LOVERS WALK; thoughts and review

[Saturn 5]

Lover's Walk

The Good;
Spike is back in town and emotional hell follows with him for the rest of the cast! I think it's at this point that Buffy really stops being about the demon of the week and starts being about the relationships.

The Bad;
Are you kidding?

Best line;
Spike; I may be love's bitch but at least I'm man enough to admit it

Wheldon Cliches;
Character death;
Bye bye to another magic shop owner. Spike's killing her is horrible in the extreme, the sheer brutality of it. The scene where Spike threatens to push a broken bottle in Willow's face is also horrible (pay attention Spike fans!). I remember watching this ep for the first time and thinking "NO! They can't kill Cordy!" but eventually they do. Presumably the funeral we see is of the Magic Shop owner?
Shot;
Tied up;

Knocked out; Cordy and Xander

Xander and Cordy
Women good/men bad; Joyce wants Buffy to go to parties with kegs and boys, as it happens neither will work out well for her.

Kinky dinky; Willow thinks bowling and rented shoes are sexy which is a whole level of kink beyond my ken, my barbie and all my action figures. Spike also seems to be quite enamoured of Willow (Spillow?) which will be referred to again in season 4. He also talks of 'having a woman' which implies that a vamp feeding is akin to a sexual act. Spike says he's going to torture Dru until she loves him again.?

Calling Captain Subtext; How much do we adore the scene between Spike and Joyce? Of course when we see Spike's relationship with his own mum, we understand why. Spike also refers to Angel as 'peaches' and a 'great poof' which must have had Spangel fans working overtime. Buffy comments that for some reason she can't fool Spike hinting at their relationship to come and possibly Spikes hidden sensitivity (realising in season 4 that Willow is falling apart, empathising with Dawn in season 5). Plus Dru senses that Spike is infatuated with the Slayer.

Guantanamo Bay;
Buffy and Angel beat up and threaten to kill Spike for info

Questions and observations;
Willow refers to Cletus the slack jawed yokel from the Simpsons. Weirdly Buffy has never even been referenced on that show as far as I know? Xander refers to Buffy and him working at the drive-in, both will but not at the same time. Surely the Mayor wouldn't have let Spike and co run rampant last year and destroyed the world? Xander recognises the ingredients for a love spell from his experience in BBB. Note Xander refers to wanting to be a fireman which will also feature in The Replacement. Weirdly Buffy says that Spike's not known for keeping his word but to judge by 'Lie to Me' and 'Becoming' he actually does? Note that even Angel with a soul still knows how to push Spike's buttons? Cordy's expression upon seeing Xander and Willow together is just heartrending.
Buffy scores remarkably well on the SATs once again showing us there's brains behind that blonde hair. Love Cordy's bizarre leap of logic that Xander has been kidnapped by Columbian drug barons?
Really you get the idea that they're toying with the idea of Spike as a regular character and this was a test for it. Of course he fit the bill and the rest is history

10/10 no question

[Saturn 5]

Wow, no one wants to talk Lover's Walk? Amazing!

[gumgnome]

I'll pitch in!
I guess it's hard to find things to fault this episode with. For me, I think of it mostly as the end to Xander/Cordelia which is a painful moment. Spike is excellent in this episode - it's the first time we get to see him get set on fire by the sun, something that reoccurs in both Buffy and Angel! I love the parallels with his first entry and this pathetic show of falling out of his car with whiskey bottles all around.

I agree with you saturn5, that when Spike threatens Willow with the broken bottle, the show takes on a level of visceral violence rarely seen.

Favourite line:
ANGEL: Buffy, we still need him to find the others.
BUFFY: Need him? He's probably just got them locked up in the factory.
SPIKE: Well, hey, how thick do you think I am?

[drusillacakes]

And what about Oz's heightened sense of smell? Cordy-" Is this some kind of residual werewolf thing?" We find out Willow doesn't wear perfume, which I suppose is an interesting fact to know. Oooh, also PEZ Witch. How cute was that?!?

Ditto-- did not like the picture in my head of broken bottle in the face. Tsk tsk. Bad Spike.

[Saturn 5]

Love to see a little more of Oz supersenses, maybe in the comics?

[buffyfan21]

Love this episode. My fave moment is the Joyce/Spike scene where Joyce is acting all motherly and trying to comfort Spike in his misery of love lost. Love that he asks for little marshmallows for his cocoa, lol. Definitely shows a softer more vulnerable side to Spike that is in stark contrast to threatening Willow with a bottle in face. Perhaps a mother's love just brings out the humanity in Spike? Love Joyce's advice that "sometimes two people just aren't right for each other," and the fact that she compares the relationship between of Spike and Dru to that of her and Hank. Also her estimation that Dru "seems very unreasonable." If she only knew! Love the way Joyce has always treated Spike as a person, not as a monster. The two really had a great chemistry and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the few scenes they had together. As a fan, any Joyce/Spike moments always make me smile. Just a shame there wasn't opportunity for more of them.

My fave line, besides the love's bitch one already mentioned: "Love isn't brains children, it's blood, blood screaming inside you to work it's will." You can see by their faces how much Spike's observation unnerves Buffy and Angel. Is Spike the catalyst for Buffy calling it quits at the end of the ep? He was, after all, voicing everything that Buffy and Angel were trying very hard to ignore.

So sad that the end of this ep, (true to it's name) witnesses everyone in the gang walking away from their lovers. In classic Whedon fashion, this ep mixes the funny/sweet moments with the truly heartbreaking.

[Saturn 5]

All Spike/Joyce scenes are great, in LMPTM we discover why Spike likes her so much

[buffyfan21]

^ I know. The moment Oz and Cordy walk in to find Xander and Willow is pure pain. I think it's the last thing the two would expect. The shock of the situation is about equal on all of their faces. And then when Cordy falls, the look on Xander's face just kills.

I remember the first time I watched this episode, after Cordy gets hurt and then we see the funeral, I thought, "nooooo she can't be dead!" Of course, Joss is always great with the mislead.

[Saturn 5]

You know I said exactly the same thing, from then on though I was always alert for Joss' tricks

[Darth Rosie]

I do love the Joyce/Spike scene. But it also annoys me. And what annoys me is also what makes it so good in the sense of it playing out the way things often play out. Here's the transcript:

Joyce: (sits across from him) Well, she sounds very unreasonable.
Spike: She is. She's out of her mind. (sniffs) That's what I miss most
about her. (smiles)
Joyce: Well, Spike, sometimes even when two people seem right for each
other, their lives just take different paths. When Buffy's father and I...
Spike: (interrupts) No, this is different. Our love was eternal.
Literally. (calms down) You got any of those little marshmallows?
Joyce: Well, lemme look.
She gets up to go check.

You see, Joyce is all empathic, but as soon as she wants to say something about her own life, Spike cuts her short. He is simply not interested in hearing what Joyce went through, he just wants to unload his emotional baggage. You could add this to your women good/men bad section ;-)

[Saturn 5]

Very good point although when you see Spike's relationship with his mum you wonder whether he doesn't want to acknowledge that Hank exists, he wants it to be just her and him?

[Darth Rosie]

Right - that's also a good point. I hadn't seen it from this angle. Karma :-)

[Saturn 5]

I'm just trying to be a better person. My name is Earl