Last night's Buffy

[annathepiper]

Maintaining what is apparently now becoming the grand tradition of me babbling at length in my LJ about episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! ;) This one was fun, and boy was it a welcome way to unwind after working for twelve hours straight, a good chunk of which was spent writing actual Javascript code at work.

So we finally got the Big Bad identified -- and it turns out it's actually an entity we've seen before! It took me a while to remember and a search on Google to confirm it, but the so-called First Evil has actually appeared on the show before. Specifically in the third season episode "Amends", where Angel goes wiggy from dreams that seem all too real and is haunted by the 'apparent' ghosts of people he's killed. The First Evil is identified by that name therein, and the Harbingers appear there as well. Let's hear it for continuity!

I found it quite intense how Buffy finally asserted her reasons for helping Spike; I'd been having a hard time reading her this season since she's been so hardassed and pretty much closemouthed about it all, but yet it somehow works. And I like that she declared that she believes in him and that the reason she hasn't killed him is that she believes in his potential to be a better man. It's not love and it shouldn't be, not yet. For the time being it's something more important: getting Buffy to think about Spike as redeemable, somebody she wants to help, somebody she can bring over onto her team.

And James Marsters was great this episode. He had been quoted as saying that he was going to do the whole "vampire with a soul" thing differently than Angel, and I am grooving on how he's doing it: sure, he's got the whole guilt and angst about past and present misdeeds thing going on, but he's not wandering around in a constant cloud of angst like Angel used to do. He didn't fall apart; it seems fairly clear now that Spike's craziness earlier this season has been due to the influence of the Hellmouth and the First Evil. I really liked his brutal, jaded attitude and his attempts to goad Buffy into killing him by reminding her of what he's capable of -- and I really liked that she threw that back in his face by pointing out that she believes that he can be better than that now.

Other things definitely appreciated about this episode:

• Andrew screaming "THAT'LL DO PIG" as he tried to kill the poor little piglet at the First's behest. Even when he's trying to be bloodthirsty, the poor schmoo is just that goofy.
  
• The First continuing the whole Star Wars schtick while manifesting itself as Warren to Andrew. "Like Obi-Wan!"
  
• Willow bullshitting her way through 'intimidation' of Andrew.
  
• Xander and Anya working together on the "good cop/bad cop" tag team questioning of Andrew.
  
• The scene with the Watchers' Council and the information that they're apparently getting their asses kicked by this all-out campaign of the Harbingers. Eep.
  
• The attack of the Harbingers on Buffy's house. And how they cut out to a commercial pretty much right after they all burst in -- right on the tail end of Buffy's declaration to Spike. I was about two seconds from another round of "CURSE YOU JOSS WHEDON YOU BASTARD", but solarbird assured me there was more episode left. ;)
  
• The capture of Spike by the First, though that was an appreciation of the "EEP THE POOR GUY" variety. I'm fairly sure he'll manage to hold up somehow... he withstood getting his ass kicked by Glory... but still. And I snickered at the First informing him that it liked this version of the plan better anyway since Spike looks better with his shirt off. ;)
  

No previews for next week. That is a "CURSE YOU JOSS WHEDON" moment, since it's pretty obvious sweeps month is over now and who knows how long it'll be before we get another new episode? AIGH! Timmy -- er, uh, Spike's still in the well! They're NEVER gonna wrap this up!

Hehehehehe.

Comments

[princessheacock.livejournal.com]

Hey, over at Angel we didn't get even get a full sweeps month of episodes AND we don't know when it is coming back in January (though evidently it will be taking Birds of Prey slot on Wednesday so it is changing nights. Again. Not that I care since I'm just recording for a friend I promised to record it for now, not watching it after that last ending scene)

Re:

[annathepiper]

Huh. I'm still behind on Angel by two weeks! I've got to get caught up and fast -- though I'd like to know too if it's going to change nights. This is the first time I've heard anything about that.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I was pretty curious about the principal -- is he part of the bad? Or what?

You might be interested in the community deadbrowalking. I'm not a member of it, but I think it's at least tangentially related to Buffy and all that.

[solarbird]

I've been wondering about that for a while, too. I don't know yet. Yes, burying the body? VERY bad. But, well, the First Evil does things to people. It takes them over. I'm still hoping he's good, and just being used. Because I think he's a great character. (Not as good as Principal Quark. But then, who could be? "That's the kind of namby-pamby liberal thinging that gets you eaten!" Hee. ^_^ )

[annathepiper]

OH YEAH I'd forgotten about Principal Wood's actions in the episode! I was pretty creeped out too when he just sort of stopped and went down into the cellar and found Jonathan's body. Yip! Though I can't say I'm exactly surprised with his office being RIGHT OVER THE HELLMOUTH and all...

Re:

[annathepiper]

BWAHAHAHAHAHA okay, that's funny. It's official, I'm amused. ^_^ Thanks for passing on the link!

[avram]

Oh, I totally failed to tie it in with "Amends", mostly 'cause I hated that episode.

[annathepiper]

LOL! Yeah, it is pretty heavy on the angst, isn't it. ;) It's not really one of my favorites either. But I only found the connection to that episode when I did a search for "Buffy" + "First evil" on Google; I found somebody's site that referenced it.