BtVS Episode Review: Lovers Walk
The short? Spike coming back to town? Oh, you know this episode is gonna be fun. Spike's character is the perfect catalyst for the conflict in this episode, and it sets up his own character well for his return in S4. Full review below the cut.
Characters:
Buffy Angel Xander Willow Giles Cordelia Oz Spike
Plot
Bad Guy
Arc
Overall (7/10)
Best Moment
Buffy:
Buffy apparently did really well on the SATs. This is actually not too surprising. Regardless of what her schoolwork shows, we know that Buffy is smart. She wouldn't have survived this long as the Slayer if she weren't.
Of course, this is also used to emphasize the fact that she has a limited future as the Slayer. With her test scores, she has her pick of colleges. But her Slayer duties will keep her close to the Hellmouth. However, for now, she's being encouraged to look elsewhere as Faith can take over for her. Later on this season, after Faith goes bad, this won't be the case.
And Buffy is still sticking by Angel. Even with Giles and her mom urging her to leave town, she wants to stay close to Angel. Even though she won't admit it. Again, we're seeing the conflict between what her head is telling her she should want and what her heart truly wants.
It isn't until Spike breezes into the scene that she is finally called on this conflict. He adeptly informs her that love isn't about brains, but about blood.
Let's recall that the last time Buffy saw Spike, he was leaving her to die at the hands of an unsouled Angel (And walking out on their agreement that he help take down Angel). So she's, understandably, not happy to see him. But she does listen to what he says and takes it to heart.
After he leaves, she calls things off with Angel. They both know that they're not friends, and she takes the first step in ending it.
Angel:
Angel is going through the same head/heart conflict that Buffy is. But, by the end, he's a little more reluctant to let go. After all, Buffy still has friends for support. Angel, really, has nobody except for Buffy. It's expected that he wouldn't want to let her go so easily.
And now he has something new to mope about.
Now what was he doing at Buffy's house when he ran across Spike? Was he going to approach her mother to try to set things right? Or was he pulling his stalking-guy routine?
And Angel comes across as a little cruel when he points out Dru's infidelity to Spike. Especially considering that it was...well...Angel that Dru was banging last year. I don't blame Spike for being mad at him.
Xander:
And we finally have the conclusion of the illicit Willow/Xander liaison. It ends tragically, of course.
It's interesting that Xander is so deadset against the spell. We see this echoed in the future when Xander calls Willow on her use of magic. For now, though, he's just upset that she was casting the spell on him without his knowledge.
They end up in a life or death situation and make with the smoochies. Once Cordy gets injured, Xander immediately goes into contrite mode.
Willow:
This is actually an important episode for Willow. In it we see the first of many, many times that Willow will turn to magic to try to solve social problems.
Instead of dealing with her tawdry teen hormones the old-fashioned way, Willow decides to use a spell. This actually isn't too surprising. For a social geek like Willow, she just doesn't have the resources to cope with complex social situations. So she resorts to the easiest method, which happens to be magic. We'll see this time and time (and time) again in the future.
In this case, she not only resorts to a spell, but she is planning to do so without telling Xander. She has little regard for the other people who will be affected by her spells. She doesn't understand that other people may not want a magical solution. She only focuses on her own needs.
This plan, of course, backfires when Spike sees her in the magic shop and decides to put her to use. She has a cute scene with Spike in the factory where she gets to face him down, showing some real guts in doing so.
In the end, though, she gives in to the illicit smoochies. We see her prepared to beg Oz for forgiveness.
Giles:
Giles is not around for most of the episode as he leaves on a retreat. A Watcher's retreat? Like the type he was not invited to in Faith, Hope, and Trick?
Anyway, we do get him encouraging Buffy to go away to college, which is notable in that we, again, see him taking a parental role over a mentor role. The Giles of old would have insisted that her Slaying duties took priority. But current!Giles cares about Buffy as a young woman and wants her to get a good education.
Cordelia:
At the beginning, we get a reminder of Cordelia's real affection for Xander. She has photos of him in her locker, which is saying a lot considering her social status and his social status as a geek. She's willing to put that aside to go out with him.
Thus, she's probably the most devastated by what she sees at the end. Indeed, her emotional wound is very literally represented by the physical wound she earns while rushing out of the factory. At the end, she refuses to see Xander. This is leading up to the events of The Wish in the next episode.
Oz:
Much like Cordelia, we get an affirmation of Oz's affection for Willow at the beginning. Then, at the end, we see him left in shambles by what he saw.
It's interesting that Oz was able to smell Willow. This is the first instance we see of Oz's werewolf traits being noticeable while he's not in wolf-mode. This will be important in S4's Wild at Heart.
Spike:
Spike is used as a catalyst for the breaking up of three different relationships on the show. Spike, being the romantic sort, is the perfect character to use in this role.
Let's talk about Drusilla's dumping of him, first, though. He spends the entire episode in a maudlin drunkenness. And it's no wonder. We see in S5's Fool for Love that Drusilla did rescue him from his pathetic life as a human and gave him new form as a vampire. He spent a century at her side. It's understandable that he'd by devastated by her leaving him.
However, it's said in this episode that she left him because she said he'd gone "soft" as a result of the truce with the Slayer. With this in mind, Spike sets off at the end prepared to torture her to prove that he's still the bad-ass she loves. We find out, again, in Fool for Love that she actually left him because she sensed his obsession with the Slayer and knew that he would fall in love with her.
It's no wonder, then, that he reappears in S4 without Dru as his plan to torture her clearly didn't work.
Spike shows us in this episode that he is ruled by love. Without Drusilla, he's literally a nothing. He's barely even threatening in this episode, as he seems to want to just sit down and talk to somebody about what he's feeling. He confides in Willow. Then later, he sits down for a civil conversation with Joyce about it.
Stop a moment on the Joyce thing. We find out later on (It's hinted at in Fool for Love and finally confirmed in S7's Lies My Parents Told Me) that Spike was something of a "momma's boy" when he was a human. I imagine he sat down with Joyce as he saw her as something of a maternal substitute at the moment. She was willing to listen to him and offer comfort, which is really what he was wanting.
We'll also see in S6 numerous examples of Spike's desire to "talk things out". He's a rare case of a man who's not afraid to talk about feelings and relationships. Indeed, he seems to enjoy and need to talk about that stuff.
In the end, Spike is the only one who winds up happy. Of course, we know he'll fail once he gets to Drusilla. But he believes he has a working plan, so he leaves town, singing off-key in joy.
Plot:
The plot's not really too important. Basically, Spike shows up and ruins everybody's lives.
There are some issues I have. Willow tells Spike in the factory that she needs more supplies that she left elsewhere. But wasn't she doing a love spell (or a de-lusting which uses similar ingredients) when Spike grabbed her? Surely they'd have everything. And why does Spike go to Buffy's house? We see later that he takes Angel and Buffy to the magic shop, so it wasn't to get the missing ingredients. He must have gone for the sole purpose of seeing Joyce. Or maybe he was going to try to see Buffy.
Either one are possibilities, but the fact that it's never explained is a weakness. Regardless the confrontation between Angel and Spike in Buffy's house is well-worth the uncertainty.
Bad Guy:
Spike all the way. He plays a comedic villain in this episode, though.
Arc:
Not an arc episode. It does advance the relationships of all of our characters, though. And we do get a scene with the Mayor, just to show how in touch the guy is with what's going on in Sunnydale.
Overall:
This episode finally has the conclusion of the Willow/Xander thing. Actually, this episode has a lot of the relationships coming to a head. It does so through the use of Spike, and it does so quite well. There are some minor plot issues, but it's a satisfying conclusion to the relationship problems that had been developing for the past several episodes.
Special performance award goes to James Marsters for his somewhat painful-looking limbo backbend over the Summers' kitchen island.
7 out of 10.
( About my scoring system)
Best Moment:
Spike's "love's bitch" speech. It starts the long tradition of Spike seeing right through Buffy and telling her exactly what she doesn't want to hear but needs to hear anyway. Additionally, he perfectly captures the Buffy/Angel relationship at this point, and, in doing so, provides wonderful insight into his own character that will develop in later seasons.