A few gifs per episode | Buffy - 4x02 - “Living Conditions”
This one is for personal reasons.
“Willow’s a demon?!”
Follow up after Checkpoint: that moment alone is why it’s one of my top episodes.
Watching Checkpoint, which is one of my less obvious favorite episodes.
Here’s the thing about Season Five - the season is so continuous that I put on this episode and for the first five minutes had no idea who knew what about Dawn or keys or Glory or Ben or who was alive. Man, there was a whole lot of revelations in this episode.
Also, I love Slayer Council mythology.
Chris Scott and I are doing Couple Storytelling tonight at TOLD at Under St. Mark’s at 7pm.
Please come. We’ll be telling the story of our first fight, which was over an episode of Buffy.
Yes. Couple Storytelling about a fictional couple created by other people.
It is possible Nicole and I should lead more adventurous lives. But, screw that. We do pretty well.
Rewatching Buffy: 7.5: Selfless
I always wish this episode pushed just a touch farther. It really is excellent as it is, but part of me always thinks Anya should have died here. The episode doesn’t need it, but the character does.
The benefit of killing Hally is that it pulls an old switcheroo for D’Hoffryn. All of a sudden it’s like “Oh, he’s a huge badass. He’s not just a funny, sassy demon boss. What a mindfuck.” But we never cash in on that because we don’t see him again. And we never cash in on Anya’s guilt because after this episode, she has minimal presence in the rest of the series.
I always want characters to have huge endings. And I understand, Anya’s death was about not giving a character a huge ending. But given the choice between having my heart ripped out and stomped on in a satisfying way or having a “hmm, that was thematically clever” moment - stomp baby, stomp.
(All of that is said with the hindsight of having seen the entire season and zero concern for actual actor/story/episode obligations.)
Very important
I’ve had the Under Your Spell/Standing reprise from Once More With Feeling stuck in my head all morning.
Last night I wanted to watch either of the following things in the worst way:
Tabula Rasa
or
The end of Entropy.
Oh man. Netflix Instant Watch cannot get here fast enough.
Angel 5.21 and 5.22: Power Play and Not Fade Away
So. It’s over.
All of it.
I was kind of thrown when Buffy ended. Unsatisfied and let down.
Right now?
I don’t feel sad.
Because that was the most incredible ending of a television show ever.
Angel 5.20: The Girl in Question
Okay. I liked this episode. I did. And it was definitely the perfect timing for it. But I don’t always love when Angel goes totally comedic. My extensive (oh…I think I mean expensive) comedy training means I can usually guess the ‘ole bits before they happen. And something about them always seems cop-outty. I wish we’d actually seen whatever The Immortal was. Too much episode importance placed on something vague. (Well, the episode is really about Spike and Angel’s attitude toward Buffy so yes, you can make an argument that the Immortal doesn’t matter but still…whenever something isn’t shown it feels cheap.)
I did love Illyria coming back as Fred. I know they’re really, really trying to hit home that Fred is dead. This is not she. Your friend will not be coming back. But I need Illyria to somehow connect to Fred’s plot in order to feel like there’s a reason for her to be there and to feel closure to the concept of Fred, if not the character.
But there were a lot of great hat-tipping moments to Buffy. And it was first class to do that in the penultimate episode. Class.
