Tabula Rasa

[shapinglight]

Don't have an icon for the ep, so this one will have to do.

This episode is so good, but the end is absolutely heartbreaking.



Not a lot to say - it's awfully late here and I have to go to bed - but at this point, the Willow plot still looked like it was going to be all about how Willow's desperate control-freakiness had got the better of her, which works really well. Such a pity they had to turn it into the silly magic-addiction thing, though, yes, definitely addition-like comparisons could be made to her behaviour, but when the metaphor goes belly up and addiction becomes literal it doesn't do the story any favours. Pity.

Also, Giles's reasoning behind his decision to go home is quite right, but his timing absolutely stinks. Poor Buffy!

I think this may well be the last episode of the show that got the comedy/drama balance just right. You go from laughing out loud over the antics of Giles and Anya in the magic shop and Randy and Joan's amnesia-induced heroics, to the heartbreak of the final scene without any of the reaching for that balance and missing it I seem to remember in later episodes in a similar vein, like Hell's Bells and Him.

That's it. Gone. Glad I watched them, though. BtVS was a great show.

Comments

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I sort of thought the "addiction" trope was just one more canard Willow threw up to deflect people from her real issues. Everybody is so sympathetic and helpful and don't actually call her on her bullshit that way — but it's not really what's going on. It reminds me of kids skivving off from school on test days with feigned illness more than anything, really.

I don't buy it, even if her friends do.

[shapinglight]

Your interpretation works fine. It's just that we have this irritating magic crack dealer character (Rack) saying otherwise. But yeah. It's hard to see how Willow's problem can really be equated with, say, drug addiction, given that by the end of season 7 she's able to go back to using very powerful magic with no ill-effects.

[norwie2010.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's how i saw it, too (and mind you - i didn't even know that online fandom existed, so no white noise for me back then ;-)).