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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"That's the thing about magic. There's always consequences. Always." You know you're in trouble when the most sensible person around is Spike.
Episode 6.03
"After Life"
Directed by David Soloman
Written by Jane Epenson
I begin this review with a warning: There is a major revelation that will be very easy to figure out, if you haven't done so already. So read on at your own risk.
Oh, and another warning: this was definitely not a stand-alone episode. If you are just now beginning to watch Buffy, you might be left wondering if this was the same show that your friends have been raving about for years. The dialog was not up to the usual hilarious standard, the action scenes were cut short, and the whole hour felt curiously subdued.
Newcomer or not, you could have easily followed the story. It begins right where last week's left off: Dawn has just found a newly-resurrected Buffy wandering the streets in a daze. (They have also just had a little adventure involving falling, unscathed, 20-plus feet onto a pile of construction materials, but that was my nitpick for last week.) Not knowing why or how Buffy came to be back among the living, Dawn takes her home. Buffy is still in shock, and Dawn has to show her around the house, then help her get cleaned up. (Washing Buffy's face and talking to her like she was a child gives Dawn the Creepiest Line of the Night award: "I knew you were there underneath all that dirt.")
First to interrupt the reunion is Spike, returning home after having been separated from Dawn during last week's excitement. He is of course stunned to see Buffy, but manages to keep a lid on his own emotions and gently starts treating the wounds on Buffy's hands. The fact that he knows how she got them is weirdly comforting, and reminds Buffy (and us) that this is the one person around who knows what it's like to die and come back.
Then the rest of the gang bursts in, and the lovesick vampire makes himself scarce. In contrast to Spike's tact, Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara don't hold anything back, happily taking credit for rescuing Buffy from Hell and loudly proclaiming their joy at having her home where she belongs. They don't seem to notice how difficult it is for Buffy to even speak, or that her body language screams withdrawal. Even when Dawn orders them to back off, they don't. They just want her to be as happy as they are, but she's not. Finally, they take the hint and let her get some sleep.
Xander and Anya head for home, but outside, Spike's waiting, and he's furious. Furious with all four of them for shutting him out, but most of his anger is directed at Willow. He accuses her of misleading the other three, holding back the knowledge that the spell could have gone disastrously wrong, and deliberately shutting out the one person - Spike - who would have gotten in her way. Xander defends her to Spike, but later on, he starts wondering.
Willow and Tara are wondering, too. Wondering if they're selfish for wanting Buffy to be more grateful (they decide they're not). Wondering why Buffy was so subdued (they decide she's traumatized from her time in Hell). Wondering why they feel like something bad is about to happen (they decide they're not used to things going right).
This is Sunnydale - of course things have gone wrong. There's a demon on the loose as a consequence of the resurrection spell, and witches Tara and Willow have to explain to Xander and Anya that they hadn't made allowances for this. No biggie, though - the four of them just have to come up with a way of killing and/or banishing the demon, and everything will be hunky-dory again.
The actual means by which they rid themselves of the demon is pretty standard (demon has something which prevents Buffy from fighting it, Tara & Willow do a spell to take away its advantage, Buffy fights demon, Buffy wins), with one exception. During the spell that Willow and Tara were casting, something suddenly takes over Willow and we get to see her go Dark Eyed Girl again. That Willow is getting pretty powerful.
Come the morning, the demon is gone, and Buffy actually manages to smile as she sends Dawn off to school. She stops by the magic shop to say a belated thank-you to her friends for rescuing her, apologizing for earlier being too traumatized to thank them. Time for a group hug! The consequences are dealt with, everyone is happy, and everything is back to normal. Or is it?
Slipping out the back, Buffy sees Spike in the shadows. He awkwardly apologizes for his failure that night on the Tower, and tries to assure her that he has stood by his promise to protect Dawn ever since, when Buffy interrupts him with a stunner. And we learn exactly what's been bothering her, and what Hell is really like, and what the real consequence of the spell has been.
So was it any good? It depends. I'm a major fan of Spike, and any show that has him as a major element gets a thumbs up from me. Spike's scenes were the best thing about this episode, and the acting by James Marsters made them golden.
But there wasn't too much joy in this episode. I don't think there was a single laugh-out-loud moment. Even Anya's patented overly-blunt dialog made me merely smile ("Are you a zombie?"). And the plot, at least on the surface, was pretty simple. But if it was short on plot and comedy, the emotions were pouring out loud and clear - Spike's joy at seeing Buffy, his anger at Willow, the demon's anger at the friends for meddling in forces beyond their understanding, and Buffy's anger turned-to-sorrow at - well, watch the show.
So it was a treat for Spike fans, and overall a good, solid episode in a soapy kind of way. But - can we have some fun soon? Please?
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