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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Episode 7.08, "Sleeper"
Written by David Fury and Jane Espenson
Directed by Alan J. Levi
Original Air Date: November 19, 2002
"Soulless Spike would have had me upside down and halfway to happy land by now" - Anya
This week’s episode was nothing spectacular. It wasn't bad, mind you; it just wasn't spectacular. It was an episode devoted to explaining the new situation with Spike and showing us what exactly was up with the sort of cliffhanger that was left last week. The cliffhanger being that Spike is apparently able to feed and sire new vampires.
"Sleeper" picks up right where "Conversations With Dead People" left off. Buffy, having learned that Spike is possibly a threat again, rushes to Xander’s house where she had arranged for Spike to stay. The two discuss whether Webs from last week would lie about who sired him. Buffy claims to want to see it for herself before she passes judgment (a courtesy she didn't extend to Anya, though to be fair the situation was different). I guess I'm still a bit agitated that Buffy was so willing to go after and kill Anya, her friend, in the otherwise great episode "Selfless". With Spike she didn't have the hard evidence coming from a trusted source (Willow) that she had with Anya. Still, Buffy’s convictions can seem a bit odd at times. Oh well.
Dawn and Willow’s escapades from last week are also quickly built upon. Willow comes home to find Dawn in the rubble of the Summers’ den. The two share what happened to them. Willow says that the big bad paid a visit to her and was very convincingly manipulative. Dawn tells Willow that she spoke to her mom. There is some doubt discussed about whether or not what Dawn saw was actually Joyce or if it was the big bad manipulating Dawn. Truth be told, it was probably the big bad, but it isn't really made any clearer tonight. Dawn does hide the tidbit about Buffy betraying her, though.
The Spike plot thickens as we find him strolling through a crowd late at night. He finds a girl, flirts a little, and walks her to an alley. Just before he is about to bite her, Buffy approaches him. Buffy stares and eggs Spike on as he feeds on the girl. It is, of course, the big bad manipulating Spike. Somehow he/she/it has been able to gain some control over him and allow him to feed. Spike can't remember these little trysts after they happen, however. When the real Buffy confronts him with what she suspects, Spike is horrified that she'd even think he was capable of doing that now that he has a soul. He says that the chip was done to him, but the soul he did to himself for Buffy. That scene works pretty well to help develop a lot of sympathy for Spike in my book. Add to that the fact that Spike is being forced to do things that when he remembers them will torment him even further.
As expected, Spike does begin to remember his acts. He tries to find the girl he fed on at the end of last week’s episode. Returning to the Bronze, he asks the bartender if he’s seen her. He continues searching for her and runs into a vampire that he had recently sired. He dusts her in the middle of the Bronze. Everything stops for a moment as people realize what happened. Then the music resumes and everything is back to normal. Aimee Mann, the lead singer for the band, says she hates playing in Vampire Towns. Cute.
Spike asks Buffy to meet him at a house where he thinks he has been burying the girls he bites. Well, what do you think happens? The vampires burst from the ground and attack Buffy. To top things off, the big bad forces Spike to go all bad again. He attempts to feed on Buffy and sucks a bit of blood from an open wound on her arm. The blood does something and shocks him into realizing what is going on. He comes to his senses and helps Buffy. Shortly thereafter he asks Buffy to stake him. She refuses. She claims that since Spike is the only person who has had prolonged contact with the big bad, they need him around.
What was to like in this episode? Actually, there was a pretty good bit of good stuff going on. Spike’s torment was nicely done. There was also a great scene between Anya and him that I found very humorous. I swear, Anya is one of the best elements of this show. While sneaking around Spike’s room looking for evidence that he may be evil again, she gets caught by Spike. She claims she was there to seduce him, and it was just a funny little scene that relied heavily on Anya’s delivery.
Another much appreciated (at least by me) return was that of the subplot about the girls being killed by men in black cloaks. Another girl is murdered. Only this time, it takes place in London and Giles stumbles upon the aftermath of the murder. The very last shot of this episode was of a man in black sneaking up behind Giles and swinging an axe deadly close to his neck. I honestly don't know what to think. I mean, Giles wouldn't die in such an unceremonious way, but that axe was VERY close to his neck. Guess we'll have to wait a week to find out more.
The only real gripe I guess you could have about this episode was that it was basically subdued and a bit slow. That’s been a glaring problem with several episodes this season so far. I honestly don't mind slow build ups, but continually slow episodes do tend to get annoying after a while. Not much of a quibble, but enough of one to warrant mentioning.
This episode gets a
Episode Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
- Brandon "Pyronics" Delanceyjust won't believe that Giles bit the big one...
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