As you Were

<Kris settles into her Comfy Chair, takes a large gulp of her Diet Coke, and shakes her head.>

Grrrrr.

Argh.

Nothing like a not-as-good-as-I'm-used-to ep of BTVS to bring down the level of happiness in my evening.

Before I begin my ramblings, I should make clear that up until the whole Vamp!Ho storyline, I actually *liked* Riley. His character actually reminded me of a lot of the guys my husband used to serve with when he was in the Air Force... and so I was a little excited to hear that he'd be back for an ep.

And, hey! What do you know? We did actually get that scene that so many fanfic authors have written... Riley walking in on the Buffster and Spike... and while I was rolling my eyes over the whole macho one-upsmanship we had going on between Riley and Spike, I think it may have actually been good for the future of B/S.

(But I'll get to that in a bit.)

As far as the ep as a whole: my darling hubby put it best. "It had its moments." Considering this is the man who's practically ready to throw our children into bed at 7:45 just so we can watch Buffy as soon as it stops taping... that's *not* a compliment, gang.

Because I'm trying to be an optimist... let's talk about the Likes first.

Loved the Anya/Xander wedding planning/chip binging/hiding from the relatives subplot. I know, it was cheesy... but speaking as someone who had her mom and dad meet in person for the first time in 10 years at her *wedding rehearsal* (at the church even, so that they'd have to behave!) - my hubby and I appreciated these scenes. :-)

While I'm on the Xander track - loved the comment about him hating public speaking... probably just a big coinky-dink, but Nicholas Brendan appeared in an ad in the current issue of "Time" for a foundation that supports people who are trying to overcome stuttering - he stutters to this day, and works with speech therapy daily.

What else? Willow offering to be The Bitch on Buffy's behalf... Dawn finally being *nice* to Buffy (although I don't see how they've even talked about the whole Dawn-being-a-shoplifter thing...)... and finding out that yes, Buffy really is starting to take baby steps towards coming back to life with her reapplication to college. These were all of the good.

Ummm.... ummmm... trying to come up with something else here...

Alright. No luck on that... so let's address the Not Liked.

Again, darling husband said it best. "It seems like the characters were just taken to... *extremes* this time. It didn't feel right." He's absolutely right. Things seemed off... and if I get beaten over the head one more time with the supposed connection between Willow's addiction to magic and Buffy's "addiction" to Spike, I'll be throwing things (which should scare you, seeing as how I have no aim.). Sam tells Willow that she's impressed with Willow's strength of Willpower to resist her addiction... and then we hear Buffy whining about how "she has to be strong" about how she feels about Spike. Oh, gag me already! If Buffy's addicted to anything, it's the fact that she's using Spike to forget about her real responsibilites, rather than letting him help her shoulder the burden. (I'd make a comment about the sexual aspects, but this is a polite list, so I won't go there.)

And as far as Spike, "The Doctor," the hatching eggs, etc., etc.... this felt very rushed to me. I'd be interested to see the shooting script to see if anything important was cut... I'm very confused. Did I think that something was up when Spike and Buffy played their wrestling games in the upper level? Heck yes... but to have Spike suddenly doing something like this... I'm sure there's an explanation, and I'm sure that we're going to get it... I just hope it's not something bad for our fave blonde vamp.

The ending... ouch. I've seen lots of commentary about how this has played... and while I didn't see a lot of emotion out of SMG in this scene, it was almost as if she was playing it as though she *needed* to be unemotional - that she was steeling herself to make it through - that she "had to be strong." I did like that she came right out and said that she was using Spike - serious echoes of "Rest in Peace" were echoing throughout this ep. "You're scared... ashamed of what you feel... you can't tell the ones you love, you know they couldn't deal..." Remind anyone of how Buffy's handling being able to bring her relationship with Spike into the open with Dawn and the rest of the Scoobies? "You know... you got a willing slave..." - Spike telling Buffy that he really doesn't mind the position she's put him in - he's that desperate to keep a connection to her (even though we all know that he wants more). There was even an echo of the end of the musical number - Buffy leaving Spike in the hole in the ground while she runs off and away from her fears. And I agree with what someone else posted earlier - Buffy certainly didn't look happy about her decision when she was leaving - it was Resolute!Buffy all over again.

Okay... back to the Like. Was I peeved that Buffy asked Spike to tell her that he loved her? No... and only because I think she really was hurting - I don't think she was trying to *use* him at that point like she has in other eps. He's been the only one in her life lately that has loved her without reservation... and heck, there are times that I'll call my husband when I'm having a cruddy day telling him that I just need to hear that someone loves me. Being around Sam, hearing about how Riley was "over her," suddenly finding out that Riley was even married in the first place... I don't care what you say - that adds up to a cruddy day (or night) in my book. What I *did* love was when Spike seemed to realize that Buffy wasn't up for the teasing... and switched over to Caring!Spike.

There. I did come up with something else that I liked!

Now... bringing Riley back... did I like what they did with his character and how everyone reacted? Not overly much. Again - what's with Spike suddenly being the only one to remember about the whole Vamp!Ho thing? (Although... nice touch that he got to snark about that - whoo hoo!). Anyhow... I *did* think that it was important that Buffy admitted *to Riley* that she's been sleeping with Spike... and that she really doesn't want to see him dead. That's an important step for her... and while it might not be an admission to the Scoobies, by saying it out loud to someone who was important to her and *not* bursting into tears over it - maybe she's finally starting to take responsibility for her actions - she can't have her Spikey!cake in secret and eat it too.

I'm not going to say anything spoilery... but I keep seeing that with the B/S relationship, and with Spike's development in particular, it seems to be a couple of baby steps forward, a big step back... and then something comes along to propel them in a HUGE leap forward. We still have so many things to look forward to - Halfrek recognizing Spike as William, Buffy's obvious discomfort with Spike's having brought someone to the wedding... have faith, my B/S friends. A couple of stinky episodes in a season does not a tanked show make... no matter how painful it is for us at the time.

Hang in there, and have faith. It seems like we get put through hell every February... and then we get something totally unexpected a couple of episodes down the line that just blows it all away. I'm just curious to see what it will be this season.

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Kris