BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 4x10 REACTION l Hush
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- My 2-hour long reaction to this episode is available on: / domie ✧
Disclaimer: I have watched parts of Angel and may speak of spoilers in some vids.
*fyi: as of 2023, i have closed down my P.O. box mentioned in this video.
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#BuffyTheVampireSlayer #BuffyReactions #BuffySeason4
I am finishing up Season 4 this week, so if you have questions you'd like me to answer in my S4 recap video, make sure to leave them on my latest post (Found in the "Community" tab of my channel)
I met Amber Benson (Tara) at Wizard Con ages ago. I was so nervous and while shaking I asked if I could shake her hand, since security said no personal pictures or hugs. She looked at me and flagged her guy outta the way and let me hug her and took a selfie with me!!! ❤️❤️❤️ I will forever love her!
omgggg 🥺🥺🥺what a sweetheart!!! i love that sooo much!
I never met her but,just basing on the attitude she had in the interviews I've seen on UA-cam,that's *exactly* what I would expect her to do!!😍😍
…In which Tara literally sweeps Willow off her feet.
I love Tillow. I really like Tara's character arc too. It's so well done and very relatable.
I so love your reactions you are heroic ,thank you !
One of the best episodes of Buffy ever. Lots of people have that “Buffy will patrol tonight” drawing tattooed. I love how all the people who can’t communicate their feelings can only do it once they can’t speak - Buffy & Riley, Xander & Anya, plus Willow and Tara’s magic moment, ugh it’s so good!
Ahhh, I love that so much! Really an iconic episode!!
This is what happens when you tell Joss that all he can do is snappy dialogue.
Remind me not to provoke Joss Whedon haha
One of the BTS stories is that Wheedon saw his own Buffy eps as a sort of school/lab where he could experiment and grow as a director, and he’d seen criticism that his writing and direction was all about snappy dialog and less about visual storytelling, so he came up with Hush in part as an exercise to be less dialog-reliant.
Willow: "A bunch of 'Blessed-wannabes'", "Every girl with a henna tattoo and a spice rack thinks she's a sister to the Dark Ones".
Great lines, there.
Yeah, Joss wanted the whole theme of this episode to be "stop talking and start communicating" because the show was pretty well known for snappy dialogue and it was often accused of relying on that to keep the show going. So they took that away and managed to retain a plot and character development, even intro NEW characters. And this new level of communication helped all the main characters to make stronger connections. And yes Tara! Very witchy and adorable. As for Spike, he has a lengthy and bumpy road to redemption, but he's got the spirit. He's just repressing it right now 😂 He's kind of the kooky soulless neighbor right now
And bonus, this no dialog episode turned out to be one of the highest rated episodes throughout. It turned out to be one of those "Eat that critics" kind of moments.
@@afry6400 and yet none of the actors ever were nominated or won an Emmy- which would have been well-deserved for this one. You don't need to hear the characters speaking to know exactly what they're communicating.
One of my favorite episodes.
And of course there is Tara, probably the best character on the show.
The thing that always gets me is the juxtaposition of Willow/Tara Vs Buffy/Riley. Where Willow and Tara are in perfect sync from minute one (as shown by the joint spell they instinctively performed so flawlessly), Buffy and Riley fight alone, even struggling through an awkward pantomime when forced to work together...
such a good point!!!
There are many other juxtapositions between the two couples too. Magical/Mystical VS Practical/Physical. And of course Feminine Vs Masculine.
It’s one of the treats of watching both these couples coincide throughout this season. And then you think about how incredibly effective they would be as a fighting foursome.
The Fantastic Four would have nothing on them.
@@domie Also,when the spell is broken,Willow&Tara can't stop talking and they start to know each other better 💞 while Buffy&Riley are suddenly surrounded by awkward silence and can't communicate once more.
Love love love your enthusiasm for Tara! She is probably my favourite character on this show
it’s so hard to pick, God knows i love flashback Darla and Dru, but i think Tara is my number one, probably even over Willow. Oh course, I love Mrs. Xander Harris too!
YAY!!!! This makes me so happy!!!
This episode was nominated for an Emmy for "Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series"..... an episode that has no dialog for well over half of the episode.
Man, I have been waiting for this episode to see your reaction to Tara!
Me too
Finally, someone with the appropriate reaction to Tara!
Such an underrated character.
Because she got spoiled about Tara's existence.
One of my favorite episodes!
And the script if very clever - The very first lines of the episode are Professor Walsh (in Buffy's dream): "So this is what it is.. Talking about communication Talking about language... not the same thing...it's about the thoughts and experiences that we don't have a word for..."
I looked at the script and did a search for the word "talk" and found several lines of dialogue from the episode tie into the theme of communication and the idea that we do our best communicating after we STOP talking:
-Spike (imitating Anya) to Xander: "We never talk."
-Xander to Anya: "We'll talk about it later." and then Anya to Xander: "Well, I think we should talk about it now."
-Olivia to Giles: "Yeah, that's enough small talk, don't you think?"
-Wicca at the Wicca meeting: "Okay, let's talk about the theme for the bacchanal."
-Willow talking to Buffy about the Wicca meeting: "Talk. All Talk."
-Buffy to Willow when she asks about Riley: "See above re: talk. all talk."
-Buffy to Willow about Riley: "I get nervous and I start babbling...plus every time we talk I have to lie."
-Riley to Forrest: "See? You're naturally inclined to talk too much."
-Riley to Buffy at the end: "Well, I guess we have to talk."
Yeah...sometimes the less you talk,the more you're able to communicate.U___U Enlightning concept.🤯
"i don't know how brave these writers are"
brave is not the issue. network executives are the issue.
I must say for once I'm almost grateful the network executives were lowkey homophobic assholes,because several *epic* scenes between W&T have been born by the necessity of finding _alternative ways_ of showing their intimacy compared to the straight couples.🌹✨
1. Tara is EVERYTHING
2. people who blame any issue to recent vaccination doesn't ring a bell? I think the flu comment aged extremely well.
3. Tara
4. Tara
5. Tara
6. Tara
7. Tara
...
infinity. Tara
1. many people seem always wrong about what a vaccine contains / does
2. Tara needs a mention
I disagree with point no.4 but otherwise yes.
when tara dies😁🤣
“The Tara! 🏳️🌈” My feelings exactly!! XD
Content warning! This reaction is full of *exited lesbian noises*
😂😂😂
I think I've just got it, is Domie a lesbian then?
Gileses love interest is not introduced in this episode. Her first appearance is in 4/01, when Buffy isn't able to kill the blond vampire girl and goes to Giles for help but he already has company. ;)
Spike is hanging out with the Scoobies because he needs their protection.
TV review in a magazine describing Buffy as an average tv show carried by Joss Whedon's witty dialogue.
Whedon's response fuck you I don't need dialogue.
I was starting to think you were never going to get to this one. Willow hurt her ankle when Tara crashed into her. You can see her grabbing it. That's why Tara had her arm around Willow helping her to run. But that bit at the end where they continued to keep their hands together, now that was, to me, the first real inkling of what was starting to happen. The look on Willow's face was stunned and alive and the adrenaline was racing and of course that all could have been just using that much powerful magic together, but I was like, what a minute, are they...? Is this...? Did they just pair bond through magic? My actual thought process at the time.
I still feel that Willow was actually bisexual, because she deeply loved Oz and enjoyed sleeping with Oz, but that really, really, really wasn't done. That would have been the way it would have gone today, I think, and would have made more sense with the character's history. Either way, Willow and Tara's relationship was groundbreaking for the time. And it was a romance you couldn't help but fall in love with and root for and cry for and laugh for. And that's a real credit to the writers and the actresses, because in the hands of other people it would not have been what it became.
Willow emphatically states herself as gay going forward in the show and if she was a real person, her identification and declaration of her sexuality would have been enough and would be respected. But yes, Whedon has said himself that if Buffy was of todays day and age, Willow would most definitely be bisexual.
Yeah, I think it was a matter of Willow becoming such a gay icon that they felt like referring to her as bisexual might take away from that more at the time. That some might think it was more representing that possibly as being a phase, particularly given that it was at the start of college. Some would see it as a bit of a cop out. Especially if they ever had her date a guy again.
@@Logan_Baron all the more reason for the scenes where a character makes a comment about her sexuality and Willow visibly looks uncomfortable and emphatically states: “I’m gay”.
A lot of people took this as bisexual erasure but really: it was just Willow declaring her sexuality because the WLW audience needed that validation. I have an episode recap of ‘Tough Love’ where I explain that the fight between Willow and Tara in that was a serious declaration because Willow immediately assumed Tara didn’t trust her that she was truly a lesbian and would just go back to “boy’s town” if they split up. That was a very important point to show on-screen.
@@Girl4Music
See I ABSOLUTELY despise the idea that "self identification" is "enough."
People just do NOT bother to follow through with the implications.
What Willow "becoming gay" rather unavoidably implies is that sexuality is a choice. It's not. All the reasons discussed here are absolutely valid, I believe as much myself (that "todays" Buffy would allow Willow to be bi and that the choice to "make" her exclusively lesbian was done for the best of reasons) but that doesn't actually make it good. It's build on the same foundation as those that advocate "conversion therapy" who believe homosexuality is a sinful choice.
People don't GET to choose their sexuality. It just is. And it's complicated rather than an immutable binary (as demonstrated through real life examples time and time again. Culture, physiology AND simple access all seem to play a role)
Fact is that with all the progress we've made, there's STILL a whole mess of bigotry surrounding sexuality (and it AINT just "cis het" people hating on the queers. The sheer number of letters associated with LGBTQ+ these days AND the constant fighting between different "identities" demonstrates that some people just want to hate, regardless of their own or anybody else's identity)
If we accept the show as absolute canon, Willow's struggle with her own bisexual identity is actually an even better theme, as it would seem to reflect an AWFUL lot of queer people's identity struggles. The fact SHE identifies as exclusively lesbian doesn't change her bisexuality and is simply a character flaw, based on the insecurities she has shown throughout Buffy. And one that she absolutely can overcome. The idea real life lesbians might see it as a copout or a disservice is silly and they SHOULD be criticised for expressing such sentiment. They already have Tara, and she is the purest and best person on the show! So really, denying a character's bisexuality is a bit greedy ;)
Watching you freak out about Tara was everything I've been waiting for since you started season 4, I'm so excited for you to get to know her!!
Aww yay, thank you!!! ❤️❤️I am too!!
@@ItsMeBarnaby not when you relate to or resonate with them.
@@Girl4Music or when you've felt horribly underrepresented on television and don't see yourself in any characters.
@@ScientificallyStupid precisely
@@Girl4Music tv has made some growth in the past 20 years, but the fact that Domi is so excited in 2021 just to see a gay, female character shows that there is still room for improvement.
"Is this Young Buffy?"
You know, I'd never even thought of that in all the times I've seen this episode. Since this is one of Buffy's prophetic Slayer dreams, it's more than possible.
And Tara is the actual bestest character ever.
There are 3 main theories as to who the girl in the dream is:
1 - A young Buffy
2 - A past victim of the Gentlemen
3 - The princess from the fairytale.
_can't even shout, can't even cry_
_the gentlemen are coming by_
_looking in windows, knocking on doors_
_they need to take seven and they might take yours_
_can't call to mom, can't say a word_
_you're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard_
the song in buffy's dream (above) is the most explanation we ever get within the episode.
this episode was joss whedon's answer to people who claimed that all he had going for him were the quips.
I’ve head cannoned that they want the hearts of virgins, because don’t they always. The guy in the dorm certainly could have been. And I’m pretty sure Tara is as well, and that chase her. But they ignore Giles and his girlfriend, even when she sees them.
@@RLucas3000
i'm a little curious about the " *need* to take seven " myself. not, oh, it'd be nice to have seven. not, oh, we'll take as many as we can get but we'll make do if it's not that many. what do they *need* the hearts for?
@@RLucas3000 ooo that’s a good point.
@@RLucas3000 They *do* seem to look for specific people,since,while floating in front of the several doors you can see one Gentleman saying:"No."with his finger like:"This one is not good...must keep looking."🤔I didn't think of the virgin possibility,but,now that I think about it,I don't see why it couldn't be the case. ...Gosh,I *REALLY* want Joss to write down the full Gentlemen fairy-tale!!!😫
P.S. The"you will die screaming,but you won't be heard"part of the song is the most *terrifying* IMO!😰
And I thought fellow reactor Alley loved Tara a lot! Maybe it's because you already knew about her and was waiting but your reaction was through the roof! And I loved it. I was waiting for your head to explode in the soda machine scene! I just may have to join your Patreon to see you flip out some more. I also love when reactor get jump scared. It cracks me up. Hush was the first time I ever jumped in a BtVS ep. It was when Olivia is looking out the window and all of a sudden the one Gentleman floats by and it makes it worse with the creepy music since it was so quiet
Haha, thank you!! I swear I think my head did explode from all the Tillow, I can’t wait to keep watching! And omg jump scares scare the crap out of me! Hahaha
A lot of Tara and Willow's relationship is sensual intimacy vs physical intimacy, but it's done in a way that it's so much more intimate than all the straight relationships on the show.
On screen anyway
Yeah, in some ways, the TV censorship actually helped better develop Tara and Willow's relationship. All the flirting, glances and subtle hints at a physical relationship let the audience use their own imagination to fill in the blanks, and that just made Tara and Willow that much more special.
@@JohnDoe-ls2zu this is exactly why I consider Xena and Gabrielle the greatest “non-canon” canon WLW couple in TV of all time. Well said.
@@JohnDoe-ls2zu "Yeah, in some ways, the TV censorship actually helped better develop Tara and Willow's relationship."I agree. I *just* finished to write it under another comment!☺🌹✨
They're fairy tale monsters. Fairy tale things often come in sevens. Seven dwarfs, seven ravens, lots of people have seven sons...
This is one of the top 10 episodes of the entire series. But when my now 28 year old daughter comes over, I can always offer this one up to watch, she will watch it with me. It's often been rumored that Whedon did this because the dialog was what was being criticized (too cute, too much, too campy, too whatever.) So he wrote a script where essentially 2/3 of the episode had no dialog, simply great acting and directing.
i love that so much!!!
He was being criticised because the dialogue was so good iirc, something along the lines of a critic saying the story wouldn't work without the dialogue.
Then they dissed him about the soundtrack holding the fans in place and he wrote "The Body". The boy has a reaction to criticism.
I was expecting a Domi Explosion - and was not disappointed!
Hahaha
If you really love Tara, you should do a zigzag part in your hair.
And practice the lazy eye half smile expression. That always takes my breath away every time I see it.
This episode is just something else 💜 Loved the new place and the Tara paraaade
I always enjoy your reactions, and this is one of the very big episodes of the series, but seeing your enthusiasm for this episode and Tara - along with your comments made me smile from start to finish and laugh out loud on numerous occasions 😂
Thank you 🤟😁🖖
Awww thank you so so much!!!
Joss always made by himself (because he was in every episode: a line, a pitch, a rewrite, a scene, whatever) the special episodes and the ones he wanted to do (except first and latest episodes because thats what a showrunner usually does). But since S4, with 2 shows on air, he did only the very special one episodes and that was the very first one (although Amends was something different too). On the other hand Marti Noxon convinced Joss to hire Amber Benson. By the time of Hush, Noxon was 2nd in command and in charge of the show when Joss was busy or over at Angel. Noxon and Joss was a different kind of team than Greenwalt and Joss.
Can you elaborate? Did Marti have more ‘pull’ with Joss than Jeff?
Such a great reaction to watch !
Like you, I was spoiled about Willow getting involed with a girl. The difference is that I knew it was for season 4, as S3 was airing in France, and as a good fan, by founding an english book about BtVS in a book store, I can't help myself but read it, and it mentioned Willow getting a girlfriend named Tara.
Though I was also really excited when this pseudo-wicca called that cute shy girl Tara, I wonder if you don't read too much over the prism of knowing they will be romantically involved. The holding hands and the look Tara gave to Willow, was, in my opinion, much more about making her understand that Tara could help her if they worked together.
As for the way she was holding her during them running from the Gentlemen. Well.. it may not be very obvious at first watching, but when Tara bumped into Willow in the corridor and they fell, Willow sprained her ankle, so it was mostly Tara helping her to run.
I know that I didn't see many romantic/sexual metaphors between those two for years of watching and rewatching this season. But here, I daresay, even for Tara, and even if she already knew her sexual orientation, it's still kinda early to be in love with Willow. Intrigued, and pleased to meet another witch, ok. Maybe finding her attractive. But contrarily to Oz, it wasn't love at first sight. During the session of the wicca group, Tara only started to get interest in Willow when she started to talk about spells.
That said, I'm eager to follow you discovering how their relation will grow.
I would definitely say Willow and Tara were more love at first sight than Willow and Oz were.
But I think love at first touch would be more accurate.
"As for the way she was holding her during them running from the Gentlemen. Well.. it may not be very obvious at first watching, but when Tara bumped into Willow in the corridor and they fell, Willow sprained her ankle, so it was mostly Tara helping her to run."This is true,but...
"I wonder if you don't read too much over the prism of knowing they will be romantically involved. The holding hands and the look Tara gave to Willow, was, in my opinion, much more about making her understand that Tara could help her if they worked together."...this moment was *definitely* written to be read as potentially romantic. In the DVD commentary of this ep,Joss Whedon said:"Some people took this as a sign that they will _definitely_ have a relationship.Some people didn't. But *it is* meant to be a very sensual and very powerful image between 2 women...and we _hadn't_ at this point decided how far the relationship would go...but we wanted this to be a moment that was very physical and very empowering and very beautiful between the 2 of them.(...)It's a very empowering statement about love:2 people together can accomplish more than when they're alone...a great deal more,MORE than the sum of their parts💞(...)It really *is* 1 of the most romantic images we put on film."
"it's still kinda early to be in love with Willow"It is *NEVER* too early to fall in love with Willow! >^< ❤ I mean it!! I avoided to watch"Buffy"for a couple of years because I was too afraid of monsters and when I finally gave it a try *THE* thing that convinced me to watch the next ep was that I had instantly and deeply fell in love with Willow and I wanted to see more of *her* more than anything else in the show!😍 I pretty much had the same reaction Oz had,the difference is that,the 1st time,Oz only _saw_ her(without hearing her speaking..and without _seeing_ much of her either,actually,since she was almost all covered in her Eskimo costume!😅),while both me and Tara were able to grasp a hint of her personality as well,other than seeing her physical beauty!❤ ___ ❤Now..I can't read Tara's mind so I don't know _for sure_ whether she fell in love with Willow at 1st sight or not...I'm just saying that if she did,I would not be surprised at all!❣
@@Nicamon Good response. Like you, I knew of Buffy and saw a couple of episodes here and there as a child, but I never gave Buffy a real chance until 1 Year ago. And the reason why I wanted to start watching was because I knew there would be WLW representation in it. I have been thoroughly surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed watching the entire show. And yes, I agree. Willow is what captured me too. She’s the main reason I wanted to rewatch the show after initially seeing it once. I called it my ‘Willow Watch’ because I was hyper focused on her and her arc. She is such a profound character for reasons I can’t mention here due to spoilers. But let me just say @Domi e. You’re in for a treat with her. There are 2 main characters that get incredibly strong and substantial fluctuating arcs. And she’s one of them.
@@Girl4Music "I called it my ‘Willow Watch’ because I was hyper focused on her and her arc."Fun fact:the reason I'm here watching"Buffy"reactions in 2021-2022 is because I recently decided,totally random,to rewatch *only* the Willow/Tara scenes...backwards.Only,when I started,I actually then found myself watching *all* the scenes with Willow in them(because I'm phisically unable to skip them!❤)and often to rewatch most of the episode if not the *whole* ep because "Buffy"s episodes are just *that great* in general,most of the time!🤩Eventually I decided to watch *all* the seasons because it's been I don't know how many years and I just got nostalgic and curious to rewatch things that I had forgotten about😅and while I was doing all this,I also started to look for UA-cam reactions to some specific episodes or scenes that I particularly liked ;-3 and so...here I am!^w^ All because one of these days I randomly thought:"I wanna watch Willow and Tara again...they're so cute,I miss them!!^w^💞"
@@Nicamon Ha. My experience was backwards. I started off on Willow and Tara scenes only. Then I wanted to watch everything with Willow so decided to watch the show all out because she’s a main character. And like I said…. There’s very few characters like her represented on TV. I totally get what you mean about not being able to skip anything Willow and even looking up reactions to specific scenes. I dare say she’s addictive 😉 an extremely engaging character. Alyson Hannigan does a fantastic job with her.
I think I remember Whedon somewhere saying that the Willow/Tara hand holding magic was meant to show how they can come together to become "greater than the sum of their parts", which I always thought was a cool way to put it. Like, how they become MORE of themselves when they're together--which, isn't that just such a great description of what a good relationship can feel like?
Unlike Buffy&Riley who fight in the same place,against the same enemies,but not _together...._
I think Xander was in part confused about his feelings for Anya because she is so different from other girls, so he can't articulate them well verbally. But as with others in this episode, being unable to speak enabled them to express themselves more honestly in other ways.
I think it's also partly because most of the women who showed interest in him were not human, mostly not good either... minus Cordy. Anya is an ex demon so he had reservations about moving forward with her at this point.
@@afry6400 Better than a mantis! The Incan mummy girl could have been a keeper if they could have found a better way to feed her... ;)
I love your reaction to the episode and TARA!! Yes!! 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈 I can't wait to see your next episode reaction
Scrolled through but couldn't see it mentioned in the comments, but the lead Gentleman is played by the legendary Doug Jones, one of the best prosthetics actors ever. He also has major roles in Pan's Labyrinth, Hell Boy, and Shape Of Water.
Also, Star Trek: Discovery
Someone as excited about Tara as I am. :) My favorite character on the show.
My favorite has always been Willow❤but Tara holds a special place in my heart.🤍Next to Willow.💞Cuddling.🥰
WB Good to have your reactions back, Yay! good to have you reactin to Hush, and think you got even more excited about finally "meetin" Tara. i'd never seen a reactor so much excited about her first appearance :) , looking forward to see more of your reactions
Such a great episode!!!
The poster got me thinking. Now that we're back on your channel, and away from Thor's (if you are Thor STOP READING), I have to ask. How did it feel watching Prophecy Girl and hearing Thor hope that Giles and Jenny get together? I can only imagine the heartbreak when he said that.
Also, witchcraft was the shows way of getting around the whole lesbian thing. They used it as a metaphor.
OMG, do Thor and Domi date? or are roommates? i recently joined his Patreon! (I know he is somehow connected with another couple fellas who have reacted to Starkid’s Harry Potter musicals !
@@RLucas3000 Pretty sure no on all accounts, Thor said he just reached out to her for a collaboration.
21:34 the "7 hearts" thing. Why?,, I don't know, but in fairy tales, it is important to have "magic numbers", and the two common ones are 3 and 7 ;)
Agreed. My guess is to perpetuate their existence. You know, every 100 years . . .
Yes, German fairy tales are full of the number 7: 7 dwarfs, 7 in one go out of the valiant dressmaker, or the Wolf and the seven kids and so on...
Best reaction to the introduction of Tara ever. I knew you were going to lose it at the hands touching scene.
Shame on you for not including the two funniest moments in this episode.
"An episode so full of action with this little dialogue." Could also describe an old Schwarzenegger movie.
Early Schwarzenegger was ideal for playing the 'strong, silent type' because he was a bodybuilder from Austria who could barely speak English. Since then his muscle have shrunk and his accent become less pronounces and his English has improved greatly
@@blacktronlego Luckily for me,I'm Italian and I've always heared him dubbed...and he had an *AMAZING* voice actor!😎
Of all demons of the show, the gentlemen are the only one who scare me.
Also this episode was nominated for an Emmy Award. It makes it to every best episode list, personally I think it's a bit overrated but I still liked it. Buffy was groundbreaking for a lesbian storyline in 1999. Opened up doors in mainstream TV
The Gentlemen are some of the creepiest monsters in the series, along with a monster of the week in the final season.
Great reaction. I love this episode! I'm excited to see your reaction to the coming episodes, especially Tillow/Tarrow.
Tara is literally my favorite character. I loooove her so much!
My favorite has always been Willow❤but Tara holds a special place in my heart.🤍Next to Willow.💞Cuddling.🥰
Oh hey, it's Miss Tara of the Lesbians!! (Not that we "know" that about her yet... the hand-holding *did* have a practical purpose, after all, no symbolism there whatsoever, nope, nothing to see here, folks, move along.)
Slightly confused about the whole, "We just got you, please don't die!" thing, given the spoilers you know. Can you imagine, though, if all those "spoilers" about Tillow were just head-canon inside jokes about a one-episode character, trolling you?? You might have thrown your computer out the window. o_O
As for "writers being brave", it's less about the writers, more about the network deciding what was and wasn't "allowed". Keep in mind that this was mainstream national TV, and gay sex was literally *illegal* in 14 states at the time. Heck, *Ellen* was in the closet a few years before this aired.
So glad you finally got the Tara content you deserve!
SPOILER
"We just got you,please,don't die!"
Your Tara reaction has me on board for patreon to see every scene with you. I wait to subscribe on Buffy reactors to see they're love of Tara. It is a deal breaker if the love isn't 1000 percent there.
Just a perfect episode, right from that opening scene beginning with Prof. Walsh’s “So this is what it is. Talking about communication. Talking about language - not the same thing.” JW wrote this after hearing too many people’s assessment that his writing was all about the banter, which is a pretty silly complaint because if you’re a screenwriter who can’t write decent dialogue and banter that helps your characters come to life then what are you even doing?
Fantastic reaction Domi! Yes, this episode is brilliant. Whenever I try to lure someone into the Buffyverse I show them this (or 5x05), and they always get intrigued.
😄Thank you!
Wow tho. Those are both pretty spoilery. It’s tricky to pick a sampler ep since the most ambitious episodes often contain the biggest season arc points. I think I’d start with POTN’s Why you should Watch vid, and if that fails, then maybe 1x12, since spoilers for Season 1 matter a bit less.
@@mjtpli How about 2*07? Feels on point without giving away to much of the season.
@@erikohman2294 good call! 2x06 could work too.
@@mjtpli I think the very 1st ep of"Buffy"I've watched might be 3x04. And it _does_ contain several spoilers(Oz being a werewolf,Angel being a Good vampire who's been in Hell,Faith...),but it wasn't an"horizontal"episode,so I could enjoy it and understand it even if it was far into the show,it was perfect to give me a general idea of the world,the characters and their relationships,the kind of monsters I could find in the show...it was a great introduction and,as an episode in general,I liked it much more than the *real* pilot.😊
At this point, Spike is sticking around because he wants the chip in his head removed and he knows he can use the scooby gang as cover while he dangles info about the initiative to them. He's still thinking he's playing them for his own purposes. At the same time, the scoobies are trying to get as much info from him as possible with no intention of fixing him.
I didn't know you live in LA! That's exciting. Not sure when you moved here but if you need some recs let me know! Or if you're ever on the westside and want to meet up with another huge Buffy fan, lmk!
The thing with Xander, I think to understand why he's being kind of weird around Anya and expressing his feelings, you have to remember his past. He has a very bad past with demons/girlfriends and I think he's still a little gun shy. But that moment he thought Anya was hurt, that kind of knocked him out of it. Does that make sense?
yea..
Similar to Coredelia, I think Xander's character is at the mercy of the writers. Where cordy is sometimes written dumb/dense because she (at least in buffy) is pretty self-centered, though those qualities aren't synonymous. Xander too, takes a hit so the writers can pull off a witty (and sometimes not so witty) joke or perspective being unvoiced. Which means sometimes he's brilliant, but other times, he has the worst communication skills out of any of the characters. So yeah, I think he loves Anya, just just fails to communicate it effectively.
I think he didn't want to admit he enjoyed fucking her but thats it and neither did the writers have the balls to do so, so they created a relationship.
@Ronald Fasshauer if anything, I see Anya as the character that prioritizes sex more out of the two of them as has always been more forward since the start of the relationship.
@@samanthas8340 Foward yes, "start of the relationship" no, they would have been better off as FWB/FB and the scene where she asks where the relationship is going reads like she has read (or pushed into reading by buffy/willow) a cosmo article and thinks that is how modern day male/female relationships are supposed to be like and essentially treated the article as a bible. Instead of what she actually wants and rather then admit that the writers tried to make out it was a comedic/epic love story that xander fucked up.
@Ronald Fasshauer all relationships start out differently and theirs feels pretty normative for their age where they're both still figuring themselves out (and are perfect characters to be doing so) but that doesn't make the relationship any less valid. I don't think the writers ever wanted their relationship to be "epic" - its actually far from Joss's Syle. After Buffy and Angel, I think he was done writing those types of romances.
Xander has always been a relationship type of guy, imo. He pursued buffy and Inca mummy girl, he wanted Cordy to come out of the closest with their relationship (not a perfect example), he thought his relationship with Faith may have meant more when he thought he could persuade her to confess.
Anya may have been acting out magazine advice in Harsh Light of Day, but I tend to believe she actually thought sex with Xander would get him out of her mind. So that's not exactly dishonest. Xander hasn't fully committed because we know he's biased against demons, not because he just wants sex (again we only see her persue him). When Anya complains, Xander's not serious about her in Hush he tries to counteract that, but she cut him off. By the end, the writers (you might say poorly) establish that the relationship is serious when he goes after Spike. From that point on, she means more to him. Xander stops over sexualizing her by Season 4 when he needs to defend his reason for having sex frequently, and Buffy responds to Willow how "tight" they are. Anya provides emotional comfort in The Yoko Factor, which he then returns in The Replacement - where he reiterates how important she is, and then again to Olaf the Trolm and in Into the Woods. In other words, I think how much they cared for each other happened gradually and overtime. But it makes perfect sense they did not work out because Anya is still learning who she is and what it means to be human, and Xander hasn't worked through any of his trauma.
Everybody is gonna tell you so much about this episode and why and how it came to be BUT I just wanna point out how happy it made me to see you so squeaky happy about Tara 💙💜❤️
awww ❤️❤️thank you!
THE CALENDILES FANART I CANT
Spike is still evil and hates the Scoobies, but he can't do anything because he's been 'chipped'. His redemption is not yet.
This is a terrifying episode, but probably not a good first one for new viewers because to need to know a bit about the characters to understand much of the story.
The network were worried about showing a gay relationship on such a popular show (this was one of the first, if not the first) so they started it slow, which I think is very fitting for Willow's character, she loves deeply, but needs time for a relationship to grow. The same thing happened with her and Oz.
Buffy and Riley need to talk, but they have no idea what to say to each other.
"This is a terrifying episode, but probably not a good first one for new viewers because to need to know a bit about the characters to understand much of the story."Actually,I showed this to my mum and I only had to explain her a couple of things before and they were things she could get from the ep itself anyway,I just told her in advance to make things easier to her(for ex,both Buffy&Riley hunt demons but none of them knows the other does and Spike is a vampire who currently can't bite humans because of a chip Riley's falks put in his head).There's not much horizontal plot in this ep,luckily,so it can be enjoyed even by a casual viewer for the most part.
It's less a question of how brave the writers were, and more a question of how much the network let them get away with. There was one point, and I won't say when or what, when Joss had to threaten to leave in order to get the network to okay a certain moment of... gay. So whatever you're getting at any point in time is probably about as much as they could get away with at that point, whatever that may be.
“They’re the reason I started the show”
Same. I thought I would only like their part in it. I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed the entire show. I love seeing your excitement for them.
If this episode took place on a modern campus i wonder how many students would go hours without realizing they couldn't talk lol.
02:49 - 03:10 I've always been and always will be #TeamAngel. I'm not a big fan of Riley,but pretty much ANYTHING is better than Spike!X-[ 04:11 - 04:19 And this is *precisely* why I don't like him. He has no soul. I don't care if he currently can't bite...HE HAS NO SOUL. If he *can* have a redemption arc,it means he's not different from a human. It means having a soul is completely pointless. And it means the Slayers are just a bunch of killers.X-(((
08:07 I love you freaking out shamessly about Tara!!😂That's an appropriate reaction!!Tara deserves THE WORLD!!🤍
09:42 - 09:44 Yeah!!LET'S!!😍😍💞
09:44 - 09:49 Oh,so _that's_ why you knew about Tara already!^^; Well...GOOD FOR YOU,she's amazing!!^W^ 🤍(And Willow is my favorite character of the whole show ❤ so you can imagine how I feel about them together...!💞)
10:01 - 10:05 Are you kidding me?I do this all the time!!The only reason I didn't do it with _them_ specifically is because I started to watch the show when it was airing on TV and I started from S3 and Tara wasn't there yet.😄
10:24 - 10:35 Trust me...you *will* combust.Watching some of their spells will *for sure* make you combust in the BEST sense of the term!🔥
11:22 - 11:24 "And you're rude!X-(("
14:16 - 14:20 "(Sings)You will die screaming,but you won't be heared....🎶"Gosh,I *LOVE* this episode!!!🤩💀
14:36 - 14:53 I love them so much!!🤣🤣💀💀
15:37 - 15:45 Literally the whole fandom!🤍
18:24 - 18:25 *_Even better..._* 😘😘
19:46 Aaww,noo,I can't believe you skipped the scene in which Willow&Tara started to talk to each other!!🥺🥺
21:10 - 21:13 Olivia.Anyway,don't worry,I constantly forget about her too.^^; SIGH,I miss Jenny Calendar...!😭
21:34 - 21:42 I have no idea. I know that 7 is a"magical number"that it's recurring in fairytales,but I'm still wondering what the Gentlemen were collecting the hearts *for.* 🤷♂
A cool symbolism that was associated with the Gentlemen was rape. They are a bunch of men who appear all elegant and polite,but are actually hideous,they penetrate people's body,steal their hearts and they steal their voices so that they can't ask for help...;-S
26:22 - 26:26 (Gets excited,thinking you're about to talk W&T 🤩😍) 26:27 - 26:28 Oh.X-( 29:19 - 29:24 Oh,OK,then!^W^
31:01 - 31:05 *YES! I'm **_literally_** here for THIS!* 😍😍😍😍
31:54 - 32:00 Let's take a moment to realize how *sad* this actually is,though!The fact we *expect* a single look and a couple of hands holding to be the _peak_ of a romantic relationship!;-((
All I’m going to say is you are going to be impressed with the lesbian relationship.
Tara! Tara! Tara!
WAY OVERREACTED to Tara being introduced. holy shit!
Xander is immature and struggles with what masculinity is "supposed to be". His male role models are polar opposites (Giles as surrogate father vs his actual father) and the strongest people he knows are seemingly opposites (Buffy and Spike - slayer vs vampire). Xander was written to have the whole range of qualities / problems of the typical American teenage boy
Wouldn't it have been funny if voices ended up returning to the wrong people? For instance, Buffy speaking in Giles's voice.
"There is so much build up, that you guys cant possibly understand"... At that point I was like "well actually"... But yeah if you started watching because of rumors of Tara I underestimated this episode for you. Damn.
SPOILER
She has *no idea* what she's getting herself into...!
For me, this is one of the most terrifying villains of the series. The idea that they take your voice and then you can't scream for help... and they cut out your heart? That's true horror. And they're so warped (in a weirdly funny but scary way) in how they're so "gentlemanly" (hence their name) with the way they communicate with one another. It's so twisted. Lol.
I love the concept. How we often can't communicate until we absolutely have to, and even then sometimes it's still so hard to do. And other times, we don't need to say a word to show what we're thinking or how we truly feel. (And the end, in which Buffy and Riley finally, literally can have that talk but still can't find the words, is brilliant.) Plus, on top of everything else, you have this amazing first meet-up between Willow and Tara and they bond in such a fantastic way, under such duress, creating magic together (so to speak). So awesome.
Definitely in my top 10 Buffy episodes of all time.
"The idea that they take your voice and then you can't scream for help... and they cut out your heart? That's true horror. And they're so warped (in a weirdly funny but scary way) in how they're so "gentlemanly" (hence their name) with the way they communicate with one another. It's so twisted."Passion of the Nerd compared what the Gentlemen do to a rape.Just saying..........;-S
@@Nicamon That's a good comparison. It's horrific.
everyone who i see react to this episode seems surprised when a gentleman opens the door tara was knocking on instead of willow but why? she was knocking on 219 but buffy and willow live in 214
Your favorite movie is Arrival? Good to know!
the journey of you figuring out how to pronounce tara's name over the course of this episode was thrilling lol
In your intro you mentioned about the Spike/Buffy chemistry going on the last episode and how you kind of feel meh about Riley now... Thinking back I honestly belief the "Something Blue " episode kind of ruined the idea of Riley and Buffy for many people.
Post show note, Xander... you have to think about what you know about his family life so far. Every hint is about how rotten his home life has been, how rotten his parents are to each other and how he thinks about couples.
Domi e. Tara is my absolutely favorite character ever in Buffy the vampires slayer more than Buffy because Tara she is very very beautiful and very cute and enjoyable to see
This episode is based on a movie called Dark City. Anyone that likes this sort of tone and style should check it out.
watching buffy in the 90s i started with hust and then started with season 5 so i knew she was gay and i didnt know when she was revealed as gay so seeing her liking xander and being with oz was confusing
So excited you mispronounced her name?
21:45 It's not "The Gentleman" it's "the Gentlemen". And they need 7 hearts because there's 7 of them.
I counted 6...did I miss 1?🤔
The guy who played the main Gentleman is Doug Jones, is an actor whose done a whole bunch of roles with vfx makeup. He was Fawno and Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, he was the fish dude in The Shape of Water, Abe Sapien in the original Hellboy movies, he was the Silver Surfer, and he was Billy Butcherson in Hocus Pocus
By the way imagine having to wait a few months between the end of season 3 and the first episode of season 4.
There's worse things. Like having to wait after the ending of S5.
And now you know why everyone ranks this episode as a top 5 all time favorite.
Tonight Only! Tara's triumphant return!
Only other show I can think of doing anything doing anything like this is Switched at Birth doing a whole episode in sign language.
Nowadays of course everyone could just text?
Oh I didn't know you live in LA.
Have you gone to some of the sites from the show? When I was in LA I went to the cemetery where they've filmed countless scenes (Angelus-Rosedale on Washington Blvd). The high school is in Torrance as is Buffy's house.
You should go and blog about it! 🙂
Omg yes I actually did!!! And I did film a video about it, I just haven’t had time to edit but hopefully I’ll post it soon!
Narrator: she will not post it soon
I thought it was interesting your connecting screenwriting dialog with communicating IRL when you might not know the language. I was a screenwriter for fifteen-ish years back in the way-back. While people liked the dialog I wrote...well, after I figured out how do it for screen...I never really connected it with my love of languages and trying to communicate despite my lack of fluency outside of English. In retrospect, it was there, hiding in the bushes. Not being good at foreign tongues, despite having dabbled or actually studied several, let me learn how little it took to communicate but also how much effort it took to be understood. Thanks for the insight.
thank you so much for sharing!
Nonverbal dialogue!
Love your Giles/Jenny picture (it is Jenny not Willow, right?).
omg do u have lucifer autographs
This series has a few episodes that seem like a gimmick but actually put the plot on a track and hit it with a train
I just looked up zip codes for L.A. You've got one too many zeros in your P.O. box address.
I was going to point this out but was looking to see if someone else said it first :)
Body language is key.
I think there are seven Gentlemen, and that's why they need seven hearts. Maybe to use for a ritual or something, to strengthen themselves, make their minions, or prolong their lives.
I've always wondered what the Gentlemen needed those hearts for,but I never bothered to count the Gentlemen themselves...🤔I'm an idiot.🤦♂(Checks)I've counted 6 of them...did I miss 1🤔❓
anyone else wondering why, in a town like sunnydale giles doesn't lock his front door?
Because it wouldn't do much good? Vampires have to be invited in and pretty much anything else he really has to worry about isn't going to let a little thing like a locked door stop them. That's just my theory.