Re: Tonights Episode

[stephenbooth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Here's some spoiler space.

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On Wed, 10 Jan 2001 05:07:28 -0000, you wrote:

>Willow really said she was gay! To who? I haven't seen the pisode where i 
>live yet.

I havben't seen the ep yet myself but according to the reviews
Willow and Anya are in the Magic Box (or whatever Giles' shop is
called) and talking about Xander. Anya does her typical "You
can't have Xander." and Willow says "Hello..... Gay Now!". Later
in the ep Anya makes a comment about Willow being gay and willow
smiles.

What follows is a summary and review, I think it was originally
posted on the news group :
Xander and Anya are lying in bed together, talking about Buffy
and Riley.
Anya
is worried that Xander might leave her abruptly, too, but then
reassures
herself by wondering if the problem is simply that Buffy just
can't hang
onto
her boyfriends. Xander doesn't think it's a pattern, but he is
concerned
about
how Buffy might be handling things, since this is the second time
a major
relationship has gone down in flames.

Cut to a convent, where Buffy is handling things the way you'd
expect. No,
she
doesn't become a nun (although I can't be the only person who has
wondered
when
she'll just give up and go celibate...). She's fighting a
vampire, as
usual.
After she dusts him, she helps a young sister to her feet. As
they walk
away,
Buffy starts grilling her about life without men. Heh.


[credits - no Marc Blucas, so that's official]


Buffy and Giles train together, but she's not kicking his butt
for a change.
In fact, she's off her game, and telegraphing every move. They take a
break,
and discuss his big plans - he's going to England for a week to
talk to the
Watchers' Council about this Glory situation. Seems he's
exhausted all his
resources in Sunnydale, and he's hoping the CoW can (and will)
help. Buffy
doesn't trust them, and makes him assure her that when he tells
them about
the
Key, he won't mention Dawn specifically. He feels bad about
leaving while
she's still upset over Riley, but she tells him she's dealing OK.
Not
great,
but well enough.


So, Giles prepares to go, while the kids (mostly Anya and Willow)
argue
about
how to run the shop in his absence. Anya assumes she'll be in
charge, but
only
Xander seems to agree, and he's just humoring her.

Giles decides to come back a few days early.


At the Summers home, Buffy and Dawn are thrilled to discover
their mom in
normal clothes, instead of the robe she's been wearing for ages
now. She's
obviously feeling better, and the girls are just as obviously
happy.

Buffy goes into her room and starts to read a magazine. Dawn
follows and
asks
if she can hang out a little. She brings up Riley, and starts
asking
questions
about why he left and how Buffy feels about it. Buffy admits
she's still
hurting and wishes she'd realized how bad things had gotten in
time to do
something about it. She tells Dawn that it'll get better, though,
as long as
she just keeps going. She hopes so, anyway.


Meanwhile, Spike has his own regrets, which he's trying to fix in
that
special
way of his. In this case, it entails explaining his intentions
to a
mannequin
dressed up as Buffy (he even has a box of chocolates). He thinks
she's mad
at
him for telling her about Riley, and he actually gets indignant
at her
"anger".
He ends up physically attacking the object of his affection. Sighing, he
picks
up the mannequin and starts the speech over.


At the shop, Tara and Willow are trying out a spell that will
provide light
for
Buffy when she's fighting at night (Willow has also tried to
de-rat Amy
again,
but thinks she only succeeded in making her smarter....). Anya
gets upset
because they're taking supplies without paying and doing magic
while Giles
is
gone. Xander comes in, and Anya and Willow start complaining
about each
other
to him.
This time, though, he refuses to get dragged into it. He snaps
at both of
them
and tells them to work it out themselves for a change. After he
leaves,
Willow
tries to get Tara involved. She bows out, too, albeit a little
more
politely.

So, the two of them basically end up stuck at the shop together
all day,
while
Willow prepares the spell and Anya stands behind her, tallying
the cost of
everything she uses. Willow tries to cast the spell, but Anya
keeps
interrupting, which prompts another heated argument between them.
They
don't
notice that whatever Willow was conjuring is behaving strangely.
Before
they
know it, there's a flash of light and a giant, ugly-ass troll
appears,
carrying
a large hammer (think a dumber, hairier version of Thor). He
roars at them,
then smashes up the store real good and heads out the door.


At UC Sunnydale, Buffy and Tara walk out of a class together
(yes, folks,
they
really do go to school). They chat amiably, until the subject of
Riley
comes
up. Buffy puts on a brave face, but when Tara mentions the little
spat
between
Xander and Anya, that brave crap just goes right out the window.
Buffy gets
teary, afraid that Xander and Anya will break up like she and
Riley did.
She
starts crying and hugs Tara, who looks bewildered. The girl is
losing it.


Willow and Anya "borrow" Giles' car to look for the troll, who
has left a
handy
trail of destruction all over town. Anya drives (about as well
as Buffy),
while Willow looks for a reversal spell. Unfortunately, Anya
can't figure
out
how to get the top up, and some of Willow's papers go flying.
Anya figures
out
that the troll must have been trapped in a crystal Willow was
using for the
spell, and he accidentally got released while they were arguing.


At the Bronze, Xander literally runs into Spike, who immediately
starts
trying
to find out if Buffy is upset with him. Xander has no idea what
the hell
he's
talking about, and doesn't particularly care, either.


Buffy and Tara arrive at the shop to find the mess the troll left
behind.
They
run out to hunt for it, and, well, it's not exactly being
stealthy. In
fact,
it's right in the middle of beautiful downtown Sunnydale,
throwing dumpsters
and mailboxes at alarmed citizens. Until it smells ale.

Gee, wonder where that could lead?


Xander and Spike play pool at the Bronze, while Xander unloads
about his
frustration with Willow and Anya. He feels like they're trying
to make him
choose between them, and he just can't do that. The troll comes
swaggering
in,
grabbing kegs and sucking the "ale" right out of them. He's
hungry, too, as
it
turns out. And the favorite snack of a troll is.....plump,
succulent babies.

Willow and Anya arrive, with Buffy and Tara close behind. The
troll starts
going off on Anya, and it turns out they used to date.

That's right, Anya dated a troll (Willow exhibits no surprise at
this).

Actually, he was originally a man named Olaf, and he and Anya
were a couple
when she was human the first time. She caught him cheating on
her and
turned
him into a troll, which prompted D'Hoffryn to offer her the gig
as a
vengeance
demon. Many years later, a group of witches trapped Olaf the
Troll in that
crystal. So, needless to say, he's got it in for Anya and her our
favorite
red-headed witch right now.

Willow tries the reversal spell, but it doesn't work, so Buffy
tries
violence.
Olaf is a strong sumbitch, though, and that hammer is deadly. He knocks
Buffy
around (and right into Spike, who uses the opportunity to cop a
feel). Olaf
tears the Bronze apart, bringing parts of the building down on
innocent
bystanders. And Buffy.

Buffy manages to free herself, but Olaf has gotten away. She
sends Willow
and
Anya back to the magic shop to find another spell and tells
Xander to find
Olaf. Buffy surveys the damage, and sees Spike actually helping a
woman.
He's
hoping Buffy will be impressed by this, but she is far from it.


Buffy: "You want credit for not feeding off of bleeding disaster
victims?"

Spike: "Well, yeah."

Buffy: "You're disgusting!"

She storms off.

Spike: "What's it take?!"



Willow and Anya make it back to the shop, looking for anything
they can find
that might stop Olaf. They start bickering again, but this time
it's more
than
just sniping at each other - some real truths come out. Willow
is afraid
that
Anya will hurt Xander, since hurting men is what she did for over
a thousand
years. Anya thinks it's just jealousy, and she resents that
Willow always
makes her feel like a perpetual outsider.

Their heart-to-heart is interrupted by Olaf, who busts in, ready
to bust
them.
Xander runs in and attacks him, getting himself soundly pummeled
in the
process. Olaf is impressed by Xander's bravery, however, and
offers to let
him
and one of the women live. He even gets to choose which one.

Xander refuses to do this (duh), and Olaf breaks his wrist, then
threatens
to
kill him if he doesn't comply. Anya offers her own life for
Xander's, and
Willow tries the reversal spell again (and fails again).

Buffy and Tara arrive, and Buffy starts fighting Olaf. Anya
tells her to
get
his hammer away from him, since that's where his real strength
lies. To
that
end, Anya distracts Olaf by insulting him, while Willow tries
another spell.
She eventually makes the hammer fly out of Olaf's hand, but that doesn't
really make him much weaker, and he throws Buffy against a wall.

Like most villains, though, he can't leave well enough alone. He
starts
taunting Buffy, telling her that her friends aren't worth
fighting for,
especially Xander and Anya, who don't stand a chance as a couple.
Buffy
takes
this way personally and finally succeeds in knocking him out.


Later, Willow manages to send Olaf back to the Troll Dimension
(or maybe the
World Without Shrimp, she's not sure). Buffy says how glad she is
that
everything is OK and Xander and Anya are happy. Then she starts
bawling.


Giles returns from his trip, and he and Buffy sit at her dining
room table,
discussing the state of the shop and his relief that he wasn't
gone any
longer,
considering the damage that occurred in just a few days. He
reports that
the
CoW had no record of Glory and had never heard of her, but
they're eager to
look into it. Joyce comes in, and the three of them talk about
what the
Council might do if they find out about Dawn. They don't
anticipate it
being
good.

Guess who's standing on the stairs, just within earshot, hearing
everything
they say about her?


Oh, boy.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---


Despite the title, there's actually a lot going on in this
episode, but we
may
as well start with the triangle in question: Xander, Anya, and
Willow. Anya
and Willow have never liked each other much, and the animosity is
certainly
understandable, especially on Willow's part. Anya did try to
kill her once,
after all, and Willow is keenly aware of Anya's past and what
that could
mean
for Xander. However, I think Anya is sincere when she says she'd
never hurt
Xander, and she is getting more in touch with her human side -
she doesn't
even
seem interested in getting her powers back anymore. So Willow's
not exactly
being fair, and she does have a habit of picking on Anya, doing
everything
she
can to make her feel like she doesn't belong. I don't think she's
jealous -
she
got over that long ago - but she doesn't trust Anya and
definitely doesn't
like
her.

So poor Xander keeps getting dragged into the middle of this,
made to feel
like
he has to choose between the girlfriend he's in love with and the
best
friend
who has been by his side his entire life. When he's finally
faced with a
literal choice, he'd rather die than make it. He'll also risk
his life to
save
both of them, without even batting an eyelid. This is the New
and Improved
Xander I'm liking so much this season.

On top of all this, we learn more about Anya's past, namely how
she got the
vengeance demon job. It's hard to feel too sorry for a raging
schlub like
Olaf, but one indiscretion doesn't warrant being turned into a
troll for
eternity (although some of the Riley-haters would probably
disagree :-)


Although the episode was mainly about these three characters, the
others
didn't
get shafted, thank Joss. Buffy is coping with Riley's departure
reasonably
well, trying to get on with her life and even (gasp!) *talking*
about her
feelings. Sure, her emotions are still on edge, and she gets
weepy and
freaked
out once in a while, but she's dealing with this better than I
think we've
ever
seen her deal with anything before. The girl is growing up!


Spike, on the other hand, gets more frighteningly pathetic every
week. He's
worried about what Buffy thinks of him, and desperate to impress
her, yet
seems
unaware of the fact that she doesn't really think about him at
all. He's
completely beneath her radar most of the time, unless she's
disgusted with
him
about something, and when he goes out of his way to talk to her,
she looks
at
him like he's from Mars. She's bound to catch on to his feelings
eventually,
though, either because she'll put two and two together herself,
or someone
else
will comment on his weird behavior. Meanwhile, he's not even
close to
turning
into an actual good guy - he makes it clear that his "altruistic"
actions
are
done to get Buffy's attention, and he has no qualms about letting
Olaf kill
the
people at the Bronze or eat a few babies.


Giles is gone for most of the episode, but it's for a *good
reason*, and it
looks like something really cool may happen with the Watchers'
Council,
virtually guaranteeing him more screen time. He was acting kind
of
strangely
in that last scene, and I wonder if something happened with the
CoW that
he's
not telling. Either that, or he's just concerned about what might
happen
with
them (and who wouldn't be?). Personally, I can't wait to see the
outcome of
that plot thread.


And, of course, there's Dawn, who now knows that she could be in
serious
danger. She didn't hear all of the conversation, but I think she
got just
enough to confirm her fear that something about her isn't quite
right. So
now
Buffy's going to have to tell her something. Should she spill
the whole
truth?
I'm not sure. That's going to be a toughie.



Jane Espenson usually writes my favorite funny episodes, so I had
high
expectations for this one. It wasn't quite "Band Candy" or "Rm
w/a Vu"
caliber, but it wasn't "Gingerbread", either. It just fell
somewhere in the
middle. I'll give the Mutant Enemy gang credit, for instance,
for finding a
new way to approach the Buffy post-breakup funk. They couldn't
have her
just
shrug it off like it never happened, but making it too serious
would prompt
those ever-popular "mopey Buffy" accusations. So they allowed
for some
serious
moments, but the stuff that would normally be really heavy was
played
strictly
for laughs. Unfortunately, the effect ended up being more
jarring than
funny,
with the serious and silly moments clashing with instead of
complementing
each
other. But I'm glad the effort was made, anyway.

So, on the plus side, there were some really funny scenes, nice
little
moments
(like Buffy and Tara talking and the Amy mention), and good
character and
plot
development across the board. In the negative column, it just
didn't have
the
zing that the best comedy episodes have, and I doubt if I'll
remember much
of
it later (as opposed to, say, "Band Candy", which makes me giggle
every time
I
think about it).


7 out of 10.


Loey


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Line of the Week: "Anya, I have faith in you. There is no one
you can't
piss
off." Willow's version of a pep talk.









Stephen
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