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

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Sere,

Oh,

god,

I 

completely 

agree 

with 

you

about 

that 

"chips or no chips" 

scene

we 

should 

have 

seen


Even within the context of the current story--Buffy loves and trusts
Spike, so it's no choice at all for her--we still needed that
discussion between the two of them, to see how their relationship works,
how Spike (who wanted to chain himself to the wall) is able to trust
himself without the chip, and whether he's doing it because he feels
he's earned it, because he gains strength from Buffy's "belief" in him,
or just because he's deferring to her judgment.

And we should have had the scene as the climax of last ep's Spuffy plot,
not a cliff-hanger that **got resolved off-screen** (!!) Can you
imagine if they'd done this with other ME cliffhangers?

Let's see, we'd have eps that started like this:

"What's My Line, Part 2"--

"Oh, that guy was a bunch of worms, but Cordy and I got away."  

"Well, that's good, Xander. Oh this is Kendra, and she's a slayer, but
it turns out that someone took Angel out of the cage, so he's not dead
after all."

"Innocence"--

"Oh my God, Buffy, how did you find out that Angel lost his soul?"  

"Well, he left me a note on the bed table."

"Becoming, Part 2"--

"Will, I'm glad you're out of that coma. I got away from the cops and
I'm gonna go rescue Giles now."

"Graduation Day, Part 2"--

"Hi, it's Angel. I had to drink Buffy's blood to get better and she's
in the hospital now. Oh, and Faith's here, too, but she's in a coma."

"Goodbye, Iowa"--

"And to think I was so worried about the Initiative coming after us.
Lucky that robo-demon killed Professor Walsh and I don't have to worry
about her any more."

"Who Are You"--

"Thanks for helping me unswitch my body with Faith, Will."

"No problem, Tara and I were glad to help."

And so on.

Of course, when the show was good, de-chipping Spike would have been
debated by the entire Scooby Gang BEFORE anything was done, one way or
the other. I mean, given that he's threatened to rape and murder Willow
("Lovers Walk") and then actually tried to do it the next year ("The
Initiative"), when she was saved BECAUSE OF THIS VERY CHIP, you would
think that Buffy might actually be kind enough to inform her about her
decision to remove it.

In fact, judging from the fact that Kennedy knows about the chip but
didn't know it had been removed, it seems likely that Buffy hadn't even
told Willow about taking it out until she and Spike just told Giles in
this ep. And while I'll assume Kennedy filled Willow in (and wouldn't
that be an interesting thing to see, Willow discovering that Buffy is
keeping Yet Another Secret About Spike from her), I still don't know if
anyone bothered to tell Dawn or Xander.

Hmm, I wonder how Xander would feel knowing that Buffy has taken out
Spike's chip and is making him stay around, despite the fact that The
First can mind-control him AND has said it will do so in the future? Or
rather, I wonder what the real Xander would say, if not the eunuch that
they've turned him into.

Sigh.

Dan