Sleeper

Review by Heather V. Long

Oh. My. God.

Where do I begin?

How do I maintain objectivity?

In a nutshell, I can't.

Sleeper is the episode every fan dreams of when they have devoted, literally, years of their life to the following of a storyline or a show or a character. It offers up to them the payoff for both good times and bad and leaves you desperately hungry for more.

The episode opens with Buffy's arrival at Xander's apartment and her worry that the vampire in the cemetery told her the truth. The elegance of Buffy's coping with the issue at hand showed the measure of her experience. She did not fly off the handle, she didn't explode, and she didn't just jump to conclusions. She was troubled by the supposition that Spike would, much less could sire another vampire.

She accepts that he is different because of the soul, but it doesn't seem to be the driving force behind her belief that she needs incontrovertible proof that he is the guilty party. Finding the house in shambles and listening to Willow, Dawn and Buffy all reveal their experiences made me want to shout "FINALLY!" at the screen. For years, the biggest weakness the scoobies have demonstrated is their failure to communicate. I can't be happier that they didn't do that this time. Willow explained her experience, she told Buffy about Dawn's and Buffy revealed what the vampire said.

"It's playing with us." Willow advised. But what is it? The nuances in Alyson Hannigan's and Sarah Michelle Gellar's performances were perfect here. The traces of fear that maybe what they heard was the truth, but the doubt that it could be because of who the messengers were and who couldn't feel a moment's aching heart when Dawn asked if just because the messenger was suspect, did that mean the messages lacked truth?

So many layers and shades of gray!! Having Anya come to "baby-sit" Spike was funny and terrifying in the same moment. You could see Anya wrestle with her own mortality and fear. She thinks the worst is possible, because it was possible for herself. Her prowling into his room while he slept and searching for "trophies" was a priceless moment.

Spike awoke and he wanted an explanation. There was no malice in his voice, no anger, merely a deliberate curiosity. I burst out laughing when Anya settled for the "Sex" explanation. She wanted sex and Spike's blink of disbelief followed by chagrin. Marsters' conveyed Spike's need to flee wonderfully.

Favorite line: "Soulless Spike would have had me upside down and halfway to happy land by now!"

Spike eventually left and Anya alerted Buffy who was soon hot on the trail. She needed to witness his fall from grace with her own eyes. Unfortunately heavy crowds and an interfering force kept her from seeing Spike bite the woman in the alley and the image of Buffy, which encouraged him. As the moment passed, Spike fled in horror, his mouth smeared by blood.

The heart-pounding moments continued as Willow discovered the number of missing people, which were mounting, and Buffy confronted Spike over the issue. Spike couldn't believe that Buffy would believe this of him. To her credit, she didn't defend it and she didn't back down. She has to know. She has to know one way or another, some part of her doesn't believe he is capable, but without incontrovertible proof, she can't believe him entirely either.

The tension continues to draw out as Spike decks Xander, feels the pain of the chip and goes out to prove it to himself that he isn't capable. Memory flashes bother him as he stalks into the Bronze and inquires about a woman he had drinks with. Finally, alone, morose and wrestling with his own demons, Spike sits far above the dancing crowd and stares at them, searching. A woman who comes on heavy joins him, but he puts her off.

I jumped, literally, when she went into game face and felt sympathy for the look on Spike's face. She indicated that she knew him. She told him that he bit her. She was a vampire and she seemed proof that maybe he really was doing these hideous things. He struck out at a nicely choreographed fight scene ensued that ended with the chick's dusting. I loved how well they used uncertainty in Spike's fighting style that didn't exist before. He's always been a pretty confident brawler, but new souled Spike isn't!

The next moment, again offered a payoff in spades: Spike called Buffy. He was remembering and he was remembering horrible things. He told her immediately and together they traveled to a house whose address Spike remembered. An image of himself appeared and chided him for his jumping the gun. Spike regarded it with a mixture of fear, torment and disgust. He kept telling himself he couldn't hear it.

Buffy followed him into the basement with her own measure of trepidation. Meanwhile we have the image of Spike tormenting him as Spike tries desperately to ignore him. Spike confesses that he is remembering, he did it - he thinks. He killed the owner of the house. He killed those other women. The images are coming fast and furious now - but he doesn't know how - he killed them.

Then our friendly neighborhood image starts to sing and like someone flipping a switch, Spike goes into game face and attacks Buffy. She fends him off easily enough, but she doesn't want to fight him. She keeps telling him to fight it.

"And now it gets interesting . . ." is the quote as all the newly sired vamps begin to rise from the dirt. Buffy is stunned to see them, she fights, but starts to get overwhelmed. The image encourages Spike to do it - to bite her. I don't think the intention was to kill Buffy, but to turn her. Spike approaches, he's slow, stalking and every ounce the predator. His mouth dips to her arm. Buffy could have stopped him, there's no doubt in my mind that she couldn't have kicked the snot out of him, but she waited.

She trusted.

His mouth hovered over her injured arm, the scent of the blood filling his nostrils and that first, brief taste before the images flooded back and Spike rocked back physically. Horror, cold and chilling filled him as he saw himself murdering person after person, burying them, whistling. He flung himself away from Buffy, shocked and horrified.

Buffy made short work of the vamps and even pulled one out of the dirt to dust off. Then she approached Spike slowly and knelt down next to his quivering, forlorn figure. He sucked it up though and turned to face her, pulling his shirt back. All he asked is that she makes it fast.

"No." She told him and let the stake fall from her fingers.

"No, I need that!" He hates himself for what he's done.

Buffy realizes something is there, taunting Spike and Spike is fighting it. And for one of the final, lovely payoffs. Buffy tells him that something is playing with them, all of them. You can see it on her face, even though she admits it later to the others. It's been playing Spike for months; he was the most vulnerable to it.

"Why is it doing this to me?"

"I don't know."

"Help me?"

"I'll help you."

THANK YOU!!

Kudos to the writers, kudos to the actors and kudos to Joss Whedon because the story has always been he doesn't tell us the story we want to hear, but the story we need to hear. Well, he was dead on here. I needed to hear this story. Eight episodes into the season, I can honestly say that eight of my top ten Buffy episodes all come from Season 7!

Bring on the hurt!

Bring on the pain!

And lest I forget, who didn't scream when the ending featured Giles kneeling over a nearly dead man we saw attacked in the beginning as the shadowy robed figure lifted an axe behind him. We heard the whistle of the axe through the air and then boom, black!

Rating:

SIX stars out of Five. Probably one of the most exceptional episodes ever. The only thing lacking was an immediate follow-up of the next episode and a seven-day waiting period to get to it!

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Heather Long