A moment of silence for Miss Kitty Fantastico…
May 14, 2003
Oh, dear. I guess we finally know what happened to Miss Kitty Fantastico. I bet the kitten playing Miss Kitty just became such a diva that they wrote her out of the show. I would love to see the Us Weekly photo spread on that, complete with paparazzi photos featuring Miss Kitty trying to cover her face with her little paws, annotated with colorful pop-up graphics. The sidebar could have a body language specialist analyzing her photos for tantalizing clues about her diva-ness.
What? They devoted at least as much space (and a body language specialist) to the recent Jennifer Garner/Scott Foley break-up. Miss Kitty deserves the face time!
Now that I’ve completed alienated at least half of you, let’s get to this week’s episode! So Buffy has the Fray scythe. It makes her feel all powerful and shit. Meanwhile, Faith and the Slayerettes encounter a bomb that leaves some Slayerettes dead and Faith badly wounded. They also run into a bunch of Turok-Han. Luckily, Buffy swoops in at the last second and saves their collective ass with the scythe. What follows is essentially a well-crafted series of two-character scenes as our gang gears up for the apocalypse.
I think I most enjoyed the scenes featuring the old school Scoobs — as we ride off into the sunset, I’ve been longing for more Buff/Willow/Giles/Xander action, and this ep delivers at least a bit of that. The scene between Buff and Xander (in which she asks him to get out of town and take Dawn with him) is a touching throwback to the old days, as is the research sequence featuring Willow and Giles. I’m still hoping we’ll get a good Buff/Giles reconciliation moment, though…otherwise, I’m going to cry even harder every time I watch that part in “Graduation Day” where he saves her diploma.
And of course, the Big Shipper Moment comes near the end. After visiting a woman who reveals a bunch about the origins of the scythe, Buff fights off Caleb using her shiny new weapon and who should show up but…Angel! He’s lookin’ good and considerably more relaxed than we’ve seen him in recent months. SMG still has great chemistry with Boreanaz, and there’s a touch of something more mature and easygoing to their dynamic as well (hey, anything minus swelling music and tortured, longing looks is “easygoing” when it comes to Buffy and Angel). I dug their dynamic, and the reminder of Spike (as he skulks in the background, watching B and A mack) is nice and potent and surely means that Buff hasn’t made her final decision, romance-wise (personally, I’m hoping she pulls a Kelly Taylor: “I choose me”).
Overall, this ep is an engaging collection of character scenes. I’m not sure if that’s quite powerful enough, given that it’s the penultimate hour, but at least it feels like all of the characters are working toward something big and epic-y. Also, having a powerful being express dismay at the name “Buffy” made me giggle.