Buffy the Vampire Slayer: First Date Rewatch

April 27, 2016 9:53 PM - Season 7, Episode 14

Buffy grows close to Principal Wood, who shares his story of being raised by a Slayer. Xander has a date with a demon. The First tries to get Andrew back under its influence.
posted by yellowbinder (1 comment total)

Of all the characters the show introduces in Season 7, Wood is by far the strongest. The idea of someone whose mother was a slayer, and who was killed by Spike no less, is a terrific one, and Wood adds a lot to the show, even if he takes more air up from all the other character's who need to be serviced. Of course, like all the plotting in this season, Wood's introduction made little sense (his casual burial of Jonathan really doesn't really make any sense at all. He doesn't seem super concerned by it after all).

I like this episode for the most part, but again it has problems, and those problems are, of course, the First. The First's plan, at this point, is so try to talk Andrew into killing all the potentials with a handgun. This does seem to be it's genuine plan, this isn't a mislead, and not only is this a really stupid plan, given that it has access to a triggerable Spike, it actually fails at it. The First evil, master manipulator, fails to convince Andrew to kill the potentials.

So when Giles at the end of this episode berates everyone for being silly, it falls incredibly flat, and makes him look ridiculous. Everyone keeps saying that the world is on Buffy's shoulder's and everything's on the line, but the Master felt like a more impressive threat than the First at this point. Oh and hey, speaking of Spike, this is the episode where the First decides to set Wood to kill Spike. But I thought the First needed Spike for some kind of plan, right?

-Oh and by the way, the opening scene, where Spike grabs Giles, doesn't make sense. Spike claims Anya told him that Giles was the First, but Anya at this point knew that wasn't true. Was this a practical joke on Anya's part?
-"I knew the bringer was there because his shoes squeaked."
-"Now if I was a sign of being evil, where would I be?"
-Wood has a bloody knife. How did said knife get bloody?
-There are some good core cast conversations here, say goodbye to them soon!"
-That restaurant is in a goddamn terrible location
-The whole gag about Buffy being bad at counselling is really, really mean. I think it just shows contempt for Buffy. Maybe this is why they assume she can't have a proper job in 6, they simply think so low of their main character.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:27 AM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]