Two to Go / Grave

<Kris staggers to her Comfy Chair, collapses into it, and cracks open a fresh Diet Coke...>

Wow. This is going to be a long one, gang... two eps in one review. Let's get to it!

For an two hour Buffy-fest that was surprisingly light on the action for a season finale... this actually seemed to move along pretty quickly. Of course, the fact that I was eagerly waiting to see any Spike footage probably made it go that much faster... <g>

I"m a bit brain-fried after watching all of this... so let's just skip right to the Yays and Yucks, shall we?

Yay: Giles!!!! Dear Hubby and I were practically high-fiving when we saw him standing in that doorway, with a bit o' the Ripper attitude, to boot... "Giles is back, and Willow's gonna be in trouble..."

<ahem>

Seriously - it was *so* nice to finally have Giles back, if only to provide that extra (adult) insight that we've been missing so much this season. For all of Evil!Willow's rantings about how he had deluded himself into thinking that his presence in Sunnydale was necessary, we all know that the Scooby Gang really wasn't ready for him to leave... and it was a welcome sight to see him back.

Another Yay! goes to Giles' reaction to Buffy's litany of Things-Which-Just-Haven't-Been-Right-Since-You've-Gone... I was just waiting for him to fly off the handle over the whole Buffy sleeping with Spike thing... (hello - I must be reading too much fanfic)... seeing him burst into laughter just made my night. And seeing Buffy finally have some *happy* emotions for the first time in so long was incredibly refreshing.

Yuck: Veiny!Willow. Just not the fashion statement I would personally want to make, thank you very much...

Yay: Anya finally standing up for herself to Xander! Wahooooo!!!! Yes, she has moments which are incredibly annoying to me... but I loved how she finally told him that even though she might hate him, she wasn't going to hurt him directly (or arrange to have it done). Anya was really on top of her game tonight... and without going Veiny once... (kinda funny, when you think about it... Sweet, innocent Willow goes all Veiny, but the Vengeance Demon doesn't... even when she's teleporting all over the place.). I did love seeing the Giles/Anya interaction... perhaps there really was something there in Tabula Rasa after all... And, I gotta admit... the look on the guard's face when Anya attempted to convince him to let Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum go by teleporting into his personal space was just something to behold...

Yuck: Xander being his usual oafish self (for this season, anyhow)... until the very end of the two hours. I still think he was a bit of a jerk for telling Dawn that Spike attempted to rape Buffy on a lot of levels... the main one being that *it wasn't his place to tell her.* Considering that Buffy, for whatever reason, doesn't seem to be making as big of a deal over what happened as Xander is (let alone many of us)... it still makes me feel funny. I know, I know - it was a plot point to get Dawn to give up her unconditional Spike worship... but I don't have to like it. I know that Xander doesn't like being compared unfavorably to anyone of the demon-kind (whether it be Angel or Spike), but still...

Yay: Dawn finally telling Xander to quit feeling sorry for himself! Wahoo! Of course, I also loved that Dawn started off with "If Spike were here, he'd..." But - we all know how that ultimately ended... <sigh>

Yuck: The beetles/scarabs. Bleh. Uck.

Yay: There wasn't much that Dark!Willow said that I agreed with... but I was practically standing in my Comfy Chair and cheering her on when she was crawling all over Dawn's case for being such a whiny brat this year. Hooray! Not that the approach was the best... but the message was true, and it really did need to be said.

Yuck: Seeing Rack in all of his glory just really made me squirm... say what you will about the character, but Jeff Kober pulled off Slimy Guy incredibly well. And the look on his face when Dark!Willow started sucking all of his energy... it was priceless. And, I've got to say, it was not a plot point that I (or Dear Hubby) expected.

Yay: Seeing Vintage Spike in the fight scenes in the caves... it was nice to see him in action again.

Something that made me wonder, though... was "Local Boy" human? If he was, then how was Spike able to fight him? Was the chip gone already, and Spike just didn't realize it? Or was Local Boy something-other-than-human? Hmmmm...

Yuck: Did I mention the beetles/scarabs? <shudder>

Okay... time to talk about the characters.

Since Willow - or the Dark-Witch-Formerly-Known-As-Willow ("Don't call me that!") was the focus of so much of the ep... let's start with her. (I promise, I'll get to Spike...) We've all known that we were heading to something like this when the Addiction storyline first appeared this winter, but that didn't make it any less disturbing for me. The writers, for all of their foibles, did do a good job of tying the story back to things we've seen happen to her character over the past six years. When she spouts off about how she's been a sidekick for all that time, you just *know* that at some level, that really does bother her - that her identity is completely wrapped up in Buffy, even though Good!Willow would probably never admit it to Buffy's face... I'm not going to waste all kinds of space going into great detail about how Nerdy!Willow turned into Super-Bitca-Willow... but suffice it to say that Anya was right earlier in the season: "You have to watch out for the quiet ones."

So... where does Willow go from here? Buffy said at one point early in the ep tonight that it wasn't Willow they were dealing with anymore... but was it? It seems to me that the Dark Powers Willow took into herself only amplified the dark parts of her personality... whereas Buffy seems to see it as Demonic possession. I'll be interested to see where they take this next season... especially with all of the parallels that we kept seeing between Willow and Spike in these two hours. Does "Hello, Cutie..." ring a bell?

And then, we have Spike. The former nerd (although he'd never admit it), who turned into the self-professed "Big Bad," spends his time on-screen furiously battling to regain what he thinks he has lost: his ability to be the Big Bad once again. He gets beaten down numerous times, only to pick himself back up again... he just won't quit. And, I've got to admit... I'm going to have to watch the ending scene again... but Spike didn't seem like his *evil* self here... he sounded painfully resolute.

Now, I'm willing to give the guy some points... after all, he's been through some pretty nasty experiences in the past few hours...

Beetles/Scarabs. <shudder>

And so I can certainly understand why the man might be a bit cranky... I just didn't get the same feeling from listening to him here that I did when he was promising Buffy that he would protect Dawn until the end of the world. Spike is hurting - on all levels - and he really does want to return to the life he had when it was all just so easy.

And that's really the crux of this episode, and this year, isn't it? You can't go back - you can only move forward. Magic has consequences - always. Grow up, already! All of these themes resonated throughout this episode tonight. Giles can't go back in time to keep himself from leaving... Dawn needs to get over the whiny teenager bit already... Xander needs to quit feeling sorry for himself and *do* something... Willow and Spike both show the consequences of invoking magicks that they don't entirely understand (although the end results certainly seem to be different)... Buffy needs to move forward with her life, rather than feeling like she left part of herself in her grave. We all have parts of our lives that are better than others, and it's the hope that things are *going to get better* that keeps us going in the not-so-good parts... and finally, at the end of the ep, I felt like Buffy has that hope again.

And then, there's Spike. Just what is in store for our favorite vampire? A soul, obviously... (I only made Dear Hubby rewind that about five times, because I couldn't believe my ears)... but what next? We kept hearing all night about how Willow wasn't herself anymore, so we're clearly being set up for something along that line for next year... but what will happen to Spike?

Here's my little conjecture for the evening... I really don't think that Spike was *conciously* asking for his soul back, even though we know that he really wants to be Alive. We all know what he thinks of Angel - he's the Poofter. But just as Willow was voicing all of the hidden thoughts that have been rolling around in her subconcious for so long tonight (the comments about Buffy being a SuperBit*h... the whole power diatribe...) - we've known ever since Tabula Rasa that Spike, at heart, is truly a *good* guy. He might be a bit misguided at times, but his true nature is to try to do the right thing - at least for the people he loves. Remember his speech when he thought he was Randy? "I must be a noble vampire..."

Spike has spent a lot of time this year externalizing his feelings about wanting to be *alive* again into Hating The Chip. If Spike feels something, it must be The Chip's fault. If Spike does something that Eeeeeee-vil guys aren't supposed to do... it must be because of The Chip. So... after the events in "Seeing Red," I was completely able to understand why he felt that he needed to get The Chip out - he saw it as being the thing that's been holding him back. And, since everyone has been telling him that he's lower than dirt, it didn't surprise me that his reaction was to lash out and announce that he wanted to get his revenge - to give them what, in his mind, they deserved: the return of the Big Bad.

But it sure doesn't look like that's what's going to happen, is it? Spike asked for Lurky to "return him to what he was"... so that "Buffy can get what she deserves." And Lurky proves that You Can't Go Back - but you *can* evolve. Spike's going though some fundamental changes - and it sounds like it's not a pleasant experience. JM's howl of pain at the end was absolutely bone-chilling... and it affected me a lot more than seeing Willow sobbing in Xander's arms.

(Then again, I'm a Spike-aholic. So sue me).

Quick thoughts to end this up...

- Jonathan holding the sword to Andrew's throat - Go Jonathan!

- Giles "drugging" the addict with "Doping" magic... as convuluted as it sounded, I liked it. It was devious... and it showed, in a way, that good can still overcome evil - it just can be tricky at times to get the job done.

- Beetles/Scarabs. Yuck. Again.

- "Enough with the Sappy!" <----- Dear Hubby, watching the Willow/Xander "broken crayon" scene.

- Gotta give Giles points for trying to bring what Tara would have wanted into the fracas... even if it only incited Willow even further (which, of course, you knew it would...)

- For all you Riley dislikers - did you like that there wasn't any mention of Riley in Buffy's recap of All-Things-Season-Six? I thought you would.

- Buffy - has issues. Spike - has issues (oh boy, does he have issues now...). Willow - has issues. Dawn - has issues. Anya - definite issues. Xander - has issues. Oh, boy...

- I did like seeing Buffy finally start to trust Dawn to handle herself - even if it took them essentially being in a locked room to do it. And as for why Buffy couldn't get out of the hole - hey, at least we saw her *try*... that didn't really bother me, to tell you the truth.

- See Buffy use her superpowers... She's faster than a speeding fireball, and can jump walls in single bound...

- Will Xander's insurance company declare his car to be a total loss?

- Will Jonathan and/or Andrew be the trucker's Butt Monkey? Never mind... I really don't want to know. (And from the looks of it... neither does Jonathan).

- I still find it interesting that Buffy doesn't seem to be that horrified over what has gone on between herself and Spike... but Dawn and Xander are enraged (granted, Dawn is seeing things from Xander's perspective, since he's the one that told her). What will that mean for next year?

- Quote from the Dear Hubby: "Maybe they'll have a show called "Spike" now. And he'll bring Anya, and..."

- Giles' entrance. You just can't beat it.

- So, Spike touched the fire, and got burned when he was fighting the demon... how interesting. He truly was at the point of no return there, wasn't he?

And last, but not least...

Yet another two episodes with Shirtless!Spike. Gotta love it.

That's all for now... this season's been a trip to the Dark Side... but if anything, hopefully it will make us appreciate the lighter moments that much more. I appreciate the journey Joss & Co. was trying to take us on - even if it wasn't always the most pleasant experience - but they certainly did a great job of keeping me hooked on the show... and to quote the last line of OMWF:

"Where do we go... from.... here?"

Hugs to all,

---

Kris