Geoff's Comments about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 7

Last updated: 22 February 2005

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7.1 Lessons (6)

Joss Whedon's first first episode for three seasons, as with season 4's 4.1 The Freshman, works better as the start of several interesting storylines - especially that intriguing, previous-baddies-in-reverse-order ending - than as an episode in itself. It's good to see what everyone's been up to after having been scattered to the four winds, but the action is weighted too much towards the new Sunnydale High and gives us only brief looks at Willow's rehabilitation. This was presumably done to show off the new sets, but the main storyline is less interesting than the self-referential gags and the running joke about Buffy being Dawn's mother.

7.2 Beneath You (7)

Despite the almost complete absence of Willow, this predominantly internal and nocturnal episode is more successful as a Buffy episode than the overture. Opening with an obvious homage to Alias - interestingly, one of many shows which owes its existence to Buffy - it offers an outsider's perspective into the world of Buffy and her friends, with the monster-of-the-week kept in the background as characterisation is preferred. The series of disturbing insights into Spike culminates in the rather shocking church scene at the end, which perhaps overdoes the angst.

7.3 Same Time, Same Place (7)

Typically for Sunnydale, what should be a simple matter - in this case Willow being reunited with the others - is never easy. The premise is well-worked, giving extra poignancy to Willow's loneliness at the beginning; however, the story is a bit thin, and the comic relief - credit here to Emma C - is necessary to offset the slower bits. Note, too, the very short but amusing scene where Dawn is unpetrified.

7.4 Help (6)

An almost entirely self-contained episode which tries hard to deal sensitively with its main storyline. The brief, touching, visit to Tara's grave helps; unfortunately, the demon subplot - a straight lift from 2.5 Reptile Boy - only cheapens it. As Buffy herself admits, it's lame, and the episode as a whole would benefit from some leavening humour.

7.5 Selfless (8)

The fourth episode in a row which concentrates more or less entirely on its main storyline. An attempt to do for Anya what 5.7 Fool for Love did for Spike, this works best when parodying what Americans see as "subtitled foreign films" in some of Buffy's funniest flashbacks and when giving Emma C another chance to sing. It's not as successful when doing CGI spiders; but, as a glimpse into the psyche of one of the show's more complex characters, it's the best episode of the season so far.

7.6 Him (4)

For the second episode this season Buffy resorts to recycling its past, this time even quoting from its source (the far more successful 2.16 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered). As an off-kilter look at teenage crushes, it might have fitted into season one; however, it's hamfisted and often seems alarmingly like it's come from a completely different show. Not even a moment of genuine inspiration, the seventies-style split-screen bit with funky music towards the end, can rescue Buffy's last dud episode.

7.7 Conversations With Dead People (8)

After a low-key and sometimes bumpy start, season 7 finally gets going with an episode which, like 6.7 Once More, With Feeling, explores the darker recesses of the character's minds. The setup is very different, though - Xander and Anya are absent, and the others are kept apart, allowing the as yet unknown baddie to scare the crap out of Dawn and play on Willow's guilt. It doesn't quite make the heights it aspires to, and much of the conversations only make sense later on, but it's powerful and, at the end, both moving and shocking. The lucid and poignant song which bookends the episode is well chosen, too.

7.8 Sleeper (8)

Spike becomes the fourth character to get a double in this very serious episode which continues on from the preceding. It's a bumpy ride at first, although it does at least try to fit the great Aimee Mann's obviously promotional appearance into the screenplay, most notably with her droll comment upon leaving the Bronze. But it comes together impressively at the end, building up the tension by leaving much unanswered - and revealing to the world where Billy Idol got his look from.

7.9 Never Leave Me (8)

Another episode which coasts for much of its length, saving its best bits till the end. Quentin Travers gets the honour of revealing this season's main adversary, which turns out to be an underused baddie from season 3 put in its proper context, and gets blown to pieces for his troubles. Meanwhile, the inimitable Andrew returns for the first of many rather charming appearences, while the tension continues to mount rather impressively.

7.10 Bring on the Night (8)

Marti Noxon's last episode for Buffy is the fourth in a fine run of serious, solidly-written and tense episodes which returns Giles to the fold and begins to tie up some of the loose ends from earlier in the season. Juliet Landau drops in for a typically memorable cameo, and - Clara Bryant's ludicrous accent apart - the potential Slayers are an obvious-yet-inspired addition to the show, forcing Buffy into a strong leadership role last seen in season five's 5.12 Checkpoint. Best of all is her defiant speech at the end in the face of a serious beating.

7.11 Showtime (8)

The finale to this period, while not quite as impressive as some of the preceding episodes, is a good example of Buffy subverting the undeniably serious main storyline with humour; witness the visit to the Flying Object of Many Eyes, not to mention Andrew's amusingly geeky commentaries and confrontation with Dawn. It's all a bit stagey and theatrical, but it climaxes in an exciting gladiatorial contest which is let down only by the rather easy defeat of the much-vaunted "ubervamp".

7.12 Potential (8)

More hands-on lessons in the gentle art of Slaying, deftly combined with late-night hijinks in the school chemistry lab (kids, don't try this at home). Everyone knows that Dawn's going to take over from Buffy as the star of the show, so the twist is something of a surprise. We only get to hear about the Potentials' first slaying in retrospect, which is a bit of a cop-out; but their warm acceptance of the gangly Amanda - "you slayed one solo" - is compensation enough. And points, too, for the philosophical ending with the ordinariest two members of the regular cast.

7.13 The Killer In Me (7)

Another variant on the body-swap story (see also 4.16 Who Are You?), with sterling work by Alyson Hannigan and Adam Busch; and, with the final appearance from Amy Madison, a conceptual sequel to 6.9 Smashed. The main storyline is a fine treatment of Willow's grief and guilt aided by Kennedy's impressive loyalty and persistence, and is let down only by the corny ending; note especially the unsettling look on Willow's face in the gun shop. However, the nonappearance of any of the potential Slayers in the superfluous is-Giles-the-First subplot makes the rest feel rather too much like filler to satisfy.

[Niggling question: how old is Kennedy, actually? The Potentials are referred to in a previous episode as being fifteen, but someone with that worldliness is surely several years older.]

7.14 First Date (8)

More hijinks from Jane Espenson's pen, typically mixing the amusing (especially Xander's wanting-to-be-gay) with the deadly serious revelations about Principal Wood. Lighter in tone than recent episodes, it moves the story along satisfactorily enough.

7.15 Get It Done (8)

This returns to the main story-arc, throwing some chunks of improvised Slayer lore into the mix and ramping the tension back up. Despite being a bit laboured at the start when trying to cope with all the extras it fairly gets the adrenaline going by the end, finishing up with a shot which suggests that someone's clearly seen The Lord of the Rings once too often.

7.16 Storyteller (9)

Jane Espenson's last episode is also the last of the Special Sixteenth Episodes, starting out like 4.17 Superstar as a rather obvious self-parody which sees Buffy through the eyes of a peripheral character while simultaneously advancing the storyline. References to episodes as far back as 3.18 Earshot and 1.11 Invisible Girl, and - briliantly - the Cheese Man from 4.22 Restless (thank you, Loey) mean that it tries to do too much, and the tone veers all over the place from cosiness to faux-Greek epic to deadly seriousness. Yet from beneath all the silliness emerges a tightly-woven story about how, ultimately, everyone is involved no matter how they try not to be. Nothing better sums it up than the difference between the semi-flippant romanticism at the beginning and Andrew, fresh from a brush with mortality, failing to find words at the end.

7.17 Lies My Parents Told Me (8)

A brief detour to examine the feud between Principal Wood and Spike, this is ample evidence that focusing on the relationships between characters brings out the best in Buffy. It's partly a kind of sequel to 5.7 Fool for Love, with flashbacks filling in some gaps in Spike's backstory, and partly an examination of maternal relationships. It's also marred by many characters putting in only brief appearances, but nonetheless it's uneasy and sometimes quite gripping.

7.18 Dirty Girls (7)

And so Buffy enters its last lap, picking up two new cast members on the way. One is Caleb, full of wonderfully twisted Biblical utterances which, presumably, are intended to wind up the Christian critics. The other is Faith, and it's great to have her back, especially in those scenes with Spike. There's nothing wrong with the rest of the episode; it's full of little humorous quips and ends with a foolhardy mission which is ultimately disastrous. But it travels more than it arrives, and note how all those extras have to get at least one line of dialogue each.

7.19 Empty Places (7)

In which Buffy's leadership - no doubt addled by her obvious cold - finally comes unstuck, culminating in an extraodinary debate at the end after which she finds herself what is metaphorically the emptiest place of all. Clem's cameo is nice, and some light relief comes courtesy of Andrew's food obessions, but this is still obviously moving towards the home stretch and is rather slow.

7.20 Touched (7)

Good stuff at both ends, with hand-held camerawork and the powercut at the beginning combining to increase the palpable sense of desperation. The ending, too, is good, especially the half-lit battle before the cliffhanger. The rest is less memorable; the romantic interlude - essentially a grown-up version of the prom in 3.16 The Prom - is actually quite touching, but the remainder of the episode is dragged down by far too much talking.

7.21 End of Days (8)

A great beginning leads into the best Last Episode Before The Finale aside from the first part of 2.21 Becoming. While weighed down once more with too much Deep Significant Conversation, the episode has its share of surprises, gives almost everyone plenty to do - especially the potentials' monent in the spotlight at the start - and fits in some moments of silly humour, most notably the wheelchair fight.

7.22 Chosen (9)

In which Joss Whedon wraps up the 144th episode of his groundbreaking TV show in fine - and distinctively idiosyncratic - style. Never giving in to the temptation to concentrate on the battle scenes, the episode sensibly winds things up with Angel at the start, stirring in the conclusion to the show's thesis of female empowerment and throwing in lots of little personal to give the whole thing the humanity which, probably more than anything else, made Buffy what it was.

It's a classic Whedon finale, full of false leads and surprises, not to mention shedloads of drama, emotion and adrenalin, and brief references to the show's past. Note, for example, the camera zooming around the central quartet (see 4.21 Primeval), the third appearance of the unfortunate "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign (2.3 School Hard) and Giles's world-weary reaction to the other three wandering off to talk about inconsqeuential matters (1.2 The Harvest). It finishes with the show's final and greatest apocalypse, topped with one of its most audacious stunts and tailed with an optimistic coda, and even drops hints of an eighth season - which is a bit mean since everybody knows that That Really Is It.

The DVDs

We get seven commentaries this time, more than in any previous season; however, six of them are by more than one person, with the unfortunate result that they can sound like eavesdropping on private conversations. Thus 7.1 Lessons gets one of Joss Whedon's less memorable efforts in conjunction with David Solomon; and while Solomon does better with Drew Goddard on 7.5 Selfless, both are still some way short of enlightening. No less than five voices - including, for the first time, two actors - are heard on the somewhat chaotic comentary for 7.7 Conversations with Dead People; as with the one for 7.13 The Killer In Me, it's sporadically but frustratingly insufficiently interesting. Similar criticism applies to the commentaries for 7.17 Lies my Parents Told Me - with four voices, including James Marsters and DB Woodside - and 7.18 Dirty Girls, on which Nicholas Brendon is enthusiastic but spends a little too much time describing his history on the show. The exception is 7.24 Chosen, on which Joss Whedon - by himself - shows how it's done; he doesn't stop spewing out interesting tidbits until the end credits, and it's all quite elegaic.

The special features include the obligatory season overview, interestingly organised thematically rather than by episode, plus a rather unnecessary collection of footage from the "wraps" party - at which SMG seemed to be completely absent - and the usual all-too-brief set of outtakes. There's also a short featurette about the fans (featuring brief contributions from Hannigan and Marsters) and another ("Generation S") about the Slayerettes. Most interesting is "The Last Sundown", in which Joss Whedon himself talks through a rundown of his ten favourite episodes; oddly, only two of them (3.9 The Wish and 7.7 Conversations With Dead People) aren't entirely his own, but the remainder are recognisably Great Buffy Episodes (4.10 Hush, 5.16 The Body, 6.7 Once More, With Feeling, and topping the list is 2.14 Innocence.