“Horsies!” cries Tara as she looks out of the window of the Winnebago. She may have actually seen a shark and a ramp. I use the word may because BtVS does recover from this but it did colour my first viewing of the rest of season five to the detriment of “The Gift”. After the episode in which a bad thing happens to Tara in both seasons five and six, there are one too many episodes (ahem): Dark Willow goes on and on and on while this one shouts out “filler!”
The most interesting thing in this episode is Buffy’s increasing depression. Her final reaction when she realises the implication of failing to keep her promise to Dawn is understandably one of devastation.
There is a certain enjoyment in Glory being hit by a truck.
Anya has been amazingly bad lines in this: “We should drop a piano on her. Well, it always works for that creepy cartoon rabbit when he’s running from that nice man with the speech impediment.” (yeah, yeah, yeah, rabbit reference, blah, blah but it isn’t funny) and “Shouldn’t somebody be asking, “Are we there yet?” No wonder Xander looks sick. Xander spends his time in the Winnebago (is it actually a Winnebago?) looking queasy and doing no fighting whatsoever and that seems a rotten thing to do to his character.
I don’t like having a female minion suddenly turn up. It could have been a lot of fun having the male ones not fawning for a change.
Buffy justifies Spike’s presence by saying that “If Glory finds us, he’s the only one besides me that has any chance of protecting Dawn.” which is rather insulting to the be-flannelled one sitting right behind her.
What were they thinking when they introduced the Knights? The idea of them is so naff and awkward and boring and stupid. The clerics hilariously reminded me of the priests in Age of Empires.
It pains me to diss two things I love but Tara in “Spiral” is as annoying as this Tara. Cats get more affectionate as they get older which is bit worrisome.
“Don’t hit the horsies!” cries Willow as if she likes them or something. Perhaps, off screen, Tara had indeed guaranteed “safety and fun”.
Sorry, it’s nitpick city here. However, in “Go Fish” a soaking wet Buffy managed to leap out of a pool and get out of hatch while here she needs Xander’s help to get onto the roof of the RV.
I do like seeing Dawn administering to Spike. That does seem like something she would do. I also like Xander being nice to Spike but also managing to pocket his lighter.
In a scene reminiscent of a rotten scene in Serenity, Giles gets impaled, though rather less convincingly (just watch it bounce).
The whole Ben will he?, won’t he?, thing just didn’t work because Charlie Weber is not a subtle enough actor. It was a relief when Glory turned up.
I don’t think the USA were going to win anyway but this second card for Boxx certainly ended any chances of them beating Brazil. What made me cry (yes, cry) was Cristiane’s behaviour. She must have known that she wasn’t fouled but that didn’t prevent her from holding up two fingers to indicate a supposed second offence and then celebrating. Celebrating! Well, that says goodbye to the sexist nonsense that women footballers are more sporting than the men.
I am lucky that sometimes I get to watch things at work that some people watch for pleasure. Working through a compilation of pop songs taken from various programmes of the 60s, 70s and 80s, it was with great delight that I came across this gem. I vaguely knew the song but it was this delightful, albeit lip-synced, rendition that made me go wow!
Reparata & the Delrons were never really famous like the Shangri-Las and this wasn’t even a hit in the USA but it was a top twenty success over here in 1968. 1968! It sounds more like a song from the late 70s.
It was sampled by Betty Boo for her pop classic from 1990, “Doin’ the Do“. Watch out for the superb use of the “you’re” from the line “You’re going to lose a good thing”.
Tara and Willow need to have a fight so that Glory can suck Tara’s brain to force the season finale and, of course, bring out pissed off magical Willow.
So they have Willow behave badly again and in a most unsatisfying way.
The fight between Willow and Tara just confuses the heck out of me. It makes no sense and while I appreciate that in real life arguments can leap all over the place and aren’t necessarily logical. However, this isn’t real life but a carefully crafted script and it doesn’t add up without Willow appearing to be looking for a fight just because she feels inadequate, insecure and left out.
She starts off whinging about not having the experience that Tara has accumulated (as if that is well placed jealousy). Tara points out that in terms of magical ability Willow has surpassed her. She says “it frightens me how powerful you’re getting” and at this point Willow is justly allowed to be a little miffed by that phrase. Tara tries to defuse the situation but Willow attacks by asking if she trusts her. Tara says yes but admits that she feels inadequate herself because she doesn’t know what direction Willow is taking. Willow completing loses my sympathy when she then completely changes tack and asks if Tara is accusing her of experimentation. When she directly asks Tara if she thinks that, Tara is obliged to answer with “should I?” because Willow is the one that suggested it, not Tara. Willow then completes her me, me, me moment and walks out complaining of not being taken “seriously”.
I hate that scene so much.
In other news: Buffy drops out, Glory takes a bath, Anya embraces capitalism, Buffy and Giles have a lovely scene when she tries to evade responsibility which leads to a less lovely scene when she is mean to Dawnie and the human triangles, Giles goes all Ripper (but off screen), and Tara is seen holding hands with another woman.
Anya has a couple of lines in the hospital which marks the start of a period when she was given the most crass lines to say: “I don’t think I can sleep without her.” “You can sleep with me…well, now that came out a lot more lesbian than it sounded in my head.” - a lead balloon.
This is so awful because it is so wrong, unfair and selfish: “When, Buffy? When is? When you feel like it? When it’s someone you love as much as I love Tara? When it’s Dawn, is that it?”
“I owe you pain!” - great line but the first time I saw black-eyed floating Willow I laughed.
Glory has some good lines: “Now, I asked for the key, and you brought me a vampire. A pulseless, impure, follicly-fried vampire. Loofah!”, “Did anybody order an apocalypse?”, “Fine. Let’s get crazy.”, “Now, sucking on your girlfriend’s mind? That was something to treasure.”
The minions get good ones too: “I am in thunderous agreement, oh glittering, glistening Glorificus.” and “Begging your pardon, and begging in general, but…”
And here are Tara’s: “They kill mice.”, “Plastic and their six sisters. Six sick sisters.” and, naturally, “Oh, it’s so pure! Such pure green energy!”
In order for this episode to work you just have to accept that Willow and Xander are the worst friends ever. They can’t tell that Buffy is a robot? That’s sad but having said that, it still manages to be very funny with a great ending.
Buffy goes on a quest to find her humanity which leads to the same patch of desert as seen in Restless, Giles shaking a gourd and Buffy’s rather sad sounding, “and that’s what it’s all about”.
I love the line “Weird love’s better than no love” and then the cut to Spike and Warren. Weird love may sum up the rest of BtVS. (And yes, Warren is packing.)
SMG is so good as Buffybot that I remember thinking she must have been having a quiet time this episode because she wasn’t in many scenes…
That is one domesticated looking cougar: it has a belly like Wash. Not that one.
I love how Emma Caulfield delivers these lines in this episode: “So really it was only bad for the falsely accused, and, well, they never have a good time” and “Buffy’s boinking Spike”. The Anya love comes to a screeching halt in Tough Love.
Tara and Willow are intimate on the sofa but then, oh dear koalas, and the great leap sideways. “Oh, well, Tara’s right. Grief can be powerful, and we shouldn’t judge…” “What are you, kidding? She’s nuts!”
We really, really, really could have done without the blow-job.
“Buffy, there is something seriously wrong here.” Yes, your total inability to work out your friend is not your friend, Willow.
One of my favourite lines: “Angel’s lame. His hair grows straight up, and he’s bloody stupid.”
Spike being tortured is horrible.
Anya asks “shouldn’t we have guns?”.
When they send Buffy upstairs to change (which she doesn’t), I thought this was the point that the Scoobies were going to crack their extremely puzzling conundrum but, no, they continue to be extremely stupid instead. However, we would been deprived of “The who whatting how with huh?” and “Spike is strong and mysterious and sort of compact but well muscled.” “I am not having sex with Spike! But I’m starting to think that you might be.”
The final scene is one of the best (even though Spike looks gross) with some fine acting. “What you did, for me, and Dawn, that was real. I won’t forget it.”
Willow’s behaviour is outrageous but in character. Someone is in pain and she wants to fix it for them. Or at least help. What she doesn’t consider is the consequences. The divide between Willow and Tara is stark and sets up their estrangement.
“This is different. Magic can’t be used to alter the natural order of things.” “But all you do is mess with the natural order of things. You, you make things float, and disappear, and…” “But we don’t mess with life and death. Dawn, I know how bad you hurt.” “You don’t. They put her in the ground.” “They did, and it’s awful and unfair, but this isn’t the way.” “I’m not even sure it’s possible, Dawn. I mean, I’ve seen things on resurrection, but there’s books and stuff. But I guess, the spells, backfire?” “That’s not the point.” “That’s not the point. The, the point is it’s bad, because…” “Because witches can’t be allowed to alter the fabric of life for selfish reasons. Wiccans took an oath a long time ago to honour that.”
Willow just doesn’t see it like Tara does. She is dangerous.
The first half of this episode makes sense but the second half doesn’t. Dawn steals the books ridiculously easy. My biggest problem is that I don’t get why Spike helps Dawn to resurrect her mother. The explanation he gives isn’t good enough: “I just don’t like to see Summers women take it so hard on the chin, is all.” Not only does it seem stupid of him, it also leads to one of the poorest fighting monsters somewhere underground scenes in a long time.
Ben’s pathetic attempt at murdering Jinx is also an extremely weak plot point. There must have been a better way of revealing the key is human to Glory.
There is also a terrible scene between Willow and Tara which may be badly written or directed or edited or all three. Willow is behaving so obviously guilty that Tara’s apparent inability to pick up on this seems bizarre. It feels like Alyson Hannigan was reading one draft while Amber Benson was reading another and it was cut together.
The Monkey’s Paw ending is creepy and moving. And I do like that when it comes down to the knock at the door, Buffy does want it to be her mother.
