On a first watch, I have mixed feelings about this episode. The revisitation and catharsis of the confrontation between Buffy and Angel from the preceding Angel episode was simply inspired writing, and extremely gratifying to watch. Their personal investments and entanglements made the initial confrontation fraught with raw emotion, leading to neither of them re/acting truly rationally, but it was both understandable and realistic. Buffy did lash out pretty harshly, but Angel still behaved worse than he felt he should have, and the honesty and reconciliation in the hallway were a joy to watch. I still don't hate Riley, but that scene with Angel showed just how much of a sideshow he is to the great Buffy/Angel tragedy.
However, I thought Spike's sabotaging of the Scoobies was quite weak. The parts were there, but it felt forced and uninspired. Also, I'm tired of Spike. He's funny. James Marsters brings a lot to the role, but I wish Whedon had actually been able to kill him off. Spike is just pathetic and the gag is old. He's a trashy murderous scumbag motivated entirely by his self-absorbed rage, blaming Buffy for his own loss and failure, only he's impotent, and that's the only reason he's tolerable; otherwise he'd be rushing to bludgeon Buffy to death. Adam is more interesting. He's at least got a plan.
Drunk Giles got a couple of short guffaws out of me, though. I miss the Cordelia and Giles dynamic. The "Oh, no, so that's what you really thought all along" was way too reminiscent of that bullshit scene from "Dead Man's Party" where everyone (except Giles) just dogs on Buffy in a ridiculous display of extremely out of character shrill insanity. Was it sweeps week?
Review by LNeroBlockedParent2022-05-31T17:40:57Z
On a first watch, I have mixed feelings about this episode. The revisitation and catharsis of the confrontation between Buffy and Angel from the preceding Angel episode was simply inspired writing, and extremely gratifying to watch. Their personal investments and entanglements made the initial confrontation fraught with raw emotion, leading to neither of them re/acting truly rationally, but it was both understandable and realistic. Buffy did lash out pretty harshly, but Angel still behaved worse than he felt he should have, and the honesty and reconciliation in the hallway were a joy to watch. I still don't hate Riley, but that scene with Angel showed just how much of a sideshow he is to the great Buffy/Angel tragedy.
However, I thought Spike's sabotaging of the Scoobies was quite weak. The parts were there, but it felt forced and uninspired. Also, I'm tired of Spike. He's funny. James Marsters brings a lot to the role, but I wish Whedon had actually been able to kill him off. Spike is just pathetic and the gag is old. He's a trashy murderous scumbag motivated entirely by his self-absorbed rage, blaming Buffy for his own loss and failure, only he's impotent, and that's the only reason he's tolerable; otherwise he'd be rushing to bludgeon Buffy to death. Adam is more interesting. He's at least got a plan.
Drunk Giles got a couple of short guffaws out of me, though. I miss the Cordelia and Giles dynamic. The "Oh, no, so that's what you really thought all along" was way too reminiscent of that bullshit scene from "Dead Man's Party" where everyone (except Giles) just dogs on Buffy in a ridiculous display of extremely out of character shrill insanity. Was it sweeps week?