That's My Take
My thoughts on the subject of Buffy & Angel			Buffy 9-24-02: "Lessons": Well, quite a mystery Joss (who wrote the ep {hey, buddy}) laid out for us there. So, I started to think - morphing evil things torturing a vampire with a soul, where have I seen this before? &, AH, "Amends". The First tormenting Angel, trying to get him to turn bad. I always discounted The First as basically something that was to be dealt with in "Angel" (show, not the ep) - just plain old Wolfram & Hart - but it seems this is probably the big bad this season on "Buffy", the BIGGEST bad. It all makes sense. Now I could be wrong, as I'm known to be, but it'd be an odd coincidence. Willow's vision, hellmouth opening up, the talk of the older than oldest evil's waking. & the morphs being old major foes - Joss wants us to know, this is the big one. & that would fall in line with The First. Also, the old big bads being the morphs -- Does evil ever die? Buffy sure doesn't. Why should they. Evil's a force. & all of it is gunning for the world - but also Buffy, who has historically stopped it. The wildcard - I gotta say - maybe Willow, but, I think she'd pull it on our side. They've got a nice dynamic going. This is exciting! Is anyone else excited? What's with the opener in Istanbul? I'm sure part of the evil plot that will be enfolding in the next, & final, 21 episodes. I can't wait to see how it all turns out, let's hope Joss writes more than the one episode this season. I don't think he could resist writing the final one, though. Two closing thoughts: thank you, jesus, the monster-of-the-week format is back! AND interesting that it would be the image of Buffy that, I'm assuming, The First, morphed into -- she's the only not evil thing it morphed --- OR were they all evil? What is at the heart of Buffy, the person, is well known, but, the slayer -- that, from the little we know, comes from darkness. Do I sense character internal conflict? I sure do. (Wait, there's more below). 9-25-02 I got more. Man, this is like the old days when I had the juices flowing like this every episode - like 5th season. Okay, it's going to be random, bare with me. Firstly, Spike. & This I thought & I discounted, again, because of Angel, but, what if it were so? The vampire with a soul is supposed to be the big catalyst in the final fight. & what if it were Spike. I think the attention of Angel being that was shifted last season, where it was more saying Conner, the son, was Angel's big purpose in this final fight. Maybe our gears were shifted for a reason. You'd think - okay, well, Wolfram & Hart are a form of evil & perhaps The First, but - you'd think even more so that evil would try much more than has been tried on Angel to turn dark. I would think it would be this kind of thing that is being done to Spike -- constant torture to the point of lunacy -- because at the edge of lunacy is the best place to be to be the most internally conflicted on light or darkness. So, if this is the First, which I believe it is, torturing Spike it is because he is that vampire with a soul that is the thing that decides whether the world "goes back to the beginning". & about what the thing said to Spike - about going back to the beginning - what is that but the hellmouth? The beginning of time when there was only evil. Afterall, it is known from "Amends" that evil was the first thing, & good happened along after. & about "the power" - in a world where there is only evil there is nothing but power to determine anything. Consider, animals - like a pack of lions. There are no courts, no morality (I'm assuming this, from what we know) only the biggest, the most dangerous - the lions that are the biggest & fiercest & deadliest - they are the rulers, they have the power & all there is is power. & the order in which the morphs appeared to Spike - of course, that was going down per season, with Dru as the second season big bad, her being representative of that seeing that second season didn't really have a big bad &, if anything, it was Angel which would be confusing to show to us & also the WB would not allow that. It's interesting that Buffy was the last, because Buffy was the first - the thing that was the starting point of these big bads. Maybe her presence didn't cause them but it was the beginning of our world, & there might be a relation here to the beginning of Buffy & going back to the beginning. &, note, that the slayer is from evil & could have very well, & probably did, exist in the evil world. & just crazy ranty thoughts a flying -- who knows what kind of role an early slayer played in this early world, if she were in it. We could have this big turning from evil to good that happened a long time ago & could be the big reason for everything - maybe even the reason good exists. What I truly think, & I had this thought after the finale, is that Joss had a plan that involved Angel - being the vampire with the soul - for the end of the show & now Spike's the substitute. & it's big. & perhaps it's THE vision that he's been sitting on for years, maybe since the conception of the concept like over a decade ago when he was an undergraduate. Who knows. But, certainly, I think that this is something that has been building in the Buffy world for some time & it may include things like "730", & "Doc", & "The First", & "The First Slayer" -- all these mysteries that have been complying over the years. Cause, if it's not resolved this year, it's never resolved & I don't feel that "730" was simply the time Dawn was supposed to be cut in "The Gift" - we never got a close-up of Doc's watch & it was simply too dark to be 7:30 in the morning. 5:30, I'd believe. & the watch actually doesn't look anything like 7:30 when blown up, it's almost impossible it is. It looks like 6:30 & I think that we would have gotten a close-up it that were 730. & it's interesting to note that Buffy will have been fighting demons for 7 full years sometime soon. We know from "the witch", season one, ep two, that it was a little more than a year when she came to Sunnydale that she's been fighting. & regardless of how crazy & ranty & disorganized I am now, I guess my whole point is what's already been stated, Buffy & Spike are important to what's going to happen. That's clear from what the morph thing said. It always strikes me when Buffy says in last year's finale about when she died in season five (funny I have to clear up what time she died that I'm talking about) she says to Giles that she doesn't understand why she's back - it was her time. & then she comes to realize that Dawn is the reason she's back - she's there to watch her grow up, to be her mother. & we go from that connection to this now - where Dawn seems to be a very big factor in all of this -- Buffy's need to protect Dawn. & that in itself is worth noting. Buffy has become Dawn's mother & she even says, in this episode, she gets the phone call from Dawn & she says to the principal "It's my Daugh -", she was going to say daughter & stopped herself, & then covered with "my dog" & added "walker" but that's not my point... this protecting of Dawn, I predict, will be a pivotal factor in the things to come. & I think Joss is trying to show us what it would be like to see Buffy's whole life - we're taken to this place where she is the mother. He's only got 7 years to do this show, & he's brought her from the high school student all the way to the mother. We're seeing all of Buffy. The several references to her being or looking or acting like a mother, combined with her referring, even to herself, as Dawn as her daughter, is not simply for comedic purposes. I think it's going to be very important. I just think it's all coming together. I guess I only have two more things to add. One is that the opener in Istanbul - it's probably some group causing something dark to rise through human sacrifices. & we didn't see the faces, it could be those things in "Amends", they wore robes, they rose The First. Ya know, I expected Spike to run out & save the girl - his new soul causing him to make amends or something, I think we were supposed to think that. & my last thought is about what Hellfrek said to Anya (&, sidenote, it's gonna be an issue at some point that Hellfrek is Spike's first love - you know, she's Cecily, if you guys have no clue what I'm talking about - it's from "Fool for Love", that info revealed to us in "Older & Far Away") - anyway, what she says about "it's a bad time to be a good guy", I just find that so interesting. Have we ever been exposed to that concept in the Joss Whedon realm - never! It's never been a bad time to be a good guy. It's always, & especially since Buffy's reign in Sunnydale, been a bad time to be a bad guy. & that is just very interesting. It's all just interesting. Okay, crazy ranty Lark shutting up now. 9-29-02 This is a random added thought that has nothing to do with anything, really. So, Joss is planning to have Dawn maybe continue the show - so, okay, Hollywood Reporter reported that Faith was in the final 5 eps & we know Faith is where the line of the slayer is, so, if Faith dies in the finale or before or whatever, Dawn could be called as the next slayer. This would serve two functions that would be a good ending note. One, it makes sense. She's got everything in Buffy that Buffy had prior to being called, it would totally fit. Two, Buffy gets to rest from the fight, or at least, she's got SOMEONE to take her place in Sunnydale. Dawn will eventually have someone to do that for her, but, Buffy being our primary concern, & the show being BUFFY'S SHOW it would stand to reason that that's a good ending. Besides, there are only a couple ways this could end that would fit with the show's overall theme: Buffy dies or she gets released from duty & is able to just live her life, & since the whole Buffy-dies-at-the-end has so been done, what's left, puppies?
Angel 10-6-02 "Deep Down" - I just expected a bit more from Angel in this episode. I expected him to be more pissed than he was, but, I think that we all know that when dealing with family it's not that simple. & cutting someone out isn't always an option. &, not all of us know, but, with your children - it's very hard to hate... I cannot believe Conner just played it like he knew nothing about Angel's disappearance with Gunn & Fred. That was cold as hell. Wesley & Lilah, as predicted, seem to have developed feelings for each other. Weirdness. I don't know if Wesley's ready to forgive, & I doubt Angel is. I think Wesley did what he did for the fight, because Angel is on the right side of it & he's needed. This doesn't foreshadow any turns to Wolfram & Hart, though, which I thought was coming. It presents something very different from what I expected. Lilah being the boss. About time. Just really. & it also steps up the heat on Wesley. I almost was thinking she'd turn to good's side at a point in this episode, but, that's not going to happen. It just really made that relationship interesting. Cordelia: a higher being. Something occurred to me last week (it takes that long) that her elevation could have been a trap because she saw a vision of it beforehand, & visions are a WARNING. Maybe it's not The Powers that sent her where she is. Why would The Powers take her away from Angel anyway? On Conner, I think we all know, he's a loose cannon. Only God knows about that one (&, yes, by god, I mean Joss.) But he's cold. But he's 16 so I don't exactly judge him based on that fact & that he's been through what he's been through. His true character is not yet known either way. In time, it will surface, which is sort of a rip off of what Angel said in the ep. Night, folks.
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