"The Killer In Me"--slightly shorter review--SPOILERS FOR EP!!!

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Don't have the inclination to do my complex review thingies any more
(the guarantee of a Spuffy finale has my interest in the show on a low
flicker), 

but

here 

are 

a 

few

not

quite 

random

thoughts, 

okay?


Previouslys:  

Yeesh, I guess ME doesn't have a decent print of the Season 4 eps lying
around--that clip from "The Initiative" looked really washed out. Hope
the DVDs are better than that.

And of all the people I expected to see pop up in a "PoBtVS" clip,
Maggie Walsh and Graham were pretty far down the list. (I love it when
they use the show's history.)

Teaser:  

Gee, they really want to hit us over the head with this "Giles may be
the First Evil" thing right away, don't they? He ostentatiously doesn't
even carry Vi's notebook. (Not to mention the clunky fact that no one
hugs him goodbye, again.)

But if they really want us to think Giles is incorporeal, then the sound
guy should make sure we don't hear the big creak the coffee table gives
when ASH's ass sits on it.

Field trip's a nice way to deal with the cast bloat problem caused by
the SiTs, but that begs the question of why the whole story, anyway.

SMG really seems sick. I wonder if they wrote it or if she's just
working around it.

Since SMG seems stuck on "mope" these last two years, her seeming small
and embarassed with Giles is about as close to being in character with
the good old days as we're likely to see. Damn.

But, look, give Aly a juicy epi and she busts out the acting like it was
back in the days when she tried *every* week. Serious old-school
Willow here, particularly how she said "smores". Loved it.

Molly and Rona are driving? I thought they were 15? (And of course, no
one even thinks to ask why Giles isn't driving--Molly sure as hell
doesn't have a California Driver's License, either--but hey, let's have
that whole First Evil Giles thing be a big surprise. Only, not.) 

Loved the line Anya had in the background about never realizing Molly
was so compact (until Rona stuffed her in the trunk). See, this is
funny Anya--she's not doing awful things or being ghastly crass, she
just has a strange take on events. All too rare.

Buffy raves about having the bathroom all to herself--gee, I'm sure not
getting close to Willow, Kennedy, Dawn, Spike and Anya this week, then.
(Xander may still be bunking at his own pad occasionally.) Pee-yooo!

Spike is almost acting like a real human being in this scene. Be
enjoyable if it fit with the rest of his characterization for the year.

So the chip's malfunctioning? As we all suspected it could do at any
time--which is why Buffy's "he's harmless" excuse never made sense and
Spike should have been dusted in "Pangs".

ACT 1:  

Ah, so now Buffy's teasing Willow about her taking care of Kennedy.
Sounds like the Slayer wants some Willow-nurturing herself. Best B/W
scene of the year, even though it's virtually nothing, simply because
Buffy's fairly normal and (for some strange reason) actually seems to
like Willow.

Hmm, am I going to have to say the same things here as I said about Drew
Greenberg's work in "Him"? That I liked that he was being consistent
with past seasons but it feels odd because that's not how the show is
now.

Strange camera angles from David Solomon in the first K/W scene
upstairs, and makeup really did a crap job on Aly, because she looks way
too pale (they have to put a lot of base on her to keep her from looking
this pale all the time).

Kennedy's mixture of cockiness and nervousness is appealing, but makes
her seem like such a teenager. The age gap between her and Willow
feels way too big. But I'd love to see her with Amanda or Dawn.

Ah, now Spike's back to being Spike. I.e., a big jerk, trying to make
his possible death something he and Buffy can use as common ground, and
mocking her attempts at research. And Marsters is snacking on the
scenery again. Add it together with Buffy's "pain" face, and it all
spells "fast forward". (Except for the funny line that ends
it--Greenberg's really improved with the comedy.)

Points to Greenberg for explaining how Sheila Rosenberg reacted to
Willow's sexuality. The scene is several years late, but still. The
idea that it wasn't women, it was just Tara, is annoying, on several
levels (Willow might not even be gay, Willow was never attracted to
Buffy in the slightest), but since she'll be macking K before the
commercial, I suppose we can say she's trying to make it too much about
Tara, and disregard the subtext. The bit about Willow still having
past-tense issues is touching, albeit an argument that it's much too
soon for what follows.

Funny B/S scene as Buffy gets all swept up in the Riley/James Bond thing
and completely ignores Spike's cringing in the background. Although
I'm sure the Spuffers will whine all night long. Awww.

Greenberg has the courage to address the "what does Kennedy see in
Willow, she hardly even knows her?" question, but the answer (she's hot)
is superficial and frankly Aly/Will has been looking terribly strained
the last few eps.

OTOH, Willow likes foot massages! Fics, fics!

Kissing scene: use of cuts between the profiles really doesn't work.
This should just be one shot, leading to the kiss. (See "Homecoming" or
"Angel" for a well-filmed first kiss.) Interesting that despite seeming
v.v. uncertain, Willow was the one to initiate. Guess she just wanted
to see what it was like w. someone else, so I'm still not really a W/K
supporter.

Okay, so how do people not understand the Willow=Warren thing? I mean,
Kennedy was in the room and kissing her when she turned. Surely an
"it's true, I was there" would answer any questions, no?

ACT 2

Well, not such great support from Kennedy. Although it's tough to blame
her, particularly since Willow covers it up (saying her guilt was about
killing Warren, rather than "cheating" on Tara with K--I'd suppose the
subconscious turned her into Warren because she equated her own moving
on with the murder as "hurting Tara').

Aggh. Just what I feared. Buffy punches "Warren" but it's Xander who
believes Willow. (And no apology from Buffy for hurting her [ex-]best
friend, either. Especially annoying since back in the day it wouldn't
have just been "oops", but more like "Oh, God, Willow, I'm so sorry, I
didn't know! Are you okay?")

Spike collapsing in pain while the others ignore him is interesting, but
I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean in a larger context.

Weird shots from the very back of the living room by Solomon. He's
either got the camera too close in or too far away the whole ep. Maybe
he's bored? Or drunk?

Hate the Andrew-redemption stuff. Hate Andrew. And much as I'd like to
believe that Dawn touching Willow was W/D subtext, I think it's supposed
to set Dawnie up with the suddenly-less-gay Andrew, who's also making
with the touching. ICK!

Willow doesn't want Kennedy with her, and isn't sending her away for her
own protection, either. Still not getting a vibe that she likes her,
really at all. She's been dragged into a date, been uncomfortable,
kissed out of (possibly just) curiosity, covered it up and is seemingly
condescending here. K's still cute in puppy mode, though.

Yuck! It's two retcons in one! First, the Initiative is still there,
underground? What happened to "Burn it down, fill it with cement and
salt the earth?" I know Buffy found Riley in a cave in "Out of My
Mind", but that was a cave, not a semi-functional corridor.

Second, and far worse, Spike remembers they gave him drugs when he got
"rambunctious" and fired the chip??? Bull and Shit. Spike didn't even
know he HAD a chip until he tried to rape and murder Willow in the
[bizarrely played for laughs] climax of "The Inshitiative".

Robson survived "Sleeper"? Hardly seems likely. And the idea that the
'Bringers took Giles's corpse so no one would know he was the FE but
didn't kill the one witness to the murder is just stupid. (Seems much
more likely that Robson is the FE [and thus dead], trying to set the
Scoobs against Giles.)

Points for Anya for quickly reaching intelligent conclusions, but it's
jarring to hear HER accusing the others of failing to hug Giles. That's
your job, honey! (Hmm, maybe Buffy told her to keep her hands off
Buffy's man?)

Xander snarking at Andrew is funny, but the scene is unnecessary and I
still hate Andrew.

If Willow thought the campus Wiccans were still the same idiots from
"Hush", why go there? Desperation, I suppose.

Kennedy clearly thinks Willow and Amy used to date. And is very
jealous. And should be, because W/Amy have more chem even with Willow
treating her as an enemy than W/K have shown to date. And, damn,
doesn't Elizabeth Anne Allen look hot?

Spell scene is interesting, since Willow's apparent gradual possession
by Warren not only counts as a twist, but also explains her somewhat
harsh behavior to Xander in the house. (And, I suppose, her
dismissiveness towards K, so I shouldn't read too much there.)  
Ep is very nicely dense, plotwise, with three separate threads going on.
Willow's possession and "Giles? Is that you?" seem like they could be
intertwined, but Spuffy seems like a standalone, and potential
timewaster.

Act 3:

Yeah, Willow's channelling Warren, but all that scorn for Kennedy has to
come from somewhere, methinks.

They just left the corpses and "sealed off" the Initiative? Yeah,
except for that grate Spike conveniently found. And the Army buries its
dead.

Creepy, though. I have thoughts that Spike is leading her into a trap
(espec. since that way the "meds" retcon is just a lie), but of course
Spike could never do anything evil on this show. Ever. :p

Wasteful car scene, focusing on Whiny, Snitty, and Jackass, and merely
restating stuff we know. (If Giles is evil, he might have lured the
SiTs into a trap.) Still hating Andrew.

Buffy & Spike in the dark. Isn't it sad that the Slayer is now a second
banana on the #3 plotline of the ep?

Oops, Amy's evil. And only a year after "Doublemeat Palace". Where was
she when the arc needed her last year?

Of course, logically, she should be able to crispy-fry Kennedy in half a
sec. Doubt it happens, though.

Spike hates getting knocked out by the chip pain, because Buffy needs
him to rescue her. This episode of "Spike: Heroic Rapist" is brought to
you by Excedrin.

Willow, now heavily Warrened, buys a gun. (And I'm sorry, but we have
background checks for those purchases in CA.)

Too skimpy, except the "Evil Amy" thing. We haven't a clue what's up w.
Spuffy, nor why we should care, and the "Giles?" plot went nowhere.

ACT 4:

Giles is sitting by the campfire, and everybody tackles him. He's
corporeal, and not the FE.

We waited six eps (and had everyone act out of character) for THAT???
No wonder Tony prefers to stay in England.

Well, if the commandos are still using the place, that explains the easy
entrance (not to mention the still-working electricity). But why are
the corpses still around and rotting?

Nice long-distance snark by Riley at Spike ("Ass-face"). (Did Marti
ghost that?)  

But how does Riley, once drummed out of the military, have enough pull
to let Buffy decide whether to remove Hostile-17's chip? And given that
he doesn't know diddly about Spike's soul (unless there's a whole B/R
story we don't know about), how could he even allow it? Yeah, I know
Rye's a pushover for Buffy, but still.

Gee, I wonder if Buffy will have the chip removed and trust Spike's good
nature instead of sensibly putting in another one? I wish that decision
would come back to chomp her on the ass, but you know it won't, since
Spike is perfect and Buffy wuvs him, and her trust just proves it.
Blah.

Yeah, no one's gonna notice Willow/Warren walking down the street with a
gun (particularly since Warren is a wanted fugitive) in broad daylight.
(And wasn't it just night? I might buy it being dawn, but high noon?)
There's a reason for holsters, chump.

Amy's "invent your own curse" was cool, but again with the tight
closeups in profile. Does Solomon think he's Ingmar Bergman? And Amy's
motive is kind of lame.

God, even in the climax of the ep, Solomon can't bother to put both
actors in the same frame. Did Iyari Limon (Kennedy) shoot her closeups
a week after Aly and Elizabeth Anne Allen or something? It's just so
annoying.

But Willow's guilt is nicely played. However the scene is hurt by the
fact that Kennedy doesn't have any real clue what the hell Will's
talking about--the scene would have been so much more powerful if the
new g/f was someone who actually knew Tara, who had witnessed Willow's
pain, who had been nervous about taking Tara's place for just these same
reasons. (Buffy would be best, since she's the star and has the
strongest connection to Will, but Dawn or Anya would have worked fine,
because they were so close to Tara. Even Faith would be better than K,
who's known Willow for about two weeks and didn't even know why she was
in the back yard.)

FINAL ANALYSIS:

So I can't get any real W/K connection, having the new g/f be a virtual
stranger hurts the plot, Amy's motive is muddled, and Aly wasn't in the
ep that much (Adam Busch played Willow as much, if not more than, Aly).
Still, strong story based on believable emotions for Willow and Iyari
Limon did the best she could for Kennedy having been pretty much tossed
in there, willy-nilly. Good center for an ep.

Other stuff, not so much. The Giles-thing ends up just being a limp
joke (and did I mention I hate Andrew? And that Ben is Glory?), and
Spuffy is buried by an avalanche of plot holes and retcons. In the end,
they're just padding.

But no one had their character assassinated, Anya, Spike and Dawn pretty
much avoided being annoying, and the acting was generally good. Even
Buffy had a scene of being likeable--how strange is that? (Grr.)

So do we pick drama, even if the subplots are padding and there was
Spuffy and plotholes, or fluff that amused but required the characters
to be under a spell? I've got to go with this over "Him" for best of
the year, I think.  

For one thing, "Him" had some slow points and a few plot contrivances.
(And being Dawn-centric is one strike against an ep before it gets
going.) And this one was pretty darn funny for a drama, with humor
coming from lots of sources--I mean, even Spike got a joke!  

Pretty good news for Greenberg, since last year I ranked "Older and Far
Away" and "Entropy" both in my bottom 5 of all time, and now he's got
the top two spots for the season.  

Solid B+ work, I suppose. Would have been an A- if the director wasn't
drunk. Or if the new girlfriend was someone whom I cared about (I like
Kennedy, but I'm not hooked on her) or who knew and cared about W/T. 

Dan