Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 7x20 Full Reaction
Added 2025-09-22 14:00:10 +0000 UTC"Touched"
Comments
I think a large part of cutting herself off from the girls, not learning their names, is more about self-preservation. She knows that some of them are going to die, so keeping them at arm's length avoids further heartbreak. She already feels responsible and guilty for the girls who have been killed under her care.
Shaun 🏳️🌈
2025-10-07 01:36:26 +0000 UTC„You’re literally Buffy the Vampire Slayer!“ 🙂↕️
Arne Pohl
2025-10-06 17:00:58 +0000 UTCI struggle a lot with this season because it almost feels like intentional character assassination on the writers part for no reason for pretty much the whole core group outside of Buffy and Spike. I also don't feel like having the potentials in all these episode to this point has added much positive to story-wise, I think the design and movement of the Turok-Han is pretty boring and uninspired, and pretty much everything else new does nothing for me besides Andrew being a decent addition depending on pairing/episode. I expect and hope I'm in the majority because I wish I enjoyed this season more.
Matt C
2025-09-24 03:02:23 +0000 UTC"You're a hell of a woman" - Riley (S6 E15) 😉
Antonio
2025-09-23 04:54:01 +0000 UTCWith regard to Caleb and his motivations, I think he's essentially doing what he wants to do but draping it in some kind of glory so he can satisfy his own ego; he's not a repulsive serial killer, he's a crusader for a sweeping cleansing of evil and so on. I think he was someone with great religious fervor and even though he's turned his back on God, he's switched his fervor to the First. He also wraps it all up in his misogyny, since he considers the idea of women having great power more unnatural and disturbing than evil itself, which is a natural fact of life.
Jorgalorg
2025-09-22 22:56:00 +0000 UTCThere's something really affecting about seeing Buffy so hopeless after her friends' betrayal - she's bitter but not enraged the way most viewers are or the way Spike gets. And up until this point she has been presenting fairly cold and detached as 'general Buffy', even if we know the dead girls and losses are clearly getting to her, and here we finally see her address that explicitly. Like you say, something that has definitely driven a wedge between Buffy and the scoobies is Buffy's resistance to connect with people or show them her struggles with being a leader in a brutal war, getting girls killed etc - but I don't think it's the whole picture. Buffy has shouldered the burden of goodness and heroism for them for so long, they haven't had to reckon with the painful parts of doing the right thing the same way that Buffy has. All the scoobies have suffered, but at the end of the day Buffy is the one who has to fight the big bad, has to kill her boyfriend, has to lead young girls into battles they won't all survive. Buffy is this matriarch and hero that they all hold to an impossible standard because they feel like they're up against impossible odds, and that any failed mission means they're doomed. They're fighting evil itself so they need Buffy to be the ultimate, perfect good, but that's not a standard ANY human can live up to. Spike's speech explicitly acknowledges that she's not perfect, ('the best and the worst of you'), but she's still the One. And that's clearly what she needed to hear. Spike is the person that Buffy saved by believing in him, something that we saw kept him going when the First had him - Spike has been focused on her goodness, whilst the others have been focused on her leadership. I think they lost trust in Buffy simply because she was their leader, and now with a new leader in Faith they are still divided, arguing and struggling, and at the end of the episode we see they've clearly walked into another trap. It wasn't really Buffy that was the problem, it was the war they're fighting. Hopefully they realize it now.
Mollie K
2025-09-22 22:39:55 +0000 UTCBuffy and Spike have become great friends. Buffy's best friend. (Sorry Willow.) If they have a romantic relationship or not, it isn't going to change that. Unlike Buffy and Angel who were never friends. When their relationship ended there was nothing but for Angel to leave. Buffy and Spike's scene is mt second favorite scene between them. The first being the alley scene in FFL. It was a long time coming for the two to finally sleep together after so much. I liked when Spike leaves the house he takes a moment then senses which way Buffy went.
Bud Haven
2025-09-22 19:39:58 +0000 UTCI think we've all muttered "God I miss Tara" at least 10 times throughout this season haha.
Jonathon Wilson
2025-09-22 19:32:02 +0000 UTCGotta say, you were speaking my language throughout this episode. "Spike just said everything we were thinking." Yep! "Spike is the MVP of this episode." Again, YEP! "Shoes on the bed! But that's okay, it's the apocalypse." You crack me up. I agree, though lol "I miss Tara." Me too. :( I think it's safe to say most fans agree with you about Willow and Kennedy's relationship. It feels forced, rushed, and Kennedy just isn't nearly the match for Willow that Oz or Tara were. That's not to say that Kennedy is all bad, but let's be real. Willow's previous romances with Oz, and then Tara, both set the bar pretty high. Trying to make something work with a new character whom we neither know nor care about is bound to pale in comparison. I also agree and love the fact that, while other couples were making love in this episode, Spike and Buffy just held each other. It someone felt more intimate, and clearly gave Buffy the strength she needed to take matters into her own hands. It was also a lot of fun seeing the Mayor again, even if he's just another form of the First at this point. We did see him at the beginning of the season, but it was far too brief. As for the ending, here's hoping that no one goes out with a bang.....
Steve Quast
2025-09-22 18:59:09 +0000 UTCMe 🤝 Cass -- No shoes on the bed. (Well, okay, it's the apocalypse.)
Test User
2025-09-22 18:54:29 +0000 UTCI get what you're saying, but I personally think the distinction - and why it works for me - is in how they made their decisions, rather than the decisions themselves. Faith, the Scoobies, and the Potentials, came to the decision as a team. They worked together - to, unfortunately, immediately walk into a trap - while Buffy unilaterally made the decision to go back to the vineyard - because she saw through Caleb and The First and recognized that they were trying to get them to walk into a trap.
tc3
2025-09-22 18:39:33 +0000 UTCI find this plotline a bit frustrating, Buffy saw something at the vineyard meaning that Buffy didn’t walk everyone into just a trap last episode; and the group wanting to kick Buffy out and Faith putting herself in charge, seems to result in them immediately walking into a trap. The fact that the third and fourth to last episode share this plot beat and that the ending seem to negate each other is rough.
James Smith
2025-09-22 16:56:39 +0000 UTCOne of my most favorite episodes in the entire series! I think you are spot on when you describe Buffy and Spike as having a deeper intimacy than the others who were connecting physically in this episode. I'm so excited and so sad that you're coming to the end of the series, I'll miss your thoughtful insights.
Christine Cox
2025-09-22 15:16:05 +0000 UTCI’ve loved Spike from the start, even when the show framed him as one of the worst of the worst. At first glance he seems irredeemable, especially with everything we’ve learned about vampires in this world. But over time the walls come down—and that change happens largely because of Buffy. She initially treats him like any other vampire, yet she still takes the time to listen. That attention draws him closer and shows us there’s more to him than violence and bravado. For me, this episode is the moment I knew Spike was truly the one for Buffy. Their past is messy and sometimes uncomfortable, but that’s what makes it powerful. It proves that people can face their mistakes, reflect, grow, and still open themselves to love. Maybe “deserve” is too strong a word, but everyone who works to make amends should at least have the chance.
Mayra Martinez
2025-09-22 15:11:45 +0000 UTCSpike sees Buffy for who she truly is because of who he is at his core. As a human, he was a sensitive poet with deep empathy and emotional intelligence, and becoming a vampire only amplified those traits. Angel once said that what you are in life becomes stronger after you’re turned, and that rings true for Spike. He reacts impulsively at first, but he also reflects and puts things into perspective—a rare skill among vampires. With more than a century of life experience, he understands people on a level most humans never reach. Unlike others, he sees Buffy as a whole person, not just the Slayer. That insight, born from both his humanity and his long existence, is what lets him recognize that she’s “the one.”
Mayra Martinez
2025-09-22 15:04:43 +0000 UTCWill the weapon yield to Buffy so she can wield it 🤷♀️ ?
The Testimony of Mushroom
2025-09-22 14:31:14 +0000 UTCOMG I’m so excited for this episode 😭
Melissa Reynolds
2025-09-22 14:02:25 +0000 UTC
