Category Archives: Buffy/Angel

It still seems odd that Buffy and Angel appear to be leading up to two completely separate but both major apocalypses. We’re just a few episodes from the end of each season, and it looks like there’s no connection between the First Evil in Sunnydale and the full-up Biblical apocalypse in LA.

Or perhaps the First is doing its work to keep the slayers out of the way of the “real” apocalypse.

Then there’s the question of just who was in on this plot to bring “Jasmine” into the world. It’s implied by Skip that there was a conspiracy to set up the conditions for her arrival… but what if she is one of the Powers That Be? What if, rather than standing for good as we’ve always thought, they stand only for themselves, and pretending to be the good guys was the best way to manipulate Angel and company into doing what they needed?

Consider: the first indication of their existence came in the same 3rd-season episode of Buffy that introduced the First. They weren’t named, but it was made clear that someone had deliberately brought Angel back from the hell-dimension Buffy sent him to, and once Angel left for LA the “who” became clear. On the other hand, the Powers and First were working against each other in that episode – or at least they appeared to be.

And then there’s the question of Fred, whose trip to Pylea was mentioned by Skip as part of the plan, but who appears to have had no significant role in bringing Jasmine here. What if she was covertly added to the mix by another faction as the key to defeating her? Do the Powers even have factions?

Questions that need answers…

Okay, no Slayer army yet, but I have yet to see what happens on the Buffy that showed while we were elsewhere. And Willow under a different writer is sort of like Willow on speed.

And where the hell is Cordy getting her clothes? Evil Pregnant Sluts ‘R’ Us?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Nice coat. Where’d you get it?
SPIKE: Your mama.

Have you ever realized that an elegant solution to an age-old question was sitting right in front of you? Or rather, had just left town for an undisclosed reason? My point: I think I know how the proverbial “Slayer army” can come into being.

Here’s the problem: Buffy is, for all intents and purposes, the Slayer, but as we’ve seen, when she dies, no new Slayer gets called. The line goes through Faith, who as far as we know is currently in jail. So, barring prison riots, getting any new Slayers by killing off Faith seems problematic at best, especially when you take into account that she’s slated to appear on both shows sometime this season. Doing what some people have suggested is possible, and creating a “Slayer army” by deliberately flatlining and then reviving Faith and each subsequently called Slayer, seems more plausible at this juncture than ever before, given the crowd of potentials hanging out in Sunnydale. But how to accomplish this?

Enter Gwen. We’ve seen her shock Gunn to death and then back to life, and she’s not contractually bound to appear on only one of the two shows. It wouldn’t take much for her to show up, not know anything about Faith, and kill her, then revive her when someone in the hotel goes berserk upon walking in a few seconds later. (Or any other scenario you can come up with, it doesn’t really matter.) Then you get a phone call from Sunnydale saying that one of the potentials just über-whupped a teammate in a practice session, and does Angel know anything? and Faith and Gwen eventually hightail it off to the Summers residence. Presto: Slayer army.

But how to get Faith out of jail? That one’s easy. L.A. has descended into eternal darkness, and vampire armies are looking for recruits. What better place to find people already turned to the dark side than a prison? And imagine their surprise when one of their candidates starts slaying her way out. Now there’s a teaser sequence I’d like to see.

Yay me. Looks like the writing-stuff-down-so-I-can-prove-I-said-it purpose of this board is coming into play sooner and more effectively than I’d thought. Not that I like the way the writers brought it about, but I’m beginning to think that to write on one of Joss’s shows, you have to take an Emotional (Manipulation) Intelligence Test. Saying any more in this vein would constitute spoilage, so I’ll just insert my little tag…. Continue reading →

I seem to be having a great deal of trouble with my Buffy. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that my life from 8:15 to 5ish every day is nothing but a collection of deadlines, making them the last thing I want to face when I’ve just vegged out for an hour having my emotions…..manipulated. Perhaps it’s just that I feel obligated to come up with some deep insight rather than just saying “It was cool” (something that gets me finger-tied when reviewing fic as well). Whatever the reason, it’s getting quite annoying to me, and I hope those of you waiting for stuff aren’t too annoyed with me. What I think should work is combining this week and next week for each series, since neither one was particularly brain-grabby for me this week. Except that making the Home Improvement big brother evil was freaky, we think he’s going to become a demon now, and I want to see Gwen (the Gambit in Rogue’s clothing) again.

Feel free to ramble at me. I’ll be grateful.

It occurred to me partway through the final segment of this week’s Buffy that perhaps, for a watchers’ council planning to have dinner during the first segment of the episode, linguini hadn’t been the best menu choice.

Eeeyugh.

Continue reading →

Don’t you just love having your head messed with? And isn’t Joss great at it? Of course, if you’re a return viewer, you know this by now and it’s probably part of the reason you tune in. The season premiere, though, didn’t have a lot of time or latitude to do much but mess with our heads, since it had so many loose ends to tie up. Not a whole lot of hints about the rest of the season, so far as I could see, but still good. What we’ve got here is a bunch of people who are doing things, but generally either being very cagey about their motives or not giving a clue as to whether they have any. In a writing class, this would be unforgivable. On TV, it’s suspense. Continue reading →

In case you’re wondering, yes, I am planning to make this a weekly column of sorts. And it’s been brought to my attention that maybe I should mark it as containing spoilers, seeing as how some people in some other places might not have seen the episode in question yet, or might have missed it. I understand this. Spoiler warnings will now be conveniently placed before the text of my rambling. Voilá.

I’m beginning to see a pattern here with the chased young things beginning episodes. And I and many others think they’re supposed to be potential Slayers–”Lola” here was a pretty good fighter, the other was in extremely good shape, and Lola actually managed to communicate something, dreamstyle. My first guess as to what was sufficiently beneath and devouring to fit the description was, simply, the Hellmouth. Continue reading →