Buffy/Angel rewatch; Entropy
The Good; Anya's hilarious attempts to take vengeance on Xander. The Geeks vamphunting. Buffy and Dawn the happiest they've been together in a long time. But best of all Willow and Tara back together.
The Bad; Not much, a lot more fun than recent eps. You do feel bad for Anya though.
Best line; Anya; "What kind of lesbians are you? If you love men so much, go be with men!"
Women good/men bad; Anya is perfectly justified in her rage at Xander. Halfrek has cursed a man who refuses to pay child support to receive a paper cut each time he touches paper (in many ways Halfrek is much more merciful than Anyanka?). She also comments on Anya's whole 'female power take back the night thing'. Xander actually says the old relationship cliché 'It's not you it's me'. Anya comments on her 'changing to please' Xander.
Jeez!; Jonathon tells Warren to leave him alone with his experiment or they'll be 'Deader than an ex-girlfriend'. Stick it in and break it off why don't you?
Kinky dinky;
The Troika and the Scoobies voyeuristically watch Anya and Spike at the Magic Shop via the nerd's cameras. Anya describes men as having been 'riding roughshod over Buffy' for years. She describes Xander as 'bumpy in the right places' and says she has a sexy dance. Spike says Anya's the only Scooby he'd consider biting but we know that's a lie from Buffy and Willow in 'Lover's Walk'.
Captain Subtext; Tara and Willow say they don't hate men and are all about the girl/girl action. As Andrew watches Spike and Anya at the Magic Shop rather than comment on the hot girl he thinks Spike is cool. As with Hell's Bells Buffy might want rid of Spike but is not too keen on him immediately taking up with another girl. Buffy and Dawn seem a lot closer this ep, partly as a measure of big sis' guilt over Normal Again. Buffy confides in Dawn about her and Spike but not the others who have to find out for themselves. Willow tells Tara about the wig lady monster and says what we were all thinking about it's appearance. Spike calls Xander a ponce. Anya observes that none of the Scoobs speak their mind which is true. And Willow and Tara get all kissy, awwww!
Guantanamo Bay; Anya wants to talk about torture
Scoobies go evil: I wouldn't class Anya as evil just yet Giles: 1 Cordy: 1 Will: 2 Jenny: 1 Angel: 1 Oz: 1 Joyce: 1 Xander: 4 Anya; 1 Dawn; 1 Buffy; 1
Alternate scoobies: Demon Anya Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 1 Will: 3 Jenny: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 2 Joyce: 2 Xander: 4 Tara; 1 Dawn;1 Spike; 1 Anya; 2
Recurring characters killed: 11 Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce, Katrina Sunnydale deaths; 93 Total number of scoobies:4 Xander, Willow, Buffy, 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: Now, Buffy remarks on her four partners which tends to suggest only Spike, Riley, Parker and Angel and seems to rule out Dracula. But then again we all know how good the Summer's girls are at denial? Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes? Cordy: 1? Buffy: 4 confirmed; Angel, Parker, Riley, Spike. 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; 2 Buffy and Anya Anya; 2 Xander and Spike
Spike; good or bad? He feels sympathy for Anya being left at the altar and it seems quite genuine.
Dawn in peril; 9
Dawn the bashful virgin; Dawn the voyeur again but Willow stops her continuing to watch Spike/Anya get it on at the Magic Shop via the surveillance cameras
What the fanficcers thought; A truly hilarious fanfic dealing with this episode has the various Scoobies appearing on The Jerry Springer Show and Xander being confronted by the footage of Anya and Spike at the Magic Box AND Buffy's shameful confession live on air. Of course he then does the sensible thing and hits Spike over the head with a chair.... But as Jerry says in his final thought if Tara and Willow can find their love for one another again can't we all. Take care of yourselves and each other. 'The Buffy Springer Show'
Questions and observations; Do we really think Giles would drink Jack Daniels? Surely he's a Scotch man? Maybe Gwendoline Post was right, he has become too American. Dawn no longer likes pet shops, perhaps because she too has been a prisoner at least twice. Note Warren seems to take sadistic glee at hunting the vamps. Buffy feels bad about the events of Normal Again but her friends and sister easily forgive her, she's delighted to feel the love. Are there real gnomes in the Buffyverse?
In this ep everyone in the Scoobies is being stalked, Buffy by Spike, Xander by Anya and Tara by Willow. And of course the Scoobs all realise that they've been under surveillance by the nerds all along. Which makes you wonder that they never twigged Buffy and Spike before? Note Xander still has his surfboard in his apartment but we've never seen him use it (maybe he's scared to meet his fellow SDH swim team members?). Much like when we see him on the skateboard in 'Welcome to the Hellmouth' but after that never see him use it ever again.
Anya's hairstyle in this rather reminds me of Joyce but also of Kitty Foreman from one of Buffy's contemporaries 'That 70s Show', a great sitcom (and starting block for some of today's big stars) and rich source of Buffy alumni sightings (Seth, Eliza and Alysson, anyone name me any more?). She even seems to use some of the same mannerisms. Anya observes that Xander is a big fan of girl-on-girl action as we will later see confirmed in 'Bad Girls' and was hinted at strongly in 'Homecoming'. But then what straight guy doesn't as Tara observes? We have a direct allusion between Buffy and Anya in their wild fling, Spike is the convenient sexual partner for both of them to cure their depression but they don't really care for him (yet?). At the end of this ep they are all heartbroken except for Willow and Tara, reminiscent of the ending to 'The Harsh Light of Day' but going one better, Buffy, Anya, Spike and Xander all down in the dumps.
Marks out of 10; I was going to say that Entropy was a good title for a season that had lost it's way and become quite dismal in places but actually this is more like it, sex and character based comedy with a happy ending.
8/10