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Catching Up With The Reviews

Let's start with 'First Date', perhaps the weakest episode of this season so far. I'm not kidding, I was really disappointed in this one. My apologies to Jane, but much like 'Wrecked' was not Marti's best work to date, I have similar issues with 'First Date'.

Intended to be a light episode, about the only amusing parts were the Giles/Chao-Ahn exchanges, and the Andrew/Wire scenes. Though upon further reflection, the jealous-Spike and Anya scenes could be deemed somewhat funny. But that is about all that is worth mentioning as highlights for this episode.

The letdown of the episode had to be yet another disastrous date for Xander. Having proven to be a successful formula in the past, what's the harm in having yet another "Xander's date turns out to be a demon bent on killing him, but thinking he's a really nice guy while doing it" storyline. Who knows, maybe the writers felt this would seem fresh to anyone who hadn't gotten a full dose of this premise in Season's One through Three.

Of course, Lyssa's reasons for needing Xander opens up another can of worms. If all the seal needs is a few drops of blood at this point to raise another Ubervamp, why doesn't 'The First' have their army of Bringer's sacrificing pigs, random students, etc and creating an army of Ubervamps. However, that's the least of the plotholes in this episode.

I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt on Principal Wood's storyline, as recent writer comments have indicated that the entire Nikki/Wood story was a recent development. Too bad they had the actress who originally played 'Nikki' in for an audition back in September, kind of puts the kibosh on that concept. That isn't the worst of it. To have Principal Wood blissfully unaware that Spike killed his mother, that boggles the imagination. If I understand canon correctly, he was raised by the Watcher who wrote the Watcher's Chronicles for his Slayer. The Chronicles which allowed Buffy to know that Spike had killed a Slayer in the 70's. Yet after years of searching he couldn't uncover the very fact that seemed to be pretty common knowledge to everyone else on the show. Weak, very weak.

While we're on the topic of Spike, exactly when did Anya tell Spike that Giles was 'The First'? He was already with Buffy in the Initiative HQ when the gang came to that conclusion, by the time they next would have seen Spike the mystery would have been solved. I also found it curious that Wood actually seemed surprised that Spike was a vampire, not discovering the fact until after he vamped out in the basement. You would think that when he glanced at Spike in his rearview mirror and didn't see him, that would have given that one away. In fact, when I first saw that glance I thought it was a really neat way of having Wood find out about Spike, but this was ruined by the following scene. Again, someone was not paying attention.

The worst part of the entire episode had to be the completely unexplainable attitude that Giles has suddenly taken towards the Scoobies. Now correct me if I'm wrong. We're to understand and believe that Giles is actually shocked and dismayed that, in the midst of the upcoming apocalypse, the Scooby Gang is busy dating and having fun. What show has he been on for the past seven years? Wasn't the entire "Buffy isn't your typical Slayer" concept addressed and answered within the first three episodes of the series itself? Is there something that should make us believe that this Apocalypse any different from the others? In fact, as 'Big Bads' go, 'The First' is probably the most impotent of all of them. Heck, even the Troika seemed to be more of a threat, and they were idiots. So why shouldn't it be business-as-usual for the Scoobies?

All in all, it was a weak filler episode at best. The revelations weren't all that revealing, the comedy was less than comical, and the only advancement I saw in the story was that we're now entering the fourth round of the 'Kick the Spike' competition. Normally, I wouldn't mind a few inconsistencies in the plot here and there, but in this season of stellar episodes this one really didn't make the cut.

The good news is that next week things got better

'Get It Done' was a marked improvement from 'First Date'. For one, the comedy actually seemed to work. Andrew continues to be a nice lighthearted touch in the midst of all the impending doom, and I think that Tom Lenk deserves a lot of credit for pulling this off. His timing and delivery are perfect.

Even the more serious moments in the show managed to be amusing at the same time. Principal Wood's tour, which had a serious undertones, actually had some of the best comic moments of the show. Although I was somewhat dreading what the revelation of Spike and Wood's connection would mean in terms of story, I actually liked the chemistry between the two in this episode. Although the return of 'Big Bad' Spike wasn't entirely convincing and a little over the top, it will be interesting to see how this plays out on the screen over the next few episodes.

I found that 'Dawn the Researcher', although nothing new for her character, was written in a way that really paid off. Especially since Giles has pretty much become useless in that department recently, strange how he never seems to be around to do anything other than criticize then gang.

Although having Felix's Bag Of Tricks being a nice little deus ex machina seems odd, I have to admit the entire concept of the shadowcaster was well-thought out and executed.

I also actually wonder if 'Time Travel' actually occurred in this episode. It feels more to me as if the three shamans are actually in another dimension, awaiting the arrival of another Slayer so they could imbue them with power. But it was a good story and helped fill in some more details of the Slayer history. Though how it fits in with the plans of the 'The First' or Slayer lineage has yet to be seen. The main question is if Buffy has enough power to face the trials to come (and for those who have been keeping up with spoilers, refusing this power may have been a big mistake on her part).

I also enjoying the continued development of Willow and Kennedy. I feel it's important for Kennedy to have some realization of what Willow is capable of, especially since she's been rather unimpressed by the entire 'magic thing' up until this point.

The only thing that really confused me is this continuing desire by D'Hoffryn to kill Anya. If he really wanted her dead, then why didn't he do it in 'Selfless'. But it's a minor quibble, I just hope that we're not going to see this be the solution for Anya's exit (ie: death by demon). Same goes for the coat, how it ended up in the Sunnydale High School basement even confuses me. But these are all minor nitpicks (especially when compared to the glaring errors in 'First Date').

The only downside to the entire episode was yet another one of Buffy's tiresome speeches. If I had any real complaint about the season, it's got to be the repetition. 'The First' might have come up with the new strategy of talking the 'SITs to death', though Buffy certainly is helping that process along. I'm not saying that what Buffy has to say doesn't make sense, I just don't think she did the best job in terms of delivery. Certainly, she could use a few courses in motivational speaking.

One thing that really impressed me in this episode is the direction, the camera work was fantastic and really added to the mood. Doug Petrie did a great job in both roles, I really hope that we'll see his work again before the season ends.

In the end, we have one really good episode and one really bad one. I don't blame it completely on the writers, I do strongly feel that having a season-long 'Big Bad' has never really paid off for this show. Even when the Troika dominated the season last year, you did have the Willow story building along the way. There are bound to be slow times, but that's a good point to build on other parts of the story. For example, the Buffy/Wood date was a good idea in itself, but lost points with me when they ran it up against the Xander/Demon date storyline. If you needed something for Xander to do, why not have him take a few SIT's on a field trip (perhaps to cover up the seal with concrete). The loss of Chloe meant next to nothing, since we only saw her in a handful of scenes. What happened to the ME of the past that nearly dared to put Jesse into the opening credits, just to shock us more when they killed him off?

All I know is that if I see one more episode which revolves around grand speeches to the SIT's, while Spike hides in the basement, and Xander and Anya continue to deny their feelings, with Andrew providing the only comic relief, Giles strangely MIA, rampant jokes about how crowded it's gotten in the Summer's House, and having the final battle scene occur over the darn seal that won't stay buried in the High School basement, I'm going to scream.

Someone really should warn my neighbors before tomorrow night.