We watched "Sleeper," written by David Fury and Jane Espenson. I may save this for another blog post, but I probably shouldn't, since it picks up right where "Conversations with Dead People" left off.
Spike buries the woman he killed at the end of last episode in a shallow grave, so we can assume that wasn't just a trick or a ghost.
Willow comes home from the library and finds Buffy's living room
completely thrashed. Dawn tells her that she spoke to her mother, but NOT what Joyce told her, and Willow tells her it was a trick, that something similar happened to her, but not to trust it.
We also travel to England, where a man is--ah hell, a Watcher discovers his charge dead, and then is stabbed as well by more of those robe-wearing dudes from earlier in the season.
Buffy goes to talk to Xander about what the Psyche Major vampire told her, and they wonder if Xander's new roommate might be eating people at night. They remind us that Spike still has his chip, in addition to his soul, but wonder about the validity of both.
Spike comes home, but he doesn't seem to have any memory of what he did that night, or of killing Buffy's classmate. Spike goes to his room, which appears to just be a guest room with the windows covered up. Buffy asks Xander to keep an eye on Spike, but when it's time for him to go to work, he calls up Anya to guard him. She is reluctant, but in my estimation, she should be grateful she's even still on the show.
Anya wonders if Spike keeps mementos of his kills like all the serial killers she regularly has tea with, and sneaks into his room to look through his things.
Of course he wakes up, and of course he sleeps naked. She then reminds me why she's still on the show by claiming she wants to have sex with him (again). Spike turns her down (either because of his newfound soul or because he saw through her lie, I don't know which), and goes back to sleep. When he wakes up, he gives her the whole "it's not you it's me," which leads me to believe it was the former. Then he goes out into the night.
Anya calls Buffy and tells her Spike is gone. Buffy follows him down the absolute crowdedest outdoor shopping area in Sunnydale history. Nay, it's the largest gathering we have ever seen on the show, graduation day included, all out for a bit of shopping on a Thursday evening. I have no idea why they would've sprung for so many extras, unless it was a "Be On Buffy" promotion through the fanclub and everyone in that scene was there for free.
I once did that, to be a part of a certain costumed superhero movie, so I'd understand.
So anyway, Spike goes to this Santa Monica Promenade-type place where he picks up on a ready and willing chick, and takes her to a dark alley. Buffy follows. Pardon my French, but the girl is so fucking creepy and darkly forward, that I was absolutely sure she was either a revenant or another vampire.
But I guess not. Mid-kiss, Spike looks up and sees Buffy there, and she encourages him to kill the girl. He does, and I am mighty disturbed.
The fake Buffy in the alley turns into Spike, and I start wondering if Spike never killed anyone, but it was this creature that can look like anyone it wants. Later it is explained, but I was confused for . . . well, pretty much this whole seventh season so far. Spike sometimes seems utterly insane and other times seems quite coherent, so it made perfect sense that one Spike is the First Evil and one Spike is real.
So, the real Buffy apparently only saw Spike go off with the spooky chick, but she confronts him when he gets home, accusing him of killing her and Holden the Psych Major. Spike denies it, saying that yes, he gets together and talks with women, but it's just a poor substitute for who he'd like to be with. This doesn't convince Buffy, so he reminds her that he has a chip in his head, and that since he got a soul, he dwells on the people he killed before, and would never do it again. Buffy is still not convinced, and tells him that Holden told her Spike sired him. Spike suggests that Holden was lying, that he'd remember if he'd tasted human blood, and . . .
Look, poor Spike really doesn't stand a chance in this scene. It's like getting in a conversation with my cousin's man-hating sister. No matter what logic is placed in front of her, she's always going to sweep it away with either a "You have no idea what you're talking about" or a "That is so typical of a guy to say that." The thing is, Buffy would much rather believe Holden or an evil ghost than her ex-lover, and really wants to believe that Spike is killing again.
I don't know why, but it rewatching this scene and the one that followed it, there is a cold determination in her, despite what those around her say, reminding me a bit of Xander's relentless loathing of Angel in the second and third seasons. It ain't pretty, and if I didn't really like David Fury and Jane Espenson's work, I'd say the fault lies in the writing.
Buffy goes home and Willow uses her handy computer to check if blood-drained corpses have been found. They haven't, but there have been ten disappearances of young women recently (what the Sunnydale police department refers to as "your standard week in November").
Spike, meanwhile, gets a flash of memory about the girl he killed in "Conversations with Dead People." He wants to go out on the town, but Xander won't let him. So Spike knocks Xander out, much to the pain in his noggin, and hits the streets. He goes to the Bronze and asks people if they remember the girl. Up in the rafters, he watches people dance to Aimee Mann, and is joined by an attractive lass who hits on him. When he spurns her advances, she reveals herself as a vampire and tells him he turned her into one.Xander awakens and calls Buffy, telling her Spike is gone. Somehow she knows he went to the Bronze--oh, because for one short season, all Sunnydale had was the Bronze--and goes there. She asks the bouncer at the door if he's seen Spike, and he tells her she ought not to bother with the Billy Idol wannabe, since he's in there every night with a different girl. The bouncer is actually a pretty cool dude, which reminds me that the writers aren't bad at all.
Spike fights the lady vampire, I guess because she wants to kill the people dancing, and eventually he dusts her. Aimee Mann doesn't like vampire towns, but finishes her song. Spike uses a payphone to call someone, which is revealed to be Buffy, but was shot in such a way that we're somewhat doubtful.* He tells her he remembers things and to meet him at a house.
They go in the basement, but Buffy suspects a trap. And I guess we do too. The other Spike is down there, telling Spike that he's going to have to kill Buffy, even though that wasn't next in the order of things to do. Buffy explains that he thinks he killed a bunch of people and buried them here, and then the Other Spike begins to sing an old folk tune. I guess it's Spike's trigger, 'cause he vamps out and attacks Buffy.
All around them, the people Spike killed come out of the ground as vampires, and attack Buffy. She is overpowered, and they hold her for Spike to kill. That's an interesting action, since he doesn't talk to them and none of them (can) talk either. Is it just an instinct to serve their sire rather than feed for themselves? Are they in some kind of thrall of the First Evil too? Can they see the Other Spike?
Regardless, Spike tastes Buffy's blood (she got a cut on her arm), and it reminds him of all he's done in the past episode and snaps him out of it. Buffy pulls away from the new vampires and kills them all.
She turns to Spike, who tells her to stake him for his crimes. Only now does Buffy realise that something has been manipulating Spike the way she and her friends were manipulated, and she has pity on him, taking him back to her place. Her theory is that, whatever evil is in in town, Spike's been around it the most, and may offer useful insights.
Well, Xander and company aren't exactly thrilled with the idea (though Willow doesn't really say much), and I sure miss the good old days of Season Five, when Dawn had some interesting (and sweet) connection with Spike. Too bad that went away, but if I had to write an official reason for the change, I'd say that she's now a lot less naive, and has seen enough nastiness in Spike (and other vampires) to harden her heart toward him.
I do wonder, now that my wondering cap is on, how Dawn took the whole Season 2 Angel/Angelus stuff and if she ever spent any time with him. And if she did, did she know he was a vampire? And how did she find out?
Anyway, the episode ends back in England, where Giles comes to the home of the Watcher who was attacked. He finds the girl dead, and the Watcher near death. "Gather them," the man says, while a black-robed figure sneaks up behind Rupert Giles and swings an axe at the back of his head. The end.
Well, this episode was a long way from satisfying. It wasn't bad, but it brought up questions that weren't answered to my satisfaction (and still haven't been).
I still have a great amount of affection for Spike, and I was pretty moved when I recounted his pleas for Buffy to stake him to my seven year old niece. I am quite a softie, and I can't imagine what my own children would think of me, if they were to exist.
So, next up was "Never Leave Me," written by Drew CLOVERFIELD Goddard. This was the first episode to air in 2003, and would have been blogged a long time ago if somehow blogger didn't have an error and wipe out my entire recap while still claiming to be saving it.
Andrew is talking to the ghost of Warren . . .
We have established that these aren't really the people they appear to be, right? So it's not really Warren or Drusilla or Joyce or Buffy, even though it can sound like them and know things they would know (like lines from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK)? Okay, just clearing that up.
. . . who is encouraging him to do more evil. "Warren" becomes "Jonathan," and explains that his blood wasn't enough to open the seal under the high school. Andrew doesn't want to kill any more people, and is incapable of killing a piglet, but he offers to go buy some pig's blood at the butcher shop.
Back at home, Buffy ties Spike to a chair. This sort of thing seems to happen to him a lot (the only thing that happens to him more often is torture), and I wonder if there was ever any tying when he and Buffy were together. Spike is a lot more vampirish now that he's tasted human blood (and Buffy's, at that), but Willow volunteers to go to the butcher shop and get him some pig's blood to drink. I think you can see where this is going.
Yes, Andrew and Willow bump into each other at the butcher shop, and he is (understandably) quite afraid of her. She takes him back to Buffy's, where Xander and Anya (happy to have something to do this week), tie him to a chair and play good cop/bad cop to find out what he knows. He's not really forthcoming, and I could've stood to see him smacked around a bit more.
Buffy calls in sick at work, then calls Quentin Travers at the Watcher Academy (or whatever you'd call it) in London. I guess she's trying to get in touch with Giles, and as soon as Travers hangs up, we see that he's in a big room filled with Watchers, and they don't know where Giles is. He tells them to prepare themselves for what's to come, gathering all their forces together . . . and then the building they're all in explodes. Damn faulty wiring.
Buffy and Spike have a conversation while she feeds him the blood, and he tells her what he did to get his soul, and why he did it. He explains that, with a soul, he now knows that she was using him last season, and that she hated herself for it. He hates himself for the things he's done, so they have something in common. Also, who is Andrew?
Spike is much more calm and lucid now, but the second Buffy leaves the room, the Other Spike shows up and taunts him. Buffy hears him singing as she comes back in, but Spike is now vicious and breaks through his bonds. Instead of attacking Buffy, though, he Robocops through the wall and grabs Andrew in the next room, and bites him.
Buffy knocks Spike out, rescuing Andrew, and suspects that the song she overheard is Spike's trigger. Something about fruity oaty bars, I didn't quite catch it all.
Spike is chained up in the basement, and he tries to rouse Buffy into staking him, but she tells him she's not giving up on him yet. It's interesting how many second chances she's given Spike versus how many she gave Angel, but I guess with Angel, it was Twoo Wuv, I don't know.
Buffy's house is attacked by the evil dudes in hoods and robes. We see that they have no eyes, or rather, X's sewn, gouged, or grown there. Willow is knocked out, Xander and Dawn fight a couple of them (yeah, Dawn), and Buffy kills several of the hooded dudes.** I guess the invaders were really after their two allies, because when the smoke clears, they've tried to get to Andrew, who is still tied to a chair, and have succeeded in stealing Spike away.
Buffy has seen these guys before, in the episode "Amends," and explains to the others what the First Evil was/is, and pieces begin making sense to them now.
We see Principal Wood acting strange, disposing of Jonathan's body from the school basement. That's where The First's hooded minions (I think I'll just call 'em "hoodies" from now on) take Spike to the seal when Jonathan died. They cut into his flesh, bleeding him onto the seal. Oh, and the First takes the form of Buffy when it does this, 'cause, it's duller, it'll hurt more.
Spike's blood opens up a gateway, and a white-skinned, bat-like savage vampire comes out. According to The First, this is a "real vampire." According to the end credits, this is "The Ubervamp." Uh oh.
Next episode was "Bring on the Night," written by Marti Noxon and Douglas Petrie. I can't quite imagine what the title refers to, but I like it.
I've made this complaint before--and with only a dozen episodes left to go, I hope I don't have to again--but I really could've done without the "Special Guest Star Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles" at the very start of the episode. I know it's probably contractual and all, but they've stopped doing that shite on "Angel," and they cast it aside in one episode of "Buffy" last season. If there's a surprise appearance by someone in the show, please wait until the end titles to reveal that to us. Okay?
So, the group--which at this stage is Buffy, Xander, Willow, Anya, Dawn, and a still-tied Andrew--discuss The First Evil, not really getting anywhere. Joyce appears before Buffy, telling her she needs her rest, and Buffy awakens, having "dreamt" it.
Down under the high school, Spike is still alive (I guess they've never established what bleeding a vampire out completely will do, but it makes some sense that it's not enough to kill them, as Angel spent literally months without eating and only ended up with a skin condition), and is . . . big surprise here . . . being tortured.
I'm reminded of this Fred Dreyer show in the Eighties called "Hunter." I never watched the show, but my friend Rafael was a big fan of it, and he explained that pretty much every season, Hunter's partner DeeDee would get raped. Seriously, poor Stephanie Kramer had it in her contract or something. And they'd even play off that in the ads: "This week, DeeDee is raped again! Will Hunter go to far in bringing the perpetrator to justice?"
I don't suppose you could get away with a show like that anymore.
Well, maybe on the Lifetime Network. Only DeeDee would get raped every week. The Hunter would be the one that did it.
ANYWAY, the Ubervamp is slavering and bestial, and is apparently the Boogeyman, only for vampires. The First stands by and watches the torture, this time choosing Drusilla's form because . . . well, she used to be on the show. Spike's head is repeatedly dunked in the water, and it's not clear what The First wants from him, except to see him suffer for, what? For not killing Buffy when he had the chance? For not losing his mind completely? For joining the other side? Or maybe there's something about Spike that we don't know yet, some reason he is worth torturing but not killing. Hmmm.
Andrew eventually tells the gang what he knows, and leads Buffy to the place under the high school where he and Jonathan dug up the seal. She and Dawn cover it back up, and run into Principal Wood there, who also has a shovel. They both awkwardly explain why they're there, and I guess it's supposed to be comical, but I still can't tell if Wood is a goodie or a baddie.
They don't run into Spike down there, so I don't know where, exactly, the First Evil is hanging out. To find out, Willow casts a locator spell, but ends up getting possessed instead. In the thirty seconds or so that she's out of control, she attacks Buffy, Xander, and Anya, so when she comes back to herself, she is afraid EvilCassie is right, and she can't use magic anymore.
And then, Giles shows up at Buffy's house, apparently quite alive. With him, he's brought three girls, all would-be Slayers (or Potentials, as tyranist--who has seen the final episode--refers to them).
Nobody hugs Giles (guess they saw the opening credits too), and he explains what he knows: the First Evil has been killing all the potential Slayers and has wiped out the Watchers Council, so that no one will be around to replace Buffy (and Faith) when it's her turn. Almost all the Council's records have been destroyed, so we don't know a great deal about The First. It can only appear as one who's died, and seems to have no weaknesses. And only Buffy has even the slightest chance of leading us to victory because none of our abilities or knowledge is even remotely useful or of help so Buffy needs to carry the weight of the world on her little back, and did I mention that nobody hugged Giles?
The potentials don't seem entirely convinced that they're safe there, but the Summers home does become something of a sorority house now, with the girls hanging out together and chattering, braiding hair and having pillow fights, and one of them thinking Willow is peachy-keen.
Buffy talks to Giles about the dead Christmas trees in "Amends," and the two of them go to where that tree lot above the cave where the First was HQ'ed. Sure enough, they find it, and Buffy falls through some wood planks and finds herself face to face with the Ubervamp. This creature begins to thrash her soundly, but she sees an opening and stakes it in the heart. Nothing happens.
Finally, she makes a retreat, climbing up the hole she fell through. Because it's daytime outside, the Ubervamp cannot pursue, and she escapes (guess that's where Spike's being held). She pulls herself out of the hole without assistance, and they know that when sunset comes, the Ubervamp will come for them.
Oh, Buffy still has to go to work, and is worried and exhausted (her mother shows up again to tell her to take a rest, 'cause she's gonna need it), surely in over her head this time.
The First Evil (in the guise of Drusilla) continues to torment Spike, and assures him that the pain will stop if he joins their side. Surely the First has no use for a plain old vampire when it's got the Ubervamp at its side, right? Maybe Spike has some part to play in all this, for good or ill.
So, nightfall approaches and Buffy and Company prepare for an attack. The Potentials are given weapons, and Andrew--still tied to a chair--asks to be untied and armed as well. Giles says that nobody is going to be able to really help, that it's all up to Buffy (didn't he know a really powerful magical redhead once?), and one of the Potentials can't take the pressure, and flees into the rapidly-darkening street.
Something also tells me she probably wouldn't have been the next up to bat after Faith.
Buffy goes after her, but the Ubervamp finds her first. She lasts about as long as Rish Outfield in the bedroom, and after killing her, the Ubervamp turns to Buffy. Our poor heroine is beaten down like a cross-eyed foster child, and only gets a breather when she knocks a bunch of steel beams onto the creature.
It pops up again like . . . well, you in the bedroom, and commences to thrash her again. Finally it throws her through a wall, then goes back to its home to abuse Spike.
Bruised and battered, Buffy goes home, and everyone around her is even more convinced they won't be able to win. Finally, she stands up and tells them that even though this is the worst baddie they've faced, and she's scared and hurt, she's not quitting. Instead, they're going to rally together and attack the enemy themselves. The end.
An enjoyable episode, really.
I did get the impression, though, that these episodes were padded, and rather slow to give us any real plot development. I remember last season on "Angel" that we got three episodes' worth of story in four episodes, but I don't recall it happening on "Buffy" until now. In both cases, once things get going, they REALLY get going, but it would disappoint if you were watching them week to week and not a great deal happened. On DVD, we can at least take in three or four and see some major story movement, and on that note, I'm sorta happy to see them all these years later instead of "live."
Although I mentioned it several times, I feel I have to mention that tyranist stopped the tape time and again, both of us convinced that Giles is not Giles, but is rather a manifestation of the First Evil. It's one of those things where, once you suspect it, you see it in everything, like gayity or religion. The main problem was probably that we had no explanation of how he survived his murder two episodes ago. That, mixed with the fact that no one hugged or touched him (I found it telling that Buffy had to pull herself out of the hole she fell into, when Giles could easily have given her a hand), and they already established that the First could only impersonate people but had no physical presence.*** Of course Giles wasn't dead--after all, if they killed him the BBC couldn't make the six series of "Ripper" we all know and love--but they sure as hell made it look like he was.
Grrr, argggh, it still bothers me.
And with this episode, the dread Kennedy has reared her ugly head. And you know, it wasn't ugly at all. I not only found her attractive, I had absolutely no problem with her character. If my young, idealistic me could see me now . . . I'm sure I'd have at least one knife wound in me today.
The last episode of our little marathon--for I'll give you a confession that all the "Buffy"s I blogged about in the last post were actually from this night--was called "Showtime," written by David "They Got the Mustard Out" Fury.****
A girl--obviously a Potential--arrives at the bus station and is immediately attacked by one of the First's minions. But Buffy appears to rescue her, killing the shite out of the hooded bad guys. All the Potentials have names, but I don't know if I should bother learning them or not (except for Kennedy, of course).
There is one, Molly, who stands out a bit because of her oddly-round face, strong Southern accent, and the fact that her name is Molly. When I mentioned how disturbed I was by the name Molly (there's a creepy child called that on "Deep Space Nine," and another one on "Heroes"), tyranist told me that he nearly named his daughter that, he was so fond of it.
I'm not sure if his little girl would be grateful or disappointed to hear that. Poor Nigella.
Molly is very negative, and encourages the other girls to share their doubts about Buffy's ability to protect them. All the Potentials are worried and inexperienced, except for Kennedy, and I have to wonder: where are the Potentials like Kendra, who was raised up from toddlerhood to carry a stake, know vampire lore, and wear a chastity belt?
And speaking of Kennedy, she has decided that she will sleep with Willow. And by that, I mean share a room with her.
And by that, I mean become her luvah.
Kennedy is pretty excited about Willow's powers (and by "excited," I mean...), trying to get her to demonstrate them, but Willow is still skittish about using magic.
Oh crap. Hey, I looked up the episode just now, and I was totally wrong. The name of the round-faced girl is Eve, not Molly. Molly, it turns out, is one of the Potentials introduced last episode (and is also in this one). Sorry.
Now, do I go back and change all the references to Molly, including my rant on how unsettled I am by that name? Or do I recognise that, had my recaps not been mysteriously wiped-out, that I likely would have just gone about my day, not knowing I had the names wrong until we watched an episode and Molly was in it?
Kids, Molly is really Eve. From this point on.
Andrew whines--even more than usual--that he's learned his lesson and wants to fight at their side. The gang finally unties Andrew, but threaten him with bodily harm if he betrays them.
The Summers basement is turned into a training room, but Eve questions what the point of any of it is, since they're all gonna die anyway.
Giles knows about an oracle they can go to for information about The First and the Ubervamp. He and and Anya go together to speak to the oracle, which (after a lot of steps to get there), ends up being a big bunch of eyes.
The oracle tells them that The First Evil cannot die, but has recently been given way more freedom than it has in the past. The reason for this was that the line of Slayers was disrupted. Disrupted when Buffy was brought back from the dead? Or when . . . she was brought back from the dead?
I believe it was the latter, as Anya feels that what the First is doing is partly her fault. It's an interesting idea, that's for sure.
Willow gets a call about another Potential who has come to town but not checked in, and Buffy and Xander head to the motel where she was staying. They find her, already dead, and discover that she is Eve, the round-faced drawler.
They head back, and reveal Eve to be The First Evil again, who was hanging out with them to find out their weaknesses and bring everyone down. This seems to have worked, as the girls are even more convinced they're dead meat now. Willow, Buffy, and Xander somehow communicate telepathically that they have a plan, but don't let the girls know about it. The telepathy thing is revealed later, very similar to something Joss did in "Astonishing X-men" which kicked so much ass, there's still a hoofprint on my pantaloons.
Spike is still suffering, and the First dispatches the Ubervamp (which actually has a species name--a Turok-Han--that I'm never going to use) to go kill everybody at the Summers place. The First's minions go along as well, surrounding the house.
Buffy hands out weapons, and Willow psyches herself up to use magic. When the Ubervamp smashes through the door, Willow puts a
bubble around him, and everyone runs out the back door. There's fighting with the minions, and before long, the Ubervamp pushes through Willow's magic shield.
Buffy splits off of everyone else (though I don't believe Giles and Anya are back yet) to lure the Ubervamp away, while Xander takes all the girls to a construction site, where immense lifts are set up, almost like risers for a concert or event. The Potentials (and Dawn and Willow) climb up them, but the Ubervamp didn't go after Buffy, but comes into the site like it's just arrived at a Sunday buffet.
Buffy arrives to fight the Ubervamp, and Xander turns lights on so the girls can see what Buffy is doing. Buffy gets severely thrashed, but she just keeps getting up, again and again, tiring the creature until she grabs a cable, wraps it around the Ubervamp's neck, and beheads it. Dust.
Exhausted, Buffy tells the girls that this is what the war against The First will be like: lots of pain, lots of struggle, but in the end, a triumph. "Thus endeth the lesson," she says, which I associate with THE UNTOUCHABLES, but is probably from some old philosopher, like Plato, or Socrates, or Sun Tzu, or Denise Richards. The Potentials begin to hope once again.
Spike, still tied and bloody, has no hope when he sees Buffy arrive in front of him. Only when she cuts his bonds and helps him up, practically carrying him to safety, does he accept that it's really her, that she came for him. The end.
Originally, I had a rant here about how Spike is no longer my favourite character on the show, but I don't think I'll write it again. It certainly has been old hat seeing Spike get tortured like that. I like that some of it was psychological torture, but for the most part, we've seen it again and again, the beatings and the cuttings, and even the swollen eye. He really is the closest thing we've got to the old-fashioned damsel in distress in these episodes, even being rescued by Buffy at the end. But I was glad to see it happen.
Both "Angel" and "Buffy" are doing lengthy arcs right now with a powerful evil stronger than they've ever faced before. And in both series, I'm wondering where Faith is in all this. I've heard people complain about the Potentials showing up in this season and stealing a lot of thunder, and we'll have to see if that's truly the case. The only thing I do know is that I spend way too much time on these things (especially this one), even though we're waiting twice as long between episodes.
I'll work on that.
The first thing, not the second.
Rish Outfield
*Dude, maybe it was directed badly. I don't recognize the guy's name, but I can't see why we would be mislead as to the phone conversation, and then have Buffy in a totally different location than right outside the Bronze, where she was established as being the last time we saw her. Besides, if the bouncer told her Spike came there every night, why wouldn't she have gone in to look for him?
**I guess we can assume that they're not human, 'cause a) Buffy kills them with no compunctions, and b) how could they see to fight with no eyes?
***Despite throwing poor Dawn around her house in "Conversations with Dead People" and breaking windows and running electronics. Hmmm.
****With this, I announce a moratorium on that little nickname. If I introduce him again, it will be as David "Next Up, Who's Gay?" Fury, from his line in "Doctor Horrible."
No comments:
Post a Comment