"Are you sure you're a slayer? I mean, have you tried not being a slayer?" They really wrote Buffy's 'coming out' with zero subtlety and I love it. Buffy's speech to Joyce at the end of that scene is one of my favourite moments between Buffy and her mom in the entire show.
And Joss re-used it in his X-Men treatment a couple of years later, with Iceman and his mother - "Have you tried not being a mutant?". When they decided not to used his script they kept that line (and Storm's Toad joke) Also the Joss recycled the "Take all that away and what's left?" exchange between B/A into a similar exchange between Iron Man/Captain America in Avengers.
@@Talisguy i mean, there's nothing truly new under the sun. everything is reminiscent of something. if it weren't, it wouldn't connect to the audience. we don't tune in to watch truly alien beings, even when it is about aliens. we tune in to see other people doing what people do.
@@sirmoonslosthismind I'm not calling Whedon a hack, just pointing out another joke that he likes to reuse. Plenty of creators reuse ideas or names between properties, there's nothing wrong with it as long as they're not reusing so much that it becomes lazy, boring or self-limiting.
Willow always takes charge when Buffy isn't around, or isn't being Buffy. Remember the Halloween episode where Buffy became a damsel in distress. Willow stepped up without hesitation and took charge.
If you watch after the credit, the “Mutant Enemy” zombie usually goes Grr, Argh… but this episode he goes “I need a hug”, which I get after that ending, so heartbreaking lol
As Buffy is leaving Sunnydale, the sign says "see you soon!" to me this was a message to the audience that there would be another season. When the 1st and 2nd season's began, they were not sure that the show would be picked up for another season, and I don't know for sure when the show runners knew, but including that on the road sign suggests to me that they did know that they had been picked up for season 3 by the time they shot this scene, and this was for the audience.
My favorite season finale and one of my favorite episodes of the entire show! It's just so... perfect. So many iconic moments and lines. You're supposed to cry, I myself was deeply depressed after watching the episode when it originally aired. I blame Sarah McLachlan. A lot of people give Joyce a hard time over that scene, kinda rightfully so, but I'm glad you're seeing this from her point of view. As much as I think Xander is right about Angel, what he did in this episode ("kick his ass") was for selfish reasons (his jealousy over Angel). It's things like that which is why I can't stand him. "'and you want my help coz your gf is a big ho?" - LOVE this line 🤣 Spike and Dru have been together for 100 years. He still loves her and thinks of her as "his" (notice how he holds her in the car). That's vampire behavior. At the same time, even though he's a demon he can still be extremely sensitive and emotional (notice how he regrets snapping at Dru in What's My Line, for example, or the pain on his face witnessing Angel and Dru together). He's a fool for love who thinks with his heart instead of his head.
This was the first time that the cartoon demon for the Mutant Enemy logo at the end says something other than "Grr, argh!" There were a few other variations over the years, sometimes it was a change in appearance. Thought you'd be happy that Spike took Dru out of Sunnydale.
Great ending to what has been a far better season than the first one. What I love about the ending is that on any other show on at the time, Buffy doesn't save Angel at the last minute. Instead she has kill him and then because she's so devastated leaves town. You don't get the happy reunion that everybody expects-because Joss always upended expectations and that's why this show has lasted in the cultural memory as long as it has.
Spike wants Dru because she's so hard to get. Well, not hard to get, more like hard to keep. He likes the drama and chaos that Dru brings to his life. For a souless vampire, bad toxic love is the closest thing to a healthy relationship.
YEP! This all happened. The coming out, the reunion, Xander lying and Angel's ultimate death! A mega two-part finale, and it wraps up a season that took everyone season one did right and amplified it and took what was wrong in the first season, and ultimately fixed it. "I already wanna cry and I don't even know what the note says." That's Sarah McLachlan's music for you playing in the background. Haha.
The language spoken by Willow (and by the old gypsy woman last episode) is Romanian: Willow: Te implor, Doamne, nu ignora aceasta rugaminte. Translation: I implore you, Lord, do not ignore this request. Willow: Nici mort, nici al fiintei... Translation: Neither dead, nor of the living... Willow: Lasa orbita sa fie vasul care-i va transporta, sufletul la el. Translation: Let this Orb be the vessel that will carry his soul to him. Willow: Asa sa fie! Asa sa fie! Acum! Translation: So it shall be! So it shall be! Now! Willow: Acum! Translation: Now! [Not my translation, found on reddit.]
The most blatant but cleverest relating the supernatural to a real world problem. Joyce goes through what I am told are the standard responses to one's child 'coming out'. The awkwardness between Joyce and Spike is priceless comedy as well. Xander not telling Buffy is bad, but in the end makes not difference, she could not have stopped or even delayed Angelus waking Acathla even if she had known Willow was attempting the spell again. 10:47 In 'The Puppet Show' Xamder is the one who caught the guillotine rope, saving Giles' life. Does Giles really hate him so much?
First time Russian TV showed Buffy, they only bought rights for the first two seasons. So, for several years, I was sure this is actually the series finale. And the second time they ended after season five (those who'd seen the whole thing will understand).
Great finale. Why Spike is so head over heels for dru has a lot to do with his personality. He seems like a vampire that goes 150% and is all in on things he is passionate about.
I don't think I saw this episode when it originally aired (although I was watching the series) I think I waited three months unknowing about its ending and saw it a week before the S3 premiere. I cannot guarantee that. I just don't recall because I remember being hyped on the series, but don't recall how I watched this one. I just remember not feeling the hype that summer as I watched reruns. So, I was anxious to get to the rerun at summer's end, if my guess is correct. But cannot remember for sure exactly when I saw if for the first time. I'm quite positive it is one of the rare episodes I didn't see in it's original airing. Cops shooting at an unarmed woman Ugh! I enjoy the exchange: Buffy: "I'm gonna pull out your ribcage and wear it as a hat." Whistler: "Hello to the imagery." I always head canon-ed that Willow was being temporarily possessed by Jenny, who was finishing what Angelus interrupted when he killed her in Passion. Technically speaking, Spike never said he help Buffy with fighting Angelus. It was an exchange. Angelus for Dru. Buffy has Angelus and he has Drusilla. Buffy's just currently losing as Spike managed to get Dru unconscious. Still don't know how as vampires don't breathe, but I head canon it was Drusilla freaking herself out over losing. Xander saying "then why would they make you see me" to Giles is funny. Making fun of others at their expense is where his brand of humor just turns to Cordelia S1, for me. But this was him being funny without being rude or mean. Humor is always at someone or something's expense, but it can still be done well or badly. His jokes are often in bad taste. This is him doing humor well. As a non Buffy/Angel shipper, their reunion is emotional. The music is the icing on the proverbial cake. People I've seen defend Xander for "Willow said kick his ass," defend that he doesn't trust Buffy could kill Angelus. But Xander has seen evidence that is false. Buffy's arc during the Angelus storyline is to learn and deal with her feelings and issues concerning Angel: 1. In _Innocence_ she tells Angelus "Give me time." 2. In _Phases,_ dealing with Oz's werewolf issue allows her to start the "time." She is no where near ready yet to face Angelus, as Angelus "sends his love" with a vampire in the form of a classmate and Buffy freezes. But Buffy is not allowing her grief to swallow her to the point of ignoring slayer issues like a werewolf problem (along with any other non-Angelus slayer related problem). That is progress from _Innocence._ 3. In _Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,_ Xander's issues with Cordelia allow Buffy more of a break from Angelus' Valentine's Day plans. Buffy also starts to read up on Angelus' past. On step better and closer to dealing with Angelus. 4. In _Passion,_ Xander says he deserves something for telling his friends he told them so before Angelus showed up. This shows Xander using Angelus as an excuse for his Angel jealousy and in claiming he is correct about Angel being at fault for Angelus' actions. He is blinded to the fact that Buffy has come another step closer to being able to deal with Angelus because he feels justified in Giles "getting himself killed" being a good thing, not realizing, in anger over Jenny's death (anger that is meaningless in _Becoming Part 1_ when he says to Giles about Jenny, "Yeah well she's dead), the fact that Giles will die. Buffy wasn't ready, emotionally speaking yet, but Buffy had to confront him anyway to save Giles. And Xander didn't understand not charging in for revenge he felt Giles deserved, but showed his opinion was more about his issues and was hiding behind Giles' reasons. 5. In _Killed by Death,_ Xander witnesses her hunting for Angelus while sick. That is enough to disagree that Xander thinks Buffy isn't ready to kill Angelus. Doing so while sick wasn't a good idea, but it showed the determination proving another step closer to being ready to take him on. 6. In _I Only Have Eyes For You,_ Buffy releases everything holding her back by dealing with her guilt over turning Angel into Angelus. Now she is ready to take Angelus on and everything people say about Xander's theory on saying, "Willow said kick his ass," becomes officially wrong. 7. In _Go Fish,_ Buffy takes Angelus on and only doesn't kill him because he throws Gage at her. Xander doesn't see this one, but it shows everything mentioned about _I Only Have Eyes For You,_ wasn't just a fluke. 8. In _Becoming Part One,_ Xander has issue with Jenny Calendar having come close to restoring Angel's soul and almost everyone (not just Buffy) deciding to try re-ensoulment before attempting to kill Angelus, and he shows his opinion negatively (as opposed to Kendra who expresses the exact same opinion healthily). He had listened to Buffy say she was "done waiting" in _Passion_ and therefore reacts badly to their safer idea over trying his taking on an evil vampire to kill him plan. No one with either opinion could have known what the outcome would be.
9. In _Becoming Part 2,_ Buffy is ready. Xander even hears Buffy say, on patrol, she's done waiting. Buffy isn't aware the spell is being recast after it was interrupted and Xander still doesn't trust her. Misplaced distrust, as over nine episodes she has moved from the headspace of depression to 'Xander should trust her taking Angelus on if he didn't have Angel issues,' all connect back to why I disagree with him saying, "Willow said kick his ass" vs what Willow asked him to say. Not to mention Buffy was a second from decapitating Angel when his soul was restored, so Xander was wrong to think Buffy wouldn't/couldn't kill him. Xander is really saying, "Willow said kick his ass," out of jealousy (and being a species-ist) all while limiting information to Buffy, who is about to go to the front lines of battle. Even if you don't know the outcome, not telling someone part of this type of plan is a bad idea. We don't know what the outcome would have been if Xander had told Buffy the truth, but we do know going into battle without all the information can hurt and this battle had a bad outcome. Debatable for people on whether Xander telling Buffy the truth could have changed it or not. I personally think it would have changed it for the better. But even if it didn't, Xander didn't do the correct thing. This has nothing to do with a Xander hate issue. I just think his mistakes around this time connect too much to his Angel (not Angelus) issues.
@@RaineInChaos It's not so much as trust as it's dependance on Buffy Summers. When it comes to monsters, demons and vampires, Xander can handle them. When it comes to his personal problems and dysfunctional family, he's a screw up.
You are just BLASTING through this show, I LOVE IT! Also, sidenote, "...the police of Sunnydale are deeply stupid." I think is actually a really interesting quote, considering this is a Hellmouth (a vortex of evil-focusing magic) one might think the supposed force for justice and law would be... I don't know, ALSO "evil"? But they're.... stupid... I just think it's an interesting commentary about power there. That the people who are supposed to be enforcing law AREN'T evil, but incompetent.
The mayor and/or other people who are "smart" to the supernatural have a lot of influence over who gets/keeps those posts. The more someone knows the more of a liability they are
I think it’s complicated for Buffy. She should turn her self in and cooperate with the cops, but the amount of time it takes for them to sort all that out the world will end up.
There's two sides to what Xander did here, he did lie(by omission) and that was an absolute betrayal, however, and not attributing any wisdom on Xander's part, he may have saved her life, if Buffy had done anything other than fight Angel full bore, she might've been killed.
Spike and Drew have been together for something like two centuries. I don’t think a few weeks of her being unfaithful is gonna make her just stop and quit.
Hi I love your reactions, but can I request that you add the episode title in your UA-cam video title? It would make it easier for me to find your reactions for my favorite episodes 🙂. Thanks!
Xander's motivations here are incredibly complex. Hating Angel (which is justified and goes far beyond jealousy) is part of it, sure, but he's also trying to protect Himself, the world, Buffy, Giles, and especially Willow, as he doesn't believe she's healthy enough to invoke a spell of this magnitude in her current state, and maybe not at all. There's some blind hope that the spell will just... not use power if there's no target. On the less positive motivations, he's also probably a bit miffed at Willow for refusing to listen to him and setting her "resolve face" rather than allow any for any kind of discussion or, indeed, plan. There's quite a few reasons for Willow to not attempt the spell, her health is just the most obvious one. You could make a reasonable case that some of his choice is a response to being shut down. He's known Willow a long time, and is used to and annoyed by her assuming she knows better than him. It's clear that he knows her "resolve face" very well. He does not like that part of Willow. Back on the more positive side, he's got no real way of knowing what the ritual will do to the existing binding on Acathla, and he has no way of knowing what the Acathla trigger is. His main motivation for protecting Buffy is seeing her resolve waver. She's spent the entire back half of the season psyching herself up to defeat Angelus, and now with everything that's happened, her anxiety is pretty plain on her face. He's making things simple for her-but still in a way that suits his own ends, it still must be said. Xander is also pretty aware that Buffy would try to stop Willow at this point-or more likely, that she'd send HIM back to reason with her. Buffy is RESPONSIBLE, and has very little reason to believe Willow could pull this off immediately after coming out of a coma. Xander wants to come with Buffy. Which is both heroic in the sense that he's trying to help fight evil in the face of overwhelming danger, but it's also quite selfish, because he's taking a decision away from her. He's choosing to try to save Buffy and Giles in the spotlight, rather than assist in the background, even though doing so could potentially save Willow. So on some level he wants to be heroic, which is noble, but he also believes that putting himself directly in the line of fire is more heroic than continuing to reason with Willow, which could be just as important-which is selfish. (Also it's interesting that this selfish risk-taking is exactly the same thing that Willow is doing) Another negative for Xander: We're starting to pile up a lot of emotions, motivations, and problems. Following Buffy was easier than arguing with Willow. Telling Buffy "Kick his ass" is simple and direct. There's a through line in the series of Xander taking shortcuts rather than deal with his emotions. (And this is a bit of a fun house mirror to Willow taking shortcuts and not considering other people's emotions) Finally, and this gets overlooked by pretty much everyone: as much as Xander wants Angelus dead, there's very little reason to assume that Angel will definitely either die or be re-ensouled. Angelus (and Spike and Drusilla, for that matter) and Buffy have fought several times by now, and the three vampires have consistently gotten away when things sour. Don't get me wrong, if Angel were killed, Xander would be over-the-moon about it. That's not in question. But "Kick his ass" means "Kick his ass." Win hard. Win quickly. Embarrass him. Save Giles. Save the world. If you kill him in the process, f'in great. Get him next time if you don't. Just win. Don't complicate things with emotions. Don't complicate things AT ALL. People are obsessed with first impressions. Willow makes a good one; Xander makes a bad one. So no matter how many mistakes Willow makes, or how many times Xander is right or acts nobly, she's a role model, and he's just another bastard. But the truth is that both are very complex characters with nearly identical character flaws and arcs that are entwined with each other. Xander's big character arc throughout the series has to deal with his attempting to be gallant in big, sweeping ways, rather than smaller, meaningful ones. He wants to be more special than he is. He's very justified-probably even correct-in saying "kick his ass", and there's essays to be written about why that's almost certainly safer for Buffy, the world, Giles, Himself, and Willow, but it's also missing the point entirely: His mistake was in following Buffy AT ALL. He didn't want Willow to do the spell. And he was right. She shouldn't have attempted it. Xander should have stuck to his guns and forced Willow to confront her own dark side. Here's hoping it doesn't take the two of them TOO long to figure themselves out.
While I'd hardly call Willow wanting to help by implementing a plan that Buffy HAS ALREADY AGREED TO a "dark side", you've listed a number of good reasons for Xander to not want Buffy to rely on the spell. One more: Xander knows how protective Oz is about Willow, so it's entirely possible Oz might not let her try. (It's unlikely that Oz would sucker-punch Willow the way he did to Xander in 2.16, but you never know…)
@@Jessica_Roth Buffy agreed to the plan before Willow almost died, and before Giles was kidnapped. The plan Willow insists on is not Buffy's plan. When I say "dark side", I mean Willow consistently deciding that she's got the solution to a problem and ignoring other people's objections and agency entirely. This is something that we can assume Xander knows well by now, as evidenced by the "resolve face". Buffy would never agree to let an inexperienced caster try a complicated spell in Willow's condition. She is cautious and responsible. Rule #1 in her line of work is don't die.
With Xander saying 'kick his ass'- yes I think he says this because he hates Angel, but also it does make sense in terms of what was at stake. (No pun intended) If Buffy knew there was a serious chance of getting Angel back, she would have 100% held back in her fight with Angelus- which could have got her killed or ended the world. So I do get why he said it, regardless of his personal dislike.
Alternatively, maybe she would have been quicker to engage Angel if she knew that there was a good chance she'd only need to fight him to a standstill for long enough for the curse to work, thus preventing him from awakening Acathla and sparing herself from being forced to sacrifice him. We can't predict these things with total certainty, we can only make judgement calls, and the person best placed to make this judgement call is *Buffy,* not Xander. Buffy is the one who has to strategize here, she needs as much information as possible available to her to do that effectively, and Xander is hardly *less* biased about Angel than Buffy is.
for one Xander is not this strategic, it's way over his league, and for the second he doesn't know that it is Angels blood that will activate Acathla, so no this is all Xander being on his anti Angel train again.
It doesn't take much strategy to know she would hold back and that could get her killed. Its obvious. And also, it doesn't really matter about angels blood being the key- if she held back, Angel could have won. That's the point.
@@evesapple it requires some strategic thinking to predict Buffys behavior in a fight, e.g you just assume that knowing that Willow would attempt to turn him back would somehow hold her back (something you have no basis for), what if it instead made her fight harder since she now had something to "fight for". I'm no Xander hater but that doesn't mean that he should get any credit for him just being 100% jealous, all this talk about him trying to help the fight is just reaching.
@@evesapple If Buffy can't be trusted to make rational strategic decisions with this information because she's too emotionally compromised, Xander sure as hell can't be trusted to know when it would be appropriate to withhold that information from her, because he's less objective about the situation than Buffy is. He's the Scooby who's most prone to acting without thinking, letting his emotions guide him and not recognising when his judgement is compromised until his actions blow up in his face.
I'll never forgive Xander for lying and both betraying Willow's wishes and taking away Buffy's agency, regardless of those who defend his actions. If he didn't want to tell her, he should have just stayed silent.
Spike wants her because she was the one who made him a vampire. There is this supernatural bond. But he didn't choose it, she chose him. And that's not love, more like a supernatural addiction. So no free will for him here. Spoilers . . . . . But he will make his own choice later. His free will. His first steps to different life
Except that both Angel and Spike have said that ANGEL is Spike's sire.. So that's a theory that contradicts the established facts. (It does explain DRU's devotion to Angel, though. Perhaps that's why Spike cuts her so much slack.)
@@Jessica_Roth except what? If she bit him. In fool for love. She was 'the face of his salvation' meaning his new life as a vampire. So it's more about discovering that vampire identity for him than just about her. . . . . But he will choose another. Thereby he will give that vampire world up to being part of human world. Which will mark his further path.
I was trying to give you a way out, since the future episode you're relying on is a spoiler, and we're trying not to do those. Kassidy hasn't seen that episode, we don't want to give her any information from that. Please delete your initial post. (Also, that episode explicitly contradicts the established canon at this point. For all we know, the "memories" shown in that episode could be false creations, such as other false memories that are part of the plot of that season.)
@@Jessica_Roth but what's the point of proving smth that is not so only because it happened after the episode that the person saw? You said that the theory contradicts the established facts. And I replied to you with these facts. So it's not a theory, it's a real thing. That was established in Angel show also. And no, these memories were never lies. Where did you get that? And speaking about spoilers the fact who bit Spike doesn't have that big meaning for Kassidy now without all other details that she doesn't know. It just explains the answer to her current question. And actual spoilers I hid. In both comments.
So, Angel got condemned to Hell. Well, he did say way back at the end of The Harvest (1x02) that "I'll be damned". Regarding Willow suddenly starting to speak Romanian when she couldn't finish the re-ensouling spell, I initially thought that some entity or other intervened and took her over to finish the incantation. That's still a possibility. But, another possibility is that after a certain point the spell is self-executing - the first part of the incantation compels the speaker to complete it.
Can I ask what your accent is, if you don't mind? It sounds strongly American most of the time, but some words (especially "episode") sound like "RP" British English... I'm guessing it's a regional American or Canadian accent that has some commonality with English accents?
Sounds to me like it might be a Southern accent, though I can't pinpoint which part of the South. They vary pretty widely from place to place and rarely sound like fake Southern accents sound on TV. EDIT: I checked her About page and she's in St. Augustine, FL, which is about an hour away from my hometown in northeast Florida, so yeah, Southern.
I think that the southern American accents actually share more in common with British accents than other American accents do, so this would make some amount of sense (I am not at all an expert on this, but have heard people who know more than I do make this claim)
@@RaineInChaos I was born and raised in the South but lived in the UK for several years as well (Manchester & Derbyshire), and I'd say that the majority of Southern accents are more like maybe Irish accents than UK accents, especially Dublin accents. Because movies tend to portray Southern accents as dropping the final "r" sound in syllables the way British accents often do, people think that's what most Southern accents sound like, but that's actually not true. Most Southern accents have an emphasis on the "r" sound instead of dropping it (though some parts of the South do drop it). Not like a West Country accent, though.
Here's a theory about Dru - before she became a vampire, Dru was either a new slayer or a future slayer. That's why she had visions about the future. If Dru was a new slayer or potential slayer, her story is even more tragic.
There's certainly enough backstory to justify "now that Willow might die, Xander realizes he's in love with her'. However, the service on this plot has been godawful; Xander and Willow have barely spoken to each other since she caught him with Cordelia. Oz was away for four episodes (and had only two lines last episode), and yet they haven't done a "Xander and Willow hang out like best buds" scene since 2.09. (They do a get a few seconds when Willow figures out what's in Ted's cookies in 2.11, but that's plot, not character work.). They did more set-up for Drusilla choosing Angel over Spike, and those are the villains. I think this episode pretty much shows why Buffy never told Joyce before; as a minor, she's not a legal person and can't act without approval that Joyce certainly won't give. Tell Joyce and you have three possibilities: Joyce thinks Buffy is lying and gets angry, Joyce thinks Buffy is delusional and has her committed, or Joyce thinks Buffy is legitimately putting herself in danger and moves them away from Sunnydale at warp speed. "Go out and slay, honey, but be home by 11" really is never on the menu. Which is why running away is about the only option Buffy has left. (Which still doesn't really solve. things, since the Hellmouth isn't going away…) Xander's perfectly right not to tell Buffy about the spell, since for all he knows Willow might have passed out again and not be able to try it. And Buffy already has a lot on her plate. (Plus, not that Xander knows it, but we saw Buffy try to "fight" Angel in stall-mode last episode and it was pretty much a disaster.). Hooo boy was there fan backlash against the character for it, though… I loved how you caught the "Buffy comes out of the closet" subtext in her chat with Joyce. (Joss Whedon actually called it "a lesbian arc for Buffy" in an interview.) Not really sure we want to do this in the same episode where we're supposed to be weepy about Buffy's BOYfriend going to Hell, though. Is it me, or does Drusilla seem a lot more sane as "Jenny" than she normally does? Is the "crazy" bit just an act for Spike's sake, then?
At this point in the show, Xander just comes across as one of those people who wants what they can't have. He only really shows proper interest in Willow once she becomes unavailable. And how he gets so upset when Cordelia dumps him that he resorts to witchcraft, yet after she takes him back.. well we know how that ends. So idk if it's an issue with how the plot is done, but more to do with just how unsatisfied his character is when it comes to romance.
@@Jessica_Roth oh yeh I remember that but the whole thing is then dropped for ages until oz is in the picture and we see him getting jealous. If xander was meant to always be in love with willow but it took her almost dying for him to figure it out, then the writing wasn't there at all for it. But I mean he pretty much had feelings for all 3 girls within a season so idk his deal lol
@@cherryfreckle I honestly don't know why they wouldn't write Willow/Xander interaction while Seth Green was away filming "Idle Hands". I mean, the whole Oz plot is clearly there to get Xander to "wake up and smell the hottie" (as Buffy says in Surprise) and here we are with the big revelation…why did they stop laying the groundwork after the first half of the season? Just odd.
"Are you sure you're a slayer? I mean, have you tried not being a slayer?" They really wrote Buffy's 'coming out' with zero subtlety and I love it. Buffy's speech to Joyce at the end of that scene is one of my favourite moments between Buffy and her mom in the entire show.
It also cemented Buffy and SMG as LGBTQ icons.
And Joss re-used it in his X-Men treatment a couple of years later, with Iceman and his mother - "Have you tried not being a mutant?". When they decided not to used his script they kept that line (and Storm's Toad joke)
Also the Joss recycled the "Take all that away and what's left?" exchange between B/A into a similar exchange between Iron Man/Captain America in Avengers.
@@jackmars931Also, "prove it" "you're a dick." "OK!" seems reminiscent of "then why would they make you see me?" "... You're right, let's go."
@@Talisguy
i mean, there's nothing truly new under the sun. everything is reminiscent of something. if it weren't, it wouldn't connect to the audience. we don't tune in to watch truly alien beings, even when it is about aliens. we tune in to see other people doing what people do.
@@sirmoonslosthismind I'm not calling Whedon a hack, just pointing out another joke that he likes to reuse. Plenty of creators reuse ideas or names between properties, there's nothing wrong with it as long as they're not reusing so much that it becomes lazy, boring or self-limiting.
Willow always takes charge when Buffy isn't around, or isn't being Buffy. Remember the Halloween episode where Buffy became a damsel in distress. Willow stepped up without hesitation and took charge.
Dru is a manic pixie nightmare girl.
Spike's just a romantic.
This episode has my favorite line in the series when Buffy tells her mom all the things she'd rather be doing but she has to save the world...again.
If you watch after the credit, the “Mutant Enemy” zombie usually goes Grr, Argh… but this episode he goes “I need a hug”, which I get after that ending, so heartbreaking lol
As Buffy is leaving Sunnydale, the sign says "see you soon!" to me this was a message to the audience that there would be another season. When the 1st and 2nd season's began, they were not sure that the show would be picked up for another season, and I don't know for sure when the show runners knew, but including that on the road sign suggests to me that they did know that they had been picked up for season 3 by the time they shot this scene, and this was for the audience.
To me the life of a slayer can be summed up with one word > Sacrifice. Also, I love your hair!
Exactly. A short, violent life filled with terror, then a horrifying death faced alone in darkness.
Knowing it's coming.
You saying "I bet when Angel gets his soul back he will be distant" at the beginning made me laugh. Yep. He's very distant now!
To be fair, when he actually got his soul back he was barely a sword's length from Buffy. But yes things have changed.
My favorite season finale and one of my favorite episodes of the entire show! It's just so... perfect. So many iconic moments and lines.
You're supposed to cry, I myself was deeply depressed after watching the episode when it originally aired. I blame Sarah McLachlan.
A lot of people give Joyce a hard time over that scene, kinda rightfully so, but I'm glad you're seeing this from her point of view.
As much as I think Xander is right about Angel, what he did in this episode ("kick his ass") was for selfish reasons (his jealousy over Angel). It's things like that which is why I can't stand him.
"'and you want my help coz your gf is a big ho?" - LOVE this line 🤣
Spike and Dru have been together for 100 years. He still loves her and thinks of her as "his" (notice how he holds her in the car). That's vampire behavior. At the same time, even though he's a demon he can still be extremely sensitive and emotional (notice how he regrets snapping at Dru in What's My Line, for example, or the pain on his face witnessing Angel and Dru together). He's a fool for love who thinks with his heart instead of his head.
She had to stab him - his blood was needed to seal the portal.
Darla before she turned Angel "Close your eyes". Buffy before she kills Angel "Close your eyes".
This was the first time that the cartoon demon for the Mutant Enemy logo at the end says something other than "Grr, argh!" There were a few other variations over the years, sometimes it was a change in appearance.
Thought you'd be happy that Spike took Dru out of Sunnydale.
Great ending to what has been a far better season than the first one. What I love about the ending is that on any other show on at the time, Buffy doesn't save Angel at the last minute. Instead she has kill him and then because she's so devastated leaves town. You don't get the happy reunion that everybody expects-because Joss always upended expectations and that's why this show has lasted in the cultural memory as long as it has.
Buffy didn't kill Angel. Just exiled him to another dimension because she didn't trust herself to fall in love with him again.
@@Madbandit77 but she feels like she killed him.
Spike wants Dru because she's so hard to get. Well, not hard to get, more like hard to keep. He likes the drama and chaos that Dru brings to his life. For a souless vampire, bad toxic love is the closest thing to a healthy relationship.
YEP! This all happened. The coming out, the reunion, Xander lying and Angel's ultimate death! A mega two-part finale, and it wraps up a season that took everyone season one did right and amplified it and took what was wrong in the first season, and ultimately fixed it. "I already wanna cry and I don't even know what the note says." That's Sarah McLachlan's music for you playing in the background. Haha.
The language spoken by Willow (and by the old gypsy woman last episode) is Romanian:
Willow: Te implor, Doamne, nu ignora aceasta rugaminte.
Translation: I implore you, Lord, do not ignore this request.
Willow: Nici mort, nici al fiintei...
Translation: Neither dead, nor of the living...
Willow: Lasa orbita sa fie vasul care-i va transporta, sufletul la el.
Translation: Let this Orb be the vessel that will carry his soul to him.
Willow: Asa sa fie! Asa sa fie! Acum!
Translation: So it shall be! So it shall be! Now!
Willow: Acum!
Translation: Now!
[Not my translation, found on reddit.]
Foreshadow here "it's my blood. I am the key that opens the door"
The most blatant but cleverest relating the supernatural to a real world problem. Joyce goes through what I am told are the standard responses to one's child 'coming out'.
The awkwardness between Joyce and Spike is priceless comedy as well.
Xander not telling Buffy is bad, but in the end makes not difference, she could not have stopped or even delayed Angelus waking Acathla even if she had known Willow was attempting the spell again.
10:47 In 'The Puppet Show' Xamder is the one who caught the guillotine rope, saving Giles' life. Does Giles really hate him so much?
First time Russian TV showed Buffy, they only bought rights for the first two seasons. So, for several years, I was sure this is actually the series finale.
And the second time they ended after season five (those who'd seen the whole thing will understand).
Great finale. Why Spike is so head over heels for dru has a lot to do with his personality. He seems like a vampire that goes 150% and is all in on things he is passionate about.
omg I JUST watched part 1
I don't think I saw this episode when it originally aired (although I was watching the series) I think I waited three months unknowing about its ending and saw it a week before the S3 premiere. I cannot guarantee that. I just don't recall because I remember being hyped on the series, but don't recall how I watched this one. I just remember not feeling the hype that summer as I watched reruns. So, I was anxious to get to the rerun at summer's end, if my guess is correct. But cannot remember for sure exactly when I saw if for the first time. I'm quite positive it is one of the rare episodes I didn't see in it's original airing.
Cops shooting at an unarmed woman Ugh!
I enjoy the exchange:
Buffy: "I'm gonna pull out your ribcage and wear it as a hat."
Whistler: "Hello to the imagery."
I always head canon-ed that Willow was being temporarily possessed by Jenny, who was finishing what Angelus interrupted when he killed her in Passion.
Technically speaking, Spike never said he help Buffy with fighting Angelus. It was an exchange. Angelus for Dru. Buffy has Angelus and he has Drusilla. Buffy's just currently losing as Spike managed to get Dru unconscious. Still don't know how as vampires don't breathe, but I head canon it was Drusilla freaking herself out over losing.
Xander saying "then why would they make you see me" to Giles is funny. Making fun of others at their expense is where his brand of humor just turns to Cordelia S1, for me. But this was him being funny without being rude or mean. Humor is always at someone or something's expense, but it can still be done well or badly. His jokes are often in bad taste. This is him doing humor well.
As a non Buffy/Angel shipper, their reunion is emotional. The music is the icing on the proverbial cake.
People I've seen defend Xander for "Willow said kick his ass," defend that he doesn't trust Buffy could kill Angelus. But Xander has seen evidence that is false. Buffy's arc during the Angelus storyline is to learn and deal with her feelings and issues concerning Angel:
1. In _Innocence_ she tells Angelus "Give me time."
2. In _Phases,_ dealing with Oz's werewolf issue allows her to start the "time." She is no where near ready yet to face Angelus, as Angelus "sends his love" with a vampire in the form of a classmate and Buffy freezes. But Buffy is not allowing her grief to swallow her to the point of ignoring slayer issues like a werewolf problem (along with any other non-Angelus slayer related problem). That is progress from _Innocence._
3. In _Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,_ Xander's issues with Cordelia allow Buffy more of a break from Angelus' Valentine's Day plans. Buffy also starts to read up on Angelus' past. On step better and closer to dealing with Angelus.
4. In _Passion,_ Xander says he deserves something for telling his friends he told them so before Angelus showed up. This shows Xander using Angelus as an excuse for his Angel jealousy and in claiming he is correct about Angel being at fault for Angelus' actions. He is blinded to the fact that Buffy has come another step closer to being able to deal with Angelus because he feels justified in Giles "getting himself killed" being a good thing, not realizing, in anger over Jenny's death (anger that is meaningless in _Becoming Part 1_ when he says to Giles about Jenny, "Yeah well she's dead), the fact that Giles will die. Buffy wasn't ready, emotionally speaking yet, but Buffy had to confront him anyway to save Giles. And Xander didn't understand not charging in for revenge he felt Giles deserved, but showed his opinion was more about his issues and was hiding behind Giles' reasons.
5. In _Killed by Death,_ Xander witnesses her hunting for Angelus while sick. That is enough to disagree that Xander thinks Buffy isn't ready to kill Angelus. Doing so while sick wasn't a good idea, but it showed the determination proving another step closer to being ready to take him on.
6. In _I Only Have Eyes For You,_ Buffy releases everything holding her back by dealing with her guilt over turning Angel into Angelus. Now she is ready to take Angelus on and everything people say about Xander's theory on saying, "Willow said kick his ass," becomes officially wrong.
7. In _Go Fish,_ Buffy takes Angelus on and only doesn't kill him because he throws Gage at her. Xander doesn't see this one, but it shows everything mentioned about _I Only Have Eyes For You,_ wasn't just a fluke.
8. In _Becoming Part One,_ Xander has issue with Jenny Calendar having come close to restoring Angel's soul and almost everyone (not just Buffy) deciding to try re-ensoulment before attempting to kill Angelus, and he shows his opinion negatively (as opposed to Kendra who expresses the exact same opinion healthily). He had listened to Buffy say she was "done waiting" in _Passion_ and therefore reacts badly to their safer idea over trying his taking on an evil vampire to kill him plan. No one with either opinion could have known what the outcome would be.
9. In _Becoming Part 2,_ Buffy is ready. Xander even hears Buffy say, on patrol, she's done waiting. Buffy isn't aware the spell is being recast after it was interrupted and Xander still doesn't trust her. Misplaced distrust, as over nine episodes she has moved from the headspace of depression to 'Xander should trust her taking Angelus on if he didn't have Angel issues,' all connect back to why I disagree with him saying, "Willow said kick his ass" vs what Willow asked him to say. Not to mention Buffy was a second from decapitating Angel when his soul was restored, so Xander was wrong to think Buffy wouldn't/couldn't kill him.
Xander is really saying, "Willow said kick his ass," out of jealousy (and being a species-ist) all while limiting information to Buffy, who is about to go to the front lines of battle. Even if you don't know the outcome, not telling someone part of this type of plan is a bad idea. We don't know what the outcome would have been if Xander had told Buffy the truth, but we do know going into battle without all the information can hurt and this battle had a bad outcome. Debatable for people on whether Xander telling Buffy the truth could have changed it or not. I personally think it would have changed it for the better. But even if it didn't, Xander didn't do the correct thing. This has nothing to do with a Xander hate issue. I just think his mistakes around this time connect too much to his Angel (not Angelus) issues.
Xander not trusting Buffy is pretty much his standard state
@@RaineInChaos It's not so much as trust as it's dependance on Buffy Summers. When it comes to monsters, demons and vampires, Xander can handle them. When it comes to his personal problems and dysfunctional family, he's a screw up.
Spike is a fool for love thats why he loves dru. She is all he knows his maker
You are just BLASTING through this show, I LOVE IT!
Also, sidenote, "...the police of Sunnydale are deeply stupid." I think is actually a really interesting quote, considering this is a Hellmouth (a vortex of evil-focusing magic) one might think the supposed force for justice and law would be... I don't know, ALSO "evil"? But they're.... stupid... I just think it's an interesting commentary about power there. That the people who are supposed to be enforcing law AREN'T evil, but incompetent.
The mayor and/or other people who are "smart" to the supernatural have a lot of influence over who gets/keeps those posts. The more someone knows the more of a liability they are
Great reaction. Looking forward for your reaction to next seasons
In real life cases I'd say never run from the cops. But a whole lot of bad shit would happen while Buffy was in jail.
I think it’s complicated for Buffy. She should turn her self in and cooperate with the cops, but the amount of time it takes for them to sort all that out the world will end up.
There's two sides to what Xander did here, he did lie(by omission) and that was an absolute betrayal, however, and not attributing any wisdom on Xander's part, he may have saved her life, if Buffy had done anything other than fight Angel full bore, she might've been killed.
15:30 "There's only one or two [episodes] that I didn't quite care for."
Let me guess. 'Bad Eggs' and 'Go Fish.'
love this season finale
"Just have another drink." Buffy is calling her mom an alcoholic.
This scene is so iconic 6:20
Spike and Drew have been together for something like two centuries. I don’t think a few weeks of her being unfaithful is gonna make her just stop and quit.
Hi I love your reactions, but can I request that you add the episode title in your UA-cam video title? It would make it easier for me to find your reactions for my favorite episodes 🙂. Thanks!
Xander's motivations here are incredibly complex. Hating Angel (which is justified and goes far beyond jealousy) is part of it, sure, but he's also trying to protect Himself, the world, Buffy, Giles, and especially Willow, as he doesn't believe she's healthy enough to invoke a spell of this magnitude in her current state, and maybe not at all. There's some blind hope that the spell will just... not use power if there's no target.
On the less positive motivations, he's also probably a bit miffed at Willow for refusing to listen to him and setting her "resolve face" rather than allow any for any kind of discussion or, indeed, plan. There's quite a few reasons for Willow to not attempt the spell, her health is just the most obvious one. You could make a reasonable case that some of his choice is a response to being shut down. He's known Willow a long time, and is used to and annoyed by her assuming she knows better than him. It's clear that he knows her "resolve face" very well. He does not like that part of Willow.
Back on the more positive side, he's got no real way of knowing what the ritual will do to the existing binding on Acathla, and he has no way of knowing what the Acathla trigger is. His main motivation for protecting Buffy is seeing her resolve waver. She's spent the entire back half of the season psyching herself up to defeat Angelus, and now with everything that's happened, her anxiety is pretty plain on her face. He's making things simple for her-but still in a way that suits his own ends, it still must be said.
Xander is also pretty aware that Buffy would try to stop Willow at this point-or more likely, that she'd send HIM back to reason with her. Buffy is RESPONSIBLE, and has very little reason to believe Willow could pull this off immediately after coming out of a coma. Xander wants to come with Buffy. Which is both heroic in the sense that he's trying to help fight evil in the face of overwhelming danger, but it's also quite selfish, because he's taking a decision away from her. He's choosing to try to save Buffy and Giles in the spotlight, rather than assist in the background, even though doing so could potentially save Willow. So on some level he wants to be heroic, which is noble, but he also believes that putting himself directly in the line of fire is more heroic than continuing to reason with Willow, which could be just as important-which is selfish. (Also it's interesting that this selfish risk-taking is exactly the same thing that Willow is doing)
Another negative for Xander: We're starting to pile up a lot of emotions, motivations, and problems. Following Buffy was easier than arguing with Willow. Telling Buffy "Kick his ass" is simple and direct. There's a through line in the series of Xander taking shortcuts rather than deal with his emotions. (And this is a bit of a fun house mirror to Willow taking shortcuts and not considering other people's emotions)
Finally, and this gets overlooked by pretty much everyone: as much as Xander wants Angelus dead, there's very little reason to assume that Angel will definitely either die or be re-ensouled. Angelus (and Spike and Drusilla, for that matter) and Buffy have fought several times by now, and the three vampires have consistently gotten away when things sour. Don't get me wrong, if Angel were killed, Xander would be over-the-moon about it. That's not in question. But "Kick his ass" means "Kick his ass." Win hard. Win quickly. Embarrass him. Save Giles. Save the world. If you kill him in the process, f'in great. Get him next time if you don't. Just win. Don't complicate things with emotions. Don't complicate things AT ALL.
People are obsessed with first impressions. Willow makes a good one; Xander makes a bad one. So no matter how many mistakes Willow makes, or how many times Xander is right or acts nobly, she's a role model, and he's just another bastard. But the truth is that both are very complex characters with nearly identical character flaws and arcs that are entwined with each other.
Xander's big character arc throughout the series has to deal with his attempting to be gallant in big, sweeping ways, rather than smaller, meaningful ones. He wants to be more special than he is. He's very justified-probably even correct-in saying "kick his ass", and there's essays to be written about why that's almost certainly safer for Buffy, the world, Giles, Himself, and Willow, but it's also missing the point entirely:
His mistake was in following Buffy AT ALL. He didn't want Willow to do the spell. And he was right. She shouldn't have attempted it. Xander should have stuck to his guns and forced Willow to confront her own dark side. Here's hoping it doesn't take the two of them TOO long to figure themselves out.
While I'd hardly call Willow wanting to help by implementing a plan that Buffy HAS ALREADY AGREED TO a "dark side", you've listed a number of good reasons for Xander to not want Buffy to rely on the spell. One more: Xander knows how protective Oz is about Willow, so it's entirely possible Oz might not let her try.
(It's unlikely that Oz would sucker-punch Willow the way he did to Xander in 2.16, but you never know…)
@@Jessica_Roth Buffy agreed to the plan before Willow almost died, and before Giles was kidnapped. The plan Willow insists on is not Buffy's plan.
When I say "dark side", I mean Willow consistently deciding that she's got the solution to a problem and ignoring other people's objections and agency entirely. This is something that we can assume Xander knows well by now, as evidenced by the "resolve face".
Buffy would never agree to let an inexperienced caster try a complicated spell in Willow's condition. She is cautious and responsible. Rule #1 in her line of work is don't die.
With Xander saying 'kick his ass'- yes I think he says this because he hates Angel, but also it does make sense in terms of what was at stake. (No pun intended)
If Buffy knew there was a serious chance of getting Angel back, she would have 100% held back in her fight with Angelus- which could have got her killed or ended the world. So I do get why he said it, regardless of his personal dislike.
Alternatively, maybe she would have been quicker to engage Angel if she knew that there was a good chance she'd only need to fight him to a standstill for long enough for the curse to work, thus preventing him from awakening Acathla and sparing herself from being forced to sacrifice him. We can't predict these things with total certainty, we can only make judgement calls, and the person best placed to make this judgement call is *Buffy,* not Xander. Buffy is the one who has to strategize here, she needs as much information as possible available to her to do that effectively, and Xander is hardly *less* biased about Angel than Buffy is.
for one Xander is not this strategic, it's way over his league, and for the second he doesn't know that it is Angels blood that will activate Acathla, so no this is all Xander being on his anti Angel train again.
It doesn't take much strategy to know she would hold back and that could get her killed. Its obvious.
And also, it doesn't really matter about angels blood being the key- if she held back, Angel could have won. That's the point.
@@evesapple it requires some strategic thinking to predict Buffys behavior in a fight, e.g you just assume that knowing that Willow would attempt to turn him back would somehow hold her back (something you have no basis for), what if it instead made her fight harder since she now had something to "fight for".
I'm no Xander hater but that doesn't mean that he should get any credit for him just being 100% jealous, all this talk about him trying to help the fight is just reaching.
@@evesapple If Buffy can't be trusted to make rational strategic decisions with this information because she's too emotionally compromised, Xander sure as hell can't be trusted to know when it would be appropriate to withhold that information from her, because he's less objective about the situation than Buffy is. He's the Scooby who's most prone to acting without thinking, letting his emotions guide him and not recognising when his judgement is compromised until his actions blow up in his face.
I'll never forgive Xander for lying and both betraying Willow's wishes and taking away Buffy's agency, regardless of those who defend his actions. If he didn't want to tell her, he should have just stayed silent.
And the seasons only gets better...
"You can't shoot a fleeing suspect."
Have you read the news here in the US?
Sadly, it happens a lot more than it should.
12:01 you will know at the right time
Spike wants her because she was the one who made him a vampire. There is this supernatural bond. But he didn't choose it, she chose him. And that's not love, more like a supernatural addiction. So no free will for him here.
Spoilers
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But he will make his own choice later. His free will. His first steps to different life
Except that both Angel and Spike have said that ANGEL is Spike's sire.. So that's a theory that contradicts the established facts.
(It does explain DRU's devotion to Angel, though. Perhaps that's why Spike cuts her so much slack.)
@@Jessica_Roth except what? If she bit him. In fool for love. She was 'the face of his salvation' meaning his new life as a vampire. So it's more about discovering that vampire identity for him than just about her.
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But he will choose another. Thereby he will give that vampire world up to being part of human world. Which will mark his further path.
I was trying to give you a way out, since the future episode you're relying on is a spoiler, and we're trying not to do those. Kassidy hasn't seen that episode, we don't want to give her any information from that. Please delete your initial post.
(Also, that episode explicitly contradicts the established canon at this point. For all we know, the "memories" shown in that episode could be false creations, such as other false memories that are part of the plot of that season.)
@@Jessica_Roth but what's the point of proving smth that is not so only because it happened after the episode that the person saw? You said that the theory contradicts the established facts. And I replied to you with these facts. So it's not a theory, it's a real thing. That was established in Angel show also. And no, these memories were never lies. Where did you get that? And speaking about spoilers the fact who bit Spike doesn't have that big meaning for Kassidy now without all other details that she doesn't know. It just explains the answer to her current question. And actual spoilers I hid. In both comments.
Dru is Spikes sire, in vampire lore that’s a very strong bond, their relationship is quite Oedipal really.
So, Angel got condemned to Hell. Well, he did say way back at the end of The Harvest (1x02) that "I'll be damned".
Regarding Willow suddenly starting to speak Romanian when she couldn't finish the re-ensouling spell, I initially thought that some entity or other intervened and took her over to finish the incantation. That's still a possibility. But, another possibility is that after a certain point the spell is self-executing - the first part of the incantation compels the speaker to complete it.
Can I ask what your accent is, if you don't mind? It sounds strongly American most of the time, but some words (especially "episode") sound like "RP" British English... I'm guessing it's a regional American or Canadian accent that has some commonality with English accents?
Sounds to me like it might be a Southern accent, though I can't pinpoint which part of the South. They vary pretty widely from place to place and rarely sound like fake Southern accents sound on TV. EDIT: I checked her About page and she's in St. Augustine, FL, which is about an hour away from my hometown in northeast Florida, so yeah, Southern.
I think that the southern American accents actually share more in common with British accents than other American accents do, so this would make some amount of sense (I am not at all an expert on this, but have heard people who know more than I do make this claim)
@@RaineInChaos I was born and raised in the South but lived in the UK for several years as well (Manchester & Derbyshire), and I'd say that the majority of Southern accents are more like maybe Irish accents than UK accents, especially Dublin accents. Because movies tend to portray Southern accents as dropping the final "r" sound in syllables the way British accents often do, people think that's what most Southern accents sound like, but that's actually not true. Most Southern accents have an emphasis on the "r" sound instead of dropping it (though some parts of the South do drop it). Not like a West Country accent, though.
Here's a theory about Dru - before she became a vampire, Dru was either a new slayer or a future slayer. That's why she had visions about the future. If Dru was a new slayer or potential slayer, her story is even more tragic.
It's not really a proper punishment for Angel if he's still soulless when he goes to hell. Angelus would probably love it there, Angel not so much.
Do you see how much legacies the show try to copy buffy and failed so much haha. Buffy only gets better and better you’ll see.
There's certainly enough backstory to justify "now that Willow might die, Xander realizes he's in love with her'. However, the service on this plot has been godawful; Xander and Willow have barely spoken to each other since she caught him with Cordelia. Oz was away for four episodes (and had only two lines last episode), and yet they haven't done a "Xander and Willow hang out like best buds" scene since 2.09. (They do a get a few seconds when Willow figures out what's in Ted's cookies in 2.11, but that's plot, not character work.). They did more set-up for Drusilla choosing Angel over Spike, and those are the villains.
I think this episode pretty much shows why Buffy never told Joyce before; as a minor, she's not a legal person and can't act without approval that Joyce certainly won't give. Tell Joyce and you have three possibilities: Joyce thinks Buffy is lying and gets angry, Joyce thinks Buffy is delusional and has her committed, or Joyce thinks Buffy is legitimately putting herself in danger and moves them away from Sunnydale at warp speed. "Go out and slay, honey, but be home by 11" really is never on the menu. Which is why running away is about the only option Buffy has left. (Which still doesn't really solve. things, since the Hellmouth isn't going away…)
Xander's perfectly right not to tell Buffy about the spell, since for all he knows Willow might have passed out again and not be able to try it. And Buffy already has a lot on her plate. (Plus, not that Xander knows it, but we saw Buffy try to "fight" Angel in stall-mode last episode and it was pretty much a disaster.). Hooo boy was there fan backlash against the character for it, though…
I loved how you caught the "Buffy comes out of the closet" subtext in her chat with Joyce. (Joss Whedon actually called it "a lesbian arc for Buffy" in an interview.) Not really sure we want to do this in the same episode where we're supposed to be weepy about Buffy's BOYfriend going to Hell, though.
Is it me, or does Drusilla seem a lot more sane as "Jenny" than she normally does? Is the "crazy" bit just an act for Spike's sake, then?
At this point in the show, Xander just comes across as one of those people who wants what they can't have. He only really shows proper interest in Willow once she becomes unavailable. And how he gets so upset when Cordelia dumps him that he resorts to witchcraft, yet after she takes him back.. well we know how that ends. So idk if it's an issue with how the plot is done, but more to do with just how unsatisfied his character is when it comes to romance.
@@cherryfreckle Pretty sure that Xander came thisclose to kissing Willow before Willow even looked at another guy. So I disagree with that assertion.
@@Jessica_Roth oh yeh I remember that but the whole thing is then dropped for ages until oz is in the picture and we see him getting jealous. If xander was meant to always be in love with willow but it took her almost dying for him to figure it out, then the writing wasn't there at all for it. But I mean he pretty much had feelings for all 3 girls within a season so idk his deal lol
@@cherryfreckle I honestly don't know why they wouldn't write Willow/Xander interaction while Seth Green was away filming "Idle Hands". I mean, the whole Oz plot is clearly there to get Xander to "wake up and smell the hottie" (as Buffy says in Surprise) and here we are with the big revelation…why did they stop laying the groundwork after the first half of the season? Just odd.