Get It Done

Buffy Episode Review

In which I have a whole new list of reasons to not like Kennedy.

What Happened

Buffy asks Willow to work some magic to find out some stuff and it goes badly.

What Did I Think?

First there was her drill sergeant routine. Then, there was her "Willow's more powerful than of you" speech. Then, Buffy sends all the potentials upstairs and Kennedy's still hanging around. She's a potential; shouldn't she be upstairs with the rest? She's different because she's snuggling with Willow?

Then, she does the whole "Oh, no, Willow's too powerful. Willow sucked the life out of me. How could she do that?" I wanted to see Willow tell her, "Well, you asked me to do magic. I told you what would happen. It happened. Suck it up. I have no use for someone who thinks being supportive is encouraging me to do something dangerous than whining when it goes wrong." If Kennedy had been paying attention to everything people had been telling her, stupid twit... she wouldn't be running the "make Willow feel bad" routine and dumping her in the hallway.

Spike and the Principal was the only thing that didn't completely suck, but could they drag it out a little more? Spike made a good bad guy, but a lousy good guy. His return plus soul has been mishandled. He has a soul, so he's automatically good? Lots of bad people technically have souls, too. Why does Spike get a free pass?

The "theme" of this season is supposed to be "back to the beginning." Maybe they should have gone ahead and gone back to their core cast: Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles. Interesting as peripheral characters like Spike and Anya are, these four are the most important. They should be the focus of everything that's going on.

With too many people around, the story is getting spread too thin for everything to get properly addressed. Instead of one or two strong stories in the episode, it's three or four so everyone has something to do, and maybe some ongoing things that never really come to a climax, like, ever. (Giles as the First much?) So what do they do? Add a few more nameless faces and then a few more after that.

In the meantime, the four characters who are the most loved are becoming almost unrecognizable. Xander's stuck in the background. Giles may not be Evil, but he's obviously a pod person of some kind. Willow's research skills have deteriorated to online search engines. And Buffy's encouraging Spike to go around killing things again. Why not just encourage Willow to use all her power, regardless of the consequences? Oh, that's right. She did that, too. Buffy's not willing to take the demon strength into herself, but she'll sell the souls (metaphorically speaking) of her friends?

Finally, don't get me started on Buffy's lifeless "You're all useless" speech. Will someone get these people some caffeine? Please? It's the end of the world; raise your voice, already.