*sigh*

das

Why was there a throw-away episode so late in the season?

While I have only re-started watching recently, I am already tired of the same formula in every episode.

"Oh no, little Dawn feels all neglected. She is so pitiful, she needs love!"

After tonight, I hope Anya or somebody takes Dawn and throws her into some abyss from which she can never return.

Now some questions about Dawn that I missed last season.

-Where did she come from? She never appeared in the early episodes that are on the season one DVD.

-Is Anya trying to be her mother figure? She seemed the most perturbed by Dawn's actions.

-Why must she whine so much? Poor Dawn is now a shoplifter! Woe is Dawn!

Bright side: I am sure we will get some mileage out the Freyck and Spike relationship in future episodes.

Also, anyone else think the sword demon looked like some reject orc from Lord of the Rings?

Long story short...Dawn showed up in the begining of season 5 she was...

Everyone tries to be her Mother figure. Anya was pissed because Dawn was stealing from the Magic Box. Anya runs the Magic Box and is very fond of money.

To annoy us to no ends.

What pisses me off is that it was a wasted opportunity. Midway through the show I was thinking "Cool concept. Trapped in the house. Now Spike & Buffy, and Willow & Tara will have to deal." But at the end of the show, almost nothing had changed at all.

das

Well, here's hoping that was the end of Dawn's story arc for the season. As if the hellmouth wasn't enough, she has become the writers' excuse in every other episode it seems. And yet more stomping away and screaming - enough already!

I was predicting the Spike/Buffy thing would come out also, but not yet I guess. And when they went to commercial at the end there I thought Anya would be the one to get her powers back - as she was urging Willow to do.

So, yet another 'slow' episode and right after I thought they were making so much progress in the one before.

Some good news at least - 2 hours of Buffy next week. Looks like overtime for all the Tivos and VCRs.

Buffy 2/12/02

What a bizarre little episode. Buffy's birthday does spawn some really strange stuff.

It appears that the writers are addressing Dawn's issues with loneliness and abandonment. Can't really say how Buffy will resolve them with Dawn.

It's like last week never happen w/r/t Spike-Buffy (except for the bruises on Spike's face) but it seems strange that Buffy is still got the hots for Spike, and doesn't find him really that repulsive. This is a bit of a reversal from last week's episode. I guess she hasn't acknowledged what Spike really is, and is still treating him like gigolo. Oh well.

The Helfrek/Sessily-Spike thing was quite clever. Did anyone else realize that Helfrek was Sessily, the woman that William the Bloody (Spike) was so in love with, but who rejected him for being beneath her, which led to him being susceptible to Darla's invitation to become a vampire?

I had no doubts that Willow would not give into Anya's demands that Willow whip up some magic to get them out of the mess. It was good to see Tara stand up for Willow, this might lead to a reconciliation between them.

Anyhow, while it was good to have the old gang interacting like it was a season 2 episode, it felt tired at the same time.

They lost me at "Spellcasters Anonymous"

This episode just seemed to highlight for me just how little I care about pretty much anyone, any more.

Where to start...

The Willow-magic plot is dead to me, now. Unsalvagable. They're all trapped in a house with a horrific demon, quite likely about to all be killed, and we're supposed to be *proud* Willow refused to consider magic? I mean, the alcoholism parallel they're going for can only be warped so far. The emergency stash, the fact that a town that couldn't muster a magic-oriented Wiccan group has a magical AA, and Willow's complete and utter uselessness this episode has killed any hope I had of the addiction being a bright red fish.

Dawn--I. Don't. Like. Her. I was getting along okay, until the whole "Pity her! Her sister, who was ripped out of heaven after committing the ultimate sacrifice, would rather battle evil demons than eat dinner! And her sisters 20-something friends don't want to hang out with her!" Plus, she has friends. Just last week, she was all getting into Janice's family dynamic. So pardon me while I fail to get into the whole Dawn pity party.

Tara. Gee, I would have liked her. If I didn't resent the blatant manipulation on the part of the writers so much. She's a totally different character, who's morphed into Buffy's Bestest Buddy Ever! She had more spine in this episode than in the first season she was on the show. I get it; I'm supposed to like her. Enough with the personality rewrite already.

Anya--I actually liked her a lot this episode. Even when I was supposed to be scoffing and chuffing at her wrongness. I was with her during her Willow tirade, cheered as she tried to take out the demon for stabbing her friend, and just generally liked her. Searching Dawn's room was way overkill, but understandable.

My biggest problem, plot-wise, was Buffy's random decision that guidance councelor == eeeeevil. She had a guidance dude who was good (granted, he was murdered within the episode); but Dawn's must be eeeeeeeeeeevil. Wouldn't it have been a more logical conclusion that the Nerd Troika was the root cause of their problems?

Stuff I liked... Um. NewTara is an entertaining girl, if I pretend she's someone Buffy met at work. The Spike/Halfrek moment was nice. Uh.

Has anyone seen the classic Luis Buñuel movie "The Exterminating Angel"? It's about an elegant dinner party in which the guests can't leave for several days. Was this Buffy episode a tribute, spoof or coincidence?

The whole "Dawny as a klepto screaming for attention" does get a bit tired, but I guess that's the only way the writers know how to write 15 year olds these days.

Why doesn't Dawn have a group of friends?

She must be the only teenage girl in America that WANTS to hang out with her family. Every other teenage girl would be out all the time, hanging out with a group of friends, going to the mall, etc.

When she kept whining about people not spending time with her, I just wanted to yell "Get a life!"

The first half of the episode was written by a third grader from Phoenix, yes?

No, that’s not fair to third graders.

Up till now I’ve been a closet supporter of Dawn. She’s just a kid, I kept telling myself, and kids have problems and sometimes whine. It’s just their way. They often have a narrow viewpoint of the world around them and almost constantly try to find out where they fit in the grand scheme of things.

But after this episode I have only two thoughts about her:

Dawn is The Big Bad.

KILL DAWN!! KILL HER NOW!!!

This is the first time I’ve found a character that makes Wesley Crusher look good.



OK. That’s three things.





MrN, I’m also thinking Anya could take the amulet from the [not]dead Halfrek, maybe regain her powers, and then we could see how she REALLY feels about Alex Xander. But that would involve active participation in the writing process.


Highlight of the show: KFC BBQ wings are back…


Still hate Buffy’s hair.

I guess I'm the only one that thinks Dawn is hot. Well if she were legal I would say that. Still annoying as all hell though.

Wizdar, glad to finally have you on board the "Dawn is SUCKEKEKEKE" Train.

Speaking of suck ...

das

So no one else is digging the Helfrek=Sessily revelation? I thought it was kinda cool thing to throw into the mix (especially when Spike makes the connection).

The only thing I'm digging is a grave for my favorite show.

das

P.S. Yeah, that part was kind of cool.

Since this has become the Buffy gripe-fest thread. I'm hating her haircut more and more.

There are SO many neat things they COULD do that they've totally ignored. They ain't goin' nowhere with that.

[Wizdar hands das a shovel. "It's under a BIG dubbaya..." ]

And what was with that neurotic co-worker of Buffy's at the party? Sheesh!

While I have not seen the David Fincher film Panic Room, it has a similar plot to this in that most of the film takes place in one house. If they had let Fincher direct this episode it would have had more edge. Heck, Fincher needs to direct an episode to give it unique style, anything to stray from this lame lull.

Case in point: The show is losing steam and might wind up like X-Files if it doesn't watch out. For February the show needs to be hitting them out of the park each week, it's merely bunting. Next week will be two repeats I believe, what kind of crap is that?

That's not fair to people from Phoenix.

I picked that because I couldn't spell Des Moines.

And I've never been to Des Moines.

That a crappy, boring episode.

The highlight for me was when Spike took Buffy's hand in the hall to grope himself and Tara caught them.

Spike: She was helping me with a cramp.
Tara: You had a cramp in your pants?



And then later when they were playing cards and Tara asked Spike how his cramp was....and then she said that maybe he should ice it.

In spite of the fact that those were good jokes, I think it's impolite to find ANYTHING good about this episode.

JMO.





I find the trend towards sex sex sex in these shows is going WAY too overboard. Dudes (writer dudes), get laid once in a while!

Hell, they even had Kevin get nekkid in Andromeda last week!