S06.E18: Entropy

[Joe Hellandback]

The Good; Anya's hilarious attempts to take vengeance on Xander. The Geeks vamphunting. Buffy and Dawn the happiest they've been together in a long time. But best of all Willow and Tara back together.

The Bad; Not much, a lot more fun than recent eps. You do feel bad for Anya though.

Best line; Anya; "What kind of lesbians are you? If you love men so much, go be with men!"

Women good/men bad; Anya is perfectly justified in her rage at Xander. Halfrek has cursed a man who refuses to pay child support to receive a paper cut each time he touches paper (in many ways Halfrek is much more merciful than Anyanka?). She also comments on Anya's whole 'female power take back the night thing'. Xander actually says the old relationship cliché 'It's not you it's me'. Anya comments on her 'changing to please' Xander.

Jeez!; Jonathon tells Warren to leave him alone with his experiment or they'll be 'Deader than an ex-girlfriend'. Stick it in and break it off why don't you?

Kinky dinky;

The Troika and the Scoobies voyeuristically watch Anya and Spike at the Magic Shop via the nerd's cameras. Anya describes men as having been 'riding roughshod over Buffy' for years. She describes Xander as 'bumpy in the right places' and says she has a sexy dance. Spike says Anya's the only Scooby he'd consider biting but we know that's a lie from Buffy and Willow in 'Lover's Walk'.

Captain Subtext; Tara and Willow say they don't hate men and are all about the girl/girl action. As Andrew watches Spike and Anya at the Magic Shop rather than comment on the hot girl he thinks Spike is cool. As with Hell's Bells Buffy might want rid of Spike but is not too keen on him immediately taking up with another girl. Buffy and Dawn seem a lot closer this ep, partly as a measure of big sis' guilt over Normal Again. Buffy confides in Dawn about her and Spike but not the others who have to find out for themselves. Willow tells Tara about the wig lady monster and says what we were all thinking about it's appearance. Spike calls Xander a ponce. Anya observes that none of the Scoobs speak their mind which is true. And Willow and Tara get all kissy, awwww!

Guantanamo Bay; Anya wants to talk about torture

Scoobies go evil: I wouldn't class Anya as evil just yet Giles: 1 Cordy: 1 Will: 2 Jenny: 1 Angel: 1 Oz: 1 Joyce: 1 Xander: 4 Anya; 1 Dawn; 1 Buffy; 1

Alternate scoobies: Demon Anya Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 1 Will: 3 Jenny: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 2 Joyce: 2 Xander: 4 Tara; 1 Dawn;1 Spike; 1 Anya; 2

Recurring characters killed: 11 Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce, Katrina Sunnydale deaths; 93 Total number of scoobies:4 Xander, Willow, Buffy, Spike, 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: Now, Buffy remarks on her four partners which tends to suggest only Spike, Riley, Parker and Angel and seems to rule out Dracula. But then again we all know how good the Summer's girls are at denial? Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes? Cordy: 1? Buffy: 4 confirmed; Angel, Parker, Riley, Spike. 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 Spike; 2 Buffy and Anya Anya; 2 Xander and Spike

Spike; good or bad? He feels sympathy for Anya being left at the altar and it seems quite genuine.

Dawn in peril; 9

Dawn the bashful virgin; Dawn the voyeur again but Willow stops her continuing to watch Spike/Anya get it on at the Magic Shop via the surveillance cameras

What the fanficcers thought; A truly hilarious fanfic dealing with this episode has the various Scoobies appearing on The Jerry Springer Show and Xander being confronted by the footage of Anya and Spike at the Magic Box AND Buffy's shameful confession live on air. Of course he then does the sensible thing and hits Spike over the head with a chair.... But as Jerry says in his final thought if Tara and Willow can find their love for one another again can't we all. Take care of yourselves and each other. 'The Buffy Springer Show'

Questions and observations; Do we really think Giles would drink Jack Daniels? Surely he's a Scotch man? Maybe Gwendoline Post was right, he has become too American. Dawn no longer likes pet shops, perhaps because she too has been a prisoner at least twice. Note Warren seems to take sadistic glee at hunting the vamps. Buffy feels bad about the events of Normal Again but her friends and sister easily forgive her, she's delighted to feel the love. Are there real gnomes in the Buffyverse?

Marks out of 10; I was going to say that Entropy was a good title for a season that had lost it's way and become quite dismal in places but actually this is more like it, sex and character based comedy with a happy ending. 8/10

[Jack Shaftoe]

Quote

The Good; Anya's hilarious attempts to take vengeance on Xander. The Geeks vamphunting. Buffy and Dawn the happiest they've been together in a long time. But best of all Willow and Tara back together.

The Bad; Not much, a lot more fun than recent eps. You do feel bad for Anya though.

No, I don't. Imagine if one of those "hilarious" murder attempts had been successful? Not only Xander would have been dead but one of his friends would have had to live with the guilt of inadvertently causing said death. IMO, these attempts are only hilarious from a meta perspective since we all know Xander wasn't going to get killed off at this juncture.

And Anyanka 2.0 pisses all over Anya's character development, as paltry as that was. No, really. Why does she need any powers to punish Xander anyway? I am pretty sure she could cast a spell on him as she did with Olaf, or you know, stab him or something.

[lembergwatcher]

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

But best of all Willow and Tara back together.

Yeah, even though it looked artificial to the core. I mean, Tara kept her distance for nearly ten eps (almost six months in the show) and then all of a sudden, as if by magic, decided to give poor Willow a try? Come on... I've got a theory that since Tara apparently didn't have a partner after breaking with Willow, she probably wanted, you know, to get laid quite desperately. Therefore she had to set some things aside (What? You think only Xanya was about carnal pursuits while W&T have been celibate?) Once again you need some discretion for diabetics or those who don't like too much sugar to stand all the sickeningly sappy W/T scenes.

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Anya is perfectly justified in her rage at Xander.

One of the most blatant misconceptions about the whole deal ever. No, the Hellbitch wasn't one iota justified in her rage at Xander. Let us not forget, it was one of Anya's victims (the man whose life she'd ruined) that started it all. Therefore Anyanka should have directed all of her "righteous anger" at herself first and foremost. The aftermath of Hell's Bells was a perfect opportunity for someone like Anya to sit there and think for a moment: "Hey, what if vengeance wasn't such a good thing after all? What if I hurt lots and lots and lots of innocent people while doin' my old job? Maybe it's me, not Xander? How can I at least partly make up for atrocities I've commited and lives I've ruined?" Unfortunately thoughts like that seem to have never crossed her mind. And since remorse wasn't listed among Anya's qualities she could't think about anything else but destroying Xander's life.

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Anya wants to talk about torture

That's only proves my point that all the talk about Anya being "reformed" is nothing but a wishful thinking. Obviously there was no big difference between Anyanka the Vengeance Demon and Anya the Working Gal.

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Spike; good or bad? He feels sympathy for Anya being left at the altar and it seems quite genuine.

Spike and sympathy in one sentence? You must be kidding... Taking advantage of someone in his or her current state has nothing to do with true sympathy (just like fucking Buffy at The Bronze had very-very little to do with either love or sympathy). It's kinda bizarre when people view W/X illicit smoochies in season 3 as "lust", but anything someone like Spike did to women in his (un)life as "love" or "sympathy". The vamp just wanted to hurt the one person he hated (Xander), that's all.

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

The Troika and the Scoobies voyeuristically watch Anya and Spike at the Magic Shop

The show would have been so much better if Anya and Spike finally realized they had so much in common, got together and got out of the Scoobies' lives for good. Everyone would have been way better without those two in sight: Buffy, Xander, Willow. Everyone. Even now I can imagine Captain Peroxide and Anya impersonating the main characters from Last Tango in Paris in some cheap motel in, say, Paris or elsewhere.

Edited October 31, 2018 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

Well, so much for THAT winning streak. 2/10? Maybe 3 if I'm kind.  

(It would help if they hadn't cut the wrong half of the Buffy/Dawn scene, the part where Buffy pulls Dawn out of the way of oncoming peril and we see that Dawn is still terrified of her after last episode's events, brave front aside.)

Anya "hilariously" tries to get Xander's friends to murder him, again and again and again!  Buffy's still lying to her friends, even though she no longer has any reason to do so, even though Spike even points this out to her!  Spike goes from "I don't hurt you" to sleeping with Buffy's only female heterosexual friend almost immediately, and then he rats out his relationship with Buffy to score a point off Xander, even knowing how much it will hurt Buffy!  Willow sees Xander murderously enraged and rushing off, but stays home, just la-di-da-ing around, hoping that Tara drops by wearing a ridiculous leather coat (the "Let's Make Tara Cool!" campaign's latest desperate effort; tune in next week when she rides her motorcycle and plays guitar!) and gives a stupid speech that boils down to "Jump, Willow!  Mommy wants sex and you're my obedient puppy!"  (And Puppy!Willow does in fact jump, because she only exists for Tara, the part where Tara left her at her lowest point and didn't talk to her for over a month and hung up on her phone calls?  Piffle!  Tara is perfect and Willow doesn't exist without her, don't you know?) Plus stupid and useless Trio scenes where they do nothing but fill time and promise to be relevant next week.

Eh, forget the 3.  Even 2 counts as generous.

(Yes, yes, Xander beats the crap out of Spike, which is nice, but we just had that last episode.  And it's not as if he gets to slay him, after all.  Although I guess it's good that he finally gets Anya to admit that she only dated him "because I was there", so that's progress.  And clearly the end of Xanya, right?  Thank God…)

[lembergwatcher]

1 hour ago, Halting Hex said:

And clearly the end of Xanya, right?  Thank God…)

Not the end. Unfortunately.

Spoiler

As season 7 has proved.

[Halting Hex]

Spoiler

That was my sarcastic voice.  I know, I know, it sounds like my regular voice.  Sorry.

6 hours ago, lembergwatcher said:

Maybe it's me, not Xander?

Ironically, in Triangle, she told Xander a story about a "repeat client" whose serial requests led Anyanka to think the woman should be wondering if she was the problem.  Vengeance demon, heed thyself.

[Halting Hex]

6 hours ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

Why does [Anya] need any powers to punish Xander anyway? I am pretty sure she could cast a spell on him as she did with Olaf, or you know, stab him or something.

He is "ludicrous and far too breakable", to quote her (possible) ex.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Halting Hex

[Joe Hellandback]

10 hours ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

No, I don't. Imagine if one of those "hilarious" murder attempts had been successful? Not only Xander would have been dead but one of his friends would have had to live with the guilt of inadvertently causing said death. IMO, these attempts are only hilarious from a meta perspective since we all know Xander wasn't going to get killed off at this juncture.

And Anyanka 2.0 pisses all over Anya's character development, as paltry as that was. No, really. Why does she need any powers to punish Xander anyway? I am pretty sure she could cast a spell on him as she did with Olaf, or you know, stab him or something.

She doesn't just become a vengeance demon again for taking revenge, having lost Xander and the Scoobs she wants her alternate family back again

10 hours ago, lembergwatcher said:

Yeah, even though it looked artificial to the core. I mean, Tara kept her distance for nearly ten eps (almost six months in the show) and then all of a sudden, as if by magic, decided to give poor Willow a try? Come on... I've got a theory that since Tara apparently didn't have a partner after breaking with Willow, she probably wanted, you know, to get laid quite desperately. Therefore she had to set some things aside (What? You think only Xanya was about carnal pursuits while W&T have been celibate?) Once again you need some discretion for diabetics or those who don't like too much sugar to stand all the sickeningly sappy W/T scenes.

One of the most blatant misconceptions about the whole deal ever. No, the Hellbitch wasn't one iota justified in her rage at Xander. Let us not forget, it was one of Anya's victims (the man whose life she'd ruined) that started it all. Therefore Anyanka should have directed all of her "righteous anger" at herself first and foremost. The aftermath of Hell's Bells was a perfect opportunity for someone like Anya to sit there and think for a moment: "Hey, what if vengeance wasn't such a good thing after all? What if I hurt lots and lots and lots of innocent people while doin' my old job? Maybe it's me, not Xander? How can I at least partly make up for atrocities I've commited and lives I've ruined?" Unfortunately thoughts like that seem to have never crossed her mind. And since remorse wasn't listed among Anya's qualities she could't think about anything else but destroying Xander's life.

That's only proves my point that all the talk about Anya being "reformed" is nothing but a wishful thinking. Obviously there was no big difference between Anyanka the Vengeance Demon and Anya the Working Gal.

Spike and sympathy in one sentence? You must be kidding... Taking advantage of someone in his or her current state has nothing to do with true sympathy (just like fucking Buffy at The Bronze had very-very little to do with either love or sympathy). It's kinda bizarre when people view W/X illicit smoochies in season 3 as "lust", but anything someone like Spike did to women in his (un)life as "love" or "sympathy". The vamp just wanted to hurt the one person he hated (Xander), that's all.

The show would have been so much better if Anya and Spike finally realized they had so much in common, got together and got out of the Scoobies' lives for good. Everyone would have been way better without those two in sight: Buffy, Xander, Willow. Everyone. Even now I can imagine Captain Peroxide and Anya impersonating the main characters from Last Tango in Paris in some cheap motel in, say, Paris or elsewhere.

I quite like the idea of Spanya actually but Anya is much changed by her human experience, that's the whole point of it all. And Spike has before shown great insight into humanity whilst never really feeling for it he understands it as an outsider. 

[Jack Shaftoe]

Quote

She doesn't just become a vengeance demon again for taking revenge, having lost Xander and the Scoobs she wants her alternate family back again

And that makes it better how exactly? Come to think of it, why the hell did D'Hoffryn decide to take Anya back anyway? It's not like she was any less suitable for the job a week or a month ago. The whole thing is absolutely idiotic.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Jack Shaftoe

[Joe Hellandback]

10 minutes ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

And that makes it better how exactly? Come to think of it, why the hell did D'Hoffryn decide to take Anya back anyway? It's not like she was any less suitable for the job a week or a month ago. The whole thing is absolutely idiotic.

Because she did so from need rather than hate? Also I wonder if 'D'Hoffryn was behind the whole thing' which was a concept much discussed on The Bronze? 

7 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Well, so much for THAT winning streak. 2/10? Maybe 3 if I'm kind.  

(It would help if they hadn't cut the wrong half of the Buffy/Dawn scene, the part where Buffy pulls Dawn out of the way of oncoming peril and we see that Dawn is still terrified of her after last episode's events, brave front aside.)

Anya "hilariously" tries to get Xander's friends to murder him, again and again and again!  Buffy's still lying to her friends, even though she no longer has any reason to do so, even though Spike even points this out to her!  Spike goes from "I don't hurt you" to sleeping with Buffy's only female heterosexual friend almost immediately, and then he rats out his relationship with Buffy to score a point off Xander, even knowing how much it will hurt Buffy!  Willow sees Xander murderously enraged and rushing off, but stays home, just la-di-da-ing around, hoping that Tara drops by wearing a ridiculous leather coat (the "Let's Make Tara Cool!" campaign's latest desperate effort; tune in next week when she rides her motorcycle and plays guitar!) and gives a stupid speech that boils down to "Jump, Willow!  Mommy wants sex and you're my obedient puppy!"  (And Puppy!Willow does in fact jump, because she only exists for Tara, the part where Tara left her at her lowest point and didn't talk to her for over a month and hung up on her phone calls?  Piffle!  Tara is perfect and Willow doesn't exist without her, don't you know?) Plus stupid and useless Trio scenes where they do nothing but fill time and promise to be relevant next week.

Eh, forget the 3.  Even 2 counts as generous.

(Yes, yes, Xander beats the crap out of Spike, which is nice, but we just had that last episode.  And it's not as if he gets to slay him, after all.  Although I guess it's good that he finally gets Anya to admit that she only dated him "because I was there", so that's progress.  And clearly the end of Xanya, right?  Thank God…)

I liked Tara's coat, wasn't it the same one she wore in Bargaining?

[Joe Hellandback]

17 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

 (It would help if they hadn't cut the wrong half of the Buffy/Dawn scene, the part where Buffy pulls Dawn out of the way of oncoming peril and we see that Dawn is still terrified of her after last episode's events, brave front aside.)

No, I' glad they did that, people complain (with some justification) that s6 lacks happy moments and Buffy and Dawn shopping together is a real happy and touching moment. Obviously the missing scene makes sense when we hear

Spoiler

Dawn observing that the Scoobs don't ask for help and you end up dragging your sister into the basement in s7, she still has some understandable issues

but I like it as it is. 

[lembergwatcher]

Watching this sorry ep back in the day I wanted to literally blow up my TV whenever Xander told Anya he "loved" her.

Did I say Xander and Willow were the two sides of the same coin? The way they wanted to make it up to their significant others speaks volumes and kinda proves my point. Except that Xander appears to be more miserable at the moment ("I have to go after her"). God, how I wanted to visit Sunnydale and scream it in the guy's ear: "Don't bother with Anya, Xander! Forget about that bitch!"

Yes, Xander does express his disgust for Anya (and Spankya).

Spoiler

But that feeling doesn't last too long. Unfortunately.

And I still wish Spike & Anya good luck. Those crazy kids would've been a helluva couple. Nothing gets more scores in my book than two drunk monsters bitching about human flaws, you know.

What a useless pile of shit...

Edited December 23, 2018 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

The Spankya drunken bitchfest would qualify as a positive…except they already did that scene, exactly two seasons before, in Where The Wild Things Are.  So, it's just recycling, and thus hollow.

And this episode does give us Spike's only funny line of the entire season ("Drusilla was forthright.  Didn't have the slightest idea what was happening in front of her bloody eyes…but she was honest about it!"), which is a point in the plus column, I suppose.  

But very empty, still.

[lembergwatcher]

Yes, they did it in WTWTA. Only without "fucking on the table" part. Unfortunately.

[Halting Hex]

Well, it's not as if WTWTA was lacking in sex, after all.  (Damn, isn't Riley supposed to be off the "vitamins" by then?)  So this episode did take things to a new level.  (And that's why I only specified the "bitchfest" was a re-run; I knew the porn was new.)  Yay?

In my "find something nice to say" desperation, I should also note that Willow does some hacking in this episode. 

Spoiler

(Is this the last time she does anything more sophisticated than using Google™?  I forget.)

So points for that as well, I'd allow.

Edited December 23, 2018 by Halting Hex

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎22‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 2:25 PM, lembergwatcher said:

Watching this sorry ep back in the day I wanted to literally blow up my TV whenever Xander told Anya he "loved" her.

Did I say Xander and Willow were the two sides of the same coin? The way they wanted to make it up to their significant others speaks volumes and kinda proves my point. Except that Xander appears to be more miserable at the moment ("I have to go after her"). God, how I wanted to visit Sunnydale and scream it in the guy's ear: "Don't bother with Anya, Xander! Forget about that bitch!"

Yes, Xander does express his disgust for Anya (and Spankya).

  Hide contents

But that feeling doesn't last too long. Unfortunately.

And I still wish Spike & Anya good luck. Those crazy kids would've been a helluva couple. Nothing gets more scores in my book than two drunk monsters bitching about human flaws, you know.

What a useless pile of shit...

Watch TPOTN from about 45 seconds onwards, he explains far better than I ever could the appeal of Xanya;

[lembergwatcher]

Oh come on... 

Xanya didn't improve Xander's self-esteem, it only brought out the worst in Xander. It was one of the main reasons the gang drifted so far apart in the fourth season, it was the main reason for Xander's inability to show Willow more support after the whole Oz/Veruca deal. And yeah, Xander was such a miserable and stupid guy. How could he possibly understand he wasn't a loser, if it wasn't for a bitch from hell who wanted to get laid?..

Besides, Primeval happened 42 episodes earlier. Xanya should have been over after Hell's Bells. Therefore every supposed "positive effect" of the said relationship was totally irrelevant as of Entropy.

Edited December 28, 2018 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

The argument that Anya gave Xander self-esteem he'd been lacking previously is somewhat undercut by the vidder's including a clip from The Zeppo in that montage.  If "I like the quiet" is supposed to show Xander's character growth, then he doesn't need Anya to validate it.

And while the Primeval scene is lovely  (and so is the "We'll die together" scene in Pangs), overall Anya's years and years of henpecking  rather outweighs that, IMO.  She admits in Where the Wild Things Are that the only thing they have in common is liking his penis, and says in this episode that she only dated him "because he was there".   And then she attacks him as "a scared, insecure, little boy"…oh, such a loving partner the Hellbitch is!

Pass.  He'd have been better off with The Sock-Puppet of Love, IMO

[lembergwatcher]

On 10/31/2018 at 6:36 PM, Halting Hex said:

Willow sees Xander murderously enraged and rushing off, but stays home, just la-di-da-ing around, hoping that Tara drops by wearing a ridiculous leather coat (the "Let's Make Tara Cool!" campaign's latest desperate effort; tune in next week when she rides her motorcycle and plays guitar!)

Maybe Willow doesn't give a hoot about Spike and she sure as hell doesn't think about the possibility of Xander (physically) hurting Anya or Buffy (physically) hurting Xander. And, yes, Tara's leather coat is very ridiculous. Because she needs neither "cool-looking" clothing nor motorcycle riding and guitar playing to be cool. She took down Razor, the demonic mob boss, after all. That should have enhanced Tara's coolness level to some extent, I guess.

What bothers me among other things is whether Buffy's verbal diarrhea stemms from her gratitude to her sister and friends for not putting Psycho!Slayer into lunatic asylum after the whole mass murder in the basement attempt or she just laughs at their naivete/stupidity?

So if you think they'll deal, Slayer, why keep all these secrets and not announce casually the other day: "I had sex with Spike, you know"?

Edited April 2, 2019 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

I know.  Spike points out that Buffy is lying to her friends for no reason and Buffy agrees with him and then…keeps on lying.  Yeah, that's logic for you.

Also, it would be nice if Buffy showed some guilt over her attempted sororicide.  (Not to mention the attacks on Willow, Xander, and Tara.)  

Oh, well. Thanks for making Spike look like the sensible one, at least for a moment.  Of course, later he "outs" Buffy without her consent, so that's less good.  Wasn't the show trying to have Buffy and Tara bond by making Spuffy some sort of gay metaphor?  (Even with "Sweetie, I'm a fag.  I been there" having been thankfully cut from the Dead Things script.)  Not exactly showing sensitivity to a fellow member of his "community', Sparky isn't, I wouldn't think.  

But of course, it's Spike.  So it's not as if we should expect better.  Sigh.