BARGAINING pt1; byebye Giles, hello Buffy

[Saturn 5]

BARGAINING 1&2

The Good;
SMG is just wonderful as the Buffybot, credit it to her that she can remember all the dialogue at the end of the teaser. Another nice Anya/Tara scene and Dawn and Buffy reunited is always a joy. Love the way that the Buffybot is such a hit at Dawn's parent/teacher day. Possibly the coolest Spike moment ever when he kicks the Hellion off the bike.
The Bad;
The Hellions are deeply stupid. There's only 15 of them and they appear to be killable by conventional methods (some are even human)so why don't the SDPD just shoot them? The fat vamp seems to burn awfully fast, Dru and Darla on Angel take far longer.
Best line;
Xander; "House o' chicks relax, I am a man, I have a tool!"
Women good/men bad;
Razor is nastily misogynist so Tara let's him have her axe. Good for her!
Jeez!;
Will kills Bambi! Even though she's a machine you feel so sorry for the Buffybot. The sight of Buffy's corpse is upsetting but not as much as her crawling out of her grave.
Kinky dinky;
The Hellions threaten to rape the Scoobies.
Captain Subtext;
Love the Willow/Tara house. In the comics Willow talks of the pair being tempted of just taking Dawn and the three moving out of Sunnydale, forming their own little family. Spike can't be with Buffy so he takes the closest thing he can get, babysitting Dawn. Xander appears to like the Backstreet Boys? Hmmmmm? Dawn and the Buffybot, awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Xander and Giles hug at the airport. Xander says he needs more male friends.
Guantanamo Bay;
Scoobies to the ER;
Missing scenes;
Apocalypses; 6
Wheldon Cliches (with kind permission from Boo)

Scoobies in bondage:
Buffy: 8
Giles: 4
Cordy: 5
Will: 3
Jenny: 1
Angel: 4
Oz: 1
Faith: 3
Joyce: 1
Wes: 1
Xander; 1
Dawn; 3

Scoobies knocked out: Willow
Buffy: 16
Giles: 10
Cordy: 6
Xander: 8
Will: 6
Jenny: 2
Angel: 6
Oz: 3
Faith: 1
Joyce: 3
Wes: 1
Anya;1
Kills: 1 vamp for Spike and one for the Buffybot. One fawn and one demon for Will. A demon each for Xander and Anya. Tara's first kill plus 3 demons for Buffy
Buffy: 96 vamps, 35 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot
Giles: 5 vamps, 2 demon, 1 human, 1 god.
Cordy: 3 vamps, ½ a demon
Will: 6 vamps + 1 demon +1 fawn.
Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human
Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie
Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans
Xander: 5 vamps, 2 zombies, 1½ a demon,
Anya: 1 vamp and 1½ a demon
Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons
Spike; 3 vamps and 2 demon
Buffybot; 2 vamps
Tara; 1 demon

Scoobies go evil:
Giles: 1
Cordy: 1
Will: 2
Jenny: 1
Angel: 1
Oz: 1
Joyce: 1
Xander: 3

Alternate scoobies:
Buffy: 6
Giles: 3
Cordy: 1
Will: 2
Jenny: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 2
Joyce: 2
Xander: 3

Recurring characters killed: 10
Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce

Sunnydale deaths;
89;

Total number of scoobies: goodbye Giles and goodbye Buffybot so 6
Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Tara, Spike

Xander demon magnet: 5(6?)
Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula?

Scoobies shot: no although Razor has a gun he never uses it.
Giles: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 4
Riley; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost:
Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes?
Cordy: 1?
Buffy: 3 confirmed; Angel, Parker,Riley, 1 possible, Dracula(?)
Angel: 1;Buffy
Joyce: 1;Giles, 2 possible, Ted and Dracula(?)
Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca
Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley
Xander: 2; Faith, Anya
Willow: 2;Oz and Tara
Riley; 3; Buffy, Sandy and unnamed vampwhore
Spike; good or bad? (new column to handle one of the most pressing questions of the series)
Spike is fighting alongside the scoobs and taking care of Dawn but also pouring scorn on the schooling system and thinking the chaos and destruction looks fun.
Questions and observations;
Very long 'previously on Buffy', the series now very much rooted in it's own mythology. Love Tara the vamp hunter, note she feels the need to get a leather coat for her warrior princess phase. Note Giles and Spike actually share a joke together. The numbered shirts appear which I actually didn't notice first time around. Buffy looks to have put a little weight on whilst dead and it suits her. The Buffybot remarks 'I don't eat', deliberate joke? Dawn is back in touch with her dad. The Buffybot appears to be breaking her programming and almost becoming a real girl. Check out the scene where the Scoobies are saying goodbye to Giles at the airport, it looks like Spike is sitting behind Giles (JM's stand in?).
One good thing is that they kept Dawn. She wasn't that popular with the fans and it would have been very easy to write her out, she would have simply gone to live with her dad and she and Buffy could have had an offscreen reunion as Buffy and Angel do. But they kept her and the show is all the better for it. Dawn not only gives Buffy the will to live but she seems to just instinctively be able to sense that she's back and find her amidst the chaos. Once again it's implied that that there's a deeper connection between the 2 sisters.
Surely if Willow can fix a decpitated Buffybot she can fix a limbless one? So what happens to the bot? I remember reading an excellent fanfic where they repair it and leave it hooked up to an electricity supply in a remote cave, programmed to come to the rescue if anything ever happens to the Scoobs (very 'Demon with a glass hand' if you ever watched The Outer Limits). To judge by Buffy's appearance when she comes out of the grave she dyes her hair. You notice that the 'power shot' at the end of the opening titles isn't actually Buffy at all, it's actually the Buffybot.
I almost stopped watching Buffy at this point, I was so disappointed in these opening eps but I'm glad I kept with it.
Marks out of 10; 6/10

[Skytteflickan88]

Gutanamo bay?

[gumgnome]

Interesting review. I agree with you on several key points, especially in your criticism of the Hellions. They are the worst villains on the show in my opinion - I just think that it's pathetic that soulless demons would seriously think that throwing garbage cans through windows and setting fire to cars is evil. Ooooh...vandalism, scary!
On the other hand, the resurrection of Buffy is pretty cool, as is Willow's increasingly dominant role within the group.

One thing I disagree with you about is the reason for Spike looking after Dawn. Surely rather than by doing this to have the 'closest thing to Buffy' around, his watching over her reflects his guilt over failing to protect her in "The Gift" and a feeling of continued obligation to Buffy?

I am glad that they kept Dawn as well. It would have struck me as incredibly cheap writing if they had decided to lose such a pivotal new character just because she wasn't the centre of the plot anymore. In fact, Bargaining Pt 1 & 2 are probably my favourite episodes for Dawn. When Buffy comes back, she's very sensitive to her and doesn't crowd her like the other Scoobies. I just find it so annoying how quickly she seems to revert to being so unsympathetic and antagonistic towards Buffy in this season. Frankly, if my sister died in my place and was then resurrected, I think I would treat her a little bit better than Dawn does...

[Saturn 5]

Nov 22, 2009 7:30:00 GMT -5 Skytteflickan88 said:

Gutanamo bay?

= ruthlessness on the part of the good guys

I forgive Dawn how she acts in season 6 simply because everyone else is acting crazily too. Dawn's point is that although Buffy is back in body she's not really there for her and won't be until near the end of the series

[Randi Giles]

Now don't laugh but one of many reason I love this episode is because I love to watch JM in it. His hair is so perfectly curly in the beginning I just loved it. I will also agree that SMG did awesome job as Buffy-bot. Yay Willow for bringing back Buffy. Dark Willow is rearing her head. In the commentary they joke how Buffy wasn't so messy coming out of her grave and though I understood where they were coming from I still loved it. It was such a big moment and I loved it when Buffy hand finally shot up. Spike, good or bad. I think he's bad desperately trying to be good a this point in time cause he is still grieving for Buffy and he's trying to honor her. Those Hellions were pretty pathetic by the way. I also have to say WHOA on the ratings. Then again I may be biased because this is the first season I started watching. You know UPN promoted it enough. I'm going back to check that JM stand-in. My rating is. 7/10

[orangejuicepony]

Last night I got a message from a friend telling me to go watch the scene in this episode where Willow is fixing the Buffybot after her encounter with that vampire. She told me that it was extremely important that I watch this scene and stare at the Buffybots forehead injury. So I went and watched it and was amazed that I had never noticed how poorly attached it was. You can clearly see the line where the appliance meets her skin and it is partially peeling off in one corner. Has anyone else noticed this before? Because if you have never noticed it and you go watch it now, you will probably be amazed at how you have never caught it before.

[joxerlives]

Do you mean you could see it was SMG with special effects makeup or the Buffybot looked too fake?

[orangejuicepony]

No, I mean the make-up on her forehead is poorly done and looks like it's peeling off.