Good lord!!! Oh how they tease us! So what is the deal really? I hope we find out soon, but there were no ads for a new episode next week.
Oh, the agony!!!
Yeah, it’s a bit interesting, isn’ it? :mad:
Is she or isn’t she?
According to the TV Guide website, next week’s show is a rerun. Tabula Rasa , if I’m not mistaken.
And this new post reply form is pretty cool (first time I’ve seen it).
From the spoilers I have read, the “freak out” issue does not even really come up. So we are left to wonder, is she or isn’t she? I think (hoping) that it was all just effects of the wax demon’s poison, but that doesn’t really explain the last line, does it?
I wondered during the show, if Buffy was having one of her spells, and was made to see a doctor and was then institionalized, would she be a shizophrenic who was having delusions of being institionalized? A paradox.
Spoilers…
Very well done episode. I liked the Occam-reasoning – which is more likely, that Buffy is a
superhero or a deranged girl in an asylum? And I liked the way that they used all the pent up
misery of the past couple of seasons to make the asylum seem like the more attractive
choice.
Did anyone else think that the writers have been reading the various newsgroups and bboards and were
mocking the fans a bit? The line about having fought demons and gods and now fighting a bunch of kids from
high school sounded like they were addressing those complaints about there not being a Big Bad this season.
I don’t see this as a cliffhanger at all. There is only one credible way that could go.
I don’t think it is a matter of reading BBs. This was the plot line they mapped out for the season, while this episode was great it wasn’t worth the pathetic job they did building up to it all season.
Buffy’s last line was about getting another dose of the antidote. She was still suffering the affects, so the dream state was still going on, but she had checked out of it. It does leave the immediate impression of “Is she or isn’t she” but upon further reflection I think it’s pretty consistant.
Still, how can any one be sure they aren’t an elaborate simulation?
I liked the episode. I think that we can be sure she isn’t insane. Delusions don’t have spin-offs after all. For her I’m sure that it was hard to tell but if you start having doubts about your reality after being exposed to a powerful drug the best bet is that the delusions aren’t real.
This season has been… off putting. And I believe that has been intentional.
All season they’ve been building up things, and then giving us the unwanted ending.
Buffy comes back to life… yea! Wait, no, she was in Heaven, so now its like she’s in Hell… so her coming back isn’t good.
Willow and Tara are getting more powerful… yea! Wait, no, Willow is now addicted to magic, and its forced her and Tara apart… that’s not good.
Xander and Anya are in love… yea! Wait, no, the wedding falls apart because of a moment of weakness by Xander… and now Anya’s a demon again, and that’s not good.
The Big Bad this season seems to be the characters themselves, and how they are reacting to the world around them. And more than that, the closest we will get to a true Big Bad will be one of our characters themselves, who will react very, very badly to a very traumatic incident that’s coming up (according to what I understand to be coming).
Its interesting to see them toy with the formula like this, though I do hope that they go back to the old style of Small Bad --> Big Bad next season, since it’ll likely be the last year of the show. And it should be one hell of a Big Bad.
Kirk
Where can they go in terms of Big Bads? I mean Buffy beat the bejesus out of a God and came back from death. Maybe she could do something to permanently make the world better instead of just slowing down the onslaught of demons. I think this seasons formula is a response to the fact they have no where else to go really. It is a good way to sort of drag the show back in. Maybe they’ll figure out something supernatural to throw at the scoobies that will shock and horrify them (and hopefully us as well). I don’t think they really have anywhere to go. They’ll have to do something like Adam, a very new take on an old concept, to really get people.
Sure it does. Vampire-Slayer Buffy hadn’t been cured yet. She had not yet ingested the antidote, and so the poison-induced delusion (or was it a delusion?) persisted.
One possible Big Bad for the final season – the Slayer.
Not Buffy, but the Slayer nature. Buffy’s already a renegade Slayer. Does she even want to be a Slayer at all? I think the end of the last season will result in Buffy somehow being freed from the yoke of Slayerdom, and allowed to live a normal life. She’ll have to face the Slayer within her itself.
If done right, and against the background of another “big bad” monster, it could be interesting. Shades of Hal Jordan’s wrestling with his Spectre nature.
Kirk
MAJOR SPOILER
4
3
2
1
From this site http://www.angelicslayer.com/tbcs/espoilage.html
The big bad of the season? Willow. Sure, Warren can easily be considered the big bad up until episode 20, but Willow quickly takes his place. And since Warren doesn’t survive ep 20… there’s no telling what she can do in later eps. After losing Tara, she loses all reason to stay away from magic. Although initially, she does a very good deed, she is later blinded by the desire for vengeance. No one (and as you’ll see, nothing) is able to stop her
Sadly, the Scooby Gang member who is fatally wounded is Tara. She is accidentally killed by Warren. Willow tries to bring her back, but is unsuccessful. As a result, Willow is guided by her rage into dark magic. She consumes every possible element of it that she can and seeks the necessary revenge on Tara’s killer. At her hands, Warren suffers terribly and is killed. (The actual event of Tara getting shot should occur in episode 19, but I don’t specifically what happens. The ending of the episode should be a big cliffhanger and picks up immediately with episode 20. I have no information that says these events are permanent changes, but I also have no information that says they aren’t.
Buffy spoilers are like Survivor Spoilers- wrong 90% of the time.
Again another “eh” episode where, IMHO, the writers were trying to be too tricky and clever and end up missing the point. I am starting to wonder if we would have been better off ending the series last year with the Slayer saving the world then dying.
One high point of the episode was the mini-beatdown of Dawn- I was sooooo rooting for Buffy in that one “Go Evil Buffy Go!!”
One for Stoid- how do you like Spike now? All he had too do is make sure she drank the antidote-- but nooooo. . . .
-me
Was anyone else reminded of the final episode of St. Elsewhere by last night’s episode?
The end was very disturbing. I’m on the fence as to whether I liked the episode or not. It seemed, partly, like an attempt to paper over some of the errors in continuity and logic.
But I guess creeping me out is part of the point of the show, right?
Yup. I really liked the show. Buffy trying to kill her friends was pretty intense.
Nice to see Joyce again too.
I used to watch Buffy in splotches, but gave up on the Riley years because I couldn’t stand him.
I decided to give it a go again last night, and… wow. The whole concept was really unnerving. And I’m totally hooked.
The x-man was getting it done, both with weapons and his feet!
Pretty weak, tho, how he just trots back in after blowing off Anya.
The dissention among the evil trio increases.
And I guess the Double Meat Palace is a pretty forgiving employer, welcoming her back after strolling away in the middle of a shift. Did she call it a mental health day?
Please oh please spin me a spoiler involving the deaths of Dawn and Tara. They don’t even have to suffer - I’ll be happy if they go quickly.
While I liked this episode, the season sure remains dark. Which is wearing on me.
Trion:
And Hank.
Which drives me nuts, in fact. Last season there were several episodes where, logically, we really needed to see Hank come to be supportive of his daughters: Joyce’s surgery; Joyce’s death; Joyce’s funeral.
I always assumed they left that out because the actor who plays him wasn’t available. But then they brought him back here for such a trivially small appearance…
It just drives me nuts. Maybe this post should go over into Stoid’s peeves thread.
Missing Parents:
So, when did we ever see Buffy’s dad before? I never recall seeing him in previous episodes. Likewise, did we ever meet Xander’s parents before the wedding? (I just seem to recall shouting up and down th basement stairs prior to that.)