Lovers Walk

These snapshots may contain SPOILERS for the entire series, so if for some reason you haven't yet seen some of the episodes and do not want to know what is going on, read no further.
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Spike returns to Sunnydale a broken vampire. Drusilla has left him, and he will do anything to win her back, including kidnapping Willow and Xander to force Willow to prepare him a love spell. Will Willow do the spell, or can the Scoobies prepare for tragedy?
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Spike: The last time I looked in on you two, you were fighting to the death. Now you're back to making googly-eyes at each other like nothing happened. Makes me want to heave.
Buffy: I don't know what you're talking about
Spike: Oh, yeah, you're just friends.
Angel: That's right.
Spike: You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love 'til it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other 'til it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood -- blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.

Great character development, good dialogue and a good plot.

"Love, is a funny thing" as Spike notes in this episode which is about understanding who you love and what you have to do.

First off, there's Spike. He loves Dru, but Dru has abandoned him. How does he respond, by wallowing in despair, getting drunk, and plotting first revenge and later a love enchantment via witchcraft. Both of these are desperate moves. It's pretty clear Spike just isn't thinking clearly. But love can have that effect.

Spike has changed. He's gone from punk rocker to pathetic loser. Buffy cheerfully points this out to him. But Spike's experiences in Sunnydale have changed him. When he first came here in School Hard, his intention was to kill the Slayer. But he discovered that having Dru was more important to him than anything else and he made a deal with Buffy in order to get Dru. Now, that he's lost Dru, he's back. First he's looking for revenge then he's looking for an easy way to get Dru back. But once again he makes a discovery. He learns that he can't be satisfied unless he wins Dru on his own terms. By convincing her he is once again the man she loves. You can say a lot of things about Spike, but you've got to admit he learns from his experiences. He matures tremendously in this episode and the profound statement about love, that it is in your heart not your head, comes from him.

Next up Willow. She's been consumed with guilt since she and Xander first kissed. But she goes into guilt overdrive when Oz gives her the Pez witch. Like Spike, she wants things to be the way they were. And, like Spike, she decides to resort to magic. Only, instead of a fall in love spell, she needs a anti-love spell. When you come down to it, this is just as silly a idea as Spike's. They both want to rely on magic to solve their problems rather than doing it the hard way. And, like Spike, she can't stick to one idea. At first, she wants to make the anti-love potion. But a few hours later, she's making out with Xander. It isn't until they're discovered, Cordelia almost dies, and Oz just might leave her, that she discovers what she really wants. Now, just as Spike has to convince Dru, she must convince Oz.

Xander, oddly, has been the most consistent character. Always immature, he wants both Willow and Cordelia. When he sees his picture in Cordelia's locker, he's touched. But when Willow suggests the anti-love spell, he's against it. When Cordelia is hurt, he's devastated. It's Xander who runs to her aid. It's Xander who visits her and who's crushed when she tells him to go away.

After Spike, Buffy is probably the character who grows the most in this episode. And it happens thanks to Spike, because of his insight into her relationship with Angel. As she says, she can lie to everyone except herself and Spike. Spike understands what it is to love someone. To be driven by a love so strong, that it consumes and controls your life. And he can see that Buffy and Angel suffer from that same curse. As he says, they can be many things, but they can't just be friends. Buffy finally accepts this and makes a break with Angel.

Most episodes end with the group together doing something. This one ends with everyone alone. And almost all of them unhappy and staring off into space. Buffy on the park bench. Angel in his mansion, sits and mourns. Cordelia cries in her hospital bed. Xander working in the library. Willow sitting on the floor staring at her Pez witch. And Oz with his guitar alone. Only Spike, hurtling down the road smoking and playing the Sid Vicious cover of My Way, is happy. Because he has come to terms with what he needs to do to get his love back.


The Sunnydale sign that Spike knocks down on the way into town gives the population (still) at 38,500. This is the second of three times that he causes the sign to be knocked over.


Foreshadowing
Buffy: And I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can't fool myself. (shakes her head) Or Spike, for some reason. - the rest of the series.

Cordelia: Well, I mean that in a positive way. Get out of Sunnydale. That's a good thing. What kind of moron would ever wanna come back here? - she leaves for L.A.



My views/status of characters;
Buffy - like
Willow - like
Xander - like
Giles - like
Cordelia - like
Spike - like
Angel - neutral
Oz - like

Overall I consider this a very good episode compared to the rest of the season.

The Dark Age

These snapshots may contain SPOILERS for the entire series, so if for some reason you haven't yet seen some of the episodes and do not want to know what is going on, read no further.

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The secrets of Giles's dark past come back to haunt him when an old friend turns up dead in Sunnydale. As a troubled youth, Giles (known then as "Ripper") and his friends summoned a demon called Eyghon, The Sleepwalker. Now, Eyghon has returned and is hunting down the people who used to call him up for their amusement. And the only two left are Rupert Giles and Ethan Rayne.


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BUFFY:  I'm not gonna lie to you. It was scary. I'm so used to you being a grownup, and then I find out that you're a person.
GILES: Most grownups are.


Good character development, average dialogue and an average plot.

Basically a Giles character development episode.

Angel saves Jenny's life at the end. Kind of ironic considering what happens in Passion.

At the end we see a break in the Giles - Jenny romance as a result of the events in this episode.

Second of the three appearances of Ethan Rayne. Halloween and Band Candy were the others. Just love his line;
ETHAN: Now, this may sting a little just at first. But don't worry, that'll go away once the searing pain kicks in.

Just of a bit of misinformation in the show. Willow says the Etruscans predate the Egyptians. Maybe in the Buffyverse, but in our reality its the other way around by a couple of millenia.

Foreshadowing

Angel choking Jenny Calendar.

My views/status of characters;
Buffy - like
Willow - like
Xander - like
Giles - like
Cordelia - like
Spike - absent
Angel - neutral


Overall I consider this an average episode compared to the rest of the season.

I Robot, You Jane

These snapshots may contain SPOILERS for the entire series, so if for some reason you haven't yet seen some of the episodes and do not want to know what is going on, read no further. 
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In 1418, a group of Italian priests use magic to trap the demon  Moloch in a book, only to be released if the book is ever read aloud.  In 1997 Sunnydale, the computer teacher, Ms. Calendar, is working on  a project to digitally scan all the books in the library. When a new  arrival, in a strange language, is scanned, Moloch is released into  the computer... and into every computer connected to it. Now Buffy  must face Moloch's human minions, while Giles must figure out how to exorcise a demon from the Internet.

Meanwhile, Willow meets a nice boy online. His name is Malcolm...

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GILES:      Nonsense! I simply don't adhere to a knee-jerk assumption that because something is new, it's better.

Unfortunately in this case something old isn't exactly good either. This has got to be one of the worst episodes of Buffy, in my opinion. The only positive to come out of this episode is the intro of Jenny Calender.

One of the few vampire-free episodes, the others being "Witch", "The Pack", "The Puppet Show", "Inca Mummy Girl", "Living Conditions", "Fear, Itself" and "Beer Bad".

When Moloch accesses Buffy's file, her birthday is listed as October 1980 and she is listed as a senior with a GPA of 3.4, then as a sophomore with a GPA of 2.8. When Chris pulls up her file immediately after that shot, her birthday is listed as May 1979 and listed as a senior. Also, both files list her as having only one absence, highly unlikely given her slayer duties. As noted elsewhere, Moloch being a Corrupter and "corrupting" the database, it is likely that he was altering these--along with other--files. Season two's Surprise reveals that Buffy was born in mid January 1981. In season four's Doomed, she tells Riley that she is "Capricorn, on the cusp of Aquarius." Which translates to approximately January 19th. Finally, in Season five's episode "The Gift" Buffy's headstone states 1981 as her year of birth. I mostly discount season one info. in this case, and go with the latest info. as the correct info.



My views/status of characters;
Buffy - like
Willow - like
Xander - understandable
Giles - like
Cordelia - absent
Angel - absent
The Master - absent


Overall I consider this a very poor, if not the poorest, episode compared to the rest of the season/series.