Re: ~Buffy*Wants*Willow~"FirstDate"-slightly shorter review--SPOILERS FOR EP!!!

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Will,

Yes, 

Buffy 

and 

Willow 

are 

currently 

making 

out,

Xander and Oz are listening to Giles's record collection, and Cordelia's
snuck off to the hospital to tell Faith how much she loves her. All is
well.

But, back in ME land...

Spike as Angel 2.0--not only do we have the same personality, same
non-relationship, and same villain, but now we're starting to get the
same fricking scenes! That Buffy-Giles scene in "First Date" was almost
a direct steal from the scene they had about Angel in "Amends". (Well,
except for the fact that Buffy respected Giles's opinion back then.)

Andrew in jail--I suppose the concept is that they were waiting for
just this moment, for The First to try and recruit him again so that
they could get inside info. Why they assumed that the First wouldn't
have the same trigger on Andrew's easily-impressionable mind that it has
on Spike's, I don't know. Why The First DOESN'T have a trigger on
Andrew, I don't know. Why they tried to tape The First (wtf were they
going to do, take the evidence to the cops and have The First
arrested?), I don't know. Why Andrew used his opportunity to ask the
First a question they *already knew the answer to* ("why do you want to
kill the SiTs"), I don't know. Why they don't take Andrew to jail now
that he's done his part, I don't know.

BTW, you seemed to hint at a future spoiler in your post, which you
shouldn't have done. If I actually cared, I'd be upset, girl <g>

"Still in love with Spike"--my anti-Spuffyness aside, this is just
mindbogglingly sloppy. The story of the final three seasons, we can now
see, is The Romance of Buffy and Spike. Since "Tabula Rasa", at least,
the question has been, "when is Buffy going to say she loves him?" And
when she finally does say the "L-word", it's in a sideways, past-tense
way? WTF?

Not to mention, Jane seems to have forgotten the basic outline of the
plot: Buffy lusted for, but did NOT love Soulless Spike. That's why
everyone at ME said the relationship was bad, that's why she broke it
off, that's why the rape scene happened. And the whole point was that
S6 Spuffy was the "dark place" Buffy had to go through so that she could
find Love with someone who had a soul and could truly love her back.
(Remember how, this time last year, we were spec'ing that it might just
be Willow, after all?) Now, once Buffy started pining for her attempted
rapist, it became obvious that ME, bizarrely, was going to make
SouledSpike the "good boyfriend" who makes Buffy forget the bad one--in
Season 4 terms, he's Riley to SoullessSpike's Parker--but the whole
point of the arc (and the YEARS involved in it) is that Spike becomes "a
good man" and is finally able to win Buffy's love.

Except now, according to Jane, he already HAD it last year.

Insane in the brain. That's all I can say.

Dan