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


7.12 Potential

Anya: "Wow. It's like, one second you were this klutzy teenager with fake memories and a history of kleptomania, and then suddenly you're a hero with a much abbreviated life span."

The First is "in remission," and this episode was, like, intermission. *yawn*

Buffy starts a School for Slayers, which includes barhopping, breaking and entering crypts, and rolling around on the ground with Spike. Speaking of which, Buffy sure does like to straddle Spike, doesn't she? She likes to take his shirt off, too, don't give me that broken ribs excuse. And three times in this episode, Buffy was rattling on about her affair with Spike. Buffy is clearly succumbing to those killer cheekbones again; I sense returning smoochies, or at least potential returning smoochies.

Okay, potential, I know that's the title, and I'm glad that they finally dealt with the whole "Dawn was made from Buffy so why isn't Dawn a Slayer" issue. I was torn about this one. Dawn's chances of getting killed off at the end of this season might improve if she's a red shirt Slayer-in-Training, and I'm all for that... but being one of the potentials would also give her a bigger part in the approaching battle, and I'm not for that. Plus, it would upset everybody who is horrified about the possibility that Dawn might be a spinoff character. Which is also me.

Anyway, it was moot because it was transparently obvious right from the beginning that Amanda was the potential, not Dawn. I even remembered Amanda talking about her violent tendencies in the Cassie episode earlier this season. I do rather like Amanda; she has a little more personality than the other potentials. Unfortunately, that isn't saying a whole lot as yet.

One thing I particularly liked about this episode was Xander comforting Dawn at the end by telling her how he felt about being the regular guy who fixes windows while his friends all have superpowers. Except for his jealousy of Buffy's supernatural lovers, Xander has always dealt with his superpowerless situation pretty darned well.

Bits and pieces:

-- It was cute, seeing Clem doing the Michael Keaton face thing from "Beetlejuice."

-- The school exit doors wouldn't open out. Isn't that against the law?

-- We get yet another big reminder about what Joyce told Dawn. Gee, must be important.

-- Where was Chloe?

-- Why is Andrew still around? What purpose does his character serve now, other than to deliver nerd jokes?

Quotes:

Buffy: "Best we can tell, he -- or, more precisely, it -- was putting a lot of stock in that ubervamp thing. The Chaka Khan."

Buffy: (on the phone) "Xander, I know… I'm sorry. If you're going to take a shower at my house, lock the door."

Dawn: "Okay, see, that's why we don't point the weapons in the kitchen."
Vi: "It's not loaded."
Dawn: "That's always the lead quote under the headline, 'Household crossbow accident claims teen'."

Andrew: "I'm not begging."
Buffy: "You're like a small dog dancing for Snausages."

Vi: "He doesn't seem evil exactly."
Buffy: "He's not evil. But when he gets close to it, he picks up its flavor. Like a mushroom or something."

Willow: "The smell will lead us to the potential."
Xander: "Or some poor soul who ate too many chimichangas."

Dawn: "What if they saw the spell?"
Xander: "Saw the spell? Dawn, they can't see flashcards. Big ones."

Anya: "Dawn's going to be a Slayer."
Andrew: "Holy crap. Excuse me. Plucked from an ordinary life, handed a destiny..."
Xander: "Say Skywalker and I smack you."

Andrew: "It's like... well, it's almost like this metaphor for womanhood, isn't it? The sort of flowering that happens when a girl realizes that she's part of a fertile heritage stretching back to Eve, and..."
Xander: "I'll pay you to talk about Star Wars again."

Vi: "It's a demon bar. It's like a gay bar, only with demons."

Spike: "Nice job of blending in, girls."
Rona: "We're a bunch of 15-year-olds in a demon bar. How much blending did you think we were gonna do?"

Dawn: "I think I strained something. Maybe something I'll need later in life."

Xander: "It's a harsh gig, being a potential. Just being picked out of a crowd. Danger, destiny... plus, if you act now, death."

Once again, there was too much Dawn, too much of the other teenagers, and not enough Spike. Two out of four stakes,

Billie





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