Not by leaps and bounds, certainly, but by bits and pieces, BTVS is getting up to speed and back to form.
Downsides: Certain tropes of the series are becoming so cliche that the characters have come to expect them. Willow’s trouble-making observation that Xander is a demon magnet back in season 4 continues to hold true. The problem is that making fun of a cliche doesn’t make it less of a cliche. Meantime we see Giles now touching everything in sight, after poor Tony Head had to spend weeks avoiding everything to the point where it was getting distracting. Now that he’s fondling every prop in the house, though, I wish he hadn’t chewed out the gang for making jokes. It was the first time they sounded like themselves in ages. After all the stuff about them growing up, *now* he addresses them as “children?” What the–?
Upsides: Plenty. So Principal Wood is essentially Blade the Vampire Hunter minus the vamp blood in him: Ultra cool vampire-fighting black guy seeking out the light-haired vampire who killed his mother. And yet for all that, I didn’t see it coming, and I don’t recall noticing anyone else coming up with that theory either. Be interesting if Wood actually dusts Spike, thereby earning Buffy’s enmity. Hope it doesn’t, but you just *know* it’s gonna end in tears. The subplot with the Asian potential slayer was beyond hilarious (“What are you, trying to poison me?!”) I wonder if Willow knows a language-bridging spell. If so, she better crank it out before the girl bolts the country. Anya’s jealousy was charming, Dawn wasn’t annoying, the running gag of both Willow and Wood laughing at the notion of Buffy being competent and then realizing their error was great. And Spike actually seems at peace with himself, which really couldn’t be worse for a character on this series than to find ANY degree of happiness. Because that’s when the boom is usually lowered.
Moving on:
Angel. Kicked ášš even more. Minor quibble over why no one questioned that Lorne totally misread the situation. Definite shock ending: Most folks, including myself, seemed to tag correctly who was going to be killed off, but the circumstances caught me off guard. My only real complaint: THREE WEEKS?!?
Hey, anyone want to see Faith team up with someone named Begorrah?
And hey, food for thought: Physical prowess aside, who could outhink the other: Angelus or Smallville’s Lex Luthor?
PAD
• 
There’s been a lot of good conversation here today.
Buffy: I enjoyed the episode, although there were parts I wasn’t completely satisfied with. I knew who Wood’s mother was as soon as he said it however. Does anyone else find it comical that a vampire hunter’s last name is “Wood?”
Angel: This just gets better and better. I did not see the Cordy as the big bad coming at all. Should have, now that I think back on it, but this one surprised me. I think we were all expecting the announced death to be at Angelus’ hands ala Jenny Calendar way back when. Lilah dying was no big surprise though. The spell reminded me of the same “fake spell” that was used to turn Angel bad in Buffy’s season 3. I suspected he was still Angelus. As to how he fooled Lorne, he is “the greatest actor.” He fooled the Mayor & Faith. Now he fooled everyone. Angel is still in there. Angelus probably tapped into the aspect of Angel to fool Lorne.
Angelus or Lex? Depends on who they were against, I’d say. Angelus is effective because he knows his victim’s strengths and weaknesses and plays against them. Lex does that as well, but also uses his other influences (money not being the least of them) to do his bidding. When Lex does finally go all the way evil, he could certainly take Angelus.
Oh, http://www.comicscontinuum.com has some pics from Faith’s episode up today.
Bad Cordy. Should’ve seen that one coming!
Bobby
Bobby Nash
Writer @ Large
Why wouldn’t Spike not show up in a mirror? Traditionaly, Vampires don’t show up in mirrors because they lack a soul…Spike has one.
I don’t know what’s established for Buffyverse Vampires, though.
IIRC, Angel hasn’t shown up in mirrors… I may be wrong, but remember a shot in Buffy with him sitting with someone (Buffy?), and they looked into the mirror and Angel was lacking in a reflection. Of course, it could be my mind playing tricks on me… 🙂
Even when Angel has a soul, he doesn’t show up in mirrors. I guess Spike has the same problem with reflecting. 😀
Hey folks. Long time lurker here, first time poster.
Thought you’d be interested in these links. Someone put them up on Angel’s official message board.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2756657.stm
http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_750188.html?menu=
Don’t know how reliable these sites are, but they’ve got a lot of people talking on the Angel board.
How did we get from “Did Wood notice that Spike wasn’t in the mirror?” to “Spike showed up in the mirror when he shouldn’t have; a thousand curses on ME and their offsping”?
Seriously, unless there was an actual shot of Spike’s face in the mirror, it’s not worth getting worked up over.
I doubt the First is maneuvering Wood to kill Spike – it already has some degree of control over Spike and said it wasn’t time for him yet. More likely its maneuvering Wood into a situation where Spike will kill him.
I was all troubled by the Spike in the Mirror thing as well, but eventually gave into the idea that Wood’s furrowed brow was all “why can’t I see him?” instead of some caveman, territorial, “girl MINE” thing.
What I’m still troubled by (in a petty sort of way): how’d Xander text message Willow, what with being strapped to a wheel and all? And how’d Spike know that Willow did a fancy locator spell, since he launched himself out of the house so quickly? Huh?
Petty. But overall, I enjoyed the episodes. Much smaller ratio of stupidity per minute.
I am also desperately sad that on Angel, the only character I liked anymore was offed. Boo, hiss! Miss you already, Lilah.
LA LA LA LA–I’M NOT READING!–LA LA LA LA…
Angel was pre-empted for college basketball for the fourth time since it was moved to Wednesday, so I won’t see it until I get back from Farpoint.
I sure hope The WB takes these pre-emptions and odd-hour, weekend reschedulings into account when they look at the ratings.
I thought Wood was looking in the mirror and noticing Spike’s lack of reflection at that point. But later on he sounded surprised upon realizing Spike was a vampire. Which makes me think the actor unthinkingly decided to look in the rearview to check out Spike and no one caught it.
I believe what the dying Chinese slayer said was, “Tell my mother I’m sorry,” to which Spike then replied that he didn’t speak the language.
PAD
First of all, to those who missed the shows for whatever reason, if you have a fast connection, you can get them online, either through Kazaalite, Limewire, etc. or with Bit Torrent (which can be found at http://www.turok.info). This week’s episodes were called “First Date” and “Cavalry” which should help you when searching for them.
Now, on to the shows:
On Buffy – After the disappointment that the last 4 episodes were, any decent episode will feel great. It’s like how food tastes better when you’re hungry. I found the episode to be fun, good writing and everyone felt in character. Even Giles’ rant in the end seemed justifiable, they’re facing something worse than anything before and have absolutely no clue on how to beat it. This can lead to a lot of frustration, especially when you seem to be the only one who’s worrying about it. Someone was complaining that not all plot points were addressed, I personally think that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; life isn’t always clear-cut, providing answers to every question. Sunnydale is a cauldron of demonic activity, of course there will be demons running around that you know nothing about and who do things you never hear about. The demon didn’t pick Xander up, he’s the one who approached her; she had no idea he knew the slayer and if she had chosen someone else we’d never have known about it until the new Ubervamp showed up (although that does make one wonder why the First didn’t release more of them, if all it takes is enough, non-anemic, blood). Also, I’m sure that Spike took Buffy’s cell phone with him when he left the house, and that’s how Willow told him about the locator spell. Andrew and Jonathan/First were great (loved Andrew’s delivery about the microwave), and I liked that Andrew immediately went to Willow with what was going on; he seems serious about wanting redemption. It occurs to me that that’s one of the major themes of the show; what with Angel, Faith, Anya, Spike, Willow and now Andrew (no matter how far you fall you can always climb your way back up again if you want to). I liked the Chinese slayer although I also thought it far-fetched the way they’re doing it. And about Wood, I’m sure that Buffy realized that it was Spike that killed Wood’s mother, it’s a little obvious and I’m sure Spike spared no details when he told Buffy about it (he wanted to spend as much time as possible with her, so why not stretch his story?). Got the rearview mirror thing as well, just assumed that Spike wasn’t in position to be seen, even if he were human.
On Angel – was a little annoyed at how little lighting there was throughout the episode, true that the sun is gone, but they do have lamps inside. Other than that it was a good episode, and I feel very proud of myself over the fact that while Cordy was talking to Angel after “restoring” his soul, it suddenly dawned on me that she was the big bad. Everything just clicked all of a sudden, the fact that there was someone else calling the shots, that the stealing of the soul had to be an inside job, that Cordy was the other person standing guard over Manny when he was killed, that she’s the one who first brought up the fact that Angelus knew the beast, her sleeping with Connor, and even the fact that she never suggested giving Angel the same drug he took in the first season that brought Angelus out temporarily (which would have been an easier and safer thing to do since it’s effects were temporary). I also wouldn’t be surprised if they tell us later that Angelus was in on the thing ever since Cordy turned off the camera and talked to him alone in the last episode. Now I wonder if they’ll start showing the real Cordy in the higher plane again now that the cat is out of the bag. I think that she’s been stuck there all along freaking out over not being able to help. About Willow showing up in LA, I imagine that the gang will call her to put Angel’s soul back again, she’s the one who did it last time after all.
Raphy
I grabbed thiss off of buffworld.com. Someone had asked if she was preggers or on a chochlate binge.
Sorry. That I have fogotten to mention this earlier. Anywho… Charisma Carpenter, who plays Cordelia on Angel (and previous to that on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is expecting a baby boy in March 2003 with husband Damian Hardy. [No Further-Information]
Something just occurred to me. When they restore Angel’s soul, if they do it through some way other than the gipsy curse (maybe the shaman guy or just a different spell), wouldn’t that get rid of that pesky “no true happiness” hurdle, thus clearing the way for the Angel/Cordy romance?
About Faith, I haven’t seen the next episode preview so I don’t know if they go into it, but how do you suppose she gets out of jail? Does she escape when she sees that the šhìŧ hit the fan? Does the gang break her out so she can help them? Or does Angelus go after her, leaving her no choice but to break out? I prefer not to think that she’d just conveniently be scheduled for release right at that moment.
Btw, there’s a typo in my previous post. The title of this week’s Angel episode is “Calvary” not “Cavalry”.
Raphy
Just thought I’d point out that there are a hëll of a lot more Chinese dialects than Mandarin. For instance, Cantonese, which is the dialect the new Slayerette was speaking…badly.
I thought perhaps the reason why Wood was bugging when he was looking in the rearview wasn’t that he didn’t see the reflection: vampire! or any such revelation but that Spike is hounding in on his date with Buffy. The guy just walked into their dinner date, even though Buffy didn’t know where the dinner was going to be. Grr, growl, grunty possessive guy noises.
On a lighter note:
Bless you and your predilection towards puns, Mr. David. Perhaps Begorrah could be her half-demon sidekick?
“Calvary.” huh. Makes quite a difference, doesn’t it?
The whole point of the soul steler spell was apparently to mask Angelus. I mean, what sort of eregy would YOU expect a soul stealer to have?
Just because Cordy killed Lilah doesn’t mean she’s the big bad. She could be another minion. That rock-headed guy was giving someone a knife in a cave somewhere, right?
Cordy could also be sharing a body with a baddie, like the Shade in James Robinson’s Starman.
Why would Angelus act so mean to Cordy in the crossbow scene if he knew she was helping him? They were alone.
Giles was telling the Axe catching story, so it still could be a lie.
It is weird that they’ve amassed all these girls, and they conveniently disappear when necessary. Why do they need so many, anyway? Fodder?
Too bad they couldn’t get the actress who played the 1970’s slayer to reprise her role. She looked better with the afro.
Lex Luthor is not evil! Not yet, he isn’t. He is one of the more likeable, least flighty characters on the show. He tries to do the right thing. He sometimes fails, but then so does Clark.
What bugs me is Clark’s lack of smarts involving excuses.
“Why were you acting so mean, Clark?”
“This meteor rock made me evil.”
“Why would it do that, Clark?”
“Well, gee, I don’t know, Lana, why did the meteor rocks make that girl talk to bees, or that other girl a shapeshifter? Cut me some freaking slack, Lana! And for God’s sake, why did you keep wearing that necklace for so long?”
>>>>”Why were you acting so mean, Clark?”
“This meteor rock made me evil.”<<<<
I wonder though, does Red Kryptonite actually make Clark “evil” or simply obnoxious and belligerent? He’s not very nice under the influence of red K but does that make him as dangerous as, say, Angel without his soul?
“I doubt that Buffy knows the Wood-Spike connection yet. I figured it out during the episode because I remembered that the Slayer Spike killed in the ’70s was African-American, which let me put two and two together; but Spike probably didn’t mention that detail when describing the fight to Buffy.”
Buffy wouldn’t really need that detail to figure it out. The timeline alone would tell her that Wood had to be the son of the Slayer Spike killed.
One other thing I forgot to mention: Was it just me or did it seem like we got our first glimpse of the weapon that will be used to destroy either the Beast or his Boss – the bone sword the Beast created?
Pierce, and others, it’s “Chumash.”
I’m no expert, they were some aboriginal-type Californians.
They were an important part of a book I read when I was a kid, “Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow,” by William Arden (Dennis Lynds). The Three Investigators were looking for a treasure of gold known as The Chumash Hoard.
The name probably would have gone right by me, but (lucky for me) I’ve been in the habit several years now of watching “my shows” with the captioning turned on.
Buffy wouldn’t really need that detail to figure it out. The timeline alone would tell her that Wood had to be the son of the Slayer Spike killed.
Mm. Maybe; it depends on how much she knew about the year it took place and how old Wood is.
But this isn’t something I feel strongly about; it’s just my impression, and we’ll probably find out next episode anyway.
One other thing I forgot to mention: Was it just me or did it seem like we got our first glimpse of the weapon that will be used to destroy either the Beast or his Boss – the bone sword the Beast created?
We got two glimpses of it. The second one happened when Cordy rammed it through Lilah’s neck.
On to what I think of Angel: Cordy has been bad for awhile, perhaps even when she first got her demon half. That would make for one VERY long story arc, which is very impressing. I just hope I’m right.
you guys have no idea how lucky you are, i have directtv and havent seen the WB since it left WGN, a friend has taped Buffy and Angel for me since seasnon 4 of Buffy
I thought both shows were pretty good. I liked Buffy better because it was funnier.
Buffy: My favorite part was Andrew standing up to the First. I knew that kid had it in him. However, the fact that the First is reusing his lackeys, specifically ones like Andrew, makes it seem like he’s grasping at straws a bit. It’s nice to finally know what the deal with Principal Wood is. Me and my family all figured out the connection with the black ’70s slayer right after he mentioned that his mom was a slayer who was killed by a vampire. I wasn’t too fond of the comedy subplot about the Chinese potential slayer. I just felt bad for the girl. Hopefully, Willow will figure out a spell to teach her English.
Angel: Has anyone noticed that when Angel is Angel he isn’t the talkative type, yet when he’s Angelus he won’t shut up? I got really tired of listening to him. The problems between Gunn and Fred have gotten a little annoying as well. The best part was finding out that Cordelia is the real villain. If you look back, you can see it working it’s way up to this. I figure it must be the demonic part that was added to her corrupting her. I still can’t figure out how the “higher being” concept fits in. The idea that this is really a demon possessing Cordy’s body while she’s still off in that heavenly dimension seems a little bit too lame. Perhaps that really is her on earth now as well as a “higher being” earlier in the season, yet what we think “higher” means is different from what it really is. Maybe Cordelia is the one who erased all the knowledge of the Beast from the world when she was off in that “higher” plane. Just a thought.
Buffy,
…Why is it that I find the thought of a slayer having a kid more than a little bit strange?
And on Angel, I’m thinking that
“Evil Cordy” has been that way since her return. I don’t think it’s Cordy turned to the Dark Side, but something using or borrowing her form. The spell that got Cordy her memory back, was really used to give the fake all the Cordy-memories that the others had, so that Evil Cordy could better play the part.
Of course, for this supposition to be anywere near the truth, then it would mean that Lorne is working for the bad guys…
Dale
Speculation warning in case anyone cares.
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Having Faith come back to Sunnydale with all the potential slayers in one place presents an interesting opportunity. They could pull a “Flatliners” on Faith and stop her heart then immediately ressusitate her. One of the potential slayers standing around in Buffy’s house would be activated as a slayer and then the same procedure could be used on the newly activated slayer through which the line now flows, and then on the next one and so on and so on until all of the potentials are Slayers. Now this wouldn’t exactly help fight the First but say a few more Ubervamps get out…. Also, multiple slayers running around would allow a happy ending to the series in which Buffy could lay down her burden as the Slayer and live the normal life she always wanted. Remember, she had been considering “retiring” in season 3 when there were two slayers on the job to share the work before Faith got all nasty (Well, OK, nastier.)
Statistically, for a slayer’s average life expectancy (20), Buffy is living on years of borrowed time already. Buffy could retire as the most accomplished Slayer ever, make sure Sunnydale and the world are protected, and be the only Slayer ever to die of old age.
And maybe the Scooby Gang could become a kinder gentler version of the Watchers Council.
Forget Lex and Angelus. Who’s a bigger whiner, Anakin Skywalker or Conner?
Or (speculation space ahead)
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Faith might get her butt kicked by Angelus, get vamped, and become a vampire with Slayer powers while one of the Potentials picks up the next spot in the line.
Just a thought.
Buffy – They did explain that the Chinese potential’s watcher had sent her along to them, which would make it reasonable that she trusts them, especially if (like so many other slayers other than Buffy) the watcher controlled her life from childhood. I like the idea that a lot of these girls are going to be disoriented by the whole Slayer thing. It mirrors Buffy’s own confusion when she first was chosen.