What if No One's Watching?

Blame Sofiya. If it weren't for her egging me on, I'd just keep this in my notebook and not blog it.

So here are the eps I've been watching and a few thoughts on each. And you can see how I'm skipping around and tell me if you see a pattern, because I sure don't.

Monday
Something Blue (4.09): This is the episode where Willow's "Thy Will Be Done" speech goes kaplooey and things she says start happening. Giles goes blind after she says he "can't see anything," Buffy and Spike get engaged and spend most of the ep making out and planning their wedding after she says "she should just marry him," and Xander becomes a literal "demon magnet." Spike has just been chipped and is chained up at Giles' house at this point while they try to get information from him about the Initiative. The ep is mostly funny, with what some people consider a lot of heavy Spike-Buffy foreshadowing. I honestly didn't see that so much--their magical and forced relationship here doesn't really look anything like the relationship they eventually have. The real foreshadowing here is of Dark Willow, I'd say. People have called this ep "fan fiction come to life" and I'm not sure that isn't true. It's fun to watch, but I don't get a whole lot out of it.

Hush (4.10): The silent episode, one of everybody's favorites. So very well done. One thing I noticed that I hadn't before was Riley's odd utterance in Buffy's dream at the beginning "don't worry, if I kiss you it will make the sun go down." What does that mean, in reference to her and what she does?

Tuesday
Hell's Bells (6.16): Xander and Anya's wedding. There was actually a lot more here in my second viewing than I remembered, especially in the vows Anya is practicing (I am very interested in her claim that Xander's love made her human). Another thing that is really interesting is to read the shooting script and see what was left out (including an explanation for why Giles isn't at the wedding).

Normal Again (6.17): Crazy Buffy episode. If I ever write seriously about the show, this is one I will go back to again and again. There is so much here, and it's not just about the sixth season, but the entire run of the show. Again, reading the shooting script is priceless. They skipped this exchange:

BUFFY
I could wrestle naked in grease for a living and still be cleaner than after a shift at the Doublemeat.

WILLOW
Plus, I'd visit you at work every single day.

Sad, huh?

I remain really bothered by this episode's ending at the asylum. Usually if there is a split reality, the one we end with is the one that is thought to be "real." This is the opposite case.

Fool for Love (5.07): Something in "Normal Again" made me go back to this one, but I can't remember what it is now. This is the "Spike's past" one. Something I was looking for this time was evidence of my growing theory that Spike and Buffy are having metaphorical sex when they fight long before they start doing it literally.

Wednesday
Mark asked me a question about how Dawn was introduced, which started me on this episode path...

Buffy v. Dracula (5.01) This is one of those eps that actually has way more to it than I originally thought. There are some parallels between Buffy's scene w/ Dracula in the castle and her later scenes with Spike that I want to look at more closely. Plus it's damn funny.

Real Me (5.02): Harmony's attempt at being the Big Bad. Love it. Dawn is introduced as a character in this ep (the very last scene of the previous and then this one). It was so bizarre and confusing at the time...but watching it after you know what's going to happen gives you some more ability to see the "tricks" that are laid out for you in the script, which I don't care so much for. One of the reasons I like this show is that the viewer and the characters see the tricks together much of the time.

The Replacement (5.03): This is the two Xanders ep. I didn't take many notes while watching it--it was amusing, but there wasn't a whole lot here that interested me, aside from the strong hints of breakdown between Riley and Buffy.