Oh man, oh man, oh man! this was some awesome stuff! :o

Yet another episode I remembered as mediocre at best, but proved to be indescribably beautiful in all its uncomfortable glory. First of the great parts was the Spike theme. How he initially in the episode said to Angel that he didn’t see the need for pining over everything he’d done when he was a real vampire (“evil vampire” sounds like the pleonasm of the millennium), but eventually, when he’d witnessed and been given the opportunity to contemplate the consequences of his actions (even though it in this case wasn’t actually his actions), took things in, seemingly for the first time. That’s just plain wow.

Then there’s the insane Slayer, of course. A figure to feel for, to sympathise with, absolutely, but also one to be feared and on guard against, since she attacks one of “our guys” in her mad rampage. She also has some of that Freudian uncanny about her. This has nothing to do with the more icky parts of his theorising, but rather with what my sister talked about in her blog post about vampires last week: How the familiar can be awfully scary when presented in an unfamiliar context. In this case, a Slayer — a familiar feature of the Buffyverse — acting like a monster, and at the same time a pretty, little girl, bereft of all capabilities for reason and communication, thus reduced to a — agin — monster, governed by her instincts towards vengeance; to exterminate the experienced threat, however imaginary, before it can hurt her again. So sad, and so scary. Real uncanny.

Third, we have the scene where Andrew and his Slayerettes faces Angel and his W&H toadies. When he said that “they” don’t trust Angel no more, and that Buffy is included in this “we”… goosebumps!

Finally, the details. Like Andrew telling Spike where everyone’s at. That’s good stuff.