The ‘bot strikes again!
February 05, 2003
Dudes, I have a bone to pick. It’s the same bone I’ve picked a few times before, and yet, it wants more picking (and all this picking talk is sort of gross, so I’ll cut it). It’s about Amy, or more precisely, the bizarre Amy-bot that replaced the real Amy shortly after she was turned back into a human. Now, granted, pre-rat Amy wasn’t exactly a saint, all handing in invisible homework and shit. But I don’t remember her being a junkie or vindictive for no good reason or given to wearing stupid-looking crystals, so what the hell? It’s almost like they drag her out to make us old-timers go “Yay! A character from the first season!” and then, while we’re distracted, she’s magically turned into a lame plot device. When she first appeared this week, I thought maybe they were going to redeem her after screwing her up so thoroughly last season, but no. Oh, Amy-bot…what have you done with the real Amy? Are you really her mother or something?
Unless that wasn’t really Amy. You never can tell with Fake Odo running around.
Anyway, we’ve got three not-really-intertwining threads for ya this week. In Thread #1, Kennedy puts the moves on Willow, and then Willow turns into Warren because she feels guilty for betraying Tara. In Thread #2, Spike’s chip is malfunctioning, so Buff and Spike dig up the old Initiative HQ for some answers. In Thread #3, Giles takes the Slayerettes on a camping trip. Left to their own devices, the rest of the Scoobs (who have obviously been checking out all the message boards) start to wonder if Giles is The First. He’s not. Well, he’s at least corporeal. Oh, and Willow gets over her guilt by making out some more with Kennedy, while The Initiative finally shows up to assist Buffy and Spike.
The Willow thread has potential, but I am just not feeling the Kennedy action. I’m trying to like her, since I dig the idea of our Will having a new lady in her life and all, but…I don’t know. Her speech patterns have an overcaffeinated feel similar to those of Dawn, and she just seems sort of young. I know there was some line this season about how, age-wise, she’s older than the other potentials (and therefore, old enough to get it on with Will), but the character acts young. She kind of sounds like Lila Fowler trying to convince everyone that she’s all worldly and experienced and I just don’t buy it. The suspenders don’t help, either. And thus far, I’m just not finding her chemistry with Will to be nearly as natural and wonderful as that of Willow and Tara.
As for the Willow/Warren pieces, they are well-played by Aly and Adam Busch, and well-edited for effect. The duo isn’t quite as believable as, say, Buffy-in-Faith and Faith-in-Buffy were in season 4, but it still works and makes for a couple of compelling moments. Once we get to the Amy stuff, though, the whole thing kind of falls apart and there’s plenty of Lifetime-style crying to cap things off.
As for the other two stories, I did love the expression on Giles’ face when the Scoobs all jumped on top of him in order to disprove his First-ness. I’m kind of waiting for us to find out more about all of that next week, though, since we still don’t know why Giles has been acting all weird. On the Spike/Buffy tip, I liked the Initiative references (as well as an unseen Riley calling Spike “assface”), and the storyline does raise an interesting issue as to what to do about Spike’s chip (Buffy must decide whether to remove it or not). That said, could anyone see what the hell was going on during all of those fighting-in-the-dark scenes? We fight a lot in the dark on this show, but those scenes still tend to be, er, well-lit, if that makes any sense.
Anyway. This one is “eh” for me. Liked the set-up and the Ghostbusters reference, but everything else is kind of a wash. And Kennedy? Lose the suspenders and quit trying to impress us with your crappy lines about “fairy tales” and maybe I’ll give you another chance.