Klytaimnestra's Review of "Two to Go" and "Grave"

by Klytaimnestra

Klytaimnestra's Review of "Two to Go" and "Graves"

Overall

Excellent wrapup. Parts for all the troop, well integrated, balanced, excellent action, funny dialogue; good Buffy stuff.

***

"Make me what I was" ... "So the Slayer can get what's coming to her" ... "So Buffy can get what she deserves".

It appears that what she deserves is an ensouled, but not a human, Spike. Okay, so I was wrong. "Been there", I thought. "Done that". Now all I can say is "all right, let's see how you play it this time." Thank heavens he's still a vampire at least; wimp!Spike was too awful to contemplate. Wonder what the soul will make of the chip?

No damn brooding, though, I won't stand for it. Here's hoping his soul doesn't demand that he give up the peroxide. The hair gel's past praying for.

***

A great moment

Spike with his shirt off again. Before he had all the bruises, I mean, which made appreciating him feel kind of icky. Exactly how often is that poor man going to get all beat up before the Joss is satisfied? All in a good cause, though, it now appears.

***

Many other great moments

Giles' entry. YES!

Fight between Willow and Buffy. Wow! That was pretty spectacular. Or am I easily impressed? I liked it.

Willow's lines when she was still evil. Who was it said that the evil people always get to tell the truth in BtVS? Jerry, I think. I kept remembering that tonight. Dawn the whiny. Buffy the power-mad, who really doesn't want to be here. Giles, the father who let Willow - and Buffy, and everyone - down. Willow the loser, who's been picked on since junior high, who never had anything except in Tara's eyes. That line was so painful I nearly wept. "Six years as a side-kick". I could see how that might get wearing. And of course, "Buffy, every square inch of your ass really needs to get kicked."

Willow's whole performance; much better than last week, as more emotion entered in. The spectacular way AH delivered all Willow's normal vocabulary, all her usual lines, with a completely different rhythm and intonation; chilling. This IS Willow; it's just EVIL Willow.

Anya's scene in the jail.

The nerd duo's comic relief scenes. Andrew searching for a transmitter implant? Andrew's "Darth Rosenberg and the metachlorions" speech and Xander's response? (And Anya's, "The annoying virgin has a point.") This is right up there with the Best of Buffy.

Andrew finally realizing his real strength; the beta flailing and desperately trying to find another alpha. "I'll follow orders, I promise. I like to take orders. Tell me what to do!"

That weird 30's snake-and-female sculpture on the phallic Satanist plot device that rose up from the cliff in the eleventh hour of script writing. Okay, my mind's divided on the plot device, but the sculpture was just so obscenely weird I wish it had got more air time. It probably actually IS Satanist, and would have fried our eyeballs for sure.

The writing, the pacing (for the most part), the tying-up of most continuity problems. Someone's been paying attention all year, I'm glad to finally see.

Dawn's fight scenes. Dawn insisting that she's old enough to be a player. Good for her. Criminally insane, of course, but good for her.

Buffy and Dawn both finding their inner Spikes. Buffy to Willow: "I don't want to hurt you. Doesn't mean I won't." Dawn to Buffy: "Got your back."

And, okay, Buffy gets to be a hero but ALSO finds out that she can't do everything. Everyone has a role, and it's the non-super-powered carpenter who saves the world. I liked both. That Buffy's a hero, and that love saves the day.

The fact that the last word is Spike's. Even if it's "GRRR AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!"

***

Some less than great moments

Buffy's pseudo-epiphany yet again even another time, oh, yawn, in fact, oh, projectile vomit. "Gosh, I really want to live and be a good big sister to you, Dawn!" And scrape that yucky vampire off my shoes and forget him along with the rest of the year, one gathers. Now let's just climb out of this grave together and go look at the lovely rhododendrons, sign of rebirth and how beautiful the world really is if you only look at it right. Heavy-handed much? Was anyone else begging The Powers That Be to just bring back the Bot next season and spare us any more pointless Slayer navel-gazing?

(Meanwhile, and all right, I liked this juxtaposition, Spike is still under the ground, forgotten. But not forgetting...)

The rather clumsy exposition stuff they forced Giles and Anya to spout. At least there wasn't much of it.

Giles' reaction to Buffy's confession of screwing EVERYTHING up, including, uh, Spike. Maintaining an expression of sympathetic concern for as long as he could, then exploding into helpless laughter. My mind is divided here too. Great scene, ASH was wonderful, the idea was that Giles could draw Buffy out of herself and make even her see the ridiculous side of the year, and heaven knows the Slayer is not generally known for her sense of humour. But I didn't quite believe it.

Buffy asking Dawn for help. A bit heavy-handed.

All of those graves in the last scene, ditto.

Giles saying to Buffy "sometimes the most adult thing to do is ask for help." But Buffy DID ask for help. She begged him not to go and said she couldn't do it alone, and she was right, and he ignored her.

Buffy not saying a word in Spike's defense to Dawn. I suppose I might be inclined to give Buffy points for not accusing him in the first place, except that Buffy was just, as usual, shutting everyone out.

Can't help but notice that my less-than-great moments mostly involve Buffy. So I suppose that, overall, I don't feel that she's entirely redeemed. I wonder if they can? We'll see next year.

***

An appalling realisation

Andrew's actually not bad looking.

***

Final couples

Xander/Willow? Looks like Colleen may have called that one. High time if so! There was more passion there than in his entire relationship with Anya. And it seems that he can love even veiny!Willow, where veiny!Anya gave him the heebyjeebys. And did anyone notice that it didn't cross his mind to wonder if Anya was okay in the jail with Willow? Or that his speech to Willow was very like Anya's most successful version of her wedding vows? "If I'm going to die I want it to be with my best friend"? Hmm.

Giles/Anya? Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all the fan fiction writers who sent that energy into the fictosphere, if they actually run with this one! I certainly saw Anya; not so sure I saw Giles. And let's be fair, ASH is a generation older than EC, and he and Giles are presumably both going back to Bath. Still, I can spend the summer in hope and pleasant fantasy.

Spike/Uberdemon? Entertaining thought. His claw caressed Spike's naked chest ... Spike cried out - was it agony? or ... something else??? Okay, I don't think so either.

Jonathan, Andrew and/or the truck driver? Well, how would YOU read Jonathan reading his choices and sliding closer to Andrew? Glad he's not dead though. Jonathan I mean. I never really warmed up to the other one.

Buffy/Dawn? Ewwww.

***

Line I'm most hoping to hear from Spike next year:

"I know what kind of girl you REALLY are, Slayer. Don't I." Followed by "Vampire here, yeah? What's your excuse?"

Since, after all, it turns out that sleeping with soulless vampires is evil. But Buffy was willing to do it anyway. What does that make her?

Tainted? Not good enough for a vampire with a soul?

Tune in next year -

***

Predictions for next season:

Really none, except that it will be weird and twisted - this is ME after all!

Willow will not be entirely herself, because Giles said so. But her hair is red again, so she won't be the Big Bad.

I don't THINK Spike will be the Big Bad either - he will have a soul now - but wouldn't that be an evil ME twist, to make the ensouled Spike evil and unloving, when the soulless one wasn't? We've certainly seen souled people make evil choices all year long.

And would THAT be what Buffy deserves - to have driven the vampire who loved her back into the darkness? Or is it too late at night and I'm getting paranoid? Not sure. This is ME after all ...

Xander and Anya will not get back together.

There will be major action, not all of it positive, maybe not any of it positive, on the Spike/Buffy axis - all the clues are there that they will be a major focus.

Dawn will be the next Slayer, and Buffy can retire at the end of the year.

Okay, so I won't put money on that last bit.

***

And a final thought to entertain those less than totally devoted to Buffy

Those of us who end the season less than impressed with Buffy after yet another pseudo-epiphany which devoted not a moment of epiphanous attention to Spike can entertain ourselves this summer by thinking "What does Buffy REALLY deserve?"

Because apparently, that's what she's going to get from Spike.

Heh heh.

I don't want him to become the Big Bad, no.

But some heretical bit of me is hoping he'll fall in love with Dawn.

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Klytaimnestra