Triangle
Buffy Episode Review
In which Willow and Anya argue over Xander.
What Did I Think?
Willow has been getting in touch with her inner-witch ever since "Invisible Girl," back in the first season. She is definitely not the shy little girl anymore, although most shows don't allow their characters to develop their negative traits along with the more positive ones. There's a fine line between assertive and bitchy. Willow's reaction towards Anya has always been little towards the bitchy side, though part of that, as we see here, is her protectiveness of Xander.
Anya, in contrast, hasn't exactly made it easy to like her. Willow echoes remarks made by many when she points out that Anya has been mortal for a while now and should have picked up on some of this human interaction stuff. The audience can sit on the outside and laugh at her blunt comments, but if someone actually said them in real life, it wouldn't be so funny. Backed into a corner by Willow's statements, however, Anya manages to defend herself fairly well, arguing that she worries as much about Willow stealing Xander away as Willow worries that Anya will hurt him. Her ability to express herself keeps growing in the rest of the season, particularly in "The Body."
Besides this advancement, we don't get a lot of deep insight into Anya's character, for all the trivia we learn about how she became a demon. They also never bother to explain just how the crystal that just happened to have Anya's ex trapped in it wound up in Giles' shop. On the other hand, it's really funny to hear Anya taunting him about his inadequacies. It's mean... but true.
The conflict itself has been brewing for a while in form of Willow's snarky remarks and Anya's growing defensiveness. It's unrealistic to expect that they would become best of friends after all this, which I suppose is why we don't see that here. What we do get is a marked reduction in Willow's 'tude. Anya, unfortunately, keeps on with her ex-demon issues at least through the next episode were she worries excessively about the Council finding out the truth about her.
