow kept her cool, in spite of having been through a very emotionally and then evil time the same evening. She’s so strong now, but no need to show it off. Go Will.
I have the impression that SMG isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. However, she’s a very good actress. When she’s Morphy and say’s “That’s my boy” it’s so creepy, and she conveys evil with very small means.
Giles will survive, of course, but it was still a hell of a cliff hanger.
I didn’t care for the Aimee Mann fight scene soundtrack. It was such an obvious album and artist promotion, and it knocked me out of the episode. Thank god nothing of great importance happened immediately after it.