Buffy! BUFFY BUFFY BUFFY!

[annathepiper]

Well, that was fun.

Very fun to see the old high school back again, and rather gigglesome to see Buffy reacting to the new principal. And Buffy getting a reason to actually hang out at the school on camera. ;)

Thumbs up on Xander being actually boss-like and construction-y ("Contracty goodness!"), and helping out with the elimination of the nastybad spirits.

Less Willow angst than I was expecting, though this is actually a bit of a good thing. She got plenty of angst at the tail end of last season, and I can buy her spending some healing time in England with Giles. Besides, excuse to have Giles on camera s'more. Yay!

Of course, though, what I was waiting for was SPIKE!

And the poor boy appears to have flipped now that he has a soul back in him. Not surprised by this; I was suspecting some level of flippage was going to happen. I didn't see coming him trying to cut the soul out, but I could totally buy that. spazzkat does not this new pathetic incarnation of Spike -- but me, I am not surprised they're taking this angle if nothing else because it's going to delay Buffy finding out he has a soul if he's too bonkers to tell her. Which makes complete and total sense.

Paul also doesn't like Spike's new hair... but again, I'm not surprised, if it's growing back in his original color. Though this also suggests that vamps actually do grow new hair. ;) Or else that Spike had been regularly dying it or something.

The sequence of Spike hallucinations at the end was pretty keen and I am wondering, given the Master's dialogue about going back to the beginning, whether the suspicion I had that Spike was going to revert to his William self has any basis in what's to come.

The one thing I don't get is, what the fuck was the business in Istanbul at the beginning, and the Spike-like briefly glimpseable figure there?

Comments

[avram]

Support for my not-a-hallucination theory: The last old enemy we saw was the Master, who Spike's never met. (At least, not that we know of.)

Spike and the Master

[solarbird]

I'm thinking that Spike met the master some long time ago - that he was around in one of the 19th century flashbacks. Not 100% sure, though.

(I also am of the opinion that Spike was not hallucinating, though that doesn't translate into anyone else being able to see what he's seeing. I'm also pretty convinced that his hideout room is right underneath the principle's office, and therefore right over the hellmouth; that whatever it is with him needs him (as a souled vampire) for some important ritual thing - the Lady knows that vampire-with-a-soul seems to be all over the frikkin' prophecies. So.)

[tinlail.livejournal.com]

The notion occured to me over the summer that Spike might be the vampire with the soul that is so important and that Angel is a complete waste of time for the law firm.

That would be funny. Alas it also doesn't fit in to a series well.

[avram]

That would be very funny. Especially if the Buffy gang never find out about the prophecies and the Angel gang never find out how things work out.

Re:

[annathepiper]

Me... I think Spike's human now, and Mimi agrees with me. The reasons why are 1) Spike's significantly less pale now, 2) his hair is growing back in, and 3) she said, re: him trying to "cut it out", that she thinks it was his heart that he was trying to cut out, which makes complete and total sense if he wigged out because IT WAS BEATING.

[clauclauclaudia]

It was definitely his heart he was trying to cut out, which may or may not mean it was beating: it's also one of the ways to kill a vampire.

[annathepiper]

Well, if he were still a vamp and wanted to kill himself, I'd have expected that he'd just try to stake himself, rather than to try to cut out his own heart. Way easier! And if you want to talk even more easy, "step outside at high noon". Poof. No more vamp. ;) Besides, taken in conjunction with his altered appearance -- and Buffy certainly seemed flabbergasted by the changes in him, she even asked him if he was real -- IMHO it argues strongly for him being human now.

Another thing Mimi and I agree on -- I really like the idea of him being human now if nothing else because we've done the "vampire with a soul" schtick. Spike is not Angel, but still, having Spike remain a vamp would to some degree be repetitive for Joss. AND, we do know from over on Angel that a vamp becoming human again is not entirely unprecedented; it happened to Darla. And she wigged out pretty heavily as well.

[clauclauclaudia]

Point by point: yes, there are easier ways for a vampire to commit suicide, but Spike always had a penchant for the Romantic and dramatic. In season 4 he tried to kill himself with this elaborate staking thing. Anguish at what he's done to Buffy could definitely lead to literal self-dissection in Spike's case. ;-)

I agree that "human now" is a new and interesting story. Though it'd also be lots of fun if Spike and not Angel were at the center of those "vampire with a soul" prophecies. Heh.

But Darla didn't go vamp -> human... she went vamp -> completely dead -> resurrected as human. Angel, of course, *did* go vamp -> human, but then those 24 hours were taken away and everyone but Angel forgot about it. Some fans said that the demon Spike visited at the end of last season was the same sort as the one whose blood turned Angel human, but I don't think so and the shooting scripts give no indication of it.

And I think you're right, the demon did answer the literal thing Spike asked. I'm just not sure whether it was a monkey's paw or not--the writers have opinions on whether it was Spike or the viewers who were faked out, but I won't believe it until I see it on screen one way or another.

Re:

[annathepiper]

Good point on Spike's penchant for the overly dramatic. The boy was, after all, originally called William the Bloody because his poetry was bloody awful, but that didn't stop him from keeping composing it. ;)

It would be quite amusing, yes, if it turned out to be Spike at the center of the prophecies. :) Dar mentioned references we've had to rituals that require a vampire with a soul, but I don't remember any such things... all I can remember offhand in earlier seasons has been specific prophecies that talk about "the vampire with a soul". The, not "a".

And yeah, the policy of 'wait to see what they show us on screen' is generally advisable when dealing with ol' Joss. Who documentedly lies through his teeth to mislead viewers. ;)

[avram]

I think we've had bigger translation problems than a the/a mixup in the past. (Damn prophets. As long as they're prophesizing, why can't they just get some gift of tongues things going and prophesize in whatever language the good guys will be using at the time the prophecy ripens?)

[annathepiper]

Well, fortunately, at least thus far, the good guys have been pretty good about having somebody on hand who actually speaks wacky ancient languages. ;) E.g., Giles, e.g., Wesley. Heck, even Jonathan knows ancient Babylonian! Obviously, people in the Buffy universe are rather better educated on ancient tongues than we are.

[annathepiper]

And oh yeah -- the kicker of all of this is, Spike never asked for his soul back. At no point during his encounter with the demon in the cave did the words "I want my soul back" leave his lips. What he asked was, "Make me what I was, so Buffy can get what she deserves."

I think the demon took him quite literally. At the time, Spike was a vamp. The only thing that he could have been before being a vamp was, well, HUMAN. Classic "be careful what you wish for" scenario. ;)

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

AHEM! Shouldn't this say, "Mimi thinks Spike is human, and I agree with her."?? After all, I was the one who figured it out and that brought it up first. >;-)

[annathepiper]

Well, I'll claim a little credit for the possibility actually having occurred to me, dear, when we saw the season closer -- because at the time I did wonder whether "make me what I was" was going to make him revert to being William, i.e., his human self... however, you did make the conclusion now based on evidence in this episode. ^_^ So, yes, I stand mostly corrected. ;)

Re:

[annathepiper]

I buy the not-a-hallucination theory now that Mimi has come home and we've watched the episode again because she missed it. Several lines of relevant dialogue that I missed. :)