Re: A Second Look: BTVS S7D5

Arbitrar Of Quality wrote:

> A reminder:  Are these threads protecting vampires?  Are they the bad
> Slayer now?  Am I the good Slayer now?
> 

> 
> Season Seven, Episode 19: "Empty Places”
> Writer: Drew Z. Greenberg
> Director: James A. Contner
> 
> The early scenes of “Empty Places” are among the best in the episode,
> whether we’re saying goodbye to Clem or watching the stellar (in both
> writing and acting) bedside chat between Xander and Willow.  After
> that I get less enthusiastic, despite the continued energy in
> situations like the girls’ night out (feeling like an empowered
> group…) and the clash between Slayers.  There’s less energy in meeting
> Caleb again without much new information, except that he doesn’t like
> women, in case one needed to be reminded of that subtle point.  On a
> related note, each Andrew joke gets one or more repetitions more than
> it needs – it can’t be a good sign when someone who’s always more or
> less “gotten” Andrew starts thinking “c’mon, could anyone really be
> that oblivious to the world?”   Everything’s just a little… overdone?
> Off?  As far as the ending, my comment as a first-timer was that if
> one wanted to tell a story about Buffy being deposed as leader of the
> group and alienated from her friends, this would be one of the better
> ways to do it; I’d been spoiled about that before even starting the
> season, so was worried it’d be more out of character.  Again, though,
> having her get kicked off the proverbial island seems like an extra
> step beyond what the scene merits, a little forced.  The way I see it
> now, “Empty Places” doesn’t feel like a story that’s driven by the
> motivations of its characters.  My impression is that there are
> certain ways things need to end up, and the rest of the episode is
> wrapped around itself trying to push events towards the prescribed
> ending.  Not to suggest that this isn’t frequently or always true in
> the Whedonverse, just that it’s not usually so obvious about it.
> Rating: Decent (down from Good)
> 


   For me the chaos, the bits that don't fit, the over the top 
reactions, that feeling of the show is all just a little off, a little 
out of tune really worked.


   It felt deliberate.  It felt that a deliberate effort to evoke in me 
what the characters were feeling - nothing fit, everything is just off, 
nothing is going quite right and the whole world is totally out of
control.

   It was uncomfortable, frustrating, claustrauphobic.

   And that's what Sunnydale was all about just then.





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