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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 6x11 Full Reaction

"Gone"

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 6x11 Full Reaction

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Holy shit, whoever gifted me an extra month for Cass's reactions, a huge THANK YOU! <3

Claire Eyles

Sarah requested to have her hair cut so they wrote it into the show. As for the reason she wasn’t in the episode much bc of the invisibility, I don’t know. I was thinking bc of shooting Scooby Doo, but that would have been filmed towards the later half of season 5. She was having to go back and forth between LA and Australia. Busy time for her! The heavier parts of the episode feel so real and relatable. I’m sure we’ve all gone through something similar or felt along those lines. The move to UPN from The WB really changed the show a lot. It’s not my favorite season, but there are some good things about it. I mean, just like all of us, we grow up and learn and experience new things as young adults and how to navigate life. The show tried to do the same by bringing in these darker tones and storylines. Some people like it, some don’t. Did you notice when Buffy was leaving the social worker’s office she was whistling her song Going Through the Motions from Once More With Feeling? 😜 Love your reactions and wonderful insight!

Whitney Mercer

RIP Michelle/Dawn

Morgan Williams

Rest in peace Michelle. I’ll never be able to watch dawn without feeling sad now

Austin Silv

I was shocked when I read about her passing this morning. I read several articles just to make sure it was true. Very sad. She was a beautiful and obviously a very talented actress.

Steve Quast

And just because it bears mentioning, because it is such a huge loss for the Buffy community and a massive shock. RIP Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), aged 39.

Claire Eyles

A good social worker should first ask Dawn's opinion. So I don't think Mrs. Kruger is a good worker.

ThePowerDrome

The motivations and emotions of the "trio" are interesting, Jonathan and ... tuckers brother, they just want to have adventure time, maybe get laid somehow one day, play at being powerful, because they have this inferiority complex that smart gentle boys get in high school, where they say that being smart is great and even the goal of the school, but then give all the praise and advantages to the physically superior but less smart boys, the jocks, and the pretty ones. That is where their pathologies are coming from -- Jonathan showed that he just wants to "be important" and looked up to, and the trouble that got him in. He said he was up in that tower just to kill himself, and Buffy could read minds at that moment, so I guess he wasn't lying, but he was physically cowed by Buffy at the time, and could have been lying to himself out of fear. He might have decided to take out a few grudges with that rifle first. Then he imagined himself as a James Bond hero, and used dark magic, which he learned when? Is is a warlock or a junior dark wizard like Ethan Rayne or something? Anyway, Andrew is his honest friend, and Warren bullies him intellectually and emotionally, which he allows why? To Jonathan, evil schemes are just part of being social with anyone, like the vegetarian that goes to the burger hut with their friends and holds their tongue and tries not to hurl at the smell and the sight of everyone around them chowing down on overcooked dead cow flesh and poor little murdered chickens. Andrew, what's his deal? He seems lost in fantasies of heroes and epic adventures, but he is willing to call Warren out on the danger they are getting into. Warren is darker than the other two. He was trying to kill Buffy with that ray gun. He got his boys to kidnap Willow, lying to them about it. He also makes sexbots, and guess why. I mean it is a teen show (isn't it? kind of heavy for that these days ...) and the horny teen boys tropes is always good for a laugh, I mean Xander was basically that for the first 2 seasons, with the trope getting reversed a lot with horny she demons after his sweet booty all the time. But the show isn't playing around with funny little sex skits anymore. Sex is a destructive force, an addiction, a soul-destroying obsession, that leads to disaster and insanity, and death. Buffy and Angel, wow there goes the world, Buffy and Riley, wow there goes his career, Buffy and Spike, wow there goes her self esteem. Spike used to lead gangs of vamps, terrorizing Sunnydale and whooping it up punk rock style, now he runs around like a man obsessed and tortured by unrequited love, and when she comes around he gives in but it hurts worse afterwards. Now they are in a spiral of kink and using each other, abusing the situation, and knowing full well it is a sickness, not a miracle of love. Even Dawn has to kill the first boy that showed an interest that she was into as well. He was a vamp, tho. I think Willow knows about Spike and Buffy, she got out of the kitchen real fast when she heard them talking like lovers having a spat. She isn't confronting Buffy about it, and I think Xander can't bring himself to see it. A lot of not seeing what is going on with the other person is going on, and not listening. Xander grew up with a warring household of dysfunction and alcoholism, so he should be more observant, but part of coping is denying reality. He went so far as to call up Sweet (the dancing demon), to try to make it all go away, but Sweet had other plans, to expose all the secrets behind the tension and trouble with everyone instead. So Xander effed up and reverted back to being blind to it all again. Buffy spent some time away from herself, because she was literally tearing her hair out in self loathing and regret, and used being invisible to obliviate the reality instead of dealing with it. The hi-jinks with the social worker was funny, and just another of her disastrous dealings with local government officials. She really clashes with the government types. But it was her trigger, danger to Dawn, not being able to protect people, especially her close family. Her mom, Dawn, Ms Calendar, The school counselor she thought she could relate to, Giles, Riley, Faith, the show started off with her losing Jesse. Everyone on the show has a trigger that makes them go crazy and blow it. Of course that is a standard plot thing for every show with dangerous stuff going on, so OK, but usually it is just so someone makes a mistake, not that is degrades them as people and brings out their worst character flaws, like we see this season. Maybe that is why Tara was practicing being gone, because she recognizes when the house is going off the rails, she grew up with that, probably worse than that. She is taking a mental health break, even though it hurts her to be away. Her mom died too, and she probably saw what happened to her brothers and her dad, and it was bad enough for her to take off permanently. Faith lost it completely, turned actual evil, until it destroyed her from within. She ended up taking the long road to redemption, the one that meant years in prison, mostly to stop herself from spiraling into being a real monster, a killer for hire, a lifetime of serving guys like Mayor Wilkins, Wolfram & Hart. Where is the big bad? It's getting late in the season, it can't all just be Summers' house drama with silly sharkhead crooks and invisibility rays, musical demons, magical drug dealers, and some kinky sex scenes. Buffy needs something to hit, something besides Spike's magnificent slim and trim slammin' hard body , that is. He is lookin' good this year, ladies, ngl.

spikeysnack

I am still really enjoying your reactions, but I currently can't afford all of my Patreon subscriptions so I'm kind of cycling them on a monthly basis. Which means I won't be able to subscribe this month. I will be back as soon as I can (unless Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny decides to drop a nice financial present in my lap - in other words, we are broke, money is very tight right now).

Claire Eyles

The three episodes that make up this arc are "Smashed", "Wrecked", and "Gone". The names obviously refer directly to the episodes themselves and what happens in them, but are also all slang phrases for being badly drunk. It emphasizes that this arc is about self-control (or the lack thereof) and the way it can dominate your life. This episode (along with the previous episodes) helps illustrate that the social worker isn't wrong in her judgement of Buffy. There are mitigating factors that she doesn't know about -- like Buffy literally dying and coming back -- but that doesn't change that right now Dawn really isn't living in a properly supportive environment. Buffy is failing as a guardian. And it's very understandable, I'm certainly not saying that I would do better if I was in her place, but it's still happening. With this wake-up call, we can hope that Buffy pulls it together. If she doesn't...

JBK405

I like your shirt.

Douglas Robertson

You raise an interesting discussion point. As of yet, the show hasn’t brought up Anya’s soul situation. Xander seems to believe that Anya losing her powers and the feelings she claims to now have is enough to trust her, but doesn’t believe the chip is comparable, which is a fair opinion to have imo. I do think that Xander struggles with Anya’s demon past though based on the lyric “Am I marrying a demon?” that he sang in the musical and the brief argument he had with Anya in the last episode about inviting demons to the wedding and the demon customs they would do for it. Also, I don’t think Xander is the only Scooby that trusts Anya much more than Spike.

Lime Pie

Spike: *making sex moves, covered in hickies and bruises* Xander: Man this guy needs a girl

Isaiah Bryant

I enjoy many aspects of this episode, but the wacky invisibility hijinks is a stand out. The invisible fight at the end with even the camera getting confused is perfection. I don’t think Dawn or Doris appreciated it as much as I did though lol.

Lime Pie

the invisible buffy/spike scene really had me going 'xander my guy, with all the love in the world, you might be fuckin stupid'

Jorgalorg

I personally would like it explained to Xander a bit more that Anya is a human with a soul who chose to murder and destroy thousands of people's lives over the years. Considering the fact that he always harps on Spike being evil and soulless and only a loser would be with him lol

MG

You seemed to want to say something at the end about the lighter situation, but I guess you forgot. Yes, I think Spike is growing up. Remember his wish in Lowers Walk in season three? There he sincerely thought that putting a curse on Angel or getting Drusilla back with a love spell or even finding her and binding her and torturing her are all good ideas to win her love back. But here he declares - if I can't have all of you, I don't even want to start. This is, first and foremost, a growth in his own self-awareness. But I would like to remind you that he is still a soulless vampire, and therefore this growth has its limits. He simply cannot physically jump over them. It would also be interesting to hear what Spike thinks about this whole Buffy situation. Obviously, he didn't expect this to happen, although he hoped it would.

ThePowerDrome

Did Buffy just call Cass's sneeze lame? This is a fun episode.

The Testimony of Mushroom

Woooooo!

Melissa Reynolds


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