Great Moments of BTVS, Season 7
May. 11th, 2003 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakYes, the season is not done yet. But
a) once it's over, there'll be plenty "my own best of Buffy" lists covering the entire show from everyone, and I'll probably follow the trend and
b) I'm rooting for the underdog (nearly) everyone likes to kick out of town.
So, here are, out of my head and without checking the eps to be sure, those season 7 moments which impressed me and will in all likelihood stay with me.
- Buffy's Slayer dreams featuring dead Potentials; specifically the German one because I dig the neat touch of having it underscored by the words "From beneath you, it devours" sung in German and appreciate the homage to Run, Lola, Run. No, seriously: I like those dreams of Buffy's, always have, and love it when the show gets into mystical Slayer connections and Slayer heritage.
- "I'm the one who dates the dead guys, and no offense to you, sister, they were hotties"; a Buffy line of the kind only Joss writes
- first encounter post-Seeing Red of Buffy and Spike; just the right amount of jitteryness, a surreal feeling (both due to current circumstances and their past), and great acting by both SMG and JM; "I tried to cut it out" and the way she stretches out her hand...
- the First Evil and mad Spike, or: Parade of the Buffy villains, culminating in Buffy herself; great, great final scene, summary and introduction at the same time
- Willow and Giles: I was nervous about how they'd handle post-Darth Rosenberg Willow, but those two scenes set me at ease. There's much tenderness there, yet awareness of what she did and the danger of the future.
- "Is there anyone here who hasn't slept with each other?" and the look Xander and Spike give each other; I don't see S/X at all but that was incredibly funny
- the church scene; "can we rest now, Buffy?" and the great facial acting by SMG throughout; too often JM gets all the praise but in my opinion she's every bit as good an actress, and this scene is a good example why; here she's stuck in the position of (nearly) silently reacting throughout a long monologue and yet conveys Buffy's mixture of frustration, bewilderment, anger, compassion and horror at the dawning realisation perfectly
- Buffy and Dawn being just a tad bit bored by the nth rendition of Xander's "How I saved the world with the crayon story"
- Willow and Anya meet again; one of the most attractive features of season 7 Willow is that her stint as Darth Rosenberg cured her from being judgemental, and her getting along with her ex-least favourite Scoobie now made perfect sense to me
- Willow and Buffy's final scene; Buffy blaming herself for suspecting Willow; Willow quietly acknowledging that Buffy, as the Slayer, doesn't have the luxury of NOT suspecting her, and Buffy offering her strength to Willow to help her heal; both girls at their best
- Counselor Buffy struggles on; she's ill-suited for the job, but she tries, which is one of the reasons why I, like Spike, love her, but wait, I've restrained myself to individual scenes, so - Cassie's death, and Buffy's reaction to same
- really hard to choose between any of the flashbacks in "Selfless" because they were all brilliant, but if I must: "The troll is doing an Olaf impersonation" and Aud's seething "They ALL deserve it" to D'Hoffryn in the same scene
- Willow and Anya, take two; Willow uses her past and combines empathy with strength here
- the big Buffy and Xander argument, with Willow as (nearly) silent third; perfect, perfect scene, with the extra bonus of Xander's double standards re: mass-murdering demons we love/sleep with being brought up and the Becoming lie being used in a effective way to underscore this, but what gets me even more is the loneliness and sadness (not hubris) of Buffy's "I am the law" while the camera lingers on her bloody scars from the previous fight, making the same point visually
- "You're a dope" - Anya's and Xander's final scene
- Buffy and Dawn talk about Spike, then love in general at the opening sequence of "Him"; I loved the scene for the sisterly interaction as well as the fact Buffy isn't evasive or patronising at all to Dawn (she could have easily used that handy excuse Dawn gave her - that she's trying to help Spike solely because she feels sorry for him, but explicitly denied it was because of pity)
- one of the funniest visual gags ever when under-a-spell Buffy tries to assassinate Principal Wood
- teaser of "Conversations" (with a Joss written song no less) which introduces my overall favourite episode perfectly, presenting all the leads of the story
- Dawn dancing and eating pizza; one of the last light-hearted moments for the girl on the show, and she's just very endearing here
- "I'm here to kill you, Buffy, not to judge you" (though I love and adore every single moment of the Buffy-Holden-therapy session, not just that one)
- decaying, rotting corpse of Joyce on the couch; the Dawn part of "Conversations" was really spooky but that took the price
- Jonathan's death scene, not just the speech but the tiny detail of him finally seeing the FE/Warren just before he dies
- Buffy's reply to Holden "you're not a stranger"; appropriate for this particular vampire, but appliable to a great many, and therein lies a part of her story - vampires, demons, fellow Slayers, those aren't strangers anymore - but her friends can be
- Buffy's and Spike's when she first tells him about Holden's claim; even though we saw what Buffy did not see - Spike feeding again - he's so sincere here that Buffy's confusion is very understandable; she's also, as opposed to what Buffy in season 6 would have done (probably started a physical fight with Spike then and there) not thrown off the investigation by the jealousy accusation
- the basement scene with FE/Spike, Spike and Buffy; Buffy continues to use both emotions AND brains, and it's here, I think, that she starts, against all odds, to make the leap of faith in regards to Spike which evolves into the trust she shows later
- "That'll do, pig!" It was then that for the first time, I came to the disquieting conclusion that I started to love Andrew. Since Andrew was at this point a spineless, friend-killing nerd, I could not quite believe it myself.
- Xander and Anya and the good cop/bad cop routine; specifically Anya's horrified expression when she slaps Xander by mistake
- the stark honesty of the Buffy and Spike talk in her room; "you were using me" - "yes"; I also hit myself on the head and exclaimed "of course he couldn't understand self-loathing without a soul!" when I saw this for the first time
- the "I believe in you" scene; it was going to be mirrored later in "Touched" and encapsulates the development those two characters have taken. They've been through hell and back, partly because of each other, they've seen each other's worst and best, and in a paradoxical way, this enables them to be beyond the posturing now, to strengthen each other in a way they certainly couldn't have done during their dysfunctional affair
- Buffy and Maybe!Joyce; the pain in Buffy's face and her voice when she sees her mother again who might or might not have been the FE (probalby not, since this version of Joyce gives Buffy rather sensible advice)
- we hear Giles and Willow talk about how the Ubervamp trashed Buffy, see her hearing it as well and see her react; in retrospect, this is where Buffy steels herself to become All Slayer, All The Time, and not coincidentally the first (and best) motivational speech follows (the sequence of events is important as well - the trust issue raises its ugly head)
- Buffy freeing Spike at the end of "Showtime"; no "Showtime" defender here, but that last scene, with little to no dialogue, was great
- Buffy takes the girls to demon bars and meets Clem (yes, Rona, she has fraternisation problems)
- Xander's and Dawn's last scene in "Potential"
- Buffy teases Willow about tea and Kennedy in "The Killer in Me" (reminded me of Willow teasing her about Riley in season 4)
- Kennedy and Willow at the Bronze (for me, this scene made it plausible that Willow would find herself attracted to and consider a relationship with Kennedy)
- the entire Willow/Warren combo; for starters, I always thought the writers were drawing parallels between Willow and Warren throughout season 6; secondly I think Adam Busch was the best actor of a seasonal villain since Harry Groener gave us the Mayor (though the same is true for Danny Strong and Tom Lenk); but picking out invidual moments, I go for the big breakdown at the end
- oh, and Andrew's reaction when he sees "Warren" again; it's the first indication Andrew might be, gasp, capable of leaving Neverland
- Buffy and Giles talking about Spike in "First Date"; as opposed to what a younger Buffy would have done, Buffy presents her case in a calm and rational manner; Giles' counter-arguments aren't without merit, either, but there's also the worrying fact he obviously believes her emotional connection to Spike makes her incapable of actually being right in this regard
- Buffy, Xander and Willow talk dates; probably the last relaxed core Scoobie scene ever
- Buffy and Wood have dinner; what touched me most was the joy Buffy takes in something which would be everyday for most people but not for her - a nice dinner in a restaurant with apparantly attractive company; and her fascination at the revelation that Slayers can have children (no, I didn't get the impression Buffy wanted to get pregnant next thing, or even ever; but it's good to have a choice about it)
- Andrew and "Jonathan-slash-the First"; great switch from comedy to drama when Andrew goes from trying to sound out the First to being intimidated by it ("I made you do this") to standing up to it
- "Gay me up, Willow!"
- the final scene of First-as-Nikki and Wood; "now what do you say?" "Thank you" had me shivering
- the scene in which we go from Dawn teasing Buffy about schooll to the sudden discovery of Chloe's dead body
- Buffy buries Chloe, alone; short, but again important to her actions later
- the shadow play used to narrate the story of the First Slayer; original visual way to present it, and "they chained her to the ground" set up the Slayer-as-human-sacrifice-for-the-community thing which the show very occasionally (Inca Mummy Girl) alluded to before
- the scenes between Buffy and the Shadow Men, shot in this desert light, resembling her dream in "Restless"
- Spike and Wood - "New York" -, and the tension could be cut with a knife, to use an Andrew phrase
- speaking of Andrew: Storyteller, Storyteller, Storyteller. But okay, moments, so...
- his intro cut short by Anya's "why can't you masturbate like the rest of us"
- Andrew's shampoo commercial versions of Buffy, Spike, Anya and the unnamed Potential
- Fantasy Andrew vs Dark Willow
- Mexico flashback: funny and chilling at the same time
- "We are as Gods"
- the repeated rewriting of Jonathan's death
- the tears, and Buffy's reaction
- the final scene, with Andrew switching off
- the flashback in "Lies my parents told me" with Nikki, little Robin and Punk Spike; I'm still waiting for Nikki fanfiction - this scene made me more long for it than the FFL flashback sequence with her did, not that the later wasn't extremely cool, but emotionally it was about Buffy and Spike; not this flashback, though
- continuity of Wood having his hand wrapped throughout the episode
- the way Fury introduces and ends the first of Spike's flashbacks, as well as the actual scene with William and Mother; incidentally, the actress was terrific both as the genteel Victorian lady and the embittered vampire
- Dru! Her glove of black lace, her little growl, her face when William plans unlife with Mother...
- de-triggered Spike and Wood showdown (btw. not that I think Spike is right about maternal love here)
- Buffy's moment of realization what Giles did
- Buffy and Wood; she goes from compassion, helping him up, to taking in the crosses and the implications of how long he planned this, to understanding (her words about mothers) to steely resolve (no time for vendettas, mission comes first)
- Buffy tenderly touching the sleeping Dawn; very important because it indicates that while in her head she tries to be the All!Slayer who can sacrifice Dawn to save the world, in her heart she's not there yet
- and Buffy shutting the door in Giles' face; it hurts, but it's a great scene, and in retrospect inevitable
- Faith, Spike and Buffy get requainted on the graveyard, complete with nod to Faith's first encounter with Buffy (the way she takes Buffy's stake)
- Faith vs A Vulcan (I bet the Buffyscribes are glad they're at UPN now and allowed to use those)
- Caleb and the First-as-Buffy; SMG and Nathan Fillion have a perverse, twisted chemistry in their scenes together
- Xander loses his eye
- Faith instinctively understands Buffy and tries to help her out by sending Dawn away
- Buffy entering the empty High School, going to her desk and touching Xander's face on the old photo of Willow, Xander and her
- the big showdown; one of the most painful scenes (for me) in the show's history, but very well acted and scripted
- the final scene between Buffy and Faith; to repeat what I wrote in my review, it's my nomination of Best Buffy/Faith Moment Ever (after the Kiss from GD and the dance from "Bad Girls")
- bored Andrew (Spike must have gotten Harmony flashbacks right then)
- Buffy and Spike in "Touched", full stop (for detailed praise, see review below)
- FE and Caleb as the fifth couple in the montage and working as shadows of Buffy and Spike specifically
- Buffy is back and has changed the rules on Caleb (and it was a joy to watch).
In other news:
o_O Another fancier of the old. Good for you I
guess. Charles is seen as a fatherly-type of
person, and is one you can open up to. He is
known to be amiable and very dependable. His
genius is only surpassed by his love and
understanding of other people. He makes for a
great companion with much affection, plus, the
baldness *is* kinda sexy.
Who Is Your Ideal X-Men 2 Mate? (ladies only)
brought to you by Quizilla
Of course he is!
a) once it's over, there'll be plenty "my own best of Buffy" lists covering the entire show from everyone, and I'll probably follow the trend and
b) I'm rooting for the underdog (nearly) everyone likes to kick out of town.
So, here are, out of my head and without checking the eps to be sure, those season 7 moments which impressed me and will in all likelihood stay with me.
- Buffy's Slayer dreams featuring dead Potentials; specifically the German one because I dig the neat touch of having it underscored by the words "From beneath you, it devours" sung in German and appreciate the homage to Run, Lola, Run. No, seriously: I like those dreams of Buffy's, always have, and love it when the show gets into mystical Slayer connections and Slayer heritage.
- "I'm the one who dates the dead guys, and no offense to you, sister, they were hotties"; a Buffy line of the kind only Joss writes
- first encounter post-Seeing Red of Buffy and Spike; just the right amount of jitteryness, a surreal feeling (both due to current circumstances and their past), and great acting by both SMG and JM; "I tried to cut it out" and the way she stretches out her hand...
- the First Evil and mad Spike, or: Parade of the Buffy villains, culminating in Buffy herself; great, great final scene, summary and introduction at the same time
- Willow and Giles: I was nervous about how they'd handle post-Darth Rosenberg Willow, but those two scenes set me at ease. There's much tenderness there, yet awareness of what she did and the danger of the future.
- "Is there anyone here who hasn't slept with each other?" and the look Xander and Spike give each other; I don't see S/X at all but that was incredibly funny
- the church scene; "can we rest now, Buffy?" and the great facial acting by SMG throughout; too often JM gets all the praise but in my opinion she's every bit as good an actress, and this scene is a good example why; here she's stuck in the position of (nearly) silently reacting throughout a long monologue and yet conveys Buffy's mixture of frustration, bewilderment, anger, compassion and horror at the dawning realisation perfectly
- Buffy and Dawn being just a tad bit bored by the nth rendition of Xander's "How I saved the world with the crayon story"
- Willow and Anya meet again; one of the most attractive features of season 7 Willow is that her stint as Darth Rosenberg cured her from being judgemental, and her getting along with her ex-least favourite Scoobie now made perfect sense to me
- Willow and Buffy's final scene; Buffy blaming herself for suspecting Willow; Willow quietly acknowledging that Buffy, as the Slayer, doesn't have the luxury of NOT suspecting her, and Buffy offering her strength to Willow to help her heal; both girls at their best
- Counselor Buffy struggles on; she's ill-suited for the job, but she tries, which is one of the reasons why I, like Spike, love her, but wait, I've restrained myself to individual scenes, so - Cassie's death, and Buffy's reaction to same
- really hard to choose between any of the flashbacks in "Selfless" because they were all brilliant, but if I must: "The troll is doing an Olaf impersonation" and Aud's seething "They ALL deserve it" to D'Hoffryn in the same scene
- Willow and Anya, take two; Willow uses her past and combines empathy with strength here
- the big Buffy and Xander argument, with Willow as (nearly) silent third; perfect, perfect scene, with the extra bonus of Xander's double standards re: mass-murdering demons we love/sleep with being brought up and the Becoming lie being used in a effective way to underscore this, but what gets me even more is the loneliness and sadness (not hubris) of Buffy's "I am the law" while the camera lingers on her bloody scars from the previous fight, making the same point visually
- "You're a dope" - Anya's and Xander's final scene
- Buffy and Dawn talk about Spike, then love in general at the opening sequence of "Him"; I loved the scene for the sisterly interaction as well as the fact Buffy isn't evasive or patronising at all to Dawn (she could have easily used that handy excuse Dawn gave her - that she's trying to help Spike solely because she feels sorry for him, but explicitly denied it was because of pity)
- one of the funniest visual gags ever when under-a-spell Buffy tries to assassinate Principal Wood
- teaser of "Conversations" (with a Joss written song no less) which introduces my overall favourite episode perfectly, presenting all the leads of the story
- Dawn dancing and eating pizza; one of the last light-hearted moments for the girl on the show, and she's just very endearing here
- "I'm here to kill you, Buffy, not to judge you" (though I love and adore every single moment of the Buffy-Holden-therapy session, not just that one)
- decaying, rotting corpse of Joyce on the couch; the Dawn part of "Conversations" was really spooky but that took the price
- Jonathan's death scene, not just the speech but the tiny detail of him finally seeing the FE/Warren just before he dies
- Buffy's reply to Holden "you're not a stranger"; appropriate for this particular vampire, but appliable to a great many, and therein lies a part of her story - vampires, demons, fellow Slayers, those aren't strangers anymore - but her friends can be
- Buffy's and Spike's when she first tells him about Holden's claim; even though we saw what Buffy did not see - Spike feeding again - he's so sincere here that Buffy's confusion is very understandable; she's also, as opposed to what Buffy in season 6 would have done (probably started a physical fight with Spike then and there) not thrown off the investigation by the jealousy accusation
- the basement scene with FE/Spike, Spike and Buffy; Buffy continues to use both emotions AND brains, and it's here, I think, that she starts, against all odds, to make the leap of faith in regards to Spike which evolves into the trust she shows later
- "That'll do, pig!" It was then that for the first time, I came to the disquieting conclusion that I started to love Andrew. Since Andrew was at this point a spineless, friend-killing nerd, I could not quite believe it myself.
- Xander and Anya and the good cop/bad cop routine; specifically Anya's horrified expression when she slaps Xander by mistake
- the stark honesty of the Buffy and Spike talk in her room; "you were using me" - "yes"; I also hit myself on the head and exclaimed "of course he couldn't understand self-loathing without a soul!" when I saw this for the first time
- the "I believe in you" scene; it was going to be mirrored later in "Touched" and encapsulates the development those two characters have taken. They've been through hell and back, partly because of each other, they've seen each other's worst and best, and in a paradoxical way, this enables them to be beyond the posturing now, to strengthen each other in a way they certainly couldn't have done during their dysfunctional affair
- Buffy and Maybe!Joyce; the pain in Buffy's face and her voice when she sees her mother again who might or might not have been the FE (probalby not, since this version of Joyce gives Buffy rather sensible advice)
- we hear Giles and Willow talk about how the Ubervamp trashed Buffy, see her hearing it as well and see her react; in retrospect, this is where Buffy steels herself to become All Slayer, All The Time, and not coincidentally the first (and best) motivational speech follows (the sequence of events is important as well - the trust issue raises its ugly head)
- Buffy freeing Spike at the end of "Showtime"; no "Showtime" defender here, but that last scene, with little to no dialogue, was great
- Buffy takes the girls to demon bars and meets Clem (yes, Rona, she has fraternisation problems)
- Xander's and Dawn's last scene in "Potential"
- Buffy teases Willow about tea and Kennedy in "The Killer in Me" (reminded me of Willow teasing her about Riley in season 4)
- Kennedy and Willow at the Bronze (for me, this scene made it plausible that Willow would find herself attracted to and consider a relationship with Kennedy)
- the entire Willow/Warren combo; for starters, I always thought the writers were drawing parallels between Willow and Warren throughout season 6; secondly I think Adam Busch was the best actor of a seasonal villain since Harry Groener gave us the Mayor (though the same is true for Danny Strong and Tom Lenk); but picking out invidual moments, I go for the big breakdown at the end
- oh, and Andrew's reaction when he sees "Warren" again; it's the first indication Andrew might be, gasp, capable of leaving Neverland
- Buffy and Giles talking about Spike in "First Date"; as opposed to what a younger Buffy would have done, Buffy presents her case in a calm and rational manner; Giles' counter-arguments aren't without merit, either, but there's also the worrying fact he obviously believes her emotional connection to Spike makes her incapable of actually being right in this regard
- Buffy, Xander and Willow talk dates; probably the last relaxed core Scoobie scene ever
- Buffy and Wood have dinner; what touched me most was the joy Buffy takes in something which would be everyday for most people but not for her - a nice dinner in a restaurant with apparantly attractive company; and her fascination at the revelation that Slayers can have children (no, I didn't get the impression Buffy wanted to get pregnant next thing, or even ever; but it's good to have a choice about it)
- Andrew and "Jonathan-slash-the First"; great switch from comedy to drama when Andrew goes from trying to sound out the First to being intimidated by it ("I made you do this") to standing up to it
- "Gay me up, Willow!"
- the final scene of First-as-Nikki and Wood; "now what do you say?" "Thank you" had me shivering
- the scene in which we go from Dawn teasing Buffy about schooll to the sudden discovery of Chloe's dead body
- Buffy buries Chloe, alone; short, but again important to her actions later
- the shadow play used to narrate the story of the First Slayer; original visual way to present it, and "they chained her to the ground" set up the Slayer-as-human-sacrifice-for-the-community thing which the show very occasionally (Inca Mummy Girl) alluded to before
- the scenes between Buffy and the Shadow Men, shot in this desert light, resembling her dream in "Restless"
- Spike and Wood - "New York" -, and the tension could be cut with a knife, to use an Andrew phrase
- speaking of Andrew: Storyteller, Storyteller, Storyteller. But okay, moments, so...
- his intro cut short by Anya's "why can't you masturbate like the rest of us"
- Andrew's shampoo commercial versions of Buffy, Spike, Anya and the unnamed Potential
- Fantasy Andrew vs Dark Willow
- Mexico flashback: funny and chilling at the same time
- "We are as Gods"
- the repeated rewriting of Jonathan's death
- the tears, and Buffy's reaction
- the final scene, with Andrew switching off
- the flashback in "Lies my parents told me" with Nikki, little Robin and Punk Spike; I'm still waiting for Nikki fanfiction - this scene made me more long for it than the FFL flashback sequence with her did, not that the later wasn't extremely cool, but emotionally it was about Buffy and Spike; not this flashback, though
- continuity of Wood having his hand wrapped throughout the episode
- the way Fury introduces and ends the first of Spike's flashbacks, as well as the actual scene with William and Mother; incidentally, the actress was terrific both as the genteel Victorian lady and the embittered vampire
- Dru! Her glove of black lace, her little growl, her face when William plans unlife with Mother...
- de-triggered Spike and Wood showdown (btw. not that I think Spike is right about maternal love here)
- Buffy's moment of realization what Giles did
- Buffy and Wood; she goes from compassion, helping him up, to taking in the crosses and the implications of how long he planned this, to understanding (her words about mothers) to steely resolve (no time for vendettas, mission comes first)
- Buffy tenderly touching the sleeping Dawn; very important because it indicates that while in her head she tries to be the All!Slayer who can sacrifice Dawn to save the world, in her heart she's not there yet
- and Buffy shutting the door in Giles' face; it hurts, but it's a great scene, and in retrospect inevitable
- Faith, Spike and Buffy get requainted on the graveyard, complete with nod to Faith's first encounter with Buffy (the way she takes Buffy's stake)
- Faith vs A Vulcan (I bet the Buffyscribes are glad they're at UPN now and allowed to use those)
- Caleb and the First-as-Buffy; SMG and Nathan Fillion have a perverse, twisted chemistry in their scenes together
- Xander loses his eye
- Faith instinctively understands Buffy and tries to help her out by sending Dawn away
- Buffy entering the empty High School, going to her desk and touching Xander's face on the old photo of Willow, Xander and her
- the big showdown; one of the most painful scenes (for me) in the show's history, but very well acted and scripted
- the final scene between Buffy and Faith; to repeat what I wrote in my review, it's my nomination of Best Buffy/Faith Moment Ever (after the Kiss from GD and the dance from "Bad Girls")
- bored Andrew (Spike must have gotten Harmony flashbacks right then)
- Buffy and Spike in "Touched", full stop (for detailed praise, see review below)
- FE and Caleb as the fifth couple in the montage and working as shadows of Buffy and Spike specifically
- Buffy is back and has changed the rules on Caleb (and it was a joy to watch).
In other news:
o_O Another fancier of the old. Good for you I
guess. Charles is seen as a fatherly-type of
person, and is one you can open up to. He is
known to be amiable and very dependable. His
genius is only surpassed by his love and
understanding of other people. He makes for a
great companion with much affection, plus, the
baldness *is* kinda sexy.
Who Is Your Ideal X-Men 2 Mate? (ladies only)
brought to you by Quizilla
Of course he is!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Hi
Date: 2003-05-11 02:46 pm (UTC)oh. oh. word.
Date: 2003-05-11 02:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-14 06:13 am (UTC)*rushes off to friend you*