Re: A Second Look: BTVS S7D5

"One Bit Shy" <OBS@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
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> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsmtsm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:b0517048-3b35-42b1-a32e-71209c082c25@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> s.com... 
> 
> 
> 
>> Season Seven, Episode 19: "Empty Places”

> 
> I loathe the argument - absolutely loathe it.  It is the single
> worst moment for me in the entire BtVS run, making it my least
> liked episode of the series.  (Though objectively not the
> worst.)  I'm reminded of your reaction to the argument in The
> Yoko Factor for the artificiality of it, and of other people's
> reactions to DMP for the ugliness of it and questionable 
> characterization.  Of course, in those two cases, I went along
> with the arguments just fine - as I almost always do.  This
> time...  A bridge too far I guess.

I liked the argument.  I thought it flowed naturally from 
everything that had come before it.

There IS a different dynamic to this argument than to the BIG 
arguments between Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies in previous 
seasons.  In the earlier arguments Buffy and the others basically 
feed off of each other's anger in a mutual escalation.

This time the argument is driven almost exclusively by Buffy.  It's 
Buffy who keeps pressing the argument, keeps escalating it.  Until 
she finally escalates herself right out of the house.  And even on 
Buffy's part, it seems to be more stubbornness than actual anger.

I think what's immediately driving Buffy is what happened to Xander 
in "Dirty Girls".  Her miscalculation resulted in the permanent 
maiming of one of her closest friends.  And the only way (in her 
mind) that she can redeem that mistake is by going back to the 
vineyard.

What happened in "Dirty Girls" is also helping to drive the 
reaction of the other Scoobies.  The key point is that none of them 
actually seems to have thought that attacking the vineyard was a 
good idea.  They went along with it because Buffy asked them to 
trust her judgement.  That doesn't work twice in rapid succession, 
at least not when the first time ends badly.  Especially when 
Xander was severely injured the first time, and Willow likely spent 
much of the past few days watching a severely injured Xander.  With 
their support Buffy can carry the others.  Without it, she 
ultimately has to either back down or leave.  And she ultimately 
chooses to leave.

But YMMV.

-- 
Michael Ikeda    mmikeda@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Telling a statistician not to use sampling is like telling an
astronomer they can't say there is a moon and stars"
Lynne Billard, past president American Statistical Association