Buffy The Vampire Slayer

When the demon mist is trying to "enter" (eek) Buffy, it seems to be trying to do so from all angles. Nose, ears, mouth, *then* up her skirt, so at that point I was willing to write off the "demon mist rape" thing as something that might or might not play that way, depending on directorial choices. But, alas, near the end of the script Buffy says something about not be willing to let herself get "knocked up" by the demon mist stuff, so damn if she didn’t go making it textual. There is sadness. Then I realized that of course demon mist would rape every possible orifice, since it’s, you know, hentai tentacle porn.

I’m not sure if it’s just a one time thing or if this is heading somewhere, but there’s a bizarre scene with Anya and Spike. He’s asked her to go out and about with him, and she seems to actually be passive-aggressive hitting on him. He seems pretty mortified about it. I’m not sure if this is supposed to sort of support the "turning point" feel for him at the end of the episode (which I’ll get to in a sec) or just supposed to be comedy, but can I just say that I’m growing a bit tired of this "Anya can’t get laid" farce? C’mon, guys. Anya can *totally* get laid, so quit it.

Kennedy and Willow continue to charm me in this episode. Willow’s all proud of Kennedy for being such a tough drill sergeant, and Kennedy is all proud of Willow for being such a powerful witch. I still don’t like the casting, but the whole "proud of each other" schtick is always a winner with me.

Ok, Spike turning point. I think maybe the aforementioned Spankya scene was meant to communicate the idea that Spike has retreated from physicality, both sexually and like, as a fighter and stuff, like that’s all connected. Yeah, I think there’ve been a few hints in the past on BtVS that fighting and fucking are connected, eh? So anyway. I think when Buffy bitches him out, he almost makes the conscious decision to try to be more like he was. She really pisses him off, and he walks out in the middle of her little speech, and she’s all like, "And where do you think *you’re* going?" and she tells Spike he’s useless and was more useful to her before he *got* the soul. He gets very irritated and I think starts yelling at her, and she seems to be intentionally trying to provoke that sort of aggression, to try to make him more useful, I guess. So he storms out sort of like, "She wants to see the old me, fine, she’ll see the old me." And *that* is when he goes and fetches the coat. Thus, the fact that he killed a Slayer to get it isn’t at all jarring, because he’s putting his persona# back on, and then when he strikes the match off the demon and lights his cigarette all Heathers style I totally swooned, because I *want* him all coat wearing and smoking and stuff. So, this Spike? Can stay.

Something’s up with Dawn, I think. There are a number of times when she somehow...instinctively solves a problem. Like, people are all overwrought and too emotional to see their way out of a problem, and Dawn sort of calmly tricks them into solving it. She’s also somehow learned to translate ancient Sumerian. Let’s hope that this is connected to her Keyness, and not just stupid.

# Or maybe taking the initial steps toward integrating personas?