Buffy ep by ep; WEIGHT OF THE WORLD

[saturn5]

THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD

The Good;
The dream sequence is wonderful, nice scene between Doc and Xander/Spike too. Love the forgetting Glory joke.

The Bad;
Very much a standing still sort of ep but hinting at better things to come. If Doc could tell that Joyce had good DNA from a hair off Dawn's head then surely he'd realise she was the Key? (Glory can tell it by tasting Tara's blood)

Best line;
Dawn "I want to go home" (AAAAWWWWWW!)

Women good/men bad;

Jeez!;
Dawn hostage is horrible. Buffy in her dream smothering Dawn is UTTERLY horrible! Killing Dawn is unthinkable.

Kinky dinky;
Spike says he thinks Buffy likes it rough. How right he will be proved to be!

Captain Subtext;
Again Glory seems to have some genuine rapport/attraction with her Key. Glory says that she and Dawn need 'Girl time' and 'big girl fun'.

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: 16
Giles: 10
Cordy: 6
Xander: 8
Will: 5
Jenny: 2
Angel: 6
Oz: 3
Faith: 1
Joyce: 3
Wes: 1
Anya;1

Kills:
Buffy: 94 vamps, 32 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot
Giles: 5 vamps, 1 demon
Cordy: 3 vamps, ½ a demon
Will: 6 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: 10
Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce

Sunnydale deaths;
89;

Total number of scoobies: 6
Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Tara,

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
Riley; 3; Buffy, Sandy and unnamed vampwhore

Questions and observations;
Different little Buffy this time and I think she's a much better match, if you've ever seen the burger ads she really does resemble 6 year old SMG. Lovely to see Joyce and Hank again, lovely to see the first meeting between Buffy and Dawn and what she means to Buffy. We see Glory try to bring her worldly goods with her to her home dimension, humanity working on demons once again. Willow in charge once more foretelling season 6. Glory actually uses Dawn's catchphrase 'Get out!'
So Ben, good guy, bad guy? Hard to judge but ultimately a bad guy with some sympathetic qualitities. Maybe in the end Ben is influenced by his Glory side to be evil?
Marks out of 10; 7/10

 

[CrystalW187]

Am watching this one now. Personally, I find the whole Catatonic!Buffy thing kind of hokey. I think this is one of the weaker episodes of the season, but it does have some good moments.

One observation: In the scene with Spike and Xander at the Doc's place, Spike grabs the red chest out of the fire. With how flammable vampires are in the Buffyverse, you'd think he'd have gone up in flames.

My favorite line:
Spike: Is everyone here very stoned?!

 

[ubi4soft]

So do we suspect there's a connection between Ben and Glory?

 

[Chris2]

Yes, obviously. But what kind of connection?

 

[saturn5]

One observation: In the scene with Spike and Xander at the Doc's place, Spike grabs the red chest out of the fire. With how flammable vampires are in the Buffyverse, you'd think he'd have gone up in flames.

Like vamp strength it seems to vary, Darla and Dru seem to spend a long time on fire in Redefinition and Angel does the same in 'In the Dark'

 

[LyteHouse]

Another excellent summary saturn5, I really enjoy reading these. =)

Personally, I find the whole Catatonic!Buffy thing kind of hokey. I think this is one of the weaker episodes of the season, but it does have some good moments.

I'm pretty sure that Sarah was on location filiming Scooby Doo when this episode was being shot. I think the whole episode was crafted to cover the fact that she wasn't actually available for much of the shooting schedule!

One observation: In the scene with Spike and Xander at the Doc's place, Spike grabs the red chest out of the fire. With how flammable vampires are in the Buffyverse, you'd think he'd have gone up in flames.

Like vamp strength it seems to vary, Darla and Dru seem to spend a long time on fire in Redefinition and Angel does the same in 'In the Dark'

Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always believed that in the Buffyverse, vampires grow stronger the longer they are around. This explains why Angel, Spike, Dru, Darla and The Master are much more powerful than regular 'new-born' vampires.

They can also take a lot more punishment from sunlight and fire which would kill a n00b vamp instantly.

Or something. =/

 

[GrrArghx]

I like the whole catatonic thing. It was interesting. I love this ep 🙂

 

[saturn5]

Another excellent summary saturn5, I really enjoy reading these. =)




I'm pretty sure that Sarah was on location filiming Scooby Doo when this episode was being shot. I think the whole episode was crafted to cover the fact that she wasn't actually available for much of the shooting schedule!





Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always believed that in the Buffyverse, vampires grow stronger the longer they are around. This explains why Angel, Spike, Dru, Darla and The Master are much more powerful than regular 'new-born' vampires.

They can also take a lot more punishment from sunlight and fire which would kill a n00b vamp instantly.

Or something. =/

Thanks you're too kind. And yes you're right, Khakistos and The Master seem to suggest the longer a vamp survives the tougher and more powerful they become

 

[Eleftheria]

This episode is really great and I think Buffy proves her love for a sister that actually never existed in the past. She loves her and protects her from practically everyone! But in the end I felt sorry for her nervous breakdown. She did everything she could and Glory suddenly appears. Ben/Glory is a very interesting theme btw!

 

[faeriegrrl27]

Buffy so matter of factly killing Dawn is awful. I love how Willow's finally, just like "Get over it!"

...do we think there's some sort of connection between Ben and Glory?

 

[Chris2]

I thought the catatonia seemed a bit contrived, as though they didn't have enough plot left for two whole episodes and needed to fill up some time before the finale. The glimpses inside Buffy's head were still quite interesting though.

 

[crazysoulless]

I really loved the catatonia though I thought it could have been handled better.

Buffy had so much stress and was burdened with so much responsibility ontop of the heartbreak and isolation and misery she felt. She was in a very vulnerable state after her mother's death and believing that her daughter/sister was good as dead was too much for her to handle. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I completely believed that she would feel an abundance of guilt because for literally two seconds she wanted Dawn to be taken so that it was over. It reminded me of on S5 of Lost when Kate admits that when she thought Aaron was kidnapped part of her was horrified while another part was almost relieved because she spent the past three years in anxiety knowing that someday sometime it would happen. Buffy spent months fearing that Glory or the Knights of Byzantine would take Dawn from her. She didn't tell her friends that Dawn was The Key until Blood Ties even though she found out back in No Place Like Home.

Buffy dreaming that she was smothering Dawn with a pillow was her brain and emotions channeling her guilt and false sense of wrongdoing. She believed that she hadn't done everything in her power to stop Glory even though she had. She believed that it was her fault Dawn got taken and that Dawn would die. Thus, she believed she killed Dawn.

Glory to Buffy: She's sassy (Dawn). And I'll kill her. I'll kill your mom and I'll kill your friends and I'll make you watch while I do it. You know you can't kill me. You know you can't stop me. The next time we meet something you love dies horribly.

One of the most moving scenes in the entire series for me happens in this episode. It is when Buffy wakes up from the catatonia and bursts into tears. 🙁