I Was Made to Love You (Jane Espenson)
This is such a good episode. It makes you care about the demise of a robot and that is some feat. It also has some of the best dialogue, interactions and smart moments that we have seen for a while.
And it’s no coincidence that there are lots of nice Tara moments. I do like the opportunities Tara gets as a character in scenes with people other than Willow: she does a super eye roll after Anya describes her website with its “huge photo” of herself. Tara spots April’s roboticity before the others which is consistent with her spotting Buffy wasn’t herself in “Who Are You?”. Her particularly good intuition doesn’t go any way to excuse the pathetic behaviour of the others in “Intervention”. I’m not sure why she apologises for her “genuine moulded plastic on her ass” line but maybe that’s me. Tara is protective of Dawn when Spike comes to the Magic Box and that reminds me that season 8 has such a cheek making out Willow was like a mother to Dawn. I’m not sure I like her being jealous, though.
There are two giddy scenes with Joyce that are in retrospect quite cruel. Buffy and Dawn teasing her is fun and I love the scene when Joyce teases Buffy: “I left my bra in his car.” “Mother!” “I’m joking.” “Good god, that’s horrible. Don’t do that.” “I left it in the restaurant.” “No more! No more! No more!” “On the dessert cart!” It seems that even joking about sex in BtVS can lead to death.
April throwing Spike through a window is just wonderful particularly since he has been so annoying just before: “You cannot make those suggestions to me. I have a boyfriend”.
Is Warren such an unusual name? He is a totally “creepy little dweeb” though and I think it was a waste of Adam Busch to have him as part of the execrable trio.
The round table discussion in the Magic Box is a superb example of ensemble acting with each actor giving lovely subtle performances. Alyson Hannigan looks with varying emotions at her embarrassing girlfriend and looks discomforted by Xander mentioning Oz. Nick Brendon burbles on as Emma Caulfield looks on proudly at her self control. Amber Benson makes faces as she tries to say that April may be a sexbot (something Xander manages to say). Anthony Head looks amused and Sarah Michelle Gellar looks pained as she contemplates her life.
And later, we are treated to another marvellous ensemble scene when Giles tells Spike in no uncertain terms that “We are not your friends. We are not your way to Buffy. There is no way to Buffy.” – pity it wasn’t true.
The picture quality in two scenes near the end is abysmal: when Xander talks to Buffy about carpentry and she blows Ben off and when Spike asks Warren to build him a Buffybot.
i thought the interaction between w/t at the bar was funny and sweet.
tara says everything by simply raising an eyebrow (and she does that well), willow acting sheepish to ease the situation (as only aly can do).
they seemed very settled as a couple in that scene.
This Espenson-penned episode is a vast improvement over “Triangle,” to say the very least, but I have mixed feelings about it. I do enjoy seeing Tara doing some “spicy talk” (I knew that quotation would be your title for this review) and Giles being bad-ass, but I don’t like Buffy thinking that she needs to change herself and act a certain way to get a man. Yes, that is very much a Buffy response in season one or two or even three, but I would prefer that the writers had shown her as having grown and changed by season five. But as season five goes, this episode does stand out as one of the better ones and holds its own positioned next to “The Body,” undeniably the stand-out episode of the season.
I really like Shonda Farr’s performance as April — she and SMG do an awesome job in April’s “death” scene. Buffy earns some major points with me as she not only keeps a robot company as she “dies” but reassures April of Warren’s affections. When watching that scene in the context of the season, I felt like it had been a long time since Buffy had shown that much compassion to someone. And is it me or does Shonda Farr look not unlike Morena Baccarin? When I saw my first episode of Firefly, I checked IMDb to see if Inara was played by the same actress as April.
I also really like Katrina. She doesn’t get a ton of screen time, but she dumps Warren’s chauvinistic butt and doesn’t take crap from him. Oh my god — a strong female character on a show that’s supposedly about “grrrl power”? Of course she had to die when she came back in season six.
OK, I’m going to try and be brief now:
- Anya & Tara: Huh? Funny stuff, but huh? I need a reason for those two to be just walking somewhere together.
- Everyone being clued in to April’s robot-ness: Since they had already done a “Ted,” I’m glad that they didn’t take a while to reveal that April was a robot. But then no one spots the Buffybot in “Intervention”…. Whatever.
- Hey, Jealousy: I don’t quite buy Tara’s jealousy. but I believe it more than Willow’s “attraction” to April. That scene felt a little forced to me, probably because Alyson had to convey the lezzy attraction with dialogue instead of just, you know, acting. But the writers want to make sure we know that WILLOW IS GAY, OK? SHE’S A LESBIAN. The reason she is attracted to April is her genitals aren’t on the outside. (That was a dorky Wonderfalls reference.)
- Joyce: Sigh. Such nice final scenes for Joyce and Kristine Sutherland looks fab in her date attire. But you wouldn’t wear a bra with that dress.
- Spike through a window: Whoo! Did I mention that I like April?
- Giles threatening Spike: I always enjoy seeing Tony mix a little Ripper with his Giles.
- Warren: Yeah, I don’t think of Warren as that uncommon either. It’s not like his name was Eustace. And is it me or does it seem like Adam Busch’s direction was always “Warren is hurriedly packing” in this episode.
- Willow: Alyson has a couple of nice reaction shots in this episode. First, her reaction to the Oz reference is fantastic — it says, “why did you say that,” “Tara is sitting right here,” and “that wound is still a little raw.” I also really like her reaction to Giles telling Spike to get the hell out. I think she is glad that Giles is being firm with him about Buffy, but she also seems to be getting off on seeing the power he has when he taps into his darker side. Considering Willow’s arc in season six, that element to her reaction is very appropriate.
OK, so I can’t be brief. I tried.
My problem with the jealousy is that I personally don’t get why you can’t say you find someone else attractive just because you are in a relationship. I also have no doubts about the strength of W/T’s relationship and finding the undeniably attractive Shonda Farr aka Morena Baccarin (good call) attractive isn’t really going to threaten it.
Willow and Xander’s cluelessness in “Intervention” is so flipping annoying but, I’ll note it now, Tara only meets Buffybot very briefly in that episode but if she had interacted with her more and didn’t realise then I would have been even more cross.
Agreed. As long as you’re not shagging or snogging (I love those Britishisms) the other person when you’re in a committed relationship I don’t see what the big deal is about finding someone else attractive.
I thought I was the ONLY one who noticed the picture quality. I’ve never seen it mention in any other blogs or episode descriptions. Thank you so for bringing it up, thought maybe I was going crazy.
Fantastic work on the reviews
Thanks for commenting Lauren and for the compliment.