Halting Hex

Was that what that was about?? I only saw RS in reruns, and didn't realize how the chronology fit in. Not only do I like the idea of Steele as more of a front man than a savant, but I'm a huge James Read fan; I love his Columbo episode ("Uneasy Lies the Crown", with Read as a murderous dentist), and in Eight Men Out he does one of my favorite things…running through a series of emotions without saying a word. I've written about how Alyson Hannigan shows Willow doing four successive emotions in reaction to "There is no spell" in Faith, Hope & Trick; Read, as Claude "Lefty" Williams does at least that many when the gangsters tell him he's going to lose the final World Series game on purpose while his wife (Nancy Travis, overdoing the southern accent) is obliviously chattering away in the background. A very underrated actor, IMO. The Hardy Boys met Dracula? LMAO, join the club, kids. I suppose the sort of folks who ship Buffy/Dean Winchester would be 'shipping Buffy/Frank, then. (Joe's too pretty for her, and besides, Frank's the alpha.)

And fine work by Kelly Donovan (the twins' last name is actually "Schultz"; both delete it for showbiz purposes, like Jon Stewart Leibowitz does) in the two-Xander scenes. It can't be too easy to basically have to impersonate your brother. But that's from the wrong Star Trek episode; "Whom Gods Destroy" is Kirk v. an impostor. The Kirk-split-in-two-and-needs-to-reintegrate episode is Season 1's "The Enemy Within". Which is fine; Xander's a general pop-culture sponge, not a sci-fi geek. Remember, this is a guy who made Russ Meyer, Ingmar Bergman, and Shakespeare references in three consecutive S2 eps. Which is why I hate the "Babylon 5 collector plates" joke. And earlier, she casually "explains" the name Toth by claiming Giles said "toff, it means moron", assuming Giles was insulting Riley (who had just spoken) without any sign of Offended Girlfriend. It's bad enough when B/W need to be prompted to reassure Xander (as in What's My Line, Part 1), but Buffy wasn't shtupping Xander, then. Yeah, sort of a sorrowful (advance) farewell to Riley there. I always think the title is more about him (and Marc Blucas) than it is the two-Xander issue. Jill Hennessy (everything from Law & Order to Yellowstone) also has a non-acting twin, and I'm sure others do as well. My favorite part of the episode will always be this: And then the great unscripted capper, where Riley puts his hands back on Buffy's shoulders but does not rub. Guy Code, right there. Well done, spud. Although this is pretty excellent, too: The idea that a part of the B/W bond is Buffy's understanding and trust in the depth of the W/X bond? Oh, yes, please! Not a great ep, but my favorite of the season. Never really an issue for me. Willow feels rejected by Xander (I mean, Tara's not around, after all) and takes her share of the credit for helping him before reassuring him more generally, what, two seconds later? Sixteen years of friendship allows her a teeny verbal hiccup, I'd argue.

[Still OT] Yes, Emma was hot (when Genie Francis quit General Hospital to do the miniseries where she met her husband, Jonathan "Commander Riker" Frakes, GH was so desperate to fill the gap that they threw both a young Demi Moore and a young Janine Turner at Tony Geary, but it was Emma, brought on for a secondary role, who pushed her way to the front), no doubt about that. However, in this particular case, I was referring to the OG Fallon [pre-alien], played by Pamela Sue "Nancy Drew" Anderson. [/Still OT]

Well, I'm pretty sure we can agree that Eliza is the hottest Albanian-American actor out there (unless you're really into Jim Belushi, for some reason), but I do think CC gives her a run for her money here. Depends if you value some, er, assets over others. And I'll never understand why Eliza got those cheek implants ; they threw the planes in her face all off. Nix the knife, kids.

Given that they had to fly back from Phoenix when Willow landed in the hospital, I don't if Ira and Sheila made any long-distance plans that summer. They probably were their usual absent selves, overall, since once Willow got out of that wheelchair, she spends her nights patrolling, but I'd assume they kept themselves domestic, in case of a relapse. And while the Dingoes might have booked some out of town dates, sure, I'd assume Oz had scheduled those for the weekends. Would be even stranger if he'd pre-planned failing summer school…although it would fit the "stalker" theory, I suppose. But Oz just got done taking two substantial band trips the previous school year (Passion/Killed by Death are months before I Only Have Eyes For You/Go Fish; they're only joined by the consecutive airings and SG's absence), so you'd think he wouldn't be too worried about leaving Willow without his watchful wolfy eyes.

Eh, I guess. I'd thought [spoilered thingy] had been resolved and , apparently not. Fair point, then.

Well, Willow was able to He's not Angelus; there's still some humanity in him, after all.

I just assumed that Willow thought Tara would be uncomfortable around a guy, because of the whole "lesbian" thing. And she hero-worships Giles, so her thoughts went to Xander, first. (She knows Tara and Riley are on good terms, given that Riley used to hang around the Lesbian Alliance and they knew him by name.). Sucks if you're Xander, but someone had to draw the short straw. Also, perhaps this is a sideways shot at Anya, whom Willow herself still can't stand. Not impossible, I suppose. Indeed, the episode itself addresses this: But, as I've written before, shining a light on the nonsense doesn't make it any less nonsensical.

Yes, but I've never been too thrilled with Willow's "I've discovered why we're the sidekicks" line; Will never enjoyed seeing herself as "just" a sidekick. (See Fear, Itself)

You can tell Dawn is meant to be younger than she is; that scene with her getting the ice cream all over her face in front of her crush is just cringeworthy. Even within the episode, Dawn went to all the trouble to primp for Xander, why would she look so gross in front of him? Clearly the Scoobs are better educated than you are then. (Sorry.). A Classic is a Classic is a Classic. This is Spinal Tap goes to 11. And let's face it, it's not as though they didn't know about things like what happened to the drummers in their own lives. Oh, great, now Harmony's minions are destroying canon just the same way Harmony herself does. To paraphrase Giles about Jesse, Xander isn't looking at Brad, he's looking at the thing that killed him. And it's so gross that Xander is acting as if Brad deserved to be killed because Brad used to be a dick to him; the show used to mourn even the less-than-sympathetic characters, like the Rodney Munsons of the world. (Not to mention the part where Vamp!Brad probably went home and killed his whole family, as vampires like to do.) On the plus side, at least he's not having another fucking slapfight, the way he did the last time he met Harmony. But even so. Riley's fun in the episode ("Not the invasion of Normandy, but still a plan") and Anya with the Game of Life is a classic. But most of the episode is just Buffy whining some more, again, and a lot of pointless misdirection. So it's just a lot of empty wind, in the end. And do we really need an entire episode to tell us that Giles has decided to buy the magic shop? You could have done that reveal with one line, FFS. It's bad enough when Whedon and Espenson's scripts were terminally flaccid; now they're infecting David Fury, too.

I really can't get past them failing Oz to keep him in the high school in Season 3. I mean, Oz is supposed to be as smart as Willow…why the f would he not graduate, again? So he missed an exam or six (even though he didn't get tortured or run away or have a massive concussion that landed him in a wheelchair), why can't he just take a makeup test, as Buffy does? Hell, Xander isn't exactly a brainiac and he had a broken wrist, but he still passed his exams and is a senior now. And then he somehow skips an entire summer's worth of summer school and Willow never finds out? What bullshit. And for what purpose, exactly? It's not as though they've ever shown Oz in class with the Scoobs, and they never do. Send him to college and if you need him to drop by the Library after school for research, no problem. Hell, if you need him to help out during the day, he can blow off class. It's not as though musicians with high-school girlfriends never skip out on their college classes, ffs. Outside the show, it just drives me crazy because it's such forced and hacky writing. Inside the show, it makes Oz look like a fucking stalker. I mean even Angel didn't give up the rest of his life to keep sniffing around Buffy; does the line "'Hi, honey, you're in mortal danger; I'll see you next month'" ring a bell? Grrr.

[OT] The "best" version of this was during the 3-part Dynasty premiere, where Fallon is clearly fucking Cecil Colby (along with half of the Denver Broncos) before he wifes her off to Jeff to make an official merger with Blake, and then in Season 2 when Alexis is trying to get back at Blake by claiming that Fallon is actually her and Cecil's daughter, Fallon is all "OMG, we almost had sex!" C'mon, girl, there wasn't no "almost" about it. [/OT] Yeah, it's better as part of a whole. BtVS was never too great with the Part 1's, Grad Day 1 and This Year's Girl aside. (Becoming 1 is a fine ep, but part 2 is clearly a step up, IMO.)

Well, people learn at different rates, after all. We can't all be blessed with Willow's "thirst for knowledge"…and, uh, other things. Plus, Tara's own level of "mad skillz" are relatively irrelevant when T's considering whether Willow's worth breaking an oath or six over. I mean, unless Tara has to steer Willow around the curves, every single time. But I think Will's been working on her Lesbian Street Cred, at least a little bit.

Depends what she's found on the 'net lately, I suppose. ;)

But Eliza wouldn't be playing a horny Buffy; she'd be playing an ultra-serious (and really pissed-off, on account of Faith stealing her body) version of Buffy. "Giles, concentrate! Faith has taken my body and, for all I know, she's taken it to Cuernavaca."

"Gosh, look at those." ^^ Sorry, I don't rewatch Amends very often. I may need to rethink that. "Am I a righteous man? Am I a thing worth saving?" No, you're a thing worth FF-ing. But I wasn't talking to you, Broody. :P

Ironically enough, that's the movie-premiere party where I (briefly) met Seth. It was at the Hollywood Athletic Club; a nice enough space, but nothing special. I wasn't much of a BTVS fan as yet, so I mostly praised him for Good & Evil, his previous ABC comedy, tragically yanked after 6 episodes. (I'd been a fan of Susan Harris's satirical work, going back to Soap.). Also saw Alyson Hannigan as I was leaving the theatre for the walk over to the party, but I don't recall if she went to the party, too. (Star Lauren Ambrose was there, as was…whoever the other male lead was, I forget.) The movie itself is nothing special, IMO. Seth's the best part.

As torture goes, probably better than a chainsaw. But still…Jenny! *sniff*

Spoiler that ^, please. After all, I could just as easily be dumping on I'm not thrilled with either of them, personally, but let's keep the details of both of them until the appropriate time, please. And, as I said, one scene (and a guest-star) do not an episode make, IMO. I like this show for my regulars, more than the external details. But JMO.

I have a feeling Sarah Michelle Gellar was flexing her muscles behind the scenes on the casting front, looking out for her old peeps from All My Children. Perhaps with the need to renew the contracts at the end of the season, she was able to angle for getting some friends jobs. After all, Dawn was meant to be 11, but Sarah got 14-year-old Michelle the gig. And Dracula was played by Rudolf Martin, a great friend of Sarah's from AMC. (In case you don't know that story, Sarah was 15 when she was cast to play Kendall. And then the AMC fans were like "Hello? We were watching back in 1977, we know that Erica Kane wasn't having any kids that year." So, all of a sudden, Kendall was 23-24, instead. [AMC premiered in 1970, so retconning Kendall into being born in 1968 or so made sense.] Problem was, Sarah was still 15. So she was doing bedroom scenes with Rudolf before she'd even been kissed in real life. And she was grateful that he wasn't a douche about it, and they stayed friends. And it makes sense that SMG might do Rudolf a favor this way.) would like a grunt with you. Yes, it has one good scene …but just the one.

Also, Willow was the one providing Tara with "Willow-hand". Apparently, Willow was real good at making Tara "cum-plete". Girl's always been a good learner, it appears. ;)

Willow isn't "gushing over Bangel" here, she's reassuring Buffy that no matter what Angel says, Buffy meant something to him. That "I thought you were a pro" was Angel being mean, not Angel having never cared for Buffy and dropping her now that he got what he wanted. She's validating Buffy's sense of self, not saying Angel is still a good boyfriend candidate. Well, Xander's "It's about time" seems to indicate that Buffy's been derelict in her duty and that Jenny's death is pretty much her fault. Which is a fair opinion for Xander to hold but Willow can be protective enough of Buffy's feelings that she doesn't want Xander to say that to Buffy's face, especially as Buffy is already dealing with a lot of shit. Plus, this seems as though it might lead to a Big Scooby Fight and maybe Willow's not exactly in the right emotional place for that, either. It's not a "reminder", Xander already said "who cares?" about possibly restoring Angel's soul and Buffy said "I care", so he's ignoring her opinion and trying to ram his home. He's reducing it to "Angel's a killer", ignoring the fact that the restored Angel would be a fusion of the killer demon and the innocent soul. Which worked mostly as a force for good, until the soul went bye-bye. Now, let's get this clear: I AM 100% ON XANDER'S SIDE here. He's just using the wrong arguments. 1) The curse already was broken once. Who's to say the second time around will be any more permanent? Even if Curse 2.0 lasts another century, isn't that still just kicking the can down the road? 2) Yes, the human soul is (for all they know) innocent, but doesn't that mean the soul deserves something better than being jammed into a walking corpse with a demon as a roommate? 3) Even if "Angel" can be restored, what about all the dead people? Xander does eventually get to this argument, with his "What is this, 'come home, all is forgiven'?" But that's different from a flat "Angel's a killer"; one discusses what Angel has actually done, then other is judging his basic nature (which is subject to more debate). Also he ignores the possibility that resouling Angel might save lives (given that they don't even know where Angel is at this point) and then they can discuss what to do about him later. It's not as if there's an expiration date on stakes, after all. Meanwhile people (Kendra, the Xander-shaped sacrifice) end up dying while the Scoobs are debating. But Xander just wants to "win" by bulling ahead, never mind Buffy's feelings (or Giles's, as we get to discussing Jenny's intentions [Where again, Xander misses a chance to make a better argument by going for the blunt "Yeah? Well, Jenny's dead", which doesn't really go well]). And so it makes sense for Willow to be protective of her other friends and somewhat appalled by Xander's demeanor, the logic of his position aside. It's not what he said, but how he said it. Hell, he even jumped down Cordelia's throat before realizing that she was actually on his side. If that's not a clue that Xander needed to slow his roll, I don't know what is. Angel can get his "second chance" (arguably third) by having his soul restored; he becomes the same guy they knew before, for better or for worse. But Theresa and Jenny and Uncle Enyos and the hooker in the alley and the girl outside the Bronze and the quaint little shopgirl and are dead; Willow can't bring them back. The best she can do is create new zombies. Which given how far Jenny's corpse has decayed by now (Jenny died in February, this is June) might not be the best idea…

Yes, asking Ampata for help with the pictographs is like expecting Xander to translate Anasazi cave paintings because he was raised in the southwest. Absolute nonsense. OTOH, they're pretty well-covered on Ampata's speaking English: as she says, she learned from hearing people speaking it around her while the exhibit was on tour in Atlanta and New York and other places. An immersion course, basically. As for why she chose Ampata to impersonate, she needed the identity of somebody unknown in the community and she'd heard Buffy say who Ampata was, when he'd be arriving, and that he was only staying for one week. Make it through seven days and beat feet; sounds like a decent plan to me.

Vampires! Always thinking with your teeth…

So…do with think that Mr. Trick saying Sunnydale's death rate "makes D.C. look like Mayberry" means that he's actually from our nation's (murder) capital, or he just followed the news? The idea of Trick snacking on some of those lobbyists on K Street isn't exactly unappealing, IMO.