Stinky Yak Cheese in My Bra

Episode 6.10: Wrecked. Original Airdate 11.27.01                   

[another bad summary from imdb, so Zelda rewrote it] While Buffy is regretting sleeping with Spike, Willow descends further into her magic addiction when she meets Rack, who is awful in every way.

Zelda's Thoughts:

• And thus begins the season of Spike Isn't Allowed to Wear Clothes [You love it, pet ~Spike]
• Wow, Spike, your pillow talk is awful. "I knew the only thing better than killing a Slayer would be f-"also a callback to when he and Dru got off on killing the Slayer during the Boxer Rebellion.
• Hey, I just had a thought. Rats only live a few years. Willow may have transformed Amy back into a human just in time. [Well... ~Peter Pettigrew]
• Man, poor Dawn. She's trying to play it so lightly, but she is being super neglected. Willow and Buffy are finally home, and they're both heading off to sleep the day away.
• Yep, time for my Amy Shenanigan. How the fuck does she know about Rack? She literally JUST stopped being a rat. It's such a contrivance for the sake of moving along Willow's junkie arc. Okay, so they drop in some language that she knew about him back before she became a rat, but I have a lot of trouble believing the Amy we knew would be into this.
• "It's cool, isn't it," Amy says as the camera pans over a waiting room full of skeletal-looking junkies.
• Fuck off, Rack. I hate him and I hate the actor.
• "It's okay, it's over fast." // "I'm just going to take a little tour." Ugh, can this episode be over already?
• I always forgot when the creepy inflated Tara dress thing happened. It's both sad and kind of horrifying.

• And in this week's Inconsistent Characterization of Dawn, she's completely blase about Buffy/Willow's abandonment, and assures Willow - seeming completely sincere - that she's completely fine on her own.
• Oh look now it's time for Amy to fulfill the role of junkie friend.
• Willow's Rack's new favorite? Amy knows this after taking her there once? Ugh whatever to the timeline.
• God fucking dammit, Willow. Do NOT take Dawn to Rack's den.
• How am I going to pick out a favorite line when I'm spending this whole episode just being mad at all the characters?
• More Naked Spike.
• AH is doing a good job with the arc, and even if it's clear the writers are doing a bit of a 180 on what Willow and her magic has been a metaphor for, the metaphor for drug addiction as executed here mostly works. I'm just frustrated.
• "I'm in your system now. You're gonna crave me like I crave blood." More junkie language.
• It is kind a cool horrifying thing, that Willow's trippy magic adventures with Rack actually summoned a demon.
• YEAH DAWN YOU KICK THAT DEMON IN THE GUT.

Dawn slapped Willow. Good.

• But Willow's finally recognized she has a problem. "God, I need help. Please, please help me."
• And Buffy's face. She's still pretty dead inside. But she has to be strong for Willow.
• "If you could be, you know, Plain Old Willow or Super Willow, who would you be? I guess you don't actually have an option on the whole super thing." // "Wil, there's nothing wrong with you. You don't need magic to be special." It's actually a really great distillation of how Willow got to this point, this conversation. And a continued set up for Willow's final arc this season. She thinks Tara never knew "boring" non-magic Willow, but she also thinks that Tara is what made her special. When Tara's taken away again, she doesn't want to be anything resembling Willow anymore. But we're not there yet.
• Buffy bought $300 worth of garlic and hung it from her windows.

Daniel's Thoughts:

• It’s the next day and Tara has stayed all night because Buffy and Willow are all irresponsible and stuff. 
• I’m kinda jealous.  I could never “just close my eyes for a minute” and fall asleep for the whole night.
• They’re all bloody.  Buffy, this is not healthy.  Which, yeah, I know is the point.  But I wish it would stop.
• Season 4, they drifted apart…season 5, they all got back together…and now season 6, they’re all just self-destroying.
• Spike: It’s daylight, I can’t leave.  Yeah you can.  You’re immune to the sun, remember? Just like put a blanket on your head and you can walk for miles.
• Aww, Tara/Willow awkwardness.
• Joyce still has African art on her wall. 
• Haha, there’s a sign at the magic shop: Shoplifters will be transfigured.
• "Martha Stewart isn’t a demon, she’s a witch."
• How does Amy know about this guy? She’s been a rat for years.
• And everyone in the waiting room looks like a junkie…we get it.
• Rack is so gross.
• See, they’re not actually doing any magic.  They’re hallucinating and…yeah ok, rolling on the ceiling but they’re not accomplishing anything.  They’re just high.  It’s not so much a metaphor.  They’re just high.  Cool visuals, though?
• Putting Tara’s clothes on the bed and magicking them to have her shape to hold her is actually kinda sweet…
• “I’ll leave a note for Buffy on the fridge.  It’s the first place she goes after patrolling..” Well sometimes she does crave a fat free yogurt…
• Why is Buffy attacking Amy? Ugh, this over-metaphor metaphor is awful.
• No one in the waiting room this time…and Willow can just walk into Rack’s room?
• Again, nothing really to do with magic…she’s just really high.  Is she traveling through space? Is she hallucinating it?  It just feels like a hallucination.
• Eww, put some clothes on, Spike.
• Hairy demon kinda looks like a werewolf. 
• Willow is steering by motioning like Anya did in the Restless dream:

(Thanks, Lucas, for making this gif!)

• Drunk driving/magic driving…  we get it.  The ‘metaphor’ really didn’t use to bother me this much.
• I like that we’ve had at least some real location shots...
• And you know what?  Shut up, Buffy.  As much as I hate Willow at this moment, Buffy saw everything that was going on with Willow lately and did absolutely nothing to help her best friend so she really can’t be this mad at her.  Willow’s been self-destructing for a while.  Then again, so has Buffy and Willow doesn’t seem to notice or care.  They’re both being horrible friends.  The only person who is open and honest is Anya…
• At least they’re being open and honest now?  They’re being there for each other?  As contrived as this episode is…at least it has that?
• Hey, look…she’s having the DTs, like a drug addict….we get it.

Favorite Lines:

Zelda: eh.
Daniel: "Martha Stewart isn’t a demon, she’s a witch." ~Anya
 

Arc/Continuity Stuff:

First appearance: Rack (trivia note: same actor as Kralik from Helpless)
Recurring: Tara, Amy
Dawn's comment that Buffy goes right to the fridge after patrolling is a callback to Faith's remark about slaying making you hungry and horny.

Stats:
Anya's Hair - very blond, curly
Dead Humans - 0
Dead Undeads - 1
Dead Flashbacks - 0
Buffy Breaks a Door - 0
Willow Breaks a Car - 1
Evil Reveal - 0
Unevil Reveal - 0
Shenanigans Called - 1
Apocalypse Called - 0

A Frost Monster Who Eats Diamonds

Episode 6.9: Smashed. Original Airdate 11.20.01

[IMDB's summary sucked so Z wrote her own]. While Willow finds an old magic buddy with the newly de-rat-fied Amy, Buffy seeks companionship of a Spike-shaped variety.

Daniel's Thoughts:

• I really don’t remember this episode that much.
• Interesting, a non-magical mugging
• Buffy can still kick their asses….just not stake them
• Damn, Spike, stop it.
• Did they just reference Jessica Fletcher as a go-to pop culture detective reference?

• “I’m the only one here for you, pet. You’ve got no one else.”  Yep, nothing abusive about that relationship.  If he hits you, he just likes you.
•  ‘Revele.’  Wow, so that’s all Willow has to do to get a spell for basically anything they need help with ever?  How convenient.  I guess she can use that for the rest of the episodes for all things. [Yeahhhhhh  that's a pretty convenient never-again-used deus ex machina - Z]
• Hey, Amy!
• Andrew’s Mission: Impossible parody is dated.
• Oh right, the freeze machine. More DC than Buffy.  The nerds are so a way for the comic book geek writers to fulfill certain weird fantasies.  It just doesn’t fit in this universe.
• ..With my freezeray, I will stop…
• Elizabeth Anne Allen is really good at acting like a rat.
• Poor rat Amy had no concept of time.
• "1. Larry’s gay. 2 Larry’s dead…"
• It must be weird to for Buffy to see Willow living in her dead mom's room. (And still probably not paying rent or contributing to the house in any way.)
• "How have you been?" "Rat, you?" "Dead." "Oh."
• I hate that trope where someone has something important to say, gets interrupted, and then never says the thing.  Like the other person wouldn’t be curious.
• I miss Giles.
• Also, where are Anya and Xander? (Ok, and Dawn?)
• Buffy: “Please stop.” YES, PLEASE STOP.  YES, PLEASE STOP.  MAYBE IF I WISH IT HARD ENOUGH THE PLOT LINE WILL GO  DIFFERENTLY THIS TIME.
• So Spike thinks his chip is gone so naturally he’s going to hunt a human.  YES, HE HAS CHANGED.
• I just don’t know how anyone can root for Spuffy.
• Hey, there’s Dawn and Tara.  I’m glad Tara still sees Dawn.
• Willow’s got a mac!

• “Is this that thing I do that you were commenting on?”  Anya’s awesome.
• Andrew meets Spike…and a new love is born.
• Doesn’t Spike have super vampire hearing? He’s only like 5 feet away.
• I kinda dig Willow’s jacket.  That’s new.  Willow wearing something I like. Must be the drugs magic.
• Andrew, you can’t have seen every episode of Doctor Who, since a lot of eps are lost and you're not old enough to have seen them live. See? I can nerd, too.
• This night out is so awkward.  And everything is so 90s from the music to the clothes…to the boys’ hairstyles.
• “There’s no such thing as a frost monster who eats diamonds”
• He’s only hitting you because he likes you, Buffy  This is gross.
• Everything Willow and Amy are doing….it’s just so dumb.
• Ew, Spuffy sex…that literally brought down the house….I’m so over this ep.

Zelda's Thoughts:

• Aw, Buffy is quipping. "I always wanted a pony." // "Come on, rush me. It'll be funny."
• Aw dang, they're not even vamps. How weird and random.
• "Remind me not to help you." // "More often?"
• Amy's back! Her hair looks good. All nicely highlighted, just how rats wear it these days. And those perfectly manicured brows.
• "We should probably just Get The Freeze Ray out of here now."
• Aw Amy. "I felt like I was in that cage for weeks."
• Buffy and Willow. So stilted. So non communicate-y. 
• And it kills me, Buffy was about to tell Willow about kissing Spike, and then Amy appears.
• Oh mannnnnnnnnnn Tom and Nicole. Tom hasn't even gone all couch-jumping yet for our Sunnydale children.
• I can't call shenanigans on Sunnydale having a museum, because even my one-horse town had like one or two tiny museums. None with fancy steal-able diamonds, but still.
• Okay, but this shot is cheekbone city.

• Oh Spike. Two steps forward, five miles back. This is why you need your own internal morality, not just What Will Make The Object of My Affection Happy Today? As soon as he thinks his chip is broken, he goes out looking for a human meal.
• I love that Tara isn't severing ties with the other Scoobies, even if she broke up with Willow. "You know that I will always be there for you, right?" really makes it clear how much she's become one of Dawn's surrogate moms.
• Aw man, the Scoobies are all congratulatory of Willow for using her tech fu instead of witch fu, and then NOPE she's still using magic.
• Good for Anya, using her words. The Scoobies need to use their words more.
• Wow and Willow's in such freaking denial about why Tara left her, and her own culpability. You'd think, after Tabula Rasa, she'd be a bit more aware, but nope.
• In character continuity, completely suppressing her heartbreak is something we've seen from Willow before - y'all remember Brave Litle Drunk Dancing Toaster Willow after Oz left?
• Oh I forgot Spike visited the Trio.

This whole sequence is delightful and yet somehow we didn't quote it.
Probably because Warren is the worst.

• "Dudes, I think that's Spike." Oh Andrew.
• Okay, so at this point in the narrative, the Scoobies still don't know the Trio are behind Life Serial. Spike's come to Warren because he remembers him from robot days of yore.
• Amy's wearing a fluffy pink sweater, but we can neither confirm nor deny that this sweater previously belonged to Willow.
• At least Warren's scanning of the chip doesn't involve a really fake-looking opening of Spike's skull.
• I should see Red Dwarf. My sister liked it.
• Hey, did you guys know (yeah, you probably knew) that Adam Busch (Warren) was in last week's episode of Danny Strong's Empire? True story.
• Hey, remember when it was a thing that clothing had like foil woven into it so everything glittered? Both Dawn and Tara are sparkling like Twilight vampires here.
• I feel like Amy didn't have this level of power back when she turned into a rat. Like, the rat thing was the biggest trick in her arsenal at that point. Now with a snap of her fingers she can fetch a lesbian to flirt with Willow. It bothers me a bit, because while I think it's a great idea to bring Amy back, the writers have made her pretty malleable to their storytelling purposes (like, HOW does she know about Rack in the next episode? It doesn't really make sense. And then the only times they bring her back are to show the junkie Willow is trying not to be, overworking their metaphor. And then when they bring her back in S7 ... it's just such a lot of whatever)
• "Responsible people are always so concerned with being good all the time, that when they finally get a taste of being bad, they can't get enough. It's like all ... kablooey." Because it hasn't been about being "good" for Willow, it's been about power and control, feeling like reality is hers to shape to her will. But because she still thinks of herself as Reliable Dog Geyser Person, she doesn't see how any of her actions, no matter how irresponsible, could be bad. She's a "good" person. Good people don't do bad things.
• Aw a payphone. The last payphone left in America.
• Oh look, Spike owns another shirt! A purple shirt!
• Sigh. And thus begins the You Came Back Wrong campaign. Please stop making Buffy feel even worse about her resurrection than she already does.
• This whole Bronze sequence is just ... Willow and Amy are being so irresponsible and awful to these innocent people they don't even know. Stop, Willow. Stop, Amy. Stop what you're doing. People are not your toys.
• Time for house-breaking sexytimes!

• As Joss said in the commentary of ... some episode (I wanna say Wild at Heart?), "Au revoir, Monsier Metaphor!"
• It is pretty surprising to see such explicit sexual movements on a show originally aimed at teens.

Favorite Lines:

Daniel: "Oh, for crying out loud. This is bizarre. You're all, 'la la la!' with, with the magic, and the not talking, like everything's normal, when we all know that Tara up and left you and now everyone's scared to say anything to you. Except me. Is this that thing I do that you were commenting - " - Anya
Zelda: "We should probably just get the freeze ray out of here now." - Warren

Arc/Continuity Stuff:

• Recurring: Amy the Rat AND Amy the Witch, The Trio, Tara
• Shoutout to Dead Gay Larry, Snyder, the Mayor Snake
• Spike's chip doesn't work when he hits Buffy now.

Stats:

Anya's Hair - loose waves, very blonde

Dead Humans - 0

Dead Undeads - 0

Dead Flashbacks - 0

Buffy Breaks a Door - 0

Buffy Breaks a House - 1

Evil Reveal - 0

Unevil Reveal - 0

Shenanigans Called - 0

Apocalypse Called - 0