Well I’ve just seen the latest Buffy episode and… YAWN!
Well I guess we now know a few things -
It had me thinking for a while it was getting back to it’s best with a monster of the week with an underlying main theme, but no. There was a lot of crying, not enough humour or action and Spike’s completely flipped.
It’s funny that you say “yawn” and over at the Buffy Cross and Stake people are crying over the Wildfeeds! The few who have seen the episode are also gushing about how good it is, how moving it is, an dhow amazing JM and SMG are.
I won’t reveal any spoilers, but from what I understand, there’s going to be some angst tonight. (I haven’t read the wildfeeds myself…I’m trying to stay strong.)
Okay I feel ready to start spoiling, maybe.
First off JM puts in a wonderful performance. He can give the woman who plays Druisilla quite the run for her money in terms of acting crazy. The last scene was excellent. I’m not sure the following classifies as a spoiler but to be sure:
It seems that the theories about a split in Spike are right. He references “it”, “him” and all the people he’s killed being inside of him. As for the thing in the basement it is still unclear how much was internal and was external. It seemed like after he stabbed the guy that he was talking to something explicit. But it may have been a dialogue between the soul and the demon within Spike.
Next go Dawn! I think even her most bitter detractors will have to admit she is turning into an interesting character.
The humor was more understated in this episode but it wasn’t a total downer.
While I’m annoyed at Xander for his unrepentant assishness I think he was right when he snipped at Anya.
More might be spoiling:
The entire Spike/Anya scene in the Bronze was very, very cool. Anya’s shock as she “sees” Spike and Spike’s violent response are very well played out. It was small but it was neat. While it is no longer needed as plot I wonder if Willow will be able to see the soul.
I hope that the start of each episode remains the same for at least three or so more episodes. I like it and I think it is a good way to get the bigger plot into the monster of the week format. While I do hope it is back to that I hope it is back to that with an interesting spin on it.
Angst! Bushel basketfulls of angst! I was kind of nonplussed by the ep until everyone started flipping out at the Bronze. After that, it was pure goodness. And those last five minutes…oh my. How is she going to handle this? Does she still feel enough for him to scrape him off that clumsy symbolism, I mean, cross?
And yeah, someone’s clearly knocking off potential/uncalled Slayers. But who? And Buffy has to watch while they do it?
Oh, and I hereby dub that look that passed between Spike and Xander at the Bronze (after the potential Xander date asks “Is there anyone here who hasn’t slept with each other?”) to be the Glance That Launched a Thousand Slashfics. 
Anyone else get the Run Lola Run thing?
It seems to me that Anya wants her soul back too… the way she asked Spike how he did it. I’m usually not impressed with the lines they giver her, but she got a good one and nailed it.
Man…that was intense…I don’t know what else to say, have much thinking to do.
Hmmmm… It wasn’t what I expected. The trailers seemed to imply that it would be getting into Buffy at the school. I was kind of looking foward to that. Oh well. It was okay. I didn’t like it as much as last weeks. The amount of darkness reminded me too much of season 6, which I didn’t like as much as other seasons. I hope that it lightens up a little bit. I like the dark, but only when it is mixed with that Buffy humor.
I dunno. Dawn seemed like she was reverting back to her old whiny self.
Ya know, this goes along well with an idea I had last week after the Parade O’ Baddies. Maybe this is part of the trip backwards. The first couple of episodes will be evocative of Season 6. Then a few episodes that remind us of Season 5 and so on and so on.
Don’t mind me. I’m just thinking out loud.
Me? I liked Dawns little threat to Spike. And the crazy badness at the end was fun. I like CrazySpike. They’re finally giving him something else to do beside moon over Buffy and JM is doing great things with it.
Does anyone know the name of the actress who played (I think her name was) Nancy (the woman that the worm monster was after). She looked familiar to me but I missed her name in the credits so I can’t IMDB her now.
I too enjoyed this ep. Actually, I’m really enjoying the season (such as it is). It has a very different feel. Not os much dark as you just get the feeling that you’re not dealing with kids anymore. They are grown up and it’s starting to show.
Fave pics: (some previously mentioned)
-Anya asking Spike how he did it. This was one of the first times Emma Caufield has actually acted in the show, not just said really uncouth things. I appreciated how excited she got and how curious she was.
-Dawn threatening Spike. Also very good for the character. I’m no Dawn lover, (well, I guess I am because that’s my wife’s name 
) but they are getting her away from the whineyness and she actually managed to look threatening.
-The Spike/Xander look. Just plain hysterical. Both actors pulled the timing off perfectly.
-The very end. Amazing. Spike smoking on the cross, asking when he can finally be over the pain with Buffy standing back and crying. I almost started crying. Sheesh.
In all, very enjoyable.
OK here’s my take - I liked the episode. Another good one as far as I’m concerned.
I too thought the look between Xander and Spike was priceless. I laughed out loud.
Am I the only one who thought that Spike looked like he was acting when he “reacted” to the chip after he impaled Nancy’s worm boyfriend? It just looked like he was trying to make things seem the same as usual, but didn’t really succeed. I may have imagined that, we’ll see.
And from way left field cuz of my thoughts on his acting about the chip, I also think the whole smoke on the cross thing may have been an act. (Maybe Clem helping him out?) Something about the setup is just not sitting right with me. I don’t believe it is exactly what it seems.
Just my thoughts. Now, the count down to next Tuesday begins.
I really enjoyed 90% of the episode. The last 5 minutes was a bit ham-fisted IMHO. I think that after the big build up they couldn’t find much of a clean payoff. The smoking on the cross thing :rolleyes: :rolleyes: . That deserved to hit the editing floor. Actually, most of the last Spike speech was somewhat subpar. Prior to that things were great. The train left the tracks when Spike punched Anya. After that- time for a re-write. I got the feeling that this episode was more for the die-hard Spike fan club for life members and the rest of us just got a good deal of season 7 plot exposition and nice little touches here and there (the humourous Spike-Zander glance).
Oh well, a “7” this weekend after last weeks’ “9”. Still enjoyable. Bring on next week!
Loved it. Good good episode. The name of the game was definitely AngstEXTREME!!! but I thought they managed to have some funny moments too. I especially liked Xander’s “She’s not gonna call me” after the girl he was flirting with flees in horror.
Favorite Scenes:
-(Principal Guy has said something about the students eating you alive if you let them)
Buffy: You did hear about Principal Flutie, right? (snickersnicker)
-Dawn’s threat to Spike, and his subsequent “When did your sister become seriously scary?”
-The Spike/Xander Significant Look [sup]TM[/sup]
-Xander: “The dog gets your sad noise?”
-The entire scene at the Church of Our Lady of ANGST. I thought the acting was incredible.
I was glad that Spike mentioned Angel. If only there could be some sort of crossover, I’d love to see those to together in this situation…
I was getting more of an Alias vibe, but hey, to each their own. Buffy’s going global with the locations. There was a little more Slayer to the murdered girl, with the martial arts kicks and the dream connection to Buffy; which in turn bolsters the hypothesis of a Worldwide Slayerfest.
The standout performance was Anya, IMO. When I saw her doing her old vengeance thing with that girl, I rolled the old eyes. Then, when she confronts Spike, I fell in love with her all over again. Amazing stuff. I want more Anya.
Dawn was also a surprise, with her “you’ll wake up on fire” speech. I never thought I’d say it, but I see some potential there.
After seeing Spike draped over the cross, I feel confident in predicting that James Marsters will play the title role in Rebel Yell: The Billy Idol Story.
Gold, Juniper200. Got anything you’d like to share?
Yes, this was a Spike-centric episode! They have character centric episodes all the time! And it was important, because hey, souled crazy vampire with no closure from last year. Are you going to be critical next week because it’s Willow-centric and for the “die hard Willow fans”? How about in 2 weeks when it’s Anya-centric for the “die hard Anya fans”. Last week it was all about Buffy—is that a problem? I think the first 1/2 dozen episodes this year are tying up lose ends for last year so we can get on to the really good stuff. 6 and 7 is a 2 season arc, we couldn’t just ignore what happened last year.
This episode was important for several reasons other than crazy Spike.
And I don’t think the smoking cross tihng was too much. He’s a vampire hugging a cross, what do youthink he’s going to do? His acting was superb in that scene—that’s why I love James Marsters so much. In real life he is NOTHING like Spike, and yet Spike is a completely 3 dimensional well rounded real character.
I’m happy they reshot the last scene—SMG wasn’t happy with her original lack of emotion. I don’t blame her—if she didn’t react to Spike’s little speech, ther would be a lot more hating of Buffy.
I also don’t think this episode was nearly as dark as Season 6–yes we have crazy Spike, but last year it seemed that every episode people were being torn apart and pushed away. I get theoverall feeling these past 2 weeks that the theme is bringing them back together again.
That’s what I thought as soon as I saw the outfit and that it took place in Germany. Brondicon, sure I thought of the Alias wig, but with a German technco soundtrack it was hard not to go:rolleyes: (In a good way though.)
Gruven I had that “familiar feeling” too for a moment and then realized that she bears quite a resemblance to Gina Gershon from Bound and Snoops. I don’t think I’m recognizing her from any place else.
Ok, I’m going to say it: interviews, sminterviews, I still believe he’s not a vampire any more, so I agree that the cross bit might have been a put on. Didn’t anyone else catch the line about trying to put the old costume on and it not working any more? I’m not sure how he could fake looking like a vampire, 'less the face transformation involves volunatrily moving muscles, but I think he did. Go ahead, call me crazy, but this time last year I also predicted that Mulder would return to the X-Files by the finale…on the other hand, until I found out that she’d asked to be written out of the show, I thought Joyce would be brought back by Glory after being forced to by Buffy. <shrugs> We’ll have to see.
My favorite non-Spike parts have already been mentioned: Dawn’s threat (although I’ve always liked Dawn, partly because I’ve always liked Michelle’s acting, all the way back to “the Adventures of Pete and Pete”) was very cool, and Xander’s line about the dog
I also saw it as a little off, but I got a different impression – I thought Spike was surprised by the pain (partly because Ronnie reverted to human, but more that the chip hurt him at all).
The girl at the beginning was an homage on both Run Lola Run and Alias, but mostly the first given that that scene in Alias was also a riff.
There’s a lot of stuff going on here that I’m behind on, as I have yet to see the last two seasons, but I’m surprised how easily I’m picking up on a lot of what has happened. Also, I’m liking Dawn, who outside of a couple random episodes I hadn’t seen before.
I enjoyed the episode quite a bit, although I agree that the previews were somewhat misleading – I am looking forward to seeing Buffy: The Guidance Counselor, but this episode wasn’t it.
Finally, I’m finding it tough to watch this on a normal weekly schedule. I saw seasons 1 & 2 on DVD over the course of about five days and then S3 & 4 on daily FX reruns, so the weeklong wait between installments is killing me.
–Cliffy