And I'm so totally honked off right now because I'm stuck at work on a call and looks like I will miss both episodes!!! I saw Fool For Love during the marathon, but I was looking forward to seeing Family again. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Arrgh. FX and their damn syndication cuts. The firt time they showed Fool For Love, they screwed up the subtitles. Now they didn't even bother to show that part all. At least they could have been consistent...

They will be rerun tomorrow morning at 7:00am and 8:00am EST.

OOOO, thanks movielib. I'll tape Family. I've seen most of Fool for Love. Yea, again the screw up with the subtitles. WTF, over?

FFL is my favorite episode outside of season 2(too many in that season to mention). I could be wrong but did they they cut the part where Angel, Dru, Darla and Spike were all walking throuhg the street together and Spike steps up over the rock? It's one of my favorite shots in the whole series and I don't remember seeing it tonight. I wish they would've should part 2 of the x-over "Darla" but I guess you can't have everythig.

I had forgotten how much Dawn sucked in season 5. She hasnt gotten any better in season 6.

Does anyone know of a site that lists all the artists that have performed at the Bronze? Also a list of any music used in the soundtracks?

I have looked at several sites but no dice...

In "Family", Buffy only reveals to Giles the situation with Dawn being sent by the monks and "implanting" memories of what it was like with Dawn "being there" all this time. Buffy and Giles agree to keep the secret between them, rather then allowing the rest of the Scoobs to act all weird around Dawn. Buffy is determined to protect Dawn from the threat of Glory. This leads to Buffy moving out of the dorm and back to her mom's house so she'd be able to protect Dawn more easily. The Scoobs pitch in to help with the move (with some fine comedic bantering about who's doing the work, and who's directing the work). Plus Willow reminds the Scoobs that there's a surprise birthday party for Tara at the Bronze that night. None of the Scoobs really know Tara well enough to know what to get her (much less remember that it was her birthday). So gift selection becomes a pasttime for the Scoobs for the rest of the afternoon.

Things are rocky between Riley and Buffy because Buffy is in super-protective mode, and now sees Riley as a normal "scoob" without the souped-up abilities he once had. Riley's got some self-esteem issues here.

Tara's secret is finally revealed. We now know why Tara sabotaged the "demon seeking" spell that her and Willow tried to do last season. It's Tara's birthday, and her wacky family shows up to take her back home, but Tara isn't too keen on it. (Does anyone know who that cousin of Tara's is? She looks familiar to me). Glory is using some demon henchmen to thrash Buffy. In an attempt to prevent the Scoobs from seeing Tara's "real self", she casts a spell that makes it impossible for the Scoobs to see demons. This, of course, makes it tough for the Scoobs to detect the demon henchmen sent by Glory when they show up at the Magic Box.

So it looks like the gang has a bunch of invisible demons to fight. While Buffy and company flair about at the invisible demons, Tara finally removes the spell, and this makes it easier for Buffy to deal with the demons, and Spike shows up and helps out. Tara's family tries to shame her into coming back home with them, but Tara hesitates, and Buffy tells the family that they could take Tara home with them, but they'd have to go through her to do so, and then Dawn also steps up to defend Tara. Spike susses out the scam that the men her Tara's family use to control the women in the family. To test her "demon-ness" Spike punches Tara in the nose, the chip in his head cause the neurological pain, thus convincing everyone that Tara is human with no "demon" side to her. Tara's family leaves town with their collective tails dragging between their legs. The Scoobs finally and demon-stratively show Tara that she's once of them now, which makes her very happy.

The surprise birthday party at the Bronze goes off without a hitch, everyone is having a nice time, and for their dance, Willow and Tara hold each other close, and they eventually float in one another's arms on the dancefloor as the episode comes to an end.

In "Fool For Love" Buffy gets herself staked by a vampire with a big 'fro, and Riley has to come to the rescue to ward off the vampire and patch up Buffy without her having to go to the hospital.

This causes Buffy to question why she let herself almost get staked permanently by an average vampire. She consults with Giles, and discusses the lack of details when it comes to the final battles that each slayer is involved with before they die in battle. She questions the Watchers' diligence to their jobs in this respect, but Giles says that most Watchers never know what went wrong in each slayer's final battle, and it's very painful for them when a slayer is killed, correcting Buffy's view of watcher's as being "unseemly" and distant.

Buffy decides that the only one she can talk to to gain some insight about a slayer's last battle is to get it out of Spike, who has killed 2 slayers. Buffy tries to beat it out of Spike, and then offer some cash for his insight, but Spike decides to play this for all its worth, has Buffy go to a bar to talk about his exploits. Once at the bar, Spike wants some chicken wings to go with the beer (chuckle).

Finally Spike reveals how he was thought of as a horrible poet of love, the year around 1870, how his love was never returned by women he sought out, like Sessily. His poetry was thought of as "bloody" awful, thus his moniker was "William the Bloody". Anyhow, Sessily put a stake in William's heart when she told him that he was beneath her (socially and character-wise), and this makes it easier when Drusila find him on the streets and offers to sire him, and he consents (it's hilarious when Dru is biting his neck and he's just going on with "OWWW!!! OW! OW! OW! OW OW OW!!! .."). Drunk with his new vampire state, William takes on the moniker of Spike (which comes from people wanting to put a railroad spike in their heads before they listened to anymore of William's Bloody Poetry), but his brazen new attitude/actions causes the town to chase out the vampires, and the other vampires in Spike's circle are Darla, Angel and Dru. Angel isn't too pleased with having to stay in abandoned train tunnels to keep a low profile because Spike was causing too much outcry from the humans, and then Spike goads Angel into almost staking him through the heart, and Spike convinces Angel what it's like to let passion rule your actions. Angel lets Spike live...that day.

Spike then recalls the time where the 4 vampires were in China around the time of the Boxer Rebellion (circa 1900) and Spike does battle with a Chinese slayer. After a close call in getting staked (an explosion distracted the slayer), Spike turns the tables on the slayer and in true vampire style grabs her from behind and bites her in the neck and has a meal out of her. Spike shares a bit of slayer blood with Dru, who announces that Spike has slayed the slayer to Angel and Darla. Angel seems impressed by the feat.

Spike fast forwards to 1977 where he's engaged in battle for his life with a slayer on a New York subway train. Spike looks like a dead ringer for Billy Idol at this time. It's a hard fought battle which Spike intersperses commentary between the then and now of slayerhood. He expounds upon how most slayers don't really last long due to the odds, but Buffy's a little different in that she's got a whole set of family and Scoobs to keep her more grounded in her approach to slayerhood. The idea of "Team Slayer" is new to slayers. The previous slayers have a thrist for death, and are a little less cautious in their approach to battle. Finally Spike gains the upper hand during a tunnel blackout on the subway and kills the slayer by breaking her neck (much like how Angel broke the neck of Ms. Calendar). On his way off the train, he grabs the long leather coat of the slayer (almost like an Indian who scalps his victims) and wears it with pride.

Buffy is disgusted by Spike's tales of slayer kills, she punches him around, Spike taunts her with how she really wants the taste of vampires, even hints at having a go at her. Buffy is even more disgusted, and ends their conversation with Spike thrown to the ground, and telling him that even if she were inclined to have a go with him, she tells Spike that he's beneath her, throws the cash in his direction, the cash is all strewn about, and she walks aways, confident in her own strength. This crushes Spike, he makes some painful faces of Buffy's word which act to stake his heart once more metaphorically, with pain so very real. He collects himself and collects the cash like a petty person on the receiving end of charity from a stranger.

Spike goes back to his hang-out (where Harmony hangs out as well since Spike took her back in after her abortive attempt to lead a bunch of vampires to kill Buffy). Spike is thoroughly pissed off at Buffy, goes for his double-barrelled shotgun, all the while Harmony is there telling Spike that he doesn't have a chance in killing Buffy with that chip in his head, nonetheless, Spike marches to Buffy's house, with shotgun in hand.

Buffy comes home, find that her mom is packing for an overnight stay at the hospital so that the doctors can run a CATscan on her head. This saddens Buffy because it makes her feel helpless, even though she's been inbued with all those phyical gifts/powers of slayerhood, she can't help her mother at her time of crisis. Buffy walks outside to the back porch, and sits on the steps. Spike shows up, all mad at the world, huffing and puffing internally. He sees Buffy, the strongest person he knows of, and she looks up at Spike, with tears in her eyes. Spike (who basically turns into William for a little while) asks her what's wrong, Buffy just looks away and Spike tries consoling her and ends up just sitting with her. Fade to credits.

I really liked "Fool for Love".

yikes ...

*Snort*

Oops, sorry, I don't know what blabbering idiot demon got into me this morning when I got to work.

Patman - I'd be just as interested in hearing your thoughts as the recaps. Sooooo, how about during the recaps, interject your thoughts on what you saw? Likes or dislikes, etc., etc. I like hearing what you have to say about stuff.

Yeah, bring on the opinions so I can vehemently disagree with them.

Spoken by the Patman:
Oops, sorry, I don't know what blabbering idiot demon got into me this morning when I got to work.

Probably the same species as the one that's infested me for years.

das

Spike's character took a major turn in FFL.

During his story, he tells Buffy that every slayer has a moment of weakness. At the end he catches Buffy at seemingly her moment but that pretty much disables his killer instinct towards her.

They hint at this quite a bit in Season 4.

I like Spike's understanding that Slayers die, not because they can't handle the fight, but because they just get tired of fighting. Like he said, he didn't win ... they lost. The Slayer can kill thousands upon thousands of vamps, but in the end, all it takes is "one good day." Buffy's strength comes not from the added strength of her friends, but from the fact that she has friends in general. They could be useless oafs, but the simple fact that she has a reason to come home at the end of the day, people who would miss her if she failed, people she cares about who could die if she failed ... that keeps her sharp. I really like that understanding on the show and the fact that Spike is the one who "gets" it.

das

\
No, just taller. Gee Whiz, I had forgotten how she went from shorter than Buffy to, now, towering over her in the span of a year.

I still love when everyone sticks up for Tara, stepping up to the plate in defense of her, "You'll have to deal with me.", and then Spikes, "Except me... I dont care what happens."

Spikes "I'm gonna' kill her" look before he goes home to get the shotgun is one of his shining moments-hurt but deadly, giving into the demon. I'd say Fool For Love, is the Buffyverse episode I've watched the most, right behind the Faith two-parter on Angel when she tries to 'assassinate' him and kidnaps Wesley.

I thought I did in the way I phrased what happened in the show. I guess I was too subtle.

Doh!

I also liked Spike's "One Good Day" loudly whispered into Buffy's ear.

That's sort of the crux of being the slayer, you are one against legion. Sooner or later, you'll slip, and some sack of crap vampire will do you in, no matter what condition you are in physically, it's the mental wear-n-tear of the "job/vocation" that gets slayers killed with a life expectancy of 25 or less.

You simply can't get this kind of character development in "normal" shows on TV, thus my total enjoyment I derive from this show (especially on a nightly basis). I'll be sad with the season 5 episode are all shown because that means I'll have to suffer the week-long intervals to get the new episodes from then on.

Plus, the physical "humor" of the show, being about to plant a right hook to some demon's nose that pisses you off, is flat out funny. You can't do this with normal TV shows.

Dare I say that Buffy is almost "super-hero done right" on TV.

Yea, well I dare you to say it!

I guess I'm not always good at subtlety. Thanks for post more of your thoughts. Keep it up. And as for the blabbering, don't worry, it happens to all of us from time to time.

Quick, look - there's Scully nekkid!

"Buffy is super hero done right!"

OMG, we are really in for the doldrums of season 5. I was so depressed by both "Shadow" and "Listening To Fear" on FX.

I can't even write much because I know what's coming, and it's just so inevitable that it's going to be a hurting time for the Buffster. I did enjoy SMG's acting, and also Kristine Sutherland's acting. Their moments together seem genuine. But I had to think that both episodes had major "soap opera" moments with the rest of the "normal Buffy" backdrop of demons.

So what's with Riley "Sad Sack" Finn becoming a nightly treat for vampires? So what happens when you don't allow a vampire to take all of your blood? What is going on with that boy? I've never seen such a wuss of a guy. Oh, I did find Sandy the vamp pretty nice looking though.

Glory's minion and his platitudes are a hoot. Glory is a hoot as well. Ben's connection with Glory is now evident and set in motion Glory's achilles heel.

Well, dont worry... I think Triangle is tonight, one of the better funny episodes, so you can put on a happy face.

Personally it was the down and dirty darkness and real sadness of season 5 that impressed me the most. If you thought Buffy could handle serious overtones and drama before, they went above and beyond the call of duty in season 5 and blew me away. Sure it isnt easy, but Life ain't all roses.

Agree on the darkness of 5th season. I love so much about this show, and both the Buffy/Angel relationship and Willow/Oz relationship are very emotional for me, but nothing ... and I mean NOTHING ... compares to Buffy and Dawn watching their mom in so much pain. These episodes are proof that SMG should have at least 3 Emmys on her mantle. 5th season has its ups and downs, but all the elements with Joyce are simply incredible television.

das

Interesting little bit of trivia I caught the first time this episode aired. Sandy is the name of the girl VampWillow kills in Season 3's "Dopplegangland." This is my favorite episode, so I've seen it a million times. Lo and behold, the same actress played Sandy the Vamp here.

I assume it's supposed to be the same person. Which is weird, since VampWillow didn't vamp Sandy, and continuity-wise didn't have an off-screen opportunity either. Don't quite know why they went with the same actress and the same name, if they weren't trying to imply that it was the same vampire.

I just posted this in another thread and thought I should post it here too:

OK, I just found out something that is not going to make people happy. According to both my TiVo guide and the FX schedule, next Thursday FX will show the 4th and 3rd last shows from season 5. But the last two episodes, The Weight of the World and The Gift will not be shown on Friday. Instead, they will start over with Season 1, episodes 1 & 2. On the 24th and 25th, there will be shows not in sequence and on the 26th they'll go back to Season 1, episodes 3 & 4.

UPN must be planning on showing the last two episodes of Season 5 some time next year.

I haven't seen that anyone else has posted this information. If it has been posted, I apologize for the redundancy.

"Into the Woods" - while we knew that the Buffy/Riley relationship wasn't going to blossom into anything with potency, damn if that last 10 minutes wasn't heart-wrenching. As much as I didn't like Riley, you could feel the million things that ran through Buffy's mind as Xander was giving her all the reasons to keep Riley around or make it a clean relationship break.

I've seen plenty of films where there's a big urgent footrace for one lover to try and find the other lover before they go off riding in the sunset, but to juxtapose it with Xander and Anya's growing closer together was almost too much to take.

The final shot of Riley riding in the helicopter, with the weight of the world's worth of regrets and recriminations still on his shoulders as he flips towards the pages of his new chapter of his life, and having to simply end the chapter entitled "Buffy" with but a simple closing of those pages, was aptly painful if you understand how loving the wrong person can wreck you inside because they aren't capable of loving you in the way you need them to love you.

"Triangle" - thankfully a light-hearted episode, showing a bit of Buffy's over-protective-ness of the long term relationships of the Scoobs (mainly Xander and Anya's), and how Willow and Anya don't quite mix or mesh, mainly due to Anya's insecurities of Willow's relationship with Xander.
The Troll (who also played Kubiak in "Parker Lewis Can't Lose") that is released from Willow's interrupted (by Anya's impatient utterances) spell is almost an after-thought, a device for Willow and Anya to clear the air, and gives Buffy a good sparring partner so she can vent a little frustration.

Spike has got to be one of the more humorous supporting characters in TV, his self-awareness of his ulterior motives truly provide some comedic moments, like when Spike shows Buffy that he's not sucking the blood of a girl who's been knocked unconscious, and Buffy asks Spike if he wants credit for not using the girl as a sneak under these circumstances, and Spike begrudgingly agrees with Buffy's assessment.

I loved the troll in Triangle. Plus you get to see what got Anya started on the vegance path. And this is where Giles goes to the Watcher's Council for help with Glory. Checkpoint is coming up and I really like that episode.

I remember when this originally aired, I was yelling at the screen, "DON'T TURN AROUND!!! DON'T LOOK!!!" Not because I hated Riley (I did, but it's irrelevant), but because of everything you said.

Both Xander's speach to Buffy and the final moments with him and Anya are wonderful. For such a potentially dark episode, this was one that really made me feel good inside as it closed. I felt bad for Buffy, but seeing Xander's character grow so much made it worth it.

das