Season Six Episode Reviews

6X22    Grave 
Plot:  Giles arrives to stop Dark Willow, who is now out to destroy the world.

Great stuff, but major faults, and a step down from previous seasons.  Giles showing up as a super-powered warlock was awesome, but this powerful coven was a little too convenient.  Giles laughing his ass off at Season Six was a very satisfying moment.  The big Giles - Dark Willow fight was pretty spectacular; is the Magic Shop gone now?  Jonathan running off was horribly lame and went back on all his character work all year.  Buffy falling into a grave cave was just a little too symbolic for my tastes.  Dark Willow's sudden desire to destroy the world, her sudden temple, and her sudden end, was horribly anti-climactic.  If you're going to have Willow destroy the world, stretch it out beyond ten minutes!  Have her after it for several episodes!  Yeesh.  And Buffy doesn't even factor into the episode!  Xander talking down Willow worked adequately, but it was pretty anti-climactic.  Buffy's apology to Dawn and declaration for life was surprisingly touching.  Spike getting a soul is really confusing, I thought he wanted to be evil, and I *really* am not looking forward to a souled Spike with Buffy next year...

6X21    Two to Go 
Plot:  Buffy protects Jonothan and Andrew from Dark Willow.

Another step up in quality!  The protracted fight between Dark Willow and Buffy as she flees with Jonathan and Andrew was quite exciting, particularly the car chase with the semi truck.  I particularly liked Anya's use as a teleporting scout.  Dawn hanging out with Clem was pretty cute.  Dark Willow killing Rack was nice and shocking.  Dark Willow's analysis of Buffy and Dawn was really great stuff, I love Dark Willow!  The drag out Buffy - Dark Willow fist fight was really cool.  I really liked Jonothan growing up despite Andrew, good turn on the season's theme.  And Giles showing up!  Dude!  What a cliffhanger!  Best line goes to Anya: "The annoying virgin has a point!".

6X20    Villains 
Plot: Dark Willow hunts for Warren by any means necessary.

First good episode since the Musical!  While Willow with the magic addition was horribly lame, Dark Willow out for vengeance is great, better than I thought it would be.  I'm pretty pissed over the loss of Tara too, so I feel she's justified unlike last time!  Willow taking on Osiris, stealing black arts knowledge, assaulting the bus, topping everything Warren has to throw at her, is all pretty bad ass.  Warren versus Dark Willow was pretty bitching!  And the black hair looks good!  The moping grieving over Tara is kept to an excellent minimum.  And Anya readily helps them.  In fact, all the moping is gone, and we're back to the action.  Clem babysitting Dawn is pretty funny too.  Spike and the African Demon was pretty cool, and I really look forward to having an evil Spike again, that Demon looked really creepy.  Willow's torturous murder of Warren was extremely shocking, especially skinning him alive!  And she says "bored now", just like Vamp Willow!  I love it!  Warren summed up this episode and this season when he said "Are you done yet, or can we talk some more about our feelings?".

6X19    Seeing Red 
Plot: Warren becomes superhuman; Spike forces himself on Buffy.

Making Warren invincible was an excellent plot, and a great redeemer for the series, but the continuation of the Buffy/Spike crap just continues to exponentially disgust me.  Just when you think they're done with it... at least here we got Spike forcing himself on Buffy and then leaving town to get the chip out.  I just hope he's gone for a very long time... It's a real shame that Warren lost his invincibility so quickly, very anti-climactic.  Warren showing up to shoot Buffy and Tara, presumably killing Tara, was pretty damn shocking, too bad some asshole spoiled me that two Scoobies would get shot at some point.  Tara looked dead, which is damn shocking, and really sucks, seeing as how she was the last character on the show to avoid the whinyness syndrome.  So is Dark Willow going to be the Big Bad now?  She kills Warren and then falls to the dark side?  Sounds like more depressing character drama... sigh... And is this the last of Jonothan and Andrew?

6X18    Entropy 
Plot: Anya tries to get revenge on Xander through the Scoobies.

Okay, four episodes left now, still no progress.  While there was nothing revoltingly horrible, it was just more crap.  Anya trying to get the Scoobies to wish was pretty funny, as was her lamenting with Spike.  Too bad it had to end in Spike sex, groan.  I liked seeing Buffy get along with Dawn and the Willow-Tara reunion though.  Nice to have the Trio around of course, can't wait to find out what's in the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" vault.  Oh, if only Xander killed Spike... And yet more Buffy/Spike stuff... sigh.

6X17    Normal Again 
Plot: A Trio attack makes Buffy think her time in Sunnydale was a flight of insanity.

Yet another soap opera plot-less episode, not to mention an incredibly lame version of the stereotypical 'hero in insane asylum' episode.  The show has gotten so bad even the characters are trying to pretend it doesn't exist... At least the writers are acknowledging how crappy the show has become, which means it will eventually get better.  Joyce threw Buffy in a nut house?  Buffy tries to murder her friends to go back to the nut house?  Will this show manage to sink even lower?  At least we got the Trio, albeit briefly.

6X16    Hell's Bells 
Plot:  The wedding of Xander and Anya is interrupted by someone claiming to be Future Xander.

Vaguely entertaining but what a lame ending.  It was a lot of fun to finally meet the Harris family, and their interactions with the demons were genuinely funny and interesting.  The future scenes of Xander and Anya's unhappy marriage were really poignant, too bad they were fake.  Xander walking out on the wedding is just completely inexcusable, yet another ridiculous move in characterization, feels totally artificial.  I hope Anya does become a Vengeance Demon again, at least something would happen then.  I bet this is all a plot by D'Hoffryn to recruit Anya again.

6X15    As You Were 
Plot: Riley returns to town tracking a spawning killer demon.

First not-horrible episode in awhile, but still nothing special.  I'm delighted to see Riley return, as I thought he finally became a great character in Season Five, and plus its a hearken back to when the show was good.  Hell, we even had the brief teases of an actual action sequence with Buffy and Riley scaling down the dam and the CGI demon bugs.  Sigh.  It was very pointed to have the contrast of Buffy's life with Riley's life.  Also nice to get a peak on the US military dealing with the demon population.  While it was really interesting to see Riley married, Samantha did not come off as an interesting character at all.  Spike turning out to be 'The Doctor' was a very welcome twist, and I really do hope that this marks the end of the Buffy-Spike relationship.

6X14    Older and Far Away 
Plot: The gang is trapped inside the Summers house with a phase shifting demon.

Another step in the mud.  It's bad enough getting all the whining with Buffy and Willow, but Dawn is the worst of them all.  I've just about lost any empathy for this character now, no matter her trauma (just like Willow earlier this season).  The phase-shifting demon was an okay touch, but certainly not enough for an entire episode.  And being trapped in a house has only been done on this series about ten times now.  The only bright spots in this episode was the return of the very funny demon Clem and the return of Tara in a very proactive and confident role.  Halfrek appearing was a nice little twist.

6X13    Dead Things 
Plot:  Warren accidently kills his ex-girlfriend and makes Buffy think she did it.

Yet another step into soap opera land, but some good stuff hidden in the ruff.  Though they're laying on the responsibility angle a little thick, I really like the Trio attempting to brainwash women into sex then having to deal with accidental murder by foisting the guilt onto someone else.  I like the parallels of the Trio brainwashing a woman and killing her with Spike semi-forcing Buffy into embarrassing perversion.  I like the way Spike (ineptly!) takes care of the problem when Buffy 'kills' someone.  I like Buffy planning to hand herself into the cops and breaking down when she realizes her resurrection isn't to blame for her time with Spike.  On the other hand, this episode is ridiculously slow paced and there's no real resolution, and the continuance of the Buffy-Spike tryst nearly has me quitting the damn show.

6X12    Doublemeat Palace 
Plot: Buffy gets a job at a fast food resteraunt whose workers are disappearing.

The worst yet this season, with hardly anything worth watching.  Buffy as a fast food worker just doesn't make sense beyond a joke; she'd rather be doing this than working at the Magic Shop?!  The actual plot of the murdered workers is just incredibly lame and uninteresting; the lamest episode plot this side of "Reptile Boy".  I like Amy coming back to tempt Willow with power, and I like that she resisted it, but it was just very mundane (would have been nice if the baddie was more of a threat that Willow had to use power to defeat).  Anya's vengeance demon friend Halfrek was an interesting tidbit.  Nice to hear Buffy raided the Trio Lair only to find them gone.  I really don't like the idea of Buffy having a regular job at the Doublemeat Palace, it just doesn't make sense plotwise (Magic Shop!  Watchers Council paycheck!).

6X11    Gone 
Plot: The Trio accidently renders Buffy invisible.

Yet another entertaining but ultimately meaningless episode in a season of nothingness.  Sure Invisible Buffy made for some cute jokes, and sure we get the Trio heavily involved, but what came out of this episode?  About the only thing worthwhile happening was Buffy learning who the Trio is, but I really doubt she's going to follow up on it and put them out of commission.  I'm pretty disgusted with Buffy as a character at this point; not only if she banging Spike, but she tries to get a social worker with very honest and real concerns about Dawn fired and thrown into a nuthouse.  Absolutely horrible!  I'm glad to see Willow on the road to recovery, and helping out.

6X10    Wrecked 
Plot:  Willow's magic addiction hits a new low.

Another poor slowly paced episode, another lack of any real movement in the storyline aside from the character issues.  The magic as drugs parallel gets a lot more blatant here, but Willow does manage to still be sympathetic.  I'm hoping something comes of this Rack dude, or whatever Willow was doing while magic-high.  Yet another lack of proper baddie.  The final act was pretty good though with Willow breaking down to Buffy, I really hope this is the end of this plotline.  I'm sick of this will she won't she crap with Buffy and Spike.

6X9    Smashed 
Plot: Spike learns he can hurt Buffy; Willow restores Amy; the Trio steal from a museum.

Good episode as the Trio plot finally starts to move forward again, but another huge disappointment of Spike becoming evil again but just being able to hurt Buffy.  It's great to see Amy finally return, but was she this evil and seductive back in high school?!  Willow finally comes off as sympathetic again, mainly because she wasn't altering her friends' memories, but playing with people like toys is still evil, and they're out to do worse too.  Seeing the Trio break into the museum to steal something as part of their plot was great, as was seeing a public reaction to it, makes the episode feel bigger than claustrophobia of this season so far.  Buffy coming back as slightly less human isn't really that big a shocker if you think about it.  Nice to see a Buffy-Spike fight, but where did that sexin' come from, yeesh.

6X8    Tabula Rasa 
Plot: Willow's spell gone awry erases the gang's memories of who they are in the middle of a vampire attack.

A 'no memory' comedy episode right when we needed a long drawn out serious discussion; real wasted opportunity, but it's still pretty hilarious stuff.  I really wish they dealt more with the Heaven revelation and with Giles' Departure, but what was there was good.  I have absolutely zero sympathy for Willow anymore, she flagrantly goes against Tara, the only possible excuse I can come up with for her is its an addiction.  I can't believe Giles is leaving after the Heaven revelation; she needs him more than ever, forget about growing up.  The amnesiac stuff was pretty hilarious on the whole, especially Spike being Giles' son and Anya being Giles' fiancee.  I really liked how Buffy instinctually comforted Dawn.  "Randy" and "Joan" was funny too.  Too bad this became another 'fight some lame vamps' ep... the Land Shark was an neat but silly look, too bad he didn't actually fight.  Spike wearing the suit from "Restless" is a brilliant touch I didn't realize at first.  That ending montage where Giles and Tara leave was really touching, though Giles' original departure in "Bargaining" was much better.  I hope we still get to see Tara around, and Giles occasionally... I can't believe Buffy is making out with Spike, she's really hit rock bottom...

6X7    Once More, With Feeling 
Plot: The entire town suddenly springs into song revealing hidden secrets.

The best thing they've ever done, not only is it an immensely successful musical (which I usually hate) but it's a major development with all their secrets being revealed to one another.  And Sweet the Demon Lord was just the coolest guy in the world, one of the most interesting villains they've ever done (he wasn't so much bad as following a philosophy of truth and punishing those who keep secrets from their friends and family), and he was a threat that Buffy just couldn't fight, which was great.  Can't go on enough about this; the best songs were "Going Through the Motions", "I'll Never Tell", "I Know How You Feel", "I Will Walk Through the Fire", "Life's A Show", and "Where Do We Go From Here?".  Buffy revealing she was in Heaven was absolutely great, especially the look on Willow's face.  Giles and Tara leaving?  Sad...  Still not happy about Buffy/Spike...

6X6    All the Way 
Plot: Dawn sneaks out to make mischief on Halloween and falls into a vampire's clutches.

First disappointer of the season, most especially for a Halloween episode!  The whole Dawn plot was on the whole annoying and uninteresting, and I had a hard time finding her to be a sympathetic character after running off with bad boys and being revealed as a clepto, and secretly wishing to be vamped.  About the only thing that did work when it came to Dawn was that awkward makeout scene.  And how incredibly lame is it that the enemies were a couple of idiot vampires who don't follow the Halloween rules.  Yawn.  About the only good thing about that was the misdirection from the old guy and Giles getting to be a hero.  Xander finally announces the engagement, which was nice but predictable stuff.  The really shocking and painful thing was the Willow-Tara argument ending with Willow doing a forget spell on Tara.  This is just absolutely horrible and unforgivable, and I have a hard time sympathizing with Willow now too.  Add in Buffy handing off responsibility of Dawn to Giles without a thought, and almost everybody in this episode is acting in an unsympathetic manor!

6X5    Life Serial 
Plot: Buffy tries to get a job while the Dorky Trio anoymously harass her.

Another funny and ingenious episode but it's all fluff unfortunately.  It was great to see a focus on the Dorky Trio, who were just absolutely hilarious in their bickering, most especially over Star Wars and James Bond.  And they even prove themselves to be a bit of a threat with their abilities (though once Buffy learns who they are they're busted).  I really like how the episode is a series of vignettes about Buffy looking for direction.  Warren's Inhibitor Bug needed more explanation and is a pretty dangerous device.  The construction workers ignoring the demon attack is just ridiculous.  The time loop vignette managed to avoid being annoying and repetitive, but could have been funnier.  Buffy getting drunk was pretty funny (if disturbing), and the demon card game for kittens was hilarious (amazing demon makeup once again).  Giles just giving Buffy a check is a tad of a cop out but I'm sure it will be dealt with further later.

6X4    Flooded
Plot: The Dorky Trio brings a killer demon upon Buffy; Buffy has trouble with finances; Giles returns.

Very funny and touching in parts, raises some important issues, but another nonexistent demon threat.  The teaser of Buffy flooding the basement was a great visual gag, and Buffy dealing with finances is an very important issue for realism (though they're overlooking the obvious solution of making the Watchers Council give her a salary).  Giles' return was incredibly touching, most especially his reunion with Buffy, and his confrontation with Willow was downright unsettling.  Why the hell hasn't Xander announced the engagement yet?  The dorky trio were an absolute scream, and a great touch of continuity, I can't wait to see more of them as a Little Bad!  While I'm glad there was a Buffy-Angel reunion, it's pretty crappy that we don't get to see it!

6X3    After Life 
Plot: Buffy's return brings a demon along to plague the gang.

Slow paced and action-less, but a brilliant character piece.  Dealing with Buffy's return is truly touching in several scenes; Dawn mothering Buffy and showing her around the house, Spike seeing Buffy, Spike blaming himself for Buffy's death, and of course the real topper Buffy's confession to Spike that her friends dragged her out of heaven.  My god that was an amazing scene, and a truly horrible/interesting plot twist, one I wasn't expecting.  The actual demon plot was very light weight, it was supposed to be, but they couldn't have come up with a lamer way to kill it off, yeesh!  Nice to see Giles was called immediately, and that Spike is keeping the Hellion bike.  I appreciate the continuity from the premiere, even showing the Hellions leaving.  First they did "Army of Darkness", now they do "Evil Dead", which is nice.

6X1/2    Bargaining (part 1 and 2) 
Plot: Willow's ressurection of Buffy is interrupted by a demon biker gang taking over Sunnydale.

Good, but ultimately disappointing.  Great opening fight with Willow's telepathic leadership.  The opening scenes showing life without Buffy but with the Buffy-Bot were very poignant, especially for poor Dawn.  Dawn cuddling with the recharging Buffy-Bot was particularly sad.  Loved how protective Spike is of Dawn.  Willow setting out to resurrect Buffy by slaughtering a cute deer was very disturbing, looks like they're leading Willow on the path to evil, which should be interesting.  Giles' departure scene was easily the most poignant part of the episode, I hadn't given much thought to his reduced role, but damn it was sad to see him go like that.  Willow resurrected Buffy way too easily, that really felt like a cop-out.  On first viewing I was really unhappy with Buffy just wandering around for an hour doing nothing, but it makes a little more sense in retrospect; she thought she was in a hell dimension where she's forced to live in a twisted version of her world.  Buffy waking up in her coffin was very creepy.  While I appreciate the need to show a price for the resurrection, I still feel it was a poor dramatic choice, but I really look forward to see a *talking* Buffy deal with it.  As for the Hellions demon biker gang, they certainly made for some nice visuals and action sequences, but I really wished they did something more with these guys, made them more of a threat.  The Scoobies running into Buffy felt really off, they stay away from her, nobody shows joy, nobody hugs her, no wonder she thought they weren't the real them.  Tara being the one to kill Razor was a nice little surprise.  The final sequence with Buffy and Dawn on the Glory Tower really did not work for me, just felt way too over the top, not to mention the faux crisis of the Tower just happening to collapse while they were on it.  This really should have been more.  Xander looks a lot more respectable with a crewcut, and I'm delighted to see Willow return to her incredibly cute season three haircut!