Buffy ep by ep; THE WISH

saturn5

Scooby
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
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937
The Wish

The Good;
All of it! Just wonderful! Great reveal of Anya the demon and the action sequences especially

The Bad;
Surely in vampdominated Sunnydale people would prefer to let their kids drive home from SDH?

Best line;
Buffy; Your logic is not like our earth logic

Wheldon Cliches;

Character death;
Everyone except Giles, Larry, Harmony and Oz. But then thankfully they're all alive again. Cordy's death is particularly disturbing. Of course the obvious question is what about all the people who died in the proper Buffyverse? It would have been a nice touch if Jenny, Jessie and Principle Flutie were still alive at SDH, if Nancy was actually Theresa from Phases. And of course if Buffy never died in the Master's pool then Kendra is still alive too

Shot;
VampXander is hit by Buffy's crossbow

Tied up;
Angel in chains

Knocked out;
Giles and Oz

Women good/men bad;
If anything with Vampwillow we see femalekind at it's worse. The way Harmony and co treat Cordy is horrible, you really feel for her but I guess it's revenge for her 'Sheep' speech.

Kinky dinky;
Where do you begin? PVC-clad VampWillow plays no-safety-word S&M sex games with 'Puppy' whilst leatherclad vampXander watches. Buffy thinks the hero worship that everyone shows her in Sunnydale is a 'get in my pants thing'.

Calling Captain Subtext;
vampWillow has obvious lesbian overtones (her killing of both Cordy and the Master's victim is almost akin to snuff). However she still digs Xander and Angel so it's still more than likely she's bi rather than gay.

Guantanamo Bay;
Plenty of torture but only by the bad guys

Questions and observations
Staggeringly brilliant in every way and anyone who doesn't think so should be locked up as a danger to themselves and others. Great ending too, cool, touching and funny, wonderful music. Plus Jonathon AND Larry, great.
What is the Mayor doing in Master dominated Sunnydale? And the Initiative? Where are Darla and Luke, killed by the White Hat's? Where are Hank and Joyce? Who is the Watcher Giles talks to on the telephone? Wesley? Sam Zebuto (Kendra's Watcher)? Gwendoline Post? Giles refers to demonic activity in Cleveland which will be referenced in Chosen as Giles says there's a 2nd Hellmouth there (presumably inactive?) We always knew Buffy was an exceptional Slayer and that the Watcher's found her late but here we see that without Giles and the Scoobies' help she ends up battlehardened, emotionally cut off and with the Slayer deathwish, just like all the others. Interesting to compare 'The Wish' Buffy with Faith (and what's happening to her in the Wishverse?)
And here's Anya, no sign as yet that she'll become a major character and appear in the opening credits.
Now, where does the Wishverse lie in the continuity of things? I figure it's a dead end, a right angle to the real timestream that stops dead at the moment Giles smashes the pendant. Of course what happens if the Wishverse had continued? Well with all respect to Kendra I don't see her lasting that long leaving it to Faith to defeat The Master. So that would mean that Dawn is Faith's sister, Giles her Watcher, a grieving Joyce and Hank surrogate parents to both LeHane girls and Larry, Oz, Harmony and Amy as the Scoobygang? Would that make Spike the PTB's souled-vamp champion, just try picturing him and Doyle as a team. Interesting to wonder, huh?
Once read a great fanfic where all the Scoobys are vamps but this meant that the valiant Darla was the Slayer and The Mayor, Adam, a human Spike and Dru, Glory and the Nerds were all good guys and made up her alternate Scooby Gang. It says a lot for the depth of character Joss gives his villains that the concept actually worked really well, that they all could have been heroes if things had taken a different path. Backwardsworld, a Buffy: The Vampire Slayer fanfic - FanFiction.Net
Actually Cordy has dated Jonathon before or at least let him buy her a muffin at the Bronze in Inca Mummy Girl. We hear the gang go on about how Faith has become more and more distant since the events of Revalations, Buffy has sympathy for her and we later see she wouldn't have been too different to her under other circumstances. You have to agree with Oz turning Will down, he's right as to her motivations. You note that although things are bad in SD the Harvest wasn't the end of the world it was advertised to be, the rest of the world goes on pretty much unaffected. How do they dispose of all the demon bodies they leave lying around?
Legend has it there's a girl looking just like Faith amongst the prisoners at the Factory. Eliza Dushku however has stated at a convention that this definitely isn't her, she wasn't even on set that day. Popular explanation is that this is her stand in/stunt double earning some spare cash as an extra.
10/10 and a whole lot more.
 
I just love it when they do alternate realities. Willow is a knock out as a Vampire and it's one of those times when Xander is actually cool. As I have said before in another post this and Dopplegangland are my ultimate favourites.
 
Kinky dinky;
Where do you begin? PVC-clad VampWillow plays no-safety-word S&M sex games with 'Puppy' whilst leatherclad vampXander watches. Buffy thinks the hero worship that everyone shows her in Sunnydale is a 'get in my pants thing'.

Oh god, that definitely was like a trainwreck to watch! Uber sexy VampWillow makes me uncomfortable, but in a good way.

An alternative universe episode was a refreshing break from the plot. A+
 
This is my favourite episode, with Doppleganger being a very close second. Actually its hard to pick!

Emma Caulfield shines in this. I think her character was supposed to be a one off thing but she proved popular so they bought her back and we're very glad they did.
 
Fantastic ep, Anya as a character isn't that great yet but Emma Caulfield as an actress must have made a great impression on Joss. Don't you love it when a series takes a minor character and eventually makes them a regular?
 
Good episode. 🙂 VampWillow and VampXander were hot, especially Xander, he wears evil well. 😀

Buffy was still pretty annoying, only in a cold- hearted I'm- so- cool bitca way, instead of her usual way... 😀

I felt really bad for Cordy though, like when she was thrown into the garbage. Just goes to show you that you need more than stunning beauty to be popular. 🙂

The vamps putting that girl on a tray and sticking those things into her was possibly the freakiest thing I've ever seen.

Anya was fun, I'm glad she became a regular character. 😀
 
To Me In This Episode Buffy Acted Alot Like Faith, Whatcha Think?
 
To Me In This Episode Buffy Acted Alot Like Faith, Whatcha Think?

Yeah, it's interesting that early on in the ep Buffy expresses sympathy with Faith, saying that slaying is a rough gig and that she only get's by thanks to Joyce and the Scoobs. When we see her later we see that's very true, without her family and friends Buffy is just like Faith
 
Oh the Wish is one of my favorite eps. I love the alternate reality, love 'scary' getting back on track Cordy and I really love alt. universe Buffy. It's a fun twist to see how badly it could have gone for them, very bitter sweet to see them all die at the end, and finally perfect relief to have them all saved at the last moment of course

oh and introduction of Anya, yay 😀
 
A fave episode of mine. I love that Larry is a demon fighter, I had high hopes he would become a scoobie. Also Buffy fighting demons in Cleveland is pretty cool since it seems to have it's own Hellmouth. 😀
It's nice to see how important the core group really are to each other. Willow and Xander wouldn't have lived without Buffy, and she would have been a much darker person without them.
 
A fave episode of mine. I love that Larry is a demon fighter, I had high hopes he would become a scoobie. Also Buffy fighting demons in Cleveland is pretty cool since it seems to have it's own Hellmouth. 😀
It's nice to see how important the core group really are to each other. Willow and Xander wouldn't have lived without Buffy, and she would have been a much darker person without them.

Yeah, plenty of fanfic out there where Xander dies and Larry (or Jonathon or Warren or Forrest) takes over his role in the Scoobygang. In fact whenever you have any character killed in fanfic there's always someone else to take their place, Harmony for Cordy, Doyle for Giles etc
I think it's in Fool for Love where Spike tells Buffy why she's different to all the rest, that it's her friends and family that make her survive past all the other Slayers. You could say that her full frontal assault on the factory is suicide by cop, she wants to die so she stages this kamakazie attack
 
Good episode. 🙂 VampWillow and VampXander were hot, especially Xander, he wears evil well. 😀

I love love love VampXander. He should be bad more often 😉

This episode is one of my favourites - for all the reasons above and because I generally love seeing any well-known characters becoming an alternate version of themselves. It also fascinates me how one single person, or event can change the world so drastically. It's such a great idea 🙂
 
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