On her first day with students in her role of counsellor, Buffy meets a girl who claims that she's going to die by the end of the week, and anything Buffy does won't save her. However, Buffy isn't going to take fate as an answer and sets about trying to protect her.

Generally speaking, this is actually quite an interesting episode with a clever plot. How do you save someone who doesn't really want to be saved and has given in to her fate? What does it mean to Buffy not to be able to help? It's an emotional story with some good material for both Buffy and Dawn as they get to know this new fixture in their lives. Meanwhile, Willow seems to be back on track as well and the opening scene is, once again, reminiscent of earlier seasons.

It's good for once to see things going right for the Scoobs, and a problem coming from outside. Okay, so strictly speaking that can be said of vampires and suchlike as well, but we've had so much internal struggle recently that it's good to see someone else have the issues. Sarah Michelle Gellar, like Nicholas Brendon before, gives a very grown-up performance, making Buffy a convincing counsellor with a firm grasp of human behaviour that enables her to spot what people are trying to say, even when they're not saying it. The montage where Buffy works through a bunch of screwed up students is really fun.

Azura Skye has a slightly irritating voice but makes a quirky and interesting central character for the episode, allowing the viewer to care for her and hope that Buffy can save her from whatever will happen to her. The main problem I found with this is that it takes so long to build up. I was starting to get a little bored of people wandering about and saying nice things while waiting for some kind of villain to appear. Speaking of which, while I do think the person/people responsible was pretty creepy and scary, there's a feeling that endings like this were done to death back in season two, in such episodes as Reptile Boy. I can understand the Hellmouth drawing demons, but how is it that Sunnydale High seems to attract all the vaguely psychotic students?

That aside, the ending is the best part. I have to admit I was expecting the booby trap to kill the ill-fated girl and was pleasantly surprised with a dramatic ending, not to mention Spike gradually starting to see his way past his madness and noting that there people that need to be protected by someone like him from others as bad as he was. There's even a beautiful moment when he is told by the psychic girl that one day Buffy will tell him what he wants to hear. Hopefully the start of his rehabilitation is here, as too many more scenes of him being loopy are going to bug me.

***

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