Buffy S7-03, 04 and 05: The Short-Short Reviews

'Same Time, Same Place'

Written by Jane Espenson

Directed by James A. Contner

There are good episodes, and there are bad episodes. And then there are episodes that are just...there. Episodes that have some nice bits, if nothing spectacular, and some bad bits, if nothing truly awful.

'Same Time, Same Place' is such an episode (which actually means that Jane Espenson hasn't produced a winner since 'After Life', an unusually long dry spell by her standards). Gnarl is as creepy as all get out, but his scenes feel gratuitous, as though they are there to pad out the episode. In fact, the whole episode feels slow and undemanding; I never really felt that we got down to the meat of the issues between Willow and the Scoobies, which is a shame.

The parallel time sequences were handled nicely, though - the one with Spike, Willow and Buffy in the school basement sticks in the mind - and posable Dawn was far more amusing than she possibly should have been; so overall, this one shakes down as 'average'.

The Council of Watchers rating:

'Help'

Written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner

Directed by Rick Rosenthal

When did Rebecca Rand Kirshner become good?

Seriously. 'Out Of My Mind' was poor. 'Tough Love' had some cool stuff, but was uneven. 'Tabula Rasa'...well, it was a decent comedy episode, but that's about it. And the less said about 'Hell's Bells' the better.

Whereas this - this was good. Very good. Best episode of the season good. Fit to be mentioned in the same breath as 'Earshot' good.

Not perfect, of course.

Spike's insanity is getting a little wearing, and as a character he's pretty much just a convenient plot device. The last scooby scene was just a touch too melodramatic (I think it was Dawn in tears that tipped the balance), since as much as I like Cassie I didn't really buy that they were quite that attached to her. And a couple of times, Buffy came off as just the wrong side of strident.

But the rest made up for any flaws. Casket infiltration. Buffy the counsellor. Dawn being sympathetic and useful. The riffing on newsgroups and a mention of googling. And Cassie. Mostly, there's Cassandra Newton. I was deadly terrified that she wasn't going to die, that they were going to undermine the story and everything it stands for. But I liked Cassie; she was the best one-shot character on either show since Bethany Chaulk, as far as I'm concerned. So that when she dropped dead, it hurt.

(The fact that Cassie, the girl who knows that she's going to die, is in some ways a mirror for Buffy herself just adds to the poignancy).

When I cast my five-star votes, I tend to mostly work in increments of 0.25. 'Excellent' episodes can end up with 4.5 or 4.75, depending on just how excellent I think they are. To get the 4.75, an episode has to have that extra something, whatever it is. I can respect 4.5s; I love 4.75s. There wasn't a single episode in S6 that got a 4.75; in fact, I think for Buffy the most recent episode I'd give that mark would be 'Blood Ties'.

I say all of the above so that when I say I'm giving 'Help' a 4.75, you understand what I mean by it.

The Council of Watchers rating:

'Selfless'

Written by Drew Goddard

Directed by David Soloman

'Selfless' frustrates me. I feel I should love it. It's got a serious story, with genuine moral debate and some hefty development for perhaps the most under-developed character on the show. And yet, I never found myself completely engaged; there was a succession of story and stylistic choices that kept pulling me out of the moment.

For instance, there was the 'comedy' bad film in the flashbacks to Anya's (first) human life. Then you've got the 'amusingly' literal translations. And the fairly pointless song flashback; I get that it fits into the 'Anya defines herself by [x]' theme, but the song on its own left me cold. And there's Buffy brain cell haemorrhage when she decides to take on Anya; not only does she know that swords won't do the trick, nobody even thinks to mention that they might want to go after her power centre. Even the fact that they finally establish that vengeance demons have souls is counterbalanced by the fact that the episode ends without it actually being clear whether or not Anya is human again.

And, of course, there's Xander's Lie. The gratuitous, out of place, fan-placating reference to Xander's lie of omission in 'Becoming, part II'. I don't mean that it's not relevant to the debate at hand, because it is; but bringing up an incident from four years previously seems forced, somehow stilted, the more so because you know this is the only time it's ever going to get mentioned. And it's a shame, because the rest of that debate is so good, and touches on things that really should have been brought up several episodes ago.

Maybe the episode just fails for me because, fundamentally, I don't like Anya that much, and never have. The oft-cited speech in 'The Body' does nothing for me, for instance. So despite all the nice touches - Anya the socialist; D'Hoffryn's killing Hallie; the numerous parallels with episodes such as 'Fool For Love' and 'Becoming' - I just can't love 'Selfless'.

The Council of Watchers rating: