Episode 3.8: Lovers Walk. Original Airdate 11.24.98"Spike returns to Sunnydale and kidnaps Willow in hopes of creating a magic spell that will make Drusilla love him again."
Zelda's Thoughts:
- Yaaaaaaaaaay it's a Spike episode. Also other things happen.
- "That was my sarcastic voice." // "You know, it sounds a lot like your regular voice." // "I've been told that."
- Man, Willow, what is that shirt. What is that shirt.
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| Even Alyson agrees with me here |
- Buffy's scores are good for her academic future, but ... that's not something she's thought about, because being the Slayer doesn't give her a whole lot of choices. But hey, with Faith here, maybe ... nah. Faith will turn evil and Buffy will have to stay but lucky for her they're building a UC right in Sunnydale! ... :-|
- Spike just crashed into the parking lot again. Hi Spike!
- Awww lookit the Xander photos in Cordy's locker. STAHP WHAT YOU'RE DOING WITH WILLOW, XANDER.
- Willow's voice is extra babyish today.
- And Oz gave Willow a pez witch. STAHP WHAT YOU'RE DOING WITH XANDER, WILLOW.
- Giles is going camping. Because the plot requires that he be out of the picture for Spike Hijinks.
- STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHP
- Look! Angel reads! And apparently can't hear Spike talking at a not-quiet decibal right outside his not-door of the mansion. Enhanced vampire hearing, my eye.
- Also on not hearing Spike yell and scream after he catches on fire. Justice is blind, but Angel is deaf.
Hi, we got past the censors - "We don't carry ... leprosy."
- What ... is with the boob thing on the wall ---->
- Seriously, Angel, you have curtains open, letting in delightful sunlight, AND you're stoking a giant fire. Someone's got suicidal thoughts.
- "So do you really need to resort to the dark arts to keep our hormones in check?" It will not be the last time she tries that method of problem-solving.
- "She wouldn't even kill me, she just left!" I love that that is the real crux of Spike's heartbreak. He wanted the epic lifetime only-ends-in-death love story.
- "Beautiful jewels, beautiful dresses with beautiful girls in them."
- "I've got an unlife, you know!"
- "If at first you don't succeed, I'll kill him and you'll try again." Basically everything Spike says. That is my recap of the episode.
- Joyce making Spike cocoa. Love it. Spike telling his tale of woe to EVERYONE. Love it.
- "You got any of those little marshmallows?"
- Ahahahaha Spike making faces at Angel behind Joyce. "You're a very bad man!"
- Oh Spike. Not large with the brilliant complicated plans are we? "He's probably just got them locked in the factory."
- They totally tricked me with this. I knew, watching it the first time, that Cordelia wasn't in the show past season three, so I genuinely believed they were killing her off here.
- Man, it's like they're not even trying to get Stunt Spike to look like JM.
- I like that the fight is enough to make Spike feel better and realize what he should do to get Dru back (of course, it doesn't work, but ...)
- Cut to: Funeral. Buffy: "So Cordelia's gonna be okay?" Fuck you, show.
- Why do we think it is that Willow and Oz are ultimately able to reconcile and Xander and Cordelia aren't? If she hadn't left to go be on Angel, would they have gotten back together? [No - Anya]
- The Musical Montage of Sad Sackness.
- Except for Spike, who is feeling awesome about himself. And also singing again. I always forget that's how the episode ends.
Daniel's Thoughts:
- Great. This whole Willow/Xander thing is going to come to a conclusion in this episode. It's about time.
- Willow is wearing orange pants again.
- "That was my sarcastic voice//It's sounds just like your real voice//I've been told that." Me too.
- Yay! Buffy got great SAT scores! No matter, she has to stay in Sunnydale anyway.
- Hey Spike! Yes, I still like Spike at this point.
- Spike is singing Frank Sinatra. But Angel knew Frank Sinatra.
- We're gonna boowwwwl tonight. We're gonna booooowl toniiight.
- Aww, Oz is so sweet with the Pez witch.
- Xander, "I wish we can make it all stop." YES, PLEASE STOP.
- SHENANIGANS! They're so inconsistent with the sunlight thing. Some vamps explode the minute sun hits them. Spike can run up steps and jump into a car without catching too much fire.
- The magic shop is still pretty small... I guess when Giles buys it, he buys the three stores next to it, too.
- Another magic shop owner's death! We shoulda kept a stat. [2 ~Stat Gods]
- I love the Mayor's banter. Some say he's too much like the Master with some of his dorky lines. I disagree.
- Spike's Dru story is awesome.
- It's alarming how trusting Joyce is of Spike especially with what he's telling her.
- Really? After all that, Buffy didn't tell her mom about Angel?
- Spike, "What do you KNOW?" Ugh, the phrase is "What do YOU know."
- SHENANIGANS! How did they not hear Cordeila and Oz breaking down the door and/or walking down the stairs?
- Ow! Cordelia! OMG!
- The fight scene in the magic shop is awesome. I love the use of the holy water vials.
- Funeral fake-out! Cheesey, but effective.
- Aww, Poor Cordy. And I love her line to Xander. She's a vengeful Cordy....
- And Buffy's speech to Angel is so heart-breaking.
- Awww, everyone is so sad. I feel bad for everyone. Except Xander.
- And Spike is the only happy one!
Crossfire!
Willow & Xander: *smoochies*
Zelda & Daniel: STAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHP
Favorite Lines:
Zelda: "Loose cannon. Rock the boat. Is that a mixed metaphor? ... Boats did have cannons. And a loose one would cause it to rock." - The Mayor
Daniel: "I'm pathetic! I'm illiterate! I'm Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel!" - Willow. Yay! Simpsons reference!
90s Factoid:
"Be kind, rewind." FROM THE DAYS WHEN PEOPLE HAD VIDEOTAPES.
Arc/Continuity Stuff:
- Spike is back, and crashed into the Welcome to Sunnydale sign again.
- Also, Spike is singing.
- Also, Spike is dumped.
- Willow owns 3,000 pink sweaters.
- Mayor and Deputy Alan. The Mayor knows who Spike is.
- Another Magic Shop, this one not underground.
- Xander's outrage about Willow's anti-lust spell is based in continuity goodness: "Are you nuts, or have you forgotten that I tend to have bad luck with these sorts of spells?"
- Spike's truce with Buffy was the beginning of the end of his romance with Dru.
- Dru dumped in him Brazil for a slime-and-antlers chaos demon. We will meet him in Crush.
- Joyce now knows that Angel is back, that Spike is bad, that Willow is a witch, and that Xander is a witch. Er.
- Oz can smell Willow even when he's human. As Cordelia says, "This is very disturbing."
- Oz and Cordelia finally catch Willow and Xander making bad life decisions.
Stats:
Oz's Hair - strawberry blond
Dead Humans - 1
Dead Undeads - 4
Dead Flashbacks - 0
Giles Unconscious - 0
Giles Cleans His Glasses - 0
Buffy Breaks a Door - 0
Evil Reveal - 0
Unevil Reveal - 0
Shenanigans Called - 2
Apocalypse Called - 0
I think Willow's line, "For the longest time, I didn't know what I wanted. I wanted EVERYTHING," is SUPER telling. I definitely didn't pick up on Willow's character flaws when I first saw the early seasons, but in retrospect there was a lot of foreshadowing for Season 6 early on.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Willow was kind of selfish, I was happy that she and Oz got back together but kind of surprised at the same time. They got back together so easily and Xander and Cordy didn't. I hated that arc, so glad they are done with the kissing.
ReplyDeleteI hate cheating storylines because they can never stop until they are caught and then and only then do they feel bad about it and say that they've stopped. But, if they'd never been caught, they'd continue with their little "we should really stop." routine while continuing to kiss each other because "forbidden lust" or some crap.
I think Willow and Oz getting back together and Xander and Cordy not is believeable because Willow and Oz were definitely in love, whereas I don't think Xander and Cordelia ever were. It did evolve beyond teenage lust and they did really care about each other, but Willow and Oz had much stronger foundations on which to rebuild their relationship after the cheating. And Oz strikes me as the forgiving type also and I think he just thought his relationship with Willow was too valuable for him to lose.
ReplyDeleteI don't find the fact that Willow and Xander cheated in the first place very believeable (especially Willow) but the aftermath was handled well I thought.
Yeah - excellent. But I still have to go with -
ReplyDeleteYou're not friends. You'll never be
friends. You'll be in love till it
kills you both. You'll fight, you'll
shag, you'll hate each other till it
makes you quiver, but you'll never be
friends. Real love isn't brains,
children, it's blood, it's blood
screaming inside you to work its
will. I may be love's bitch, but at
least I'm man enough to admit it.
as THE moment!
I agree with you on principle that it's aweosmely written and delivered, and true to character. I disagree on principle that I think Spike is wrong (not about how they'll never be friends, but what Love is).
Delete"SHENANIGANS! They're so inconsistent with the sunlight thing. Some vamps explode the minute sun hits them. Spike can run up steps and jump into a car without catching too much fire."
ReplyDeleteI've always viewed it as a matter of strength, as to how long a vampire can withstand sunlight. It's usually the newly undead or the weaker miniony types that instantly burst into flames, whereas flashbacks to when Spike first met Angelus show them holding their hands under the light as a macho challenge, and we know they're both much stronger than the average vamp. They also make it clear that it's only direct sunlight on exposed skin that makes them go all fiery, as seen in later seasons with Spike and his comically holey blanket.
Love the blog, and look forward to each new post! Keep up the good work!
I think the sunlight-kills-vamps is super inconsistent. What makes Spike and Angel stronger than others? Their age? They're comparatively young compared to some we've seen. Remember the Immolation-o-Gram Angelus sent to Buffy in her classroom? That wasn't direct sunlight (if we're allowing Angel in his mansion to have all the windows ever and he doesn't even get singed). Spike's and Angel's slow-burning flesh is just like their teeeeeeny weeeeensy hearts that never ever get staked, just almost staked - they're as unkillable as their contracts, and their appeal on the show.
Delete