Feeling like something of a third wheel at Scooby meetings, Tara is starting to withdraw into herself again. But there is a deeper-seated worry that the others don’t know about but which her family have arrived to take her away from.

It’s difficult to know where to start with this episode, consisting as it does of a lot of different characters doing a lot of different things. It’s mainly a Tara episode, explaining why she is frequently reticent and why she stopped Willow’s spell working last year. It shows the pair’s relationship a little more closely than it had been before, which is good, and we meet Tara’s controlling family.

Meanwhile, Spike is still trying to get used to his recent discovery, Glory is starting to make her presence felt, Anya is finding her niche, Buffy is dealing with her new mission to protect Dawn and Riley is getting pushed out. What’s odd is that despite everything going on, the episode does begin to drag as it doesn’t have much of a plot of its own. The way it builds everyone’s story gradually is admirable, but there should still be a central focus and Tara’s story doesn’t hold the attention, meandering about and reaching a complete non-conclusion. Admittedly the way her heritage is uncovered is neat and rather fun, but there’s too much of nothing going on.

Glory herself is a puzzle. She is apparently embarrassed to have even wasted her time fighting Buffy, and sends demons to kill her. If she’s below her interest and little threat, why did she even bother? Conversely, if she wanted Buffy dead, why not send someone more effective? The only thing that gives them an edge is their invisibility and this is caused by Tara’s spell. Once more, there’s no clear motivation for what she does.

There’s a danger of falling into the same trap as last year here, where several episodes went nowhere at the expense of furthering the arc, having no plot of their own. Previous seasons have managed to get the balance right, but more recently there seem to have been problems. We need more standalone stories, maybe with a couple of things happening in the background. But we’ll just have to see how it goes…

***

Would you like to go to the Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Five guide, head back to the main TV reviews page, read older reviews in the Reviews Archive or return to the front page?