Re: OT: "Seeing Red"--SPOILERS

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

btw, sorry I forgot to put the SPOILER tag on my review, earlier.

let's 

talk

about 

something

that's

already

been

discussed 

a

lot


Namely, the physics of the final shot. While I can juuuust barely
excuse the bullet in terms of altitude (Warren fired at an upward
trajectory; the bullet reached its apex just slightly outside the
window and was just beginning its descent when it punched through and
took out Tara), the one thing that's clearly a disaster is the angle of
the shot.

Judging from the light in the Buffy/Xander scene (and assuming they
actually shot the scene in the morning, as the dialogue implies), we can
say that the left edge of the Summers property (indicated by the fence
behind B/X while they talk on the bench, which divides 1630 from 1628
Revello) faces east. Therefore, Tara is looking out the south window of
Willow's room, because the bench and fence are to her left as she looks.

The bullet comes through the same (south) window Tara looked out of
earlier in the scene. (You can tell by the plant next to it.) Tara is
at least two feet directly in front of the window when she gets hit; in
other words, due north of it. Therefore for someone to hit her, they
would have to be south of the window. 

But Warren isn't there. When he fires the fatal shot, he's running off
of the property, at the extreme southeast corner. His bullet is heading
northwest, not north. In other words, he shot on a diagonal, not
straight through the window as would have been necessary to get Tara.

So forget whether the bullet was on a proper trajectory to reach the
second floor, etc. It's the direction of the shot that's flawed.
Warren's bullet should have hit the wall, perhaps about where the mirror
on the wardrobe is.

Dan

PS--should we say that investigating the path of the bullet is a job
for the "Warren" Commission?  

Of course, "this being Sunnydale and all", in this case it might really
be a "magic bullet".