Halting Hex

So I put up one of Robert Kemp's "BtVS reactors reacting" compilations for a different episode, but the YouTube algorithm was like "Come on, you sick bastard, you know you want to see people cry!" and offered me this compilation as well. Aaagh! No Alley Box, though. Which is probably for the best, tbh. (If you've seen it, you know. That was a lot of crying.)

A new reactor (already forgot his name) doesn't have much to add, IMO, but he does note that students at Hellmouth High are much nicer than the kids at his school were, as they would have knocked Xander right off of his skateboard here. Ouch!

In memoriam: Much of a muchness, but still cute.

And, of course, the Bangel-on-a-Beach dream sequence ends with.a hard cut to Buffy looking out. the window of her Skid Row apartment, so we hardly need that again right after the Obnoxiously Long Tracking Shot. We literally just learned that BUFFY IS ALONE one scene ago. Even the intervening Opening Titles and commercial break shouldn't have caused a memory lapse. (All the moreso considering that many people are watching this without the ads intruding.) I grant you, it would be funny if Joss ended every scene with a cut to Buffy sitting alone, but that wouldn't allow for much development in the a-plot, so it's best he skipped that idea.

Not to keep beating the horse, but… Now this is a rather obscure riff on the divisions of Judaism so this indicates that not only does Willow talk about everything when she's around Buffy, but Buffy remembers all the details. Which is a bit of a change from Buffy's having difficulty remembering the names of mystical stuff that Giles tells her every day. But clearly, when it comes to Willow, Buffy puts on her "big ears" and really listens…which makes this episode's "Willow who?" conclusion even more annoying. Speaking of: I get that you're ticked, Joyce. But your daughter's best friend, who spent her whole night showing you around and whom you know doesn't have her parents at the event, is standing right there. You could at least offer her a ride. It's common courtesy. (Yes, Willow lives rather near the school, with her walking to her place or Xander's on multiple occasions [OoM, OoS; Prophecy Girl], but it is night. And that probably means you can drop her off on the way home. Some basic manners, if you don't mind.) Remember, Willow waved you off from drinking Buffy's "lemonade"! That's worth a lift, I'd say. Yeah, I'm not really sure I buy "stay here, Mom, while I climb through the ceiling tiles", either. (Is Marcie's stuff still up there? Maybe Buffy can take a break and chill for a bit in her lair.) Yeah, I don't feel inclined to take Spike's word, generally…but his later "I'm surrounded by idiots" to Angel definitely had a ring of truth, I'll allow.

And, on FUSE at 11.00 AM today, Real Me. (And then 5.03-5.08, all the way through to Shadow. The Body airs there at 1.00 PM on Monday.) (For benefit of anybody reading these in the future, this is right after Michelle Trachtenberg's death.)

Michelle looking stunning at the Killing Kennedy premiere in LA in 2013, being quite professional and ignoring that Unidentified* Blonde Girl who is totally checking her out! [/Buffy] (*-Not "unidentified" for lack of effort, believe me. She isn't in the cast; must be somebody's date. But was apparently looking to trade up, lol.) Sad thought, when James wrote that song about how Michelle was "Dangerous" to him because she was either 15 or 16 and he could get in trouble if he acted on his thoughts, he was 39. 23 years later, and Michelle will go no farther. She's never be as old as Giles was in Season 1. You thought losing Joyce at age 43 (per her tombstone in The Weight of the World) was rough on the Dawnster? Well, Michelle will never get to be 43. 😢 ETA: Entertainment Tonight profile of Michelle (age 10) on the set of Harriet the Spy in 1996:

Well…

It's really amazing how all the youngin's get alerts on their phones and such. I could easily have gone DAYS without knowing if I hadn't checked in here and seen lemberg's post in the Calendar thread. RIP, Michelle. (I guess the producers of 17 Again are really hoping that Zac Efron takes care of himself, now that Michelle and Matthew "27 shots of Ketamine" Perry are unavailable for "Anniversary Edition" promotions and the like.) Dawn was "The Key", the personification of energy that could open dimensional portals, to devastating effect. (From memory, which I'm rather proud of. Unless I'm wrong.)

WHAT????????????????????????????? Noooooooooooo!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 How? What? How? Sarah must be devastated. First Shannen, now this. (Okay, Shannen was 8 months ago. But still.) Off to read the news. Only 39. JFC. ETA: Drugs, I guess. Damn it, it's too soon for this sort of shit. (And everybody who had Nick in the Death Pool can suck it.) I mean, too bad about Angelo Spizzirri or whomever, but this is way too soon to be losing main cast!

Jay (still recovering from the loss of Jenny) covered this one and he actually called out (as Buffy headed towards the basement for the climax) "Angel's going to be down there!". Which Angel isn't, of course (he's still home moping after Xander stared him down in Act II), but it's nice to know that somebody else realizes that the episode needed one more Angel scene. I can always use more validation, lol. And then we get the sudden climax, as Buffy snaps Der Kindestod's neck. Decried at the time (I think it was the SunS who said they didn't need to see another neck-snap so soon after Jenny), but I got to thinking…perhaps this is Buffy's way of getting a measure of revenge on Angel? Does she imagine she's snapping his neck, to pay him back for Jenny? I mean, for an inventoried script, there do seem to be some subtle nods to continuity, whether it's Buffy patrolling to the point where her immune system collapses, her need to affirm to Ryan that "there's also real heroes that fight monsters. And that's me". And you also have Giles wanting to slack off of research and saying that Buffy might be imagining things "After Jenny…" And then you have that "Previously…" that I only saw recently, where all we see of Jenny's death is the neck-snap (no Angel dialogue) and then we cut to Buffy at Jenny's grave saying "I'm sorry I couldn't kill him before…for her. For you. But I think I'm finally ready now." So you have an episode where the "Previously…" (and remember, those are the show's editing choices) states that Buffy is determined to kill Angel, and knows about the neck-snap…and then the episode ends with Buffy snapping the monster's neck and staring down at his corpse (which Xander can't even see)…so I do think that Joss (who did a lot of uncredited rewriting here) intended us to see the resonances. Even if it's taken me 23+ years and dozens of viewings to catch on.

So I'd never heard of Netflix's Virgin River until one of the actors (Benjamin Hollingsworth) turned up in that celebrity/NHL alumni charity hockey game yesterday. But, checking him out, I discovered that the show has been going for 6 seasons already (and is renewed for Season 7) and that the lead actress is this familiar face: Yes, Alexandra Breckenridge, star of the whole Kit and caboodle. Also in the cast is Annette O'Toole, known for playing Lana Lang in Superman 3 and Ma Kent on Smallville. I wouldn't think this is a likely series for a crossover appearance by the Man of Steel, but you never know, I guess. O'Toole did not attend the hockey game to support Hollingsworth. Perhaps if she'd known there was another former castmate playing. she might have, though. Since Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville's Lex Luthor) not only laced up his skates, but used that Super-Brain of Lex's to get on a line with Mark Messier and Theo Fleury and, as a result, scored two goals. Rosenbaum must have been thinking "I can take any Luthor in the house! Bring on Jesse Eisenberg! Bring on Kevin Spacey!", lol. David Boreanaz was at the game, but did not skate.

And once more, with redundancy! i.e., I did the whole thing in tabular form during my comment on that vid, and I might as well save it. Sigh. And of course, the progress of our new villain: Spike laughs at the Anointed and his crew. Willow wants to hide because Spike is scaaaary. Angel shows up and talks about how tough Spike is. Giles does research and agrees…Spike is one bad-ass motherfucker! …but not, it eventuates, a bad-ass motherkiller, since Spike, the Slayer of Slayers, ends up running away from Joyce. As the Bible says, "no one can serve two masters". This can either be the "Spike is so awesome and scary!" episode, or the "Joyce is pretty much Slayer material, go Mom!" episode… …but it can't be both. Sigh.

You know, thinking about this some more, much as I enjoy Tyler's snark, the larger issue is that Angel has decided the best way to reestablish communication with Buffy (after months apart) is to pop into her bedroom while she's in bed, trying to sleep. I mean, come on, dude! Yes, yes, the Anointed is gathering forces, very important. But surely there's a better way to get in touch? Check to see if Buffy's in the cemetery. Hang out at the Bronze, see if she shows. Call Giles, give him the news, and ask if he knows where would be a good time to meet Buffy. Hell, use those handy electrical tunnels (as in Out of Mind, Out of Sight) and just pop into the Library, read a few books, and wait for Buffy to get done with her classes. Seriously, your first attempt should be something a little more discreet than "I'll see you in your bedroom, sweetie! Wear the good pyjamas, okay?' Down, boy!

So "Katey" (still not sure that's her actual name), my newest reactor, got here, and I went into shaking-with-rage mode and wrote possibly my Longest Screed Ever about how badly this one sucks. Yikes! But I did include some new content, specifically about Prophecy Girl which was, recall, a mere three episodes ago. Three episodes ago, Buffy died for Willow. Now Buffy doesn't even realize Willow is missing (even though she seemed worried when she tells Giles she lost track of Willow and Cordelia, earlier on.) Three episodes ago, Xander had to bring Buffy back to life. Now he's more interested in Angel and Spike's shared past, rather than checking to see if Buffy needs some more CPR. (Not to mention the whole "If they hurt Willow, I'll kill you" and "I'm not going anywhere until I know that Buffy and Willow are safe" bits, more recently.) Three episodes ago, Joyce was shaken to see the news report about Willow finding the dead bodies. Now she tells Buffy how proud she is that Buffy "thinks of others in a crisis" without noticing the extreme lack-of-Willow (who just spent hours showing Joyce around the school). I know that Jews are often treated as second-class citizens, but you'd think Willow might at least qualify as "others" if nothing more. I mean, boys will be bois, but still… *************** Hey, remember how director John T. Kretchmer got himself fired by being too lazy to do all the blocking in Act 4 that the script indicated, such as how he had Spike take a mere two steps in chasing Xander and Angel (after the "brilliant" Get-Spike-to-Bite-Xander plan fails) before he pulls up short, sensing Buffy, and how this means that Buffy was apparently watching the whole "let's bite Xander!" scene, which makes no sense? Well, forget Buffy for a minute…if Spike can sense Buffy after taking like two steps, then how come he didn't sense Buffy earlier?? That's some mighty-specific Slayer-sensing sense Spike's got! I mean, FFS.