THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD; Ben is Glory!

[Saturn 5]

THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD
The Good;
The dream sequence is wonderful, nice scene between Doc and Xander/Spike too. Love the forgetting Glory joke.
The Bad;
Very much a standing still sort of ep but hinting at better things to come. If Doc could tell that Joyce had good DNA from a hair off Dawn's head then surely he'd realise she was the Key? (Glory can tell it by tasting Tara's blood)
Best line;
Dawn "I want to go home" (AAAAWWWWWW!)
Women good/men bad;
Jeez!;
Dawn hostage is horrible. Buffy in her dream smothering Dawn is UTTERLY horrible! Killing Dawn is unthinkable.
Kinky dinky;
Spike says he thinks Buffy likes it rough. How right he will be proved to be!
Captain Subtext;
Again Glory seems to have some genuine rapport/attraction with her Key. Glory says that she and Dawn need 'Girl time' and 'big girl fun'.
Guantanamo Bay;
Scoobies to the ER;
Missing scenes;
Apocalypses; 5,
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: 94 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: ½ a demon
Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons

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;
Different little Buffy this time and I think she's a much better match, if you've ever seen the burger ads she really does resemble 6 year old SMG. Lovely to see Joyce and Hank again, lovely to see the first meeting between Buffy and Dawn and what she means to Buffy. We see Glory try to bring her worldly goods with her to her home dimension, humanity working on demons once again. Willow in charge once more foretelling season 6. Glory actually uses Dawn's catchphrase 'Get out!'
So Ben, good guy, bad guy? Hard to judge but ultimately a bad guy with some sympathetic qualitities. Maybe in the end Ben is influenced by his Glory side to be evil?
Marks out of 10; 7/10

[Randi Giles]

I'll have to say this was a slow episode, but still good and sad. The look on Giles face when their trying to figure the whole Ben/Glory thing is hilarious. As far as Ben being a bad guy with sympathetic qualities I'll have to disagree. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but I took Ben as being a good guy that was put in a situaion where his life was on the line and he didn't want to risk his. Even though he felt bad for Dawn he obviously loved himself more and actually believe Glory would set him free. Same rating 7/10

[Saturn 5]

It's hard to know what to make of Ben. I think ultimately you have to contrast him with Buffy and Dawn who were both handed destinies they never asked for but were both prepared to sacrifice their lives to save the world.

Good or bad it was still the right thing for Giles to kill him. And if he hadn't I think Xander would have

[Randi Giles]

Yes, I agree. I'm under the assumption that if Ben lived Glory would have still be living also and I don't think no good would have come frm her being alive still.

[gumgnome]

I have to say, I think this is one of the most under-rated episodes of the whole show. Glory gets so much awesome development here. Before I had seen this epsiode, I considered Glory to be a pretty mediocre villain, basically combining greater strength than we'd seen before with uber-bitchy psycho attitude. When the credits were rolling for "The Weight of the World", I was a confirmed Glory fan (second to the Mayor, of course). By seeing the wall between her and Ben dissolve, we finally get to see some humanity in Glory and she becomes a fuller, more interesting character as a result.

The other half of the episode, inside Buffy's mind, is stellar stuff as well. The sound that plays when Buffy replaces the book on the shelf in the Magic Box is perfect, and the suffocation of Dawn with the pillows with gravestones in the house is very creepy.

All in all, this episode sets us up for "The Gift" marvellously, and I genuinely don't think what's to come would seem as epic without this wonderful warm-up act.