BTVS, "Empty Places" - First impressions

[selenak]

The power of the download was with me! Wowsers. Great episode. And with some intriguing differences from the spoilers, all of which work to the advantage of the episode, btw. The most important difference results in my nomination for best Buffy/Faith moment ever...well, except for the kiss in Graduation Day II and the slashy dance in "Bad Girls".



1) The shades of grey which make me love the later seasons so much continue. Do the Scoobies and the Potentials have a point in the heartrendering final scene? Of course they do. But so does Buffy, and kudos to the script for giving her the chance to explain her reasoning (which incidentally makes sense to me). So who is right or wrong? Impossible to say.


2) SMG gives an excellent performance here, with Buffy feeling incredibly guilty about Xander and not knowing how to talk to him, angry and helpless with Caleb, frustrated and inscecure with Faith, relieved to have finally found a strategy and increasingly horrified when the refusals and accusations start, and finally, that last exchange with Faith which I'm so glad I was unspoiled for... what can I say? There has been a lot of debate on whether or not Buffy is a hero recently. I defy anyone to watch that dialogue between Buffy and Faith and say otherwise.

3) Speaking of which, what Buffy says to Faith also answers the question raised by the Potentials in "Dirty Girls" and this episode, as to whether Buffy cares for them as human beings or sees them as canon fodder. It's obvious that Kennedy, Rona and Anya were given arguments which could come straight from the avarage anti-Buffy threads; more importantly, though, they hail back to Buffy's own fears which she voiced to Holden in "Conversations with Dead People", about feeling not worthy of her powers, or her friends' affection, and inferior to them. So many people only quote the "superiority complex" part of that conversation and forget the equally relevant inferiority complex. Compare what Anya says to Buffy in "Empty Spaces" to what Buffy herself said to Holden - "I have all this power, it got just handed to me, and I feel like I'm not worthy".

4) Faith: our other Slayer is very sympathetic, too. With the girls, with Buffy, in the big showdown, and, like Buffy herself, in the very last scene. I loved it that she didn't just let Buffy leave but went after her. Throughout the episode, Faith seemed to get Buffy better than anyone else. That conversation with Wood will have a follow-up, obviously.

5) Clem! It's so good to see him one more time before the show wraps up.

Comments

[riddering.livejournal.com]

Kudos to all your points. You are much more eloquent at expressing things I agree with then I am!

I always say Buffy may be a bitch, but she's my kind of bitch. I'd be a much worse person than she is if I had her life. (I'd be dead as well.)

1) The shades of grey which make me love the later seasons so much continue.

I cannot say AMEN enough times. Many people love the innocence and fun of the earlier seasons, but I prefer seeing my beloved characters grow and face the world. I love the woman Buffy has become more than the girl she was. It's sad that so many people feel the other way.

"Sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hold on to"

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Stephen King quotes can use useful But yes. If I had led Buffy's life, I'd be in an asylum for real. I very much enjoyed watching her journey. Yes, the cheerful impulsive girl from the beginning was fun. But she wouldn't have had the complexity which I find fascinating in the later Buffy. (Same for the other characters as well, of course.) In a sense, she's a victim of hero's syndrome: if the show's central character does things right, he/she is written off as a bore, it's accepted as the norm; if he/she does something wrong, especially if this happens due to inherent flaws, it's unforgivable. (Whereas when the sidekicks do the same thing it's amazing or interesting respectively.)
Buffy had to go through hell and back, repeatedly, in order to become the person who was willing to take Willow back into her house and offer her strength, despite Willow's actions both against the world and against herself, personally; the person who didn't let herself be provoked into staking Spike anymore when he pushed every button to get her to do this (the Buffy of the early seasons would have done so) and instead offered that leap of faith, her belief (and she saw it validated, too, but she couldn't have known this); the person who gave Andrew shelter in her house, someone who had never been her friend and had in fact taken part in tormenting her repeatedly, endangering her life, nearly driving her insane, framing her for murder - and she continues to do so long after Andrew's possible use in regards to figuring out the FE is over; the person who tried her best to cope with two jobs she wasn't suited for (Counselor and de facto Watcher for all the Potentials - I didn't see Giles, who should have done so, helping with their training, did you?).
Yes, she's also able to lash out at people close to her, she makes mistakes, and she can be infuriating at times. But messed-up, scarred, trying her best Buffy is my kind of heroine, more real than most leads in any TV show.

Re: "Sometimes, being a bitch is all a woman has to hold on to"

[djinanna.livejournal.com]

>>I didn't see Giles, who should have done so, helping with their training, did you?<<

Yes, Giles should have managed the SiTs training. His own training and experience would have made him a far more suitable teacher than Buffy. Buffy has many talents (and many flaws), but "teacher" is really not one of her talents. Personnel management is not necessarily a strong point of hers either (putting *Kennedy* in charge of training sessions? I've had the experience of a martial arts class where senior students took over for the Master and ... sometimes it works, more often, it's a *disaster*, and I have the x-rays of the hairline fracture in my foot to prove it).

Anyway, got off track for a moment there. Sorry. Where was I? Oh, yeah.

But Giles had a different job to do this season. He's been traveling around the world, in one instance, that we explicitly know about, to China, collecting the surviving Potentials. It's doubtful that anyone else could have fulfilled that particular mission. Maybe Anya and Xander ... but then they'd have had even *less* screen time than they did. (Though ... it might have aided a reconciliation between them....)

So, Giles actually wasn't around *to* do the training as he was off doing other, equally important, stuff.

On the other hand ... he's done some pretty questionable things this season when he *was* in Sunnydale.... *sigh*

[kimberly-a.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you on all counts. I might have written something similar if I hadn't been stupid enough to read my friends list first, which discouraged me so much that I ended up grieving about the fandom more than I was rejoicing about the episode. Thank you for writing the good stuff.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Comfort yourself with this: when season 4 was broadcast, it was whine, whine, whine all around because of the changes. (Not that season 4 didn't have it's actual flaws as well, but so did every single season, including the sainted season 2.) By now, however, fans freely acknowledge there were some of the best episodes of the show there. With some distance, I think all the later seasons and its episodes will be appreciated more justly.

Meanwhile, let's spread the enthusiasm, shall we?

[kimberly-a.livejournal.com]

I've written some of my own -- admittedly very scattered and not terribly articulate -- thoughts on the episode, inspired by you. Ferris Bueller, you're my hero!

And I've been discussing with my husband the fact that I think this season will probably make more sense to people on DVD, when they can watch the episodes closer together, than it has with the episodes so widely and randomly spaced. I definitely think I'll enjoy season 4 more on DVD, and am looking forward to watching it again. I didn't enjoy the characters of Adam and Riley very much, but most of the rest of the season was really excellent. I'm expecting that I'll appreciate Riley more upon second viewing, knowing that he won't be sticking around. ;)

I don't know why you Americans have your reruns anyway

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And to add some more European smugness: we get the DVDs first (season 6 is coming next here), as well as the videos earlier. End of smugness.

Seriously, it does make a difference to see each season without interruptions.

As for Riley: not my favourite character, nor my least favourite. He was designed to be the anti-Angel, and worked as such. As far as his romance with Buffy was concerned, their early courtship (to use a Riley term) up to "Doomed", and their relationship from the point where the first problems became apparant ("New Moon Rising") were interesting to watch; what faltered, from a dramatic pov, was the in between, the attempt to depict Buffy and him in a harmonious relationship.

Re: I don't know why you Americans have your reruns anyway

[kimberly-a.livejournal.com]

Oh, believe me, I have coveted your speedy DVD releases! Shannon has, too. In fact, we have seriously considered getting a multi-region DVD player primarily so we didn't have to sit around waiting for Buffy and Angel DVDs to release here in the U.S. Grrrr ... Arggh!