And now it's time for Wrecked! Which everyone kinda hates, so, please take this quiz and enjoy an image of shirtless Spike at the end of it!( Poll behind the cut )
The heroin thing, the idea that the magic itself is an inherently damaging substance, also gives a kind of implicit insult to the way magic has paralleled Willow's relationship with Tara.
Yeah, that's the most problematic aspect of this whole thing.
I actually do think it's an underrated episode - the entire initial sequence between Buffy and Spike is amazing - compare the screenshot you have above with NLM:
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4 It's what he knows. In fact, I’m sure he used magic to quit heroin only to find that he was using magic sort of the same way he had been using the heroin. There was a lot of that kind of magic-as-drug-kick going around back in the 70s, see “Ripper backstory
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Awww, I'll be the voice of dissent and say that I think this episode is underrated, though it's certainly more a matter of personal taste and not because I can defend any of the plot holes. Every single one of the Buffy/Spike scenes works for me in a big way, despite (or possibly because of) how ugly they get. The morning after scene is genuinely one of my favorite scenes in the series
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Oh, and I meant to add in regards to one of the poll choices, while I don't think Amy brought Willow to Rack because there was a "finder's fee", I do think she did it because she was hoping that by bringing Rack someone so powerful, she might win his approval enough so that he would want to keep her around all the time. Poor Amy, being a rat for three years did not exactly gift her with any kind of street smarts.
(Incidentally, for me one of the biggest plot holes of the episode is wondering when Amy got mixed up with Rack in the first place. There's no indication back in S3 that she's strung out or involved with some sort of deep, dark, underground magic trade.
That always kind of bothered me, in Gingerbread Willow seems good friends with Amy and there's no indication that Amy's lost her way, the whole point of that episode was that the adults were wrong to blame the magic as being an evil influence. I know some people point to BWAB as indications of Amy being on a slippery moral slope, but eh she was a 16 year old girl who wanted to get out of her homework, I didn't think it was that strong a sign that she was going to end up a strung-out junkie. It really bugs me how much they changed Amy's characterisation for Wrecked just so that she could play the friend who is a bad influence on Willow. I could buy that she would start acting wild after being a rat for so long, but not that she had a prior connection to Rack and was already addicted
2 I think the problem with the alcohol/drug use metaphor is entirely in the scooby gang's reaction. Up until this episode they don't seem very concerned and then one car wreck later they are so mad that they lose any concern for will and just leave her in a strung out sobbing pile on the side of the road.
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Yeah, that's the most problematic aspect of this whole thing.
I actually do think it's an underrated episode - the entire initial sequence between Buffy and Spike is amazing - compare the screenshot you have above with NLM:
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(Incidentally, for me one of the biggest plot holes of the episode is wondering when Amy got mixed up with Rack in the first place. There's no indication back in S3 that she's strung out or involved with some sort of deep, dark, underground magic trade.
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Amy was very poorly served by her story arc from here onward. And the show was poorly served by wrecking her character arc.
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Except, of course, Alyson-as-Willow crying. That always breaks my heart.
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