SPOILERS: Episode 7.1 (Lessons)

[Jason Rune <winter_herald@xxxxxxxxx>]

It was a dark and stormy night, as the fluffy bunnies
in their maille and shields arrayed themselves on the
field against the minions of the vile, bunny-phobic
Anya. Is that enough to fill the summary field? 
Notice that I carefully avoided talking about the orgy
between the fish-men and Snyd... oops! Sorry, Dan! :)

*Actual* discussion of Episode 7.1 (Lessons) follows.

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In-te-resting.

Overall, the ep struck me as a bit on the bland side,
but it was well put-together and it didn't suck. 
Fair-to-good performances by just about everybody,
with some nice high points. Anybody got the writing
credits?

WILLOW was great. Sure, she's in England, but she'll
be back. It's *really, really good* to see that she's
learning the Light Side of the Force, instead of being
all "can't do the magic." Finally. GILES is only a
"special guest star," though.

BUFFY seems to be getting her groove back, and she has
a new job! Whoopee! DAWN was remarkably mature. Did
they fire and replace the writers? Cool! I have to
wonder about whether they're planning to have Dawn and
her new friends become the next mini-scoobs.

SPIKE was... unpredictable. He's no Angel, that's for
sure. James Marsters does the crazy gig very well,
and it will be interesting to see which side he falls
on. Buffy didn't seem too attached to him; this was
good. On the other hand, nobody made any mention of
Willow or Giles. :(

XANDER was not highly involved, except for a token
smashing-of-the-token and a few other scenes. Neither
was ANYA, though the discussion about her being a soft
vengeance demon was possibly foreshadowing.

The ending was quite intriguing. All of Buffy's past
arch-enemies (nemesis-es-es, in Warren's case) arrayed
against her, in one Super-Evil form? Glory and Adam
were so-so (as usual,) but it was nice to see the
Mayor, Dru, and the Master again. And on which side
of the fence will Spike fall? Hmm.

Kudos for a well-organized presentation and a fairly
decent plot. Not so much on the excitement factor,
though. And no connection as yet between Buffy and
Willow, alas :(

Just thought of this -- WHAT was the point of the bit
in Istanbul at the very beginning? What? What? They
didn't *do* anything with it.

I gotta keep this short. Homework due tommorrow and
all that. Bye!

Jason Rune

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