Buffy ep by ep; SHADOW-snakes and surgery

[saturn5]

SHADOW

The Good;
Glory's minions are hysterical. The giant snake is a lot better than what we see in Graduation Day 2 and Band Candy. All the Buffy/Dawn/Joyce scenes are fantastic beyond belief.

The Bad;
Not much although you continue to feel for Riley.

Best line;
Willow; "Tomb-go-boom!"

Women good/men bad;
Riley cheats on Buffy.

Jeez!;
Not an ep for you if you suffer from Ophidiophobia

Kinky dinky;
Riley get's some vamp action/snuff. Spike takes his stalking of Buffy to a new level, sniffing her sweater and stealing a pair of Buffy's skimpy pink frilly undies as Riley kicks him out. Dawn tells Riley Buffy cries a lot less with him about, she means well but this isn't what he wants to hear. Giles appears quite taken with Glory, can't blame him with her in that red leather dress. Xander also gives her the once-over

Captain Subtext;
Check out the little look Willow gives Xander when he eyes up Glory, there's still something there. When Xander and Riley have their heart to heart Xander asks Riley "What kind of action are you looking for?" Ohhh matron! Dawn is quite the screamer (she could have been a Classic Dr Who companion) and one could say that this is Buffy protecting her virginal teenage sister from the threat of a huge phallic snake? Sitting astride it and restraining it with a chain.

Guantanamo Bay;

Scoobies to the ER;
Buffy needs an ice pack after Glory smacks her around.

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: Riley kills Sandy, Buffy kills the snake demon
Buffy: 86 vamps, 31 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; 18 vamps + 7 demons

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;
83;

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: Should we count Riley and Sandy as a sexual act?
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
Riley; 2; Buffy and Sandy

Questions and observations;
Aleister Crowley was a famous British occultist/satanist who coined the phrase 'Do what thou wilt shall be the only law'. Xander refers to Riley as Captain America who was also a goverment supersoldier. Joyce has a cellphone, about time one of the Sunnydale Scoobies did. The Sunnydale Zoo again. Another lovely Xander/Riley scene. Note when Riley goes to see Buffy after being with Sandy he wears a high necked sweater to cover the bite marks.

Marks out of 10; 7/10

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

ahahaha I love Glory's minions. But I don't like the big snake. I'm scared of snakes :S

Riley and that vamp whore. The worst thing in the whole show. I really never like that.

I love Xander/Riley scenes. Riley is the only Buffy's boyfriend Xander loved.

8/10

 

[thevikingsgirl]

I did like the Riley/vamp story line, mostly because I've always wondered about that type of thing in the Buffyverse. In most vampire stories, there are people who give blood willingly to vampires, and vampires who don't kill their victims. The first time I can think of we see that at all in Buffy is with Dracula, which doesn't really count since he's set up as being very different from other vamps. So this answered my question about that. Though I can see the sex appeal of the vampire myth in general, the bumpy faces would kill it for me though.

I also thought it was a natural progression for Riley. He started out so black and white about demons. Demons are bad; you kill them. Then he finds out his girlfriend, the Slayer, is hanging around, however unhappily, with Hostile 17 & not killing him; that his friend Willow's boyfriend is a werewolf and he is clearly a good guy; that Buffy's ex is a vampire. It seems natural to me that he would feel the need to explore that world some, especially with how unhappy he is with Buffy shutting him out all the time.

 

[saturn5]

Another suggestion is that Spike is right, Slayers needs a little demon in their men and that Riley was trying to get a taste of it to understand

 

[thevikingsgirl]

Personally, I think Spike was right about Buffy. You can probably tell that 🙂

 

[faeriegrrl27]

Kind of an alright ep. Not great. Can't wait for Riley to leave. Although the part when he catches Spike in Buffy's room is pretty hilarious.

 

[Vengeance]

This is an alright episode, I laugh every time at Glory's minions but not a fan of Riley and his vamps. Question though, everybody seems to get down on Giles for selling Glory what she needed for her spell, but if he had refused to sell it to her, wouldn't she have just started tearing up the place and taken them anyway? Isn't what happened the best result you could hope for (ie. nobody actually got hurt)?