Halting Hex

Damn. Smidge must have loved getting to smack Brad around in The Prom.

Wow, that's some bad hair on both of them. And, of course, my two standard criticisms of this scene: 1) Tara only said that people "sometimes" come back wrong. Why not wait and see? Seems pretty much a waste of you killed a perfectly normal Resurrected!Joyce for nothing. 2) Don't hit your sister, Buffy. Even if you weren't the Slayer, don't hit your sister. She says you're being emotionally inaccessible (and she's right about that; look at the brush-off Buffy gives Angel), is that really a slapping offense? Still, much better than The Body. Because, you know, things happen and all that sort of thing. (Although Tara's dress at the funeral is rather a catastrophe, IIRC. But even so.)

So Xander has dreams where not only he, but also Willow and Cordelia and Jenny all "do" Buffy, is that it? Dang, Imaginary!Buffy is quite the machine.

This is subject to dispute, since Buffy has shared her relationship issues before with Willow, with Giles, and even with Xander (Phases). And there's the argument that you don't want to diminish those characters by giving this scene to Dawn. But looked at from the opposite perspective, it makes plenty of sense. Buffy had made an effort to include Riley in Dawn's life…and now he won't be. It's only natural that Buffy should have a "why Riley won't around any more" talk with the little sister who might miss him, too.

Because keeping Spike out of her house is work enough? Even though she's just seen that Spike has active vampiric girlfriends who might kill for him? (As Drusilla nearly killed Angel, as Harmony kidnapped Dawn.) A "realistic" viewpoint on Spike involves more than "changing the locks" and cutting off his cocoa-and-amphorae-discussion privileges with Joyce, I'm thinking. Some people write that the hesitation Spike shows before feeding on the Bronze couple is an indication he's growing a conscience (although it could simply be wariness of chip-pain, of course…how cold does the corpse need to be before the chip can no longer detect a "spark" within?). But even if one grants that IMO dubious hypothetical, he's still culpable for not stopping Drusilla before she killed them. He can hurt Drusilla, after all…in fact, he renders her unconscious before the next commercial break. Instead, we get a finale where Buffy is in a room with three vampires…and they all get away scot-free. Only Dru even has to fight for her freedom, in fact. Harmony even gets to make a speech to remind Buffy and Spike that she's still there and then walks aways…slowwwwwly…I mean, ffs, honestly.

I love me some Tiny Jewish Santa, but Santa would have the sense not to wear that bob. I mean, that's almost mullet-esque. I prefer her hair from S4: Geez, mind out of the gutter, Will. No wonder Buffy thought you were suggesting fellatio ("that thing with your mouth that boys like") as an icebreaker in Faith, Hope and Trick…

Surely a "catchphrase" is something that gets repeated because it's popular, no? I doubt that much of the audience was waiting at home each week, going "I hope Dawn says 'Get Out', I love that!" Somehow, I just don't see that happening. (Actually, is this all a spoiler? Apologies, if so.)

Doesn't seem too likely, If what you hypothesize is true, there'd be no reason for her reactions.

Yawn. "This episode is like watching TV with the 'Pause' button on." —me on TWoP, years ago. My heart is actually not cold and dead. Many things in this series move it. However, watching characters sit around in shock about Joyce not being able to have eggs any more is not one of them. Whedon had already done "death is scary and inevitable and difficult to deal with". And then he did the rest of Prophecy Girl, the part where things happened and the characters grew as people. No Dinner Theatre speeches needed. And Whedon had already done "the Scoobies react to the death of somebody close* to them" in Döppelgängland, and he made it three minutes long and funny as hell. And it was for Willow, whom Buffy and Xander and Giles have a direct relationship to, whereas Joyce was only a secondary relationship ("Buffy's Mom") for everyone here except Buffy and Dawn. *—Anya is so not-"close" to Joyce that Joss has to insert the Christmas flashback into the start of the episode to show the two of them exchanging dialogue, as they had never done any Anya/Joyce conversations before this episode. Act Three does have some nice moments: "Put 'em up." "Xander decided that he blames the wall." (See, Anya can actually be a real girlfriend when they let her), and the nice bit where Anya, having missed the whole "what can Willow wear?" hyperdramatics between W/T, actually finds the blue top and puts it away, not knowing what's "important" about it. Act Four, OTOH, features pseudo-wisdom to fluff Tara ("It's always sudden") and Buffy being all "Dawn's in danger, wouldn't want you to follow me thirty feet down a fucking corridor, you might end up being relevant to the plot." To reiterate: Yawn.

Goes through me like a sword through the stomach every time I think of it, even when this scene is not what's being discussed directly, as when Melancholy referred to the events of Becoming, Part 2 in a thread. Sarah's little sideways remembrance of pain on "but it was too late" works so well for me, like she's hitting the FF button and moving from "Angel's back" to "and then I had to kill him"…an almost literal emotional transition. The three best actors in the series, IMO. All at their peak.

True. What he didn't realize was that he was in Flutie's world, and Sunnydale ended up touching and feeling him. Joe is going to hate me for this one… Granted, Joyce changed her mind…or rather it was forcibly changed for her. And that's probably what killed her…

I've always been opposed to Wesley's "we have to destroy the Box, too bad for Willow" position, and not only because There's the more basic issue that they really don't know what the Box is or how valuable it is to the Mayor or any practical considerations; it's foolish to sacrifice an irreplaceable asset in Willow for uncertain benefit. Plus I love Willow and I know Buffy loves Willow, so fuck Wesley. But I was thinking even further on this, and even from the purely-utilitarian perspective that Wesley wants to impose on her, it makes no sense for Buffy to do this, because it would completely undercut morale amongst everyone else. How could Xander or Cordelia or Oz or whomever be willing to assist Buffy in the future, if they knew that Buffy had been willing to let Willow die for "the cause"? The "soldiers down" model just doesn't work Buffy needs her Willow…and the rest of the gang needs that kind of Buffy. JMO.

Well, the fact that anyone could call it "love" with a straight face, of course. ;)

So it's only because my podcasters have paired this episode and Choices (paving the way to cover Graduation Day as a pair) that I now realize that the sweet X/C arc in them (the squabbling at the dress shop, culminating in Xander eventually buying her the dress and "it looks it good on you"/"Well, duh") is set up by the W/X conversation after Xander and Cordy fought on-campus early in Choices. ("I can't help it; it's my nature"/"Well, maybe you need a better nature"). So, basically, Xander showed character growth because Willow told him not to be such a dick to Cordelia, and he (eventually) listened. Willow, standing up for Cordelia. What a long, strange road it's been…

I would object to the ear-pods, with the danger to damage one's hearing, but Buffy has a Slayer healing factor, and as Giles says in the cut scene from Surprise, "the Slayer rarely survives past the middle-20s", anyhow. So, rock out, Buffster!

And Buffy's. It may take her 41 episodes after Xander stakes his claim ("Nobody messes with my Willow" in The Pack) for her to assert her own ("I need my Willow") in The Zeppo, but she says it right to Willow rather than just addressing it to the group. Oz, in contrast, only tries it when Willow isn't in the room to say anything ("No one like my Willow" in Choices). And yes, it's ironic that Buffy makes her declaration of Willow-need in a Big Xander Episode and that Oz goes there in the Wiffy-est Wiffy-fest that Fury ever Wiffied, but that's life on the Hellmouth. As the Buffster herself said right before Wiz kissed for the first time, "wackiness abounds".

Yes, but that (past data referenced with spoilered thing, under the cut) was specifically an in-joke, never meant as canon. (And contradicted two episodes later.) The spoilered thing would seem to be something else.

"Dr. Wilkinson" was Buffy's doctor in Killed by Death. Do you have a source for that surname? Nice pic of Charlie, btw.

The loss of Sunnydale, Xander's eye, Anya, Spike (essentially) and a good chunk of the Potentials (Annabel, Eve, Chloe, Molly, Dianne, Amanda, Chao An) qualifies as a "happy ending"? I mean, I don't mind losing anything after the first two, but it still seems a bit much to call it "happy", but JMO.

And posture. I've seen contemporary commentary that said they knew Angel had lost his soul just because he was standing straight up (for once!) in the alley, before he even turned and bit the hooker. A century's worth of guilt almost literally lifted off of his shoulders. No more slouching and skulking for (ex-)Broody Boy, it seems.

No, they were trying to steal the fresh blood in The Dark Age. Angel did have a bottle of blood in his refrigerator in Angel, but I forget if it specifically said "expired" the way his blood in Are You or Have You Ever Been did. Of course, he can always get handouts from the butcher shops, the way that Angel did in The Prom. Might need an income for that, but I suppose Spike could steal jewels/cars/whatever and use that money to finance his blood "habit". As for rats, the Initiative claimed the chip made it impossible for "Hostile 17" to harm "any living thing". But they were already proven wrong with the demon loophole, and so shouldn't be taken for experts, I suppose.

The best part of all that is Cordelia's "yeah, surrrrre" raised eyebrow at Buffy's denial, IMO. Somebody needs to write a Buffy/Cordy pornfic where Cordelia "teaches" Buffy how to do it. ("Somebody" of course meaning "me", but if I'd written all the ideas I'd ever had, there'd be a lot more bad fic out there. And who wants that? The only good thing would be a distinct lack of Spike, but even so.) Do you think "it must just eat you up that I got there first" was Angel cluing Xander in about Buffy's "birthday present"? I mean, we see her essentially tell Jenny and then Giles gets hit with the "duh" clue, and Angel tells Joyce, and Buffy had already given Willow the "seizing is kind of inevitable" heads-up (and we know that Willow and Giles both know because of the conversation they're having while Buffy is explaining things to Joyce)…but did anyone explicitly say to Xander "you know how Angel lost his soul? " before this? I go back and forth on the issue, myself. Yeah, but even when they don't make with the dramatics, there's a tendency to emphasize romantic couples, rather than the friends, unfortunately. I mean, I understand Joss wanting to insulate the Buffy/Angel heartbreak of Innocence and the Giles/Jenny heartbreak of Passion by putting two very heartwarming episodes in between, but it was still one W/O and one X/C. We haven't had a proper B/W/X finish since When She Was Bad (and technically the last word there went to the Annoying One).

My fanon has always been that there is a Slayer stipend (enough to cover Faith's $552/mo [$18/day] rent expenses and some food), but since Buffy still lives at home, the Council see no need to pay it to her. But I'll grant you that there's no more textual support than there is for the "Faith has to make the rent by hooking" theory. (Yes, she tried to flirt [unsuccessfully] with the motel manager in Faith, Hope & Trick. But since she [presumably] pays the rent both before and after that, that can't be the only solution she finds, cash-wise.)

That "wind chimes hanging in the boob window" top being only the first of many… Empathize, sure; a big-ass knife in the gut has to hurt. (Especially as Buffy mostly did it for that stupid vampire's sake). Sympathize, not so much: Faith had already killed Allan Finch, tried to frame Buffy, tried to rape Xander, tried to kill Xander, spied on the Scoobs, signed off on a plot to kill Willow, tried to desoul Angel (twice), killed the courier, killed Lester Worth, conspired to plot an apocalypse, and tried to poison Angel. She made her hospital bed, now she can go lie in it. I disagree. Exactly. Wesley has had maybe 30 seconds of interaction with Faith ("Ah. This is perhaps Faith." "New Watcher?" "New Watcher." "Screw that.") before Faith goes off the rails and starts committing major felonies. Giles had months. But even Faith (accurately called an "idiot" by Mrs. Post) can tell who's the "Watcher's Pet" around here and who…isn't. And that's only Wes following standard Watchers' Council protocol; perhaps if Giles/Buffy/Angel hadn't been enabling/assaulting/lecturing Faith before that, she'd have been in a more receptive frame of mind. (Although I grant you that Angel finally seems to be moving on from making no progress ["I know what it's like to take a life"] to seeming to reach her when he does his Ode to Willow and Xander ["but they get up, keep trying"] later on. But still, thin gruel. And given how hopeful Faith was for half a second when she thought Wes was unchaining her, perhaps it's premature to celebrate Captain Forehead making headway, even then.)