The second episode of the fall 2002 seventh season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is entitled "Beneath You".
Okay, I really liked this episode. It was better than the first episode of the season and better than the bulk of the episodes of the last season.
Frankfurt Germany, girl with hair dyed red is being chased at night by another group of hooded guys. This is like the first season episode except in that case the hooded guys were chasing a girl thru Istanbul Turkey.
Red dyed hair girl looks up after being stabbed and says "From beneath you it devours"
Buffy wakes up and tells Dawn she heard the girl say "From beneath you it devours".
Buffy knows there are more girls like this girl who are going to die. So what else does she know? Just that feeling? And just who are these red hooded guys? When will they show up in Sunnydale? And why are they tracking down these particular women to kill? And most importantly, how many episodes will it take before we can find out?
Buffy and Dawn go to school. Buffy meets the principal. She is wondering why he hired her. He says that she is someone the students will be able to relate to. Is he holding back on her? Does he want her around to protect him and the school? Just what does he know? I think it would be cooler if it turned out that he did know about the supernatural forces at the school and if he hired Buffy for her protective abilities. Someone tell this to the show's writers!
Wood: Trust me, you open that door and these students will eat you alive.
Buffy: You heard about Principal Flutie, right?
Buffy: Was it my sparkling personality? Or maybe you enjoyed my work at the Doublemeat Palace?
Buffy then goes looking for Spike in the basement.
Okay, Willow is coming back from Merrie Olde Englande. Looks like Giles is staying in the Olde Countrie. Willow is afraid she will be rejected. Giles tells her she has to go. Yes, her training is not done yet. But there's trouble on the Hellmouth. Of course, this means that Willow is coming back with a huge amount of witch power that she may not be able to control once she starts using it. It could get interesting...
The writers are definitely rifting off of popular culture with the Kevin Bacon 1990 comedy horror classic Tremors (which is DVD or if you prefer here is Tremors on VHS).
Meanwhile. a woman (turns out to be Nancy - have they met her previously?) gets her dog swallowed up by a hole that pops up thru the sidewalk and she almost gets dragged down with the leash.
Along comes Xander just a moment later. Why does Nancy immediately trust him to go back with him to see Buffy?
Buffy's gang are hanging out talking with Nancy She expect them to treat her like she's nuts but she's come to right people for a sincere discussion of the weird.. Then Spike shows up at Buffy's place. No one is happy to see him.
Spike: What you need is help. Fortunately you got me.
When no one else is listening Dawn's threat to Spike is pretty heartfelt. She asks if he sleeps. Then she tells him she'll kill him in his sleep if she does anything that hurts Buffy. The bonding of Dawn and Buffy continues. Its about time, you writer people you.
Later Buffy and Spike are walking along.
Buffy to Spike: Skittish? You tried to rape me, I don't have words.
Spike (now with soul that Buffy is as yet unaware of): All I can say Buffy, I've changed.
Buffy: I believe you..... there's something you are not telling me.
Spike: You are right, there is. ... we're not sharing
He's only not sharing that he has a soul and a conscience and that he's hearing voices in his head. Spirits? Memories? His own conscience torturing himself? Its not clear. The ambiguity may be intentional on the writers' part.
Xander walks Nancy home. There's some romantic chemistry that becomes apparent as they reach Nancy's apartment building. The worm comes after them as they stand in the foyer. They rush up the stairs and get away from it. (note to writers: I would rather see Xander pair up with Nancy than get back with Anya again)
So is this worm thingie hunting Nancy? Nancy tells Xander about Ronnie, her psycho ex-boyfriend she's been trying to get rid of the last few weeks. Ronnie cast a spell to create the worm monster? Its not clear yet.
Xander has an inspiration and asks Nancy if she's made any wishes lately. Ah, its Anya at work. She's turned Ronnie into a Sluggoth Demon.
The Scoobys plus Nancy confront Anya at the Bronze. Anya is unapologetic about what she's done. The conversation takes a weird twist when she recognises that Spike has changed in some profound way. She's about to blurt out that he has a soul but Spike punches her and Spike and Anya both take on their demon forms. They fight, Buffy jumps in and punches Spike, Spike sees this as expression of repressed anger. Nancy is missing and they all go running off after her before the conversation can proceed any further.
Nancy is being chased by Ronnie the burrowing Slugoff Demon into an alley.
Slugoff Demon battles with Buffy in the alleyway: okay where did the rope come from that allowed Buffy to play Tarzan? Come on guys. This is the second thing in this episode (the worm was the first) that was too derivative. But this one is also way too improbable since there is no place for the rope to come from. Supernatural stuff is more plausible than a rope that comes out of nowhere. My guess is the writers wanted the Tarzan scene. But there could have been a metal pipe that could have bent down off from the side of a building and Buffy could have come swinging down with it. Or how about a fire escape that swung down and with Buffy hanging on to it she could have grabbed the Nancy? I think this scene was weak.
Spike spears the Slugoff demon just as Anya lifts her spell and as a result Spike really spears Ronnie the human. Is Ronnie killed or just wounded? Probably the latter. Spike of course suffers at least from guilt and possibly from his chip as he spears Ronnie.
Buffy calls for medical help on her cell phone and then runs after Spike.
Spike ends up in a church and Buffy finds him there.
Spike must have a soul and not a chip. Or maybe he has a soul but still has a chip? Spike must have been temporarily taken over by spirits.
Spike: From beneath you it devours. From beneath. Poor Rocky.
Okay, is that a reference to The Rocky Horror Picture Show? (Rocky Horror VHS) Its pretty funny if it is. Reminds me of how John Crichton in Farscape would go rifting off of various pop culture themes.
Tripping sentences and fragments of sentences from Spike throughout the episode drove home the idea that he'd gone thru the big spiritual getting-a-soul change. For me there was a sense of relief by the end of the episode when Buffy finally figured it out. The writers definitely like to tease the viewers about when the characters will finally find out something the viewers already know.
Okay, are the spirits that Spike killed really in his mind talking to him? You'd think so. But is he hearing them most of the time? One would need to carefully puzzle over all the babblings he has said in order to figure it out. There are probably a lot more hints being dropped than most of us are picking up on.
The show ends with Spike draped over a cross with smoke coming up from the cross.
The writers were so desperate to put Buffy back in an environment that provided good material that they had to stick her all the way back into high school? Apparently so. The fast food job was such a total dud that I hope don't waste any more time showing her behind the counter of the Double Meat Palace.
Was a return to high school the only option? The college setting was available but a big university is a rather large and anonymous place. Plus, its not a place which would have afforded as many ways to work Dawn into the script. Still, the college scene could have been made to work. As it stands, they could still send Buffy back to college part time.
I still do not think this high school setting is a sufficient basis for building new stories for the show. The writers ought to give Buffy a part-time occasional contract job as a body guard or as a courier of valuable goods. Or how about giving her occasional opportunities to do work as a for-hire supernatural detective for upscale clients? The clients could hear thru the grapevine that she can deal with the supernatural realm. Kinda like Angel does in LA. Heck, it would be easy to make this happen. Some kids she went to high school with could recommend her to their rich fathers or to their bosses.
The writers also ought to bring in some interesting supernatural characters who are not evil. I really like the Skip character that pops up occasionally on Angel. This sense of the supernatural realm as having regular working guys doing security or messenger jobs can be made to be pretty funny.
Posted by Randall Parker at October 22, 2002 04:49 PMThe new season 7 of Buffy is a joke. The show has completely lost its theme. The acting, as well as the plotlines have become so tripe its almost like watching a comedy. Ever since season 6 the show has becomem a pointless, comedic melodrama...(singing episode!!!). Where's the dark, romantic side of the show gone? And am I the only one sick of seeing godesses and other inredibly stupid demons popping up in each episode? The "from beneath you it devoures" is another completely ridiculous idea. Also, Spike, even though he's now the most interesting character, keeps rambling on making no sense at all. It's pathetic how the only dark character in the show has to be a rambling lunatic. And finally, not to sound too critical but the girl who plays Buffy's sister is probably the most annoying character in the show, apart from Willow with her gothic, lesbian witchery. The creators of the show all rave about her but really her perfromance is quiet flat. Not to say the other actors are doing much that is.
As a dedicated fan I think the show should of ended in the 5th or 6th season with Spike sacriphicing himself to save Buffy's life. And by doing so regaining his sole. That would of been better than to extend it on and on simply to cash in off it.
Stefan, I agree, season 7 is disappointing. I found season 6 to be a disappointment as well. I think the high points of Buffy were reached at graduation from high school and in the climax of The Initiative. Since then Glory was interesting just because she was a self-obsessed bitch modern woman Goddess. But having Buffy die for a few months was a bad idea. Her coming back and spending a whole season depressed and working at the Double Meat Palace was another bad idea.
The singing episode showed that the writers had run out of ideas. Also, I really really did not like the episode where Buffy was supposed to be a mental patient who only imagined herself to be a Slayer. Its like an insult to the viewer to tell the viewer that one shouldn't actually suspend belief and shouldn't actually immerse oneself in the Buffy universe.
The show has lost too many good characters. Angel, Faith, Cordelia, and Oz were all interesting in their own way. The Slayerettes currently on the show are uninteresting. The show was so lacking in context after The Initiative and after Buffy stopped going to college that they had to place her back into a high school setting to give her a more complex context. But the writers seem to have gotten bored with it.
I'll watch it to the end just to see how it will turn out but I'm bored with it. I also don't think that Buffy and Spike should be meant for each other. Angel I could see as worthy of her. But Spike? Its hard to see it. He's nowhere near as heroic a character.
Also, the "get a couple together and then break them apart" formula has gotten thoroughly old. It becomes predictable. You watch Buffy or Angel and you just know that each relationship is going to end. There is therefore nothing surprising about it when it happens.
Hey, at least Faith is coming back to Angel. But I expect to be disappointed in what they have her do.
Posted by: Randall Parker on February 14, 2003 04:18 PMFor goodness sake. You guy's take Buffy way too seriously. If you can write a better episode then do it. Otherwise shut the hell up and let the professionals do their jobs. And where do you get off criticizing the actors on the show? You guy's probably couldn't even pull off a half way decent performance in a High School play.
Anywho I liked the musical episode. It was fun. You do know what that is don't you? Fun? You know when you laugh and smile and don't criticize things that you have no real right to criticize.
Then again. I can't expect everyone to like Buffy episodes. And if you ask me there have been some stupid ones. Overall I think the earlier seasons with Angel in them sucked. No offense but Angel is better as Angelus. From the episodes I've seen and read of season seven I think that Spike is a far more watchable character and a better love interest for Buffy then Angel ever was. Angel and Buffy were nothing but puppy love. I mean he hadn't fucked a chick for like a hundred years or so and of course he'll fuck the first pretty blonde thing he developed a crush on.
Spike is just cooler. His hair doesn't stick straight up. And I feel there is more depth to his character then they ever gave to Angel in Buffy. They've begun to explore Angel more in his series, but still it is pretty pathetic how the most watchable characters there are the acid tounged Cordelia and the demon kareoke bar owner and self-professed music nut and lounge singer Lorne. The green dude with the horns.
But it's getting better.
ttrek
Posted by: ttrek on March 4, 2003 02:52 AMI felt that by season 7, things had gone downhill. There was definitely a sense of lame-ness going on by the last few episodes.
ttrek: I love Buffy. I am one of the many who probably identify a little too much with the series. Yet, I feel that criticism is necessary for any show. It shows that people aren't blindly accepting what they are shown, which is essential in an age ruled by TV. I think the scriptwriters for buffy did a brilliant job, yet I can still make room for criticism. (As can you: you criticize the ppl who criticize the actors, then do a little criticism yourself). :)
And who are you to say that ppl have 'no right to criticize?' Excuse me, but ppl have shown vast amounts of apathy with decisions at government level. If they want to use their brains to criticize a show, well, that's a start. Next, who knows? Maybe they will start engaging with political issues. One can hope.
I also think Spike was a much more interesting character than Angel.
I also have to say (in response to Randall), that the episode where Buffy was supposed to not know whether she was slayer or mental patient, was excellent. This was no insult to the viewer! Merely to stretch the viewers idea of what we perceive reality to be, and how on earth we could ever truly know. I love it! Kinda topical with all the discoveries that are going on in the world of theoretical physics.
It is only an insult to the viewer if you read it that way. To me, it was playing with perception, with what we think we *know* about our world. After all, at the end, there was no telling which was the reality. Who knows? That was an intriguing concept. What do any of us *really* know of our world? We think there may be at least ten dimensions to the universe - yet we haven't really engaged with the implications this has yet.
Posted by: Spike fan on December 26, 2003 08:56 PMOk, What the hell is wrong with you guys??? Especially you Stefan! The acting is poor!!??? Take a look at Conversations with dead people, and Storyteller, both with amazing acting. Comedic mellodrama!!?? How can you not like Once More With Feeling (the singing episode as you so bluntly put it)??
Okay, this episode is not a great episode of Buffy, but still compare it to other shows and its still amazing.
The only shows that come close to being as good as buffy are 24 and Alias, both of which have had poor recent seasons.
The acting, and the drama, the comedy and everything is spot on in season 7. The story is a bit lost midway and the First was a bit lame, but they still manage to pull off some great episodes. The final scene with Spike and Buffy in this episode are amazing, with both James Marsters and SMG doing great jobs.
So shut it. lol
Posted by: Nick on June 29, 2004 11:45 AM