Pretty solid episode. While it was pretty obvious to the audience, I still liked the misdirection angle on Dawn ... not for the audience but for her character. I'm glad they explained why the light hit her. I kept thinking it had to be a setup, and Amanda was the real deal, but I couldn't rationalize the whole "light" thing until Dawn pointed it out. I should have put that together when Amanda said she was going to see Buffy, but it just didn't click at the time.

Anyway, I don't have a problem with Amanda killing the vamp. The whole point of this episode (and Buffy's powerless trial in "Helpless") is that you have to get past the mental block of "I can't" and turn yourself over to your instincts. Buffy relied on her powers. The Slayersitter's Club relied on Buffy. Amanda was stuck. She had to fight and had no watcher drilling fear into her for years, no comprehension of what is to come, just a quick peptalk from Dawn followed by instinct. She didn't have a mental block, because she didn't have time to develop one. She just fought. All of them had the ability to kill a Vamp solo; they just had to stop thinking and start doing. There's nothing inconsistent in this development.

Rona: "I love the feel of wood in my hand"
Kennedy: "Lost me there"


And I don't have a huge problem with the talk about Buffy dying. The characters may have resigned themselves to the fact that they're in completely unknown territory. It's a hole, but not a huge hole. It wouldn't be the first time the characters have made stupid assumptions about mystical stuff. I'm sure the most realistic explanation is that the writers don't want to be reminding the audience about Faith (for spoilerific reasons that have already been spoiled here for months). Regardless, they're in completely unchartered territory. Even if Buffy hadn't died twice already, no slayer's ever lived as long as she has (or hell, as long as Faith has). And I imagine there've never been two slayers at the same either. Kendra's death leads us to believe that Faith's death calls another slayer. Buffy's second death with no reaction leads us to believe another Buffy death will also yield no reaction. But Buffy's clearly an aberration ... who really knows what the hell she is right now and how that affects the line. Still, I think it's as simple as the writers don't want to kill a potential Faith surprise. Or maybe Kendra and Faith are the aberrations. I'm sure we'll have all the answers we need by season's end.

das

The Xander bit at the end probably re-energized his batteries in the "good" fight because he got to see that even without "powers" non-powered participants (like Dawn) can still make a difference in the upcoming battle. Plus Xander had his shining moment in the S6 finale where the fate of the world boiled down to reaching the human part of Willow which enabled her to harness the power within her. Xander has accepted his role as the infrastructure dude, keeping the place together.

Spending half an episode on a psyche out (Dawn as a potential) seemed a bit like filler, but it does add to her character arc.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the Xander thing. As Patman said, Xander knows who he is. His speech was mostly for Dawn's benefit. Whether she was "The Key" or not, she feels insignificant and needed the pep-talk. It's not about whether Dawn is a powerless human or not; it's about Xander identifying with Dawn's frustrations (being "The Key" hasn't been of any particular use lately). She feels useless, and that's enough to validate the entire scene even if she's still "The Key" (something that's up for debate to begin with).

das

All the talk about Joss and his team dropping the ball regarding a new slayer remind me of when Dawn was first introduced. If you recall it took I believe a couple of weeks before we actually found out who she really was. I just remember her showing up at the end of one episode. joss did not explain it until a couple of weeks later.

I am sure eventually they will bring that up, that is one of the reasons why I like Buffy so much, because it is just not explained when it is first brought into the storyline, he waits a while for the big things.

For all we know, when Buffy died there was another Slayer activated and she is in some remote part of the world, working without a Watcher and was unknown to the council.

They said Buffy was found rather late before she became teh slayer, isn't it possible that a potential slayer was never identified and she was activated before anybody knew it?

Ahh, don't worry about the trivialities. The writers even make fun of it. When they were all talking about Dawn being the next potential, someone mentioned that it makes sense because they have the same blood (referring to the season 5 finale).

Anya - 'Yeah, I never got that.'

Still a weak episode no matter how you look at it.
I think the problem that Buffy had had the last 3 seasons or so is how do you fight a Big Bad thats so powerful and deal with it all Season long. This happend with Glory as well.

So wheres the reviews for Farscape Das? You boycotting?

Xander should become a watcher. I think this season has been alot "mental" aspects with the First and the switcheroo with the potential slayer. They are setting the stage for a huge finish. Is there a new episode next week? I have not seen one listed.

I agree with that statement about this season (so far), but no any of the others. It was certainly not the problem with season 6. Nor do I agree it was a problem in season 5. Glory appeared in 11 of the episodes, but wasn't a big issue until the last set of episodes. We're only half way through this season and there have been 6 episodes in a row dealing mainly with the First Evil.

I think that speech was foreshadowing, Xander will be become a Watcher for the new slayer. How do Watchers get called anyways?

"Hey, Watch this!"

Another take on the whole slayer activation thing:

Maybe Buffy believes the slayer activation still hinges on Faith, but doesn't want to get into that with the SIT's. In the previous episode, one of the SIT's mentioned that she had heard something about a second slayer, the other SIT's dismissed it and the subject passed, so none of them seem to know specifically about Faith.

Buffy actually had to arrange a private viewing of her dusting the ubervamp for the SIT's to get them to follow her lead, so maybe she is misleading them to keep it clear as to who's in charge. Given Buffy's rather intense mindset about everything this season, she could easily be that calculating.

Xander as a Watcher.

Okay, this piqued my interest. I've heard this theory before, back before I was even watching the show.

Have there ever been any clues dropped that Xander was going to be a Watcher?

Interesting, because IF there is going to be another Slayer (presuming that either Buffy and/or Faith dies at the end of the season and there's still a need for Slayers) it appears that there will be a need for new Watchers.

If I had to lay bets, I'd say that Kennedy will be a Watcher. She's getting a lot of attention lately, we've never really seen a female Watcher, and it might be interesting to have a Watcher who was a Slayer candidate. Is Alyson willing to go any more seasons?

Here's one idea:

What if Buffy knows full well that she's not the "official" slayer. However, this is the First Evil. She knows that there's a decent chance of her dying in combat sometime soon. So she doesn't want the potentials to panic in such a situation, running around & trying to find the other living slayer. So if she says that one she dies, one of them will take over, it might help them to jump into action in case of her death.

OK, so that's reaching...

If funny to me how no one has just come out and mentioned Willow as a potential watcher yet. She seems almost the prototype to succeed Giles in any continuation of the show. Brainy, good at research, knowledge of demons, a checkered past with use of magic...these describe both WIllow and Giles, just to different extents.

I still hope that Willow will jump over to Angel, especially since her fiance works there. And then they can just drop the Buffy series, because no matter who is the new slayer, it would not be as good as Buffy.

We already know that SMG will not be returning and if youve been reading the spoilers we already know

And with the news that Whedon has been given the go ahead to have Angel "crossover" for the season/series finale. I put even money on the fact that

I have no problem with Whedon explaining the Slayer succession later. If he wants to have the way things go be some mystery, fine. My problem is with the lousy writing of the characters. The characters can be right, wrong, whatever. But having them go from Buffy dies and nobody goes looking for the new Slayer (even if she wasn't really dead--they thought she was, and acted as if she were dead), to "Buffy has to die for the new Slayer to be activated" said with absolute certainty is just crazy.

I don't think it's a misinformation campaign by the Scoobies, because they were prattling on about Buffy dying to call the next one in the scene with just Dawn, Xander, Anya, and Willow.

As for Faith... I think it's a huge gaping error only because Buffy specifically mentioned her in the line of targets for the first. She mentioned Faith (by name) would have to die as part of the First's plan, and then... Nothing. It bugged me when nobody did anything about it at the time, and it's bugging me now. And, yeah, I have a vague idea of what's coming (been spoiled in thread titles here), but I think that just makes it worse.

I'm sure most of this will be explained by the end of the season. Problem is, I'm also pretty sure none of the explanations will make much sense (Much like the Dawn/Buffy blood thing that ended season 5--It's fine, so long as you don't actually try to think about it).

I dunno. If more stuff was happening, there would be less to call attention to the weird and inconsistant stuff. But as things are moving so slowly (the season started off fast, but this thing with the Potentials feels like it's taken forever), the medium-sized errors just draw more attention to themselves.

Since the Watcher's Council blew up, I'm sure this is probably one field in today's tight job market that has plenty of growth potential.

Also, I noticed in Dawn and Xander's conversation Dawn said something to Xander about him being good at seeing or watching people. It seemed like they were laying clues for him to become a Watcher.

There are female watchers. There was that evil one from season 3, IIRC, it took both Faith and Buffy to take her down (she was after some witchbladey thingamajig).

I don't think she was a watcher, she was just impersonating one.

Xander had some lines dealing with his interest in being a watcher in the dream episode, "Restless."

I just watched that episode today actually. I don't think that it explicitly said that she was a watcher, but she was kicked out of the Council for the use of Black Magic. I assumed that she was a former watcher...

I agree, that's why I'm hoping for (and kind of expecting) some explanation.

Ack! I forgot about that. That's not good. I think I would've preferred a misinformation campaign to messing with the continuity of the show so heavily.