Covering
from “Checkpoint” to “I Was Made to Love You,” in which secret after secret
after secret comes to light.
I
was a little premature in my gloomy assessment of the rest of this venture. None
of these are classics, exactly, but, you know, there’s appeal here. In fact,
way back in season 2, I prophesized there would come a time when episodes would
get by on cherry-picked fun character moments, and that time has now come to
pass.
Case in point is, well, “Checkpoint,”
a pretty pointless (by design) story that exists to give a key bit of info at
the end, so it’s basically a lot of stalling until Buffy figures out that she
actually has power over the Watchers, which they are trying to hide with their
swaggering and showy tests and reviews. But, you know, the tests are fun, what
with Buffy not knowing Japanese, the Watchers being star-struck over
interviewing celebrity vampire Spike, Willow and Tara escalating their
proclaimed relationship from an awkward and halting “friends” to a strident and
umbrage-laded “gay lesbian type lovers!” only to realize the question pertained
to the Slayer, and, of course, the genesis of Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins,
born on the 4th of July to both a mother and a father, our little
patriot. The ending, of course, is that Travers reveals Glory is a god, which,
well, we can discuss that later when the troubles with that reveal are more
apparent. I remember it was a pretty cool reveal at the time, and it still
feels pretty cool today, even if, you know, it isn’t. But, spoonsful of sugar.
That’s something “Blood Ties” sure
could use more of. It’s another Buffy Birthday Disaster, except once again it’s
particularly disastrous for Buffy herself. This time, it’s mostly Dawn’s
disaster, which means, yes, once again it’s mostly exposition as Dawn discovers
she’s the Key and runs into Glory, who wants the Key and we see shares a body
with Ben the Intern and on and on and on it’s really hard to care. There’s a
solid attempt to reach for some deeper sentiments and how upset Buffy is by
Dawn’s reaction, and while Buffy cares about Dawn a lot…we really don’t. So her
over-dramatic self-harm invoking confrontation comes off more as empty
provocation than a terrifying breakdown. And the Glory stuff is certainly
there.
Simmering for most of the season has
been Spike’s fumbling and challenged efforts to replicate his human act at the
end of “Fool for Love,” prompted by the realization/confusion of his feelings
for Buffy. Basically, Spike wants to be a Good Guy, but as hinted as far back
as “Becoming, Part 2,” his askew moral compass makes that difficult, and just
in case you’re unsure what makes his efforts so faulty, Tara has some really,
really on-the-nose thoughts on Quasimodo for
you. At heart, Spike just doesn’t know his place in the world, and the
convenient arrival of Drusilla in town in “Crush” gives him the chance to force
the matter, the two poles he’s torn between also conveniently represented by
his two loves, Drusilla and Buffy (with Harmony, to his regret, forgotten), and
in the end, he finds himself exactly where he started, but even more alone. “Crush”
is fine, perfectly watchable, though it isn’t especially surprising and is a
bit rote—I mean, Tara does straight up explain
the episode while just randomly talking about The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which isn’t exactly college reading.
Looking at the long game, though, it was necessary for Spike to reach rock
bottom at some point, and a little more Drusilla is always welcome. Like I
said, I still pull for those crazy kids.
For her part, Buffy is confused and
more than a little freaked out when she learns of Spike’s feelings for her,
wondering aloud more than once if they are her fault, if she somehow did
something to cause them. And then in the form of April the Robot, she gets
something of an object lesson.
What’s this show’s deal with robots?
I mean, yeah, they’re sort of staple of the B-movies and comics Buffy was riffing on, but still. Anyway,
of what we might call Buffy’s Robot
Trilogy, “I Robot, You Jane,” “Ted,” and “I Was Made to Love You,” this is
without question the best. It almost has to be, doesn’t it, because it’s not a
woe-begotten atrocity? Anything disagreeable about this episode has more to do
with what the character of Warren becomes later which, believe me, will come up.
On its own, this episode (it’s a mouthful to type, so I’m not doing it again) is
agreeable and inoffensive. Buffy comes away from her dealing with April the
Robot not only with the critical insight that she needs be more than obsessed
with the idea of being in a relationship, but also with the realization that
there isn’t reason or ration behind love, it’s inexplicable and uncontrollable,
and thinking you can control it is more than a little wrong.
Through
these episodes, you might be lulled into thinking the story of Joyce’s medical
condition is over, and the end of “I Was Made to Love You” confirms that it is,
though not in the way you were lulled into thinking.
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