Home | Show Index | Blog | Movie Reviews | Site Updates | About Me
Cast photo


5.7 Fool for Love

Buffy: "Were you born this big a pain in the ass?"
Spike: "What can I tell you, baby? I've always been bad."

I've always been a Buffy/Angel fan -- part of me is convinced that someday Buffy will survive her expiration date and hand over her responsibilities to the next Slayer, Angel will become human as his reward for years of fighting evil, and the two of them will retire to Malibu together -- but I am also extremely impressed with (and even turned on by) the dramatic and romantic tension that is building between Buffy and Spike. Buffy/Spike shippers must be having a field day.

This is the Spike back story I've been waiting for, and it was even better than I'd hoped. We now know that Spike's vamp personality is a reflection or derivation of his human personality -- observant, sensitive, a fool for love, a passionate poet; deep down, Spike is still the same hurt, romantic soul that he was as a human. And it works.

The flashbacks were outstanding:

-- 1880 London: We get our first glimpse of Spike as human William the bloody awful poet fixated on Cecily, and we feel for him when she tells him that he is beneath her. Dru must have read William's mind and found the sensitive, dashing, gallant and imaginative lover she wanted in there.

-- 1880 Yorkshire: Spike gets the group in trouble because he loves attention; he's a lot happier as a vamp than as a human, isn't he? So Angel and Spike never did get along; they're just too different. They do seem to end up with the same women, though. Interesting.

-- 1900 China, the Boxer Rebellion: I had thought we had a continuity boo-boo here since Angel was cursed in 1898, but no -- and how about that? Interesting too that like Angel in "Graduation Day," Spike has drunk Slayer blood and found it to be an aphrodisiac. (Angel may not have said so out loud, but couldn't you tell?)

-- 1977 New York City: This was definitely the most powerful of the flashbacks; it was incredible, watching Spike fighting the seventies Slayer while simultaneously fighting Buffy in front of the Bronze. Spike: "Cunning resourceful, oh did I mention, hot? I could have danced all night with that one." Buffy: "You think we're dancing?" Spike: "That's all we've ever done." Wow.

-- 1998 South America. So Dru knew how Spike was starting to feel about Buffy? Spike had said in "Lovers Walk" that it was that alliance with Buffy that broke him up with Dru, but he hadn't given it the more romantic connotation that Dru did.

Seeing Buffy investigating the deaths of other slayers was touching, and it made the death/sex/eroticism/Anne Rice kind of theme more dramatic. Does Buffy really have a death wish, or is she just drawn to darkness? Are her ties to the world all that are keeping her alive, as Spike said?

That scene at the end had me tingling; Spike was touching Buffy, and she was letting him. Their relationship has changed, big time. Kudos to James Marsters and Sarah Michelle Gellar for some outstanding acting.

Moving along to our B plot, I enjoyed Riley's attempt to do some serious patrolling and to get the vamp that stabbed Buffy. Liked the hand signals, liked the Slayerettes schmoozing and eating chips, loved the grenade. In fact, I really liked Riley in this episode a lot more than I usually do.

Bits and pieces:

-- Mom is seriously ill, isn't she? Is Buffy losing her mom?

-- Buffy/Giles interaction already seems to be back where it was in year three. This is a good thing. If Buffy is indeed losing Joyce, she will need Giles even more than ever.

-- The first Slayer Spike killed was the one to give him his scar.

-- I liked Dawn covering for Buffy. It reminded me of me covering for my older sister.

-- I loved finally seeing the infamous chaos demon with the slime and antlers.

Quotes:

Buffy: "I can't believe I passed out. Do you think I'm a total wuss now?"
Riley: "Oh, yeah. I like a girl who can play a few hard sets of tennis with a major stab wound."

Dawn: "Did I just pull a Slayer-related Mom cover-up thing? Come on, who's the man?"
Buffy: "You are. A very short, annoying man."

Giles: "Well, it says this Slayer forged her own weapons."
Buffy: "Gotta love a gal with an anvil."

Buffy: "Look, I realize that every Slayer comes with an expiration mark on the package. But I want mine to be a long time from now. Like a Cheeto."

Spike: "You know, there quite a few American beers that are highly underrated. This, unfortunately, is not one of them."

Drusilla: "I smell fear. It's intoxicating."

Spike: "She was cunning, resourceful... oh, did I mention hot? I could have danced all night with that one."
Buffy: "You think we're dancing?"
Spike: "That's all we've ever done."

Spike: "Death is your art. You make it with your hands, day after day; that final gasp, that look of peace. And part of you is desperate to know, what's it like? Where does it lead you? Now you see, that's the secret; not the punch you didn't throw or the kicks you didn't land. Every slayer has a death wish. Even you."

This one gets four out of four stakes, of course; in fact, I'd even go for five out of four. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is one of the best BtVS episodes ever made. With the Angel episode "Darla" right after it, it is right up there with "Surprise" & "Innocence," "Becoming," and "Graduation Day." Are two-parters just inherently better because there's more time to develop a good story?

Billie, a very happy Buffy fan this week

[While season six was airing, I interviewed April Weeden-Washington, who played Nikki Wood, the "Subway Slayer."]



Home | Show Index | Blog | Movie Reviews | Site Updates | About Me