Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Never Leave Me Rewatch

April 13, 2016 8:23 PM - Season 7, Episode 9

Buffy tries to get through to Spike while Xander and Anya pump Andrew for information. The Watchers Council and Buffy both realize The First is behind recent events, and despite Principal Wood's best efforts The First finally opens the seal.
posted by yellowbinder (3 comments total)

I feel like episodes like this are what makes this season less memorable. I've made notes as I've gone, and I'm struggling to remember how they filled 40 minutes. I remember entertaining sequences: Xander and Anya's interrogation of Andrew (and Xander's super self pitying speech about having his heart being replaced with darkness).

I remember the relatively exciting attack by the Bringers, and the blowing up of the council (which is a cool idea, but seeing as we only met this building literally a scene ago, it doesn't really have the gravitas it needs). I also remember a lot of plot weirdness

1)The First kidnapped Spike so that she could drain his blood and presumably lure Buffy into fighting the ubervamp. But Buffy was going to do that anyway, and the First didn't want to kill Buffy? Maybe the First wanted to convert Spike, but it does an incredibly bad job of it. Honestly, I wish that it's plan for Spike and Buffy had ever come into focus, because they seem to both foil it while trying hard. Is the plan maybe that by leaving Buffy alive, she acts as a magnet for potentials so the First can hunt them down? I guess I can sort of buy that.

But the First's "kill all the slayers" plan can never work, and indeed has been going really badly. The coming episodes will try to sell the idea that the potentials are in peril and the potentials in Buffy's house matter. But for the final episode to work, there has to be a ton of potentials outside the house who get empowered. Which means that the First's plan was an abysmal failure to begin with!

2)I don't really get the "Wood buries Jonathan" scene. It makes him look creepy, but in retrospect doesn't really make sense. Wood has, apparently, moved to Sunnydale because he's sensed bad stuff going down and wants to be there to fight it. But why does he lack an emotional reaction to a dead guy? He's seemingly so unbothered by it all, and it just seems really strange.


-That final shot of the uber vamp rising is just super goofy, and a complete misfire.
-Willow catches Andrew ordering blood. Just to be clear, the First, APPARENTLY BLOOD BOUGHT AT THE BUTCHERS WILL BE JUST AS EFFECTIVE AS SOME RANDOM DUDE FROM MEXICO WHO IS WANTED BY THE POLICE????? FOR THAT MATTER, LATER ON A DEMON CHICK BLEEDS XANDER TO OPEN THE SEAL? WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST BUY BLOOD? I GET THAT SACRIFICIAL BLOOD IS FUN AND ALL, BUT IF YOUR GOAL IS TO OPERATE ON THE DL, WHY NOT JUST GET ONE OF YOUR MINIONS TO GO SHOPPING????? Honestly I don't think the writers thought beyond individual scenes at this point.
-"The weasel wants to sing, he just needs a tune."
-I do really like the scene of Buffy and Spike talking about self hatred
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:27 AM on April 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

That scene where the Council gets blown up goes on way too long, it just seemed weird, and then the blow up the building and you realize in retrospect that they were just stretching it out to make the effect stronger. But I'm wondering how anyone could feel anything but relief that there can't be anymore plot lines with the Council.

That Xander self-pity speech is just terrible. Xander doesn't really seem too upset in general, so it just comes off as being dramatic self-aggrandizing bullshit.

Personally, I found the uber-vamp reveal pretty cool.
posted by skewed at 7:41 PM on April 16, 2016

Honestly, the scene at the Watchers' Council seemed so very, very primed for a reveal that Quentin Travers was dead and being impersonated by The First (with his "sally on, find all remaining covert operatives and get me their locations immediately, let's be ready to change tactics, rah rah!" speech) and honestly, that would have had more impact and dramatic potential and have been a much cannier plan on the part of The First - destroying texts that would have helped to defeat it while turning the still-considerable resources and network of the Council to its purposes. Blowing up the council chambers instead seemed underwhelming and short-sighted and just generally like a let-down.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:35 AM on November 21, 2020