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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Why do we have to get rid of so many things that I like? - Dawn
Episode 6.11, "Gone"
Written & Directed by David Fury
I know, I know - very late. Maybe I'm reacting to the long dry spell that followed the wreckage that was "Wrecked." But this gig is getting harder and harder. The show is changing. It's getting depressing to witness. And whether it's for better or worse, I do know that I'm seeing less and less of the elements that made me fall in love with this series years ago. This episode began with Buffy and Willow clearing out all magical paraphernalia from the Summers' household, but it felt like we were also losing some of the magic, too.
Mainly, the characters used to be smart - maybe not always wise, but clever, witty, full of quirky dialogue and a bright energy even in the face of horror. Lately, however, the dialogue is more often than not pedestrian, the energy level is way down, and people are acting like idiots for no other reason than that the plot requires it.
First idiot: Xander. He walks in on Spike feeling up Buffy, and he doesn't notice that she wasn't objecting. (He's even more blind on this score later on.) When social worker Doris Kroeger (Susan Rutan) arrived, the real idiocy started. Seeing Spike sitting on the sofa, Doris assumes (why?) that he's Buffy's boyfriend - and Buffy stutters a non-credible denial. Spike mentions his crypt, and Buffy covers with "You know kids today with their buggin' street slang." (Kill me now.) He leaves taking a blanket with him, so Doris (illogically) assumes he sleeps there - and Buffy stutters another incompetent denial, adding an unnecessary lie about her and Dawn having no other housemates. (Cue to Willow calling down from her bedroom.) Then when Doris finds some of Willow's dried herbs, she immediately assumes it's pot. I was yelling at the TV, "Tell her it's home dried spices!" Buffy instead offers the more plausible explanation "It's Magic Weed."
This is a girl who used to make snarky quips while fighting off multiple fiends, and she can't think on her feet around Arnold Becker's old secretary?
Ironically, for an episode full of idiotic behavior, the Super Nerd play a major part in this story. While walking downtown, Buffy gets caught in the middle of another one of the their schemes. It seems the latest step in their plot for world domination is creating an invisibility ray gun so that they can sneak into beauty salons and watch naked women. (This is actually is pretty funny.) But then they spot the Slayer walking down the street, and in a moment of panic (and awkwardly choreographed wrestling over the gun) they accidentally fire the gun at a traffic cone, a fire hydrant - and Buffy.
Longtime resident of Hellmouth Town that she is, our girl doesn't go through a long process realizing that she's see-through. Instead, she's pretty matter-of-fact about it. Buffy stops by the Magic shop to let Anya and Xander know what happened, then goes on a "Hey I'm Invisible!" spree. Paying a visit to Doris's office, Buffy sabotages the file on Dawn and haunts Doris, making the social worker look unfit to declare Buffy unfit. This isn't hard to do, because instead of doing what a normal person would do (assume she's the victim of a practical joke) Doris sabotages herself. "I didn't do this - it was the voice. There was a voice before, it made my coffee dance, it told me to... " Apparently the voice told her that this scene was her turn to be the idiot.
(Just as an aside, apparently invisibility also does something to your voice - the sound quality of SMG's dialog while invisible was so poor and so obviously added in after the fact that it seriously detracted from the illusion.)
After a few scenes with Spike - more on that soon - Buffy went home to see Dawn. Now, if your sister became see-through, wouldn't you think it was a just a little bit cool? But Dawn doesn't react the way the way a real person would, much less someone in her situation. Invisibility makes her - angry? Scared? This is the girl who lives with a witch, made out with a vampire and once tried to raise her own mother from the dead using black magic. And instead of showing any real curiosity, or giving Buffy a chance to speak, she storms out of the house. "I can't talk to you like this!" Um - why?
At least Willow stayed true to her character. (Or at least the character she suddenly became two episodes ago when all five years of previous continuity was "Smashed". No, I still haven't forgiven the producers for that.) Willow was able to track down the Super Nerd's hideout, but unfortunately got herself captured in the process. The final confrontation between Buffy and her "Arch-Nemisisises" was pretty funny. Yes, they were exposed, and better yet, they escaped to continue their schemes for world domination. Best of all, Warren was exposed as the only truly bad member of the trio - Andrew and Jonathan sincerely wanted to help Buffy ("We're not killers, we're crime lords!"), while Warren was really trying to kill her. Along with Xander and Anya's moment in the Magic Shop it was the best scene of the night. If only it hadn't been followed immediately by a morose discussion between Willow and Buffy about her mental state that just didn't ring true.
I'm skipping something, of course. Spike. Earlier that morning, as Spike was leaving her house, Buffy was so disgusted by their relationship that his "So long, Goldilocks" farewell moved her to hack about ten inches off of her hair. Later, however, once she's invisible, she deliberately sought him out, and we're treated to some of the most explicit, and inexplicable, sex scenes between them yet. We're treated to the sight of James Marsters pretending to have oral sex with an invisible partner, under a sheet pushing himself over an invisible partner, and walking around his bedroom naked while invisible Buffy lounges on his bed teasing him.
Leave aside the question of whether this belongs on a show that broadcasts at 8 pm. I'm a full-grown adult and I don't mind frank scenes - when they make sense. But what happened? When did Buffy's "Go away you revolt me" turn into "Come on baby let's do it some more?" Up until now sex only came during moments of high passion and/or violence. Maybe the passion was nasty, but at least it was an excuse. How is it that, suddenly, the girl who needed to be backed into a corner before she'd let Spike touch her is now cornering him and nibbling on his ear?
The script hands the characters dialog which supposedly explains the change in her attitude ("This vanishing act's right liberating for you, isn't it... The only reason you're here is that you're not here."). Supposedly becoming invisible also gave Buffy a personality transplant. Uh, huh. It makes me wonder whether the writer himself realizes that Buffy's actions, visible or not, were completely out of character, and that he needed the actors to force-feed the audience a lame rationalization for those scenes. In reality it's just the writer talking to himself, patting himself on the back for his Deep Character Insight, assuring himself that his script makes sense. Which it still doesn't.
So overall - how to rate this episode? The Supernerds were funny, and the scenes with Anya and Xander had a taste of that old energy and quirkiness. The "idiot plot" problems were pretty bad, but mainly in hindsight and wouldn't necessarily have kept the show from being entertaining. But the Buffy/Spike interlude - and the shallow attempts at psychological analysis that serve only as increasingly transparent excuses for the most sexually explicit scenes in the show's history - these pretty much destroyed the episode for me.
Episode Rating: 3 out of 10
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