Klytaimnestra's Review of "Same Time Same Place"

by Klytaimnestra

I managed to tape the wrong channel until right before the scene where Willow & Buffy & Xander all go to ask Spike's help in the basement. I gather that this is the first scene Spike shows up in anyway. I don't know, however, if anything happened in the previous scenes of any importance.

Based on the 45 minutes I saw:

a) Anya may be on a redemptionist path after all; I had my doubts, but she's really not enjoying her old gig, is she.

b) I don't think we're seeing Dawn the Vampire Slayer in Training. Dawn the Watcher in Training, however, is a distinct possibility. I thought she was great; most enjoyable part of the whole episode. And very funny.

c) Speaking of metaphors that actually worked, seeing Willow drifting through the high school halls, a frightened ghost, correctly certain that no one is noticing her, in an obvious reprise of her freshman year, actually gave me a whole lot of sympathy for her. But I was still glad to see her being flayed by the really creepy Monster of the Week; since that's the only payback she's ever going to have to cough up. That and her temporary fear that her friends might desert her; but, gee, they didn't after all, because hey, she's a fellow Scoobie, so even though she tried to kill them all and destroy the world besides she gets a free pass into Buffy's house as soon as her token suffering is over.

d) Spike, on the other hand, endures horrific trials, gets a soul, changes his entire bloody nature and is presently enduring constant torment for the sake of a heartless little trollop he's worth ten of, and what does he get? "Gee, you haven't seen me since the church last week because you kind of scared me." But we need your help now so come right along while we mock you to your face and behind your back and don't bother to say thank you. We'll discard you later, because souled, unsouled, you're just muscle, flesh, to the Slayer and her friends. So trot on back to your basement, all alone, to be ignored until next time we need a little demon help. Willow has friends. Spike has users.

Flashback, anyone? A flashback I definitely, monstrously did not need.

e) And as for the last scene. Gee, Buffy's all human around her world-destroying friend. But her ability to forgive Willow is not the one that's going to redeem the little bitca.

Anya may be on a redemptionist curve; maybe Willow too. Spike, of course, no question.

But Buffy? I don't see any sign of redemption in her arc yet.

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Klytaimnestra