Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 6x8 Full Reaction
Added 2025-01-28 15:00:07 +0000 UTC"Tabula Rasa"
Comments
How do you follow Once more with feeling ? Like that.
madfem
2025-02-10 02:06:52 +0000 UTCI think Cass gets the addiction reasoning. I can't think of a direct real world comparison for violating a loved one due to drugs the way Willow is violating Tara with magic, since it goes beyond financial abuse. Maybe gaslighting and manipulation? More like dosing someone with drugs to make them high and stop telling you to quit. Yeesh, haven't heard of that but I'm sure it's happened. It's just such a low blow for Willow to go there with Tara. I think Cass is reacting to the shock of that more than anything.
Kiss the Librarian
2025-02-03 01:28:35 +0000 UTCOh my god I didn't know that LOL Just imagining what they'd do if they had to "pony up." xD
Kiss the Librarian
2025-02-03 01:23:59 +0000 UTCWhen Buffy says " I cant do this without you", my mind just goes right back to "Passions"😭
Pauline Robertson
2025-01-31 11:31:55 +0000 UTCLike SO ready
Isaiah Bryant
2025-01-30 16:38:23 +0000 UTCThe Spuffy make out ending lives rent free in my head to this day
Isaiah Bryant
2025-01-30 16:36:31 +0000 UTCWillow choices makes sense if you think about her internal logic. You're right that she has always been a caring friend, eager to help, who has weakness of being overly drawn/indulgent to magic. Now because she so warped by her attraction to magic- she is using that to fit her internal logic. To her, shes just using magic to help or fix the people she cares about...
mary smith
2025-01-29 18:10:17 +0000 UTCWhat Willow is doing makes more sense if you see it through the metaphor they're going for.
Helly R
2025-01-29 12:07:30 +0000 UTCIn poker the players all put some money into the pot before the betting starts, and that is called the kitty. So the demons were putting kittens into the kitty.
Bud Haven
2025-01-29 06:26:19 +0000 UTCNote that Willow's intent was not to erase everyone's trauma, just Buffy and Tara's. The ember from the small amount of magical weed popped out and hit the big bag of magical weed which is what amped it up from being those two to everyone, and to being a full memory wipe and not just the traumas. She goofed up the spell, similar to how she goofed up in Dopplegangland spilling the magic sand on her person instead of the Anya necklace effigy.
Dee Aitch
2025-01-29 05:07:23 +0000 UTCAnd King Ralph was a John Goodman comedy from 1991 that I've still not managed to watch despite it being praised in this episode.
Dee Aitch
2025-01-29 04:59:56 +0000 UTC"I love this show so much, you don't understand." I can't say for sure that I do understand as I can't read your mind but I think I do.
slypeartree
2025-01-29 03:03:27 +0000 UTCOooo good point! I wonder who else she has done this to? I seriously don’t recall if this ever came out during the series.
MG
2025-01-29 00:54:50 +0000 UTCOh, "Tabula Rasa" is Latin for "Blank Slate". It's a philosophy perception that people are born without any innate personality or desires or ambitions, everything comes from what they experience throughout their life. That people start as a naturally blank slate, and it gets written on as they grow up. The "nurture" side of the "nature vs. nurture" argument. The phrase is a surprisingly common title for TV episodes, I can think of half-a-dozen off the top of my head. They often deal with memory loss like here, but not always.
JBK405
2025-01-29 00:28:13 +0000 UTCA junkie's promise: 100% Sincere. 100% Worthless. A junkie will say anything in the moment, and they MEAN it in the moment. They'll quit cold turkey, never touch the stuff again, a complete break....until they feel that jones and suddenly nothing matters as much as getting their fix. Everybody has their own personal choice for "Best acting moment", but for me I think Sarah Michelle Gellar's best moment in the whole series is when Buffy gets her memories back. You can SEE the weight settle on her shoulders. All of the carefree optimism that Joan had is suddenly gone and you see the depression just sink in. No dialogue, just physicality. For Giles, I actually like this plotline because it's WRONG, but it's not STUPID. By which I mean, him leaving is the wrong decision -- you do not help somebody suffering from depression by leaving and saying "grow up" -- but it's the kind of wrong decision that people make all the time in real life. It's not bad writing where Giles suddenly acts like a moron, he's making what he thinks is a rational decision and he's just completely wrong about it. Tara remains one of my favorite characters in the whole series. She's correct in every single thing that she says to Willow, and she made the right decision to get out at the end. I get why Dawn feels bad, since Tara & Willow have been parental figures for her and this is like a divorce all over again. But Tara made the right choice to get out.
JBK405
2025-01-29 00:13:57 +0000 UTCI don't think any fake bands played at the Bronze, other than Dingoes Ate My Baby and Veruca's Shy. I found a list of all the bands that played there. Spoilers for episodes after 6x8. https://screenrant.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-every-real-life-band-that-played-the-bronze/
Bud Haven
2025-01-28 23:56:07 +0000 UTCIt seems like Buffy is feeling a bit of a martyr. Naming herself after Joan of Arc. You can see how her disposition changes as soon as she gets her memory back. So sad. A big get for the Bronze, having Michelle Branch play there. This is my favorite version of the song.
Bud Haven
2025-01-28 23:47:23 +0000 UTCJust a quick bit of trivia. The singer at the end was Michelle Branch, she was a real world pop artist and her song "Goobye to you" was a hit at the time. So it was kind of a big deal that she showed up singing it in this episode. Usually the bands playing at the Bronze are either not real bands or they were very obscure bands most had never heard of, but this was the first time a genuinely popular artist was featured.
Matthew
2025-01-28 23:42:30 +0000 UTCJust so you young folks know, Allen Funt was the host of the show Candid Camera, which used hidden cameras to watch people react to some practical joke or unusual situation.
Christine Cox
2025-01-28 23:38:14 +0000 UTCTwo things to really ram home how inexcusable Willow's actions here were. One: Willow has a giant stash of these plants in the Summers house for easy access, pretty much confirming that the mind-wipe from episode 6 wasn't her first and that Tara may not have been the only person she did this to, and Two: I'm pretty sure the only reason she didn't just wipe Tara's mind AGAIN to get out of trouble for the last two mind-wipes is that the bag catching fire completely wiped out her stash. ...Willow, what the FUCK are you doing?
Holy Stregas
2025-01-28 23:06:07 +0000 UTC"Time, time, time... is what turns kittens... into cats." And yes, that is a loan shark lol. This episode, as you might tell, is a fan favorite. The main bulk of it is funny, but obviously with a lot of sad and frustrating elements mixed in since we know everything that's going on in the background. This season has its ups and downs for sure, but it's loved by many for being so emotionally raw and being much more relatable to real life situations, even with the supernatural elements considered.
Steve Quast
2025-01-28 22:30:58 +0000 UTCgot itttt. and I was thinking bc she died? but then again, they kept that under wraps so it probably wasn't reported? idk lol
Cassie
2025-01-28 21:30:00 +0000 UTC"Please let's start this episode out with Willow feeling like shit" is not a sentence you hear from Season 1 reactors :D
G. Smith
2025-01-28 21:29:36 +0000 UTCGreat reaction as always! Just to clarify a couple things: Willow's spell only referred to Buffy and Tara, and only in regard to "pains from RECENT slights and sins." What went wrong is that the entire bag she left in front of the fireplace caught on fire (which seems to have escaped your notice), so it ended up affecting more, in terms of everyone around Buffy and Tara losing ALL their memories. It's not meant to imply that they forgot their entire lives because it was only traumatic memories. Also, just curious, why would the government not recognize Buffy as a citizen? I'm guessing she's just not in the habit of keeping her ID on her all the time, especially because she doesn't really drive, and I don't think she ever even got her driver's license.
Maia Brodsky
2025-01-28 20:23:44 +0000 UTCAt the very least, her behavior with Glory is completely justified. Tara truly was everything to her, and she almost without thinking threw herself into an ocean of revenge. To do something that would plunge her into darkness, but allow her to really hurt Glory. Buffy might not have behaved in a similar way, but Spike admits that as a true reckless hero, he would have acted the same way if it were a creature he loved more than life itself.
ThePowerDrome
2025-01-28 19:12:52 +0000 UTCSorry, I hit post too soon and then got distracted by baking. I should also add that I'm totally Team Tara on the whole Willow situation. In her part of 'Wish I could Stay' last episode, she sings "Wish that I could trust that it was just this once, but I must do what I must, I can't adjust to this disgust, we're done...", it's actually pretty damn lucky she even gave Willow a second chance after laying down a boundary for her. The thing is though, I can see both sides, and I hate what Willow is doing at the moment, but I can also really relate to it. Season 6 of Buffy aired when I first went on the methadone program to treat a several years long heroin addiction (still never missed an episode of Buffy, even when I was out on the streets). I had a similar situation happen, albeit without the violating someone's mind part, where one of my closest friends offered me their love and support when I was struggling with addiction, but laid down a boundary for me...which I then proceeded to just trample all over, leading them to throwing me out their house during a visit. Watching Willow essentially do the same thing was infuriating when I first watched this episode. Like, "Holy shit girl, Tara is gracing you with a second chance after the shit you pulled, and you're just gonna completely disrespect the boundary she put down? Yeah, been there, done that, didn't work out so well." I should say my friend and I repaired our relationship once I got clean, and I've been clean now for almost 23 years. Let's just hope Willow can wake up to herself sooner rather than later.
Claire Eyles
2025-01-28 17:50:29 +0000 UTCLove the call back to Restless in this episode, "Spike's like a son to me". As for Willow, yeah I think it's fair to say at this point she's an addict. The thing is though this is basically the culmination of something that's been building for several seasons now. Think about all of the times before that Willow has just used magic to make negative feelings or situations go away, or tried to just barrel through them. She tried to magic away her dalliance with Xander (without his permission),; she tried to barge her way back into Oz's good graces, until Oz had to literally point out that he'd already told her what he needed and it wasn't his problem to make her feel better about what she did; she jumped at the chance to do a potentially dangerous spell with Anya, because she was upset at being seen as 'old reliable'; she got snippy when people expressed concerns about her magic, then shouted "I'm not your sidekick" at Buffy and stomped off to do a spell that failed yet again; her solution to fix Oz's infidelity was to almost to almost put a serious hex on both him and Veruca, then rather than going through the pain of their break up she did a 'Do I as I Will' spell, which as amusing as it was almost got her friends seriously hurt or killed; and let's not forget her pointing Dawn in the direction of a book that referenced ressurection spells, almost leading to a zombie Joyce coming back from the dead; and her going after Glory after completely ignoring all of Buffy's warnings about it being a suicide mission. At this point should we really be surprised that Willow has overused magic to the point that it's become an addiction for her?
Claire Eyles
2025-01-28 17:19:29 +0000 UTCI'm so ready
Melissa Reynolds
2025-01-28 16:33:53 +0000 UTCYay! On Buffy's line about "this isn't real, but I just want to feel," Buffy could have kissed any guy and instead she chose Spike, so I personally don't buy her not having some real feelings lol. And can I just say, so wrong about everything Willow is doing. But at the same time when I first watched this I couldn't help but think about the time Tara was the one who messed with everyone's minds to make them not see her demon side. Sooo in my head I wanted her to have more patience and forgiveness with Willow like they all had with her. And I was frustrated that they were going the full nuclear relationship route. But at the same time Willow has been spiraling for a long time and it's not just a one time occurrence...clearly lol
MG
2025-01-28 15:59:11 +0000 UTC
