“Selfless” (Drew Goddard)
This is another excellent episode. It focused on Anya and I think it must be the first one to do so. She had to wait a long time since her first appearance in “The Wish”.
I was snorting with derision when Buffy announced that she had to kill Anya. “Just like all those times she should have killed Spike,” I sneered. However, by the time she had reminded Xander that she did actually kill Angel, she had convinced me.
While she was reminding Xander of that she also mentioned that he and Willow had been rather unsupportive at the time (“Do you remember cheering me on? Both of you. Do you remember giving me Willow’s message: kick his ass.”) Not many other shows would reference something that happened four and a half years of broadcast time ago so casually. The scene wouldn’t really work at all if you didn’t know anything of Buffy’s relationship with Angel. I felt a bit sorry for Willow. She barely got to defend herself and Buffy had bottled it up for years.
Anyway, moving back to Anya, Emma Caulfield is marvellous again. She gets to be comedy Swedish, anguished vengeance demon, hardened vengeance demon, singing human, resigned and weary demon, and sad lonely human. And she gets to kiss a bunny.
There was a lot of Willow to like, except for grimly angry Willow (Alyson Hannigan just cannot sell that to me), particularly chilling was the way she turned on the terrified woman as she used magic to prevent a spider attack.
I am very sad to see Hallie go although a consequence of that is getting fannish about D’Hoffyn’s remark to Anya and from beneath her, it devours.
Even Spike’s scene didn’t bother me. It was alleviating to see an actual manifestation of his visions (that we think are his visions anyway) in the form of soft-spoken, white-wearing Buffy. [Who, by the way, has been wearing some horrible trousers this season. Were they the fashion back in the day? All the way to 2002!]
“I am Aud.” Best line of the show, perfectly delivered. Best visual of the eppy was the sight of Buffy balancing a pot of pencils on her head.
The fight between Buffy and Anya was pretty good but, I’ll say it again, nothing matches a Buffy/Faith dust-up.
Bold statement: all in all, this was an episode up there with the best. Actually, not that bold, after all.
I appreciated when Buffy was willing not to kill Anya if they could find an alternative way, but was determined to do what she had to do either way.
Xander’s turning into an actual puffy Xander here…
He must be eating the food that the women aren’t.
Tell me about it!
Great recap as always. This is such a great episode. Btw, you tagged it as S8, just letting you know.
Thanks for spotting that Danie and thanks for commenting.
“Selfless” is probably my favorite episode of season seven, despite the heavy-handedness of some of the flashbacks. (“Vengeance is what I do, Halfrek. I don’t need anything else. Vengeance is what I am.”) I have issues with flashbacks. Emma Caulfield is simply phenomenal in this episode. Much like “Tabula Rasa” did in Tara’s case, “Selfless” made me realize how much I’d come to care about Anya.
The Aud segments are delightful, and I love the sepia-toned, grainy treatment they gave to the film. I’m of two minds about the “Once More With Feeling” flashback. Of course, I love that Emma Caulfield had the opportunity to show off her surprisingly wonderful singing and dancing skills, but I also don’t think that the song is as good as the ones from OMWF. I don’t think it was the greatest call to try to recapture the greatness of one of the signature Buffy episodes. Though I admit I do rather like the cut from Anya singing to her being stabbed through the chest with a sword. (“Sword” is a funny word.)
I really like the argument between Buffy, Xander, and Willow about killing Anya. You have no idea how fulfilling it was for me when Xander’s false message to Buffy in “Becoming, Part 2″ was FINALLY brought up. Though I did feel gypped that Willow didn’t get to defend herself, that really wasn’t the point of the scene. I really like Alyson Hannigan’s body language throughout the scene, and how she stays seated and slightly removed from the conversation because she knows it’s not her place to criticize Anya due to the events of “Two to Go” through “Grave.” But then she protests when Xander refers to her and says, “When our friends go all crazy and start killing people, we help them,” and I’m angry at the writers again for being too glib about serious matters. But all in all, an interesting, well-acted scene and, indeed, episode.