Y’know…maybe BtVS might work better as a half hour program.
Once again Jane Espenson helps deliver a witty, character driven episode. But with one episode to go, wouldn’t this be a good time to be plot driven?
The episode starts off with a bang (which is how the previous one ended.) Then we have fifteen minutes of excitement.
Followed by a half hour of very well written character scenes that do nothing to move the plot forward, rolling us into a puzzling five minute sequence with a druid woman who appears to serve the same purpose as the Knights of Expositionium from season 5 (come out of nowhere, deliver exposition, and die), and a climactic final act in which Buffy seems to have tons more trouble with one guy than she did with three uber-Vamps forty minutes earlier. I don’t care how amped Caleb was. Either she’s lethal with this thing or she’s not. Either the uber-Vamps are super-dangerous or they’re not. SOMEbody make up their minds.
Was there fun to be had? Sure. Lots. The classic Whedon-esque twists that Espenson has mastered, from Caleb’s “Oh darn” to Dawn’s literal short-circuiting of Buffy’s syrupy farewell plan. Wheelchair fights. Anya’s off-hand pronouncements of doom while her patient keeps saying “WHAT?!”
Plus, I keep waiting for Xander to solve the problem by calling in SHIELD. Or possibly Brenda Starr.
But. No. Urgency.
Look no further than the TV series that follows on another channel. You know the one I mean. “Smallville” is building with a head of steam that’s…well…more powerful than a locomotive. I’m interested to see what happens in next week’s “BtVS.” I can’t WAIT to see what happens in next week’s “Smallville.” And that, kiddies, is the mark of top flight pacing, and that’s what’s been lacking for weeks now. There’s only so much that can be chalked up to UPN’s abominable scheduling. We are exactly one week away from the end, and we STILL DON’T KNOW FOR SURE WHAT THE FIRST EVIL WANTS. To unleash a horde of ubervamps? WHY NOW? The schemes of every other Big Bad in Buffy history has moved on some sort of schedule. Granted, sometimes it was an arbitrary schedule (Glory had a “narrow window” to bleed Dawn. Why? Dunno.) but at least there was something.
Bottom line, by this point there’s always been a ticking clock. Something bringing matters to a head that gives us a real sense of everything coming together. They’ve done it before on BtVS (sometimes it even outspeeds the villains themselves. Remember, the mayor never got to read his whole section on civic pride.) They did it on “Angel.” They’re doing in now on “Smallville.”
And BtVS just kind of meanders to its conclusion.
Good character stuff. Decent in and of itself, and it wouldn’t have bothered me if this episode had aired, I dunno…five weeks ago. As the penultimate episode? Nope.
PAD
• 
What else can I say… I agree…
The wheelchair fights… the actual sexual tension between Andrew and Anya…
But besides those fun parts, and Angel really not acting like Angel of this last season…
It was pretty much useless.
On another note, at least summer is soon to be here, and there will be new episodes of Monk.
Travis
Peter, not to diminish Jane’s contribution to the episode in any way, but ‘End of Days’ was actually co-written by Espenson and Doug Petrie. According to Doug, ‘In the first draft, I took the action, she took the comedy and we split the emotional stuff.’ I’ll leave you to work out which is which.
Having said that, I totally agree with you on the pacing. Take the appearance of a certain old boyfriend for example. Did anybody else notice how the scene just stopped cold at that point? I felt like screaming, ‘Behind you, idiots!’ I’d normally blame the director for that, but considering the Buffy writers are normally on set during production of their respective episodes, they might have to take a little flak too.
I can’t help feeling that the episode was also being affected by events outside of everybody’s control. The aforementioned visit, which probably had to be squeezed into the shooting schedule for a certain spin-off series. And was Faith’s diminshed role part of the script, or the fact that Eliza Duchku had to drop out of the shooting next week’s episode because of her own pilot, thus requiring a bit of last-minute rewriting?
And without being too specific, where did Dawn acquire a certain object that seemed to suddenly come from nowhere? Suggestions on a postcard, please.
Finally, I have to go along with your Buffy/Smallville comparisons, Peter. Watching tonight’s episode, one can’t help feeling that events are coming together so quickly that the characters can’t do much more than react. And the final scene: a voice from the past, a now-familiar musical riff, and that thrilling moment when you read the closing credits and think, ‘Ðámņ, I was right!’
Hope that was sufficiently vague enough to bypass your newly instituted spoiler policy. If it keeps Spoiler Boy and his ill-mannered ilk from ruining people’s enjoyment any further, I’m all for it.
P.S. On a completely unrelated not, did anybody catch tonight’s episode of Lucky? Perfect example of what we were talking about- wit, good characters and dynamite pacing.
You know, Peter, I’m almost glad Buffy is over just so I can stop hearing your whinning about every plot detail. I’m sorry, but can just sit down and enjoy it. I enjoyed this episode, and I saw a lot of plot threads coming together
Really, just please look at the season finale with a little more optimism. It’s too tiring to keep hearing simple nitpicking.
Just to point out, “Jor-El”‘s voice
was done by Terrence Stamp, aka General Zod. Considering that he was the Superman villain most known for ruling things, I’m starting to think it isn’t a coincidence that they chose him.
I just got into Smallville and completely agree that pacing is far superior. I didn’t find the character interaction on Buffy to be well written. It was as if the writers felt a little bad that they had cheated the characters all season so they gave them each a scene to make up for it.
What was cool watching Smallville right after Buffy was that they ended with the same final scene.
This whole season, (and I’m referring to both Buffy and Angel), seems backwards. The first part of the season felt plot-heavy and character-lite. Now the end of the season is too character-heavy? Or is this just the calm before the storm? Again.
Angel really pulled itself together in the last five episodes of the season. I was relieved when they finally simplified things and answered some questions.
This season of Buffy, though, hasn’t been all bad. I only enjoyed maybe three episodes of season six. This season I enjoyed an estimated ten. Probably more. Being the last season of Buffy, it would have been great if every single episode was written by Joss Whedon or Jane Espenson or one of the other greats. Oh well.
BTW, I heard a rumor that Joss Whedon is going to up his involvement on Angel next year. I think he might actually be doing a good chunk of the writing. Really looking forward to that.
Here’s a question: What will happen to the Buffy writers? They can’t all be transferred to Angel, can they? They’ve already got writers over there…
I liked tonight’s ep. Finally, it felt like I was watching old school Buffy, where the characters knew the Apocalypse was just around the corner but still found the time to be fun. I don’t care that the plot hasn’t moved again: it’s pretty much the theme of the season. I’m expecting a major dump of information in Buffy’s final battle with the First and while it’s not in keeping with the other seasons…oh well.
Dawn has become such a good character. Who thought she was gonna taze Xander? Plus, that brings Xander back for the end, where he should be.
Anya and Andrew: wheel chair fight. SO wonderful. The whole freaking season needed more of this.
It was a good episode PAD and you’re just being grumpy. Bad comic writer, bad.
PAD,
I could not agree with you more re: Caleb/Ubervamp inconsistencies. I can’t believe this is the same show I have followed faithfully for seven seasons. After many seasons of metaphor-rich arcs, this season stinks of making-it-up-as-they-go-along. I’m quite over it.
The season began with several intriguing teases of the possible spin-offs to come (Dawn? Willow in England? The Potentials?), but is ending on a notes as sour as the last seasons of X-Files.
The Potentials would have worked for me if they had remained the core group from the initial episodes: five to seven young women we could follow and get to know a bit before some/all were picked off by The First. But all these months later, the only one whose name I know is Kennedy. The Chinese girl apparently was lost in the bomb blast tonight, but, funny, I don’t remember her going to the Vineyard with the girls last week. Who is the perky redhead so prominent these past two weeks? Have we ever even seen her before? And where is the black girl with the attitude who was so vocal about kicking Buffy out of the house? Nowhere to be seen in the following episodes!
I know the financial burdens of so many recurring players, but if the show’s budget could not accomodate so many girls, THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE WRITTEN THEM IN!!!
Other sore points for me:
The Hellmouth acts up, the high school students go nuts and start killing each other. Andrew seals the Hellmouth, and Buffy goes back to work. The school is calm again, but Wood fires Buffy saying she is needed elsewhere. She is paying her mortgage, and presumably feeding aboout 25 teenagers…How?
An episode or two later, the entire town is fleeing because…Gee. I don’t know. The killer high school didn’t clear the town. Rampant vampires and murders never did it. The First didn’t do it. As PAD and others have mentioned, we’ve been told for months about evil but have rarely been shown it.
The sky went dark in LA but NOT in Sunnydale–still trying to figure that out. What was the Big Bad in LA? Clouds?
Andrew: incredibly entertaining, but why is he living with the gang again?
With all the filler in the last months, Anya finds out about Xander being blinded off-camera. Xander is blinded in an excrutiatingly painful way but is up and around–and now driving at night–in, what? a matter of days?
Buffy sees Caleb talking to “her” (The First), yet doesn’t mention this to Faith later? Most of the Potentials are up and around but Faith is bed-ridden?
With only one episode to go, I find it doubtful that we will have any explanation for Giles mysterious behavior or disappearances. And how has he been supporting himself since he left for England? The magic store is long gone.
I will of course be watching next week, but at this point I am more than ready for the show to be over. I wish all the actors well and thank them for years of wonderful performances, but I’m quite sure there is no way one final episode can address all the problems of this past year, and that makes me quite sad.
Paul
I’ll say this much: Even though they slowed everything down, I enjoyed the character bits a whole hëll of a lot. The second act had the best writing this season since “Conversations with Dead People”: Willow and Giles (though her magicphobia came off as kind of silly in light of the massive power expenditures in “Angel”), Andrew and Anya, Buffy/Xander, and especially Buffy/Faith (“Good thing we’re hot chicks with superpowers, huh?”) It was the old-school Buffy writing that has been sorely, sorely missed for about a dozen episodes. Hëll, in the course of two scenes I found myself rooting for Andrew far, far more than I ever had before. Tom Lenk can deliver the good dialogue; he just doesn’t get it very often.
I’m with Peter: pity this wasn’t five episodes back, but at least it’s a great ep on its own.
PAD –
It is your board, nitpick all you want.
Nitpick, Nitpick, Nitpick (after Barney Fife) 🙂
Seriously – I thought the episode was average. As PAD said, some good places and some very nice character scenes and I agree the character scenes needed to be put in last weeks, or even the week before.
Anybody wonder how Willow was able to access the INTERNET? Power’s gone … [I had a ton of stuff written here but then it dawned on me that Willow used a spell – easiest solution]
In the episode when Willow opened the compter and was browsing the INTERNET I felt like Xander..I kept saying, “Um, excuse me (while pointing at the screen) but how is the INTERNET possible.”
It just now hit me – I am a little slow sometimes .
If the FIRST get Spike to turn back evil after all the episodes spent making him good – I will never watch a new Buffy again!
“That Bìŧçh!”
Am I the only one that thinks that next weeks episode not being 2 hours is really lame? I mean, come on, the friggin series has been on for 7 years – It deserves a movie event send off!
If not for Enterprise being on UPN, I would never watch that sorry excuse for a station again – Hëll, there have been so many preview of their new show ‘Platinum’ – That I already hate it and I haven’t even watched it (big season finale – my big ol’ butt – how many episodes has it been? 5?) But I digress.
It just hasn’t seemed like UPN cares about the show that brings in it best ratings.
Don’t forget about the Enterprise double feature tonight -2 episodes (one at 8 and one at 9) — the episode at 9 has T’pol(Blaylock) go into the Pon’Far – should be steamy..
Xyon
“Buffy sees Caleb talking to ‘her’ (The First), yet doesn’t mention this to Faith later?”
No — Buffy couldn’t see the First, as we were to gather from her look of confusion. I think it’s been established that the First appears *to* a person, not as a general hallucination.
Interesting that Buffy’s punches make Caleb stagger around, but Angel’s punch knocks him clear across the tomb. Granted it was a sucker punch but I guess there are advantages to being a “champion”…
“Buffy sees Caleb talking to ‘her’ (The First), yet doesn’t mention this to Faith later?”
No — Buffy couldn’t see the First, as we were to gather from her look of confusion. I think it’s been established that the First appears *to* a person, not as a general hallucination.
Posted by DonBoy @ 05/14/2003 12:39 AM ET
sorry, Donboy. the First did just that very thing when he/she pretended to be that blonde girl that Buffy and Xander later found dead (for real) in that hotel room. tho i do agree that Buffy was puzzled and didn’t see the First at all.
as for her problems with Caleb – hello? he had the First inside of him. of course he should be tougher to take down.
okay, and anyway, the episode was okay – 3 stakes out of 5. loved the scene with Anya and Andrew, both of them. “What?” will forever be burned in my mind (much like another quote from this evening – “She was born? i just assumed she congealed in a sewer somewhere” – from Family Guy tonight.)
the pacing was plodding, Dawn’s tazer was a lame plot device, having yet to see any real remorse for any of the girls was disheartening (not this disenchanted ennui, but actual grieving for a friend lost), having to listen to Willow whine about her powers after she did some major hokus pokus over on Angel was distracting.
but there was Faith, and some of the dialog was cool. and there was Angel, out of character tho he was. did i mention Faith?
and Angel was renewed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“You know, Peter, I’m almost glad Buffy is over just so I can stop hearing your whinning about every plot detail. I’m sorry, but can just sit down and enjoy it. I enjoyed this episode, and I saw a lot of plot threads coming together”
Agreed!
Perhaps a few less plot threads for me, but I was psyched during this episode. I realize that the show isn’t what it used to be – and I accept that. It’s sub-par Buffy compared to Third Season…but, hëll, too bad. At least it isn’t šhìŧ like the final X-Files season. Remember that? The finale made me want to punch myself in the face, it was so bad.
Buffy’s weaker as a show, but it’s making a good last stand. There was alot of “old Buffy” feel to this episode, which helped it alot. I’m really looking forward to next week, as I am _very_ interested in seeing how things play out.
With regard to the power levels of the Uber-Vamps, I see no inconcsistency. The Uber-Vamps are super-dangerous – especially against a scytheless Buffy. Against Buffy with a scythe, however, not so much. Caleb is super-super-dangerous, and even against Buffy with a scythe, he remains super-dangerous.
Now, I agree, this doesn’t quite feel like it was what the writers were going for when they originally introduced the Uber-Vamps, but I think it worked out at least adequately. However, It does contribute to a feeling that they are making it up as they go along, but, then again, the writers always do this on Buffy – they admit as much on the 3rd season DVD set. Sometimes it just works out better than others.
Also, The First does give a bit of an explanation as to what her plan is when she says to Caleb, “When this is all over, and our army springs forth, and our will sweeps the world, I will be able to enter every man, woman, and child on this Earth… Just as I enter you.” So, obviously, a big part of her plan is to remedy her non-corporial problem – and, thus, be able to take over the world. So… maybe not the most novel plan, but it deserves to be stopped. It’s an apocalypse, just like every other season.
Myself, I think what it might be lacking is that this apocalypse is not quite as personal as it has been in the more successful season arcs. I think this was one of the main problems with season four, as well. Last season managed to end on a strong note because the conflict was personal. And the second season (my own favorite season, arc-wise) was the gold standard for personal conflicts for Buffy.
Second season was quite good, as well. I just got into Buffy this past November/December (after previously describing it in words foul enough to make a sailor blush), watching Season2 with my girlfriend on DVD.
Perhaps one of the most sickening scenes in the whole of Buffy as a show was where Angelus left the romantic setting for Giles, and the trail of roses to Jenny Calender’s body, lying in his bed. *shudders*
I can buy a “Scythe matters” Buffy disposing of Ubervamps. I can’t buy Kennedy managing to judo toss one of ’em.
Am I forgetting something from last week, or did Robin Wood just disappear this week for no reason?
Good speech from Anya, too bad they’ve never followed up at all on her plotline from the first part of the season, namely Halfrek being killed in her place but then D’Hoffryn still trying to kill her…once.
Apparently we did finally find out what happened to Miss Kitty Fantastico after several seasons.
Not quite sure why, maybe because I was expecting it to a degree, but Angel’s entrance seemed to me to pale considerably next to Giles’ similar entrance last season. On the other hand, his casual attitude afterwards was cool…even if Buffy suddenly went from not holding her own to winning awful darn quick.
If Buffy’s sending the civilians out of town, shouldn’t they be taking several of the Wannaslays with ’em? At least one, so that if all the rest die, there’s a Slayer left?
And I’m still at least mildly ticked that Xander and Faith have had *zero* interaction this whole arc.
Uhhh… what DID happen to the cat? I missed that.
One bright spot that no one’s mentioned yet:
Buffy arrives just in time to save Kennedy…
yaaaaayy…..gak….
I know I sure would have hated to see Poochie go!
One thing I loved about this ep was the axe.
It’s the same axe that Fray uses in Joss Whedon’s Fray:
That’s a very cool continuity link.
later
don
“Hey, Xander, remember that time that guy shoved his eye into your eye socket? Ahhh ha ha ha ha! Oh man, you totally screamed like a girl. And remember when all that blood and jelly ran down your face like a black river of pure pain? Good times, good times.”
Because, see, it’s funny that Xander lost an eye.
It is.
Funny.
His thumb, I know, he shoved his thumb, shut up, it’s very early.
Y’know what’s funny. In countless interviews over the past couple of years Joss has stated that Buffy WOULDN’T have a proper ending. The series would stop, but the characters lives would continue on without any simplistic resolutions or things being neatly wrapped up in a bow.
And while I could make many complaints about the last two seasons of the show, and while I wouldn’t have made the same decision myself, I do admire the man for sticking to his decision.
I guess people just thought he was lying all those times, in much the same way that people belive he’s lying when he say that Buffy is meant to be watched in 4:3 despite the existance of future-proofed 16X9 versions.
I hate to complain since there is only one episode left but, yeesh, I agree with PAD that as a second-to-the-last ep, it left me oddly wanting.
Whomever is writing these eps (and I don’t pay attention to names) has no idea about pacing or flow. It’s all talk-talk-talk then a brief flurry of action then more talk-talk-talk. Plus, it seems like none of the writers consult with each other because there doesn’t seem to be much ep to ep continuity.
Some assorted thoughts:
1) I find the whole scythe deal to be extremely lame. Its exactly that kind of cliche (finding the ONE weapon that will annihilate all your enemies) which Buffy avoided all these years. If I had to hear Buffy (or Faith) caress the handle and spout “I feel such power in this weapon” one more time…
2)Ditto for the old woman “who watches the watchers.” As Buffy said “how is it that in 7 years we only hear about all this now?” Season finales are supposed to be a wrapping up of all the material that has come before, not introducing new characters and ridiculous super-dandy pickaxes that solve everything.
3) What a ineffectual bomb. It blows with like 6-8 girls standing not 10 feet away…and as far as I could tell, no one dies (raise your hand if you were silently chanting Die Kennedy, Die! during the scene)? Then not one but 2 uber-vamps attack normal girls (the same uv’s that ONE caused tons of death and a slayer barely handled earlier in the season)…they attack a girl and rip her clothes? Maybe to Buffy circa 1994 that is a heinous crime but really. I’m not a gore-fiend but I can’t take enemies seriously when they go from vicious to useless.
4) Buffy and Caleb. How many times are they gonna meet at random? He seems to just show up and beat her up whenever he feels like it. I see he’s still alive next episode (in the ep preview) which begs the question, if he’s down and out at the end of this ep, why doesn’t she just chop his head off?
5) Did I mention yet how BORING the endless blah-blah-blah yapping got. I almost fell asleep listening to Spike’s sappy “Holding You” speech.
6) Although I have to admit the ending sequence was one of those ones to remember. I actually laughed quite a bit at it…I mean, Buff just got done telling Spike she basically loved him and then Angel shows up after like 3 years…and she can’t make kissy-fang with him fast enough. If I was Spike, I’d be royally po’d too.
6) Minor quibble: Angel’s cameo was pretty awesome (even if the I’ll stand here while she fights stuff came across kind of out of character for both) but at the end of his series, when he left for Sunnydale, he was wearing his trademark leather coat..but tonight was he wearing a different jacket?
7) Finally, there were a bunch of good lines tonight. I liked the opening with “by the time you pull” *yank* “Oh”–and Faith’s “were hot chicks with super powers” was funny–and the old lady with “what is your name” “Buffy” “No really.”
Oh well, one more ep to go. Let’s hope they can work that magic (no pun intended) one last time.
Best, Chris
Glad someone mentioned ENTERPRISE.
On the off-chance the formidable and clever Mr. David should choose to write one of his trademark novels in that universe, any chance he can do something about the unbelievable screwup from the Borg episode?
I know trying to fix the innumerable continuity foul-ups arising because of this series is too much to contemplate. Let’s just say it is set in a [distant] parallel universe and be done with.
BUT.
We’ll skip the improbability of 24th century Borg being vulnerable to mere 22nd century incarnations of the weapons they’d already showed immunity to.
What I’d like to know is, how is it, exactly, that Picard & Co in the 24th century were surprised by the Borg and apparently unawares of their existence? Were they absent from Starfleet School when they covered the bit about “Oh, by the way, an earlier Enterprise was invaded by cyborg creatures [see photos attached] in the 22nd century and sent a message to their homeworld which probably means we’ll have them on our doorstep any day now”?
Or is Starfleet’s record-keeping that sloppy?
Peter, not to diminish Jane’s contribution to the episode in any way, but ‘End of Days’ was actually co-written by Espenson and Doug Petrie. According to Doug, ‘In the first draft, I took the action, she took the comedy and we split the emotional stuff.’ I’ll leave you to work out which is which.
I’m reasonably sure I could tell. Espenson has a very distinct style…or at least distinct in that it mirrors Whedon’s. Petrie’s is somewhat more generic. That’s why her stuff stood out and she was the one I was mentioning.
PAD
Guys, I hate being a whiner, but putting a bigtime spoiler detail from last night’s SMALLVILLE in a BUFFY thread might merit it’s own spoiler space. I mean, yes, there is a spoiler warning at the top, but that’s for BUFFY. Who’s to say that anyone reading the thread got through ALL their Tuesday night shows by Wednesday AM, y’know?
I mean, I didn’t get to NYPD BLUE yet, either, so nobody mention how they killed Sipowicz in the first act, please. . .
– T
>>Apparently we did finally find out what happened to Miss Kitty Fantastico after several seasons.<<
>>Uhhh… what DID happen to the cat? I missed that.<<
Just before Xander kidnapped (for lack of a better phrase) Dawn there was mention of a cross-bow incident with poor Miss Kitty Fantastico…
Let’s just say it is set in a [distant] parallel universe and be done with.
Not to get off-topic, but (quickly) I thought it was pretty clear from the pilot episode that ENTERPRISE is not in TREK continuity… and that it’s probably damaging it.
The only reason the NX-01 starts its mission when it did is because 29th Century (post-TREK) time-travellers caused a Klingon to crash on Earth. We don’t know when first contact with the Klingons was “supposed” to happen, but it was a lot worse than the one shown in “Broken Bow.” And then the he NX-01 continued on — which also was probably not “supposed” to happen — merrily wrecking future history with each light year.
It would not surprise me that the “Big Bad” of the Temporal Cold War are agents of the Federation, trying to stop the NX-01 from contaminating its timeline any further.
About the Buffy writers possibly going to Angel or not…
Check out this news item:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/news.asp?newsid=389
It seems Tim Minear is going to be headwriter and showrunner for a new show. I thought he did a fair share of Angel episodes – possibly even the season finale. So, with him gone there is a slot for other writers to fill.
Neil
Something a few mentioned earlier . . . why oh why is it that Dawson’s Crack . . . I mean Dawson’s Creek’s final episode is worthy of a full 2 hours while Buffy has a paltry 60 minutes? Does it take that long to kill someone off from Dawson’s Creek? Is that the reason? Surely, the complexities involved with Buffy warrant more time to summarize. The fact that so many ends may ultimately remain loose should guarantee Buffy some additional time. And that is one of the biggest downsides to this season . . . the fact that those ends may just have to remain loose. I think there’s a part of me that resents the fact that so many new (and many times useless & lame plot devices) characters were introduced this season thereby taking time away from the characters that we have come to know and love over the past 7 years (and yes, I did scrunch up my eyes and ball up my fists with the hope that Kennedy would be a thing of the past after that explosion — maybe she’s the first cause she just won’t up and croak already). It’s like these pseudo characters were bought in to move the plot along instead of the plot doing it for itself.
My brother in law pointed out something I hope you will all agree with. If this coming last episode doesn’t in some way explain Giles’s out-of-character behavior this past season, what a waste it will have been. Why did they keep him around at all? Surely Anthony Head could have been put to more worthwhile uses. The same goes for Willow. I mean, Cordy’s behavior in Angel was ultimately explained. I say equal favor all around.
The oh so many inconsistencies so many pointed out never even occurred to me which in a way just pìššëš me off. Now I feel cheated. But I’ll hold on to faith (not the character — the idea) in the hopes that in his Whedonesque fashion, Joss manages to awe me for a 7th season.
Quibbles and bits:
Xander: He was seriously injured –quite possibly, he should still be bedridden. He would also require followup medical attention by a trained doctor. I can suspend my disbelief if his injury actually *mattered* to the story.
Slayers in Training: I can’t understand the Red Shirt approach to the Potentials. Why couldn’t we just have seven or so, so that their deaths or injuries would *matter*?
Last night’s episode might has well have been titled “More Mostly Boring Conversations with Some About-to-be-Dead People”.
There simply ought to be a law against wasting Eliza Dushku like this, not to mention Anthony Stewart Head (raise your hand if you remember when Giles was a character, not a prop….) and Allyson Hannigan.
We got the info-dump I expected, with Willow and Giles testing the limits of her laptop’s battery and wireless capabilities, and with Buffy herself having a hard time keeping a straight face over the Dame Ex Machina in the Generic Tomb. (Note to writers: when you can’t resist having your characters mention the implausibiliy of a given plot development, chances are the viewers are thinking the same thing. No, having the character mention it doesn’t always make it better….)
Oh, well– at least now we know who watches the Watchers, in the Buffyverse, anyway.
Kennedy lived, somehow, which is a shame, especially because it raises even more questions about the Slayerettes’ abilities. Maybe we’re suppposed to think Faith absorbed the brunt of the (exceedingly lame) explosion? At least we have an answer as to why the Bingers haven’t just been dispatched to blow up the Summers home: they’re lousy at demolitions.
And I’m with PAD and others on the Ubervamp power problem, which was related to the Slayerette power problem this time out. At this point, it’s hard to care, but as with the poor handling of the First, that sure as heck sucks the tension out of any battle scene.
The Anya/Andrew scenes were nice enough, and funny enough, yes, but I couldn’t help feel that they were stealing time from other major characters. At least Anya’s a long-time player. But if there were going to be so precious few of these scenes doled out over the last few episdoes (looking like a worse and worse decision to have introduced all those Slayerettes and Wood), I’d prefer Andrew not get any more of them. His arc reached a kind of conclusion already, but there are major plotlines and development questions left hanging for Willow, Giles, Dawn, Xander, Anya, Spike, and Faith–you know, the major characters through the bulk of the show’s run? I don’t want everything to be summed up (life’s not like that, so series finales shouldn’t be, either), but the screen time needs to be distributed more wisely. There was so much potential in that Willow/Giles scene that just sat there, flat. The poorly paced chickens of the whole season are coming home to roost, unfortunately– they’ve really written themselves into a corner on many of these issues. What’s clear from the Disturbingly Loveable Ditz-Heads scene, though, is that either Andrew or Anya will be dying next week– my money’s on Anya, since the universe is a fundamentally cruel place.
The Spuffy scenes were tolerable for their brevity and the fact that they once again screamed that Dead Boy II is a gonner next time out, no doubt in some noble sacrifice proving his love for her once and for all, even as he knows she can’t fully return it–expect dialogue along exactly these line, in fact. (I don’t care if he’s slated to join the cast of Angel next season: he’s dying nex week and then joining the cast. 🙂 I’d bet a thousand bottles of peroxide on it. And no: I haven’t searched the net for spoilers, ’cause I don’t need to: they cuddled, he said it was the best night of his life, and they’re facing a major battle. Do the emotional math yourselves.)
Man, that Dawny’s got a bag of tricks, doesn’t she? Recover from chloroform in a few minutes, produce a stun gun out of thin air, and drive a car through a high speed u-turn from the passenger seat with an unconscious man in the driver’s seat. Wow. Maybe she should have been a Slayertte after all…..
As to Buffy/Angel–eh. A couple of good lines, but the timing was too reminiscent of Giles’ entrance last year, and much remains to be seen about how they’ll make use of DB. I get the sense there isn’t going to be much more than this, which will raise the usual questions that can only be answered outside the text, as it were. That is, there’s going to be some pretext given for sending away one of your closest allies and most powerful warriors as you face overwhelming odds that’s just going to fall entirely flat, but it’ll all be driven by shooting schedules, actor contract’s, etc. (I’m betting on: “Angel, I need someone around to finish the job if Faith, Willow, Spike, all the Slayettes, this big axe and I can’t. You have to leave…”)
The ME writers have never been very good about not raising questions they can’t give good answers to. (Best example this season is the brief nsertion of the Initiative into the storyline in such a way that implied Buffy could call on them again, leaving us to wonder why she won’t, since they’d surely come in handy against an army of Ubervamps….) Angel pretty much has to show up here, yes, but let’s hope they either use him or get more creative with how they’ll dispatch him.
A lot of emoting all around this week, showing once again how much the show’s become about how the characters feel about each other rather than about the things they’re doing, but there were glimpses of the old days coming through here and there, especially in Buffy’s renewed confidence. As usual, Faith gets the choicest line, and sums up one of the abiding strengths of the series these past few years despite all its problems: at least they are hot chicks with superpowers, and it does take the edge off. 🙂
Miss Kitty Fantastico deserved a better send-off, though, which also sums up a lot.
“You know, Peter, I’m almost glad Buffy is over just so I can stop hearing your whinning about every plot detail. I’m sorry, but can just sit down and enjoy it. I enjoyed this episode, and I saw a lot of plot threads coming together”
Know what the difference between us is? I’m capable of expressing an opinion about the show without feeling the need to bìŧçh out people who disagree.
PAD
SortaTired:The sky went dark in LA but NOT in Sunnydale–still trying to figure that out. What was the Big Bad in LA? Clouds?
Actually, I cheered out loud when the TV news report on Angel said that somehow, the phenomenon was restricted to LA. Given the subject matter, I’m not interested in questioning the physics. I was just thrilled that the writers thought about it.
Sadly, this is what’s been missing from Buffy for a while… (though I’m still hoping against hope that we’re gonna get an explanation for Giles’s recent characterization)
Something a few mentioned earlier . . . why oh why is it that Dawson’s Crack . . . I mean Dawson’s Creek’s final episode is worthy of a full 2 hours while Buffy has a paltry 60 minutes? Does it take that long to kill someone off from Dawson’s Creek?
It does if you want the death to be slow and excruciating…
PAD
Buffy is meant to be watched in 4:3 despite the existance of future-proofed 16X9 versions.
What does that mean?
Uhhh… what DID happen to the cat? I missed that
There was a cat? When, where, how, what??
I thought the episode was good though still a little talk heavy. I liked the Xander and Dawn battle, he chloroforms her, she tasers him, yadda yadda yadda.
Minor spoiler here …
In the previews for next weeks Buffy …
How cool was the White Haired Willow!!
Despite being pìššëd that it’s not a two-hour finale, I can’t wait!
Best part of the episode was the wheel chair fight. Andrew yelps “Ya ya ya ya ya” like a battle cry and they crash into each other while wearing doctors masks like bonnets.
Hahahahahahahahahaha
haha
ha.
why oh why is it that . . . Dawson’s Creek’s final episode is worthy of a full 2 hours while Buffy has a paltry 60 minutes?
It’s not quite as simple as that, MouseGirl. Generally speaking, a two-hour finale is just a two-parter run back-to-back (such as the seasons 2, 3, and 6 finale); the pacing for any two-hour episode will bear that out. The show wouldn’t be contracted for 21 one-hour episodes and one two-hour episodes, it’s contracted for 22 one-hour episodes; if they wanted a two-hour ep, they’d have produced it as such.
In other words, the one-hour finale is a production decision, not a network decision.
Things….
*Enterprise is not in an alternate universe. You can wish it as much as you want, but it’s the same B&B universe that Voyager and TNG are in (since they pretty much disowned DS9). Yes, Starfleet’s records are just that bad that no one remembers the Borg (who conviently don’t mention thier names), or the Ferengi (natch) or Tribbles or…..
Smallville-Sorry…the show is often good, but it’s also rather…bad. Hey look! Someone has learned Clark’s secret. Hey look…they’re dead. Big shock there! Hey, Doc whatshername is snooping around Lex’s place…he already showed her the secret “Something Weird About Clark Room like 3 weeks ago”. Lionel Luthor went from being a smooth operator to being incredibly blatant and ham handed in his dealing with Chloe. Heaven forbid Allison Mack actually get a plot line. (We like her enough to give her some stuff on AOL that no one will watch, but we don’t want her to be important on the show).
*Angel’s apperance. If nothing else, he still needs to hand Buffy the Amulet of Plot Resolution and the folder explaining the past season’s storyline.
Why does everyone hate Kenedy? Frankly, she’s more interesting then most of the characters sludging around Sunnydale these days.
*Ok, Giles wants Willow to use her power…wasn’t he going all John Constantinish a year ago, zapping bolts left and right? Perhaps he should be stepping up to bat, himself.
I thought this was a solid episode overall. I would probably have enjoyed it more if it hadn’t followed so many other slowly-paced episodes. A month or two back, I started counting the unnecessary lines and scenes as I watched each episode. Some episodes have had twenty minutes or so of padding. This episode had maybe a dozen lines (though the direction was a little sluggish). There were a lot of “character” scenes, but they advanced the plot, often changing characters’ relationships, in small or large ways. I also thought this episode had some of the wittiest dialogue we’ve heard in a while.
I was amused, rather than irritated, by Angel’s decision to stay out of the fight, but it reminded me of a much more entertaining scene, involving a fight between Mal and Niska, over on Firefly.
Paraphrase:
ZOE: I think this is something Mal has to do for himself.
MAL: (offscreen, sounding very winded) No, it’s not.
ZOE: Oh. (Entire crew fires at Niska.)
–Daniel M.
P.S. Joss has always shuttled writers–including himself–around Mutant Enemy shows, so I’d expect to see Buffy writers help out on Angel, and on any new shows he might create.
Is the new white-haired Willow supposed to take the place of the recently revealed/deceased other white-haired watcher of the Watchers?
I must have missed it, but how/why did Buffy know to go to the cemetary to find this lost tomb or whatever they called it? I felt like I dozed off for several episodes and was suddenly awakened. And how do you have a lost tomb in a cemetary that is only about a hundred years old? Like in the movie Blade, when the vampires are meeting at their ancient ritual gathering place…a modern concrete bunker-like complex in Los Angeles!
Now I haven’t read Fray, but to me, the axe with the pointy stick on the opposite end doesn’t really seem all that ingenius, powerful, or graceful. I think it looks kind of hokey myself, not really much better than Gunn’s hub cap axe on Angel.
For those of you who still love this show, and are sad to see it go.
http://www.scoopme.com/tv/articles/default.asp?article_id=106220
This article is great.
I don’t know whether this is a SPOILOER or just a really good guess… since I have no actual inside knowledge, I have to say “guess”.
Something just clicked into place for me. Actually, while reading this blog from PAD. PAD thinks the program is just meandering to a conclusion, and we still don’t know what the first wants. Others have said that Buffy was going to die, etc. It occurs to me that the show has told us already what was going to happen, and why the First was here. When? When Giles and Anya went to the demon dimension to see the big Eye. The Eye said that the First was takng advantage of something that occurred because of the Slayer. He never said WHAT. Giles cut him off and speculated that it was because Buffy came back from the dead, and there was now an instability that the First was taking advantage of. Problem: There have been two Slayers since the end of Season One. Remember Kendra? So why is now so special? What’s changed? Well, PAD gave me the answer when he mentioned that Dawn short circuited Buffy’s farewell letter, turns the car around and heads back to Sunnydale.
“I hope she gets killed,” I thought. And then it hit me. That’s the key.
Literally, Dawn is the KEY. SHE’s the one element that is different now. She’s not supposed to exist. She should have been killed by either Glory, or Buffy in order to save the world during Season Five. But Buffy chose to save Dawn’s life and sacrifice her own. And then there was the first episode of this First saga, “Conversations with the Dead”. Joyce appears to Dawn and tells her, “Buffy won’t choose you.”
And finally PAD said: “Bottom line, by this point there’s always been a ticking clock. Something bringing matters to a head that gives us a real sense of everything coming together.”
The ticking clock of course is the end of the series. Guess who arrives with the final piece of the puzzle? Angel.
So my final guess is simply this: Dawn ‘s blood is known to open dimensions. Her blood is what the First needs to open the gates she has been trying to open since this all began. Since Buffy can’t destroy the First, there is only one way she can stop this final apocalypse and seal the Hellmouth forever. Also why she is the last Slayer that Sunnydale will ever need.
Dawn has to die. Next week! Yay!
Don’t forget, tonight on A&E:
http://www.aetv.com/
Biography: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Wednesday, May 14 @ 8pm ET/PT
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Writer Joss Whedon’s story of a high-school cheerleader who battles the undead suffers a lackluster debut as a movie, but resurfaces as a hit TV series. Includes interviews with Whedon and star Sarah Michelle Gellar, who came to the show as a 17-year-old soap-opera actress. TV G
Chris wrote: “Then not one but 2 uber-vamps attack normal girls (the same uv’s that ONE caused tons of death and a slayer barely handled earlier in the season)…they attack a girl and rip her clothes?”
Um, considering the blood covering the uber-vamps mouth before it charged Buffy, my impression was they were ripping the girl apart, not her clothes. Maybe I missed something, but I don’t recall seeing her later.
As for Dawn’s super U-Turn (someone else mentioned this) she clearly stops the car, there’s a few seconds where nothing happens (presumably her replacing Xander in the driver’s seat. It would take longer than that, but it doesn’t make for a very exciting scene) and then the car starts up again and does a U-turn.
“You know, Peter, I’m almost glad Buffy is over just so I can stop hearing your whinning about every plot detail. I’m sorry, but can just sit down and enjoy it. I enjoyed this episode, and I saw a lot of plot threads coming together”
It’s interesting… someone who whines about someone who whines…
why read this page, if you’re going to complain about it?
Peter is giving his opinions… in fact, I think that’s the reason of this whole blog… is so we can discuss his opinions… I think the operative word is discuss.
But if someone comes here just to complain about his opinions… then don’t read the page…
it’s the same as in a talk back at aint-it-cool-news.com where people just write to say how fat harry is.
If you disagree with Peter, fine… if you disagree with me, fine…
but if all you want is to call names, and be blatantly obnoxious about it (I don’t mind subtle obnoxious-ity) stop reading and go somewhere else…
Not that I expect anyone to do what I suggest, and ironically, I’m whining about the whiner who’s whining that PAD whines.
Travis
As to where the writers are going: Someone posted about Tim Minnear (hadn’t heard that). The only other definites I’d heard is that Jane Espenson has — ironically enough — taken a job on GILMORE GIRLS, and that Marti Noxon is creating a new series. I’m assuming most of the rest will join ANGEL.
As to why BUFFY didn’t get a longer-than-normal series finale: Joss didn’t want it. UPN would have given him two hours, but he’s been quoted as saying he was afraid of it becoming a massively bloated mess ala the last episodes of M*A*S*H and SEINFELD. Me, I think he could have used the space, but it’s the big guy’s decision.
As to last night’s episode: loved it. Sorry I’m not as hyper-critical as some. The character bits were more than enough for me, and that was one heck of a cliffhanger.
Admittedly, SMALLVILLE’s got it all in the “sense of urgency” department right now, though…
I hated this episode for so many reasons, mostly because it is so blatantly contrived.
To start, how long does it take Caleb to follow her down to the ax (it’s not a dámņ scythe look up a picture of a Scythe it loos nothing like that. It looks like an AX.) of course he’s never heard of King Arthur so it never occurs to him that the Slayer, for whom the weapon was designed would be able to pull it from it’s secure place.
I also have to say Caleb tipping his hand about him having something of hers? okay but leading her to the location where it is? That’s taking a page form the Dr Evil book of super villainly. That is just stupid.
then we have buffy rescue the SiT’s who give out the line that i think was put in there so SMG doesn’t have a fit. “We were punished for following Faith.” We followed a false god only you can lead us Buffy forgive us we are not worthy. GAG!
then we have some interesting scenes except if you actually try to think about them make little sense. Xander takes Dawn away using chloroform fine except we have this scene where Andrew and Anya talk about how they have no medical supplies, so where did the chloroform come from? And maybe it’s just where I live but most grocery stores at least the larger ones have a section that has medical stuff basic maybe but still stuff they can use.
Any way Xander takes off with dawn and when she wakes up she zaps him with a stun gun? Where in the hëll did that come from? did he hand it to her with the note? and if so why?
I could fix this scene so easily. Instead of cloroform have Xander zap her with the stun gun, as Dawn wakes up he shows it to her and explains he borrowed it from an SiT who brought it with her. he put’s it down on the dashbord or on the seat while he pulls out the note she grabs it boom much better.
As for the sexual tension between anya and andrew yeah it was okay but they’ve made it clear in the subtext that Andrew is gay so I was wondering why they were creating sexual tension there.
In fact I’m still trying to figure out why andrew is around in the first place. The first had the bringers and it had Caleb why did it need Andrew to get the knife for the seal?
But I digress (tm PD)
The Kicker was when Angel showed up in the nick of time to Save Buffy.
The First has had Buffy at it’s mercytwice. once with the UberVamp and once with Caleb in the school and both times they left her alive. Now they finally decide to Kill her and what happens Angel shows up just in time to save hher. How in the hëll did he find her? And how in the hëll did he send Caleb flying with one punch? He’d just been on the reciving end of Buffy’s strongest blows and and was barely moving, and one punch from angel stuns him?
They have lost any sort of ability to be consisitent, I think it stems from Joss, who has said he’ll alter buffy’s stregth level to suit the needs of the story. The writers have gotten lazy because they don’t need to worry about being consistent with the abilities of slayer or anyone else.
I’m glad it’s over because all this bad writing makes me cry for what the show was
In response to the ENTERPRISE issues about record keeping, remember that ENT is about the formation of the Federation, and that StarFleet doesn’t exist yet either. They have the three key races that found the Federation (Humans, Vulcans, Andorians) but that hasn’t occured yet. So think of it as Earth’s records are sloppy, but not StarFleet’s. As for why thaat fell through the cracks, who knows.
Chris
Come on everyone, it’s so OBVIOUS! Next week’s “Buffy” is going to have a tacked-on, final “gotcha” scene a la “St. Elsewhere” and “Newhart.” We’ll see Buffy and Spike get together after defeating the First for a night of passion. In the morning, when he pulls back the covers, Spike will be shocked to discover the Sarah Michelle Gellar has morphed into–Kristy Swanson!!