A reminder: These threads are delicate and toylike.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Season Seven, Episode 5: "Selfless"
Writer: Drew Goddard
Director: David Solomon
And BTVS gets into itself again. Unlike "Beneath You," this isn't a
small story that summons up a bunch of bigger stuff from the
background. (Although stated that way, that also seems like a
perfectly sound way to construct an episode.) "Selfless" is itself an
inherently complex story whose topic is nothing less than the entire
existence of one of the show's main characters. It's almost as epic
for the viewer as it is for Anya, an endless lifetime of
"selflessness" turned in a truly different direction. I don't know
what a new channel-surfing viewer would think, but by nature, it can't
be fully appreciated without having followed these people and what
they've been through. So much about Anya is explained here that
simply wouldn't have occurred to me, but it exactly fits what we've
been shown. A story like this requires that the series dip into its
bag of continuity, and it rises to the occasion, finding clever ways
to work in things like Willow's ongoing struggle with herself, and her
amulet from years ago, and what D'Hoffryn is really like. My original
reaction to the brilliantly constructed argument was "ye gods, what a
great scene," and indeed it is. It's the best "Scoobies arguing"
sequence, even better than that other one that was so good, and that
other other one.
Something that I appreciated comes during the confrontation between
Anya and Buffy. Something new this viewing, I mean, so that's in
addition to the already acknowledged killer act break and the equally
wonderful jump from song to present day. Anya's line "c'mon, Buffy.
Don't you have a clever retort for me?" calls attention to the way our
hero is almost completely silent during the fight sequence. Buffy's
tried to kill her friends before, but this is set apart from the other
times by her sheer intensity. This is a Slayer, doing what she sees
as the thoroughly unpleasant job that no one else can. All in all, I
rank this as my second favorite episode of _Buffy_, finishing behind
only "Innocence," whose emotional impact is a little more
overwhelming. One could make the case that "Selfless" is the deeper
and more substantive of the two, though.
Rating: SUPERLATIVE
Season Seven, Episode 6: "Him"
Writer: Drew Z. Greenberg
Director: Michael Gershman
What is it that drives a person or people to come up with something
like Dawn's cheerleading scene? Is there someone who's actually
amused by the ritual humiliation of theoretically beloved characters?
It's also possible that the viewer is meant to be cringing out of
sympathy, but BTVS usually does that by playing for realism and
universality. Whereas this scene comes in a "comedy" episode through
a situation that's so contrived that any hope for empathy dissipates.
The only other thing I even feel like talking about again is the
nonsense surrounding D'Hoffryn trying to have Anya killed after
pointedly passing up the chance to do so last week. It's not merely a
stupid storyline, it's also a non-starter; this topic is briefly
addressed once more over the whole season, and otherwise disappears
without explanation. The net effect is the unpleasant feeling that
the writers aren't paying attention to their own storylines.
Rating: Bad
Season Seven, Episode 7: "Conversations With Dead People"
Writers: Jane Espenson and Drew Goddard
Director: Nick Marck
CWDP is an odd one. It's well known by now how it was slapped
together and all the collaboration-without-interaction and last-minute
changes that went into it. The end result is strangely unified. I
still think it's a rather brilliant premise for a concept episode,
kicked off by a candidate for best teaser on any of Joss's shows (I
could probably watch just that opening over and over). "Here we go."
Not everything works perfectly. Dawn's segments are loud and
screamy. As great as Azura Skye is, I can only read the scripts and
think of how much more punch it would've had to have the First be
Tara. Buffy allegedly opening up mostly just seems like her re-
telling stories we've already heard. The Buffy/Holden thing is the
big part that doesn't quite do what it's meant to, being simply an
entertaining conversation and not the introspective (super)human drama
that's needed to be the base of a mood-piece episode. I don't think
the superiority/inferiority complex thing, which is apparently the big
punchline of that part of the story, is particularly revealing or even
lays much foundation for Buffy's future actions. The result is that
Holden mainly exists as a font of one-liners and a mechanism to reveal
the plot point about Spike. But enough works that it clicks often.
Sure, the actors are on top of their game, and the jokes have a high
success rate (I kinda want to see the longest version of the "check"
scene that Strong and Lenk were able to manage, as mentioned on the
commentary). And sure, Willow's part is quite heart-wrenching, and
the twists at the end (all of them, but especially Spike) are real
shocks. There's more to it. The teaser's tone persists through the
whole thing, because the way the four storylines are cut together lets
them balance each other out. One would think the screechiness of the
Dawn part in particular would clash horrifically with the pensive
Buffy and Willow sequences, but as some people have pointed out, the
haunted house provides the episode with an infusion of action. That's
then able to spill over to make the other stories feel like they, too,
are ramping up to something big. The mix of longing (yeah, I really
like longing), confusion, and simple weeknight evening listlessness is
a part of everything, which is the right place for everyone to be in
order to get hit with a surprise that changes everything. CWDP is
indeed a mood-piece, one that's much more cohesive than you'd expect
from the orgy-child of a comedy act, a ghost story, a manifesto of
evil, and a graveside chat.
Rating: Good
Season Seven, Episode 8: "Sleeper"
Writers: David Fury and Jane Espenson
Director: Alan J. Levi
Is this the episode that goes to a commercial break on the thrilling
act-break note of people talking? That apparently amused some
people. Anyway, "Sleeper" sounds on paper like it should be an
important hour - mystery, pathos, revelations, etcetera. I like the
way the characters really try to think things through rationally, I
don't like the endless establishing shots of people walking or Anya's
scenes, blah blah blah. I could keep listing shit, but the point is
that breaking it down into ingredients emphasizes how much I watch the
episode as a collection of items ("okay, this is kinda cool, this
happens, this joke is just silly, this ties into the story arc...") and
not as a unified piece of entertainment. OBS, who likes "Sleeper"
better than I do, accurately contrasted it with CWDP in that regard.
As much analysis as I throw at it, it mostly just comes down to Mrs.
Quality's summary on re-watching: "this is kind of a boring episode,
isn't it?" It kinda is. Also, we run into a bit of a trap that comes
with throwing out shock endings like Spike snacking at the end of
"Conversations." When you (as a writer/plot-designer, I mean) do
something that extreme and don't actually "mean" it, the explanation
will always be something of a let-down. I know of no way to avoid
that.
Rating: Decent
Additional comments on S7D2: In an interview not too long ago, James
Marsters said that licking Buffy in "Sleeper" really freaked him out,
for whatever reason. He had a lot of difficulty doing that scene.
According to the story, Gellar, a bit impatient after dealing with
this for some extended period of time, finally quipped something like
(no exact quotes from me) "what, so you can rape me but you can't lick
me?" His response was basically "Sarah, you're not helping..."
So let's talk about the First Evil (not yet identified as such) for a
second. In my hazy recollections of Season Seven, I was sorta
developing the notion that a commonality in the First's strategy of
working on the heroes is that it tells people what they're afraid to
hear, channeling the message through the listener themself or their
loved ones. You can't make a difference. The world would be better
with you dead. Don't trust your closest friends. And although the
dialogue in "Sleeper" isn't as pointed as it could be, it's been
argued that First-as-Spike and First-as-Dru (in BOTN) play on fear
too. You're still who you were before the soul, your past has total
power over you [that message often followed by humming], you'll never
rise above it. The First could metaphorically serve as the undying
capacity for evil in human beings driven by fear. Hell, even its
hatred for the Slayer line could come from The Human Race, fearing
what's different (and female). That'd also make me feel justified in
my basically ignoring the First (and more generally, S7's plot) as a
thing to hang character moments on.
But Andrew throws a wrench into the idea. The First seduces him
almost entirely with what he craves, not what he fears. First!Warren
is gentle both pre and post Jonathan. Maybe villains (Caleb too) are
fundamentally different enough that they get treated differently? Why
the First implants a trigger in Spike and not anyone else confuses me
too (along with why exactly it's so interested in him to begin with -
does it see his potential to become a detergent?), since it suggests
more (semi)coherent planning than the rest of S7 displays.
Thoughts?
-AOQ
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