S06.E05: Life Serial

[Joe Hellandback]

the Good; Buffy in the workplace, funny...

The Bad; ... but ultimately a bit depressing

Best line; Spike; "C'mon, someones got to stake me"

Women good/men bad; The guys on Xander's building site are pretty sexist towards 'Little Britney' even though she saved their lives.

Jeez!; Shouldn't Buffy make sure she rescues all the kittens?

Kinky dinky; About the weirdest fanfic I ever read had Buffy having sex with the mummy hand. In the follow up story she lures it out of her using a magic charm then smashes it to atoms with her troll hammer (although surely all she needed to do was go upstairs and start the cycle again?). Buffy thinks that the candle buyers' girl isn't going to sleep with him whatever scent he chooses. Anya pictures HERSELF naked when selling, talk about 'sales figures' (the corset top Buffy wears to university would certainly do the trick! And check out the stripper heels she crushes Giles' specs with). Andrew thinks that Scully from the X-files 'Wants him so bad' and envies Jonathon that Buffy 'touched him'. The Nerds find free porn at the end. Lots of gags about Jonathon's 'magic bone'.

Captain Subtext; Willow is a 'breast girl'. Andrew is hesitant to hold hands but as Warren observes you know what homophobia REALLY means. Spike tells Buffy she's a creature of the night, we'll later find

Spoiler

that's true.

Anya and Dawn dance together.

Apocalypses; 6

Scoobies in bondage: Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 5 Will: 3 Jenny: 1 Angel: 4 Oz: 1 Faith: 3 Joyce: 1 Wes: 1 Xander; 1 Dawn; 3

Scoobies knocked out: Buffy: 16 Giles: 11 Cordy: 6 Xander: 9 Will: 5 Jenny: 2 Angel: 6 Oz: 3 Faith: 1 Joyce: 3 Wes: 1 Anya;2 Dawn; 1

Kills: 3 demons for Buffy Buffy: 96 vamps, 40 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot Giles: 5 vamps, 2 demon, 1 human, 1 god. Cordy: 3 vamps, a demon Will: 6 vamps + 1 demon +1 fawn. Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans Xander: 5 vamps, 2 zombies, 1 a demon, Anya: 1 vamp and 1 a demon Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons Spike; 3 vamps and 2 demon Buffybot; 2 vamps Tara; 1 demon

Scoobies go evil: Giles: 1 Cordy: 1 Will: 2 Jenny: 1 Angel: 1 Oz: 1 Joyce: 1 Xander: 4 Anya; 1 Dawn; 1

Alternate scoobies: Buffy: 6 Giles: 3 Cordy: 1 Will: 2 Jenny: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 2 Joyce: 2 Xander: 3

Recurring characters killed: 10 Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce

Sunnydale deaths; 89;

Total number of scoobies: 6 Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Tara, Spike, Giles

Xander demon magnet: 5(6?) Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula?

Scoobies shot: Giles: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 4 Riley; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost: Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes? Cordy: 1? Buffy: 3 confirmed; Angel, Parker,Riley, 1 possible, Dracula(?) Angel: 1;Buffy Joyce: 1;Giles, 2 possible, Ted and Dracula(?) Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley Xander: 2; Faith, Anya Willow: 2;Oz and Tara Riley; 3; Buffy, Sandy and unnamed vampwhore

Dawn in peril; 4

Dawn the bashful virgin; 1

Questions and observations; The woman who asks for the mummy hand reminds me of Elle McPherson. The introduction of Clem, here unnamed. If I ever write a TV show I'm going to include a box of kittens in every script (I understand Marish Carey does the same thing?). The Nerds testing Buffy is reminiscent of 'Lois and Clark'. For my money Roger Moore is the greatest James Bond and Dalton the 3rd best after Brosnan. The foreman refer to 'Gidget' as did Joyce in Prophecy Girl. Britney of course, huge now, all conquering at the time. Warren's right about the o'clock thing. Connery is Warren's favourite Bond, interesting that he has a reputation for being misogynist?
Marks out of 10; 8/10

[Loandbehold]

Of the three curses, the Magic Shop time loop was my favorite. 

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

The woman who asks for the mummy hand reminds me of Elle McPherson.

Can I ask why? Besides being tall, that is. 

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

For my money Roger Moore is the greatest James Bond and Dalton the 3rd best after Brosnan.

The "Best Bond" argument was the most "real" the Trio ever was for me as that could be a discussion me and my friends could have. It also has Andrew's only even mildly amusing line: "Timothy Dalton should get an Oscar and (yells) beat Sean Connery over the head with it!"

Other than that, he's a total, and at best annoying, waste of space for the next 1-3/4 seasons. 

[Joe Hellandback]

On 10/8/2018 at 10:03 AM, Loandbehold said:

Of the three curses, the Magic Shop time loop was my favorite. 

Can I ask why? Besides being tall, that is. 

The "Best Bond" argument was the most "real" the Trio ever was for me as that could be a discussion me and my friends could have. It also has Andrew's only even mildly amusing line: "Timothy Dalton should get an Oscar and (yells) beat Sean Connery over the head with it!"

Other than that, he's a total, and at best annoying, waste of space for the next 1-3/4 seasons. 

Just her facial features and her accent which sounds vaguely Aussie.

Spoiler

As for Andrew we'll talk about that when we get to Storyteller. 

[MagnusHex]

I would take Glory the dull ditz goddess over this trio of incel creeps in season 6 any day, especially Warren and his rapey attitude. Geez, this didn't age well. Or perhaps, it aged too well, reflecting some of the disturbing incels existing in America today. Too close to home, very uncomfortable.

Plus, their nerd-speak is pretty pathetic to be honest. It's not nearly as bad as those movies written by old guys trying to understand the younger generations' "lingo," but Roger Moore is classy af, so I don't know what Warren's going on about. And this is coming from someone who's a big fan of the Craig era (though Andrew would probably have picked Craig over Dalton if this episode came out in the previous decade). Also, no mention of Brosnan, my 2nd favorite Bond growing up, so what the f*** ever.

Perhaps it's not really pathetic on the writers' part, but definitely on Warren's part. Pretentious nerd tryhard wannabe. Nothing amusing at all about his rapey/basic-nerd personality. He's like a caricature of one of those nerds from The Big Bang Theory (a show with their own caricatures that also reflected poorly on real life nerds as if they're all perverted and lustful basement dwellers who get horny from the "hot blonde").

I mean, I consider myself a pretty big nerd in pop culture, but man, these guys are so alien and unrelatable that they might as well be robots programmed to act like nerds.

Edited March 10, 2021 by MagnusHex

[Halting Hex]

But, remember, the Nerd Trio is definitely NOT about shitting on the show's own fanbase, no matter how much it might seem like it!  Joss swears!  They're just making fun of the writing staff, that's all!  Any "men who watch shows such as this are pathetic losers, but Spike is the KEWLEST EVAH!" vibes you might be picking up are completely in your own head, they swear!

Surrrrrrrrrrrre…

Between the visible middle-finger that I was seeing any time the Losers were on-screen and the story trying to get me to hate Willow (crazy power-mad witch who tore Buffy away from perfect peace! Run, Centered!Tara, run!) and Xander (fat loser who's too scared to announce the engagement, Anya's too good for him!), you can imagine how much fun I was finding this part of the season, huh? 

Spoiler

And this is before they started shitting on Buffy as well.  (That horrible bitch, using Spike for sex! Why won't she admit she loves him?  SPIKE IS SO WONDERFUL!!!!)

Ironically enough, this episode is almost tolerable, since it was a late addition to the schedule, to allow the next couple to air on their scheduled dates, and so kept the W/X-bashing to a minimum.  And the mummy-hand sequence was fun, if you can ignore Giles and Anya being jerks to Buffy, and the "rakish uncle" tag at least gave the Buffy/Giles 'shippers something to appreciate, even if the rest of us were having to suffer.

But still.  Thin gruel, at best. 5/10, perhaps? (Which would be the highest of the season, but…)

[MagnusHex]

18 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Ironically enough, this episode is almost tolerable, since it was a late addition to the schedule, to allow the next couple to air on their scheduled dates, and so kept the W/X-bashing to a minimum.  And the mummy-hand sequence was fun, if you can ignore Giles and Anya being jerks to Buffy, and the "rakish uncle" tag at least gave the Buffy/Giles 'shippers something to appreciate, even if the rest of us were having to suffer.

I actually don't really find the more depressing Giles/Buffy moments as intolerable as I initially expected (the moments when Giles mope about Buffy looking like she's suppressing her suffering). It didn't really swing into melodramatic territory, so that's fine. I wouldn't say I had as much fun as you seem to have though. It would've been a fun episode except for the fact that those "quirky" and "hilarious" hijinks happening to Buffy this episode were the result of three losers trying to hypnotize Buffy into becoming a literal sex slave. So, there's that delightful little subtext hanging over the episode.

When taken into context how there are rapey creeps like the losers in real life, these three are almost more horrifying than any previous villain so far (not in a good "a villain you'd love to hate" kind of way, but in a "disgusted by every moment" way).

I'm not too hard on Willow. I understand why she did it. I would've done the same thing in her place. In fact, I practically share her (and Xander's) sense of insecurity and inferiority complex as well. But I still think she's in the wrong. Buffy was in heaven, and even though Willow didn't know better, her actions were still pretty selfish. But she's a teenager, so. Kids are dumb, and that's okay (I'm not being sarcastic either).

[lembergwatcher]

On 3/11/2021 at 2:06 PM, MagnusHex said:

Buffy was in heaven

Or Buffy thinks she was in heaven.

Actually I think if some higher power (like PTB) wasn't ok with bringing Buffy back to life, no way in hell could Willow have done it no matter how powerful she was... JMO though.

[Halting Hex]

So this advert has been running constantly in the USA:

Selling the product aside, me being me, I couldn't help but imagine what a cute Buffy/Willow scene this would make, with Buffy as "Vanessa" explaining the "time loop" to Willow.  I could almost see Aly doing the "Does that happen every day?" line; my only issue is that I know she'd put an "uh" in there somewhere, but I'm not sure when.

("Uh…does that happen every day?"  or " Does, uh, that happen every day?" or "Does that, uh, happen every day?"  I can't decide!)

And then I remembered (seriously, it took a while to remember this, since I tend not to think about S6 so much) that BtVS actually had done a "time-loop" story, but of course Buffy never talked to Willow about this.  Willow isn't even in Act 3.  It's Willow/Tara in Act 1, Xander in Act 2, Giles and Anya in Act 3, and Spike in Act 4.  And none of the supporting cast gets to venture outside of their little cages segments and actually do any supporting*.  Sigh.

(And this is one of my favorites of the season, I remind you.  I honestly only put Normal Again  and Hell's Bells, and perhaps As You Were or Gone, above it.)

Even within the parameters of the structure, why doesn't Buffy at least try to get Giles's help?  We only seeing her being bored by his "a word in your ear" speech and eventually stomping on his glasses.  She could go "Giles, I'm in a time loop and I only have about 15 minutes before it resets.  Start researching and tell me how far you get so I can have you start there next time." and do it sequentially.  Presumably it wouldn't take too many iterations before Mr. Enormous Squishy Frontal Lobes gets around to saying: "I'm fairly certain that the spell-caster would need to be nearby; you should check outside" and then it's geek-punching time.  But no.

**********

It's been noted that Giles is a bit of a dick for letting Anya charge Buffy (whom Giles has to bail out with a check at episode's end) for the shipping, but I guess it's not out of character.  This is the same cheapskate who wouldn't front Xander the $28 in bribe money in Enemies, after all; I guess it's too much for him to let Buffy off with a "I'm only going to do this once" warning as he covers her expenses?

To be fair, although Giles had the funds to buy the Box, perhaps he only was able to acquire that nest egg because he was a total pinch-penny.  I wonder if he made Jenny buy the popcorn for their football date in SAR?

***************

*- I know Dawn has to be in this episode, as MT never skipped one.  66/66, she was.  But I did that "character breakdown" above, and I honestly can't think where she would be.  Sitting on Clem's lap during the kitten poker?  Seems unlikely.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Halting Hex

[Halting Hex]

Hey, how many iterations of the loop does Buffy go through, anyhow?  Frustrating for her, surely, but she doesn't have a choice in the matter, and she's got superhuman stamina.  (Patrolled for 72 hours consecutively between Goodbye Iowa and This Year's Girl, we were told.)

But the Geeks had to have gotten bored sitting on their butts outside all day long, no?  I mean, they don't have Slayer Stamina.  (And they're able to observe the loop, so…)

Any longer and Andrew might start thinking that he would like to play with Jonathan's magic bone, after all…

[catherinejane]

got to this one on my lockdown rewatch (to be fair, i skipped season 6 and am now doing it as an end of year chore)

Why does buffys dad not assist in anyway to his 2 girls? in the first epsidode of season 6 he is mentioned as phoning often and not trying to alarm him that buffy is missing. But now she is back, surely some interest? child support for magic dawn??

or wouldn't the Watchers guild be happy to aid buffy as she is their only active option? faith being locked up in jail.

why does giles sleep on the sofa when there appears to be MANY MANY bedrooms (per season 7). though only ever one bathroom!

[lembergwatcher]

On 12/11/2022 at 4:08 PM, catherinejane said:

Why does buffys dad not assist in anyway to his 2 girls?

Because there'll be much less misery in Buffy's life which goes against the season's main premise: putting as much burden on Buffy's shoulders as possible so she has literally no other option left but to seek solace in Spike. Even hardcore Spuffy fans among the writing team knew this 'ship wouldn't have happened if things were more or less stable in Buffy's life.
 

On 12/11/2022 at 4:08 PM, catherinejane said:

Watchers guild be happy to aid buffy as she is their only active option?

The problem with things like Watchers Council in the Buffyverse is that they exist when it suits the storyline and completely disappear when it doesn't.

Council is like Oz's supernose: he can smell "Willow in danger" in Lover's Walk or Willow on Tara in New Moon Rising but fails to smell Xander on Willow an vice versa throughout the whole fluke...

The writers just pretended that the Watchers Council either went on vacation or lost Buffy's phone number or forgot where Sunnydale was. Such indifference with regard to the world's biggest (!) active (!) Hellmouth from those who were supposed to protect humanity is alarming at best and suspicious at worst...