Buffy and Angel last night [SPOILERS]
Nov. 12th, 2002 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI watched Buffy and Angel last night.
"Conversations with Dead People," on Buffy, was an excellent episode for the following reasons:
And then, there were the other reasons, the
"Spin the Bottle," on Angel, was also quite good. The whole concept of a magic spell gone awry has been used before, but this time regressing all of the characters to their personae at 16 years of age was great fun. I'd missed Season 1 Cordelia Chase; Fred as a conspiracy theorist/stoner works with her modern excitable dimensional-physics self so well; Gunn's just as distrustful and impulse-dominated as he was when we first saw him; Wesley, of course, is an insufferably knowledgeable young Watcher in training (head boy in his class in the Watcher Academy in southern Hampshire, now less); and, who can forget the layabout Liam? (It's particularly interesting how, without any prior knowledge of his actions as Angelus, Liam in vampire mode becomes as evilly playful in his pursuit of Cordelia Chase as Angelus when he pursued Jenny Calendar in Season 2 of Buffy.)
Oh, and have I mentioned how, upon finally recovering her memory, Cordelia ran away from everyone to try to come to terms with the (presumably incredibly evil) things that she remembered?
Combine this with the stated facts that Angel is going to revert to Angelus, and that Faith is going to reappear for eight episodes in Angel and then cross over to the final five episodes of Buffy, and I think that we're going to see a pretty good cross-over. What's acting up beneath the Hellmouth in Sunnydale is also manifesting itself in Los Angeles, and--as the First Evil said as a parting shot to Willow, after cruelly describing what she would have liked Willow's suicide to become (candles lit, the Go-Gos playing, her cradling Tara's photo in her bloody lap)--it appears to be playing for keeps. Oh, and someone's going around killing Slayers-in-Training and assaulting the Watcher's Council.
Joss Whedon had intended that Buffy would last for only five seasons, presumably culminating in Buffy's sacrificing her own life so that her sister could live, but when he learned that it was popular enough to last another two seasons he did so. These last two seasons ran the risk, I think, of becoming as basically superfluous as the final season of Babylon 5 and for the same reasons, though I'm a greater fan of Season 6 than most people. I think we can say, now, that both Buffy and Angel are definitely on track and heading for a very powerful climax in the 2002-2003 season, and I'm definitely riveted.
"Conversations with Dead People," on Buffy, was an excellent episode for the following reasons:
- To have Buffy meet up with her fellow Sunnydale High alumni (the Dartmouth psychology turned vampire was inspired genius. It would figure that sooner or later, she'd meet a vampire who she knew before he'd been sired, or at least could plausibly claim to have known before said siring. And the combination of psychological knowledge with, well, demonic evil works wonderful: People liked The Silence of the Lambs for a reason.
- Dawn acquitted herself quite well, I think, given that a demonic entity of horrible force seemed to be abusing the angelic spirit of her much-loved and late mother. She has guts. Last year Dawn was annoying; but then, last year, she was still recovering from the death of her mother, and the temporary death of her sister who killed herself so that she could live, not to mention the whole package of problems associated with adolescence. She's got guts to do what she did.
- So: Jonathan and Andrew finally come back to Sunnydale, hoping to set things right and join the Scoobies. Oh, and they've been having the prophetic nightmares--"from beneath it devours," or in the mangled Klingonese in which they dream it, "it eats your beginning with your bottom"--too, even in Mexico.
- It was nice to see Cassie Newton's character again, particularly to see her talking to Willow. The two characters would have made good friends had they met in real life. As it was, I'd almost cried when Cassie told Willow that she was Willow's intermediary with Tara, and when Willow wept with joy and sorrow on learning that Tara was with her, watching her.
- The continuity was excellent. Buffy learning that Scott from Season 3 was also one of those relationships that never could have worked out was one; Dawn's willingness to use magic to achieve her specific ends was also good, reminiscent of her Season 5 attempt to resurrect Joyce; Willow's dialogue with Cassie not only referenced the musical episode "Once More With Feeling," but the flat statement that Willow couldn't see Tara again because of the murders and mayhem she committed in Tara's name afterwards fits in quite well with Buffy's self-consistent and rigororous supernatural world. Everything has consequences, everything that happens remains a factor.
And then, there were the other reasons, the
- Dawn, I think, will be rather disturbed by her mother's words to her. Two people I've spoken to believe that the image of Dawn's mother was produced by the First Evil acquitted herself quite well, but I think otherwise given Buffy's tendency to inflict realistic suffering on its major characters. (Hey, they are fighting evil on the Hellmouth, you know.) Buffy will have to choose to go against Dawn. Hmm.
- With Jonathan's blood sacrifice to the mysterious Hellmouth seal by Andrew, at the urging of a spirit who looks mysteriously like Warren, Buffy has now killed off the character who has been on the show longest, right from Season 1 and even the never-aired pilot episode. Ah, what some people will do for love. Blood magic is quite powerful and dangerous in any circumstances, never mind on the seal that bars the mouth of the Hellmouth, so nothing but bad things can come of this.
- Granted that the First Evil is, well, the primordial source of all suffering, it was rather shocking to see just how cruel it was, sending forth the spectre of Cassie Newton to conduct a supposed dialogue with Tara and then trying to manipulate a grief-stricken Willow afraid of her power into committing suicide. I've heard speculation that this scene was where Tara was supposed to actually appear until Amber Benson's agent and the folks of Mutant Enemy couldn't agree, and as much as I like the character of Tara, the choice of Cassie worked. If Tara herself had appeared and taken Cassie's place, the odds of Willow killing herself would have been that much higher. Too, it was good to see Cassie again, and the idea that Willow's rampage kept Tara from manifesting herself fits in well with Buffy. The First Evil must be worried about Willow; myself, I'm rather intruiged by the concept of Dark Phoenix Willow o the side of good.
- Oh. And, last but definitely not least, having Buffy learn that Spike is going around siring vampires through that fellow transformed alumnus is excellent.
"Spin the Bottle," on Angel, was also quite good. The whole concept of a magic spell gone awry has been used before, but this time regressing all of the characters to their personae at 16 years of age was great fun. I'd missed Season 1 Cordelia Chase; Fred as a conspiracy theorist/stoner works with her modern excitable dimensional-physics self so well; Gunn's just as distrustful and impulse-dominated as he was when we first saw him; Wesley, of course, is an insufferably knowledgeable young Watcher in training (head boy in his class in the Watcher Academy in southern Hampshire, now less); and, who can forget the layabout Liam? (It's particularly interesting how, without any prior knowledge of his actions as Angelus, Liam in vampire mode becomes as evilly playful in his pursuit of Cordelia Chase as Angelus when he pursued Jenny Calendar in Season 2 of Buffy.)
Oh, and have I mentioned how, upon finally recovering her memory, Cordelia ran away from everyone to try to come to terms with the (presumably incredibly evil) things that she remembered?
Combine this with the stated facts that Angel is going to revert to Angelus, and that Faith is going to reappear for eight episodes in Angel and then cross over to the final five episodes of Buffy, and I think that we're going to see a pretty good cross-over. What's acting up beneath the Hellmouth in Sunnydale is also manifesting itself in Los Angeles, and--as the First Evil said as a parting shot to Willow, after cruelly describing what she would have liked Willow's suicide to become (candles lit, the Go-Gos playing, her cradling Tara's photo in her bloody lap)--it appears to be playing for keeps. Oh, and someone's going around killing Slayers-in-Training and assaulting the Watcher's Council.
Joss Whedon had intended that Buffy would last for only five seasons, presumably culminating in Buffy's sacrificing her own life so that her sister could live, but when he learned that it was popular enough to last another two seasons he did so. These last two seasons ran the risk, I think, of becoming as basically superfluous as the final season of Babylon 5 and for the same reasons, though I'm a greater fan of Season 6 than most people. I think we can say, now, that both Buffy and Angel are definitely on track and heading for a very powerful climax in the 2002-2003 season, and I'm definitely riveted.
