Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reaction 7x02
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Hello All!
Please let this principal be a good guy! PLZ!!! Preferred this episode to the previous, felt more substantial. Love the way James is playing Spike at the moment, I really feel his struggles in those moments. Buffy may be the best character ever written, I'm just throwing that out there, I truly adore her! Excited for whats to come in this seventh and final season.
Hope you enjoy the reaction folks. Have a lovely week everyone! Thank you for the constant love & support!
Much love
Dakara x
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Comments
Loving all your reactions. Definitely keeping me occupied while I'm off work. 😅 Just wanted to say, if you liked the opening to this ep, there's a show called Alias which came out around the same time which is literally that vibe. Early noughties spy show starring Jennifer Garner with a very (now) high profile cast and a lot of familiar faces. One of my top 3 shows of all time. Been trying to get someone to react to it for ages! 😅 Would love to see you react to the pilot if you ever have time. I think you'd love it. 🥰
C J
2023-12-30 13:45:58 +0000 UTCConsidering as a vampire, getting a soul is an existential death (remember how Darla and other vampires have referred to it, or for instance, if you feel you have a soul, your making a choice to lose it would also be an existential death), then Spike purposefully overwriting his base instincts/nature - which a selfish person is incapable of - to sacrifice all he knew of himself (the definition of selfless), then selfishness can't be motivating him. Plus before he left, they made clear his motivations were based on his identity crisis ("what have I done/why didn't I do it") which they'd been building up all season, and not based on getting Buffy back. He was choosing a side to be on.
SpikesEcho
2023-09-24 16:07:04 +0000 UTCI never really see this addressed, but to me during the scene in the Bronze- where Spike seems to goad Buffy on ("Have another go in the balcony?")- always struck me as his way to get Buffy to hit him and punish him more for what he did to her in S6. Like, he was *trying* to get her mad and hit him more (he hits her just once and she hits back around 4 times but he never takes another swing). He even seems disappointed when she decides to stop punching him and leaves. Does anyone else see that or is it just me?
StephanieB
2023-09-08 21:11:54 +0000 UTC"The demon hiding behind a costume and the poet baring his soul." Beautifully said!
StephanieB
2023-09-08 04:55:36 +0000 UTCThank you for bringing up that moment in "Tabula Rasa"- I think it often gets overlooked that Spike/Randy, souless and with no memories or idea of who he is, decides that he is a vampire with a soul and doesn't try to attack one single human. I also do not think Spike was putting any blame on Buffy. When he says "Shame on you" to her, he means shame on her for not immediately uinderstanding that he got his soul so he could be the man he wanted to be for her. He is not putting any blame or responsibility on her, he is taking responsibility for his own actions (I.e., “Why does a man do what he must?”)
StephanieB
2023-09-08 04:47:18 +0000 UTCSpike is such an interesting character. He's nothing like Angel. When Buffy met Angel he already had a soul. He fell in love with her but the moment his soul was gone he hated her and wanted to torture and kill her. He remembered how much he had loved her and was disgusted by it. Once his soul was gone he did not want it back and killed Ginny and tortured Giles to stop them from restoring it. Spike, however, didn't have a soul but was prevented from harming people because of the chip. The chip didn't make his desire to kill go away, just his ability to attack. I've always found it interesting that when everyone lost their memories and "Randy" realized he was a vampire he didn't try to hurt anyone. He even asked why he didn't want to bite Buffy thinking he must have a soul. The chip wouldn't do that. Falling in love with Buffy and spending time fighting demons with the Scoobies changed him more than that chip did. I think it's because before he was turned, William was a kind and gentle poet who just wanted to be loved. Drusilla was insane so being his first and only relationship for over a hundred years Spike's perception of love was extremely deranged. Being around Buffy made him want to be a better man in spite of the demon inside him. In his mind he loved her and would protect her with his life so after he tried to assault her and he saw the look on her face he couldn't live with himself. He immediately left to do whatever he needed to get his soul back so he could never hurt her like that again. The scene in the church is so powerful and raw and heartbreaking to watch. The torture he feels from all the lives he took, and all the guilt and pain he's experiencing is a punishment he chose to bring upon himself in order to become worthy of forgiveness, especially from Buffy. I don't believe Spike was putting any blame on Buffy in that scene. He's hallucinating and hearing voices while having trouble navigating his own mind as it's being flooded with horrific memories of things he's done. He wants to atone for his crimes and ask for forgiveness which is why I think he went to a church. That last scene with him hanging onto the cross as it burns into him always makes me cry.
smylyface
2023-09-06 06:02:50 +0000 UTCIt's always more fun to see you really on board with a particular episode. 🙂
Koz
2023-09-02 20:19:18 +0000 UTCI love this episode. The first 30 or so minutes are gripping for the most part, and we see these people, our people, becoming deeper and more real. The goofiness is gone and there are real-world, hard truths being confronted. I liked the Nancy character and the flirtation between her and Xander - and good on her for admitting she was hitting on him. But the last 8 minutes of the episode... one of the best scenes in the show and one of my personal favorites. Even watching now, so many years later, I'm captivated and forget to blink. It's my favorite interaction in the entire series as it's so raw and emotional. And even though it's between a fictional vampire and vampire slayer, it resonates with normal, everyday people that face internal struggles and find it almost impossible to relay them articulately to others - and in many cases we don't, so we suffer in silence. Brilliant acting from both James Marsters and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Thanks Dak, I really enjoyed this one.
Brian Dworak
2023-09-02 05:51:33 +0000 UTCAbsolutely agree. The fact that he can’t even finish that sentence always breaks me a little bit. He may not have completely understood what he had done or why it was so horrifically wrong before he got his soul back, but he understood enough to know he needed to become a better person. Now he clearly understands exactly how evil he was, both for how he hurt Buffy and in his entire existence as a soulless vampire. Maybe the best scene in this whole season, and top tier in the entire show, for sure.
Leijette Riopel
2023-09-02 02:37:13 +0000 UTCAnother one of the best scenes of the entire series at the end there. Two episodes in a row! They both did such a great job there. In response to your comment about him blaming her, I don't really see it that way. Buffy is understandably shocked and confused and she "Asks why would you do this?" and his response is essentially "You know why". He's not saying it in a way like all this suffering I'm going through is your fault, he knows he deserves it. He also follows it up with "To be the kind of man who would never" which implies that his other reason was because he couldn't live with what he had done and wanted to change.
Julian Welton
2023-09-01 22:38:23 +0000 UTCI thought it was also a play on the show Alias, which was also popular at the time - the main lead actress Jennifer Garner played a spy who wore many wigs, the most notable one being that bright red bob!
TheEmpurpler
2023-09-01 13:32:41 +0000 UTCThat last scene is epic - beautifully haunting & poetic! It was originally written/shot by the episode's writer & director but when Joss Whedon saw the footage, he rewrote the scene & directed it so James & Sarah shot it again with Joss. And yes, James Marster is a great actor, but wow also to Sarah - what she was able to do either minimal lines but all with the look on her face!
TheEmpurpler
2023-09-01 13:31:02 +0000 UTCThe last scene is everything!
Phoenix Dawn
2023-09-01 04:46:39 +0000 UTCJust a heads up--at the end, when you were reading the comment, the image disappeared. I could hear you talking, but it was just a black screen. It doesn't matter all that much because we didn't miss anything, but I just thought I'd let you know in case something went wrong there. The parts of this episode that are to do with the monster of the week have always been sort of just meh to me, and I don't like Nancy (sorry, I know you do, Dak), but the rest of it is great. The scene at the beginning with the girl, the scenes with Willow and Giles, and all the stuff with Buffy and Spike is wonderful. That ending scene is incredible. Such a great reaction, Dak. I love this season, and I'm super excited to watch it with you, even if it does give me a bit of a sad that this is the final season. If you're looking for another show to watch after Buffy (I know, ouch, let's not think about that too much yet), I would love to see you react to Once Upon a Time. It's a fantastic show, and I think it's right up your alley.
Raven Dark
2023-08-31 21:42:51 +0000 UTCPretty solid second episode with a great ending. Poor Spike seems pretty tortured but I like that the show doesn't shy away from what he did. I think the opening scene is meant to be an homage to the German film Run Lola Run.
PaulC
2023-08-31 21:18:20 +0000 UTCYes, that ending scene is phenomenal. Others have said it, but yeah spike wasn't blaming buffy for the SA, but because she asked why he got his soul back, and its like a sort of "shame on you, of course you know. It was for you." And the "to be the type of man who would never....[attack a girl]"
x_Rhi_x
2023-08-31 20:56:34 +0000 UTCI'm not justifying what Spike did, but I think what the show is going for here—and that some viewers seem to forget—is that Spike, in his own misguided way, was in love with Buffy (maybe "obsessed" is a better word to describe it for us non-vampires), and she just used him to F the pain away and beat him to a pulp when things got too real. Maybe Spike doesn't deserve understanding or forgiveness, but nevertheless, those are the thoughts and emotions he now has to deal with after he's got his soul back.
Apetass
2023-08-31 20:22:28 +0000 UTCngl I usually skip most of this episode and go directly to that last scene because it's pretty much my favourite Spike scene in all of Buffyverse. As some comments above I don't put his "Buffy shame on you" as literally him blaming her. More like "don't you understand?" There is a bit of troubling moment in their earlier interaction. When he says "am I flesh to you" and how he's there to "service the girl" - it's an interesting starting point to his self perception. There's a lot of absolutely evil shit that Spike did to Buffy but let's also point out that their toxicity went both ways. He's immediately reverting to the sexual aspect of their relationship because he knows that to Buffy that's all he was. He talks about "spilling useless buckets of salt over your ending" which could be interpreted both as sexual and as him crying over her death. This entire episode is here just to showcase that duality that he now lives with - Spike, who's a selfish killer and who was there only to satisfy her needs, and William who was a poet and a gentle soul who wants to be loved by her. He clearly doesn't know yet how to balance who he was and who he is. The demon hiding behind a costume and the poet baring his soul. He wants forgiveness but he can't ask for it so he just begs to rest culminating in that beautiful religious imagery of him on the cross. BTW James' stage experience is showing in this scene. That entire soliloquy feels very theatrical in the best way.
DB
2023-08-31 19:58:25 +0000 UTCJames Marsters is a brilliant actor, and this episode really showcases that. To me the ending, spike saying shame on you. I never thought of that as putting the blame on buffy for everything that he did. I always understood it to mean more like, shouldn't that be obvious. The monster in this episode really is a MoTW thats just used to setup the rest to me and I absolutely love that this season starts building so early. Willow is headdin back, and you know they'll like having her back, cos its Willow. Also.. I still like Dawn. "you sleep right?, so if you hurt her, you'll wake up on fire." The ending scene is soo well done, and srsly, james marsters with his poetic speaking and buffy with the way she can portray emotion on her face. So good. Even though there is all this good stuff in the episode, the MoTW really is one of the least intereting to me though. Its a bit of a flop to me (pun intended). Lookin forward to the next one as always. :)
Bart Aansorgh
2023-08-31 19:26:03 +0000 UTCAs others have said the line that Spike begins to say, "To be the kind of man who would never", obviously refers to what he tried to do her. I've always tended to interpret the rest of what he said, him saying, "It's what you wanted, isn't it?" to be him questioning his own selfish reasons for getting a soul in the first place. Pre soul Spike most likely went to that demon's cave with the idea that he'd get his soul back, and then Buffy would have to take him back him, because look at what HE had gone through, look at what HE had done for HER (selfish motivations). I think Vampires understand things like selfishness on a base 'demon' level of thinking, but that 'soul having' level of understanding selfish desires and actions would be a whole 'nother ballpark. Notice as well that the second time he asks, "It's what you wanted?" he's looking up, to the heavens. So one might say that he's not just questioning Buffy, or himself, he's also questioning God.
Claire Eyles
2023-08-31 19:14:56 +0000 UTCThe way I see the ending, and how Spike was acting in the premier, is the immense guilt he was feeling. Not just for what he did to Buffy, but over one hundred years of murders, tortures, and other atrocities he committed. Remember Angel was out of his mind when he got his soul back and wandered around trying to prove he was still a killer vampire, even going back to Darla to prove it to her. I've always compared it to (and this may not be the best comparison) to someone who got completely drunk at a party, got behind the wheel, and killed someone in an accident. Once you sober up, you have to live with that for the rest of your life and that guilt will never go away. Both Spike and Angel have a lot to atone for over the years and a soul doesn't necessarily absolve them of their past. James and Sarah have amazing chemistry and truly killed that end scene.
Gabe Morales
2023-08-31 19:10:55 +0000 UTCthat shot with willow and Giles wasn't only shot in England it was also Anthony's house
entrancedlife
2023-08-31 18:57:50 +0000 UTCSomeone can correct me if I’m wrong but I do believe the shots in England were also Anthony Stewart Head’s actual property and horses at the time!
bethany
2023-08-31 18:45:17 +0000 UTCThe bit I felt you missed in spikes speech when you felt he was blaming her, he said "to be the kind of man who would never" obviously referring to what he did to buffy. Its difficult to comment much as having watched the show so many times I obviously know everything that comes and remember the past of the show very well, including all the little nuances that will be missed on 1st watch.
Crabash
2023-08-31 18:08:34 +0000 UTCThat final scene with Buffy and Spike in the church is one of my absolute favourite scenes in all of Buffy. James and Sarah just knock it out of the park with their performances, and the way the scene is written and filmed is just *mwah* brilliant. It's a scene that does make me feel sort of conflicted though, because season 7 is a season I've never been able to fully warm to, but then you have a scene like this and it's like, "OMG this scene is amazing! Wait, I should really love season 7, but I don't, what's up with that?".
Claire Eyles
2023-08-31 18:06:46 +0000 UTCI forgot to comment on this last episode, but I absolutely loved seeing that Willow is finally getting proper training in her wiccan practice, beyond just the spells part of it. I remember those scenes really resonating with me at the time, because it was very much in line with what I had seen as a practitioner of Wicca myself, where a practitioner had previously only been interested in the whole spell side of things and then found themselves realising they actually needed to go back to basics and study the actual foundations and beliefs of the craft.
Claire Eyles
2023-08-31 17:59:43 +0000 UTC
