Season Five Episode Reviews

5X22    The Gift 
Plot: Buffy must stop Glory from killing Dawn and destroying the universe.

Another spectacular season ending final battle with some great pathos thrown in as well.  As always there's a few cop-outs thrown in that slightly undermine the quality of the episode: Glory opening the Portal has gone from destroying the universe in "Spiral" to letting a few demons through before Dawn dies here;  Buffy's inane refusal to kill Dawn to save the universe; Everyone conveniently forgets about all these powerful weapons lying around the Magic Shop until the final battle;  Tara gets miraculously cured with no side effects.  That said, it's a spectacular finish, and a great battle.  The elaborate use of weapons against Glory is extremely cool, and manages to overcome her power.  Giles killing Ben in cold blood is a spectacular scene and I applaud Giles' actions.  There's also something to be said for Buffy slamming Glory with the hammer over and over and over...  It's surprising that the Portal actually did get open, and even moreso that all these demons came through, that it's a tragically safe assumption that this will not lead to the public learning of the paranormal in spite of all that happened.  Buffy's final sacrifice is of course incredibly touching and sad, despite the fact that she'll obviously get resurrected the next episode.

5X21    The Weight of the World 
Plot: Willow helps Buffy escape her catatonic state; Glory holds Dawn hostage.

Suffers as an interim episode, but still very good.  Buffy's catatonia really doesn't work.  Why does this affect her so much, as opposed to having to kill Angel in "Becoming 2"?  Just feels like an excuse to hold off the final fight for another episode.  Ben and Glory arguing was interesting enough, and finally we get some more definitive information on their relationship.  All the stuff with Dawn escaping and getting recaptured again just feels like filler.  Interesting plot twist brining back Doc as a Glory minion!

5X20    Spiral 
Plot: Buffy and company flee Sunnydale but are pursued by the Knights.

Easily the best episode yet this season, it's astonishing packed full of amazing action sequences and revelations!  The Glory chase sequence in the Teaser was just absolutely amazing (though once again dozens of civvies witness the paranormal- how is this being kept secret?!!).  The gang actually flees town in the face of the threat, which is spectacular and should have been done last season.  The gang in an RV was very funny.  The Knights finally arrive en masse, which should have happened sooner.  The Knights besieging the speeding RV on horseback was an absolutely beautiful and engrossing action sequence, one of the things they've done.  Giles getting stabbed in the gut is a shocker.  Buffy kills humans here without compunction, which is so odd given the big rules against that earlier in the series!  The gang hiding in the abandoned gas station with the entire Knight army outside is another spectacular event.  And thanks to General Gregor we *finally* get the whole story on Glory/Ben: Glory grew powerful so her fellow Gods attacked her first and stuck her in a mortal newborn (Ben), and Glory will die when Ben dies.  Buffy calling in Ben is another shocking plot twist, and when he turns into Glory it is just totally dread-inducing.  Glory finally gets her hands on Dawn, and takes out an entire Knight army, absolutely amazing.  While season wasted far too much time getting into the Glory arc, now that it's finally in there it's absolutely fabulous.  Too bad the only thing they have to do to stop Glory is kill Ben too, that's just too easy!

5X19    Tough Love 
Plot: Glory goes after Tara thinking she's the Key, bringing down Willow's wrath.

Stellar episode full of shocking events that greatly move the plot forward.  Buffy quitting school and Dawn threatening to get taken away because of poor grades was involving stuff.  Ben getting fired for absences also carries a tragic note if it's true that he's an innocent human who got Glory stuck in him.  Willow and Tara's first fight was also great stuff, and my appreciation for Tara just continues to grow, this is definitely her best showing as a character thus far.  The Glory/Tara scene was absolutely chilling, Glory gleefully crushes her hand while everyone walks around them, totally involving and creepy.  And I was absolutely shocked when Tara got the brain-suck!  Having Tara as a nutso is an incredibly tragic and shocking twist, though I'm sure she'll be fine when Glory gets axed.  Willow going after Glory with all sorts of new magic tricks was another stellar scene.  We have never before seen Willow come close to this kind of power, and it was absolutely amazing!  Super-Willow versus a Hell God!  Plus Buffy finally gets in a tussle with Glory again.  And the final scene, where Glory tears down the wall of a house to expose Buffy, Willow, Dawn, and Tara, and then Tara reveals Dawn is the Key, is just an absolute shocker, especially coming at the end like that.  Totally shocking, especially since there's three episodes left!  Things are moving now!  But what happened to the Knights!

5X18    Intervention 
Plot: Glory captures Spike thinking he's the Key; Spike gets his robo-Buffy; Buffy goes on a spiritual quest.

First truly enjoyable episode since "Blood Ties", and it's about damn time they start directly dealing with Glory!  And even better they finally stopped harping on the Joyce stuff.  Buffy's concern about loosing her humanity, and visiting the First Slayer out in the desert was all extremely cool with some beautiful location filming.  It's great when they actually deal with the mysticism of Slayers and Watchers.  While I don't appreciate the robot crap, Robo-Buffy was absolutely hilarious and really made the episode a lot of fun.  The gang's reaction to thinking Buffy was screwing Spike was very funny as well.  And it's great that the Robo-Buffy plot interacted with the Glory plot.  Spike getting tortured by Glory was extremely cool (gasp! she actually does something!), and Spike refusing to give up Dawn makes me think for the first time that he shouldn't he shouldn't be immediately staked on sight anymore (as long as Glory is around that is).  They better not pair Buffy and Spike for real though!  With Robo-Buffy hanging around deactivated, it could make for a powerful ally in the final showdown with Glory.  The only real missed opportunity here was that Buffy and Robo-Buffy didn't get to interact that much.

5X17    Forever 
Plot: Dawn attempts to ressurect Joyce; Glory learns the Key is human.

Not much to recommend.  I'm sick of seeing all this Joyce funeral garbage, once again the Glory Plot gets stuck in the distant background.  Not to mention the tackiness of Dawn resurrecting Joyce; about the only worthwhile part of this plot was Dawn destroying the image just before she arrived.  The demon beast looked very cheesy, and they made resurrection *way* too easy.  Angel making a cameo was stupendous, logical, touching, and totally unexpected, the highlight of the episode.  Ben accidentally lets slip that the Key is human, but he can't even properly kill Jinx before he tells Glory.  Why didn't he just cut his head off or something?!  Maybe something can actually happen now...

5X15    I Was Born to Love You 
Plot: A robot girl comes to town looking for her creator.

A robot love slave?! This is one of the weaker concepts they've done recently, and once again we get stuck with a throw away episode in the midst of the Glory plot.  Not good.  Too much fluff.  It's all quite forgettable, but even worse is the suggestion that Spike is going to get a Robo-Buffy (more robo-crap?!).  This is just getting embarrassing.  At least there were a few bits with Spike getting kicked out and Glory plotting.  Two romance driven episodes in a row is just really too much.  Not to mention Buffy apparently getting smitten with Xander!

5X14    Crush 
Plot:  Buffy learns Spike is in love with her; Drusilla comes for Spike.

A whole episode devoted to Spike's sick obsession with Buffy really feels like a waste.  Even Drusilla finally returning to Sunnydale is a totally wasted opportunity, she doesn't use her hypnotic powers against Buffy or anything.  Very disappointing!  This Spike thing is really getting drawn out too much, and it seems like no end is in sight.  And at this stage in the game it's inexplicable that Glory doesn't appear; she threatened to go after Buffy's friends and family two episodes now and still hasn't delivered on that promise!

5X13    Blood Ties 
Plot: Dawn discovers she is the Key and encounters Glory.

Great episode, though it felt pretty padded, not a lot happened in it.  Dawn learning she is the Key was a big move of course, and her reaction to it was pretty heart breaking, even though Buffy and Joyce totally mishandled the situation by ignoring her and not expressing their love for her.  Glory turning out to be Ben was an absolute left-field shocker plot twist!  Man I did not see that coming, but in retrospect it explains a lot and raises a lot more questions.  This whole situation between Glory, her demon monks, the Order Knights, the Dagon monks, Dawn/The Key, Ben, and Buffy is developing into one hell of a situation.  At first I was very disappointed in the final fight with Glory, though in retrospect I think she was weakened by forcing the possession of Ben so it's okay.  The teleportation spell was interesting, though not using it again is a bit of a cop-out.  Buffy's bastard birthdays continue.

5X12    Counterpoint 
Plot: The Watchers Council visits with information on Glory; Glory tracks down Buffy.

Excellent episode though heavy on the setup.  It's an absolute delight to see the Watchers Council again, and their interfere in Buffy's life, but most of all Buffy's confrontation with them at the end.  She's really demonstrated how mature and powerful she is there.  And Giles is a Watcher again!  Cool!  The Watchers questioning Buffy's friends was a hoot.  Glory confronting Buffy in her house was totally shocking and majorly creepy, especially when Dawn walks in on them.  I don't see how Buffy is going to get out of this one without some major collateral damage (perhaps THIS is why Tara isn't a regular?  She's about to be killed by Glory?).  The mystery of Glory and Ben continues to get more interesting, especially given the shocking revelation that Glory is a God.  And the introduction of the Knights of Byzantium was another shocker, presumably they'll be future allies though I wonder how useful these mere humans can be.

5X11    Triangle 
Plot: Willow and Anya accidently release a troll who goes amok about town.

A light-weight throw away comedy, but entertaining.  The whole troll plot was pretty forgettable though the troll had some very funny lines.  I'm delighted to see Buffy isn't all depressed and mopey and instead they're using it for comedy.  It's great to see supporting characters get major screen time, I especially loved having the curious dislike between Willow and Anya explained and resolved.  It's also great to see Giles consulting the Watchers Council over Glory; hopefully this will lead to their involvement in the rest of the season.  Dawn discovering part of the truth about herself made for yet another great shocking ender.  Hopefully things will start picking very soon; the season is halfway over and we've only seen the Big Bad three times so far!

5X10    Into the Woods 
Plot:  Buffy and Riley break up when she discovers his vamp addiction.

Some nice tragic romance, though it's way too talky.  The whole Buffy-Riley thing was played out great, and over the course of this season I've actually come to like Riley and despite his addiction find him a sympathetic character.  He got the short end of this deal, and it really was Buffy's fault for the whole thing (though the addiction is pretty unforgivable).  I particularly liked Xander's showing of maturity with Buffy and Anya.  I was shocked that Riley actually left at the end, can't wait to see what comes next as always!  Joyce is surprisingly going to be perfectly fine, and I'm disappointed it became such a non-issue so quickly.  Are they setting up a Buffy-Spike romance now?!

5X9    Listening to Fear 
Plot:  A demon crashes to Earth and hunts the insane victims of Glory.

The first sub-par episode of the season but still good.  The demon bad guy was the worst one in a very long time and the whole alien crashing to Earth thing really didn't help either.  This whole episode just felt like filler.  Joyce having crazy spells is just getting painful to watch and not in a good way, they better wrap this up very soon.  Dawn is starting to question herself, good.  Riley is letting himself get drained... does he want to become a vamp or what?  Strange.  I like that Riley called in the government troops again, especially for a possible alien.  That final plot twist that Ben the Intern is connected to Glory and cleaning up her mess was a hell of a shocker though I'm still not crazy about the character.  Joyce realizing Dawn wasn't her daughter but something special to be protected was interesting.

5X8    Shadow 
Plot: Glory summons a cobra demon to locate The Key; Joyce has a brain tumor.

Pretty good standalone-arc-connected episode.  Great to see a more substantial Glory presence; the fawning demon monk was hilarious with her, though it's a shame we didn't any more insanity scenes.  The Joyce medical stuff was certainly tragic and moving but I certainly hope this doesn't go on long because medical drama is just not why I watch this show and I traditional despise them... but I have faith that Joss is going to turn it around quickly.  Riley and Dawn made for a very interesting (and sweet) combo.  Obviously Buffy and Riley leading towards cheating on each other (Buffy with Ben the intern!), though Riley letting himself be bitten by a vamp is just inexplicable to me unless he suddenly has a death wish- I don't see how it could be like cheating unless again he has a death wish- and isn't he going to have a scar from this?  The cobra demon was particularly cool, he really made the episode.  The CGI work was stellar and the animatronics were good too.  I loved the slithering motion and I was shocked when he actually found Dawn.  Buffy and Giles chasing him in the car down main street while people flee was incredibly cool and exciting (though doesn't this blow the whole demon/Slayer secret identity thing!  Hello!), as was Buffy's fight with the cobra.  This reminds me of the cool (and BIG!) demons from Season Three, good work!

5X7    Fool For Love 
Plot: Spike tells Buffy about his past as a vampire.

Great episode!  I've always wanted to see the origins of Spike and these flashbacks are wonderful, and the entire episode is a brilliant character analysis of Spike that really fleshes him out.  Also the talk about the nature of a Slayer was absolutely wonderful, and the intercuting of Spike fighting the 2nd Slayer and Buffy while lecturing her was just brilliant.  Great to see Angelus, Darla, Drusilla, and Spike and their history, I've always been very curious about this.  The slimy-horned demon was hilarious, as was Xander Willow and Anya ruining Riley's patrolling.  I was shocked when Buffy got stabbed!  The dialogue really shines in this episode, and Spike finally gets something to do.  Of course I'm disappointed that Drusilla didn't actually arrive in present time after all the buildup about the two hour event.  The fight with the Chinese Slayer was particularly excellent stuntwork.  The ending where Spike comforts Buffy over her mother was incredibly touching.

5X6    Family 
Plot: Tara's family arrives to reveal her secret; Glory sicks demons after Buffy.

Very disappointing episode!  Nothing really happens with Glory and Tara's revelation is the most anti-climactic joke I've ever heard!  This is just a big empty tease of an episode like "Out of My Mind"!  While Tara's past was certainly interesting and sympathic, and the last act was very touching, I was just really expecting something more important than 'she thought she was a demon but she wasn't'.  Oh well.  Xander and Riley wrestling was funny (and sweet after 503).  The entire gang defending Tara against her family was very sweet, especially given how Xander and Buffy feel so awkward around her.  Glory makes a brief but interesting appearance.  The final Willow/Tara dance was very sweet.

5X5    No Place Like Home 
Plot:  An ancient evil comes to town and Dawn's secret is revealed.

Wow.  Great moving episode that really establishes the season arc.  The stuff with the Czech monks was very mystical and cool.  Buffy's trance was a great sequence, from the look to the music to Buffy realizing that Dawn isn't her sister.  Dawn hasn't been here long but she's fit in very quickly, and Buffy learning is really moving and shocking.  The Beast was very, very intriguing- her cryptic talk really hints to a lot and I like the fact that she just wants to return home, and the schizo insanity thing.  However it's going to take some getting used to for a female Big Bad, though I suppose it makes sense in the long run.  The scene where she goes nuts yelling at the monk was great, love the non-continuitous editing and "tuffet" reference.  Buffy's fight with The Beast was incredible- she was really strong!  I like it!  The monk's dying words to Buffy telling her about Dawn was an incredibly moving scene, epic and touching from Buffy's new duty to the danger facing them.  Giles' magic shop opening made for a nice little comedic subplot- especially Giles in that ridiculous wizard outfit!  So now Spike is stalking Buffy... is this ever going to go somewhere important?  The final scene where Buffy shows affection to Dawn was really sweet, great ending.

5X4    Out of My Mind 
Plot: Riley's medical condition fails from his Intiative engineering; Spike attempts to have his chip removed.

A real tease of an episode promising big things but ultimately delivering on little.  I was so excited about Spike FINALLY being bad again so I was incredibly pissed when the surgery didn't work.  That would have completely validated having Spike as a regular character, he could take the terrorizing Angelus route and be a real threat.  Spike teaming up with Harmony was good for a few laughs, and the final twist of Spike now being infatuated with Buffy was just.... weird.  The Riley plot was another big letdown.  While it's interesting that he had super powers all along, and this explains why he can survive fighting, it calls into question why other normal humans like Gunn on Angel can do this too.  It's interesting that he was willing to risk death rather than become normal and out of Buffy's interest.  Buffy's speech to him was surprisingly touching- but notice she never said that she loved him!  So Riley was right in last episode.  It was nice to see a brief return of the Initiative/government and Graham.  Joyce briefly realizes Dawn is a plant... interesting!  Looks like the force that put her there is wearing off.

5X3    The Replacement 
Plot: A demon creates a Xander duplicate who steals his life.

This was a great funny and touching episode that looks to have greatly changed Xander's life.  First of all, goofy Xander stalking pro Xander was just a hoot, and it was very cool to have two Xanders.  I'm very glad that Xander now has a nice apartment and a stable job, something tells me superpowers will come next.  I also appreciated Anya getting some screen time, her injury has made her question her mortality.  The demon Toth had a great visual look, it's interesting that big demons are after Buffy all of a sudden.  I particularly loved him shooting at them at the city dump while Spike cheers him on in the sidelines.  There was a lot of great location shooting.  Xander's snoopy dance was a hoot, but not as funny as Anya wanting to have sex with both Xanders.  The final scene where Riley admits to Xander how much Buffy means to him but she doesn't love him was very surprising and touching- my respect for Riley grows with every episode!  Sure it's another interim episode, but things are moving regardless and it's great to see the characters back, particularly the oft-ignored Xander-Willow relationship.

5X2    Real Me 
Plot:  Buffy bickers with Dawn while facing Harmony and her lame vamp gang.

A hilarious meaningful stand-alone that serves as a great introduction to Dawn.  I really like Dawn and the way she fits into the character dynamic, I also like the way the episode was told from her perspective, giving a fresh spin on the story. It was also a delightful surprise to have Harmony return, and she was an absolute hoot with her gang of "minions".  It's also nice to see Buffy actually fighting vampires again on a regular basis.  I also loved Giles' new convertible and buying the magic shop, as well as the beginnings of Buffy's new training.  Sure nothing really happened arc-wise and the villains were practically non-existant, but it was a great early season standalone.  Much better than last year!  Oh and I also noticed they changed the staking CGI effect, now you can see the skelaton dust last more.

5X1    Buffy Versus Dracula 
Plot:  Dracula comes to town after Buffy.

A wonderful season premiere, full of cool action and humor, a great villain, and a sense of importance to the arc.  Easily beats any other premiere.  It was just really cool to have Dracula, and I particularly enjoyed the many hints he gave about the nature of the Slayer's powers.  This is something I always felt was a plot hole and I love that we're going to learn about it.  The Buffy dark seduction thing was also done very well (she drank vamp blood!  does this make her stronger?).  I also love how powerful Drac was and how he wasn't limited to the normal vamp rules which have made them pretty lame villains; I particularly love his teleportation and regeneration after each staking.  He could be a great season villain since he can't really be killed (or at least a recurring one).  Xander as Drac's 'evil' henchmen was an absolute riot, in fact this episode was uncommonly full of great one liners.  Also lovely to see the gang as a big happy family and Tara as 'one of the guys'.  Riley was surprisingly tolerable (I particularly liked him hunting with Giles).  Spike is once again wasted as a regular, just getting a single throw away scene.  Why oh why did they make him a regular?!  He better get something do this year... I'm very glad Giles has some purpose again as Buffy's Watcher.  This was just a spectacular lead-in, not to mention that hilarious final scene where Dawn gets literally jammed into the Summers' family life.