Buffy ep by ep; FAMILY-redneck and revelations

[saturn5]

FAMILY

The Good;
The wonderful face off in the magic shop at the end and the too beautiful scene where Tara and Willow dance on air.

The Bad;
My Name is Earl aside rednecks get a hard time on US TV and this is no exception.

Best line;
Will "See that's where you're the dummy"

Women good/men bad;
Hugely misogynistic, the whole family lying to their womenfolk to keep them enslaved. Donny threatens to beat his own sister, Xander threatens to break him into pieces if he tries (and this is why we love Xander!). We learn for the first time that Hank is in Spain 'living the cliche' with his secretary. According to Buffy Hank now 'bailed' on the
Summers girls.

Jeez!;
The demon's sores are icky

Kinky dinky;
Tara calls Willow a 'vixen'. Riley meets Sandy the vampwhore at Willy's. Of course Sandy is the poor girl Vampwillow bit at the Bronze in Dopplegangland which is some pretty damn brilliant continuity. Spike and Harmony have sex but he's secretly thinking about Buffy. Buffy promises Riley 'outfits' in return for his help, looks like Xander and Anya aren't the only ones who like to play dress-up? (The Duchess and the Highwayman? The Strict Headmaster? Princess Leia in the gold bikini? The cowboy and the rancher's daughter?)

Captain Subtext;
Maybe it's just me but I always thought there were hints of attraction between Buffy, Glory and her Key? It starts here with Buffy describing Glory as Cordeliaesque (and one day Cordy too will be a hell-goddess). She also says that she's 'exciting and new'. Tara's mega-cute story of Miss Kitty is obviously Dawn once again. Spike saves Buffy for the first time.

Guantanamo Bay;

Scoobies to the ER;

Missing scenes;

Apocalypses; 5,

Wheldon Cliches (with kind permission from Boo)

Scoobies in bondage:
Buffy: 8
Giles: 4
Cordy: 5
Will: 3
Jenny: 1
Angel: 4
Oz: 1
Faith: 3
Joyce: 1
Wes: 1
Xander; 1
Dawn; 1

Scoobies knocked out:
Buffy: 15
Giles: 10
Cordy: 6
Xander: 8
Will: 5
Jenny: 2
Angel: 6
Oz: 3
Faith: 1
Joyce: 3
Wes: 1
Anya;1

Kills: one demon each for Buffy and Spike (does the 3rd just run away?)
Buffy: 86 vamps, 30 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot
Giles: 5 vamps, 1 demon
Cordy: 3 vamps, ½ a demon
Will: 4 vamps
Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human
Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie
Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans
Xander: 5 vamps, 2 zombies, ½ a demon, ½ a demon
Anya: ½ a demon
Riley; 12 vamps + 7 demons
Spike; 1 demon (now in the service of the Scoobies)

Scoobies go evil:
Giles: 1
Cordy: 1
Will: 2
Jenny: 1
Angel: 1
Oz: 1
Joyce: 1
Xander: 3

Alternate scoobies:
Buffy: 6
Giles: 3
Cordy: 1
Will: 2
Jenny: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 2
Joyce: 2
Xander: 3

Recurring characters killed: 9
Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara

Sunnydale deaths; Harmony kills the poor sales clerk
84;

Total number of scoobies: 7
Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Tara, Riley

Xander demon magnet: 5(6?)
Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula?

Scoobies shot:
Giles: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 4
Riley; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost:
Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes?
Cordy: 1?
Buffy: 3 confirmed; Angel, Parker,Riley, 1 possible, Dracula(?)
Angel: 1;Buffy
Joyce: 1;Giles, 2 possible, Ted and Dracula(?)
Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca
Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley
Xander: 2; Faith, Anya
Willow: 2;Oz and Tara

What the fanficcers thought;
Once read an interesting one where Tara's family were actually Texas Chainsaw Massacre types and by the end whilst they'd been wiped out the Scoobies had lost everyone except Willow, Tara, Dawn and Riley. In the follow up story Willow and Tara ressurect Buffy 'Bargaining 1&2' style and she discovers Dawn has become become a cross between Lara Croft and Ash from the Evil Dead series (but still with both hands). Meanwhile Faith defeated the First and shared her power with the Potentials but was presumed to have perished in the collapsing the Hellmouth. But whose is that gorgeous female hand holding a scythe breaking the surface at the Sunnydale crater...?

Questions and observations;
Of course an unknown Amy Adams plays cousin Beth, hasn't she done well since! Riley comments that a lot of young people are experimenting with shortness nowadays. Well HE certainly isn't! Dawn thinks only losers drink alcohol but seems to have a great time during her first visit to the Bronze. Contrast Tara now to the girl we first meet in season 4 her stutter is gone. When her family come back so does it. Looking at SMG exercising in this ep you really believe she could be a Slayer, her athleticism is incredible. But she's TOO THIN, like Courtney Cox in some of the later seasons of Friends. Prefer the way she looks in season 1. Just me or do the demons look like clowns? Clever shot when Riley is in Willy's Bar, we think it's Spike at first.
Marks out of 10; 7/10

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Uh, what to say about this episode. I can't say I love it, but I like it. I do.

I liked how everyone fought for Tara. That was a really nice thing to do. That just shows how they are nice and caring about their friends.

I love Amy Adams 🙂 Yeah, Sarah really do like little thin in seasons 5 and 6, I love her figure in season 1 the most 🙂 that was sexy 🙂 Yeah, I thought demons do look like clowns.

7/10 for me.

 

[thevikingsgirl]

Just watched this one again. My favorite part is Spike punching Tara to find out if she's actually human. I never would've thought I could be so entertained by people getting punched til I watched Buffy.

 

[Anya2012]

I really dislike this episode, mostly because of Tara's family and especially cousin Beth. What a b****. Plus I'm not really a fan of Tara either *doges bullets* so I pretty much skip this episode. 4/10.

 

[saturn5]

Just watched this one again. My favorite part is Spike punching Tara to find out if she's actually human. I never would've thought I could be so entertained by people getting punched til I watched Buffy.

I know maybe I shouldn't but I always think it's funny when Spike punches Tara, we're so used to seeing Buffy and Faith hit and just laughing it off or Giles being knocked out but Tara goes 'Oh my node, my node, he hit my node' like a real person, we never expect a person as gentle as Tara to get hit like Joyce in This Years Girl

 

[faeriegrrl27]

It was at this point that Tara was part of the gang. Sort of. I think she always had been, but this little thing here really gets the others to accept her.
Buffy saying Dawn can't hang out with her friend because she's short is so hilarious!
In reference to Buffy calling Glory shiny and new, it should be remembered that that's how she referred to the animals in The Pack. 🙂
I kind of liked the insect reflection joke.

 

[Tome]

The scene at the end with Tara's 'family' and the gang is one of the most touching in the series for me. Always liked this episode!

 

[Wild At Heart]

This is one of my favorite episodes of the season!!! The end scene is legendary IMO haha it's just so beautiful.

 

[Vengeance]

This episode annoys me because you could tell the whole point of the episode was to make Tara "part of the gang." They wrote her family to be as unlikeable as possible so when they confront them in the end you're supposed to be happy they were thwarted so it really just felt forced to me.

 

[Chris2]

This episode annoys me because you could tell the whole point of the episode was to make Tara "part of the gang." They wrote her family to be as unlikeable as possible so when they confront them in the end you're supposed to be happy they were thwarted so it really just felt forced to me.

Tara's family were pretty unlikeable, true. In fact, that seems to be the case for a lot of families in the Buffyverse (Buffy's father bailed on her, Wesley's father was abusive, Xander's family were terrible, etc.) - almost makes me think Joss has some issues in this area :biggrin:. That said, I still like this episode quite a lot.

 

[saturn5]

Tara's family were pretty unlikeable, true. In fact, that seems to be the case for a lot of families in the Buffyverse (Buffy's father bailed on her, Wesley's father was abusive, Xander's family were terrible, etc.) - almost makes me think Joss has some issues in this area :biggrin:. That said, I still like this episode quite a lot.

I think there was more to it than that, it was the story of true love over blood. It didn't feel forced to me, Tara's family was unlikeable but then when we look at our girl it seems believable that she's the product of this upbringing

 

[Tome]

I never understood why Beth was siding with Tara's father and brother. Wasn't she lied to and abused also? I expected her to be surprised when Spike revealed the whole act. I guess she knew and didn't care? Whatever it is, it made me wonder.

 

[StarPrincess]

I never understood why Beth was siding with Tara's father and brother. Wasn't she lied to and abused also? I expected her to be surprised when Spike revealed the whole act. I guess she knew and didn't care? Whatever it is, it made me wonder.

I'm totally with you on that. I expected Beth to be completely shocked and say something like "Does that mean I'm not a demon either?" Then I thought she'd choose to stay with Tara.