"My hat has a cow."
(This is more of a frothing-at-the-mouth rant than an even-handed review, so consider yourself warned.)
I've read all the theories about how I shouldn't take the episode at face value, how everything is being skewed from Buffy's perception (in particular, everyone should read jonsiexxx's post here, which is incredibly well-written and well-reasoned, even if my own perceptions won't quite let me believe it). And those theories are probably right. But I don't quite see it; I can't make that viewpoint work for me. When I watch an episode like "The Zeppo", I can see where the writers are tipping their hand and letting us in on the joke that we're seeing things through Xander's eyes: See, the melodramatic B/A scene complete with love theme pauses when Xander enters the room, then starts up again as he leaves! But in AYW, I don't see the levels that I'm apparently supposed to be noticing. Everything is played straight. It makes me feel not-very-bright to admit it, but if I really am meant to believe that Riley and Sam are being idealized through Buffy-colored glasses, then I wish that another character had been allowed to voice what the actual reality of Riley and Sam was; Anya would work in her capacity as truth-teller, or Dawn in her role as disaffected youth, but Anya is too wrapped up in wedding worries, and while Dawn is the only character other than Spike that seems to remember how Riley left town, even she is admitting that it sucks that Riley is leaving again by the end of the episode. So if *all* of the characters are viewing Riley and Sam as supercool paragons, why is it that I'm not supposed to do that too? Just because it's utterly ridiculous? Well, yeah, but I'm not feeling that viewpoint expressed anywhere in the episode.
I hate this episode because it glorifies a character that I have no interest in while repeatedly humiliating two characters that I adore. As the episode opens, Buffy is feeling trapped by her pointless job, and even the vampires are disgusted by her eau de Doublemeat. It's no wonder that she gives in to the advances of Spike, who doesn't seem to care whether or not she smells like a grease trap. She can't invite Spike into the house though, because that would be legitimizing the relationship in some way. So they have sex outside, resulting in a grass stain on her coat. She stays home while Dawn and Willow go out, doing the laundry, making a futile attempt to remove the grass stain (she'll never be able to remove the taint of having sex with Spike! Or at least that's what the subtext seems to be), but when she goes to sleep on the couch, she covers herself with that coat (the subtext here is maybe about finding solace in sleeping with Spike. Or maybe a coat is just a coat, and there's no subtext at all). When she wakes up the next morning, she's missed trash day. She rushes out of the house toting trash bags, chasing after the garbage truck, but of course there's no hope of catching it. When she comes back inside she reads the mail and finds out that she missed the application deadline at UC Sunnydale, so she can't go back to school. When she turns around, it's to face an enormous stack of dirty dishes in the sink. The opening act is all about the tiny drudgeries and less tiny humiliations Buffy has been suffering from.
When Riley shows up, Buffy is first stunned, and later rather flirty. I hate this, not because Buffy's involved with Spike but because it completely ignores the events surrounding Riley's departure in S5. Yes, it's possible that Buffy looks back on that angst as lightweight compared to her current struggles, but it completely negates all the unresolved issues surrounding their break-up. If Buffy had been happy to see him and then had given way to remembering the reasons they never, ever could have worked out together, that would have been fine. But throughout, he's painted as The One Who Got Away, while at the same time he acts like a complete jerk (or is he? Do I see him as being a jerk because I already don't like him, or is he really being portrayed that way?). He doesn't rebuff (heh) any of Buffy's flirting,and when he gives her the clothes to change into in the van and she teases him about not looking at her while she changes, his response is "I'm a gentleman", not "I won't because my wife wouldn't like it". He doesn't mention he's married when Buffy's forced to hang onto him while they go rappelling, or at any point when she flirts with him. So Buffy is forced to undergo her biggest humiliation yet when Sam pops in and finds them standing in a compromising position. And then Buffy gets the opportunity to do what she does best - kill demons - and she does it, and she gets humiliated again, because the mission was to keep the demon alive. Now, this is all Riley's fault because he didn't tell her the mission parameters, but watch how everyone reacts: Riley shrugs it off, Sam teases Riley for being a dumbass, and Buffy looks like she's ready to die from ten different types of embarrassment. As somebody who loves Buffy, this is really, really hard to watch. But if there were a satisfying payoff for all this abasement later in the episode, it might be worth it. Sadly, there's just more mortification on the horizon.
Back at Buffy's house, Riley is content to lay low while Sam shows off how perfect she is. She solves Xander's wedding photography crisis! She confirms the existence of magical addiction and compliments Willow on how strong she must be to have given up such an addiction! Once she was a noble member of the Peace Corps, but now she's an equally noble member of a quasi-military outfit. She does have the good grace to feel as awkward as Buffy does when Riley suggests they go patrolling together, but Riley ignores the discomfort of both women, and since he's apparently now in charge of everything, they set off to patrol together, leading to this exchange:
Buffy: He thinks I let him go.
Sam: Do you wish you hadn't?
See, Buffy didn't "let him go", because she ran after the helicopter! And screw all those theories that said she was running after it to tell him goodbye, to say she was sorry that it had to end this way; her reaction here makes it pretty clear that she was going to ask him to stay. She fumbles around Sam's question, not wanting to appear rude, but what she doesn't say is "Riley and I are too different; breaking up was the best choice we could make", or even better "Riley broke my trust in a way that I would have a hard time forgiving. By the way, does he still go to see vamp whores for suckjobs?". No, Buffy is pining here, and it doesn't matter if she's pining for Riley or for a relationship that is apparently flawless; either way it ignores the plethora of issues surrounding why they separated in "Into the Woods".
It's no wonder that after a day like this, Buffy needs some comfort. It's a bit odd that she wanders off in the middle of demon hunting to find that comfort, but why should this particular moment make any more sense than anything else in this episode? And then comes a scene that really is gorgeous, so good that I think it might have been airlifted in from another, better, episode. "Tell my you love me". SMG and JM both break my heart into itty bitty pieces. I literally hadn't watched this scene since the first time it aired, so I had forgotten how powerful it really is.
But what seems like it might be a turning point in quality is really just an aberration. Riley finds them in bed together, because Buffy hasn't suffered enough embarrassment for one day. Buffy is horrified and Spike is obnoxious (though he's the only one besides Dawn who remembers the less-than-heroic way Riley left town), but Riley's reaction is just weird- he doesn't react. He seems completely uninterested in the fact that Buffy and Spike are sleeping together, which given his "Touch her and I'll kill you" stance towards Spike in ITW is just strange. And yeah, he's married now and has forsaken all others (unless he conveniently forgets that he's married and his ex-girlfriend is fluttering her eyelashes at him), but even so, his disinterest is just bizarre. And here things take an even worse turn, as Buffy does things that make me not like her very much. Psychologically, I understand why she reacts the way she does - Riley is Good, and Spike is Evil, and Buffy wants to align herself with Good again. She wants so much not to be the girl sleeping with a vampire. But when she hits Spike for no real reason, it's just *mean*. It makes her less moral, not more moral. And you know, I can't say that I think it's out-of-character exactly, but I do think it's a lowpoint for Buffy. As much as she gets slammed in fandom for being a heartless bitch, the truth is that she's normally very compassionate ( "You are filled with love. It shines brighter than the sun"). This is a world away from the alley beating in DT. That scene was filled with Buffy's self-loathing and Spike's willingness to take whatever pain she wanted to put on him, no matter the cost to him. When she hits him in AYW, it's just about her shame at being caught with him, and her desire to align herself with Riley, who had hit Spike a moment before she did.
Next comes the reveal that Spike is "The Doctor" and his harboring of the demon eggs in the lower level of his crypt. I don't even know where to start on what a dumb plot twist this is. First of all, there's the oft-pointed out fact that Spike would never call himself "The Doctor" after the fiasco with Doc in "The Gift", but that's really the least of the problems with this plot contrivance. Next is the fact that Spike is keeping the demon eggs in his bedroom. In the crypt where Buffy has been spending a significant amount of time all season. The crypt she often visits with no warning, popping in at all hours. But Spike thinks it would be a good idea to keep his evil contraband there? Now, in the past Spike has been shown to be a poor planner, but that was almost entirely due to his impatience. In this episode though, he's turned stupid. Apparently, Buffy has succeeded in fucking his brains right out of his head. It's really the only explanation.
But the real reason I hate the demon eggs part of the story is because it provides a convenient excuse for Buffy to break up with Spike. After carefully building up a complicated romance that has been both destructive and life-affirming for both characters, this episode provides an easy out for Buffy by reminding her of how EVIL Spike is. "Dead Things" told us everything we needed to know about why Buffy and Spike needed to break up, and I really resent that this episode turns all of those complex reasons into a contrast between Good Guy Riley and Soulless Demon Spike. Yes, at the end Buffy says that she needs to end thing with Spike because "it's killing me", but nothing in this episode really illustrates that; indeed, her one moment of comfort is with Spike. In the context of this episode, she seems to be breaking up with him because he's not a good guy, rather than breaking up with him for all the valid reasons that have been building up all season long. Having it happen this way makes it about Buffy's issues with Spike rather than her issues with *herself*.
So then Buffy and Riley destroy Spike's home (foreshadowing alert: Buffy says of Riley's gun "These things: never useful", echoing herself from "Flooded"), and I think that by this point Spike has wrestled the Crown of Humiliation away from Buffy for the remainder of the episode.
Finally, finally, it's time for Riley to leave, but first he gives Buffy a big speech about how she's "a hell of a woman" (he does make sure to tell her that she smells bad, though and points out how far she's fallen) and that she's just in a bad place right now. Buffy says "I never got the chance to tell you how sorry I was", to which Riley replies "You never have to". &@^#!^#%#$*@& SHE NEVER HAS TO???? How fucking beneficent of you to accept her apology like that, Riley! Why, you didn't even make her grovel any! Clearly, everything that went wrong in that relationship was Buffy's fault. It must be, because this is the final word we get on Buffy/Riley, and it's her apology to him and his gracious acceptance of that apology.
And then Riley and Sam ascend into the Heavens, for truly, they are too good for this world.
Buffy goes to break up with Spike, and I used to like this scene fairly well, but I've been talked out of it (maybe I can only like one scene in this episode at a time, and right now it's the "tell me you love me" scene). I get mad at Buffy again (twice in one episode! *sob*) when she tells Spike that she's not breaking up with him because of the eggs because "That's just you. I should have remembered." How condescending. And also, if Buffy genuinely believes that Spike is capable at this point of being mixed up in plot that will lead to genocide, then she needs to stake him. She calls him "William", which, again, I used to like because I know the intent was that she's affirming his humanity, the part of him that isn't a monster but is instead a man. But now I think it comes out of left field a bit; she's been sleeping with *Spike* for the last few months, so shouldn't she break up with him? Still, I don't hate this scene, I just have mixed feelings about it. I do hate her turning and walking into the sunlight, because it's a lazy metaphor and also it's wrong. Buffy is two episodes away from her psychotic break in "Normal Again". Ending her relationship with Spike doesn't help her emotionally at all; it possibly even makes her feel worse because now she doesn't have any outlet for her pain.
There's a few other tiny things that bother me - Buffy's death is only mentioned in a joking aside (it's a funny joke. I laughed), Joyce's death isn't mentioned at all (it might rob from Riley's perfection if we're reminded what a whiny, cheating jackass he was during Joyce's illness). There's a few fairly unmemorable scenes between Xander and Anya, but I rather liked them because if I was watching *them*, then it meant I wasn't watching the trainwreck that was the rest of the episode. Willow's offer to hate Sam on Buffy's behalf is cute, and I like the way SMG says the line "My hat has a cow". That about covers anything positive I have to say.
I've read all the theories about how I shouldn't take the episode at face value, how everything is being skewed from Buffy's perception (in particular, everyone should read jonsiexxx's post here, which is incredibly well-written and well-reasoned, even if my own perceptions won't quite let me believe it). And those theories are probably right. But I don't quite see it; I can't make that viewpoint work for me. When I watch an episode like "The Zeppo", I can see where the writers are tipping their hand and letting us in on the joke that we're seeing things through Xander's eyes: See, the melodramatic B/A scene complete with love theme pauses when Xander enters the room, then starts up again as he leaves! But in AYW, I don't see the levels that I'm apparently supposed to be noticing. Everything is played straight. It makes me feel not-very-bright to admit it, but if I really am meant to believe that Riley and Sam are being idealized through Buffy-colored glasses, then I wish that another character had been allowed to voice what the actual reality of Riley and Sam was; Anya would work in her capacity as truth-teller, or Dawn in her role as disaffected youth, but Anya is too wrapped up in wedding worries, and while Dawn is the only character other than Spike that seems to remember how Riley left town, even she is admitting that it sucks that Riley is leaving again by the end of the episode. So if *all* of the characters are viewing Riley and Sam as supercool paragons, why is it that I'm not supposed to do that too? Just because it's utterly ridiculous? Well, yeah, but I'm not feeling that viewpoint expressed anywhere in the episode.
I hate this episode because it glorifies a character that I have no interest in while repeatedly humiliating two characters that I adore. As the episode opens, Buffy is feeling trapped by her pointless job, and even the vampires are disgusted by her eau de Doublemeat. It's no wonder that she gives in to the advances of Spike, who doesn't seem to care whether or not she smells like a grease trap. She can't invite Spike into the house though, because that would be legitimizing the relationship in some way. So they have sex outside, resulting in a grass stain on her coat. She stays home while Dawn and Willow go out, doing the laundry, making a futile attempt to remove the grass stain (she'll never be able to remove the taint of having sex with Spike! Or at least that's what the subtext seems to be), but when she goes to sleep on the couch, she covers herself with that coat (the subtext here is maybe about finding solace in sleeping with Spike. Or maybe a coat is just a coat, and there's no subtext at all). When she wakes up the next morning, she's missed trash day. She rushes out of the house toting trash bags, chasing after the garbage truck, but of course there's no hope of catching it. When she comes back inside she reads the mail and finds out that she missed the application deadline at UC Sunnydale, so she can't go back to school. When she turns around, it's to face an enormous stack of dirty dishes in the sink. The opening act is all about the tiny drudgeries and less tiny humiliations Buffy has been suffering from.
When Riley shows up, Buffy is first stunned, and later rather flirty. I hate this, not because Buffy's involved with Spike but because it completely ignores the events surrounding Riley's departure in S5. Yes, it's possible that Buffy looks back on that angst as lightweight compared to her current struggles, but it completely negates all the unresolved issues surrounding their break-up. If Buffy had been happy to see him and then had given way to remembering the reasons they never, ever could have worked out together, that would have been fine. But throughout, he's painted as The One Who Got Away, while at the same time he acts like a complete jerk (or is he? Do I see him as being a jerk because I already don't like him, or is he really being portrayed that way?). He doesn't rebuff (heh) any of Buffy's flirting,and when he gives her the clothes to change into in the van and she teases him about not looking at her while she changes, his response is "I'm a gentleman", not "I won't because my wife wouldn't like it". He doesn't mention he's married when Buffy's forced to hang onto him while they go rappelling, or at any point when she flirts with him. So Buffy is forced to undergo her biggest humiliation yet when Sam pops in and finds them standing in a compromising position. And then Buffy gets the opportunity to do what she does best - kill demons - and she does it, and she gets humiliated again, because the mission was to keep the demon alive. Now, this is all Riley's fault because he didn't tell her the mission parameters, but watch how everyone reacts: Riley shrugs it off, Sam teases Riley for being a dumbass, and Buffy looks like she's ready to die from ten different types of embarrassment. As somebody who loves Buffy, this is really, really hard to watch. But if there were a satisfying payoff for all this abasement later in the episode, it might be worth it. Sadly, there's just more mortification on the horizon.
Back at Buffy's house, Riley is content to lay low while Sam shows off how perfect she is. She solves Xander's wedding photography crisis! She confirms the existence of magical addiction and compliments Willow on how strong she must be to have given up such an addiction! Once she was a noble member of the Peace Corps, but now she's an equally noble member of a quasi-military outfit. She does have the good grace to feel as awkward as Buffy does when Riley suggests they go patrolling together, but Riley ignores the discomfort of both women, and since he's apparently now in charge of everything, they set off to patrol together, leading to this exchange:
Buffy: He thinks I let him go.
Sam: Do you wish you hadn't?
See, Buffy didn't "let him go", because she ran after the helicopter! And screw all those theories that said she was running after it to tell him goodbye, to say she was sorry that it had to end this way; her reaction here makes it pretty clear that she was going to ask him to stay. She fumbles around Sam's question, not wanting to appear rude, but what she doesn't say is "Riley and I are too different; breaking up was the best choice we could make", or even better "Riley broke my trust in a way that I would have a hard time forgiving. By the way, does he still go to see vamp whores for suckjobs?". No, Buffy is pining here, and it doesn't matter if she's pining for Riley or for a relationship that is apparently flawless; either way it ignores the plethora of issues surrounding why they separated in "Into the Woods".
It's no wonder that after a day like this, Buffy needs some comfort. It's a bit odd that she wanders off in the middle of demon hunting to find that comfort, but why should this particular moment make any more sense than anything else in this episode? And then comes a scene that really is gorgeous, so good that I think it might have been airlifted in from another, better, episode. "Tell my you love me". SMG and JM both break my heart into itty bitty pieces. I literally hadn't watched this scene since the first time it aired, so I had forgotten how powerful it really is.
But what seems like it might be a turning point in quality is really just an aberration. Riley finds them in bed together, because Buffy hasn't suffered enough embarrassment for one day. Buffy is horrified and Spike is obnoxious (though he's the only one besides Dawn who remembers the less-than-heroic way Riley left town), but Riley's reaction is just weird- he doesn't react. He seems completely uninterested in the fact that Buffy and Spike are sleeping together, which given his "Touch her and I'll kill you" stance towards Spike in ITW is just strange. And yeah, he's married now and has forsaken all others (unless he conveniently forgets that he's married and his ex-girlfriend is fluttering her eyelashes at him), but even so, his disinterest is just bizarre. And here things take an even worse turn, as Buffy does things that make me not like her very much. Psychologically, I understand why she reacts the way she does - Riley is Good, and Spike is Evil, and Buffy wants to align herself with Good again. She wants so much not to be the girl sleeping with a vampire. But when she hits Spike for no real reason, it's just *mean*. It makes her less moral, not more moral. And you know, I can't say that I think it's out-of-character exactly, but I do think it's a lowpoint for Buffy. As much as she gets slammed in fandom for being a heartless bitch, the truth is that she's normally very compassionate ( "You are filled with love. It shines brighter than the sun"). This is a world away from the alley beating in DT. That scene was filled with Buffy's self-loathing and Spike's willingness to take whatever pain she wanted to put on him, no matter the cost to him. When she hits him in AYW, it's just about her shame at being caught with him, and her desire to align herself with Riley, who had hit Spike a moment before she did.
Next comes the reveal that Spike is "The Doctor" and his harboring of the demon eggs in the lower level of his crypt. I don't even know where to start on what a dumb plot twist this is. First of all, there's the oft-pointed out fact that Spike would never call himself "The Doctor" after the fiasco with Doc in "The Gift", but that's really the least of the problems with this plot contrivance. Next is the fact that Spike is keeping the demon eggs in his bedroom. In the crypt where Buffy has been spending a significant amount of time all season. The crypt she often visits with no warning, popping in at all hours. But Spike thinks it would be a good idea to keep his evil contraband there? Now, in the past Spike has been shown to be a poor planner, but that was almost entirely due to his impatience. In this episode though, he's turned stupid. Apparently, Buffy has succeeded in fucking his brains right out of his head. It's really the only explanation.
But the real reason I hate the demon eggs part of the story is because it provides a convenient excuse for Buffy to break up with Spike. After carefully building up a complicated romance that has been both destructive and life-affirming for both characters, this episode provides an easy out for Buffy by reminding her of how EVIL Spike is. "Dead Things" told us everything we needed to know about why Buffy and Spike needed to break up, and I really resent that this episode turns all of those complex reasons into a contrast between Good Guy Riley and Soulless Demon Spike. Yes, at the end Buffy says that she needs to end thing with Spike because "it's killing me", but nothing in this episode really illustrates that; indeed, her one moment of comfort is with Spike. In the context of this episode, she seems to be breaking up with him because he's not a good guy, rather than breaking up with him for all the valid reasons that have been building up all season long. Having it happen this way makes it about Buffy's issues with Spike rather than her issues with *herself*.
So then Buffy and Riley destroy Spike's home (foreshadowing alert: Buffy says of Riley's gun "These things: never useful", echoing herself from "Flooded"), and I think that by this point Spike has wrestled the Crown of Humiliation away from Buffy for the remainder of the episode.
Finally, finally, it's time for Riley to leave, but first he gives Buffy a big speech about how she's "a hell of a woman" (he does make sure to tell her that she smells bad, though and points out how far she's fallen) and that she's just in a bad place right now. Buffy says "I never got the chance to tell you how sorry I was", to which Riley replies "You never have to". &@^#!^#%#$*@& SHE NEVER HAS TO???? How fucking beneficent of you to accept her apology like that, Riley! Why, you didn't even make her grovel any! Clearly, everything that went wrong in that relationship was Buffy's fault. It must be, because this is the final word we get on Buffy/Riley, and it's her apology to him and his gracious acceptance of that apology.
And then Riley and Sam ascend into the Heavens, for truly, they are too good for this world.
Buffy goes to break up with Spike, and I used to like this scene fairly well, but I've been talked out of it (maybe I can only like one scene in this episode at a time, and right now it's the "tell me you love me" scene). I get mad at Buffy again (twice in one episode! *sob*) when she tells Spike that she's not breaking up with him because of the eggs because "That's just you. I should have remembered." How condescending. And also, if Buffy genuinely believes that Spike is capable at this point of being mixed up in plot that will lead to genocide, then she needs to stake him. She calls him "William", which, again, I used to like because I know the intent was that she's affirming his humanity, the part of him that isn't a monster but is instead a man. But now I think it comes out of left field a bit; she's been sleeping with *Spike* for the last few months, so shouldn't she break up with him? Still, I don't hate this scene, I just have mixed feelings about it. I do hate her turning and walking into the sunlight, because it's a lazy metaphor and also it's wrong. Buffy is two episodes away from her psychotic break in "Normal Again". Ending her relationship with Spike doesn't help her emotionally at all; it possibly even makes her feel worse because now she doesn't have any outlet for her pain.
There's a few other tiny things that bother me - Buffy's death is only mentioned in a joking aside (it's a funny joke. I laughed), Joyce's death isn't mentioned at all (it might rob from Riley's perfection if we're reminded what a whiny, cheating jackass he was during Joyce's illness). There's a few fairly unmemorable scenes between Xander and Anya, but I rather liked them because if I was watching *them*, then it meant I wasn't watching the trainwreck that was the rest of the episode. Willow's offer to hate Sam on Buffy's behalf is cute, and I like the way SMG says the line "My hat has a cow". That about covers anything positive I have to say.