All The Way

by Jerry

Steve DeKnight's 'All the Way' is the sixth episode of season 6. It shifts for the moment away from the intense focus on Buffy from recent episodes, and instead takes a look at Dawn. It turns out Buffy has not cornered the family market on troubles.

We open in an unusually crowded Magic Box, on Halloween. Xander is in pirate regalia, hamming it up to a degree that has an exasperated Giles wishing he would stumble into 'an alternate reality inhabited by a 50 foot Giles who crushes annoying TV pirates'. Willow is alternately badgering customers over their politically incorrect view of witches, and cooing over a cute little girl in an equally stereotypical witch costume. Anya's on rollerskates, wearing a 'Charlie's Angel's' costume much appreciated by this reviewer. Dawn is not dressed up, because, of course, she thinks she's too grown up for Halloween. She's also taking advantage of the opportunity to steal stuff when no one's paying attention (or because no one's paying attention).

Despite her misadventures in the previous episode, Buffy is helping out at the Magic Box for the day. Venturing into the basement for supplies, she bumps into Spike, who's entered through the tunnels (raising the question of why he ever comes in the front door during daylight, but we won't dwell on that). He's there to pilfer a handful of burba weed, because, you know, he's EEEEVIL. The two of them exchange a bit of double-entendre-laden banter, and for the first time, it's pretty clear that Buffy is both attracted to Spike and uncomfortable with that possibility. Spike asks her if she wants to patrol, but she can't because she's busy with the shop. Being EEEEVIL, of course, Spike has other ways to spend his time, so he runs home to watch the Great Pumpkin. Just before the credits, we see a strange old man, walking home with a bag of groceries, humming 'Pop goes the weasel'. He enters his home, looks out the window at the young trick-or-treaters, brandishes a knife, and continues humming....

Later that evening, it's closing time at the Magic Box, and the gang is wiped out by a hard day's retailing, excect for Anya, who's buoyantly doing the Dance of Capitalist Superiority as she closes out the register. Watching her frolic, Xander finally decides to take the leap, and announces their engagement, to the general amazement of pretty much everyone (including a not-particularly-enthused Willow). Anya's happy enough to throw money around. I take it that's pretty happy.

Party time at Casa Summers. Giles pushing libations of some unspecified nature. Anya gushing, and generally being Anya, and, I might add, still wearing those shorts. Willow magically redecorating, earning an uneasy eye from both Giles and Tara. Willow and Tara have an argument about the magic, showcasing their differences. Tara is philosophically grounded, but Willow figures if she can, she should. Dawn doesn't like seeing Will and Tara fight, and she wants to go out. Buffy is a highly reluctant parent, and tries to pawn off on Giles the job of saying no to Dawn. When he won't let her, she gives in and lets Dawn go. Giles takes additional mental notes.

Now we are into Dawn's adventure, as she meets up with her friend Janice and a couple of older-looking, cool-seeming guys. We've seen Dawn agitate to be treated like an adult, but she's still young for her age, and pretty needy, and that's a bad mix. Here, she's more than willing to go along with some fairly delinquent behavior, although she seems to know it's not so good, in order to earn her cool credentials. Not too wise, but still quite fifteen.

Back to Revelo Drive, and Giles is giving the Xanman a pep talk. Of sorts. Basically, he's turning the screws, with much 'the rest of your life' -type talk. It's pretty funny, but Xander isn't amused.

Dawn & Co are at the home of the Creepy Old Man. Dawn accepts the challenge of smashing his Jack O'Lantern, but is surprised by the Old Guy himself, who invites everyone in. He turns out to be a toy maker with a mysterious, tragic, conveniently unspecified past. Dawn's date (Justin) accompanies him into the kitchen, where a killing takes place. It turns out the Old Guy was a red herring, and Justin is a vampire! Are you shocked? I didn't think so.

Anya is gushing about her bright future with Xander, who's quite panicky. Anya's thoughts about how perfect her life is trouble Buffy with the contrast. She's already met the guy she thought she was supposed to be with, and it didn't exactly work out. Might be a good time to patrol with Spike. Although she mostly wanders the streets, gazing longingly at the happier people, which is most of them. Meanwhile, Giles finds out that Dawn isn't where she's supposed to be. Scooby search parties are assigned.

Dawn is going off about her delinquency. Apparently, she hasn't paid for lipstick since forever (or maybe since 'Forever'). Time for a bit of 'Riding in Cars With Vamprires'. We get to see Dawn's first kiss, with all the attendant awkwardness and insecurity. Dawn's pushing herself to be grown-up, but she isn't ready for it. Of course, she may be a mystical ball of energy, but her problems aren't really that unusual.

Willow and Tara are searching the Bronze. Willow has a neat plan for finding Dawn. It involves shifting everyone but Dawn into a parallel universe for a moment. Since Willow's spells never, ever backfire, there's no downside to that, right? Tara's objections highlight Willow's unattractive, petulantly childish quality - one we've seen before and will again.

Buffy's in a certain crypt, looking for Spike to help with some crisis. I'm not sure what crisis, since she doesn't yet know about Dawn. Spike does, having talked to Giles ('kids these days'). On to the evil fighting!

We get a rare cameo by Action!Giles, who rescues Janice and kills her date. He finds Dawn, but winds up surrounded by vampires. Fortunately, Spike and Buffy soon show up. Of course, Spike is EEEVIL, so his presence shouldn't really be much help. But I digress.

Meanwhile, Dawn has discovered that Justin is a vampire, but he still comes on to her. She's special, not like other girls, he tells her. Given her supernatural origins, and her friendship with Spike, it's not surprising she might be amenable to not hating vampires, I suppose. Sadly for Justin, he tells Dawn that what's special about her is that she's the Slayer's sister. Not so good with the 'telling a girl what she wants to hear'.

Spike is indignant about vampires who go out on Halloween. 'We're rebels', he's told.
'I'm a rebel, you're an idiot', he responds. Buffy, Giles, and Spike make with the kicking, and the shooting with arrows, and the beheading with car doors. Fine family entertainment.

Justin makes a last play for Dawn. Insert sharp piece of wood. Dusty ending.

And so we get our end scene. Anya wants male strippers (and she's still wearing those shorts). Spike is retiring to the crypt to sit out Halloween, with a friendly 'Good fight' from Buffy. Buffy is pawning off on Giles the task of disciplining Dawn. And most ominously, Willow is casting a spell of forgetfulness on Tara to smooth over their fight.

'All the Way' is a bridge episode. It moves along the relationships between Buffy and Spike, Xander and Anya, and Willow and Tara, as well as providing reasons why Giles might feel compelled to leave Sunnydale in episodes to come. On those counts, it's pretty successful. As an exploration of where Dawn is at 15, torn between being a needy child who just lost her mother and had her world turned upside-down, and being a young woman striving to be treated as an equal by the older people around her, it is also fairly successful. On the other hand, the episode never builds up much suspense, the Creepy Old Guy really doesn't seem that menacing, and the fact that Dawn's date is a vampire isn't exactly a shocker. All in all, an unobjectionable, unremarkable, solid episode.

-- Jerry

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