Family

[VisionGirl]

I love this episode! We're dealing with double meanings here: Buffy moving home to take care of her family (Dawn & Joyce), Tara's blood kin coming to take her away, the Scoobies declaring Tara "family". I cried when Buffy said that and everyone else defended Tara, too. It was a twist, we don't really know who/what Tara is before that. And I loved Spike hitting Tara, LMAO! Still, the Briley stuff is disturbing. I know the relationship is going to hell, but it's hard to watch it happening, from Riley's POV. If it was Angel, you can beat your ass that Buffy would've told him what was going on. I do think it's sad that before the end none of the Scoobies have taken the time to know Tara very well. Willow and Tara are sooo adorable. Anya and Xander are cute, too.

Oh, and the demons with the forked tongues: it reminds me of some TV show where real people get their bodies altered to look like animals, and there's a guy with a forked tongue. Does anybody know what I'm talking about here? No? Just ignore me then....

Some of my favorite quotes:

Buffy: Well, this earns you a big favor. There could be outfits

Giles: You're in a magic shop, and you can't think what Tara would like. I believe you're both profoundly stupid.

 

[msfantastico87]

God I love this episode!!! Just the whole thing about Tara feeling like the outsider and the joke she makes that no one understands and then once she realizes her birthday is coming up, she knows her blood family is looking for her and decides that the scoobies would probably slay her before hearing her out. Then how Spike gets that brilliant plan to punch her to show she's not a demon, and Buffy saying she's FAMILY!!!!!! i mean come on, you can tell it's one of my favorite moments...it's on my siggie lol 😛

as for the people with forked tongues, yes I know exactly what you're talking about

 

[VisionGirl]

God I love this episode!!! Just the whole thing about Tara feeling like the outsider and the joke she makes that no one understands and then once she realizes her birthday is coming up, she knows her blood family is looking for her and decides that the scoobies would probably slay her before hearing her out. Then how Spike gets that brilliant plan to punch her to show she's not a demon, and Buffy saying she's FAMILY!!!!!! i mean come on, you can tell it's one of my favorite moments...it's on my siggie lol 😛

Your siggie reminds me of:

Giles: In fact if you want Tara, you have to go through every one of us.
Spike: [Holds up hand] Except me.
Xander: Except Spike.
Spike: I don't care what happens.

 

[msfantastico87]

lmao!! yes! for a very serious episode, there were some very funny quotes here

Spike is quite the detective though, after he punches her he then comes up with the conclusion that it's a made up folk tale to keep their women in check. bunch of d-bags if you ask me. no wonder they never showed back up in the show

 

[Bluebird]

Even though Joss is a great writer and all, and I love his other eps, this one doesn't really do anything for me. It's cool Tara gets a good ep for bringing her more into the gang, since she was still a bit of an outsider at this point, but overall the ep doesn't stand out.

 

[zobothehobo]

I love this episode. I always wished they'd be meaner to the dad for lying about the women in the family being demons so the men could make them be submissive. It just really pisses me off. But I love how they all accept Tara into the group... I know what Tara's feeling... I've felt it a lot and it's great to be accepted into a group you want to belong to but you don't feel like you do...

 

[sk]

Oh, and the demons with the forked tongues: it reminds me of some TV show where real people get their bodies altered to look like animals, and there's a guy with a forked tongue. Does anybody know what I'm talking about here? No? Just ignore me then....

I've always thought that the demons looks like evil clowns. 🙂

I like this episode, adorable ending.

/SK

 

[Icarium]

The problem of Family is that in order for the plot to work Tara and her mother must have been really, really stupid. They are the ones with the magic skills and knowledge - how come they just accept the word of Tara's dad about the demon-part of them? And how is Mr. Maclay supposed to control this "demon" anyway? Sure, it's a clear metaphor for domestic abuse, just like wiccan is a (rather clumsy) metaphor for a lesbian throughout the episode but for me in order for the metaphor to work the plot needs to work on the literal level too. I love the idea of the episode but the execution isn't all that good, IMO.

 

[dan k]

Buffy's line "We're Family" is all that's needed to make this episode brillant, such a great moment which makes you feel good and its typical Buffy.

---------- Post added at 01:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:36 AM ----------

Buffy's line "We're Family" is all that's needed to make this episode brillant, such a great moment which makes you feel good and its typical Buffy.

What's also great about the line is that it is unexpected. Previously in the episode Buffy doesn't seem bothered about Tara's birthday and confesses to not knowing much about her or having any sort of connection with her. To see Buffy come through for Tara was an even better moment because of what transpired in the episode.

 

[thevikingsgirl]

I love this episode. Tara and her mom weren't stupid. They were indoctrinated. There's a difference. People believe some really whacked out stuff when it's what they're raised to believe their whole lives. Some never break away (look at how cults work).

 

[Icarium]

Unlike people involved in cults, Tara her mother can actually check if they are part-demons or not. Your average cultist can't really do a spell to verify if the deity they worship exists or not.

Furthermore, in retrospect "we are family" turns out to be a rather empty message, considering the Scoobies are a million times closer to one another in S1-4 than in S5 and especially S6-7.

 

[Tome]

Furthermore, in retrospect "we are family" turns out to be a rather empty message, considering the Scoobies are a million times closer to one another in S1-4 than in S5 and especially S6-7.

I don't think it was an ''empty'' message at all. They were still close in S5. Maybe not as much as the first three seasons, but at the time it was perfectly right for Buffy to say that. It's in season 6 that they really started to get separated. When Buffy said that it also meant that they would stand for each other no matter what. Tara was part of them, and Tara's father, brother and cousin wouldn't have done that for her.

 

[dan k]

After Buffy says "We're family" her relationship with Tara only gets stronger with time. Ok so it might not be immediate but in season 6 Buffy goes to Tara and becomes quite attached to her. So i'd disagree it was an empty message.

 

[Icarium]

I don't think it was an ''empty'' message at all. They were still close in S5. Maybe not as much as the first three seasons, but at the time it was perfectly right for Buffy to say that.

That's why I said "in retrospect". At some point in S5 the show started relying on telling us about the great bond between the Scoobs instead of showing us. And quite often what it was telling us was contradicting what it was showing us - like Buffy supposedly loving Dawn more than anything, yet ignoring her or being annoyed by her for most of S6-7. Willow and Xander apparently having this great friendship which only comes up when it's needed as a plot point in Grave and is non-existent in most other episodes (like The Killer in Me where only Kennedy bothers to follow Willow-as-Warren because Xander and Buffy were too busy doing nothing).

 

[zobothehobo]

That's why I said "in retrospect". At some point in S5 the show started relying on telling us about the great bond between the Scoobs instead of showing us. And quite often what it was telling us was contradicting what it was showing us - like Buffy supposedly loving Dawn more than anything, yet ignoring her or being annoyed by her for most of S6-7. Willow and Xander apparently having this great friendship which only comes up when it's needed as a plot point in Grave and is non-existent in most other episodes (like The Killer in Me where only Kennedy bothers to follow Willow-as-Warren because Xander and Buffy were too busy doing nothing).

I love my sisters more than anything in the world. I would quickly and gladly give up my life for either one of them. But I ignore the hell out of them and they annoy me more than anything on Earth. They showed us Buffy loving Dawn like her sister.... which is what she was supposed to do.

 

[Washburne]

I love this episode. But it all comes down to Tara and the last 10 minutes of the episode. All in all it's not a great episode if I look at it with without my Tara glasses on. But as with Beer bad it isn't stopping me from liking it.

 

[Tillow4ever]

I LOVE this episode! It was the first time my heart jumped and sped up for Willow and Tara! The end was amazing! And I loved the part when Buffy said they were family! I cried when Willow was asking Tara if she wanted to leave. Then I was like "Ooo! Fiesty!" when Willow yelled at Mr. MaClay "I know that!" She looked evil, But I love that she was defending Tara! 😀 Lovely Ep!

 

[PassionBecoming]

WAtching this ep again and enjoying it! It makes the emotions go all over the place: I feel bad for Tara because her family is so awful, then get mad at her for doing the spell, feel really bad for Riley because Buffy continues to shut him out, feeling bad for Buffy because she has to give up yet one more thing because of her Slayer duties (college life).

The end makes me soooo happy though, with everyone standing up for Tara. Happy feelings. 🙂

---------- Post added at 08:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:07 PM ----------

Ooo, and at the very end: "Only losers drink alcohol" with many sheepish glances and cups being immediately put down. Heh heh.

 

[BuffyElevated]

Giles: You're in a magic shop, and you can't think what Tara would like. I believe you're both profoundly stupid.

This quote makes the whole episode for me. LMFAO

This is a sweet episode, and even though I can appreciate Buffy's statement that Tara was part of their group and considered one of the gang, I have to agree with Icarium on a lot of his points in this post. I felt like this was so forced... Here they are talking one minute about how "she's nice" but they don't know anything about her except "she likes Willow". I have a lot of friends that I think are nice and know one or two things they like, but I wouldn't go out of my way to step in between them and their cult-like weirdo family. :\ Again, I felt like it was a nice gesture to stand up for her, but to call Tara family when up until that point no one besides Willow really ever interacted with her seemed very silly to me.

 

[nightshade]

I don't get the cousin, did she know it was all made up or did she believe that she was a demon as well.