We made it to the end of Buffy! Cue some tears (but no bubbly, Allie is in Boston before noon). We start with the Angel finale, and the Wolfram & Hart deal has us very excited for next season, bye bye Jasmine! Then, we dive into the Buffy finale, where we appreciate the emotions while quibbling with some of the plot. Then, we go over our rankings for the show as a whole and how a non-binge viewing has changed our minds.
This week, Buffy reenacts the Sword In the Stone, Angel arrives in town, and everyone prepares for the final battle. Meanwhile on Angel, our hero is somehow also in a hell dimension, while his friends wait in a cell for his return with the word to destroy Jasmine.
It’s a brazil nut of an episode for Buffy this week, when Faith replaces Buffy as lead slayer and…everyone just has sex. Buffy finds her sword in the stone and Faith leads the potentials into a trap. On Angel, the gang is on the run from Jasmine’s minions, and they stumble on a very Rumplestiltskin-like clue to defeating her in the sewers.
On Buffy, tensions come to a head as the potentials, Giles and Xander confront Buffy over her leadership. Spike and Andrew take a road trip and learn more about what Caleb is after. In LA, Fred tries desperately to show Angel and the others the truth about Jasmine.
It’s refreshing for Buffy to again have a flesh and blood villain to fight instead of whatever the First is, and Caleb brings a real creep factor to this story. But would it have worked better if he were introduced earlier? Then, we didn’t hate Angel this week but we have a hard time believing this episode was seasons in the making and planning. And don’t get us started on Fred and the sweater.
This Buffy episode doesn’t quite live up to our memories of enjoying it, and we have our quibbles, but we do get some good flashbacks for both Spike and Principal Wood. Although, what is the show trying to say with these parallel tales? We aren’t sure. Let’s face it though, this episode didn’t have to try very hard to be better than Angel. Oh wow. But anyway… have you seen Yennefer’s eyeshadow on The Witcher?
It’s a day in the life in Sunnyvale this week, as So.Much.Is.Happening. and we don’t quite know which part is supposed to be important? Let us not forget this is episode with the bonkers insanity of Buffy opening a portal with shadow puppets and Andrew making funnel cake!! As for Angel, we still don’t know what is supposed to be going on with Cordelia but thank god Willow showed up to breathe some life into the hotel!
We planned the TED Talk for Ginny’s wedding! But also, we discussed “First Date” and “Release” and since when was Buffy in love with Spike? That’s a bad retcon. Good retcon would be Principle Wood being the son of a slayer killed by Spike. We’ll allow that. As usual, there’s an interesting story on Angel that the show is ignoring. This week felt like a rehash, and we hope to be done with Angelus soon!
We are extremely “nay” on these episodes this week! Buffy was just boring, and Angel was just gross. Both shows also insist on missing the point of what is interesting in favor of…what, we aren’t sure. But that said, Faith is back and we are loving it!
It’s a great episode of Buffy as Dawn confronts her future as a Potential, and then the idea that she’ll just be normal in a world of friends with extraordinary powers. Fortunately, Xander is there as an example. On Angel, this week’s burning question: what does “Calvary” mean? Which definition are they going for here? We aren’t really sure. We also get more time with Angelus, but we’re starting to wonder if he’s really a conniving genius or just a petty gossip.
This week in burning questions, is there only one bathroom in the Summers house? Also, we might understand the motivations of the First now! Maybe? And Buffy puts on a great show for the Potentials by killing the neander-vamp. In LA, Angelus is here, but actually he’s not that fun! He doesn’t really answer any questions about the beast, but he stalls long enough for his soul to go missing. And to be clear, we are not trying to coin the term “Fresley” ok?
We didn’t like this Buffy episode. The First is too broad a villain at this point and the story is too unfocused as a result. And then half of us got duped by the Angel episode, yikes! But we’re ready for Angelus next time!
On Buffy, the scoobies try to figure out what Spike knows and what’s been happening to him, while an unexpected run in with Andrew brings more chaos and harbingers to the house. In L.A., Angel and co. are joined by Gwen, who has witnessed the Beast at work and may provide clues for what he’s up to.
We’re getting deeper into the season with the Big Bad for Buffy and still totally lost as to the motivations. Why is this happening again? Is this Bad just too Big to be effective? For Angel, this week’s episode has the best name ever and is a lot of fun, but forever marred by the fact it’s also the aftermath of the Cordelia and Connor nonsense.
We have a pared down cast this week on Buffy, as the slayer, Willow, and Dawn all meet the enemy and are told disturbing revelations. On Angel, we swallow our vomit as Connor and Cordelia get icky and apocalypse brings a big demon and fire to the skies of L.A.
“Him” is kind of a nothing and we don’t have too much to say about it, or at least not as much as usual. Meanwhile, Angel has it’s own “Tabula Rasa” episode with “Spin the Bottle” but this time, a memory spell stops everyone’s memories at age 17, to mostly entertaining results but we see the end starting to happen for Cordelia and We.Don’t.Like.It.
We’ve got a couple retcon episodes this week, as Buffy tries to answer the question, Who is Anya when she isn’t with Xander? She has over 1100 years of history to try and answer that, but even so, she can’t, and the show does a great job of using the character’s one-dimensionality to explore this in a surprisingly rich way. On Angel, it’s revealed a former professor is the one who sent Fred to Pylea, and this revelation causes her to wrestle with her traumatic past, with devastating repercussions for Gunn.
We didn’t really like Angel this week, but it happened, so we talked about it. Wesley and Lila continue to be a better show. On Buffy, the slayer’s first week as school counselor gets off to a rough start with Cassie, a teen convinced she’s about to die.
This week, we must correctly define a parasite, as we confront maybe the grossest demon in the Buffyverse? Yes? And, as Willow returns to Sunnydale, the show and her friends both refuse to just let her off the hook for her actions, which we appreciate. On Angel, we take a trip to Las Vegas to find out what Lorne is up to!
This week, we have to again talk about the problematic corner the show has written Spike into, and how his treatment is different than the treatment of Anya. On Angel, Wesley continues his cool streak and Angle tangles with a super-powered thief to get information about Cordelia’s whereabouts. Also, did one of Buffy’s most famous plots borrow from Sailor Moon?
