More on Buffy...

[butterfly]

This is much longer than last night's reactions.


I automatically typed 'dirrty' at first. Oh, Christina, how thou hast ruined mine spelling. Or something. I'm probably not using the tenses correctly. It's been awhile since I wrote in Shakespeare's English.

Starting from the top: I was completely freaked out, in the best way, by Nathan Fillon as Caleb. The second he appeared on screen, I squeaked. Because, unlike Zoe (real name?) as Jasmine, I had been unspoiled for Caleb. And his first scene was brilliant. I totally thought he was a good guy until he showed his true crazy colors. It's utterly amusing that they have two characters from Firefly playing two different odd religious types. I wonder if Caleb would fall under Jasmine's spell. Hmm. That would be an interesting concept to explore in fanfic. I was totally spell-bound by Caleb, like all those girls he mentioned (like the one we saw), and then he put out my sweetie's eye. And now I really want him to painfully die, but he'd still way interesting. Villains never really hurt the core Scoobs. Giles escaped head-wacking. Buffy's died but she's still pretty. And Willow's worst look was giving herself that bad dye job with the books. Black veins not optional!

So, Xander would come in next. First off, I would like to say that I was so very amused by his dream. He's my age (a year over) and I get him. If I had hot teen girls sleeping in the next room, I'd be dreaming about them coming onto me too. And he was so amazing in this episode. He gave a motivating speech that was actually motivating. And Buffy heard! Buffy never sees the cool stuff he does when it's not toward her. And she did! And she got a little mushy (luckily, Faith was there to put the snark back into the evening, right). And now. Poor Xander's eye. I've mentioned this already, many times, but I could mention it for all eternity. His eye. One of his pretty, pretty eyes. I love Xander's eyes. I put Xander's eyes on one of my fic buttons. And now one of them is gone. *sniffle*

Now we can move onto Faith and Spike, who are practically the same person. In fact, they are the same person, with the externals reversed. Repentant. Screwed over Buffy. The only difference is in where they stand with Her Ladyship. Faith slept with one of Buffy's boyfriends and stole Angel's sympathy (B's pov). I'm guessing that our girl blames Faith for Angel hitting Buff. I'm guessing, considering her reaction to Faith telling her that 'Angel said hi', that she is not over the whole paranoid over Faith and Angel thing. And then to find her co-opting Spike... well, I can understand Buffy's reaction. Especially since Faith and Spike were flirting.

Buffy was still harsh to Giles (probably because she thinks that he should know better). At this point, she doesn't know that he killed Ben (shooting script doesn't count), so she doesn't know that he's gone behind her back more recently than Helpless. She doesn't blame Wood as much because she didn't trust him as much. I love her reaction to Xander's speech. She seriously softened there for a minute. It was nice to see her do that in reaction to someone not Spike.

Overall, the episode was filled with things that shocked, amused, or horrified me. A serious success in my book.

Comments

[jic]

I came in late, so with Caleb, it took me a really long time to be sure I was on the right show. Grrr.

But really, really good. And Xander's EYE! For now, I'm going with "damaged, not missing." Color me in denial.

Re:

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Want me to bring Buffy with me next week so that you can see the beginning?

And I want to think that Xander's eye will get better and I can't. *sniffles*

Re:

[jic]

Absolutely! And Angel, too. Because even though I'm planning to watch it now, I am fully aware of how much I suck.

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[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Hee. Will do. Will 5 work for you next Sunday? 'Cause I can come over at pretty much any time.

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[jic]

Sounds fine ;)

[cicelian.livejournal.com]

I think Faith, in general, parallels more neatly with Andrew than she does with Spike. Because she had free will. Personal grievances aside, this is what makes it difficult for Buffy to forgive her. Because she chose evil. And choice is crucial in Buffy's book - she keeps hammering that point - telling Andrew he had free will, reminding everyone (including herself, including him) that Spike chose to get the soul. It matters. So yes, Faith chose redemption the same way he did, she made a much more active, conscious choice than Anya, for example, but Buffy still can't forget that she was her friend and chose to cross over.

But Xander's eye. I think it was musesfool who said that what's awful about it is the permanence. Because he'll be walking around for the rest of his life without an eye. You know? He'll just be standing in the kitchen years from now, talking with Willow, and he'll still have an eye missing. He'll go on dates with girls and have to explain the eye. And, as whitestar2 says, he's a carpenter. He needs two eyes to preform his job.

I've been vaguely spoiled for it for about a month (knew it would happen, didn't know when). It hurts still.

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[butterfly.livejournal.com]

With the Faith/Spike thing, I was thinking more their similarity as Buffy's shadow-self. They're both the otehr side of Buffy's coin.

And dude. Yes. Xander's eye. And yes, it's a forever kind of injury. And they showed us it's importance in that episode when he shot the crossbow, because he won't be able to do that anymore, without depth perception. And yes, his job. Eeep.

[rorylie.livejournal.com]

Zoe's real name is Gina Torres.

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[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[xander-harris.livejournal.com]

Does this mean I gotta poke one of my eyes out?

Why Joss why?!

What kind of ace is up your sleeve to do such a thing?

-Xand

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

No! Keep your eye. You have such pretty eyes. You're already living in an AU-verse.

And Joss better make the eye thing worth it, that's all I'm saying. (well, all that's I'm saying when I'm not saying, "Xander's eye!")

Completely off topic from the rest of the comments here...

[listersgirl]

Thank you for reminding me of the singing mounties! Mmmm, Paul Gross.

Re: Completely off topic from the rest of the comments here...

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

If anything can make a sad day bright, it's Paul Gross singing.