Buffy [12-May-03]

[myrdden]

Plot

Buffy gets a new toy and ummm....not a whole much else happens...


Thoughts (with spoilers)





With there being only...what...ONE episode left I sourt of expected a little more umph to this episode. It has some great dialogue (Andrew and Anya have a great moment together) but the episode lacks any sort of tension - which you would think would be in abundence at this stage.

I'm not sure about the Scythe. It's history his revealed a bit (in a very difficult to believe way. I mean, how many hidden temples are around Sunnydale?) but I think it's not a bad plot device. Buffy and Faith have a nice chat and all but make up. Spike and Buffy have a moment, Buffy and Xander have a moment - it was good dialogue for the most part but really dragged the pace of the episode. Buffy wasn't annoying in this episode, so things are getting better.

With that stated I must confess, the last 15 minutes of the show was a combination of exciting action AND CHEESY ENDINGS! The fight between Caleb and Buffy started off good but deteriorated quickly with the appearance of Angel. I'll leave it at that for those who haven't seen it to make up their own mind, but I thought their reunion was cheesy and lame. Caleb's ending was very anti-climactic too.

Also the abduction of Dawn was handled very clumsy. Xander taking her at Buffy's request made sense, but Dawn's stunning of Xander while he was driving was way off character for her (or is it as some have suggested). Also how do you stun a person in the neck while they are driving and not cause loss of control of the vehicle travelling at highway speeds?

Most of the writers must have moved over to Angel by the time this show hit the production schedule because that can only explain the quality of writing for this episode.

Myrdden

 

[Nightfall]

Or they just enjoy confusing the hell out of people.

 

[uv23]

As usual, gotta agree with myrdden. I hate to come off as complaining about every episode but how can I not when they've just been so bad. No tension at all! That old woman in the temple really didn't say anything - it was a pointless scene. And then Angel's appearance? He was totally scripted wrong. Didn't Angel basically tell Buffy to f-off last time they were on an episode together? Blah. Terrible.

 

[Sirius_Black]

Spoilers may be ahead


Myrdden revealed:

With there being only...what...ONE episode left I sourt of expected a little more umph to this episode. It has some great dialogue (Andrew and Anya have a great moment together) but the episode lacks any sort of tension - which you would think would be in abundence at this stage.

Dead on analysis. The show seems to be going out with a whimper, not a bang.

Buffy and Faith have a nice chat and all but make up. Spike and Buffy have a moment, Buffy and Xander have a moment - it was good dialogue for the most part but really dragged the pace of the episode. Buffy wasn't annoying in this episode, so things are getting better.

There were, as usual, good moments, to a very average at best episode. However, the writing, this episode, and the season itself, seems really uneven. At times I feel as if I'm watching scenes connected together rather than an actual story that should be flowing. Take the Faith scene, they have a somewhat good dialogue together about being a slayer, being a leader, being alone. I really wished they had made a reference to Kendra and Buffy chatting back in Season 2 about being freaks. However, less than five minutes later you get Buffy telling Spike that if she wants mixed signals she has Faith for that. WTF???!!! Did I miss something in the last scene?

With that stated I must confess, the last 15 minutes of the show was a combination of exciting action AND CHEESY ENDINGS! The fight between Caleb and Buffy started off good but deteriorated quickly with the appearance of Angel. I'll leave it at that for those who haven't seen it to make up their own mind, but I thought their reunion was cheesy and lame. Caleb's ending was very anti-climactic too.

An anti-climatic ending to a very anti-climatic character. Buffy has never had a good enemy since the Mayor in Season 3. Maggie Walsh had the most potential. Yet, the First, beautiful idea, bad follow up, has been nothing but very boring. Caleb?

As for the Angel appearance, did he not seem to have some of the worst dialogue ever written for that character? I read somewhere else that people thought it was Angelus at first the way he was talking and acting or John Wayne. "You are so gonna lose partner. I tell you the little lady with the scythe there is gonna open up a can of whoop ass." It's as if the writers of Buffy for this episode, forgot how to write the character of Angel.

Also the abduction of Dawn was handled very clumsy. Xander taking her at Buffy's request made sense, but Dawn's stunning of Xander while he was driving was way off character for her (or is it as some have suggested). Also how do you stun a person in the neck while they are driving and not cause loss of control of the vehicle travelling at highway speeds?

Okay, raise your hands if you actually thought that Dawn was not going to end up back in Sunnydale for the final battle. So basically the scenes with her and Xander are nothing but filler space although it's nice to hear what apparently happened to Ms. Kitty Fantastico is that she too decided death would be better than dealing with Dawn on a daily basis. I can forgive the suspension of disbelief for the car not going off the road. It is a tv show. I cannot forgive a lazy plot device by writers that can do better.

Is Dawn stunning Xander in character? Let's see, it was dangerous, stupid, childish, and unfeeling towards probably the person that has been the most supportive of you outside of your family. Yep, it was in character for Dawn. God, think of all the whining that could have been averted if at the end of Season 5, Buffy had pitched the girl off the tower with a cry of "Welcome to the party pal."

Most of the writers must have moved over to Angel by the time this show hit the production schedule because that can only explain the quality of writing for this episode

Sorry, that excuse will not work. The story had two writers. Doug Petrie (writer-director of “Get It Done” and the hugely underrated “As You Were”) and Jane Espenson (“Same Time, Same Place,” “Conversations With Dead People,” “Sleeper,” “First Date,” “Storyteller”). Ms. Espenson wrote Earshot and Band Candy, two wonderful eps from Season 3. Mr. Petrie wrote Bad Girls and Enemies among other episodes. Thus, both have done much better before.

uv23 said:

Didn't Angel basically tell Buffy to f-off last time they were on an episode together?

Technically, we never saw the last time they were together between the F you moment that I believe you are mentioning in Season 4 in Buffy and Angel, Season 1. The two reunited after Buffy came back from the dead in Season 6. However, since that was off camera, we never heard what took place except Buffy saying I believe it was intense.

Intensity. How I miss it from Buffy these days.

On a final note. Why the hell did they bring Eliza Dushku on the show for five episodes? Besides for the ratings increase for the Faith lovers out there. What has Faith done for most of the time save for taking charge briefly? Granted, the show is crowded these days without even taking into account the potentials that a Principal can go missing and not even be vaguely mentioned. However, it seems such a waste of a good character what they've done with Faith. No wonder this girl went with an as of yet unpicked up Fox pilot instead of a Faith spinoff. Eliza took one look at the writing and thought, "Hmm, even Fox must be better than this."

 

[IceBear]

I have to agree - that didn't even seem like Angel with the dialogue he used and the kiss at the end (though, maybe with the W&H takeover, he is no longer the Angel we know).

Also, a little birdie told me that we'll be seeing more of Caleb.

IceBear

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Technically, we never saw the last time they were together between the F you moment that I believe you are mentioning in Season 4 in Buffy and Angel, Season 1. The two reunited after Buffy came back from the dead in Season 6. However, since that was off camera, we never heard what took place except Buffy saying I believe it was intense.

Actually, that's not quite true. Angel showed up for Buffy's mother's funeral (season 5), and they shared a very nice moment after everyone else had left. I got the feeling they were over the whole "get out of my city" thing at that point. I am kinda pissed that we'll never get to see what happened with the "intense" reunion in season 6.

 

[uv23]

I must have missed a cross-over or two. Still, I'll stick to my guns when I say that it seemed uncharacteristic and poorly scripted. Even if Joss pulls out of it on the next episode, its still bad.

 

[Hand of Evil]

My station was having issues and really could not see/hear much of what was going on!

 

[uv23]

My station was having issues and really could not see/hear much of what was going on!

You really didn't miss much. To recap:
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Buffy is fighting Caleb with her super duper fireman's axe of perpetual fashion +7 (how does she have the time to do her makeup and find a snazzy new glamour outfit before each battle?) and its a pretty even show. Caleb recently got a power up by having some sort of incorporeal demon sex with the First Evil. Caleb knocks down Buffy. Then Angel shows up all GQ and smiley and gives Caleb a little tap that for some reason knocks him off his feet for a minute. He then churns out some cheesy line about how much he missed watching Buffy fight. Then Buffy recovers her fireman's axe and chops into Caleb, presumably wounding him mortally. Then Angel and Buffy make out, the camera pans to Spike watchign from around the corner, accompanied by the First. The First says "what a bitch" or something equally profound and thats that.

 

[DanMcS]

So, why is that wierd axe/sword thing referred to as a scythe? A scythe is a farming implement, and looks very little like that thing. That thing looks like something a bad comic-book artist would come up with as "this ultimate weapon, dude". This is appropriate, since it comes from the slayer comic that whedon does, I guess.

After the previous episode, where Buffy finally realized she didn't always have to hit things harder to win, and defeated Caleb by being passive, I was really pleased. Maybe the writers would even come up with a non-smash-with-hammer method for her to deal with the First. Alas, then she got the lame weapon and became more powerful than Caleb, and reverted to smash-with-hammer mode; there were hints that the First wants to take physical form, too. So it will, and will probably look like Buffy, and the final battle will be Buffy smashing Buffy and whoever hits harder wins. Sigh. What a disappointing way to defeat the spirit of all that is evil in the world.