TOUGH LOVE; poor Tara and DarkWillow

[Saturn 5]

TOUGH LOVE
The Good;
Good scenes between Buffy and Dawn, excellent battle between Willow and Glory
The Bad;
If you're a Tara fan it's pretty gut-wrenching
Best line;
Minion; "Begging your pardon and begging in general"
Women good/men bad;
Glory calls Tara a tramp
Jeez!;
Glory brainsucking Tara is awful although Clare Kramer gives a great performance describing the madness (which of course Glory experiences it too). Anya's racism against the French is also a bit much (and surely Anya is actually Swedish, yah?). Willow spits on Glory.
Kinky dinky;
Glory bathes in front of her minions but blindfolds them.
Captain Subtext;
Tara and Willow have their first fight. A lot of people disliked this but couples fight, straight or gay, everyone has arguments. Willow refers to lesbo-street cred, she tells Tara that she's the only woman she's fallen in love with (again, bi rather than gay?). Implying that Tara has had gay lovers before? Anya offers to let Willow sleep with her admitting this sounds a lot more lesbian than she intended. Glory gives lots of little hints of lesbianism when she's 'holding' Tara's hand. Lovely scene at the end where Buffy and Willow are with 'their girls', Will kissing Tara and Buffy stroking Dawn's hair.
Guantanamo Bay;
Giles tortures Glory's minion. With the same trick Angelus played on him?
Scoobies to the ER;
Poor Tara, brainsucked.
Missing scenes;
Apocalypses; 5, Glory asks did anyone order one?
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; 1

Scoobies knocked out:
Buffy: 16
Giles: 10
Cordy: 6
Xander: 8
Will: 5
Jenny: 2
Angel: 6
Oz: 3
Faith: 1
Joyce: 3
Wes: 1
Anya;1
Kills:
Buffy: 96 vamps, 32 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot
Giles: 5 vamps, 1 demon
Cordy: 3 vamps, ½ a demon
Will: 6 vamps
Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human
Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie
Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans
Xander: 5 vamps, 2 zombies, ½ a demon, ½ a demon
Anya: 1vamp + ½ a demon
Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons
Buffybot; 1 vamp
Spike; 1 vamp and 1/2 a 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: 6
Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Tara,

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

Scoobies shot:
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
Questions and observations;
You feel so bad for Buffy having to quit school and so bad for Ben being fired. Glory likes aspects of this dimension, changing her tune (because of Ben's influence?). The scenes with Buffy and Dawn over Dawn's truancy are heartrending, the terror they feel at the prospect of losing each other. Can't Dawn go to Aunt Arlene? Once again Tara says she fears Will's magic. Buffy's 'Things change' line may be from Batman Returns? What do people want petrified hamsters for?
Marks out of 10; 7/10

[henzINNIT]

Thank god Joss thought to up the ante the same time the following year and fuck Tara over even worse... lol

She was a bit of a punchbag really.

[Saturn 5]

Yeah poor Tara, although in fairness she was the only Scooby to never get tied up. Unless she and Willow got up to some

[Randi Giles]

This episode was just sad. I felt sorry for Buffy, Dawn, Willow and Tara. That's all I have to say. 7/10

[PJ]

loved this episode. felt really bad for tara though. but i liked the fact we finally got the first glimse of dark willow, and without this episode their would be no ET Tough Love Willow right? lol.

[Jaz ♀♀]

Nov 19, 2009 12:30:55 GMT -5 Saturn 5 said:

Yeah poor Tara, although in fairness she was the only Scooby to never get tied up. Unless she and Willow got up to some

LoL.....so instead of Willow and Oz playing 'Mistress of Pain' every night....it's Willow and Tara....you have to admit that's a great fan fiction story

But as for the "Tough Love" ep, it was so hard for me to watch the Willow/Tara fight....and when Willow was too late to rescue Tara

[wytchcroft]

one of my very favourite episodes.

[Max]

I love this episode,especially the moment where Willow arrives in Glory's room,flying and seeming perfectly powerful !!!
The end is just so cute (I'm not talking when Glory throw away the wall^^),it's like the bonds between Will and Buffy are getting stronger (as we can see during Willow's little trip in Buffy's mind in the next episode),'cause we have seen the Scoobies friendship was kinda "off" during the season 5.....

[joxerlives]

Yeah, the final scene is great and speaks much of the affection between all 4 female characters. By season 6 there's a little more distance between them as Will's addiciton grows but after wrecked they're back together again

[slayerthorn]

I felt really bad for Ben losing his job because of Glory. I actually feel bad for Glory's minions during the bath scene, it’s no wonder the one that was caught betrayed her so easily. Dawn getting busted for not going to school seemed a little weird to me since she doesn't seem to have any friends. I mean where did she spend the day instead? I like that this episode shows how unprepared Buffy is to take the parent role with Dawn because if she just stepped into it easily that would have been weird. I actually feel a little bad for Buffy having to do that especially when everyone seems to be giving her a hard time about it. She isn’t very good at it but since it was just dropped on her there is no reason why she would be. I loved the Willow-ness of Willow explaining to Buffy how she really was helping Dawn with her homework; it reminded me of the Willow of the earlier seasons. I also like how when Willow is talking about it later she references the book A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett when she says "…yeah, but not in a Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for girls way.” There was a lot of really great quotes in this episode especially between Willow and Tara. Tara really is stronger than she’s given credit for. She shows it a lot through the episodes she’s in, but when she doesn’t scream when Glory crushes her hand so that others don’t get hurt and when she refuses to tell Glory who the key is I think that really shows it. I think she is taken for granted by the scoobies. I also like the conversation between Dawn and Spike when she tells him what she feels about being the key and her worries about who she is. I loved how Willow was able to do more damage to Glory than Buffy had been able to do at this point.