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More episode thoughts!
Escaping the mayhem very active children for a few minutes to post this. Have been jotting down thoughts since yesterday in spare minutes, so I'm sorry if it's a bit disjointed.
When She Was Bad
The very first shot of the episode is of a gravestone inscribed with the word 'GRAY' - and we will be shown a very grey Buffy indeed in this ep. I'm sure I've said this before, but pretty much every issue we see here will re-surface in S6.
Buffy can play the part of 'cheerful Buffy' well enough - at least for a while - but she is incredibly detatched. Something her parents notice most of all. Her friends mostly notice her bitchiness, and even Cordelia speaks out.
Of course it's not easy for Buffy - she still has nightmares and the one with Giles is especially chilling:
Buffy: It is not to worry. Trust me.
Giles: Oh, I don't know. I mean, (chuckles) I've killed you once, it shouldn't be too difficult to do it again.
For all that he is a father-figure, he's also the one who sends her to her potential death every night...
Then of course there is Angel... and oh my but Buffy knows how to turn a guy's head! The shot of her entering The Bronze is quite something - she is *so hot* and she uses it to her full advantage - not sure there is another instance of her being so overtly sexual for quite a few years... Anyway, the word 'use' is the operative one - she uses Xander to make Angel jealous, which is just plain nasty.
Angel of course doesn't fall for it as such (and his less than stellar social skills are for once a bonus), but there is only a *tiny* gap bewteen this Buffy and Buffy from 'Smashed':
Buffy: Oh, c'mon! I mean, you must've thought about it. What would happen if it ever came down to a fight, you vampire, me the Slayer, I mean, you must've wondered! Well, why don't we find out?
Angel: I'm not gonna fight you.
Buffy: Come on! Kick my ass!
Oh - also a lot of "Give it to me good, Buffy!" from FFL - but she of course doesn't act upon it until S6...
Anyway, it's clear how she deals with stuff: Internalises it, withdraws from friends, seeks/uses sex and violence. (And she's so very chiling and playful when torturing the vampire at The Bronze!)
But - here she is of course able to deal with the root of her problem head-on, by smashing The Master's bones. (In S6 she can't take out her frustration on her friends, so she uses Spike instead... which of course doesn't work all that well.) We also see the beginning of the B/A relationship proper. Angel seeks her out three times within the episode - the last time saying that she needs someone [him] to watch her back. She turns him down, but later tells him (in her own way) that they're on the same page:
Angel: We need you to distract the vampires.
Buffy: Right.
Xander: What are you gonna do?
Buffy: I'm gonna kill them all. That oughta distract them.
She looks straight at Angel when she says this and it is no doubt an echo of what he told her in WttH:
Buffy: What do you want?
Angel: The same thing you do.
Buffy: Okay. What do I want?
Angel: To kill them. To kill them all.
Then she wanted to be left alone... not so now.
Some Assembly Required is a very enjoyable episode - an incredible amount of funny stuff that I'm not even going to begin to quote! (Oh and Buffy is wearing those little skirts again - Darcy approves muchly and thinks I should wear them too. If *she* can wear them in the middle of the night without being cold, then surely so can I...).
The B/A stuff gets cranked up a bit - especially at the end - and it's still very cute. Although not as cute as Giles and Jenny.
Re. the main plot, the discussion amongst the three 'bad guys' reminded me very much of The Trio - or what was left of it in CWDP and the flashbacks in 'Storyteller'. 'I don't think I can do it' and 'But you promised...' is exactly how the Andrew/First!Warren discussions go. Of course in S7 things are darker and uglier and Andrew actually kills Jonathan...
I am *so* tired of tidying, even though I'm beginning to see some results... shouldn't be here at all, but I just need *something* else to focus on! At least the sun is shining now - must see if I can get the children to go out and play.
When She Was Bad
The very first shot of the episode is of a gravestone inscribed with the word 'GRAY' - and we will be shown a very grey Buffy indeed in this ep. I'm sure I've said this before, but pretty much every issue we see here will re-surface in S6.
Buffy can play the part of 'cheerful Buffy' well enough - at least for a while - but she is incredibly detatched. Something her parents notice most of all. Her friends mostly notice her bitchiness, and even Cordelia speaks out.
Of course it's not easy for Buffy - she still has nightmares and the one with Giles is especially chilling:
Buffy: It is not to worry. Trust me.
Giles: Oh, I don't know. I mean, (chuckles) I've killed you once, it shouldn't be too difficult to do it again.
For all that he is a father-figure, he's also the one who sends her to her potential death every night...
Then of course there is Angel... and oh my but Buffy knows how to turn a guy's head! The shot of her entering The Bronze is quite something - she is *so hot* and she uses it to her full advantage - not sure there is another instance of her being so overtly sexual for quite a few years... Anyway, the word 'use' is the operative one - she uses Xander to make Angel jealous, which is just plain nasty.
Angel of course doesn't fall for it as such (and his less than stellar social skills are for once a bonus), but there is only a *tiny* gap bewteen this Buffy and Buffy from 'Smashed':
Buffy: Oh, c'mon! I mean, you must've thought about it. What would happen if it ever came down to a fight, you vampire, me the Slayer, I mean, you must've wondered! Well, why don't we find out?
Angel: I'm not gonna fight you.
Buffy: Come on! Kick my ass!
Oh - also a lot of "Give it to me good, Buffy!" from FFL - but she of course doesn't act upon it until S6...
Anyway, it's clear how she deals with stuff: Internalises it, withdraws from friends, seeks/uses sex and violence. (And she's so very chiling and playful when torturing the vampire at The Bronze!)
But - here she is of course able to deal with the root of her problem head-on, by smashing The Master's bones. (In S6 she can't take out her frustration on her friends, so she uses Spike instead... which of course doesn't work all that well.) We also see the beginning of the B/A relationship proper. Angel seeks her out three times within the episode - the last time saying that she needs someone [him] to watch her back. She turns him down, but later tells him (in her own way) that they're on the same page:
Angel: We need you to distract the vampires.
Buffy: Right.
Xander: What are you gonna do?
Buffy: I'm gonna kill them all. That oughta distract them.
She looks straight at Angel when she says this and it is no doubt an echo of what he told her in WttH:
Buffy: What do you want?
Angel: The same thing you do.
Buffy: Okay. What do I want?
Angel: To kill them. To kill them all.
Then she wanted to be left alone... not so now.
Some Assembly Required is a very enjoyable episode - an incredible amount of funny stuff that I'm not even going to begin to quote! (Oh and Buffy is wearing those little skirts again - Darcy approves muchly and thinks I should wear them too. If *she* can wear them in the middle of the night without being cold, then surely so can I...).
The B/A stuff gets cranked up a bit - especially at the end - and it's still very cute. Although not as cute as Giles and Jenny.
Re. the main plot, the discussion amongst the three 'bad guys' reminded me very much of The Trio - or what was left of it in CWDP and the flashbacks in 'Storyteller'. 'I don't think I can do it' and 'But you promised...' is exactly how the Andrew/First!Warren discussions go. Of course in S7 things are darker and uglier and Andrew actually kills Jonathan...
I am *so* tired of tidying, even though I'm beginning to see some results... shouldn't be here at all, but I just need *something* else to focus on! At least the sun is shining now - must see if I can get the children to go out and play.