Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Showtime   Rewatch 
April 20, 2016 8:23 PM - Season 7, Episode 11 - Subscribe

New potentials continue to stream in, and some aren't what they seem. Giles searches for information on the First. Buffy shows the potentials her power in the face of the super strong ubervamp.
posted by yellowbinder (1 comment total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This is an... OK episode. I think, in of itself, it's decent, and the ubervamp is appropriate scary, but I think the show will regret killing the vamp so quickly. At the very least, more should have been coming, but by attaching everyone to the static location of the house, they had to lower the threat level here, as the ubervamp doesn't need an invite.

I think my big problem with this season on reflection is that it keeps saying that this threat is really big, but fails to show it. The ubervamp is pretty powerful, but Buffy does kill it, and then there's no more real threat until Nathan Fillion turns up. This is a huge flaw, because we really need to buy that Buffy is in over her head, struggling to make everything work, so that her behaviour in the coming episodes makes sense. But because the threat feels lame, it's not particulary impressive. After all, up until this point the First's main claim to fame was failing to talk a vampire into killing itself. Oh, and I guess Willow too, so two for two on that front, master manipulator.

Which brings us to Eve (which, way to choose a subtle name, show). A sort of clever idea, but it falls apart when you think about it. Humans touch things all the time. Eve wouldn't have been able to open doors, eat, get changed, shake hands, do anything a human might do. But apparently no-one notices this until they find her corpse. Oh well.

Finally theres the business with the Eye. It's a goofy idea and feels like a time waster, and the information we get is potentially portentous (Willows resurrection caused this problem) but because Willow isn't there to hear it, it never matters.

-In the escape scene, given that it's all planned, why does Buffy try to lead it in the wrong direction, given that that's not the plan
-One big frustration here is that Buffy here, and in other episodes, relies on just herself with no weapons to fight the vamp. But she hasn't done that since Season 2! In three she enlists the whole school, in 4 the others, in 5 a magic hammer and the others, and 6 didn't have a big threat. In fact the one lesson Buffy seems to have learnt is to use the tools available to her. But she persistently does not.
-The uber is ordered to kill everyone but Buffy, but, again, this doesn't really make sense!
-Similarly, Spike is left alive despite not being converted. And in a few episodes time, the First will be trying to get Wood to kill him.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:52 AM on April 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


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