Willow Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Episode 6.22: Grave. Original Airdate 5.21.02

"The Scoobies continue to try and stop Dark Willow, who is now intent on destroying the world. After Dark Willow neutralizes Buffy, though, Xander is the only one left who can save the day. Meanwhile, in Africa [never not funny], Spike completes the demon trials and gets his reward."

Zelda's Thoughts:

• GILES GILES GILES
• "Giles?" // "Giles!" // "Uh oh, Daddy's home. I'm in wicked trouble now."
• I love Giles's intense focus as he studies Willow, trains his borrowed magic on her. Tony Head is just so skilly.
• Okay so I adore that the first time Giles looks directly at Buffy, he notices her haircut. And then she hugs him hard. And then Anya points out her hair changed too, which means she also gets a hug.
• I LOVE MY BABIES, OKAY.
• Buffy does a quick summary of each character's arc over S6, and then Giles gives us the salve we didn't know we needed:

• And then he tries to stop laughing and laughs even harder:

• I MISSED YOU, GILES, WHY DID YOU GO AWAY. DON'T LEAVE US AGAIN. Especially because when you come back next season you're going to be suddenly all shitty and frustrating.
• ASH is better at laughing than SMG tho. Smart move to have her be at the point where she's more crying from laughing than anything else.
• "I know you're all stupid. I should never have abandoned you." CORRECT
• "But it was my time, Giles. Someone would have taken my place." ...No? The line of succession is with Faith now. And she's still in prison. There was no one to take your place except for a Buffybot. I get really frustrated when people get confused about this. Buffy died for a whole summer and a third Slayer wasn't called. Faith has the succession line in her, and Buffy's out of that equation. She still has the Slayer powers and she can help maintain the balance between good and evil, but she's stepped outside of the Slayer line at this point. I'm not saying Buffy wasn't entitled to stay dead if that's what she wanted, but the succession has had nothing to do with her since Prophecy Girl.
• Meanwhile, in Africa, blah blah blah Spike fighting randoms
• ewwwwww bugs
• "Nothing can hurt me now." Because she's numbed herself
• Xander, why are you trying to kick in Alpert? That's our staple tomb! Leave Alpert alone!
• "Mexico, huh?" So much for Jonathan's redemption.
• "Silly girl, I'm dying." // "No, you're not!" LISTEN TO ANYA, GILES. NO MORE DYING THIS SEASON.
• gasp! Willow made root demons. Their pincers are rather ungainly but otherwise I like the idea.
• Here's what I do love about what Xander does here. Yes, obviously, he wants her to not end the world. That would be the most convenient option. But I believe him when he says that if this is where and when it ends, he'd rather be with his best friend than anywhere else. Because he loves her, no matter how Dark Willow she's gotten. There's something beautiful there. "Where else am I gonna go? You've been my best friend my whole life. World gonna else, where else would I want to be?" "If you wanna kill the world, well then, start with me. I've earned that."
• I think it's not til she starts striking at him that he realizes that's how to stop her - you see it in his face - just keep telling her she's loved, no matter what she does.
• Alyson Hannigan is really good at making me cry, you guys.
• "Giles, you're not dead!" // "*surprised* No." // *hugs Giles* // "However, I am still in some pain."
• And here's Sarah MacLachlan to take us home. Or Mexico, as applicable.
• Oho they went on location to a real cemetery for this last bit. No parking lots for us!
• Oh right, Spike's soul.
• We survived season six, you guys! [And a movie? - Abed]  [Probably would have been better than season 7 -D]

Daniel's Thoughts:

• GILES!!!
• “Stay down”, with the flick of a wrist. I love it. Giles has gotten so bad-ass.
• “When you were still under the delusion you were still relevant here?” – damn, Willow, that’s cooooldddd.
• Buffy and Anya hugging Giles. Makes me miss him all the more.
• Anya always gives Giles the best hugs:

They're so sincere.

• And I’ve always loved Giles and Anya’s relationship. They annoyed the fuck out of each other but you could tell how much Anya respects Giles and how much Giles cares for Anya. I always wished that that was explored more.
• Buffy: Here’s a list of everything horrible that’s been going on here, Giles: HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.
• Oh it’s such a brilliant scene.
• See Giles? This is why you’re needed here.
• Giles: I shouldn’t have left. YES, YOU ARE RIGHT.
• Ok, she threw knives at Giles. Not cool. NOT COOL.
• Here’s the two most useless characters, Xander and Dawn, protecting the duo.
• And ok, Xander’s right about not trusting Spike and the Summers’ blind spot about how dangerous he is…but he didn’t really need to tell Dawn that Spike tried to rape Buffy. It wasn’t really his business to tell her.
• And now Spike time: CGI Bugs crawling everywhere.
• “If you lose someone you love ... the other people in your life who care about you...become meaningless. I wonder what Tara would say about that.” Love that line.
• Hey, Willow finally created that fireball. Maybe she can use that in season 7 so that no one else gets killed by vamps or you know, ubervamps. Or maybe not.
• Willow is now monologuing – the final trait of a real supervillain/big bad.
• The veins on Willow’s face are weird. I don’t think they’re accurate… [No, but they're still awesome. - Z]
• How convenient that the weapons fell in the hole with Dawn and Buffy.
• “Willow forced me to help her with her brain!”
• Lots of work for the stunt people lately.
• Dawn’s got a point, boo. She lives in a world where she needs to learn how to fight rather than be protected.
• Yep, that’s a satanic temple alright. Well, just the tip.
  
• Uh oh! Earth demons!
• Now Buffy wants Dawn to help? With absolutely no training?
• Uh oh. Sunnydale is imploding. Sunnydale: Not yet.
• Aww, Anya pleading with Giles not to die.
• Great. Here comes the yellow crayon speech.
• I wonder what this scene would have been like if they cast Xander with a better actor. Would I give it such shit? Probably. But Probably not as much.
• OK, it’s actually kind of a cute speech. I just…don’t believe that this would help. At least it’s coupled with the surprise that Giles’ powers that Willow consumed was also a help.
• And just the part where Willow does that cliché thing where she fake-woman-punches him in the chest without any chance or even inclination of hurting him.

Losing my powers...going back to being weak woman...

• But I really like this idea – that there’s good magic out there that is more powerful than the evil dark magic. – And that that’s the type of magic Willow needs to learn how to use instead of just cutting off the magic completely. (Which, beginning of season 7.)
• And to me, this scene is more memorable than the yellow crayon. I love Buffy and Dawn’s relationship and I love that Buffy finally realizes that she has to stop sheltering Dawn and start teaching her.
• Of course we end the season on Spike. The only thing more annoying than the potentials in season 7.
• Shoulda been more specific, Spike.

Favorite Lines:

Zelda:

Daniel: "Things have really sucked lately, but it's all gonna change. And I wanna be there when it does. I want to see my friends happy again. And I want to see you grow up. The woman you're gonna become. Because she's gonna be beautiful. And she's going to be powerful. I got it so wrong. I don't want to protect you from the world. I want to show it to you. There's so much that I want to show you." - Buffy

Arc/Continuity Stuff:

Recurring: Giles, Jonathan, Andrew, no one remembering Andrew's name

Stats:

Anya's Hair - as she points out, she is blonde after not being blonde; ponytail with sideswept bangs
Dead Humans - 0
Dead Undeads - 2
Giles Unconscious - 1
Giles Cleans His Glasses - 0
Buffy Breaks a Door - 0
Willow and Giles Break the Magic Box - 1
Evil Reveal - 0
Unevil Reveal - 0
Shenanigans Called - 0
Apocalypse Called - 1