Fw: [buffydiscussion] New Buffy- Empty places?

["J. Williams" <uj18@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Im Sendind this to mutiple lists Because the original poster says EVERYTHING I wish I had the skill with words to say about this Ep. I Hope Becky wont mind. :) My apologize to any who recieve multiple copies of this.

James

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Becky Bryant 
To: buffydiscussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 11:47 PM
Subject: Re: [buffydiscussion] New Buffy- Empty places?


Not sure on the title but sure on my opinion! This
episode was painful. It just hurt to watch. Luckily
my husband watched it while I was at classs, and
decided to warn me lest I kick the t.v. over in my
rage while watching it. The warning helped.

Roughly in order of appearance.

Totally didn't get what was going on with the
policeman. I thought Willow was doing some
mindwashing magic, but later it seemed like maybe it
was just the hellmouth.

Hospital scene. Sad. Willow being all sympathetic. 
Buffy trying to be helpful and in control. Reminded
me of when her mom was sick. She was the one talking
to the doctor and kinda gettting things in order. She
didn't stay to play cards (would Willow and Xander
supported her in the end if she had spent quality time
with him?). Now I think she was in the right as I
beleive she truly felt like she needed to be working
on the Caleb angle. It would have sucked if she had
left just because she didn't like hospitals, but that
was not the sense I had. O.K., I think I am going to
get a lot of opposition on this. I get that Xander is
sad, it sucks to lose your eye. But, he did sign on
for this. He had a choice. Buffy told him for years
to stay out of the fight, and he kept saying he wanted
in. That he was willing to risk his life. He finally
convinced Buffy, she uses him and he gets hurt. That
is really sad, but they are suppose to be all facing
almost certain death. I don't get them making such a
big deal about it.

Basement scene was pretty funny. I so hate Rhona.

Faith. Still the rebel. In that way she has not
matured. She may have come with the intention of
helping Buffy, and be determined not to fight with
her. But she certainly undermined Buffy's authority. 
She did not have the authority to take those girls to
the Bronze. What if Buffy had needed them? ANd
letting them get drunk is just stupid. They maybe
PS's but they are still young girls. Also facing
policemen with guns is dangerous. But more
importantly it is just a bad situation. If a
policeman gets hurt or killed it is bad, because they
are just innocents trying to do their job crazed by
the hellmouth. If the girls get shot, they die. And
their is no point. Violence should serve the purpose
of killing bad guys, gathering information, somehow
helping the fight against evil. This was just because
Faith was stupid. Why didn't Buffy bring this up? 
Instead she just hit Faith. Bad decision. But I
actually find it more reasonable than FAiths actions. 
Last time Faith was in town she compeletly violated
Buffy and her boyfriend. Faith turns back up
supposedly with new objectives. But, my goodeness. 
Max made the point that Faith violated Buffy more than
Spike ever did. And FAith had her soul while she did.
She may have really good intentions now, but part of
turning over a new leaf has to be facing up to your
past. She has to walk on egg shells around Buffy to
say the least. If she was a male who had raped Buffy
and tied up her mom and threanted to kill her (not to
mention actually killing some people) would we expect
Buffy just to welcome him and be at ease? I guess my
point is that while Faith is improved, and seems to be
trying to fight for good now and that seems to involve
not hitting Buffy or openly challenging her, she is
clearly not willing to face up to her past. And she
subtly undermined Buffy's authority.

Spike/Andrew. I get Giles sending them out, that
seemed more like old Giles. When did he get helpful
again? I also think Buffy was justified. Why should
she trust him? The only other plans he has had this
year seems to be to shovle all the responsiblity onto
Buffy and then to try to get rid of Spike. Again
Andrew was the only pleasant thing about this episode,
but I was too upset to enjoy it. "It is not for you,
ONly she can wield it". Does this refer to Buffy? 
Wield what? Is this why the First wants Buffy alive? 


Speaking of Caleb and the first, what was their evil
little plan? What were they "pushing her" towards? 
Either the School and seal and Buffy was right, or the
Vinyard and Buffy was wrong. Here is my take on that.
I think they were tricking Buffy into taking the
girls back to the vineyard. Yet I also think Buffy
was right to try. They are facing almost certain
defeat, they have almost no leads on how to defeat the
First, but here is one idea. It may be a trap. It is
a long shot. So, should they run and hide and wait
for the end of the world? unfortunelaley they don't
have the option to play it safe. You know, I think
they were all pretty sure they were going to die
facing Glory too, yet they didn't go and hide. Buffy
said she was willing to discuss strategy, not just run
in there again.    

O.K. Last scene. First of all, Faith again subtly
undermines Buffy's authority with Wood. I am not
saying she is doing it on purepos, but she is
certainly not helping the situation. She feels sorry
for herself, again not willing to face up to her past.
Unfortunatley, while we can start over in life, we
are not give a blank slate. I give her credit for
demuring about being a leader. She was certainly not
the worst.

Wood clearly is being vindictive. Maybe we can't
blame him, but he is not a person I would want to
count on in a crunch. Xander, again all feeling put
upon. His comments and tone led me to beleive he
blames Buffy for sending him into the vinyard. I
guess he was just kidding all those times he said he
was willing to risk his life to help with the fight. 
Willow, I just don't quite get where she was coming
from. It wasn't really explained. I couldn't tell if
she was upset Buffy hadn't played cards with Xander,
or had reasoning behind her beleif that Buffy was not
making good descions. Dawn. I totally don't get. 
She clearly thought Buffy was wrong, and it seemed to
be a painful desicion. (However, children don't
usually get to kick the adult who pays the bills out
of the house, that "its my house too" was just stupid,
if they are going to oust Buffy from leadership, why
don't they go get a job and find a place to rent?).
But Buffy has always won. She has saved each of their
lives. Last mission got sticky. It sucked. They all
knew it was dangerous, Buffy knew it might have been a
trap, and they got hurt. That is hard. But how does
that make it wrong? Its taking a risk. They seem
unwilling to do that, and they can't win that way. 
Giles . . . once again I don't even no what to say,
but the fact that he would support her, after forcing
her into the role (when he arrived it was clearly not
with the attitude "we will face this together" it was
"your the leader, you figure it out). is still somehow
not surprising after this season. Actually makes me
think . . . he sent Spike to find that message. 
Maybe the First wants Buffy to get that message. 
Cause I sure can't imagine Giles actually helping
Buffy. Anya, of course, was the worst. Buffy hasn't
earned being their leader?! NO, Buffy has spent 7
years fighting evil almost daily, saving their lives,
and not misuing her powers. She has earned every inch
of it. Faith is the one that has not "earned"
anything in Sunnydale. She is a SLayer and thats
about it. Is their no loyalty? NO rememberence? I
know Faith is working towards rehab or redemption or
whatever, but her history with those people is one of
bad descions. And for the most part Buffy has made
good, self sacrafical decisions. She has never been
corrupted the way Faith, Willow, Anya, and Giles
(apparently in his youth) were. And all that garabage
about Buffy being the lucky one? It was just so
ridiculous. Especially after the last 2 seasons. In
high school the scoobies didn't see Buffy's sacrafices
as much. She seemed to be the cool one that was
always skipping school to save the world. They didn't
get it. But they saw her die. The saw her muddle in
misery when they brought her back, and they have seen
her strain and pressure this year. It was just an
insane thing to say. I know Anya has always been
jealous of Buffy's place in Xander's life, but this
seemed too off.

And when will Rhona die?

My husband thinks they are under a spell. And while
it did feel out of character, I don't think it is a
spell. As it is, Buffy should (but won't) shake the
dust off her heels and move on. Unfortunatley, she
doen't have the option of just letting the world end.

This episode was painful to watch, and yet it was
kinda boring too. NOt alot of interaction with bad
guys. I can't imagine I would ever rewatch it on
reruns. What is going on with the writing? Why are
they ruining BtVS with so few episodes left? Even if
they make a big comeback and every body apologizes to
Buffy in a tearful scene during the last episode, it
still stinks that some of the last episodes are
stinking so bad. It leads me to beleive the rumors
about a spinoff are true. But would Eliza Dukshu do
it? In any case I am just so dissapointed.

Becky

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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Buffy: It's weird. You look at something and you think you know 
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