Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Buffy 7.19 FAQ What’s it called? "Empty Places."

Who’s responsible? Teleplay is credited to Drew Z. Greenberg ("Him," "The Killer In Me").

What does TV Guide say? "As Sunnydale’s residents evacuate en masse, Faith rallies the demoralized potentials while an emotionally fragile Buffy endures another run-in with Caleb. Duncan: Nathan Brooks Burgess. Munroe: Justin Shilton."

The big news? The cops get word that the fugitive Faith is back in Sunnydale.

Does Buffy do more than endure Caleb’s fisticuffs? She’s not her fun-loving self. She seems lost, and cold, and distant, and may have fallen under some kind of stupidity spell.

Since all of Sunnydale’s residents fleeing, does Robin Wood continue to be an effective principal? School has been cancelled; Sunnydale High is now a big empty place with lots of notebook paper on the floor and many open lockers. Wood’s big thing this week is he gets to meet another slayer.

Does Anya nurse poor Xander’s socket? And just where was she last episode? It turns out Anya has been chatting up some old contacts. As for nursing her ex: "I, myself, would much rather be sitting at the bedside of my one-eyed ex-fiance […] And I would be, too, if not for a certain awkward discussion he and I recently had right over there on that cot immediately following some exciting and unexpected breakup sex. But ... I need to give him some space ..."

Does Willow eye the dark magicks? Does she eye Kennedy? Willow clouds men’s minds. Nothing too romantic happens this week.

It’s true Andrew and Spike team up? How does that go? In the next-to-last scene the duo are led to a cryptic phrase hidden inside a mission they visit: "It is not for thee. It is for her alone to wield."

Faith rallies the potentials? Kinda. She takes the wannabes a-Bronzing.

Does Dawn require rescuing? At no time.

Does Giles turn up? Yes it is he who dispatches (a suspicious) Spike to the mission upstate.

Any sign of Fantastico? No.

Any news on Caleb? He saw the cryptic wall-message long before Spike and Andrew, and was none too pleased.

What’s good? Willow’s sad hospital visit with Xander. The shocking suddenness with which Caleb returns.

What’s not so good? The episode’s not the funniest. Not a lot of new stuff happens this week. Buffy’s trance-like demeanor bums me out, man. And there’s only three episodes left after this one.

How does it end, spoiler-boy? "Protect them," Buffy tells Faith. "Lead them."

Herc’s rating for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" 7.19? *** The Hercules T. Strong Rating System: ***** better than we deserve **** better than most motion pictures *** actually worth your valuable time ** as horrible as most stuff on TV * makes you quietly pray for bulletins 8 p.m. Tuesday. UPN.

From Peterdavid.net :

04/30/2003 Entry: "TONIGHT’S BUFFY"

At a point in previous seasons where the plot has built up speed like an express train, this week gives me a sense of going nowhere fast.

Stan Lee used to write that the trick in serial comic storytelling was to provide "the illusion of change." Make it *seem* that the situation was changing, but in fact most everything was remaining the same.

So let’s see what happened tonight:

The situation in Sunnydale is deteriorating. We knew that. Caleb is real real strong. We knew that. Xander’s eye is gone. We knew that. Faith knows how to party. We knew that. Cops are looking for Faith. We knew that. The place where Buffy and Co. attacked last week should be attacked. We knew that. Caleb and the First are in cahoots. We knew that. Buffy believes she is better than everyone else, but also has an inferiority complex. We knew that. Buffy, who has planned countless strategies in seven years, seems to have lost all her leadership skills. Unfortunately, we knew that too.

We learned exactly two things tonight: There’s a vague inscription in a church that annoyed Caleb, and—most importantly—how to make that brilliant onion flower thing that Spike fancies. That was the one moment in the entire episode I said, "Well, THAT was interesting."

We learn nothing new and we’re three eps away from the end. At this point, the only thing we have a clear idea about is that the First is doing something nasty with the Hellmouth. Okay. Except we’ve seen the Hellmouth opened three times already in the series history. Once it took a season to get there, but the season was only twelve episodes. The other two times, it took exactly one episode to get there. Hell, in one of those episodes, opening the Hellmouth was the "B" plot, taking second fiddle to Xander’s getting laid and hanging out with zombies. The seventh season is taking 22 damned episodes, two dozen slayers, Xander’s eye, and endless angst to get to something going on with the sodding Hellmouth.

I’ve been trying to tell myself a large part of the problem is the less-than-generous airing schedule. That "Angel" is playing so much better because the WB is running the show consecutively as opposed to the one new, two reruns, two new, two reruns, etc., that we’re seeing for "Buffy." That perhaps this season will play better where aired nonstop on FX, which, frankly, I have to admit season 6 has. But nothing can overcome the fact that tonight’s episode gave us nothing substantive until the last act, and what was there was—frankly—horrendous. The troops revolt against Buffy. I could almost handle that. Almost.

So does Buffy say, "You don’t like it? Fine. Get the @*$# out of my house." No. She slinks away...AT THE ORDER OF HER SISTER. Oh my GOD. I don’t care if she DOES have an inferiority complex. It’s HER SODDING HOUSE. They don’t like how she’s calling the shots? Let them move in to Xander or Willow’s place. And I’m sorry, there’s NO WAY Dawn orders her out. No way. Furthermore, she’s still a Slayer with formidable skills. Giles once said, "Our plan? Buffy IS the plan." At a time when the Apocalypse is nigh, Giles lets one of their most potent weapons evaporate because she’s got management issues? The Bringer might as well have cut his head off, because he’s not putting the thing to any use. Mortimer Snerd could manage a military campaign better than this.

It’s almost as if they tried to paint this as a tough love intervention situation. "Buffy, your behavior is unacceptable. Get out." No. They’re in a situation where they may be facing 10,000 Ubervamps, the only strategy they’ve got is, "Okay, Buffy, take the 5000 on the right, Faith, the 5000 on the left," and they just cut their resources in half. Unless Willow is planning to crank up the Witch-o-Meter a few hundred decibles and put paid to Caleb singlehandedly (which, let’s face it, she probably could), then let us quote Xander from season two: "Hi, for those of you who just tuned in: Everyone here is a crazy person."

It didn’t help that poor Gellar obviously was battling laryngitis during filming. Couldn’t they have looped it? One could try and rationalize it that Buffy got her throat injured by Caleb and was battling raspiness. But the First was sounding hoarse too.

This season was supposed to go back to the beginning. Instead it’s been fits and starts, with short arcs that begin and then taper off. Spike is being tortured by the First and going nuts except, okay, he gets cured of that. Giles isn’t touching anyone and might actually be the First except, wait, no, it was just some bad writing to hose viewers. Andrew killed his friend and then admits he did it, and that pretty much goes nowhere. Someone’s going all over the world to kill Slayers and Caleb blows up the Watchers, except now that the Slayers are all together, no one’s blowing them up, for some reason, not sure why, rapidly not caring. Xander and Anya might be getting back together except, no, they’re not. It’s like watching a finely tuned race car that keeps stalling out every three laps. A season that started promisingly, and has had a few standout episodes, is suffering from inertia and soggy storytelling. And since comparisons to "Angel" are inevitable, it’s almost painful.

They’ve got, what, three weeks to pull it together? I’m still hoping the resolution is that the First is planning to open up Hellmouths all over the world, Buffy thwarts it by sacrificing the primal power of the Slayer, that’s the end of the Slayer line, and the Hellmouth is gone forever. Which would be pretty major and a considerable payoff. But getting there has been all fits and starts; we keep waiting for it to start and have fits when it doesn’t.

From Entertainment-geekly.com :

Hey, UPN? Old buddy, old pal? Could you please stop blaring that Michelle Branch "song" over your promos for the last few Buffys? I know she sang it in that one episode and there was a montage and everything, but hearing it over and over and over again makes me want to stab myself in the eye repeatedly with whatever stick-like object that happens to be lying around at the time, thereby proving that there are certain things that are not preferable to a sharp stick in the eye. I mean, OK, yeah, at least you don’t play the part where she pronounces the word "soul" like "sooooolllllll-uhhhhhhhhh," but still. I’m going to look like Xander any day now.

Now about the episode... People are leaving Sunnydale - even Clem, who takes off in a very new looking red VW (bye Clem! Sniff…). For some reason, Buffy decides to go visit the abandoned school, where she tussles again with Preacher Mal. Meanwhile, Faith decides the Slayerettes need to blow off some steam, and takes them dancing at the Bronze (re-enactment of the "Faith surrounded by a bunch of guys" scene from "Bad Girls" included!). Schoolmarm Buffy gets all pissy about this, confronts Faith and socks her in the eye. In the end, the Slayerettes and the Scoobies have an intervention wherein they tell Buffy to get over herself and kick her out, electing Faith as their new leader. Oh, and Xander considers a pirate eye patch. (Insert "arrr!" or Johnny Depp joke here.)

Over the course of this season, we’ve witnessed Buffy losing bits and pieces of her humanity, using her Chosen One swagger as an excuse. "I’m going to kill Anya because it NEEDS TO BE DONE." "Let’s go ambush Caleb even though it’s obviously a trap because it NEEDS TO BE DONE." "I’m going to wear a black bra under a white shirt because it NEEDS TO BE DONE." I’m not sure if I completely get where all of this is coming from - is it the fact that we’re dealing with such a huge evil? Is Buff’s need to be strong and stalwart simply out of control? Is she being driven slowly batty by the screechy nattering of the Slayerettes? Whatever it is, I’ve longed for First Season Cordelia to somehow pop out of the woodwork and say, with fine bitch-diva inflection, "What’s your childhood trauma?"

Which, I guess, is essentially what the Scoobs and the Slayerettes say to her in the climactic final scene, and I hope it’s not wrong to feel the tiniest bit of joy that I so often do whenever someone tells Buffy to get over herself. Harsh as it is, I like the way this scene plays out, with Buffy attempting for the umpteenth time this season to do some self-righteous speechifying and then the Scoobs slowly stepping up to question her. Dawn kicking her out is a frighteningly intense moment and the following scene between Buff and Faith broke my heart a little. That said, I still feel like I’m missing a piece of the Buffy’s Motivation puzzle. Maybe I’ll find it when I watch this season in reruns.

Oh, and speaking of Faith, I’m enjoying her development. It’s nice to see a sense of caution here and there, and it’s an interesting little flip to see this bad girl Slayer as the voice of reason. As I’ve said before, the relationship between her and Buff has always been one of my favorites, and it’s nice to see her worry about her formerly sunny counterpart. I am, however, wondering why she couldn’t take out that posse of cops with one hand tied behind her back.

All that said, the two of the best moments in this ep come from a couple of pairings, one vintage and one inspired. The former is Willow and Xander’s tender bedside scene, which gently capitalizes on the W/X friendship and milks it for both humor and melancholy. The latter is Spike and Andrew, who are sent out on a mission together and discover a mysterious plaque that may hold a very important clue. Their discussion of the Awesome Blossom adds a welcome dash of humor to the ep, and hey...I’m a sucker for the Awesome Blossom.

Also, for those who are wondering, yes, that’s Nerf Herder (the band that does Buffy’s theme song) playing at the Bronze. And they sound way better than Michelle Branch.