Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lessons   Rewatch 
March 16, 2016 6:11 PM - Season 7, Episode 1 - Subscribe

Buffy prepares Dawn for fighting vampires but fears she can't prepare her for the real coming evil: a rebuilt Sunnydale High. As Dawn gets settled in Buffy scopes the place out - meeting the principal, fighting some spirits of people she failed to save, and finding an unstable Spike in the basement. Giles goes all Dumbledore on Willow, and she senses bad energy around the Hellmouth.
posted by yellowbinder (5 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Season 7! 6 or 7 strong episodes and then... at least the finale is decent.

This one's ok. It's not quite as bleak as season premieres tend to be, but we do have Buffy facing people she failed to save - a theme that will come up stronger in episode 4. I wish the spirits were people we'd seen before, imagine how great it would be if we saw Jesse, or Larry, or any of the students or faculty who died in the original seasons. I guess they blew their guest star budget on the parade of First Evil big bads at the end. I also love seeing competent Dawn, and I wish her new friends had stuck around.

There's a bit of clunkiness here though. Giles saying "We will always be who we are no matter how much we appear to change" as Xander appears in a suit feels like a dig at Xander, who just saved the world. The not reveal of the cell phone was weird, especially as it was never actually revealed that THAT was the gift even when they were using them. I feel like I must have known about it from the preseason press when it aired because I remember it being clear on first watch, but not now. And the Hellmouth being right under the principal's office - I buy that Buffy would do that recon, but doesn't that feel like a piece of information better used as a reveal a few episodes down the line, or at least after we've met him? And if he knows about Buffy (completely as we'll come to find out) why does he make the possibly insulting mother comment? And I really wish we'd gotten to meet some of these witches who Willow said were the strongest most powerful and inspiring women she'd ever met instead of just hanging out with Giles and his giant coat. Did he say "I want what Spike has but BIGGER and BROWNER"

Anyway, this episode did and does do a good job of hyping me up for the season. While it wasn't officially the last season when this aired, the theme of going back to the beginning, and revisiting old plots and moments and metaphors in the next few episodes is really effective.
posted by yellowbinder at 6:26 PM on March 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


And I really wish we'd gotten to meet some of these witches who Willow said were the strongest most powerful and inspiring women she'd ever met instead of just hanging out with Giles and his giant coat.

Ah, yes, The Sisters of the Sacred Plot Device. I love the idea of the coven, that they might have collective wisdom that could help Willow understand her power in ways that individuals like Giles and Tara couldn't.

But on a practical level, Willow tried to end the world several months ago, and not a single one of these "amazing" women can be bothered to go back to Sunnydale with Willow to offer her support and guidance? Their brilliant plan is just throw her back into high-pressure magic situations and hope for the best? This is where the decision to have the world-ending plot of Grave kind of makes things difficult. If the worst thing that had happened was Willow killing a couple of fairly evil dudes, threatening her friends, and creating a lot of property damage, then i could see the coven just kind of shrugging and deciding that if Willow and the Scoobies wanted to take the risk of things going badly again, so be it. When the entire world was at risk, that changes the calculation immensely.

I know on a Doylist level, we don't see any of the witches because there are like eleventy-billion new characters introduced this season, and they didn't need any more. But on a Watsonian level it makes no sense.
posted by creepygirl at 9:25 PM on March 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


This one's ok. It's not quite as bleak as season premieres tend to be, but we do have Buffy facing people she failed to save - a theme that will come up stronger in episode 4. I wish the spirits were people we'd seen before, imagine how great it would be if we saw Jesse, or Larry, or any of the students or faculty who died in the original seasons. I guess they blew their guest star budget on the parade of First Evil big bads at the end. I also love seeing competent Dawn, and I wish her new friends had stuck around.


Yeah, I had the same thought, it makes it really impersonal to have the zombies be "three dudes who just died off stage."

I really like what this episode does with Dawn, and on the whole Dawn is just a lot better through most of this season. This is actually one of the best season openers the show does, but the main let down for me is that, having watched the rest of the season, it doesn't seem to be setting up the series very well. In fact, that's my main problem with this initial run of episodes. They're all very good, or at least not bad, but they seem to be spending time the show doesn't have! Watching Season 6, or 5, hell even 4 I can quite clearly see what this season is going to be about within a few episodes. But here there's a lot of plot arcs which actually don't go very far. The show will basically forget about Dawn and Buffy's relationship, which seems quite vital here. There's a theme about not being able to save everyone, which is repeated, but if we look at who Buffy is in 10 episodes time compared to how she is in help, it's a complete contrast! This isn't a journey, its a ferris wheel. I think the failure to plan is no more encapsulated than the talisman. Who planted the damn thing? There's maybe an implication early on that maybe the Principal did it, until that mystery is resolved, so who did? Some stray bringers thought it'd be a good time? It's such a lame threat anyway, who did it? The fact that the show forgets about this (and will forget about Joyce's upcoming message, despite featuring it in the previously on) just shows some incredibly sloppy seasonwide writing here.

It's such a shame, because as I say this episode is in of itself decent, fun and promising. There are some threads here which do get resolved of course: Anya's vengeance, and the surprise return of Spike. And there's no doubt that that appearance of all the previous villians was terrific.


-Willow on the coven: "They're the most amazing women I've ever met." Poor Tara.
-Giles on a horse. In England, we all travel via horse. Occasionally train, if we're in a hurry, but that tends to leave to grand romances where we almost leave our spouses, so we try to avoid it.
-I seriously love Buffy and Dawn's interactions in this episode, like they're too siblings who love each other.
-"What duck? There's a duck?" this show is not above broad comedy sometimes.
-Drusilla touches Spike. Just saying, if you're gonna make someone incorporeal, remember to do it in the first goddamn episode (of course, the First seemed pretty corporeal when it manifested towards Angel.)
-I know there are good reasons why the First manifests as who it does, but it does seem to pick female form a lot, which is maybe a shame all things considered.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 4:05 AM on March 21, 2016


It's a fun little easter egg here that Willow has been learning from "Ms. Harkness" since the events of the previous season.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:47 PM on November 19


A couple of other thoughts:

Yeah, this is a solid season premier, and positively upbeat as far as Buffy season premiers go. Dawn is maturing and training, and we see her holding it together and handling herself in a crisis (and I love how, after Giles' lesson in "Grave" re: asking for help, Dawn understands why the cell phone is a "weapon.") Xander's wearing suits and clearly succeeding in his career in a way that feels plausible now even though it would have felt absurd a couple of seasons ago. Willow is healing and training and learning. Anya is stuck with a foot in two worlds, and that's not going to go great for everyone, but her "problem" is that she can't let go of her humanity, so that's nice to see. Spike is enfeebled but ensouled and back.

And, most of all, after a ridiculously bleak season (and I love how bleak Season 6 was willing to go), it almost makes me tear up when Principal Wood asks Buffy to be a counselor. After a season of slinging burgers and hating herself and much longer than that of believing that her only useful skill is slaying, the fact that Wood recognizes the positive impact that she can make for the kids in the school is just awesome.

Finally, while it's wonderfully realistic, the blandness of the New Sunnydale High just highlights the tragedy of losing the gorgeous, iconic Torrance High School set of the Old Sunnydale High.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:51 AM on November 20


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