Buffy Challenge Post 50: Season 6: Episodes 1 - 2

After a 6 month delay and much pestering from the Buffy tragic in year 10 at school and the Whedon Stalker in New Zealand, I’ve finally got my act together and am ready to get right into season 6. I wonder why they still call it Buffy the Vampire slayer seeing that she heroically gave up her life in the season 5 finally. (Maybe it was in Sarah Michelle Gellar’s contract that she couldn’t stay dead for more than the summer break between seasons?

OH well without further ado ……..

Bargaining part 1 & 2

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer……… Scenes from the very first episode where Buffy was sucking on a lolly pop and killing vampires….. Re introducing the Slayer and her “Slayerettes” Two powerful witches, an Ex- Demon and Xander….. who proposes to Anya…….. Buffy and Angel’s history in the space of 6 seconds….. Spike coming back with a chip in his mind…….. Spike falling in love with Buffy ……… introduction of Dawn the key ……. and the ultimate sacrifice for her world as Buffy jumps to her death…… closing off with the tombstone reading

“Buffy Anne Summers”

1981 – 2001

 

Beloved Sister

Devoted Friend

 

She saved the world

A LOT

Ok now into the episode where Spike and the gang is chasing down a BIG vampire…. Willow is on watch with the cool telepathy. Nice throw of the Axe by Giles which led our huge bouncer 0f a vampire to run into the fist of……… BUFFY??????

“Great Googly Moogly Malone….” The big guy aint going down easily, nice move with the lighter by Spike fries the big guy. Over to Xander and Anya as they deal with another Vampire, Buffy comes in and takes him our with a really bad pun……. Oh it’s just the Buffybot from last season programmed by Willow.

As usual we get a new title sequence as Dawn gets the title treatment. We check out Willow and Terra who seem to be in charge of taking care of Dawn and Buffy bot.  Buffybot makes enough sandwiches to feed an army.  So they are officially called the scooby gang. This looks like Pinocchio as Buffybot thinks she is the real thing.

Buffybot has to cover open day at Dawn’s school, this can’t be good. “School is where you learn!” It seems Buffybot’s naiveté is bringing about social change. We switch to Anya and Giles down at the magic box and Anya is NOT happy being criticized. Giles is packing up and going to London? It seems Anya still hasn’t got the grief part of being human down. She wants to announce her engagement but Xander wants to wait for the right time.

Spike’s assessment of the education system is that it is just a factory to spit out mindless robots. Spike seems to have some sort of regret for what happen to Buffy and is now taking care of Dawn.

Creepy music, woman walking alone at night only means bad things….. thankfully Buffybot is there to help, but a bottle to the face has let the secret out. A quick question? I thought if a slayer died then another one would come to replace her? (continuity error perhaps?)

Anya get’s some e-bay shopping done for Willow, who is up to something big….. like bringing Buffy back from the dead. Due to Buffy’s mystical death, there seems to be a shot of bringing her back. (my money is on it will work with side effects.) Buffybot is usb compatible. Dawn comes in to see a charging up Buffybot in a really touching scene. Buffybot is training with Giles and it seems that he forgets that she is the descendent of a toaster oven.

Vampire biker…. at a biker bar where the vampire who cut open the robot lets them know about his discovery. Wait the bikers are not vampires? then what are they? just your run of the mill demons?

Willow is in a park doing her magic and killing Bambi (I wonder what PETA have to say about that scene?) back at the magic box the gang have discovered that Giles was ready to leave. We get the "”Mutant Enemy” noise in the episode, which was a nice touch. So far this episode has been nothing but little nice touches here and there and moving slowly. Hugs all around for Giles as he is about to board his flight back to London. As soon as you hear Willow say “Nothing can go wrong tonight” you just know that something will go wrong.

The ritual starts as Willow gets cut’s up really bad, Xander is concerned however they need to continue. Right at that point the bikers crash through Sunnydale which wakes Spike up. The bikers attack buffybot who gets injured in the scuffle this sends her straight to willow in the middle of the ceremony to bring Buffy back, unfortunately their  arrival messes up the spell.  WHOAH THAT WAS SO COOL, seeing the decomposing corpse of Buffy revert back to normal.

The real Buffy is trying to fight her way out of the coffin while the others have run to safety. Buffybot has been destroyed as the realization of their failure sets in. Oh Buffy escaping from the grave reminds me of the Mythbusters episode where they tested the exact myth, if we went by them then Buffy’s resurrection will be short lived.

Spike is assessing the situation and sees that they need to do the bolt. We get the classic hero breaking out of the grave scene and considering she had to climb through 6 ft of dirt Buffy’s hair is in good shape. Oh Xander, you are such a twit! good thing Terra sent a firefly to guide the way.

Spike commandeers a motorcycle to get Dawn out of trouble as Xander and Willow catch up with Terra and Anya. Willow wants to go out and fight as she lets them know that Buffy is gone. The Bikers have decided to make Sunnydale their new home. For someone who has just come back from the dead Buffy’s hair looks really good!

Buffybot get’s ripped apart by the bikers right in front of the real Buffy. Terra is questioning the reasoning behind even attempting the resurrection as Anya is giving her argument to why their engagement should be announced. Buffy bounces in and they realize it’s the real deal. (Is she mindless?) NOT THE RIGHT TIME ANYA!!!

There is a stare down between the demons and the gang. Willow stands up to the demons only to cop a back hand. Oh is he going to rape them? Buffy does the whole catch the punch routine and then goes on a one woman rampage and takes out ALL the bikers.

Dawn looks so dorky in the football helmet as with Spike they discovered the severed Buffybot who lets them know that Buffy is back! Back at the fight the gang get the upper hand as Buffy does the runner the leader fights back as Dawn is on the trail of her sister who has made her way back to the scene of her epic death. Terra gets the kill with an Axe in the back.

Buffy relives her death over as Dawn comes to save her from jumping again. See that is the problem when towers are built by crazy people, they seem to collapse at any moment. This is taking WAY too long. With Dawn in danger Buffy wakes up and saves the day….. sort of….. not without the dramatic close shave…. oh please just get to the point, Dawn hugs Buffy as she stares into nothing and we end the episode…….

Well there were lots of little nice moments here and there in this double size season premier, it seems like they really wanted to make the return of Buffy mean something and possibly it will come at a cost…… I’m not a huge fan of the occult side of things and the whole resurrection scene with Willow was kind of over the top and creepy. It also seemed that the humor was really forced in this episode by the writers and overall the episode was trying to hit too many notes (it is another example of a double episode that would of been so much better if it was half the length.)

Overall a reasonable return for everyone’s favorite slayer, with lots of questions to be asked from the season premier.

 

7.5 / 10

Until next time folks remember the moral of this episode, if your going to be trying to resurrect anyone make sure you dig up the coffin first. (or not wait so long…..)