Is anybody else wondering about the cryptic:
"I have something of yours"
– quote? I suspect that Buffy’s (repeated} deaths have left her animated flesh, but without a soul, hence the first’s ability to mimic her (as well as Spike’s) visage.
Just my two cents.
Wow, very interesting. Buffy screws up royally and gets several girls killed, not to mention Xander’s eye gouging. I’m guessing that’s probably the last time she’ll talk anyone into anything. Especially ironic after Xander’s big speech defending her.
Faith had some truly Klingon looking knives tonight when she faced Caleb. I also didn’t notice her leaving the basement: she it the keg and we never saw anything more of her. Did I miss something?
I dunno how I feel. The ending was brutal, but the ep felt loose and disconnected: too many things needed to be done for Faith to return to the show, but there wasn’t really time. She never interacted with Xander
I don’t think Season 7 is going to work all that well in syndication. They could have had fun with standalone eps with Monster of the Weeks. While I loved the SuperBB arc idea, the show is suffering from too many arc episodes filled with far too little plot. Angel has been almost pure arc episodes this season, but the arc is so rich and full of twists at every turn that each ep has felt like it really took things somewhere. Buffy’s arc eps feel like wheel churners, and if they reveal anything, it’s yet another sort of lame, aimless First plot. Threads get picked up… but then never explored.
Conversations w/ Dead people has stood out as one of the best of the season so far.
And hey: Caleb fights weird. He doesn’t move fast. He’s sort of like Neo at the end of the Matrix, where he’s just sort of bored, leisurely blocking and returning blows. Even his gouging seemed kinda half-assed.
Yep, Giles was right. Buffy went crashing in without finding who this Caleb guy was, what he was up to, whether he might have any powers such as, oh, superhuman strength, and got a bunch of girls killed.
Buffy has shown zero emotional or psychological growth.
'Course, I think a lot of the problem is that the ME gang has been neglecting the show for so much of the season, now it’s like, “Oops, we’re coming up on the series finale and we haven’t done any plot, story or character development, so we have to squeeze as much stuff into the last half-dozen episodes as we can to keep people watching.” If they’d gotten the story development going earlier, then it would have been possible to allow Buffy to scope out Caleb’s lair, Dawn, Giles and Willow to do research, etc. To me, things have had kind of a rushed feel to them.
Most of what I’ve seen since “First Date” should have happened at least three episodes earlier. And really, “Storyteller” was a good episode, but it was pure filler. Actually, “First Date” was filler. So was “Showtime”. BOTN/Showtime could have been condensed into one episode. I mean really, did we actually need a two episode round of Kick the Spike?
Faith has never been a favorite of mine, on the whole, I find her almost as boring as Angel, but hot damn, that basement scene with Spike was great. For me, seeing Spike show sexual attraction to a woman other than Buffy was like a breath of fresh air. He really needs to get over her.
And it all seems like fun until someone loses an eye…
That moment was just wrenching. Six seasons of detestingXander, now I’m actually starting to like the guy, and he gets an eye put out. Turrible, just turrible.
“Oh look. The brat got woman-sized.” Classic Faith line.
“Oh look. The brat got woman-sized.” Classic Faith line.
I am not, as in seriously not, looking forward to another episode dedicated to the Buffy gang engaging in another round of “Oh, dear, another thing we can’t fight. It’s just too strong. It’s going to kill us all. Whatever shall we do.” The hand-wringing, the dramatics, the overwrought agonizing will be too much for me to take.
Especially since in a couple of episodes, they’ll kick its ass all over kingdom come, and nothing will have changed. No tactic changes, no nothing; a sudden realization that “Hey, maybe we can fight it!” and then they’ll whup all over it.
Another UberVamp. And look, in the previews… another actual UberVamp.
I’m really just watching now so I can say I saw the whole thing. Every episode I see of Buffy makes me wish I was watching Angel. Or West Wing. Or Gilmore Girls. Or sometimes, Saved By The Bell.
Joss, please save the last few episodes. You’re our only hope.
But Obi-Wan Wheadon has been strangely missing during this season. I hear he’s directing the final episode, though.
Yes, Buffy is indeed a moron. Everytime anyone says that she’s the general, leading the forces, I cringe. And I’m sticking to what I’ve said earlier this season. Her story doesn’t interest me anymore. She hasn’t shown any development since OMWF, when she had to confess to the Scoobies that she was in heaven. If it’s resenment, for them pulling her out, then it would have been interesting if the writers explored that.
OTOH, there were other hints in Conversations w/DP, when she was talking to Shrink!Vamp. What with her feeling superior ASF. An interesting possibility to explore, but no such thing has been seen again.
I’m annoyed that Buffy had to flip burgers a year ago to make ends meet. This year she gets fired, and there is no mention whatsoever of money. Who’s feeding all the SIT’s? How is everything paid for?
The character Caleb should have been introduced right after Neander!Vamp was killed. Imagine him walking into the arena, applauding and making a ‘religious’ speach. That would be on par with Ats and how they are doing everything right this year. Everything since Showtime has felt like fillers. That’s six episodes of nothing. Why the writers (and Joss) ever had to bring Principal Wood in this season, is totally beyond me. The SIT’s are annoying, but fit the arc. Wood is just… there.
Had he been out of the mix, or at least just a principal, without any agenda, it would have been so much better.
It was fun to see jealousy in Buffy. “Aren’t you at work?” was a good line too. Which leads me up to Faith. I respect that some of you guys don’t like her. I do. And I felt the sexual tension dripping off the screen. However, at this point I find her story more interesting, than Buffy’s. A slayer is not a killer. It’s a very thin line, though, and exploring what’s beyond that is interesting, IMO.
I’ll rehash what I feel could be done, but isn’t, this year:
Oh well. I’ll have to comfort myself with a new Ats-ep, tonight.
Thanks, amarinth. We wuz wondering when we’d get to see it.
Ya know, Buffy wouldn’t have taken the SIW anywhere near Caleb if Wood hadn’t suggested it. Is it possible (since he did try to do what the First wanted in regard to Spike) that he is now not to be trusted? I think the First has been whispering in his ear–and he’s not resisting anymore.
And Tattva, thank you. It was driving me nuts. The voice was right (heck, the drawl was right), but I thought I was imagining things.
Yeah I know, but I thought the whole thing could have been “Faith falling towards the Dark Side”, like Vader.
I pretty much agree with Gaspode and MrVisible.
I’ve thought Buffy a moron since season 5 because she just hasn’t grown as a person and always always always makes the very same stupid decisions.
Faith and Spike were great in this ep and I also like Faith quite a bit. She, unlike Buffy, has actually developed and continues to do so. And so does Spike for that matter.
Another Big Bad that they’ll end up just beating up like all the others? Yeah, I think so, and that sucks.
You know what really made a difference? I think somebody mentioned it earlier … a bloody gun.
[crack! Buffy goes flying]
“Oh, no! The Preacher Man is super-strong!”
[bang]
Done and done. Sheesh. Really makes me like Wesley all the more.
Lastly, why does everybody put an exclamation point behing character names and nicknames? It looks silly and is distracting.
Things I liked: Faith’s return, and the Spike/Faith flirtage. A quick fling between those two would feel so right. And I really dug evil Mal.
Things I didn’t like: Buffy. Jeezus, woman! Have you no common sense? Or explosives? Why, yes, I think I’ll go face an unknown quantity with half-trained girls and my non-fighting best buddy. Gaaaah!
I really hoped that “back to the beginning” would mean more focus on the core Scoobies and the relationships with each other and the world. Instead, they’re introducing supporting cast willy-nilly, without giving us time to care about them, while neglecting the original trio of characters.
You know… when the characters in a horror movie split up, or go into that dark house, we in the audience always want to scream at them, “Hey! You idiot! Don’t do that!”
Sometimes, when you’re in the situation, there may be good reasons to go in.
In hindsight, Buffy’s entry into the house was a mistake. But I’m not sure it was utterly stupid beforehand. She’s going in with a group of good fighters, plus a Slayer and a warrior vampire. She’s up against The First, which has no physical form, and a crazy man in a preacher suit. Not a demon, as far as she knows, and even if he was a demon or vamp, that’s no reason not to face him. Who knew he’d have Hell God strength?
So why go anyway, I hear you ask? It was clearly a trap.
Yes, but the alternative is sitting around letting tensions grow. If TFE could talk one of the SITs into hanging herself, there is no reason to give it more time to whisper into other ears. There is a lot of value in taking the fight to it - to gaining the initiative - and in giving your troops a taste of battle.
I also think the fact that Giles was counseling against it made Buffy more insistent on going. Giles hurt his credibility with her, badly. I wonder if part of her decision was based on the implicit “Fuck you and your opinions, Giles,” message.
Maybe more recon was in order, especially since TFE is using tactics that really haven’t often been part of the Buffy-world. Bringers with knives are killing girls all over the world – that’s par for the Buffy course. But the CoW building was taken out with explosives… THAT is not the usual Big Baddie technique. Indeed, Warren’s 9mm and the RPG that took out The Judge have been about the only instances of modern weaponry I can think of in seven years. What if the wine cellar had been rigged with a half-ton of TNT and some anti-personnel shrapnel? Buffy and crew would have been shredded instantly… and if some of that “shrapnel” was wood, I bet that even Spike would be dust.
I guess I’m saying that while I agree it was foolish for Buffy to insist on entering the basement, it wasn’t without a decision completely without basis.
A tale of two halfs:
The first half was horrible. Bad pacing, more of the same rehashed season 6 type crap. Yawn. It almost seemed like a clip show. Rewritten Giles is eye rollingly bad. 2/10.
The second half picked it up quite a bit. ED’s acting really shined, showing the decided lack of skills of alot of the cast. The Faith - Spike interaction was amusing. The funny thing on SMG is when she plays anyone but Buffy on the show, she is not that bad at all. But as Buffy she lacks something (the writers and directors are not helping either).
Some actual plot developments and a nice replacement for the “main” big bad who was getting rather lame. Nathan Fillon did a good job, especially seeing the material he was given. I would have loved to see what he could have done with Angel level material. . .
The end fight scene was a bit of a puzzler. The fact that some people get hurt was good, but the stupid exploding wine barrel shot was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overdone. Also, given his overwhelming power, he kills only two of the weakest fighters, merely breaks the arm of another, and has Xander dead to rights and takes the time to take out his eye rather then snap his neck? Jeesh, even if he “needed” Buffy for something down the line you would think he might kill Spike or Faith.
As another poster noted, the fight scenes are better on Angel. And they at least try to use guns and bigger ranged weapons.
Still, the second half was much better 7/10 for that half.
Oh and Kennedy still sucks.
Nobody is covering the question that stood out in my mind after this ep. When Caleb grabbed Xander, he said, “You’re the one who sees everything. Let’s see if we can do something about that.”
What the hell does it mean that he sees everything?
I know Xander had the talk with Dawn about being powerless among powerful people, and their strength was that they could watch, but that was a pep talk. When a guy that deals directly with The First finds it important enough to put your eye out rather than snap your neck, though, that implies something altogether different.
What does Xander see? Is Xander Joss’s avatar? Is the Buffyverse a Xander fan-boy creation? Is he ultimately the only one with any real power(his universe, his rules)?
Final ep: Xander wakes up, it was a all a dream.
MrMyth - I took it to be a comment on his speech to Dawn in Potential, nothing more.
Well… something more.
Of the core Scoobies, each has been the “heart” of the group in a different way. Xander has had his share of screw-ups… Amy and the love-spell come to mind - but he’s been brave and steadfast and loyal. Killing him would have united the group, I think. Maiming him may weaken his resolve and further chip away at the glue that holds them together… and I wonder if part of the “blinding” may have been hopefully metaphorical.
We’ll see.
After most of this season, I could almost believe that. 