And Giles. Oh Giles. This two episode bit (OMWF + Tabula Rasa) really makes me dislike his character. It’s completely contrived and out of character for him to just bail like this. He’s committed to doing good, so even if he was going to bow out of Buffy’s personal business, why wouldn’t he stick around to help fight evil? And don’t get me started on how he should have just talked to Buffy directly (and frankly) about his concerns.

I’ll join the chorus of Tara love. Until season 6 I didn’t really understand the fandom love for her, but she is really strong here. It’s sort of ironic, that the strength she gained from her relationship with Willow enabled her to be strong enough to leave Willow. And now I will have “Under Your Spell” stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Another bit of feedback about OMWF: I was reading some reviews online and someone mentioned that James Marsters was not a good singer – besides the fact they are WRONG, I really noticed the difference between SMG and Marsters in that minor note in Something To Sing About. When she sings “heaven”, it’s a little flat. When he sings “living”, it’s perfect. That’s a hard interval to sing right, to me that proves he has the chops. And her singing it a little off gives authenticity to me, that she is pained by singing this, and also that the spell is really her singing. It would have been easy for them to do pitch correction in post, but they didn’t, and I think it was a good choice.

I happened to hear about the Dancing Plague of 1518 last night, maybe Sweet has struck before?! Sounds pretty similar!

Tabula Rasa – and cue the fallout from the musical.

I’m joining the chorus of people singing Tara’s praises. I’ve always liked Tara, but I love her in S6. Curious to see how Cordia feels about her bits of development this season, since I think one of the best decisions she makes is to break up with Willow. At this point she’s also the best friend Buffy has – Anya is Anya, Xander is unable to deal with the complexity of the situation, and Willow would rather turn to magic. I love that Tara basically says “let’s stop wallowing and actually do something.” Too bad nobody listens…

When I think about Giles leaving, it shouldn’t make sense. Buffy doesn’t often straight up beg, but she is here and she really makes it clear that he’s abandoning her. The fact that I wasn’t completely pissed off at Giles when I watched the episode is an amazing consequence of the musical. I guess the song “Standing” convinced me that he really did struggle with this decision, even though when I step away from the show I’m completely agree with Cordia – it’s frustrating and the wrong decision. But kudos to Joss for pulling that off, for me at least.

Other random notes:
- Why oh why would you add a hokey “loan shark” to the already dumb kitten poker storyline?
- I feel really bad for Dawn at the end of the episode but she bugs me after the spell takes effect. Her behavior is so fake and, as has been discussed on the podcast, she seems much younger than her intended age. I don’t know if it’s her lines, the directing, or Michelle Trachtenberg’s acting, but something doesn’t work there.
- Spike, as usual, has some of the funniest lines. It’s a cute callback to Restless to have him in the same suit thinking he’s Giles’ son.
- How devastating is it that Buffy has to essentially relive all those traumatic memories when the spell is broken? Especially after she was about to open up to her friends. It’s very sad but it’s also a fairly contrived way to keep Buffy from speaking up. Really a lot of this is contrived, which is why this has never been one of my favorite episodes. Most of their reactions after the memory wipe don’t make sense – even if you thought you were married to someone, without the memories you wouldn’t start ACTING like you were married to them (nevertheless, some of the Giles and Anya stuff is fun).

Music montages don’t always work, but I like the one at the end of this episode. Usually I don’t recognize the music on the show but I grew up with a few of Michelle Branch’s songs, so I was excited when I heard it. Plus the lyric “I want you but I’m not giving in this time” made me think that Buffy wouldn’t give into Spike. Needless to say the first time I watched this I was surprised by the ending, though I suppose I shouldn’t have been.

Tara really comes into her own. From the early scene where they are reacting to discovering Buffy’s secret she really lays down her character. I loved it when she took Anya’s silly slightly panicked comments and reassured her that she isn’t stupid or weird but gently guided her into a more sensible way of thinking. She seems like a real person, reminding me of someone I know, very positive but very pragmatic. Then in her later argument with Willow she has such a strong backbone at last, without actually behaving out of character from the Tara we have been shown.

The tabula rasa, or blank slate, concept is clever I think. I enjoyed the hints at people’s underlying characteristics coming through despite having no memories. Like Anya’s neediness when she begs Giles not to leave her and Buffy rapidly taking charge. It could have been more in depth but then I guess it is a massive philosophical argument. I actually thought the “I think I’m kind of gay” line as something unlikely for Willow to say to Dawn – who is just a random teenager to her – but I hadn’t realized it was a call back to Doppelgangland.

The structure is much like other spell-gone-wrong episodes especially Something Blue, but unlike that it’s so sad when the spell is finally broken. Poor Buffy so depressed at remembering her life that she stays lying down and takes a beating. And it’s obviously the final straw for Tara.

And another end scene kiss. Mmmmmm I’m so conflicted – such a pleasure to watch and yet….Buffy’s motivations aren’t that positive are they….

The only thing I really remember from this episode is the rage I felt in watching it. I admit, Tara isn’t the best character on Buffy, despite how much am willing to go to defend her, but this is the season where she finally shines in my opinion. I remember not really noticing that she said she was going to flat out leave Willow in the previous episode, too focused on the singing to really see the deep meaning, but this episode came as no surprise.

She was ready to dump Willow in an instant and the only reason she didn’t was because Willow begged enough that she would get her act together. It was amazing realizing that this was the same character who could hardly speak back in Hush (Before the whole no speaking ordeal came about). She has grown into her own person, perhaps not a full blown stand alone character like Anya is becoming, but she is indeed growing bigger than just “Willow’s Girlfriend.”.

Now back to the rage part… I just remember the moment Willow used magic to get dressed, I slapped my hands on my lap and screamed “Really?” at my screen. Every time she used magic in this episode I got angry at her. I admit, I was never a fan of the whole “Magic is drugs” concept this season is doing, but they really do make you feel she has a serious problem when she wants can’t go a single day without using it with her relationship on the line.

I’m glad Tara stepped out at the end, I truly am. She said what she meant and was fed up with Willow’s BS. It is sad to see the two split apart after a season and a half (Plus eight episodes?), but it had to happen with what it’s been building up to since the start.

Although I do have to mention that I did enjoy the song mixing with everybody leaving, I rather like when show’s end like that for some reason.

P.S I really enjoyed Willow saying once more “I think I’m kind of gay.” As she did back in Doppelgangland, as somebody who is blowing through the episodes much like Cordia did, I remember laughing because it was so fresh in my mind.

As somebody who is currently watching through all of Buffy for the first time (Final season) and discovered this great podcast early on in my viewings, I have to say that something has been nagging me since I got to this podcast. Forgive me if my memory isn’t fresh, it’s been a few months since I listened to it, but if I remember correctly Robin wasn’t a big fan of Anya’s reaction in this… I’d like to give my view on the scene, simply because it’s constantly brought up.

Let me first say that this isn’t my favorite scene in the episode, that honor belongs to the first ten or so minutes when Buffy is simply alone with “The Body” However Anya’s scene really did stand out to me when I watched it.

Forgive me if I can’t get a clear point across, this is my first time trying to look with a critical eye and spell it out.

To me, Anya’s reaction to Joyce’s death is the reaction a child would have, while she certainly isn’t new to the concept of death it’s clear she has never experienced a natural one from an outsider’s prospective, much less somebody she knew. I get the feeling that Joss wanted to have a take on how a small child of maybe 5 to 10 would react to death, which to me makes sense for Anya to be in that role, after a thousand years as a demon she is new to the concept of being human again, learning everything for the first time, the joy’s of love, the way “normal” people speak, and now death. Natural death is but a concept to her before this, not a reality, much like a child see’s death.

Dawn is the youngest character on the show to react to Joyce’s death, however she still seems to understand clearly that her mother is gone, she just needs to see it with her own eyes to confirm it. Anya on the other hand seems to understand that Joyce is gone, but simply cannot comprehend that a person who she spent time with and seemed like a nice person is ripped away without reason. After all, in her eyes the only people that deserve death are those who have hurt other’s in a relationship. She thinks like a child, working on strictly emotion and speaking her mind whenever anything pops into her head. Sure she does act like a grown women, what with constant talk of sex, but she still deals with it like a child, demanding what she wants often and even bragging about her sex life to others without thinking of their feelings towards it.

Anyway, there’s my two cents… hope I got my point across.

After listenening to the podcast, I now think Faith’s behavior up to now has been completely plausible, although I agree that the fact that it has taken me ten years to see it means that it certainly wasn’t highlighted in show. Here goes:

I think Faith’s problem isn’t that she doesn’t feel enough guilt, it’s that she feels more than we ever see, not only for failing to save her watcher, but more importantly for killing vampires and demons themselves.

Logically, I would expect a slayer to develop some pretty serious PTSD and moral confusion as they slay dozens or hundreds of vamps and demons, most of them face to face and many of them in cold blood. They are told that vamps and demons are irretrievably bad, but they have recognizably human hopes and dreams. Even if they all deserve to die, it must take a phenomenal emotional roll to be the executioner, especially as a teenager.

Faith’s behavior makes sense if you assume that she always thought she was trapped by destiny to be a murderer. She tried acting out, then joined Team Evil to see if it would bring her peace, and what really breaks her is the idea that it was possible for her to have been good.

It’s actually surprising that Buffy doesn’t show more strain from all the face to face killing she has carried out, although it does go

Looking forward to part 2.

Right after their song, when Anya and Xander are talking to Giles, Anya talks about how it’s weird because it felt like they had wall missing in their apartment – that it felt like there was only 3 walls, and the 4th was missing. Love it!

Towards the end of that scene, Giles mentions that the police were taking witness arias. It’s the little things put into this episode that make is so great to rewatch…and rewatch again…and again…and buy the soundtrack.

I really loved how the music in the episode, while serving its purpose as part of a “musical episode,” also had the ability to delve into major plot stuff. The most significant example of this is “Something to Sing About” in which Buffy is forced to reveal to her friends that she was pulled out of heaven. The knowledge gained from the song will carry on. Just seeing Willow’s reaction can tell you that much.

Another thing I liked in terms of the music was the duality present in “Under Your Spell.” The song conveys both figurative and very literal meaning. In one sense, Tara is in love with Willow, and is caught up in the magic of love and such, but at the same time, she is literally still under the “forget” spell that Willow cast last episode. It makes for a really interesting dynamic. Another piece of duality that was more lighthearted was Giles sending Tara and Anya to be Buffy’s back up (i.e. help Buffy defeat Sweet), and then they literally end up being her back-up singers and dancers. It cracks me up every time.

Of all the demons on Buffy, Sweet is one of my favorites. The make-up for him was so sleek and seemless, and he looks awesome, while at the same time being believably threatening as he sings to Dawn.

Giles and Tara singing together at the end was beautiful. Not only are they both fantastic singers, but their characters are in such a similar place, and it makes sense for them to duet that song. This is probably the first time that Giles and Tara really have any connection as characters.

In response some of the comments regarding wardrobe, I believe there was supposed to be a theme to the outfits. Willow and Tara were supposed to be medieval and Xander and Anya were 50’s retro. Joss talks about it a little bit on the DVD commentary.

Fun facts I learned from DVD commentary:
-Joss’s favorite part was getting the fire trucks to correlate with the “let it burn” in Walk Through the Fire
-The three monsters from “Going Through The Motions” are played by the same three guys who are the broom dancers during Giles, Xander and Anya’s walk down the street, and the same guys who play Sweet’s puppet headed minions.
-The two dancers also featured in the walk are the episode’s lead and assistant choreographers.

I could say more about this episode, but I’ll leave it at this for now. Once again, it is a fantastic episode, and I love watching it.