Halting Hex

Heh, and to think that Benbo will in fact get rather violent with Spike three episodes hence. Or rather, his "sister" will.

My favorite unspoiled podcaster likes this episode, but just doesn't understand why the Scoobs think they have to let Spike hang around with them. "Why don't they just tell him to get lost?" he asks. His spoiled partner says that Spike is too dangerous to be walking around free…but I think we can all see the flaw there, then. There's just no narrative reason to have Spike in the show, and either he's too dangerous to exile, or too harmless to kill, but he can't be both. Frustrating. My podcaster is also starting to wonder what Giles is doing on the show any longer, given that he's no longer even useful for exposition. Next episode may prove interesting, then.

I should probably do a combination post, showing Xander giving it to Buffy in all of these arguments, Becoming Part 1 and Dead Man's Party and here. But I'm being lazy.

Somebody wrote that they were wondering if "flowers for m'lady" was improvised, since perhaps the script had called for actual flowers and they just couldn't find any? I was dubious (where would the joke be, then?), so I went to the script and found that it was all as written. (There were some clunker lines that got cut, such as a Willow line about Buffy trying to use Yoo-Hoo to rehydrate that I'm glad was skipped, but the B/X exchange is all there.) What's not there? Giles giving Buffy the grapes after he eyerolls at Cordelia for being "out of the loop" on gifts. Somebody realized that it made no sense for Rupert to be all snobby and "It's traditional among…people" if he hadn't brought anything, so they shoved something from the craft services table into Tony Head's hands and let Giles use that. Which always struck me as strange, since a half-eaten bag of grapes seems like the worst gift ever in these circumstances…we've just seen that Buffy's immune system is compromised (that's how she got the flu in the first place), what if Giles was breathing some bacteria all over the leftovers he's pawning off on her? A fresh fruit arrangement would be one thing…the part of the bag that Giles hasn't finished is quite another. But now I see that it's less "Giles is being a cheap asshole" and more "the show is covering for a script hole", so that's better. Still not fond of his scoring off of Cordy given the poor quality of his own offerings, though.

People claim that Xander doesn't know how to relate to girls, but clearly they exaggerate. In fact, we see in the next episode that he's taught Giles his secrets, with the G-Man being able to distract Cordelia by staring at her hair. Mean, perhaps. But consistent.

And because we need the ultimate classic in here:

Discussion of Cordelia's (potential) sex life wrt this episode led me to check out the teaser again, and CC and Kevin aren't parking "practically on school grounds", as Buffy describes one of her slayings to Giles, they are on school grounds! You can see the school buses in the parking lot in the background of one shot. Geez, Cordy, kin-kee! What if Snyder had caught you? Also, I remembered that Kevin was a casualty of the AV club massacre and I thought for a second that Cordelia was actually dating an AV clubber, which wouldn't make much sense. But in fact he merely says he'll be stopping by "after practice" to pick up the equipment for setting up at the Bronze. So it was just wrong place, wrong time. Next time, Kev, make the geeks bring their own stuff. What's the point of being a jock if you don't (ab)use the privileges, after all?

Agreed, I always thought so, as well. But, again, not specified.

Well, her parking with Kevin during the Prophecy Girl teaser is at least interrupted by Buffy's nearby slayage. Don't know if they got back to business after Buffy finished hers or not. Not to mention the ensuing earthquake. So while the earth may have moved for Cordy that night, perhaps it was only in the literal sense. (And of course, "parking" doesn't necessarily mean fully-horizontal; a lot of times it's just hand-work.) And if Kevin missed his chance then, he was out of luck, as he's cold on the floor before the middle of Act 2.

Oh, Willow! You little fink. So adorable. And oink-oink, Buffy, apparently. Seems Miss Low-Fat Yoghurt has been working up quite an appetite "slaying" with Faith. Tsk. ;)

I do somewhat side-eye Xander having "antithetical" in his vocabulary arsenal (sorry, Xan), but maybe Willow taught him, as with "askew means cockeyed". Poor Will, if this is her work here, given that this news ends up leaving her sobbing in the bathroom in Consequences. (Never did notice the necklace on Nicky here, before.)

It's a pity the show worked so hard to make me hate Spike, because dammit I love me some Adam/Spike scenes. As with Angel, "bitchy little subvillain" is totally his niche.

Hey, Tom had enough trouble keeping Richard (and the boys) from raping Buffy when she had her clothes on. Strip them down and the sacrifices will be violated before Tom can even get halfway through the invocation. It's not specified that the sacrifices have to be virginal (and we have no information about any of the girls on this issue), but it would seem to comport with tradition, and it would explain the Zeta Kappas' specific interest in recruiting high schoolers. So keep them pure and demure, and if Machida gets a little fiber with his protein, so be it.

Yes, Bianca was the second Cordelia. (SMG being the first, of course.) It's always fun to watch Sarah giving Nick the "Bitch of the Year" dance in When She Was Bad and imagine that , had things been a little different. Same thing for watching . Strange how casting works out.

Really missing my episodes (my stuff still hasn't arrived from my old house) so I took a quick look at this on Vimeo, from the teaser where the Hottie Cop (Susan Leslie) describes the fugitive Buffy as "extremely dangerous" and I, as I always do, say "you have no idea" (even though I contend that Buffy is never the same badass after this season), and then a quick jump ahead to the final 10 minutes, where I noticed three things I hadn't seen before: 1) 2) Dang, that's a lot of empty hangers in Buffy's wardrobe that we see as Joyce is spotting the note on the bed. Girl seriously overpacked. Either that, or Joyce decided to punish Buffy for walking out by taking all her clothes and putting them in the basement. (Gotta maximize that storage space, you know!) 3) I never noticed before, but Giles actually has a pretty nasty cut across his forehead in the final scene. I always just assumed that was a wandering lock of hair. You'd think that whoever attended to his fingers would have put a bandage on that cut, too. Sloppy work, Sunnydale General. But still…*sniff*.

Well, we don't see Buffy and Ford have that conversation, but we do get to see Buffy (on the phone) recapping it with Willow: As for Giles, well, he had Jenny on the brain. The subject only comes up when he's giving Buffy instructions for how to reach him (should she need to) during their "monster trucks" date. Giles takes a second to ensure that Buffy's not spilling her secret "to impress cute boys" (favorite comment from another site: "Aww, Giles thinks Ford is cute!"), and presumably she gave him all the details later on. (Or at least planned to; her late night briefing with Giles and Jenny was interrupted by Julia [the vampire] bursting in to steal the book.) Or as Buffy says: It does seem to be a little early for Giles to be saying his goodbyes for the day, given that Ford had just greeted Willow by saying "Morning", but perhaps he had a conference or something to attend and didn't have much time for Buffy at school that day. But it seems as though Giles is still in the loop on this. JMO.

Probably because they lived on campus and Giles figured he might be spotted at Stevenson Hall; the "basement of debasement" offered easier access. Also, Giles knew the Initiative commandos were apparently based near the school (see his conversation with Buffy in Doomed) and now that W/X have told him that Riley is one of them (earlier in the episode), he's had his hypothesis confirmed. Probably figured he had better things to do than get chipped first thing in the morning.

Michael Collado, whom I've quoted elsewhere, has joking "theory" about this ep: Heh. Of course practically this wouldn't work (there are a good half-dozen eps that require serious rewriting to accommodate Dawn, plus Joyce specifically called Buffy "an only child" in Faith, Hope, and Trick), but it's amusing to posit that Dawn was actually there all along, but Little Miss Ego was so "me, me, me" that she just ignored little sis and the show never bothered to show what she was doing. What's behind that extra door in the hallway? Ah, just Buffy's little sister, ignore her…Buffy does. :)

Michael Collado, whom I referred to in the Spike topic, loved the heck out of Hush, but he had one tiny criticism: Well, it might have been impractical for Buffy to swing by Revello Drive on the way to Fort Giles (especially if they wanted Willow and Buffy to arrive at Giles's pad simultaneously), but Espenson had just made reference to Joyce being out of town in Pangs, so she wasn't completely forgotten. (I forget if there's a "I wish Mom was here to share my joy at being engaged" line in Something Blue, though.) It doesn't seem as though it would have been too kludge-y to mention Joyce still being away before the silence hits. Because otherwise, yeah, fair point, IMO.

So, I'm collecting unspoiled (or reasonably so) reviews from around the web, and I've run into Michael Collado at notwhitenoise.com. (Michael does seem to know one thing about Willow, to judge by the "because…reasons" that pops up every time the subject of Willow and boys does. I wonder if S3 is going to surprise Michael, then?) I'm reading the review Michael wrote after watching Surprise/Innocence, and wow, he is not feeling the Spike: It does bring to mind David Hines and those on the newsgroup who thought Spike really wasn't that effective as a lead villain. Drusilla is more mysterious and more connected to Angel/Buffy; Spike is somewhat watchable and he talks a good game, but that's it. His major asset is his romantic devotion to Dru. I honestly don't think he starts to shine until he's reduced to sniping at Angel from the wheelchair; he shines as a bitchy subvillain in a way he never did as the "Big Bad". Interesting that the series never really went back there; Faith gave the Mayor a little lip, but nothing like "someone wasn't woooorthy". Adam killed Maggie, which certainly qualifies as a rebellion, but rather cut short their interactions. Glory's minions fell all over themselves groveling before her, and Andrew was in love with Warren. And Windbag mostly just talked to whoever was unlucky enough to draw the short straw, no real interactions there. But Spike made the vampire lair scenes pop, it's true. Not sure that's worth four years' worth of regular work for James, though.

We're using our sarcastic voice for "favorite" today, is that it? Just warning you, I've got a plateload of "He can be a good man" screencaps from First Date, if you're looking to go down that road. (Hell, yeah, I can play dirty. Fair, but still.) And the fourth should be "My next impulsive decision will involve my choice of dentures", for that matter. Sheesh. Get it together, people! And the second should be "Do you remember my ex-boyfriend, etc.", now that I look at. Wow, how drunk were they when they 'capped this one? Apologies, all.

And now, the most obvious idea for a Buffyverse vid ever! More obvious than a B/W 'ship vid to Queen's "You're My Best Friend" (I've got that on one of my discs, haven't looked for it on YT yet). More obvious than a Buffy character study to Avril Lavigne's "Anything But Ordinary" ("Is it enough to die? Somebody save my life! I'd rather be anything but ordinary, please")…I found a decent one but I prefer the rendition I have, so I hesitate to link the other. No, we're going for the classic "Giles gets knocked down, but he gets up again" treatment, set to, of course, "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba. Not the first to do it (reportedly there was a version as early as 1999, but I've never seen that one), but shadowhisper does a great job, despite being "late to the party" (2014). Enjoy. (Poor Rupert!) "I swear, one of these times, you're going to wake up in a coma."

Well, they played to Michelle's strengths by including the dance, but Dawn also does a significant amount of singing in that song. (Although having her first singing attempt get cut off by her getting a bag over her head might be a bit of an in-joke, I'll allow.) It's no "I think this line's mostly filler", I'm just saying.

True, but… IMO it was more of a case of making better use of what they already had than any great expansion.