Buffy - Season 5 impressions (episode 15)
Jan. 12th, 2006 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thalia_seawoodI Was Made To Love You
For a summary click here.
Andspikeylover recently posted a summary full of screencaps here.
- This was an episode from which I didn't expect much. I started watching it last week up to the point where it turns out April is a robot, then stopped watching to keep an appointment and didn't feel all that motivated to continue watching. I expected just another robot plot, funny but rather mediocre. I have to admit I was wrong and this episode has a lot more to offer than plain & simple robot plot.
- I like the first scene a lot. Once again Xander is the one who talks to Buffy and manages to cheer her up a bit. He gets a hug for it, too, but sadly the protective suit he's wearing prevents him from truly feeling it. :-)
The talk they are having shows that Buffy is worried about being too strong and too self-involved. She obviously believes that these are the reasons why her relationship with Riley failed.
BUFFY: It's just ... I just wanna know that there's gonna be another good one. One that I won't chase away.
XANDER: There will be. Promise. He's out there, he could come along any minute.
BUFFY: Yeah, and the minute after that I can terrify him with my alarming strength and remarkable self-involvement.
XANDER: What? I don't think you're like that.
BUFFY: Maybe I could change. You know, I could, I could work harder. I could spend less time slaying, I could laugh at his jokes, I mean, men like that, right, the, the joke-laughing-at?
XANDER: Or maybe you could just be Buffy, he'll see your amazing heart, and he'll fall in love with you.
- The scene between Joyce, Buffy and Dawn is wonderful. I felt so happy that Joyce is getting better and going out again. Then I remembered what will happen to her soon and I became sad.
- Anya and Tara are polar opposites. Their interaction is a lot of fun. Love Tara's line about the internet. It's also amusing to picture Anya actually buying an antelope. Where would she keep it? In the kitchen?
TARA: Willow's good at all that computer stuff, but me not so much. Do you really understand all that?
ANYA: Oh. Well, at first it was confusing. Just the idea of computers was like, "whoa, I'm eleven hundred years old. I had trouble adjusting to the idea of Lutherans."
TARA: I go online sometimes, but ... everyone's spelling is really bad, and it's ... depressing.
ANYA: But you have to try online trading, it's great! The secret is avoiding the tech companies everyone was jumping on, and, and going with the smaller firms that supply the basic components.
TARA: Uh-huh.
ANYA: Anyway, I took the money from working for Giles, and I tripled it.
TARA: Tripled? Like, first money, then money money money?
ANYA: Yes. I'm thinking about buying something very expensive. Maybe an antelope.
- Anya has come a long way. It's quite remarkable that she encourages Xander to dance with Buffy. After all, she's the "grab it & hold on to it" type of person. It shows that she trusts Xander.
- Buffy's interaction with Ben:
She's so insecure that she tries to eradicate everything she believed she did wrong the last time. ( Yeah, I am. I was dancing earlier, and you know, my friends are here, so ... but, I mean, not that it's all about me. Are you enjoying yourself?) Oh, and her fake laughter at Ben's joke is hilarious. Apparently, she has all forgotten that this used to be one of Cordelia's techniques, i.e. laugh at guys' jokes on principle and pretend to be interested in what they say even when bored stiff. Not something that really worked out for Cordy, is it? :-)
- The meeting between Spike and Buffy:
Spike is all snarky and behaving like he doesn't care, but when Buffy fails to respond at all and just glares at him, you can see that he is feeling insecure underneath the flirty behaviour.
- Giles as a babysitter for Dawn... Yep, that's the *perfect* job for Giles. :-)
Buffy is inappropriately cheerful about Spike's bad luck, but after what he did in the last episode, it would be very odd if she felt sympathetic. Anyway, being thrown through windows isn't something that really hurts Spike, what's hard on him is being a total outsider. In so far, the being thrown outside by April is a symbol: Once again he's on the outside with noone for company.
GILES: Dear god, Buffy, there's only so much I can take. We're going to have to change the system. A fourteen-year-old's too old to be babysat, and it's not fair on her.
BUFFY: (nods, grins) What'd she make you do?
GILES: Um, well, we listened to aggressively cheerful music sung by people chosen for their ability to dance ... then we ate cookie dough and talked about boys.
BUFFY: (laughs) I'm sorry. I'm very very sorry, but if it makes you feel any better, my "fun time Buffy party night" involved watching a robot throw Spike through a window, (Giles looks interested) so if you wanna trade... (pauses) No ... wait ... I wouldn't give that memory up for anything.
- LOL!
BUFFY: It all looked pretty tame to me.
JOYCE: Well, I suppose by your standards it could seem pretty ... (pauses) Oh dear.
BUFFY: What?
JOYCE: I left my bra in his car.
Buffy looks shocked and horrified.
BUFFY: Mother!
JOYCE: I'm joking.
BUFFY: (sighs) Good god, that's horrible. Don't do that.
JOYCE: I left it in the restaurant.
- I wonder how the Glory/Ben relationship works. Now Glory doesn't have a job - apart from being an evil god - but Ben has. Constantly morphing into Glory would not make it easy to go to work regularly. Even to make an appointment with friends would be difficult.
Cut to: Glory's apartment. We see Glory from the chest up, bare shoulders. She's sweaty and gasping, breathing rhythmically. The phone begins to ring. Glory morphs into Ben. He's panting too. He picks up the phone.
- Spike visiting the Magic Shop:
I'm not sure that Buffy's friends have all the details regarding the Drusilla interlude. From what I see everyone is opposed to Spike, not because he has tried to blackmail Buffy, but because he has dared to have feelings for her.
In a way, Spike gets to feel the aftermath of the Angel debacle. Giles' reaction is very harsh, but he in particular would have nightmarish memories of what happens when vampires become obsessed.
SPIKE: It's just ... I'm trying to explain. She might have said some things that sounded like I expressed some kind of feeling-
Giles shoves Spike backward. He stumbles into a bookshelf. Giles walks slowly up to him, glaring angrily.
GILES: (softly) We are not your friends. We are not your way to Buffy. (Spike stares at him) There is no way to Buffy.
Giles leans over, picks up the blanket and slams it into Spike's chest. He leans in close and looks Spike in the eye.
GILES: Clear out of here. And Spike, this thing ... get over it.
For Spike that's really harsh though. By the time of I Was Made To Love You he's not only in love with Buffy, but in my opinion also enjoys hanging out with the other Scoobies. Not on a regular basis, but on an "it's entertaining that they are there" basis. Not that he's consciously aware of it so far. Actually IMO it's the scene in the Magic Shop where he realises that he'd like to be part of the Scoobie gang. Yes, it's a way of being close to Buffy, but it's also a way of not being alone any longer, of having a family again.
Both Spike and Angel are family people - they can live alone for years - but they much rather are part of a group.
I have the feeling that Angel usually wants to be the leader of such a group - maybe the woman at his side pulls the strings, but he still wants to feel as if he's in charge. Spike, on the other hand, doesn't need to be the leader. He can be the leader and will get a kick out of it, but he's just as happy to be one of the inner circle who's respected by his fellow family without needing to be in the top position.
Now though they are all angry with him, even Dawn. Tara is the most polite, but doesn't leave any doubt that she wants him gone, too.
- WARREN: Yeah, I mean, I felt like I deserved to have someone. You know, I mean, everyone deserves to have someone.
BUFFY: So naturally you turned to manufacturing.
When this line came up, I scribbled "Spike --> robot" in my notebook. It just makes perfect sense that he would want one - and he got all the necessary info. He knows April is a robot, yet looks real. He knows April is looking for Warren. So yes, he can figure out the rest. Most importantly, Spike would have the motivation to get a robot: He doesn't want to be alone any longer. For 20 years, he was part of the Fanged Four family; after his family fell apart he spent nearly 100 years with Drusilla; when she leaves him, he puts up with Harmony, because while she grates on his nerves, she also does everything he tells her and everything is better than being completely alone. Now that Harmony is gone, Buffy doesn't allow him to get close, and the Scoobies don't want him around either, a robot must sound like the perfect solution.
I was very happy when I saw the writers move in this direction and when Spike places his order with Warren.
Well, I watched up to the first episodes of season 6 in the meantime. It rocks that the Buffy robot is not just comic relief, but plays an important role in several episodes. The biggest irony is that Spike will no longer be all that happy to see it after The Gift.
- Another interesting point in this episode is that we start feeling sympathy for a robot. Even though April gets violent, hurts Katrina and fights against Buffy, she's not to blame. After all, she's just a machine. It's Warren with who I felt angry.
- The Warren/April plot neatly connects to experiences Buffy has made in her own life.
BUFFY: Warren, this is important. Is she dangerous?
WARREN: She's only programmed to be in love.
BUFFY: Then she's dangerous.
Buffy has learned the hard way that love can turn into obsession and can become a threat. Both Angelus and Spike have taught her that lesson.
Warren simply leaving April, must bring back memories of both Angel and Riley leaving her.
- To see things through April's eyes is both funny and sad, e.g. the line "mk warren hpy" that is then followed by more directives that all cover a very narrow field.
Seeing the programs she executes, is a nod to "Terminator", of course.
- Buffy talking to April is a wonderful scene:
I love it that Buffy lies to April to give her some peace before she shuts down completely.
And April's final words... Considering what has happened to Buffy so far and what will happen to her, I really want to believe April is right and that there will be a dawn for Buffy in the end and not just darkness.
APRIL: It's so early to be dark.
BUFFY: (softly) Yeah.
APRIL: What if he comes back and he can't find me in the dark?
BUFFY: I'm here. I'll make sure that he finds you.
APRIL: (smiles) Maybe this is a girlfriend test. If I wait here patiently this time, he'll come back.
BUFFY: I'm sure he will. And he'll ... he'll tell you how sorry he is. (pauses) You know, he told me ... how proud he was of you and ... how impressed he was with how much you loved him and how you tried to help him. (April smiles happily) He didn't mean to hurt you.
APRIL: He's going to take me home, and things will be right again.
BUFFY: (nods) It'll be fine.
APRIL: (still smiling) When things are sad ... you just have to be patient. (Her speech begins to slow) Because ... because every ... cloud has a silver lining. And ... when life ... gives you lemons ... make ... lemonade.
BUFFY: Clouds and lemonade, huh?
APRIL: Yes. And ... and ... (her voice gets deeper like a tape running too slow) things are ... always ... darkest ... before....
- I really like Buffy's realisation that she first needs to start appreciating living with herself, before starting another relationship.
BUFFY: She devoted everything to making this one person happy. And then it was like, with him gone, there was just ... no reason for her to exist any more.
XANDER: Robots are the strangest people.
BUFFY: No ... people are the strangest people. (she looks down as Xander continues working) I mean, look at me obsessing about being with someone. It's like ... I don't need a guy right now. I need me. I need to get comfortable being alone with Buffy.
- GLORY: (pouting) She turned us down?
LOL!
- The end of the episode shocked me. I believe The Body was the third episode of Buffy that I watched so I already knew Buffy would find her dead mother in the next episode, but I really didn't expect this episode to end with this scene. For personal reasons, this affected me badly. It's too close to my own history and I wasn't prepared for this scene and so just started crying. I'm a very lucky girl to have boyfriend to whom I don't have to explain these things. He just hugs me until I get better.
As my reaction to this scene was so strong, I decided not to rewatch The Body. Maybe I will comment on it after reading through the transcript to freshen up my memory. If I do, my thoughts for The Body and Forever will be friendslocked, as I can't comment on these episodes without also writing about my own personal experiences.
For a summary click here.
And
spikeylover recently posted a summary full of screencaps here.- This was an episode from which I didn't expect much. I started watching it last week up to the point where it turns out April is a robot, then stopped watching to keep an appointment and didn't feel all that motivated to continue watching. I expected just another robot plot, funny but rather mediocre. I have to admit I was wrong and this episode has a lot more to offer than plain & simple robot plot.
- I like the first scene a lot. Once again Xander is the one who talks to Buffy and manages to cheer her up a bit. He gets a hug for it, too, but sadly the protective suit he's wearing prevents him from truly feeling it. :-)
The talk they are having shows that Buffy is worried about being too strong and too self-involved. She obviously believes that these are the reasons why her relationship with Riley failed.
BUFFY: It's just ... I just wanna know that there's gonna be another good one. One that I won't chase away.
XANDER: There will be. Promise. He's out there, he could come along any minute.
BUFFY: Yeah, and the minute after that I can terrify him with my alarming strength and remarkable self-involvement.
XANDER: What? I don't think you're like that.
BUFFY: Maybe I could change. You know, I could, I could work harder. I could spend less time slaying, I could laugh at his jokes, I mean, men like that, right, the, the joke-laughing-at?
XANDER: Or maybe you could just be Buffy, he'll see your amazing heart, and he'll fall in love with you.
- The scene between Joyce, Buffy and Dawn is wonderful. I felt so happy that Joyce is getting better and going out again. Then I remembered what will happen to her soon and I became sad.
- Anya and Tara are polar opposites. Their interaction is a lot of fun. Love Tara's line about the internet. It's also amusing to picture Anya actually buying an antelope. Where would she keep it? In the kitchen?
TARA: Willow's good at all that computer stuff, but me not so much. Do you really understand all that?
ANYA: Oh. Well, at first it was confusing. Just the idea of computers was like, "whoa, I'm eleven hundred years old. I had trouble adjusting to the idea of Lutherans."
TARA: I go online sometimes, but ... everyone's spelling is really bad, and it's ... depressing.
ANYA: But you have to try online trading, it's great! The secret is avoiding the tech companies everyone was jumping on, and, and going with the smaller firms that supply the basic components.
TARA: Uh-huh.
ANYA: Anyway, I took the money from working for Giles, and I tripled it.
TARA: Tripled? Like, first money, then money money money?
ANYA: Yes. I'm thinking about buying something very expensive. Maybe an antelope.
- Anya has come a long way. It's quite remarkable that she encourages Xander to dance with Buffy. After all, she's the "grab it & hold on to it" type of person. It shows that she trusts Xander.
- Buffy's interaction with Ben:
She's so insecure that she tries to eradicate everything she believed she did wrong the last time. ( Yeah, I am. I was dancing earlier, and you know, my friends are here, so ... but, I mean, not that it's all about me. Are you enjoying yourself?) Oh, and her fake laughter at Ben's joke is hilarious. Apparently, she has all forgotten that this used to be one of Cordelia's techniques, i.e. laugh at guys' jokes on principle and pretend to be interested in what they say even when bored stiff. Not something that really worked out for Cordy, is it? :-)
- The meeting between Spike and Buffy:
Spike is all snarky and behaving like he doesn't care, but when Buffy fails to respond at all and just glares at him, you can see that he is feeling insecure underneath the flirty behaviour.
- Giles as a babysitter for Dawn... Yep, that's the *perfect* job for Giles. :-)
Buffy is inappropriately cheerful about Spike's bad luck, but after what he did in the last episode, it would be very odd if she felt sympathetic. Anyway, being thrown through windows isn't something that really hurts Spike, what's hard on him is being a total outsider. In so far, the being thrown outside by April is a symbol: Once again he's on the outside with noone for company.
GILES: Dear god, Buffy, there's only so much I can take. We're going to have to change the system. A fourteen-year-old's too old to be babysat, and it's not fair on her.
BUFFY: (nods, grins) What'd she make you do?
GILES: Um, well, we listened to aggressively cheerful music sung by people chosen for their ability to dance ... then we ate cookie dough and talked about boys.
BUFFY: (laughs) I'm sorry. I'm very very sorry, but if it makes you feel any better, my "fun time Buffy party night" involved watching a robot throw Spike through a window, (Giles looks interested) so if you wanna trade... (pauses) No ... wait ... I wouldn't give that memory up for anything.
- LOL!
BUFFY: It all looked pretty tame to me.
JOYCE: Well, I suppose by your standards it could seem pretty ... (pauses) Oh dear.
BUFFY: What?
JOYCE: I left my bra in his car.
Buffy looks shocked and horrified.
BUFFY: Mother!
JOYCE: I'm joking.
BUFFY: (sighs) Good god, that's horrible. Don't do that.
JOYCE: I left it in the restaurant.
- I wonder how the Glory/Ben relationship works. Now Glory doesn't have a job - apart from being an evil god - but Ben has. Constantly morphing into Glory would not make it easy to go to work regularly. Even to make an appointment with friends would be difficult.
Cut to: Glory's apartment. We see Glory from the chest up, bare shoulders. She's sweaty and gasping, breathing rhythmically. The phone begins to ring. Glory morphs into Ben. He's panting too. He picks up the phone.
- Spike visiting the Magic Shop:
I'm not sure that Buffy's friends have all the details regarding the Drusilla interlude. From what I see everyone is opposed to Spike, not because he has tried to blackmail Buffy, but because he has dared to have feelings for her.
In a way, Spike gets to feel the aftermath of the Angel debacle. Giles' reaction is very harsh, but he in particular would have nightmarish memories of what happens when vampires become obsessed.
SPIKE: It's just ... I'm trying to explain. She might have said some things that sounded like I expressed some kind of feeling-
Giles shoves Spike backward. He stumbles into a bookshelf. Giles walks slowly up to him, glaring angrily.
GILES: (softly) We are not your friends. We are not your way to Buffy. (Spike stares at him) There is no way to Buffy.
Giles leans over, picks up the blanket and slams it into Spike's chest. He leans in close and looks Spike in the eye.
GILES: Clear out of here. And Spike, this thing ... get over it.
For Spike that's really harsh though. By the time of I Was Made To Love You he's not only in love with Buffy, but in my opinion also enjoys hanging out with the other Scoobies. Not on a regular basis, but on an "it's entertaining that they are there" basis. Not that he's consciously aware of it so far. Actually IMO it's the scene in the Magic Shop where he realises that he'd like to be part of the Scoobie gang. Yes, it's a way of being close to Buffy, but it's also a way of not being alone any longer, of having a family again.
Both Spike and Angel are family people - they can live alone for years - but they much rather are part of a group.
I have the feeling that Angel usually wants to be the leader of such a group - maybe the woman at his side pulls the strings, but he still wants to feel as if he's in charge. Spike, on the other hand, doesn't need to be the leader. He can be the leader and will get a kick out of it, but he's just as happy to be one of the inner circle who's respected by his fellow family without needing to be in the top position.
Now though they are all angry with him, even Dawn. Tara is the most polite, but doesn't leave any doubt that she wants him gone, too.
- WARREN: Yeah, I mean, I felt like I deserved to have someone. You know, I mean, everyone deserves to have someone.
BUFFY: So naturally you turned to manufacturing.
When this line came up, I scribbled "Spike --> robot" in my notebook. It just makes perfect sense that he would want one - and he got all the necessary info. He knows April is a robot, yet looks real. He knows April is looking for Warren. So yes, he can figure out the rest. Most importantly, Spike would have the motivation to get a robot: He doesn't want to be alone any longer. For 20 years, he was part of the Fanged Four family; after his family fell apart he spent nearly 100 years with Drusilla; when she leaves him, he puts up with Harmony, because while she grates on his nerves, she also does everything he tells her and everything is better than being completely alone. Now that Harmony is gone, Buffy doesn't allow him to get close, and the Scoobies don't want him around either, a robot must sound like the perfect solution.
I was very happy when I saw the writers move in this direction and when Spike places his order with Warren.
Well, I watched up to the first episodes of season 6 in the meantime. It rocks that the Buffy robot is not just comic relief, but plays an important role in several episodes. The biggest irony is that Spike will no longer be all that happy to see it after The Gift.
- Another interesting point in this episode is that we start feeling sympathy for a robot. Even though April gets violent, hurts Katrina and fights against Buffy, she's not to blame. After all, she's just a machine. It's Warren with who I felt angry.
- The Warren/April plot neatly connects to experiences Buffy has made in her own life.
BUFFY: Warren, this is important. Is she dangerous?
WARREN: She's only programmed to be in love.
BUFFY: Then she's dangerous.
Buffy has learned the hard way that love can turn into obsession and can become a threat. Both Angelus and Spike have taught her that lesson.
Warren simply leaving April, must bring back memories of both Angel and Riley leaving her.
- To see things through April's eyes is both funny and sad, e.g. the line "mk warren hpy" that is then followed by more directives that all cover a very narrow field.
Seeing the programs she executes, is a nod to "Terminator", of course.
- Buffy talking to April is a wonderful scene:
I love it that Buffy lies to April to give her some peace before she shuts down completely.
And April's final words... Considering what has happened to Buffy so far and what will happen to her, I really want to believe April is right and that there will be a dawn for Buffy in the end and not just darkness.
APRIL: It's so early to be dark.
BUFFY: (softly) Yeah.
APRIL: What if he comes back and he can't find me in the dark?
BUFFY: I'm here. I'll make sure that he finds you.
APRIL: (smiles) Maybe this is a girlfriend test. If I wait here patiently this time, he'll come back.
BUFFY: I'm sure he will. And he'll ... he'll tell you how sorry he is. (pauses) You know, he told me ... how proud he was of you and ... how impressed he was with how much you loved him and how you tried to help him. (April smiles happily) He didn't mean to hurt you.
APRIL: He's going to take me home, and things will be right again.
BUFFY: (nods) It'll be fine.
APRIL: (still smiling) When things are sad ... you just have to be patient. (Her speech begins to slow) Because ... because every ... cloud has a silver lining. And ... when life ... gives you lemons ... make ... lemonade.
BUFFY: Clouds and lemonade, huh?
APRIL: Yes. And ... and ... (her voice gets deeper like a tape running too slow) things are ... always ... darkest ... before....
- I really like Buffy's realisation that she first needs to start appreciating living with herself, before starting another relationship.
BUFFY: She devoted everything to making this one person happy. And then it was like, with him gone, there was just ... no reason for her to exist any more.
XANDER: Robots are the strangest people.
BUFFY: No ... people are the strangest people. (she looks down as Xander continues working) I mean, look at me obsessing about being with someone. It's like ... I don't need a guy right now. I need me. I need to get comfortable being alone with Buffy.
- GLORY: (pouting) She turned us down?
LOL!
- The end of the episode shocked me. I believe The Body was the third episode of Buffy that I watched so I already knew Buffy would find her dead mother in the next episode, but I really didn't expect this episode to end with this scene. For personal reasons, this affected me badly. It's too close to my own history and I wasn't prepared for this scene and so just started crying. I'm a very lucky girl to have boyfriend to whom I don't have to explain these things. He just hugs me until I get better.
As my reaction to this scene was so strong, I decided not to rewatch The Body. Maybe I will comment on it after reading through the transcript to freshen up my memory. If I do, my thoughts for The Body and Forever will be friendslocked, as I can't comment on these episodes without also writing about my own personal experiences.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-01-12 01:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-12 01:29 pm (UTC)(using an entirely neutral icon so as not to reveal who you mean :))
no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-12 01:29 pm (UTC)I think you are right on about this episode -- it looks like it's going to be a throwaway monster-of-the-week type of episode, as we used to see in the first couple seasons but there is actually a lot more going on here. It's a way to see how much the writing has grown since season 1.
Also, as you probably already know, we will be seeing more of Warren.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 10:36 pm (UTC)Yes, I recently read this. He's certainly interesting, even though I don't like him. Way too self-centred for my taste.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-12 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-12 04:42 pm (UTC)Giles' reaction is very harsh, but he in particular would have nightmarish memories of what happens when vampires become obsessed.
Quite. Giles get quite a lot of Angelus flashbacks when it comes to Spike's love for Buffy for the rest of the show. Another thing: Spike - his present day persona, that is - pretty much resembles the Ripper persona Giles had as an adolescent and tried very hard to get rid of.
Another interesting point in this episode is that we start feeling sympathy for a robot. Even though April gets violent, hurts Katrina and fights against Buffy, she's not to blame. After all, she's just a machine. It's Warren with who I felt angry.
You, Buffy and me. Yes, this treatment of a robot, story-wise, is quite different from, say, the episode "Ted". April is sympathetic and has pathos. Note that Warren programmed her to feel pain when she's not responding to his calls, and that when push comes to shove, his idea of resolving the situation is to bail and sic April-in-lethal-combat-mode on Buffy. Some people were surprised by Warren's season 6 actions, but the groundworks are there.
That said? I find Warren oddly fascinating, so much so that I wrote a "Five things which never happened to Warren". Which you can't read until having watched season 6 and the first third of season 7.
Buffy talking to April is a wonderful scene:
I love it that Buffy lies to April to give her some peace before she shuts down completely.
Yes, me too. One constant charge against Buffy is that she has no compassion for anyone outside the Scooby Gang, and when I hear that I think of April and Buffy not wanting the robot to "die" alone, staying with her.
(Cruel irony of fate: during that time, Buffy's mother did die alone...)
The last scene: yes, that was quite a suckerpunch, and consider yourself hugged.
Trivia background: according to a persistent rumour, this episode was originally supposed to guest-star Britney Spears as April, which didn't work out. Luckily so, I guess.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-13 10:46 pm (UTC)Very true. My theory is that none of the characters wants to see his past self embodied by someone else. E.g. Spike will probably be bothered by Wesley, and Angel will always be reminded of his Liam/early Angelus time when he sees Spike acting in a reckless way.
(Cruel irony of fate: during that time, Buffy's mother did die alone...)
Yes, but then she also talks to Xander and calls Ben before going home. Not that this thought will make her feel any better.
Britney Spears would have been much too distracting if she had appeared. If the rumor is true, I'm glad this didn't work out.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-12 01:55 am (UTC)I'm glad you at least knew what was coming; even tough you are essentially unspoiled, you had some basic information.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-12 09:13 am (UTC)This episode would be hard on anyone, but if your mother really has died, it's worse.
I accessed the Additional Features section on this DVD which shows Joyce's body lying on the coach. Just couldn't watch it. Took me some time though to regain the ability to handle the remote control - I can totally understand your lack of energy to turn of the episode.