S06.E21: Two to Go

[Joe Hellandback]

The Good; This ep just never stops moving, just like 'truck driving magic momma' DarkWillow.

The Bad; No time for that!

Best line; Anya; (of Andrew) "The annoying virgin has a point"

Women good/men bad; The female coven sense the impending disaster whilst the male dominated Council don't

Jeez!; You really know how far Willow has gone when she threatens her beloved Dawn, mocking her loss of Tara and Joyce. Willow really doesn't live here anymore as is brought home by her referring to herself in 3rd person.

Kinky dinky; Anya tells Xander that her tryst with Spike was not vengeance as it appeared, it was solace. Xander doubts that Andrew has ever had any sex. According to Clem Rack likes 'little girls' (as we saw with Willow and Amy). Dawn says she's not a little girl anymore but still insists on going to see him, willing to pay any price to help those she loves.

Captain Subtext; Xander spends almost the whole episode bemoaning his uselessness. Don't worry, every dog has his day and it's coming. Note Jonathon keeps trying to help at the Magic Shop, he wants to be part of the Scoobygang. Even DarkWillow still refers to Dawn as 'cutie' and 'honey'

Apocalypses; 6

Scoobies in bondage: Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 5 Will: 4 Jenny: 1 Angel: 4 Oz: 1 Faith: 3 Joyce: 1 Wes: 1 Xander; 2 Dawn; 4

Scoobies knocked out: Dawn faints after teleporting whilst Anya and Buffy get knocked out at the Magic Shop.

Buffy: 18 Giles: 12 Cordy: 6 Xander: 12 Will: 8 Jenny: 2 Angel: 6 Oz: 3 Faith: 1 Joyce: 3 Wes: 1 Anya; 4 Dawn; 3 Tara; 1

Kills: Willow kills Rack Buffy: 107 vamps, 56 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot Giles: 8 vamps, 2 demon, 1 human, 1 god.

Cordy: 3 vamps, a demon Will: 6 vamps + 3 demons +1 fawn+1 human.

Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans Xander: 6 vamps, 2 zombies, 1 a demon, Anya: 1 vamp and 1 a demon Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons Spike; 8 vamps and 4 demons Buffybot; 2 vamps Tara; 1 demon Dawn; 1 vamp

Scoobies go evil: Willow and how! Giles: 1 Cordy: 1 Will: 3 Jenny: 1 Angel: 1 Oz: 1 Joyce: 1 Xander: 4 Anya; 1 Dawn; 1 Buffy; 1

Alternate scoobies: DarkWillow Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 1 Will: 5 Jenny: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 2 Joyce: 2 Xander: 4 Tara; 1 Dawn;1 Spike; 1 Anya; 2 Recurring characters killed: 12 Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce, Katrina, Tara

Sunnydale deaths; 94

Total number of scoobies: 2- Anya helping but not really part of the gang Xander, Buffy, Xander demon magnet: 5(6?) Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula?

Scoobies shot: DarkWillow threatened by a phalanx of police guns but no rounds fired Giles: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 4 Riley; 1 Buffy; 1 Tara; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost: 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 Spike and Xander

Dawn in peril; 10

Dawn the bashful virgin; 9

Questions and observations; Anya says that Willow is the most powerful wicca in the Western Hemisphere (she's the wicked witch of the West?). Anya's outfit makes her look like some sort of puritan. Check out kung-fu DarkWillow. The 'walking action figure' will later turns up as Helo's...I'm sorry Agent Ballard's sparring partner in Dollhouse.

Marks out of 10; 8/10

[lembergwatcher]

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

The Bad; No time for that!

Really? The sole fact that they've chosen Willow to become season's "Big Bad" is bad to the bone I guess.

 

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Captain Subtext; Xander spends almost the whole episode bemoaning his uselessness.

Making Xander look useless throughout most of the season is clearly one more reason to despise season sux.

Spoiler

Xander's shining moment on Kingman's Bluff in the season's finale is not enough to erase the bad taste in the mouth.

 

But I must say I liked to see Dark!Willow kicking Buffy's

Spoiler

and later Giles'

ass. After 5,5 seasons of being loyal to the core, after years of almost blind adoration of those two we could finally see some step ahead. Good blow, Will (even though I don't like to see you evil). It took Willow way too long to open her eyes on who real Buffy was and let's face it: Dark!Willow didn't fabricate that much about the Slayer during B's attempts to talk her out of confrontation. Yes, she's evil (at least according to the script) and she's out of control but some of her words make sense.

OTOH I just cannot buy this whole "Willow is a loser" shit coming from Dark!Willow's mouth. Since joining the Scooby Gang Willow was never treated as a "loser" by her closest friends (the writers had Xander to be everyone's buttmonkey, don't forget it). If anything, Willow's work and overall personality have always been respected and appreciated by the others. Giles and Buffy (before she became fucked-up and Spike-obsessed) loved her dearly, and Cordy generally liked her starting from season 2. Buffy found the streangth to carry on due to Willow (as Halting Hex once observed) and Xander offered his life to save his Willow from the Mummy Girl. The "cool" guitarist who could have almost every girl in town fell in love with shy redhead, Angel was her friend and even Spike liked Willow to some extent (while Xander used to have his moments mostly when no one was watching him, so the others couldn't change their attitude and thus stop seeing X as merely a "loser" or a "clown").  

Edited November 2, 2018 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

Willow commits another murder.  Xander spends the entire episode groveling before his Hellbitch ("Yes, Ahn. You were right, Ahn.  I'm scum, Ahn," or whatever his actual lines are).  Anya somehow manages to blame Xander both for proposing to her and for not marrying her, when you'd think that simple logic would indicate that he must have been right one of those times.  Andrew continues to exist, and won't shut UP.  The idiot writers somehow have fucking Jonathan give the obituary for Old School Willow, when the only time they ever interacted was when she was interrogating him, and appearing to enjoy his terror.  (Go Fish, Earshot.)

The lazy-ass writing involves having Spike steal lines from Nirvana, having Buffy steal lines from Spike, and having Buffy reuse her speech to Maggie Walsh from The I in Team.  Both Sarah and Alyson look as if they're in danger of falling asleep.  And who can blame them?  There's a reason I call this snore-fest one of the "Dull!Willow" episodes.

Marks:  1/10, for Willow's delightful mockery of Dawn. "Mom! Buffy! Tara! Waaah!" Go cry some more, Key-Face.

Edited November 2, 2018 by Halting Hex

[Jack Shaftoe]

Quote

OTOH I just cannot buy this whole "Willow is a loser" shit coming from Dark!Willow's mouth. Since joining the Scooby Gang Willow was never treated as a "loser" by her closest friends (the writers had Xander to be everyone's buttmonkey, don't forget it). If anything, Willow's work and overall personality have always been respected and appreciated by the others. Giles and Buffy (before she became fucked-up and Spike-obsessed) loved her dearly, and Cordy generally liked her starting from season 2. Buffy found the streangth to carry on due to Willow (as Halting Hex once observed) and Xander offered his life to save his Willow from the Mummy Girl.

I consider it a lame attempt of some sort of dissociative disorder. Like it's not Willow killing people it's some other personality of Willow's fueled by the magic.

Spoiler

Because god forbid any of the protagonists suffer actual serious consequences when they screw up so much that people die as a result of it. Killing the protagonists at random is much more "mature" and "dark", consequences for small transgressions like murder is clearly not something Joss is comfortable with.

Of course, at that point the writers did seem to consider Willow utterly useless without her magic so they might have thought Dull!Willow's speeches reflected the truth. Who can say, it was all for shock value anyway, characterization was never really a factor.

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎02‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 1:18 PM, lembergwatcher said:

Really? The sole fact that they've chosen Willow to become season's "Big Bad" is bad to the bone I guess.

 

Making Xander look useless throughout most of the season is clearly one more reason to despise season sux.

  Hide contents

Xander's shining moment on Kingman's Bluff in the season's finale is not enough to erase the bad taste in the mouth.

 

But I must say I liked to see Dark!Willow kicking Buffy's

  Hide contents

and later Giles'

ass. After 5,5 seasons of being loyal to the core, after years of almost blind adoration of those two we could finally see some step ahead. Good blow, Will (even though I don't like to see you evil). It took Willow way too long to open her eyes on who real Buffy was and let's face it: Dark!Willow didn't fabricate that much about the Slayer during B's attempts to talk her out of confrontation. Yes, she's evil (at least according to the script) and she's out of control but some of her words make sense.

OTOH I just cannot buy this whole "Willow is a loser" shit coming from Dark!Willow's mouth. Since joining the Scooby Gang Willow was never treated as a "loser" by her closest friends (the writers had Xander to be everyone's buttmonkey, don't forget it). If anything, Willow's work and overall personality have always been respected and appreciated by the others. Giles and Buffy (before she became fucked-up and Spike-obsessed) loved her dearly, and Cordy generally liked her starting from season 2. Buffy found the streangth to carry on due to Willow (as Halting Hex once observed) and Xander offered his life to save his Willow from the Mummy Girl. The "cool" guitarist who could have almost every girl in town fell in love with shy redhead, Angel was her friend and even Spike liked Willow to some extent (while Xander used to have his moments mostly when no one was watching him, so the others couldn't change their attitude and thus stop seeing X as merely a "loser" or a "clown").  

But it made sense, the threat to the Scoobs comes from within, forces threatening to tear them apart. And Xander gets to save the world, can't argue with that. When she refers to Willow is a loser it shows how far she has gone, just like threatening Dawn 

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎02‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 1:22 PM, Halting Hex said:

Willow commits another murder.  Xander spends the entire episode groveling before his Hellbitch ("Yes, Ahn. You were right, Ahn.  I'm scum, Ahn," or whatever his actual lines are).  Anya somehow manages to blame Xander both for proposing to her and for not marrying her, when you'd think that simple logic would indicate that he must have been right one of those times.  Andrew continues to exist, and won't shut UP.  The idiot writers somehow have fucking Jonathan give the obituary for Old School Willow, when the only time they ever interacted was when she was interrogating him, and appearing to enjoy his terror.  (Go Fish, Earshot.)

The lazy-ass writing involves having Spike steal lines from Nirvana, having Buffy steal lines from Spike, and having Buffy reuse her speech to Maggie Walsh from The I in Team.  Both Sarah and Alyson look as if they're in danger of falling asleep.  And who can blame them?  There's a reason I call this snore-fest one of the "Dull!Willow" episodes.

Marks:  1/10, for Willow's delightful mockery of Dawn. "Mom! Buffy! Tara! Waaah!" Go cry some more, Key-Face.

Which hellbitch, Anya or Willow? Anya is right, if Xander proposed he should have gone through with it. Plus I like Jonathan reminding us that he's a SDH boy from the beginning, knowing Xander, Willow, CC etc for far longer than Buffy ever did. Knowing Spike and his fake trendiness it's hardly surprising he's a Nirvana fan and given the time it was probably irresistible.

Plus Will mocking Dawn is shudder inducing cold.  

On ‎02‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 3:02 PM, Jack Shaftoe said:

I consider it a lame attempt of some sort of dissociative disorder. Like it's not Willow killing people it's some other personality of Willow's fueled by the magic.

  Hide contents

Because god forbid any of the protagonists suffer actual serious consequences when they screw up so much that people die as a result of it. Killing the protagonists at random is much more "mature" and "dark", consequences for small transgressions like murder is clearly not something Joss is comfortable with.

Of course, at that point the writers did seem to consider Willow utterly useless without her magic so they might have thought Dull!Willow's speeches reflected the truth. Who can say, it was all for shock value anyway, characterization was never really a factor.

Unfair, I mean look at Faith?

[lembergwatcher]

14 minutes ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Which hellbitch, Anya or Willow? Anya is right, if Xander proposed he should have gone through with it.

Anya, of course. Xander didn't intend to marry Willow (unfortunately). Anya shouldn't have ruined so many lives while "doing her job" to begin with. And she should have known that the past has a tendency to come back and bite in the ass either.

[Halting Hex]

21 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Which hellbitch, Anya or Willow?

Anya, of course.  Willow has never been to Hell, much less sold her humanity for power. (Twice.)  Yes, she's acting horrifically here, but all she's done is reached Anyanka's default setting.  (See The Wish.)

[MagnusHex]

The AV Club's review of this episode remarked that this final two-parter is too rushed and should've had more time dedicated to the finale, and I definitely agree. Giles coming back to confront Willow, Jonathan's redemption, Willow finally confronting Buffy about being the sidekick, all these feelings should've been expressed throughout the entire season. Dark Willow should've been the seasonal Big Bad, not only appearing in the last three episodes. What a waste.

Edited March 24, 2021 by MagnusHex