SPIRAL; mobile homes and crusades

[Saturn 5]

SPIRAL
The Good;
Buffy fighting medieval knights on top of a mobile home. Again you never get this on Dawson's Creek!
The Bad;
Once again the budget can't really keep up with the concept. Also you can see it's a dummy when Buffy carries 'Dawn' (as indeed it is in many scenes at the end of Aliens because Sigourney had hurt her back)
Best line;
Xander; We got company and they brought a crusade!
Women good/men bad;
Jeez!;
The scene between Dawn and Buffy in the camper van really brings home to you how much her life can 'Suck beyond the telling of it'.
Kinky dinky;
The female minion fancies Ben. Shouldn't she fancy other 'hobbits with leprosy?'
Captain Subtext;
Xander helps Spike light his cigarette. Dawn observes that Glory has 'nice feet'. Ben observes terrible things happen to good people. Well, they're certainly going to happen to him.
Guantanamo Bay;
Gregor captured and occasionally hit by the Scoobs.
Scoobies to the ER;
Giles speared. Spike's hands cut.
Missing scenes;
Apocalypses; 5,
Wheldon Cliches (with kind permission from Boo)

Scoobies in bondage: Dawn tied up
Buffy: 8
Giles: 4
Cordy: 5
Will: 3
Jenny: 1
Angel: 4
Oz: 1
Faith: 3
Joyce: 1
Wes: 1
Xander; 1
Dawn; 2

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 kills at least one knight
Buffy: 95 vamps, 32 demons, 6 monsters, 4 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: 1 vamp and ½ a demon
Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons
Buffybot; 1 vamp
Spike; 1 vamp and 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: 9
Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce

Sunnydale deaths;
89;

Total number of scoobies: 7 from now on Spike an instrinsic part of the group
Giles, 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:
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;
Willow seems to have got over her fear of horses and now doesn't want Buffy to hurt them. Xander doesn't travel well. Anya knows this but you wonder how? I for one agree with Buffy's strategy, they can't fight Glory, Tara's already been hurt, time to get the hell out of dodge! The knights actually seem pretty good guys if they weren't trying to kill Dawn, all they want to do is stop Glory which seems a reasonable idea. But they should have taken Mr Trick's advice and got some Uzis. Of course Gregor is played by the same actor who murdered Tru's mother in Eliza Dushku's show Tru Calling (Riley's friend Forrest also guest starring as did Clare Kramer and Cobie Smulders, the girl who plays Robin on Alysson Hannigan's show How I Met Your Mother). Gregor actually plays the part of Basil Exposition pretty well, Glory knows him so he's survived an encounter with her before. The camper van with the windows blocked out reminds me of the excellent Kathryn Bigelow vampire film Near Dark. Poor Buffy, it really does just keep coming and coming. Why does Ben come to the Scoobs if he knows he's a threat to Dawn? Note both Summers girls have their darkside. Why don't they go to The Council or Angel Investigations for help?
Marks out of 10; 8/10 for the chase sequence alone

[Randi Giles]

Okay one thing I have to say first is that I really love the fact that Buffy was kicking @$$ on a Winnebago. As far as Buffy going to The Council I think she thought they wouldn't be any real help to her based on everything she said in Checkpoint. As far as Angel Investigations is concern for all we know she tried to get in contact with them, but of course couldn't since they weren't in this dimension at the time. Not that they would even be that much help against Glory. I mean she all of those medieval guys like they were nothing. And poor Buffy at the end of this episode. The look on her face gets me every time. By the way I hated the fact that it was made so that Xander don't travel well. It made him useless plus I didn't buy it. I mean if it was an airplane probably. Anyway I give this episode 9/10

[Saturn 5]

Good point about AI but surely the WC could have just bought them some plane tickets?

[Randi Giles]

Lol. Probably so, but then we wouldn't have had that awesome chase sequence.

[Saturn 5]

True, the Scoobs fighting on the road is a lot more fun than them just catching a flight

[gumgnome]

I;m never very sure with this episode. While I think it plays out pretty well, I think that the Knights of Byzantium are pretty pathetic (why is it that every Army of Light that has been around for millennia decide to stop their technological advance in the Middle Ages?). On top of that, I find it slightly annoying that Buffy never seems to face the consequences of clearly killing humans in this episode, something that she has enforced as being outside the Slayer's remit long before.

[Saturn 5]

To be fair she never has time, she's constantly in action and then she's dead so she has other things to worry about