55 Days of BtVS: Day 13
Day 13: Favourite Episode
OH NO I have not been looking forward to this one. It’s pretty much too hard to choose buuuuuuuuut… Okay, this is not the episode I think is technically the best, or sums up the show the best, has the best acting, or showcases all the characters, but the one I just love and could watch again and again is Fool For Love.
I was talking a while back with rahirah, who’s been in the fandom since before FFL aired, and apparently there were a lot of theories at the time about what kind of human Spike was before he was turned, but no one really got it right. That’s the genius of the writing staff right there. No one expected what we got, not even JM (who apparently freaked out over it because it cut a bit too close to the bone). And yet, it really, really works.
Okay, so by this point, Spike has been in the show on and off for three and a half seasons, and all we know about his past is that he’s killed two slayers and used to hang out a bit with Darla, Angelus and Dru. This is the episode where we get to fill in some of the blanks, and it’s really fucking interesting.
Not to mention, Spike in his various period costumes is really, really appealing to mine eyes.
Hello, unexpected punk fetish.
*shakes self* Where was I?
Yes. This one episode added an incredible amount of richness both to Spike’s character and the Buffyverse as a whole, but it also has some great shippy moments. I think this is the first time that Buffy really listens to Spike and maybe even, despite herself, finds him engaging. The scene where they reenact Spike and Nikki’s final dual is just brimming with UST, and this is the first time Spike shows his feelings for Buffy openly (another really nice character moment - blood, fighting, love and sex are always tied up together for a vampire… and maybe a slayer too). We get to see how much of Spike’s human self remains, and just how much he’s guided by his heart as well as his demonic impulses.
That moment, when Buffy tells him he’s beneath her… it’s so well done. We’ve just watched about half an hour’s worth of Spike murdering Buffy’s sister slayers and wreaking merry carnage across half the globe, and yet, when she says that, and he reacts with the pain of a human 100+ years dead? You can’t help but feel for him. And it’s intended to be that way. Talk about your pet the dog moment, this is like a whole basket of fluffy puppies.
And then, my favourite bit of the whole damn episode - Buffy’s day just keeps on getting worse and she sits out on the back porch to cry in peace. Cue Spike and his intention to get his own back for the earlier humiliation…
He’s holding a shotgun with his serial-killer face on, but Buffy’s crying, and despite everything he’s tried to tell himself, he loves her. You can see it in his face, that moment of recognition and private honesty: he’s not going to kill her, he’s never going to kill her, because her pain hurts him, and he needs to comfort her. He literally can’t do anything else.
And Buffy, despite all her grandstanding and earlier disgust… well Buffy lets him. She falls apart in front of Spike in a way she won’t even do with Riley, and yeah, maybe it’s partly because he just happens to be there. But after the evening they’ve just had together? It’s way more than that. They’re connected - on some basic level they understand one another - and this is the first moment where Buffy really accepts that. They can argue and snark and fight, cut each other to shreds with their words, but they can build each other up too, and for the first time, we get to see how that works. The moment is quiet, and moving, and unspeakably lovely.
Index of 55 Days
Link to original tumblr post
OH NO I have not been looking forward to this one. It’s pretty much too hard to choose buuuuuuuuut… Okay, this is not the episode I think is technically the best, or sums up the show the best, has the best acting, or showcases all the characters, but the one I just love and could watch again and again is Fool For Love.
I was talking a while back with rahirah, who’s been in the fandom since before FFL aired, and apparently there were a lot of theories at the time about what kind of human Spike was before he was turned, but no one really got it right. That’s the genius of the writing staff right there. No one expected what we got, not even JM (who apparently freaked out over it because it cut a bit too close to the bone). And yet, it really, really works.
Okay, so by this point, Spike has been in the show on and off for three and a half seasons, and all we know about his past is that he’s killed two slayers and used to hang out a bit with Darla, Angelus and Dru. This is the episode where we get to fill in some of the blanks, and it’s really fucking interesting.
Not to mention, Spike in his various period costumes is really, really appealing to mine eyes.
Hello, unexpected punk fetish.
*shakes self* Where was I?
Yes. This one episode added an incredible amount of richness both to Spike’s character and the Buffyverse as a whole, but it also has some great shippy moments. I think this is the first time that Buffy really listens to Spike and maybe even, despite herself, finds him engaging. The scene where they reenact Spike and Nikki’s final dual is just brimming with UST, and this is the first time Spike shows his feelings for Buffy openly (another really nice character moment - blood, fighting, love and sex are always tied up together for a vampire… and maybe a slayer too). We get to see how much of Spike’s human self remains, and just how much he’s guided by his heart as well as his demonic impulses.
That moment, when Buffy tells him he’s beneath her… it’s so well done. We’ve just watched about half an hour’s worth of Spike murdering Buffy’s sister slayers and wreaking merry carnage across half the globe, and yet, when she says that, and he reacts with the pain of a human 100+ years dead? You can’t help but feel for him. And it’s intended to be that way. Talk about your pet the dog moment, this is like a whole basket of fluffy puppies.
And then, my favourite bit of the whole damn episode - Buffy’s day just keeps on getting worse and she sits out on the back porch to cry in peace. Cue Spike and his intention to get his own back for the earlier humiliation…
He’s holding a shotgun with his serial-killer face on, but Buffy’s crying, and despite everything he’s tried to tell himself, he loves her. You can see it in his face, that moment of recognition and private honesty: he’s not going to kill her, he’s never going to kill her, because her pain hurts him, and he needs to comfort her. He literally can’t do anything else.
And Buffy, despite all her grandstanding and earlier disgust… well Buffy lets him. She falls apart in front of Spike in a way she won’t even do with Riley, and yeah, maybe it’s partly because he just happens to be there. But after the evening they’ve just had together? It’s way more than that. They’re connected - on some basic level they understand one another - and this is the first moment where Buffy really accepts that. They can argue and snark and fight, cut each other to shreds with their words, but they can build each other up too, and for the first time, we get to see how that works. The moment is quiet, and moving, and unspeakably lovely.
Index of 55 Days
Link to original tumblr post