Overall Rating: 8.8
A very strong episode in terms of plot, chemistry and acting...the only reason this heart-breaker isn't a feature is what I believe to be an important mischaracterization of the nature of true love.
Plot Synopsis:
A complete wrap-up can be found at BuffyGuide.com.
The Skinny:
I have just one complaint about this story. Spike's speech about the nature of love (a very popular line in Buffy fandom) is never questioned or challenged. I personally think this:
Spike: "You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love 'til it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other 'til it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood. Blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."
...is not an accurate portrayal of love...more like undirected lust. And yes, I think you need a soul to know what real love is about. Unfortunately, the plot of the episode points us toward the conclusion that no one in the grips of "love" can control their actions. Willow and Xander...both in serious relationships that have dramatically changed the lives of their significant others...have been falling for each other for several weeks now. I have enjoyed the tension and the obvious chemistry, as the readers here know. But, although I feel bad for both of them to have wound up in this position, they're still responsible for the impact their actions have on other people.
Xander's influence on Cordelia has been tremendous. He's helped turn her into a somewhat less shallow, somewhat more giving person. He owes it to her to tell the truth about Willow BEFORE he does anything with her. Willow and Oz were seriously contemplating sex. She owes Oz nothing less. I don't feel as though we, the audience, are meant to question the idea that love is a painful blood-born infection that renders you its' bitch and forces you to act stupidly. A year ago, I wouldn't have felt like I was in a position to say quite as definitively that this is the wrong way to look at love, but now that I'm actually involved in a loving relationship, I believe I ought to know what one looks like. Spike's rendition needed to be corrected by someone...it never was. I can't be TOO hard on the writers here. Both Xander and Willow pay dearly for their mistakes. Oz eventually comes back to Willow, but Xander loses Cordelia forever and she makes his life miserable for most of the rest of the season. So it's not quite as bad as my complaint might sound. I just wish we had a strong counter-example to reassure me that Joss's team knows what real Christian love should actually involve and not just teen lust.
On the plus side, the script is written with a very ironic humor that I enjoy. Spike's twisted morality can actually be quite hilarious when used properly as a foil. His speech, if it had been properly questioned, would have been highly entertaining. As would his comments about finding Drusilla, tying her up, and torturing her until she likes him again. I also enjoyed the writers' decision to give Buffy a really high SAT score and force her to think about her future. That was pretty classically "Joss"...thumbs up there.
Writing: 9.5
Very enjoyable dialogue and a plot full of painful chemistry, suspense and emotion for the viewer...especially this particular viewer who's been a Willow/Xander shipper from day one. :)
Acting: 10.0
James Marsters is madly popular for a reason. Not only is his character incredibly interesting and charming for a mass-murderer...but he happens to be a brilliant actor. :) The best performance was actually NOT Mr. Marsters though. Alyson Hannigan and Nicholas Brendan were the stars of this show. Big time. Their forbidden attraction feels more real to me than anything else I've seen in sci fi.
Message: 7.0
If you change every use of the word love to lust...then I don't have any qualms with this episode. Psychologically, it is very believable if you can make that substitution. It is also great to see a franchise with real consequences that last longer than a week or two. Every time someone really screws up in the BuffyVerse...their "punishment" is SEVERE.
Highlights:
Willow: 740? Verbal?! I'm-I'm... (searches for a word) pathetic! Illiterate! I'm Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel. (LOL!!)
Xander: That's right. And the fact that your 740 verbal closely resembles my combined scores in no way compromises your position as the village idiot.
Willow: I just... (sits and slouches, depressed) Where did I go wrong? (Xander sits down next to her and puts his arm around her in comfort, but not missing the opportunity to give her hair a gentle stroke.)
Xander: You did amazing, Willow. As usual. (Awwww...)
Cordelia: (arriving from behind) You guys get your scores?
Xander: Cordelia! (points) Willow was very sad by her academic failure. (reaches for Cordelia's score report) How did you do? (takes her score sheet and reads, looking surprised)
Xander: This is not good.
Cordelia: What's not good?
Xander: Well, I'm just worried it may hurt my standing as campus stud when people find out I'm dating a brain. (heh)
Cordelia: Please. I have *some* experience in covering these things up. (HEH!!)
Willow: (brightens and stands up) Buffy! Hey! Did you get your SAT
scores? (Buffy gives her a weak nod.)
Xander: By the look on your face, I'm guessing you and I are gonna be manning the drive-through window side by side.
Buffy: They're just test scores, right? (hands hers to Willow) What do they really mean, anyway?
Willow: (unfolds it and reads) (very excited) 1430! Buffy, you kicked ass! (Buffy raises her eyebrows at her friend. Cordelia's eyes go wide with amazement.)
Willow: (more calmly) Okay, (folds the report) so academic achievement gets me a little excited. (hehe!)
Cordelia: (smiling) Well, I think this is great! Now you can leave and never come back! (She gets looks from everyone - LOL!) Well, I mean that in a positive way. Get out of Sunnydale. That's a good thing. What kind of moron would ever wanna come back here?
Willow: Great! Double bowling date. (pats Oz's chest) I'm on Oz's team.
Xander: Yeah? Well, (points at Oz) prepare to be crushed. (oh the foreshadowing...)
Buffy: Where is this retreat thingy, the Yukon?
Giles: It's quite nearby, actually. (Buffy finds a compass) It's, um, it's the clearing at the top of Breaker's Woods. It's the site of some fascinating druidic rituals.
Buffy: (closes the compass) Okay, but you're just going for a few days, right? (Giles takes the compass from her) I mean, you're not gonna settle there and grow crops or anything.
Giles: (confused) What? Oh, my gear. No, no, this is, this is basic necessities.
Buffy: Giles, you pack like me. (HA!!)
Giles: (gives her a little smile) Here. (hands Buffy her scores) I suspect your mother will want to, uh, put it on the refrigerator.
Buffy: (puts the report away) Yeah. She saw these scores, and her head spun around and exploded.
Giles: (unsure what she meant) I-I've been on the Hellmouth too long. That was metaphorical, yes? (BWAHAHAA!)
Xander: Okay, well, let me ask you this: what are they gonna know? That we're friends. Old, old friends. And maybe we've had one or two indiscretions, but that's all past. Look. We're just very good friends who like to hang out, and can I kiss your earlobe? (Whhhaaaa?? LOL)
Joyce: That's not it. It's just you belong at a, a good old-fashioned college with, with keg parties and boys, not here with Hellmouths and vampires.
Buffy: Not really seeing the distinction. (snerk)
Xander: (responding to Willow's anti-love-spell fumes) Whoa! It smells like church in here. (sniffs) No, wait... Evil church. (ROTFL!)
Spike: She wouldn't even kill me. She just left. She didn't even care enough to cut off my head or set me on fire. (sniffs) I mean, is that too much to ask? You know? Some little sign that she cared? It was that truce with Buffy that did it. Dru said I'd gone soft. Wasn't demon enough for the likes of her. And I told her it didn't mean anything, I was thinking of her the whole time, but she didn't care. So, we got to Brazil, and she was... she was just different. I gave her everything: beautiful jewels, beautiful dresses with beautiful girls in them, but nothing made her happy. And she would fliiirt! (sniffs) I caught her on a park bench, making out with a *chaos* demon! Have you ever seen a chaos demon? They're all slime and antlers. They're disgusting. She only did it to hurt me. (he takes his hand off of her) So I said, 'I'm not putting up with this anymore.' And she said, 'Fine!' And I said, 'Yeah, I've got an unlife, you know!' And then she said... she said we could still be friends. (leans over and sobs on Willow's shoulder) God, I'm so unhappy! (wow...)
Willow: (tentatively pats his knee) There, there. (LOL!!)
Spike: I mean, friends! How could she be so cruel?
Spike: So I'm strolling through the park, looking for a meal, and I happen to walk by, and she's making out with the chaos demon! And so I said, 'You know, I don't have to put up with this.' And she said, 'Fine!' So I said, 'Fine, do whatever you like!' I mean, I thought we were going to make up, you know.
Joyce: (sits across from him) Well, she sounds very unreasonable.
Spike: She is. She's out of her mind. (sniffs) That's what I miss most about her. (smiles)
Joyce: Well, Spike, sometimes even when two people seem right for each other, their lives just take different paths. When Buffy's father and I...
Spike: (interrupts) No, this is different. Our love was eternal. Literally. (calms down) You got any of those little marshmallows?
Joyce: Well, lemme look. (aw...isn't this a sweet, totally normal conversation? :) )
Oz: It's Willow. She's nearby.
Cordelia: What? You can smell her? She doesn't even wear perfume.
Oz: She's afraid.
Cordelia: Oh, my God. Is this some sort of residual werewolf thing? This is very disturbing.
Oz: I really agree. (heh!)
Spike: Oh, God.
Angel: Now what?
Spike: We killed a homeless man on this bench. Me and Dru. Those were good times.
Spike: (chuckles) You know, he begged for mercy, and you know, that only made her bite harder.
He looks to Buffy and Angel for a reaction, but they just stare back blankly.
Buffy: I guess you had to be there. (LOLOL!!!!)
Spike: (yells) What do you know? It's your fault, the both of you! She belongs with me. (sobs) I'm nothing without her.
Buffy: That I'll have to agree with. You're pathetic, you know that? You're not even a loser anymore, you're a shell of a loser.
Spike: Yeah. You're one to talk. (goes back to looking for stuff)
Buffy: Meaning?
Spike: (faces them) The last time I looked in on you two, you were fighting to the death. Now you're back making googly-eyes at each other like nothing happened. Makes me want to heave. (turns away)
Buffy: I don't know what you're talking about.
Spike: Oh, yeah. You're just friends.
Angel: That's right.
Spike: (faces them) You're *not* friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. (points at his temple) Love isn't brains, children, it's blood... (clasps his chest) blood screaming inside you to work its will. *I* may be love's bitch, but at least *I'm* man enough to admit it.
Spike: (smiling) I'm really glad I came here, you know? I've been all wrongheaded about this. Weeping, crawling, blaming everybody else. I want Dru back, I've just gotta be the man I was, (stands proud) the man she loved. I'm gonna do what I shoulda done in the first place: I'll find her, wherever she is, tie her up, torture her until she likes me again. (so dementedly awesome)
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