Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 7x7 Full Reaction
Added 2025-07-13 12:50:20 +0000 UTC"Conversations With Dead People"
Comments
I believe it was originally the plan to have Tara in the episode but Amber Benson couldn’t free up time in her schedule. So Cassie was used instead.
Martin Gardner
2025-07-18 13:41:24 +0000 UTCJonathan Woodward, our vampire in tonight's episode, also does guest spots on both Angel and Firefly, and he's a delight in all three!
Arlo Murphy
2025-07-16 02:10:54 +0000 UTCHalf way through the episode. "I don't know what to believe". We were all there with you. Fantastic episode, but as you watch it, it makes you question everything. Biggest laugh: "It eats you, starting with your bottom." Biggest wtf moment: Andrew stabbing Jonathan. Biggest "Oh shit!"moment: Spike is his sire, followed by Spike killing his date. Best writing: the whole episode. Loved it all.
Rod B
2025-07-16 01:01:56 +0000 UTCI'm a little lost, where does he blame women?
nicholas hadley
2025-07-15 19:11:39 +0000 UTCOh my God, the 'analysis' Holden offers here is so pathetic, and, well, something a 20 year old man might say (derogatory!). No surprise that Whedon wrote those scenes..... Trying to blame women for men's shitness seems to be a feature of Whedon's worldview (3 guesses why!)
Bri
2025-07-14 12:36:44 +0000 UTCSo crazy to me since it's one of the best episodes of the season that it wasn't written by just one or even two people.
Steveo
2025-07-14 06:04:24 +0000 UTCCassie's insightfulness makes me wonder how I could have missed story cues on my first watch. ':D But then, I was a kid my first watch. Episode 7s never disappoint! I also love the way pop music was incorporated into Buffy; it served the story and added atmosphere without distracting from the writing or acting. Unlike The Vampire Diaries, which just played B list pop music over dramatic scenes, loud enough to compete with the dialogue. So weird. Not that TVD is the ultimate comparison, it just springs to mind because so much of the dialogue and plot of Buffy was lifted (sometimes word for word) from Buffy and put into TVD. I don't know why I'm ranting about this. I'm gonna blame sunburn delirium.
Kiss the Librarian
2025-07-14 03:17:41 +0000 UTCJust as Spike tried to break up the gang in Season 4, by telling lies and emphasizing their disagreements, these conversations were designed to do the same thing. To turn Dawn against Buffy, to turn Willow against herself and magic, to turn Buffy against Spike, and also her finally coming to grips with her (second) life as the Slayer. Again, the cracks were already there, and all that was needed was to get each person to widen them a little. Also to turn Whats his name against Jonathon. I guess he was going to kill Jonathan all along, because he has a thing for Warren and probably got talked into it. All the girls just got over being whammied with a love spell, as well. That has to be a downer, because it makes them realize how alone they still are. The song about being alone "blue" is an interesting choice, and all the conversations about being the only one and all that were tailored for each person's particular fears about it. They were all about trying to isolate the gang from each other and make them feel like they are all alone. The Vampire guy was all about how everyone is alone in their losing fight against dying, and how they are dying alone. The "Joyce vision" told Dawn "Buffy won't be there, she'll turn against you." The Cassie thing wanted Willow out of the picture entirely, wanted her to not even fight at all. Spike was not seen talking at all. So the whole thing was to get each person to act or think in a certain way, to change what they were going to do, but make it their own idea to change course. Also people are being killed by guys in robes all over the world, there's that.
spikeysnack
2025-07-14 00:48:11 +0000 UTCand what about the folks spike appears to be seeing in the basement?
Jason Harrelson
2025-07-13 23:19:12 +0000 UTCYou're so clever it makes me sick. Hahahahaha.
Dave Cruickshank
2025-07-13 23:09:04 +0000 UTCI'm sorry...Jonathan said in Mexican?
Ariel17
2025-07-13 23:01:00 +0000 UTCI don't know if it's done consciously or if it's an organic result of how Whedon tells his stories, but Episode Sevens of BtVS are always special. Look back over them and you'll see that that's where we get big revelations or important turning points, moments where we think 'ok, now we're really going." Webs (or, as I always think of him, Psych 101 Vampire 😊) is another one of my favorite one-shot characters. It still amazes me how Buffy (and Angel) can create such memorable characters and then just kill them off, secure in the knowledge that they can always create more. His analysis of Buffy is insightful and accurate. For all her power and accomplishments (and, in that twisted way, because of them), she has always been merciless when judging herself and still is. She still blames herself for whatever goes wrong and is still unable to forgive herself. Your speculations are ... 🤐. As always, it's frustrating for us because we can't respond or even tell you if you're on the right track. But the show will answer your questions.
DanielOrme
2025-07-13 22:29:28 +0000 UTCDid Cassie just miss that great Andrew mistranslation. Remember in the car Jonathan said that Andrew was useless at learning Mexican or something to that effect, and Jonathan said in Mexican "From beneath you it devours," and Andrew hilariously mistranslates it as "It eats you and it starts with your bottom." One of my favourite moments in Buffy.
David Allan
2025-07-13 22:25:29 +0000 UTCAccording to the commentary, this episode was very rushed and had to be written over a weekend. In fact, each part was written independently by a different writer (Joss Whedon wrote the Buffy scenes, Marti Noxon wrote the Willow scenes, Jane Espenson wrote the Dawn scenes, and Drew Goddard wrote the Jonathan/Andrew scenes). They were very pleased at how well the parts combined together in the end. Also from the commentary, Dawn singing about anchovies on pizza was written in because Jane was upset that the pizza place near her stopped serving anchovies as a topping and she was trying to make them appealing to teenagers, which I find hilarious. "We've seen Angel. He does not kill people to get his blood." Angel drinks pig's blood now, but it took him a while to get to that point. In the Angel episode 'Five by Five', we see Angel drink from a girl soon after he got a soul. He didn't end up killing her, but we also hear in the episode 'Darla' that he killed humans who were "evildoers", presumably to feed on them. My point is, if we are using Angel as a template, then Spike killing a human for blood wouldn't necessarily mean he could never be redeemed imo.
Lime Pie
2025-07-13 20:37:34 +0000 UTC"That's right! Die you bastard!" Goddamn iconic
Preaching to the Horse's Mouth
2025-07-13 20:30:49 +0000 UTCGlad I got here from the late viewing of the previous episode (which was painful cringe for me, not unusual, other shows had episodes like that). I had severe second-hand embarrassment from the subject matter. At least one other commentator touched upon Spike having a chip as well as a soul which I will expound upon in a couple of ways. One, the soul is not the end all for moral behavior even in the Buffyverse... all kinds of human filth have souls as well however, that is not the critical mass I'm seeing. What I'm seeing is a supernatural manipulation that is powerful enough to override Spike's "do no harm" programming in his chip. That tracks with the sheer manipulative power that the season seven "big bad" is exerting. I'm getting "That's it, I'm doing this myself" vibes from the baddie. Looking forward to where we go from here. Cheers.
Michael Labs
2025-07-13 20:24:56 +0000 UTCAs far as your thoughts I love hearing them. I could talk about this episode ( or listen to you talk about it) for hours lol
Stephen Knueppel
2025-07-13 18:06:34 +0000 UTCThis is an amazing episode. One of the best of the season, and some might say the series. I see this as the real start of season 7. The first five episodes were about tying up loose ends from last season, while still giving us brief hints and images of what's to come. And episode 6 was just a weekly scenario. Good catch that Xander and Anya weren't in this episode. This is the only episode we've had thus far which doesn't feature Xander at all. I enjoyed your analysis at the and, obviously, I can neither confirm nor deny any of your speculation.
Steve Quast
2025-07-13 17:48:29 +0000 UTCOne of my top 10 Buffy episodes. I love Dawn fighting to save her mother. Not sure if you are aware of all the disgusting hate mail Amber Benson received from fans about her weight. Might be a consideration for not returning for this episode. I've joined your Twitch as Stephen4731. It's really fun there so looking forward to the next time I can join the party 🥳
Stephen Knueppel
2025-07-13 17:12:19 +0000 UTChahaha i love this
Cassie
2025-07-13 17:00:22 +0000 UTCThis episode is probably the biggest WTF did I just watch of Buffy. It really only leaves you with several questions about what is to come.
Douglas Robertson
2025-07-13 16:16:28 +0000 UTCAnother great script from Jane Espenson and Drew Goddard, mixing deep character insights with elements of outright horror. But it's too bad that Buffy had to kill Holden, I would 100% have watched a spin-off series called "Holden The Vampire Therapist"
Gaius Frakking Baltar
2025-07-13 15:51:42 +0000 UTCMaybe my favorite Buffy episode that’s only fault is all the context required to ‘get it’
Isaiah Bryant
2025-07-13 14:37:11 +0000 UTCThis episode is so intense despite being just 2 conversations, a blood ritual, a casual date and a haunted house. This episode does seem to indicate that the shapeshifter might be able to appear to different people at the same time. From episode 1 we know they work via manipulation. I think we can take their word for when they, in the form of Cassie, say “I'm not really here, it's complicated” - maybe they appear by manipulating minds directly and people are hallucinating thanks to this manipulation. The haunted house is the most confusing because stuff is moving; no scenes with the shapeshifter have shown us direct interaction with objects so far so was this something else? A coincidence, an opportunistic demon or and ally of the shapeshifter? If it was really Joyce she gave some pretty terrible advice, go through all that just to cryptically shit on Buffy? I guess we will have to keep watching to find out (or talk in the spoilers section of discord).
The Testimony of Mushroom
2025-07-13 14:36:15 +0000 UTCOn top of having a soul Spike also still has the chip and shouldn't be able to hurt people.
nunya business
2025-07-13 14:16:49 +0000 UTCI love this episode!! Top 3 non-finale episodes of the entire series. This episode is very connected to the last scene in episode 7.1 with Spike in the basement. I think we like it so much because it rewards us for being loyal viewers from the beginning until now. Only the most dedicated viewers can fully understand this episode. Its such brilliant writing.
Matthew
2025-07-13 14:13:54 +0000 UTCCass you ARE a pop star! No need to pretend! The plan originally was for Amber Benson to appear as Tara as the vision Willow saw, instead of using Cassie. I've heard a bunch of reasons for why it changed and I don't know which one is true: One reason was just that Amber Benson couldn't make it due to scheduling. One was that Amber Benson refused because she didn't want Tara to appear as a villain and have that be her last appearance after her death last season. One was that Amber Benson refused because her filming experience previously had actually been really bad and she didn't want to come back on-set. Like I said, I don't know which is correct. There was a planned scene for both Xander and Anya, where Xander saw Jesse (The friend who died in the very first episode) and Anya saw Halfrek, but those actors had confirmed scheduling problems so the ideas were dropped. Hence why Xander and Anya don't appear. This is also the FIRST episode in the entire series where Xander doesn't appear. The point that strikes me the most about Buffy's whole conversation is when Holden points out that she's only 21. It's fine that her relationships haven't worked out yet! SHE'S ONLY 21! Most people haven't met their Soulmate yet. Most high school relationships don't last. Most people haven't yet figured out what they want to do with their life. It's a normal part of growing up. Buffy definitely has experienced more trauma and pain than most people her age, but that's on the supernatural angle. When it comes to just relationships and life, she's squarely middle-of-the-pack and she needs to cut herself some slack.
JBK405
2025-07-13 14:09:45 +0000 UTCRemember that Spike doesn't just have a soul, he also still has a chip that should cause him great pain if he hurts anyone.
Christine Cox
2025-07-13 13:58:57 +0000 UTCNovember 12 2002 is the night that Buffy 7x7 aired on, so the title card saying the date and time is saying that episode happens just as the audience is watching it during first broadcast (depending on time zones). The demonic shadow thing seen in the Summers house is the Gnarl (demon from the third episode this season) costume painted black. Also Jonathan and Andrew’s mistranslation that results in the phrase “From beneath you, it devours” becoming “it eats you, starting with your bottom’ is a pretty good punch line to Andrew not understanding the rules of transitive and intransitive verbs in Spanish (which would determine how to understand how a subject’s actions are connected to the object of the sentence)
James Smith
2025-07-13 13:51:33 +0000 UTCTop tier episode in my humble opinion. Stuck at work 🙁 Excited to check it out when I'm done this afternoon
Preaching to the Horse's Mouth
2025-07-13 13:51:30 +0000 UTCTop 3 episodes of the season for me and possibly top 10 of all the seasons so I can’t wait to watch this reaction when I get home!! lol
Cameron Ferguson
2025-07-13 13:24:04 +0000 UTCYeehah!!
Kyle
2025-07-13 13:00:12 +0000 UTCYES! What an episode! Can’t wait for this
Melissa Reynolds
2025-07-13 12:50:58 +0000 UTC
