liz_marcs | Buffy-Verse Guilty Pleasures, Part 1

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Buffy-Verse Guilty Pleasures, Part 1

Spent most of the day out and clearing the head.

Then came home and felt like some televised comfort food.

Unfortuantely, Netflix (fie on them, fie I say!) failed to send me Disc 5 of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and instead sent me Disc 6. I cannot watch this series out of order, thankyew.

Good thing I had the Buffy Chosen Collection to fall back on, hunh?

So, I decided to indulge in some "guilty pleasure" episodes — you know the ones. The episodes everyone seems to hate, but you with your terrible taste absolutely love?

Instead of going the easy route and viewing the guilty pleasures from S1 through S3, I decided to make a little bit of a challenge for myself.

Guilty pleasures from S4 through S7.

I still love 'em. And know what? I realized a few things.

The pre-S5 fight scenes totally rocked and kick the asses of all the fight scenes in S6 and S7 put together. The S5 fight scenes were okay, but nothing compared to the season before. The lighting in S4 and S5 actually looked like professionals did the job, instead of the interns at the rent-o-stage hands housed on the UPN lot. The film editing on the pre-S6 episodes was done on a real Avid by professional editors, instead of a college student using iMovie. It was possible for the Scoobs to have scenes with each other that didn't focus on Buffy. ME did a charisma-ectomy on the entire cast in the summer between S5 and S6. Oh, and ME sucked out all of the talent from the entire cast while they were at it.

Also: I would've totally watched a show with just the Scoobs and minus Buffy. All of Buffy's past, current, and future boyfriends had better chemistry with everyone than Buffy. It's a crime the Spike-and-Xander show never successfully spun off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I liked Riley. Anya and Xander really were doomed from the start. I remembered that I was totally an Anya/Spike 'shipper during S4. I liked Dawn in S5 when I thought she'd be the one to die at the end of the season so the Scoobs could get their memories back. S4 may have had a sucky arc, but it had awesome MotW episodes.

Oh, and my retroactive dislike for Willow is much stronger than I thought. She eclipses Spike now. Astounding.

S4: Beer Bad

So much hate for this episode, which I never got. I mean, c'mon. It's college and beer flows like water during that first year. I didn't see any After School Special here (unless we're talking a subversion of the genre). I basically saw a reflection of college student life, the early years.

I have so much flipping love for this episode. Buffy's bewilderment over being used like a tissue and her increasingly elaborate daydreams. Minimal Willow. Xander-and-Giles bickering. Cave Buffy! Parker getting bonked. Xander desperately trying to be somehow part of Buffy's and Willow's lives and bragging he found a way by getting a job as a bartender, even though he doesn't know the first thing about mixing drinks, nor was he legal to serve drinks.

Also awesome: The owner of the bar has a magic user brother-in-law. It makes you wonder something. How many people in Sunnydale actually knew the truth, but deliberately turned a blind eye because they were somehow profiting off of it either directly or indirectly through "family connections?" It's an intriguing (and somewhat dark) notion, isn't it? How many of these people would turn on Buffy and the Scoobs if they knew what they got up to at night?

Oh, if only, if only, if only the show teased out this idea instead of foisting the trio off on us during S6.

I have to admit that it's not the funny that makes it for me. It's the scene where it's Xander's first night on the job and he's flirting with the sorority sisters and one of the fraternity brothers butts in and "puts Xander in his place." The acting from everyone in that scene is pitch-perfect, despite the anivilly dialogue.

Ahhhh, for the days when BtVS put some care into casting the one-shot characters, hunh? Actors who can actually, y'know, act.

Frat boy sounds like quite a few upper-class twits I went to college with. The sorority sister looks mostly uncomfortable and little disgusted with frat boy. She stops flirting with Xander, but she doesn't even talk to frat boy after he puts on his little show. Meanwhile, NB, without saying a blessed word, manages to somehow shrink right in front of your eyes without even slouching. His attempt at asserting his blue-collar authority at the end of the scene is impotant even before he's undercut by his boss. Of course we later learn that the boss does this so he can exact his revenge on his college patrons. Then he makes the mistake of thinking that Xander would be perfectly okay with this.

Like I said: What if more people knew what the Scoobs got up to after dark, hunh? I think more than a few of the locals would get their backs up about it.

Adored the Giles-Xander bickering. I always called Giles treating Xander like an equal in S5. I may have to revise that to S4. 'Cause there's the two of them verbally sparring with one another on an equal basis. I cannot imagine the Giles of S1 through S3 putting up with this. I can't imagine Xander of S1 through S3 continuing to argue with Giles after Giles had snapped at him (in this case for serving Buffy any beer at all).

I'm not sure what they cut out of this episode for syndication. I think they trimmed a few of the Willow scenes in the Bronze with Oz, and a little bit with Willow and Parker, and I'm pretty sure they cut most of Verucca's song.

And now...the episode plot hole.

The Black Forrest beer that was spiked by the caveman drug. I got the impression that it was a popular beer. Yet only Buffy and the four frats were affected? Shouldn't there be more than just these five running around all caveman-like?

And remember kids! What did we learn about beer from this episode? "Foamy!"

Heee!

S4: Pangs

My major problem with this episode is that it's very obviously written by a bunch of people suffering from white guilt. Look, I'm all for doing something about the piss-poor way the First Nations in the U.S. get treated, doing something about prejudice against First Nations people, and helping to improve the lot of people living on tribal lands. But, honestly, I felt like I got beaned by an anvil in this episode. I get it. We bad (and not the good kind of bad). But I'm with Buffy here. I ain't giving up the turkey without a fight to the death. And if you think anyone in New England is going to give up Columbus Day Weekend (aka — regional holiday where we fleece the non-New England autumn leaf peepers of all their cash), you better think again.

Everyone is comedically pitch-perfect in this one, from Harmony and Angel all the way up to Buffy herself. Poor Riley gets stuck being the straight man to everyone in his too-brief appearance.

I honestly don't know why Buffy comes in for so much shit from fans in this episode. As soon as she finds out that Xander's sick from just about every disease mythical Shumash tribe died off from, she's immediately on board with killing their vengeance spirit. Giles and Willow are the research people, so for heaven's sake, let the woman worry about Thanksgiving dinner while her two smartest Scoobs research the threat. She didn't say she wouldn't kill it, it's just that her role comes in after the braniacs tell her how to kill it. They didn't know how to kill it yet, so what is she supposed to do? Wander around Sunnydale blindly with a stake? She tried that and got whammied into being frozen in place while the bad guy escaped. She already knew that tactic wasn't going to work, so why is she going to do it again?

Ahhhh, S4 Buffy. You were so needed in S7. Granted, S3 Buffy would've been better, but you'd do if S3 Buffy was too busy to stage a coup.

The one who I ended up glaring daggers at was Willow. Yo! Miss conscience! Your supposed "best friend" is dying from multiple diseases. Keep the vengeance spirit alive, and he dies. And there you are arguing against killing it non-stop. You don't get on board with the killing until you were attacked. I really want to smack you silly for this one.

Love the running joke about Angel being evil again. While I thought SMG and DB had okay chemistry, I always thought he bounced better off ASH, NB, and AH when he had scenes with them. This just reinforces my personal bias on that front.

The bittersweet Anya-and-Xander-is-doomed certainty rears its head. Anya is funny and sweet and I'm totally charmed by EC's acting. Storm clouds are already present when Xander blurts out that vengeance demons should be killed and Anya takes serious exception while Xander attempts the, "But you're an exception, honey."

Ahhh, hypocrisy, thy name is Xander. Just wait until S7. This "everyone except Anya" deal is so going to bite you in the ass.

Also, guys? Maybe you really need to rethink going ahead with this relationship because, seriously, I see some disconnect here.

I've also changed my mind on "You made a bear! Undo it! Undo it!" It really is a hilarious line in context. It was nice to be reminded why Spike was once my number 2 favorite character. I can understand some people's frustrations with Wacky!Neighbor!Spike!, but honestly? I love honestly evil Spike. Does this make me an evilista?

The casting department screwed up here. The actor playing the Shumash vengeance demon really kind of sucked. It's no wonder the majority of cuts involved his dialogue. Also, I think they trimmed some of that hilarious bike ride to the rescue.

Another thing to note: The make-up department did a pretty shitty job covering up NB's cross tattoo. You could see it bleeding through in some shots.

And now...spot the plot hole!

I have two for you in this episode.

1) Angel gets a warning from Doyle to go save Buffy, right? Can someone explain why? Did they ever explain why? Angel doesn't have enough issues to deal with L.A.? Other than the fact that the network wanted a quickie crossover.

2) So, we establish early on that Xander is so sick he can barely stand. NB's make-up early in the episode makes the character look like he's hovering on death's door. Then, *poof,* he's not only well enough to run over to the dean's house, he's well enough to snark at Angel, ride a bike back to Giles's apartment at a faster clip than either Willow or Anya and hold his own in a fist fight with two super-strong vengeance spirits. Then, he has the presence of mind to distract the main Shumash vengeance spirit while he's in bear form so Buffy can kill it. Hunh? Am I the only thinking that this does not compute at all?

So, what have we learned from this episode? Pie is good.

More tomorrow because it's mega late.

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Yo! Miss conscience! Your supposed "best friend" is dying from multiple diseases. Keep the vengeance spirit alive, and he dies. And there you are arguing against killing it non-stop. You don't get on board with the killing until you were attacked. I really want to smack you silly for this one.

Yeah, I agree with you on that one. That always bugged me. But then, I can't stand that whole episode. I really do think that, as great as some episodes in season 4 were, it was also the time when Joss and his staff started routinely writing characters as OOC just for the sake of making plot points work and/or cheap laughs. And that whole practice really got on my nerves.

As for the rest... no comment.

I liked both of those episodes, too! They're really hated, huh?

I love Beer Bad and I never really understood the hate for it either. Of course, I also love Where the Wild Things Are. I like the Scooby parts of the episode, not the Buffy/Riley sex.

Back to Beer Bad. I love Buffy explaining her first night as CaveBuffy to Willow, CaveBuffy spinning in the chair w/ Xander & Giles watching, Xander getting his tip from the CaveFratBoys, and most of Xander's interactions w/ CaveBuffy and Giles. SMG just seemed like she was having a lot of fun being CaveBuffy.

I have such mixed feelings about Pangs. This episode is definitely funny, but Willow pisses me off. I also get a little pissed at Buffy too. I don't know if it was because she didn't seem to show much concern for Xander, or that she wasn't arguing w/ Willow about not killing the spirits like Giles did. It's been a while since I've watched the episode, so all I remember is being upset with both girls on Xander's behalf, but I was definitely more pissed off at Willow.

I've always felt that it would have been so much better if Buffy had not been raised from the dead and S6 and S7 had gone ahead with SMG playing the Adorable BuffyBot. Her lack of chemistry with absolutely everyone would have been perfectly okay then.

I think that the Buffy-bot start in bargaining was to foreshadow the 'dead object' behaviour/attitude of Buffy; the boinking-Spike, the indifferent interaction with her friends, the Double-meat-palace-work, the unabilety to stand up for herself; it all screams 'robot' to me. :-(
Though i agree that the BuffyBot winns easely in the likebilety contest :-)

I loved Spike when he was evil, but I came to loathe him with the burning fire of a thousands suns once he became Angel-lite (tm somebody else). I pretty much watched the last two seasons for Xander and Anya.

Pangs was funny (Giles' beaming confession of liking mushy peas is priceless), but haven't watched Bad Beer in a very long time. I should plug in the DVD and give 'er a watch.

The Black Forrest beer that was spiked by the caveman drug. I got the impression that it was a popular beer. Yet only Buffy and the four frats were affected? Shouldn't there be more than just these five running around all caveman-like?

Its rather a weak arguement, but maybe it had to do with how much beer was consumed. Buffy and the fratboy's were there after everyone else had gone home both nights and drinking heavily to boot.

Maybe the other cliental that were drinking the magicked beer (I thought it was Black Frost, but I haven't seen the ep in a while.) didn't have as much and so just woke up like Buffy did the first morning - looking extremely hungover and feeling like they got the brain-fog that a really good hangover will give you.

I know I feel like a cave-woman after some nights out.

Speaking of guily pleasure's I must admit to having a soft spot for S2 Bad eggs , if only for Xander boiling his egg.

Agree with you on Willow in Pangs. Think this was also when I started to go off the character but always thought it a great comedic episode overall.

Think they became a lot more slap dash with the fight continuity in later seasons for which of course Chosen takes the crown in spectacular fashion.

Ihappen to love that episode. I don't understand why other people didn't. I don't really remember Pangs that well; yes, I saw the episode, I know that's the Thanksgiving episode, but beyond that, and the sick Xanderness, I don't really remember anything, so I'm not going to share my opinion on it. But yes, Beer Bad remains one of my favorite episodes from season 4. To be honest, I didn't like season 4 that much; not overall. But it did produce some great episodes.

Personally, my favorite season is season 3. Or two; it's a toss up.

After Willow got upset at not being murdered/raped/turned by Spike I stopped taking her all that seriously in S4. So I didn't much care when she was used for comedic effect in Pangs, after all if I took her seriously I'd say she should find some institution and check herself in.

What a fun post! I've always liked Beer Bad, and Pangs grew on me. I didn't like it on the first showing because I felt like the dialogue was too over the top and that the writers were trying overly hard to nail the Scooby banter. Now it's one of my faves.

Looking forward to more...

I liked Beer Bad too. And apart from the mysteriously improving Xander I rather liked Pangs as well.

How many people in Sunnydale actually knew the truth, but deliberately turned a blind eye because they were somehow profiting off of it either directly or indirectly through "family connections?" It's an intriguing (and somewhat dark) notion, isn't it? How many of these people would turn on Buffy and the Scoobs if they knew what they got up to at night?

This is an interesting point. I would imagine, though, that if a large number of Sunnydale residents were actually in on it, they would already know who Buffy is and what she was doing. The demon grapevine seems to be fairly active in Sunnydale and I can't believe that a slayer being in town wouldn't spread like wildfire.

That said, I never could understand how people could continue to be in the dark after the events of graduation. A mysteriously exsanguinated body is one thing, but a giant serpent attacking the graduating class and their families followed by an explosion so enormous it leveled the school? I could not suspend my disbelief that far so I just had to ignore it while watching the later seasons.

I never cared for Pangs (mainly because of A) Angel's pointless appearance and B) Willow's annoying 'let my friends die' crap), but Beer Bad has always been one of my favorites.

"Why yes! That's *exactly* the right amount of tip!"

"Well excuse *me,* Mr. I-spent-the-'60's-in-a-funky-electric-kool-aid-Satan-groove..."
"It was the late '70s, and you should know better."

"We locked them in this van."
"Oh. Whose van is this?"
"I dunno. It was unlocked..."

I completely agree with you on all counts. In fact, I was actually going to use those same exact quotes. I also really enjoyed Willow's attempt at being tanked and friendless at the beginning of the episode.

Plus, in addition to the issues of class that Liz mentioned, Giles' "you should know better" quote is making me wonder just how much Giles knew about Xander's home life relative to alcohol consumption.

I agree with you on almost everything, as per usual. The drop in visual/editing quality and fight quality between the WB and UPN seasons really is something.

Beer Bad/Me 4EVA.

I liked those two episodes, too. Evil Spike was much more fun than Emo Spike. The week after Beer Bad originally aired, I was in Trader Joe's, and over a display of beer they had a sign that said "Beer Good!" *g*

I don't have the retroactive Willow dislike for some reason and I'm clinging to that hard as I love the Xander/Willow dynamic when it works. A show centered on Spike & Xander would have been so very cool. Forget my Spander shippy heart, JM and NB just play so very well off each other.

My favorite bit in Beer Bad was actually Willow and Parker where Parker thinks he about to make another conquest and Willow's just how dumb do you think I am. It's just so fun watching him get shot down in flames. :)

Despite the huge plot hole of Xander's variable illness I actually love this episode. Spike's "I came, I saw, I felt really bad about it." has me rolling every time. Then Xander finding himself agreeing with Spike and Giles utter exasperation that they're listening when Spike says it.

I agree this is a horrible episode for Willow. This was when I really started to realize that Xander wasn't as important to her as she was to him and that hurt. I don't agree about Xander/Anya. I really thought there was chemistry there and genuine affection. I think Xander was still trying to sort out the gray areas of his world view at this point. I also think he periodically conveniently forgot Anya's former profession, although how is beyond me since she was hardly silent on the subject. How I love and miss Emma Caufield!

Really interesting to have some thoughtful analysis on the fight staging and lighting differences between WB and UPN. I'm afraid that I'm not very analytical when it comes to those things -- I just go into a waiting mode when I see a fight start up. "Oh, it's over? Anybody hurt? Ok then, on with the story..."

I never get a chance to sit down and watch a bunch of eps from different seasons (heck, I never get a chance to watch a bunch of eps, period), so it's interesting to read your thoughts about comparing them. I love all the seasons but for different reasons and certainly not all equally.

I, too, found Willow in “Pangs” extremely annoying, and I also — on viewing it again when it first came out on DVD — found my attitude toward her dipping toward active antipathy. In fairness, her behavior in some ways fits into the initial trend of S4: college experience writ onto a larger canvas, in this case new-liberal-cultural-tolerance-indignation-posturing swollen to monstrous proportions. All the same, so many things went wrong with Willow, beginning in Season 4, it’s easy to mark this as the point where she stopped being my favorite among the crew and began to turn loathsome. Certainly, much of this can be ascribed to the writers misusing the character … but that’s the direction they took her character, so that’s what her character became. Beginning of much undesirableness.

Again, like you, I thoroughly enjoyed “Beer Bad”. Didn’t subject it to any kind of intense analysis, but enjoyed it. I’m a little sad that we never saw more of Parker Abrams, because his character was beautifully done. You could actually see his personal magic working on Willow, the guy had awesome skills, and even if her intellect rendered her ultimately immune, it was still impressive. As an individual, he absolutely deserved to be dropped and forgotten — there wasn’t enough person there to be worth a more significant exit — but the talent level alone made me wish he could have had a more noteworthy (and painful) departure.

Great reviews there. I should really re-watch Pangs while Auf Weidersehen, Pet S3 is still fresh in my mind from my last rewatching.

I love Beer Bad with the same blind and irrational love I have for, err, Dude, Where's My Car?. Never let it be said that I do not own my bad taste.

Pangs, once I got over the part where Willow was making me flashback to almost every seminar I had at Evergreen (strongly enough that my initial reaction to the episode on first air was about as negative as it gets), turned out to have a lot of entertainment value for me, and I strongly suspect I'll be able to get at least three pages of notes from it on next rewatch (at least one on Anya and Xander, one on Buffy's frantic attempt at making a normal veneer for her life, and one for everything else). Besides, I think about it whenever I look at my ricer.

I love Pangs. Is it hated? I think it's more one where there's a division of opinion. But my interaction with fandom is fairly limited. I love the interplay between the meal preparation and the MOTW, and Buffy's complete zoning out of the latter. Spike is also brilliant - I think his line "You won, they lost, that's what conquering armies do" is actually going against that somewhat. Keith Topping (whose judgement I find erratic mind you) actually describes it as "A stake through the heart of political correctness". I don't think that's right either. I think it very nicely performs the trick of facing the 'issues' without hammering in a message - so you can take it whichever way you like. I think the one I'd take is "Terrible things were done, but this is something that can never be made right, so there's no point feeling guilty".

I have a theory about Xander's miraculous recovery from Syphillis and whatever else. Note also his not getting squished by Olaf's hammer. He actually does have a superpower, but nobody realises it. It's the 'cartoon character' superpower, whereby he can emerge almost completely unscathed from things which would normally kill a person when comic effect demands it.

I actually really appreciated SMG's acting in S6. I think her portrayal of Buffy's descent into depression and self-loathing was magnificent. Painful t watch, but moving and credible. But I'm wierd in liking S6 (After-school special plot excepted), I know this.

From S4 on, and in fact in retrospect from S7 back, the only way Willow's character makes sense to me is to realize that the most important people to Willow are those who actively fulfill some emotional need for her. Love, support, validation, empowerment, adoration -- anybody who actively provides this for Willow, she will move heaven and earth for. Then there are those who Willow, consciously or unconsciously, decides that they are not fulfilling an emotional need or are not fulfilling the need she wanted them to fulfill. This includes not just people she knows but has no use for (Parker, pre-vamp Harmony) but those she wanted a specific thing from and ultimately didn't get. In Xander's case, they were friends for years, but she wanted him to fall in love with her. The minute she realizes that that's not going to be in the cards, she all but dropkicks him out of her life. After the fluke, if it weren't for his continued presence in high school and in the Scooby Gang, I seriously doubt that she'd have said five words to him if she didn't have to. When Season Four starts, she seems to have decided that Xander's road trip and lack of college-bound status means that he finally is out of her life, and she's not really bothered by that. (When Xander runs into her, Oz, and Kathy in The Freshman, completely absent from her surprise that Xander's back is any genuine happiness that he's back -- he might as well be Jonathan or Percy, judging from her reaction.)

I love Beer Bad. It's not too serious, SMG is hilarious as CaveBuffy, and it's really the only episode that seems to address Xander's Season Four issues even remotely seriously. He's trying to be part of Buffy and Willow's lives, but Willow, IMO, seems utterly uninterested in his efforts, and Buffy's actions actually seem to foreshadow her choices in later seasons. She seeks out Xander at the bar at first, but seems to decide that she can't because he's got other responsibilities at his job. Moreover, she seems to really enjoy the attentions of four complete strangers who clearly think she's a hottie but treat her more as an intellectual equal.

As for the retro-hate for Pangs, I can only guess that some fans were wondering, now that it was November-sweeps time, when the heck were ME going to stop underusing Xander, stop using him only for humiliating comic relief, and start addressing his issues more seriously. Alas, we were yet to find out via David Fury that the writers thought that "it's fun to humiliate Xander" and that they had no interest in treating him seriously.

In general, Season Four on up is when the writers started showing more interest in a season's themes and ideas than they did in the characters, and if they thought underusing certain characters meant they could serve the theme/idea more (and give more time to characters they were more interested in), so much the better. I think that's a major flaw of Joss and the ME writers in particular. Joss creates, for the most part, really interesting characters, but he's much more interested in pursuing so-called "big ideas" and how those characters can be used to do that. Unfortunately, he worked in a medium (television, and to an extent comics) whose audience is much more interested in the characters than the ideas, or at least approaches the ideas through the characters. Which explains S7, bringing in the Potential's, Robin Wood, and Andrew, focusing too much on Spike, and sidelining Xander, Willow, Anya, Dawn, and even Giles.

The above is all IMO, of course.

Unfortuantely, Netflix (fie on them, fie I say!) failed to send me Disc 5 of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and instead sent me Disc 6. I cannot watch this series out of order, thankyew.

Actually, the episodes on Disc 1 on the series are out of order. . . .

Not, you know, massively, but they are, nonetheless. At least on my copy. "Socrates' Sister" simply cannot come before "Brisco in Jalisco".

Also, that second plot hole in pangs always annoyed the crap out of me.

I thought about this the last time I watched Pangs and came to the conclusion that it’s the very fact that Angel really wasn’t needed in Pangs that’s the point – because it showed both him and us that Buffy really didn’t need him any more. Allowing him to concentrate on his own problems in LA without worrying too much about her, and us to enjoy the separateness of the two shows.

And re. Willow: I too suffer from retrospective dislike, which now begins (as I discoved on my last rewatch) at Choices. My main reason for dislike is her new low annoying voice, and I've just realised that maybe the voice comes from the fact that she's suddenly gained confidence, and lost the cute stutter and uncertainty. Confident Willow just doesn't do it for me.

Anna

Meant to add that I love Beer Bad, and it's also one of the few Buffy episodes hubby ever requests, when we're feeling low and need a good laugh.

I don't love Pangs in the way, but it certainly makes me laugh too.

Anna

Hmmmm, Angel's pop overs from L.A., that's what cross-over tv is all about, for if you think of many of them, (with him coming back to Sunnydale) consisted of either a single punch or 2, or a quip... exception of Buffy's trip to LA when it appears that Angel can be cured and come back to the sunlight, over for him to take a pass on it.

Beear bad wasn't hated, just not as highly thought of as other episodes...
for Pangs I'll have to go back and take another look.

But your idea of going back on your guilty pleases remined me of how upon going over S6 again discovering that "Once More with Feelings" wasn't the throw-away episode it seemed when I first viewed it.

And lets remeber that after S3/4 it sort of became let's keep the group at odds, so they can come back together for the common good.

I've just re-watched S4.

I must admint, I enjoy almost all of Buffy; some episodes are better than others, but I find it superior to most shows on UK tv.

I am enjoying your trawl through the archives!

Good choises.
I agree with your analyses and liked both episodes - even loved Beer Bad.

I felt ambiguous about Willow's talk with Parker - a little overdone because she went all 'you men' in general to him while his actions were clearly so different from Oz (and knowing Xander and Giles), but at the same really felt her love and protectiveness for Buffy that she could never bring up for herself - I really love(d) the Scooby dynamics :-D

Of Pangs, I really loved the normal-party-Buffy

I understand the dislike of Willow in that episode, but I blamed it on her (too) sympathic nature and in her innocence not believing it would really hurt Xander if they gave in to the demands.

1) Angel gets a warning from Doyle to go save Buffy, right? Can someone explain why? Did they ever explain why? Angel doesn't have enough issues to deal with L.A.? Other than the fact that the network wanted a quickie crossover.

One explenation coming right up:
It's got the do with Angel turning human the next episode (which on it's turn causes Doyle to jump the following episode) - and even somewhat explained by Jasmine in Season 4:
The Powers-that-Be (only existing on ATS) are sick bastards who only care about their own plans, and -knowing Angel would turn human - needed a motivation for Angel to turn it down within 24 hours.
They knew that seeing Buffy hurt would make Angel do that, and that Buffy would come if she discovered Angel had been stalking her - and that Angel could not keep a cover to save his live.

The bittersweet Anya-and-Xander-is-doomed certainty rears its head. Anya is funny and sweet and I'm totally charmed by EC's acting. Storm clouds are already present when Xander blurts out that vengeance demons should be killed and Anya takes serious exception while Xander attempts the, "But you're an exception, honey."

You keep saying that, but I do't buy it. I'd have agreed if X/A had blooded dead with dignety mid S4 or S5 (back then I thought X/A would end that way) - but I don't see any of their problems reflected in how it ended on the show
And Xanders kill-the-guy-that syfilised-me = wishing vengengs-upon-thevengence-guy, makes him have something in common with Anya for the first time. :-)

While I still liked him back then, the only thing that confused me a little me is that they didn't stake Spike, but after all that would follow, I'm numb to that now.

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Buffy-Verse Guilty Pleasures, Part 1

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Beer Bad

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Angel's appearance in Pangs

Re: Angel's appearance in Pangs

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