Insta-review of Seeing Red (SPOILERS)

[Jason Rune <winter_herald@xxxxxxxxx>]

Almost forgot to review this one. Oops. This could
be a little short; I have way too much school stuff on
my mind. You'll have to wait for Dan's review if you
want more careful consideration :) If I make any
major errors, slips, or just really stupid comments,
just keep in mind that I'm writing a couple of papers
and an oral presentation for tommorrow at pretty much
the same time ;^)

Spoilers for this week's ep (Seeing Red) and the
preview.


L
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A

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Boy, UPN is being rather more liberal than WB, eh? 
Will and Tara sure went at it, didn't they? Mmm, red
and blonde...

Dawn has been acting less and less like a spoiled brat
lately. She also seems way too happy that Will and
Tara are back... together. I guess she's still too
immature to realize that they don't actually belong
together... or maybe that's my bias ;)

The Troika has a Mac. Heh.

Ooh... sawblades. And a cool flip. You know, I think
both Angel and Buffy are trying to blow their SFX
budgets. Did you see last night's Angel? Sheesh. 
I'll stop there since this is a Buffy spoiler post,
but... sheesh.

First impression: interesting start. I think the best
word is... splayed. I can't really find myself
detesting W/T, but I don't know if I love it either.
Tara's character has been inconsistent lately. Maybe
that's it.


ACT ONE

Buffy, Dawn, Will, and Tara in the living room. Nice
little family unit... except that Will and Tara are
smooching it up, which sort of ruins the B/W/D family
aspect.

Dawn seems rather disappointed that Spike's not going
to be around anymore. If they try to draw a parallel
to separated parents at any point, I'll be pissed.

Anya is trying to get back into the vengeance demon
business. That's... cute. She's going on a bit too
much about herself, though.

Poor Andrew, getting backed into the corner. But
Warren has a nifty electrocuty gizmo. Man oh man, if
the Initiative had these three working for them...
wouldn't that have been something?

Somebody's visiting Spike... Dawn? Don't tell me that
after how-many episodes of them not even talking,
she's *that* disappointed about him not being around
anymore.

"Do you love her?" she asks.

<drumroll>

<anticipation>

He doesn't say anything; Dawn assumes a yes. Dawn's
acting pretty mature these days. Must have a new
writer. Heh.

Back to the Troika. Oooh, good plan. Barrier only
demons can pass through; get Jonathan to dress up as a
demon and shove him through.

Warren has a gadget for everything. Warren and the
Initiative...

Oh my. Ohh, my. Glowy strength. This'll be
interesting.


ACT TWO

Warren's balls seem to work. Ehrm. He doesn't want
Jonathan getting his hands on them, though.

Buffy's giving the talk to Xander. Things are going
to be tense... it's a double whammy: Anya seems to
have left him to boff Spike, and Buffy has been
shagging him for a while.

"You think he'd still be all snuggles if that chip
stopped working?"

Good question, Xander. And now that it's been brought
up in serious conversation... imagine the
possibilities.

Sad Shot of Xander walking down the street to music
and Anya in the Magic Box dusting. Aww.

Willow and Tara seem happy together. Something bad
must happen. 'Cause that was damn fast. From only
awkwardly speaking to comfortably snuggling in thirty
seconds? Heh.

Xander in a bar, Xander in a bar. The Troika coming
into a bar.

Buffy's back to punning. But... wha? Vamp kicks
Slayer while being dusted, Slayer tumbles into
gravestone and shatters it just by falling on it. How
heavy is she? That's the second weak plaster
gravestone recently.

Now Spike is tracking her down in her bathroom. Nice.

Cue philosophical discussion on love. Whether it's
about trust... or whether it burns. And consumes. 
And tries to push you down on the floor and take you
right there, telling you all the while that you ought
to let yourself go to it. Right.

Impression: All in all, an interesting scene. But
that was a strange cut to commercial. It was just
sort of in the middle, ending with some sort of
hissing(?) sound while the camera was on Spike's face.

Second Impression: This is just starting to get
interesting. I dunno, but I don't feel like much has
*happened* yet. If this show was up to speed, the
Troika would already be causing major trouble, probaby
at the same time as Buffy was... immobilized by Spike.


ACT THREE

Cut back into the scene we left. That was a weird
cut. It didn't feel like a cliffhanger or anything,
just like a single scene cut in half. But we have no
chance of BSing anymore, so that's of the good.

Warren is a smooth talker. And man has he got some
balls. Talk about demonic strength. Xander is, once
again, the target of blows that would kill any normal
person.

And he's really not happy with Spike now.

Willow wants to know what's going on, and Buffy just
says "Nothing." This is not really the best of
circumstances.

Spike's in a bad place. This could get interesting. 
Fast. Clem's come by to give him some friendly
advice, though. I think Spike is going to get the
chip out. The only question is now... or later. You
know, I kinda like James Marsters. He's good with the
evilly depressed... and Clem makes a nearly perfect
foil.

Ahh, a money truck. "Don't lose any." Right.

Shots from the preview from last week... and that's
not an ambulance that was being turned over, it was
the money truck. Engh. And the shot after that where
Buffy was standing over something bathed in that glowy
white "something-bad's-happening" light was just a
standard I'm-gonna-get-you shot. Wankers. That
preview was so contrived.

Can Warren survive a rock arch being dropped on him? 
Yep.

Impression: Something's actually happening now. But
Willow and Buffy seem to be drifting apart again. 
Willow had to find out about BS from Tara, and Buffy
doesn't want to talk about the bathroom scene with
her.

Second Impression: I like James Marsters. I think
Spike is going back to evil, and this is a good thing.
This show needs a bloody villan.

Third Impression: Warren is also growing into an
actual threat. Jonathan is *so* going to betray the
Troika. Only a matter of time.

Fourth Impression: But I still don't feel like much
has happened for this amount of time (three acts
already!), compared to the classic shows.


ACT FOUR

A fight! A fight! Cry havoc! And let slip the...
oh, wait, that was Andrew's brother. Speaking of
which, Andrew's getting into this whole killing thing.

Jonathan has some smarts... pretending to jump on
Buffy's back, telling her to smash the orbs.

Warren has a jet pack? Hah! Cool. Andrew and
Jonathan take the fall; but Jonathan has at least
started to redeem himself. Same police station that
Buffy was going to turn herself in to. More hints
that the Troika might be latently gay.

Spike looks great on a motorcycle. And when he's
back... things are going to change.

Man, are Will and Tara getting a lot of action in this
episode. Buffy and Xander are making up, it seems. 
Is this the first we've seen of Buffy's back yard? I
think it may be. Anyone wanna confirm or correct
this?

Xander's going on about how it hurt that Buffy didn't
tell him about Spike, and, come on... she didn't even
tell Willow.

The B/Xers are probably happy with this episode. 
They've even got a brand new "I love you" now. I
don't *think* they're going to get together... but who
knows?

And now, chaos. Let's see if I get this:

Warren barged into the garden with a gun and started
shooting at Buffy and Xander. Xander dodged. One
shot went though the window and hit Tara from behind,
spattering Willow with blood; hence Tara's final
words: "Your shirt." Xander looked down and saw Buffy
on the ground holding her stomach. Tara sank into
Willow's arms with a hole right in her chest; looks
like the heart to me. And Willow, oh Willow, how
black and red and big your eyes are. All the better
to destroy you with, my dear...

All right, now something's happened in this episode.


PREVIEW:

Well, from the preview we know Rack is coming in the
next episode. And Willow looks interesting with black
hair.

Tara looks dead to me. Buffy recovers but it doesn't
look like Tara does. And I could swear that bullet
hole was right through her heart.

Willow goes all self-destructive. Warren doesn't look
happy.

Quite a ride.


Yours in Wuffydom, I reman,

Jason Rune

(Who will be out of town when the season finale airs;
they'd better get UPN, and this VCR had better work.)


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