Recent Buffy Goodness

[annathepiper]

I am behind on Angel as of late, but they are still on the Tivo, so I will just have to sit myself down and start watching them. But now mamishka and princessheacock have both wondered why the heck I haven't posted about recent Buffy goodness on here lately, so here goes!

First, episode before last. solarbird and I both could not watch significant chunks of the beginning of this episode -- not because of the writing, which was not bad in any way, shape, or form, but rather just because the events transpiring were just that cringeworthy!

Two thumbs up, however, on the snicker factor of Buffy trying very very very hard to emphasize that high school really hadn't been all that long ago. Especially when she was wearing the schoolgirl outfit.

I was vaguely disappointed that the rest of the cast appears to have discovered Spike's possessed-of-a-soul situation off-camera; I would have thought that this would have been worth at least one scene on camera. On the other hand, I also do approve of it being pointed out in conversation that having a soul does not automatically mean you're not going to be a wanker (e.g., Xander having a soul when he left Anya at the altar). We also do apparently now have an answer as to whether it was really Buffy in Spike's hallucination scene -- it does indeed seem to have been her, now that we've seen her get motivated enough to haul Spike out of the basement and plunk him down at Xander's.

Biggest laugh of the episode: Principal Wood in his office while we could see Buffy aiming the bazooka at him out the window, and Spike coming along and tackling her. Hehehehe. Dar says there should have been a shot of the bazooka misfiring or something.

Second biggest laugh of the episode: Willow having it pointed out to her that R.J. was male, her face lighting up, and her exulting, "HE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE!"

Third biggest laugh: Spike and Xander mugging R.J. and swiping the jacket. *snicker*

Also, it was quite satisfying to see that even though she was still under the influence of the Letter Jacket of Luuuuv, Buffy was able to shake it off and go rescue Dawn. Yay. :)

Now for this week's episode...

HOO BOY. Others have already posted on their journals, but I'll echo the sentiment here: WTF is up with Spike? My vote is definitely for Hellmouthy Goodness, just because I'll be really disappointed if he somehow can just magically go bite people again without any obvious consequences. That would be inordinately lame, not to mention I would be most put out if I am deprived of the Bad Boy Gets Redeemed plot I am hoping for.

Two thumbs way way way up for the psych major vampire. Bwahahahaha. He was HYSTERICAL. All of his dialogue was a thing of beauty. *beam* It was also interesting to see Buffy acknowledge that Spike did in fact love her pre-soul, in his own weird way.

Willow's conversation with the Big Bad Pretending to Be Cassie: suitably creepy. I didn't start getting danger signals until the Big Bad started trying to lead her into giving up magic completely... though Dar and spazzkat both were just wondering when the whole thing was going to turn Evil. And the Big Bad sure as hell knows how to make a suitably creepy exit, that's for sure.

Dawn's entire portion of the episode: definitely creep-o-rific. Especially the flash glimpses of Joyce's body lying on the couch. And it was good to actually see Dawn finding a way to fight the thing by herself... even if I had to cringe at what SEEMED to be Joyce's spirit telling Dawn Buffy would choose against her when the time came.

In summary: definitely in an "ohhhhhhh fuck here it comes" state of mind now. And here I thought this was supposed to be the light happy fluffy bunny season! ;)

Comments

Fluffy bunny season

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

Well, as Anya would tell you, Bunnies are EVIL! ;) Go squeeze Devil Bunny as a reminder. ;)

That wasn't a human

[solarbird]

He could bite the anonymous person from the bar because she wasn't a human. She was another manifestation of the evil, and was just working her mindfuck on Spike, at the same time as she was working on everybody else.

Either that, or that's just what Josh wants us to think.

Re: That wasn't a human

[avram]

Well, but Spike would somehow have to have been convinced that this was someone he could snack on. Possible, since we didn't hear their conversation, but it still seems a bit odd.

And it doesn't explain how a fresh new vampire could have Spike as a sire. Spike's been chipped for, what, two years now? My impression was that new vamps rise within a few days of dying.

Re: That wasn't a human

[annathepiper]

Some random theories:

1) The fresh vamp was lying. After all, if he was a manifestation of the Hellmouthy Goodness, who's to say he couldn't have lied about his sire to deliberately screw with Buffy's head? You'll notice we didn't get a reaction shot from her before the cut to black...

2) The Big Bad is powerful enough that it can circumvent the chip. Spike very well may be putting himself close to having his own head blow up, but the Big Bad might be making him Not Care. I could definitely see a scenario where the Thing takes control of him -- and I'm sure Spike's inner demon is absolutely delighted to be handed a way to come back out and play -- and then the Thing cheerfully lets him have his body back and writhe with the double whammy of the migraine from hell (literally) and the knowledge he's actually freshly killed.

Re: That wasn't a human

[avram]

If the vamp Buffy was fighting was a manifestation of the Bottom Feeder, I think that's the first time anyone's had solid, physical contact with such. Worth noting.

Whatever it was Dawn was fighting seemed very different from the manifestations we've seen so far. The Cassie manifestation was along the same lines as what we saw Spike talking to back at the end of the season opener.

Hm. I wonder if that was really Joyce. Probably. No need for the big demon-fighting lead-in if it was a fake.

Re: That wasn't a human

[annathepiper]

Yeah, whatever it was haunting the Summers house did seem rather different from the PseudoCassie... and I agree that the PseudoCassie did seem reminiscent of whatever was haunting Spike in the season opener.

I did sort of wonder on some level whether that was really Joyce, myself; I am not honestly sure!

And I'm kind of okay with that. ;) I really like that this season is keeping us guessing.

Re: That wasn't a human

[avram]

Oh, yeah. That's half the fun!

Re: That wasn't a human

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I thought it wasn't. If the Big Bad was trying to get everybody to doubt themselves, then "Joyce" would say what she did.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I agree that the first half of last week's episode was cringeworthy. And that this week's episode was intense from start to finish.

"I'm here to kill you, not judge you." Hah!

Hmmm... maybe the Big Bad let Dawn win, so that she'd be more convinced by the fake Joyce casting doubt?

The bit with Buffy aiming the bazooka at the Principal was perfect, classic slapstick. And capped off by having Principal Wood look up, not see anything, shrug, and go back to his papers. Yeah!

Re:

[annathepiper]

The Big Bad may very well possibly have been toying with Dawn... I mean, if the Big Bad is in fact that big and that bad, it would seem a bit weird to me that one teenage girl, even if she is a former ball-of-mystic-energy, might be able to whomp up on it enough to kick it out of her house. I'd think that'd be way more up Willow's alley than Dawn's.

*snickers s'more about Principal Wood looking up and seeing nothing* Yes, that too was a thing of beauty. ;D

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

Some more musings. Clearly Willow's interaction was with the Devourer. I am unclear about Dawn's interaction ... I could see that as part of a "divide and conquer" technique on the part of the Devourer, or that for whatever reason that night the veil between the mortal world and the spirit one was at an all time low. But I'm leaning more toward it being part of the Evil Plan (tm). I think Buffy and the vampire, however, was not part of the Evil Plan (tm) persay, but just her being messed with by a vamp. In all the other cases of the Devourer - Dawn, Willow, Jonathan & co, they were all being used and manipulated by ghosts and spirits ... phantoms ... things not wholly there. The vamp was, well, a vamp - got dusted and everything. I think he was acting purely on his own delightful malice, and oh how delightful it was too. ;)

And how come Anna's page has more comments than mine, when I brought up the discussion first? Hah! I feel thwarted. ;)

[avram]

Hey, I brought it up before you did, and I <goes and actually looks> um, OK, I got seven comments, not too shabby. But that was mostly about the sketch, and the West Wing crossover fanfic.

Until we're given a good reason to think otherwise, I'm inclined to think Joyce was really Joyce, just because I don't see why the Bottom Feeder would set up such an elaborate front for Dawn.

[annathepiper]

Hell, half of these comments are mine! I am, after all, rather verbose. ;)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

For my comments on this week's Buffy, and some other things that have been irking me lately, see http://mizkit.com/backissues/00000824.shtml. o.o

Re:

[annathepiper]

Gleep, I forgot all about poor Jonathan!

And that's sure as hell worthy of mention... I was most assuredly creeped out by Andrew's behavior talking to what SEEMED to be Warren (but which was, I'm sure, the Big Bad)... and going "aww" at Jonathan's hopeful noises about somehow redeeming himself with Buffy and her gang, and saving Sunnydale. But I wasn't exactly surprised to see Andrew turn around and dice him, especially with the Warrenghost urging him on.

Because if the Big Bad needed a sacrifice of blood to activate that symbol -- preparatory to breaking free? -- that was a very suitably creepy and disturbing way to go about getting it that blood. I certainly would not have been nearly so worried about it if it had just been some random NPC that got diced.

Though I am also indeed bummed that it had to be Jonathan!

I'm sad that this pissed you off enough that you may stop watching the show though. :(

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I'm really disgusted with the show right now. I don't know. I just don't know. A friend of mine is taping it. I might wait and watch it when I can watch the whole thing at once. I donno. :P

Re:

[annathepiper]

Well, definitely take a break from it hon! Shouldn't watch it if it pisses you off. :(

*snugs*