Buffy Season 8 - Issue #9 SPOILERS FOR BUFFY 1-8 ENTIRE & ANGEL THRU AFTER THE FALL

No Future for You Part 4.

We start with Faith thinking about and flashing back to Mayor Wilkins. She knows now that he was the evil scumbag everyone thought he was, but she can't feel it. It didn't feel like he was exploiting her at the time and even now, so she gets how girls can get sucked into bad relationships like that. She's remembering him asking her to call him Richard, saying she's a daughter who would make him and his departed wife proud, and thanking her for helping him with his plan and making it fun. Faith thinks that it's hard to remember that time in her life and not feel loved. I would guess it's probably the only time in her life she can say she felt that way.

But anyway, she is under attack from Lady Genevieve right now. Gigi is feeling betrayed by Hope (heh), but doesn't kill her right away. They start a slayer conversation instead, meaning they fight, banter, and talk. Faith drops her accent, which is another betrayal, and kicks Gigi into the greenhouse. They fight there amid the plants and statuary, under the eyes of a sculpted girl who looks not a little like Buffy. Nice symbolism of the other slayers being always under Buffy's shadow.

After getting past the betrayal and the America vs. Britain stuff that feels frankly a little tired, they get on the subject of Roden. It's obvious that's what Faith wants to talk about, after her thoughts on the Mayor.

Cut to Giles and Trafalgar, as the dwarf's special hammer gets eaten by Roden's magic. He says they'll need darker magic than his to get past the defenses. Cue Willow calling Giles' phone.

Except it's not Willow, it's Buffy, and she's still in a foul mood. "You're working with her and you didn't even tell me?" I wonder if something happened after season 7 and before season 8 between Buffy and Faith. Maybe Faith's starting out in Cleveland was less a tactical move and more a personal one, on either her part or Buffy's. Because it seems Buffy is more bent out of shape than at least I would expect after their End of Days reconciliation. But at any rate...

Giles is wanting Willow's help to get to Faith, but Buffy fills him in on what just happened to her last issue. Now he's really worried that Faith is still stuck there. Buffy won't put Willow on until he explains himself. And he refuses. See, this is where Giles has gotten annoying lately. He used to be so good at giving Buffy support when she needed it, letting her handle things when she could, helping her from the background but following her lead. But now, he goes behind her back to do what's best for her without telling her he's doing it (LMPTM) and tries to "fix" these problems in her slayerdom without her being aware they exist. I know it's just more of the killing Ben thing, where he doesn't think heroes should have to deal with the dirty stuff, but it's just not right in this situation. He tells her to be the leader and make the decisions, then he keeps information from her that she needs to lead. Argh!

Anyway, Buffy is hurt by his refusal, and she bails, leaving Will the phone, to go have some, as Xander puts it, alone time. "What other kind is there?" Well, Buff, that's a bit more self-pitying than I think is warranted at this point, even after what I said previously, but I get it. I do appreciate that Buffy, Giles, Faith and the others are still strong, complex and nuanced characters in the comics.

Back to Faith and Gigi fighting and arguing over Roden, who is conspicuously absent from this fight. Gigi says he trusts her to win and he adores her. Faith doesn't try to argue that point because maybe he does, but she knows he's using her too. She tells Gigi, "Part of you knows something ain't right...'cause you've never deserved to be loved by anybody." Hey, slayers fighting each other are always fighting themselves, I guess.

Gigi keeps monologuing about blood and birthrights, saying the nightmares will die when she kills the rest of "your" kind, and Faith kicks her hard, telling her to "wake the #^%* up." Sad really. The slayer dreams can fill you with hope that you can fight the darkness, or they can fill you with dread at the amount of darkness out there. Either way, it's a lot to handle when it just hits you from the blue. For every nameless slayer pretending to be Buffy, you get another like Gigi. It has always been that way for the slayer, but with so many slayers now, with the potential for sisterhood and comradery, one could hope it wouldn't be so devastating. Did Buffy and her cohorts not have time to deal with this, or did they make a mistake to concentrate on building defenses and training the actual recruits before finding the rest?

Faith's kick sends Gigi flying back towards a tree that has her double-bladed battleax stuck in it, so Faith sees it coming when Gigi lands against the ax and dies.

Roden steps in now to claim the victor. He says his orders were to "train the slayer to end all slayers" and obviously now Faith could play that role. (Who plays it at the end of the season?) Faith is so not into Roden's deal, but he is observant and he offers her the chance to make Buffy go away forever. He holds up a guidebook with the Twilight symbol on it and says it will show them the way to end Buffy. Faith takes the book and nails him with it.

Roden magicks her across the greenhouse and then calls up a fist from the earth to squeeze her to death, saying, "Girls like you are supposed to shuffle off this mortal coil when you're young and fresh." That kind of echoes the Beljoxa's Eye thing about Buffy's resurrection and the balance of the world.

As Faith is dying, she sees Giles coming up behind Roden. Willow must have broken through. Giles shoves some gardening shears into Roden's back, releasing Faith. Roden magicks Giles and calls him the kennel master and says all his bitches will die. Lovely. Faith tosses Giles the Twilight book, and he uses it to create a containment field not around, but within Roden. Grossness ensues. And it's over.

Later, in Giles' flat, Faith is wearing a Lil' Devil T-shirt! They share a moment about how depressing it is to do wetworks, and Giles acknowledges that he generally tries to keep that side of himself from his charges (meaning Buffy). But Faith has seen it and understands. They both can feel the bond they have now.

Giles tries to give her the passport and 'discharge' they agreed upon in the beginning, but she refuses. This is cool. After all that happened with Gigi, she wants to find girls like her who haven't gone too far from redemption and "help walk a few bad girls back from the brink." Awesome. I think it means she's taken the next step, making the change that Angel made in season 3 Buffy, from regretting his past actions and trying not to make the same mistakes to actively trying to help others. Faith had already rededicated herself to fighting evil, but other than Angel in season 4 of Angel, she hadn't made it personal, about saving other people rather than focusing on herself.

Giles, having possibly burnt his last bridge with Buffy and wanting to continue dealing with the slayer situation, asks if he can join her. He wants to be not a mentor, but a partner. On those terms, and after hearing he and Buffy aren't on speaking terms, Faith agrees. Maybe these crazy slayer/watcher kids can make it work. (Not that way. Gross.)

Epilogue. A female lieutenant, Molter, has come to talk to Twilight. He's all in costume (is this the first time we see him?) and floating in the air. She tells him his plan failed and Summers lives. He claims Roden and Genevieve were actually the targets. Molter thought they were his soldiers. Twilight says this was about manipulating their enemies into fighting each other. The goal apparently is "bringing the age of magic to a close." Molter still doesn't think it's a victory because Buffy is still out there, but Twilight says she can have the day, "night falls soon enough."

EVEN MORE SPOILERS
Okay. So first off, nice calling her Summers and talking about her having the day. They're not the same, but related by sunlight. Second, we know Twilight is Angel. So it seems he planned for Buffy to learn of Roden and Gigi's threat and neutralize it, all while having his minions think he's aiming for her. His general plan has been supposedly to gather all of Buffy's enemies in one place to make it easier to deal with them, make them visible and fightable, as opposed to scattered and hard to find and predict. So this fits I guess. He must have recruited Roden as a potential enemy, set him up to find the most dangerous anti-Buffy slayer and thereby bring her to his and then Buffy's attention by aiming her right at Buffy.

I guess it hangs together. Still not sure it's a great plan. But it's interesting to see the parallels with what Giles was doing. He too was trying to help Buffy in ways he thought she wouldn't approve of to make things ultimately better for her. Do they think they're cleaning up her mess? The problem is that she doesn't know what is happening around her. Maybe she can't handle all this herself, but she should be able to delegate to her chosen lieutenants knowingly, rather than having them take on those tasks in total obscurity. I think, anyway.

But it is interesting that Twilight's goal is to end the age of magic. That is what happens at the end. Was it really Angel's goal all along or did he just think it would come to that? Or the opposite? I can't remember all of how the end went down, that's part of the reason for my reread, but I'll be watching for clues as I go.

An open letter to Jacob of TWOP in response to a Gossip Girl recap wherein I go on way too long about thoughts & questions I had while reading

**Author's Note**
This is a weird way to do this, but, A, I'm not going to bother Jacob with an email of this length, and, B, I did write it as if to him, and I'm not willing to do the work to redo the focus. I'm lazy. Deal with it, imaginary readers.
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"The definition of a genius is somebody that agrees with you. The definition of an asshole is somebody that doesn't. The definition of good art is art that somehow follows your precise personal instructions. The definition of bad art is anything administrated by somebody else, even somebody who knows what they're doing. The less important the issue, the louder the volume. This is what it's like to feel utterly powerless in your real life." -- Jacob Clifton, Gossip Girl 4x22 Recap.

Wow, what a bitch slap. I can only imagine the sheer shrillness of commentary that you're responding to, but I often try to fill in the blanks. I liked what you said above because I agree with it. See what I did there?

INTERWEBS AND FANDOM

It occurred to me recently, in a more complete fashion than ever prior, how much every opinion we form and express as a truism to others is really about ourselves, our views and our needs. Not that I didn't get that before, but it's a thought that bears revisiting. I was reading a comment (on the Buffy Rewatch I believe) where someone posted about how she has problems with Buffy (the character), but it seems like everyone else loves her so much they overlook her faults, and therefore the poster feels the need to point them out. What struck me about the comment was that it is almost word-for-word the exact opposite of how I feel. Meaning not only do I like the character, but to me it seems that people are always criticizing her or hating on her, so I feel the need to speak out in her defense all the time.

It really clicked over in my mind how subjective what we see on screen or read online is. Not only in the perceived biases of what we're seeing at the moment, but in what we choose to take notice of in general. Whether we're the kind of people that usually only take note of the things that speak positively to us (and I'm not sure those people are ever on the internet) or we always notice as ubiquitous the things that strike us negatively, those impressions are what stay with us to form the default atmosphere of our lives. To shift metaphors, the pictures we see on our cave wall are playing out behind a hazy curtain of unexamined ideas, with holes worn through by our obsessively picking at the curtain in a few key places allowing us to see small parts of the larger picture. Our favorite things and/or our pet peeves emerge picture-perfect while the rest of the image remains hidden behind that slightly opaque barrier. All the things we don't notice.

Like I said, none of this is new to me, but I think I'm beginning to understand it more now. It's not just seeing what you want to see, it's not just turning away from things you don't want to hear, it's our attempts to construct the world around us in the exact way we want it to be that blinds us to the world as it is and makes us try to force the world to conform to the way we imagine it. We don't always consciously decide what sources of light we want to turn our faces toward, but the choices we make almost without thinking become equally important to us because we believe it defines who we are; that's no small thing. And part of who we are is what we stand in opposition to.

I get why we do these things; I see myself do it too. I fully understand the need to define myself against the pressures of a world that assumes me to be someone else. I believe in the right of people to define art for themselves. I can accept their unattenuated (while obviously personal and subjective) statements about the quality of a show's characters or the relevance of a written piece or the larger sociopolitical ramifications of a storyline. What I don't get is when people take what they read or see in artistic works and commentary on such works (that are created for a large audience) as personal attacks that must be defended against. What I don't get is the sense of absolute surety that they're right about what they say, followed almost immediately by a sense of martyrdom and a righteous desire to stand up for their truth in face of this horrifying (and usually largely imagined) oppression. I mean, I feel the feelings, but I tend not to blame others for them.

Maybe I'm jealous. I have a bit of a Hamlet problem, always have, in that I find it very hard to make a definitive choice. I see more than one side of things; I don't tend to think in stark binaries. I think it would be nice to have that sense of the rightness of my beliefs and my words, but it without fail feels like a lie. I may watch something and think, "Oh, that storyline is crap." And I may never want to watch the show again. But do I believe I'm objectively correct? No. I believe that's my opinion. I don't even believe it will always be my opinion because I've changed my mind on those kinds of things a thousand times. So why the shrill?

POLITICAL STUFF

I have to confess to being (perhaps pruriently) interested in the conversation you often seem to be continuing about feminism. Myself, I tend to be someone who appreciates the historical value of second wave feminism, but sees the flaws it had then and especially has now in being applicable in any concrete way to specific situations that arise in our current world. And it seems like I'm always in some way trying to negotiate a path through the muck to get to a place where I know how to react to the issues of the day in a way that doesn't reject the past, but integrates itself comfortably into the now and the future. Because it can be such a mess.

I think I have issues with some of the same topics you do. I'm thinking especially of atheism and feminism. How they manifest online in both obvious and subtle ways; how the labels destroy or betray what they're labeling more often than not. I wonder how much of the problem is with trying to move forward from identity politics to a new thing. In the past it has been important to be loudly and proudly one thing or another, just to get attention and results in the political arena. But the finer distinctions, the individuality of people, gets lost in the label. And people stop talking with real words and start using slogans. And then they forget what the slogans used to mean and why they were once so vitally important. It's all words, words. (What the hell does "the personal is political" mean now to me?)

But I can't abandon the old ways completely because they did and still do have some value. It is important to analyze art for its political and social assumptions and to point out when the message isn't always such a good thing. But when the people doing the pointing out don't have a sense of history or an understanding of how art works, yet still have equal voice in critiquing it -- it sounds elitist, doesn't it? To say those opinions are less important. Maybe they're less relevant? Or maybe it's not that there are opinions posted online that do not always relate in any way to reality; maybe it's that inability we all seem to have in the internet age to rank them according to their worth. (Worth again being a value judgment, and no, I don't know where I was going with that.)

Alternately, that reminds me of arguments I've read about TV images of women. For example, often critics can make a good argument about how a show is not actually feminist because of X, Y, and Z. Yet if women watch the show and feel empowered by it because they don't see X, Y, or Z, or because they reject X, Y, and Z as relevant criteria for feminism, is it then feminist for them anyhow?

MY POINT, MAYBE

Perhaps instead of droning on and on about the wild segues of thought your comments cause me to experience, I should just ask outright about some things. What's the root of the behind-the-scenes, long-running gag about Chuck the rapist? What's the latest foofaraw from proponents of Dair about? Are you actually getting nasty emails about your recaps or are you reacting to comments you've read somewhere else? You don't have to answer of course, it's none of my business, but I am curious because of the allusions to this background conversation in your recaps.

So I've written this overly lengthy letter to you because I am interested in your opinions on any of the topics I've raised, should you care to engage with them. The hints I get from your recaps and Facebook posts always intrigue me and make me think. I believe that your point of view on things is different than mine; not in an argument-causing, diametrically opposed way, but in an interesting, "never thought of it that way, not sure I agree but also not sure I don't" kind of way. If that makes sense.

To end (finally), just wanted to say thanks, again, for your words. This is a poor way to repay them, but in some ways apt.

Your long-winded and unfocused friend,
Tami

P.S. I'm actively and only somewhat successfully resisting the urge to qualify all of the above in a way that makes myself seem more clever and less derivative. Oh, well. Guess I'll post it anyway.

Thoughts that arise while reading comments online

Reading some online comments this week made me send this tweet: Everyone's a martyr in their own way, in their own not that martyric way. #captainhammerrevisedfortheinternet

It just occurred to me in a clearer way than normal that the martyr complex I've noted in annoyance in people is universal and in me as well. Not that I didn't know it, but it was really -- well, like I said, clear to me at that point. Someone was saying she was annoyed that Buffy's faults were overlooked and she was put on a pedestal by everyone, whereas the poster felt the need to counterbalance that by always pointing out where she did less than stellar things. The funny thing is I feel EXACTLY the opposite. I always see Buffy HATORZ online or off, talking about how they love the show but hate the character. Or if not hate, don't like very much, put low in their list of favorites. They're always calling her selfish and blaming her for more things even than all the things she blames herself for, and I always feel like those of us who like her are in the minority and should speak up. Exactly the opposite.

And I realized that that's probably true of things like the Season 6 debate. To me, I can't bring up liking the season (and I'm terrified to even mention Marti Noxon online for fear of what comments would ensue) without the people who hate it jumping on to say how it sucks. I've often thought that you could have a forum titled Discussion of Buffy Season Six for Those Who Love It and still those who hate it would have to state their case over and over on it. So it's entirely possible that the haters of the season feel like those nuts who love it never shut up about how great it is and would even be on an Anti forum and...You get the drift.

So the reason (I've always felt like) American Christians always act as though they're martyrs, standing proudly as representatives of a group that's socially victimized and derided (even though you can't get through a day in the U.S. without something about Christianity being right in your face) is not because Christians are just deluded or hypocritical, it's because of this prevalent strain in people of getting off on being the only one who sees the light. Or part of the select group that sees the light in a sea of obtuseness and misunderstandings. Like it's a byproduct of the group instinct, or the us against them, or a result of righteousness being linked to oppression.

I have to wonder if it's more of an American thing than a general one. Yet then there's the internet. Full of people standing up for their minority view in the face of the oppression of the majority, who actually consist of those you notice that could be just some of the few people that actually disagree with you. We may seek news and opinions written by those we agree with, but what we really notice, what really sticks with us and just strikes the deepest into our hearts and minds is those who disagree with us. And it doesn't take many of them. And then we feel alone, under attack from these different opinions that suddenly seem to be all over. Even if they're really not. Is it a function of individualism, part of the idea that we're all different? Or is it a reaction against that? Rebellion or an unusual form of conformity?

Mea culpa, too.

Buffy Season 8 - Issue #8 SPOILERS FOR BUFFY 1-8 ENTIRE & ANGEL THRU AFTER THE FALL

No Future for You part 3.

Starts out with Faith thinking about Buffy as Gigi lets her in on the master plan. "It's always about her." Gigi's been studying Buffy for months in order to prepare to assassinate her. She believes that Buffy is a misguided monarch who's been holding the new slayers back for too long (Have I mentioned yet that Lady Genevieve is nuts?) She's kind of a stereotypical aristocrat who doesn't want to be serfs to the larger world but to rule over the masses. Not too different from Faith's ideology in season 3, despite them coming from vastly different places. Each believes that slayers are superior and deserve special rights. And Gigi adds to that the idea of empire, that she should run the other slayers and the world. Faith has learned better than that at this point, she knows where that thinking leads, but she has to feel some kinship born of understanding where Gigi's coming from.

As soon as Buffy's picture and name entered the picture, Faith got depressed. I do think they made some peace with each other in season 7, but Faith's been feeling ever more the outsider since the Hellmouth collapsed, and I think it's throwing her back into her insecurities regarding Buffy. She's also resentful of Giles again, assuming he lied to her about her mission being for the world when in fact it's about saving HIS slayer.

Roden comes in briefly to try and get Gigi to strategize. She's more concerned about her new buddy, Hope, and finally being able to share her plans for death and domination with someone she immediately views as an equal.

Meanwhile, Giles is outside, still trying to contact Faith, and hanging out with a dwarf(?) named Trafalgar who's attempting to break down Roden's barrier with the Hammer of Hamner. Not working. He suggests to Giles that maybe he's not hearing from Faith because she's switched sides. (And he doesn't even know Faith).

Cut to Faith and Gigi in a huge bubble bath. And let the fan fic commence. Done now? Okay then. Faith is enjoying the luxuries, and girl could definitely use some luxury in her life. The girls bond over music and slayer nightmares that Gigi calls night terrors. She says Roden claims Buffy's death will end them. I wonder if the slayer nightmares are more intense now with all the new slayers? I wonder if some of them are not only of the past lineage, but of the present battles. Are they synced up like periods?

Anyway, "Hope" tries to warn Gigi that Roden might not be trustworthy, alluding to the Mayor without talking directly about him. She wants to save this girl who seems so like herself. Angel's influence maybe? Remember when Angel tried to hard to save Darla? He never accepted he could ever balance his own scales, but he somehow felt if he could save the woman who sired his evil self, it would make a difference somehow. Not the same sitch with Faith, but it does remind me of that, and of Angel's attempts to help Faith in Buffy S3 too. You see someone making the mistakes you made in the past and think if you can save this one, maybe you can save yourself.

And then we're back in Scotland with Willow and Buffy. Willow's helping with the hi-tech defenses and asking a seemingly casual question of how they can afford this stuff. Buffy says they have anonymous donors with deep pockets. Then Will again brings up the question of what they're going to do if attacked by humans, moral dilemma-wise. "Not killing humans is what separates us from the bad guys" is Willow's position, while Buffy maintains that "not being bad" is the difference. Unfortunately, the Slayer's belief in the rightness of her cause is kind of a problem these days when there's so many of them. Buffy doesn't know what to do about Voll's army yet. But then she fwoomps out of there...

...and to Lady Genevieve's place, courtesy of Roden's magic. Faith is looking on and freaking out, not having known what was going down. Gigi's kitted up for battle, thinking cake walk. Buffy's barfing up her chicken caesar wrap. Then the fight is on.

They fight and banter, and Buffy finds out Gigi has been killing other slayers. She's about to finish Gigi off when Faith jumps in. They go out through a window together (again) and land in a swimming pool. Buffy is not in a good mood. She immediately and unfairly I think assumes Faith is behind the whole thing. I know you've been through a teleport and an attempted assassination, B, but think it through. She just figures Faith is trying to start up a rival group of slayers under her leadership, and she should know better.

So they fight in the pool, even though Faith starts by trying to talk. Tells her about Giles' undercover mission, which is not going to go over well. It's funny, Buffy's first reaction is to believe the worst of Faith and disbelieve that Giles would leave her out of the loop on something, which is the opposite of where they ended up in season 7. Faith freaks out at being called a liar and starts choking Buffy and holding her underwater, reminiscent of Buffy's season 3 dream in Consequences. Faith is still stuck in the past too, thinking "whenever she's around, you're the villain" and "never forget how deep she cut you." But she comes out of it and let's Buffy go.

And as they finally have a moment where they seem to be able to start talking things through, Willow pulls Buffy back to Scotland. Damn it! After barfing again, Buffy grimly says, "Get me Giles."

Back at the manor, Faith is tired, depressed and not all that happy about living. Luckily? Gigi has a solution for that. The issue ends with Gigi saying something to Faith that resonates for Faith and Buffy as well. "I thought you were my friend."

Where am I?

So obviously been falling down on my self-imposed comic recapping job. It was easy to do when I had a scheduled time for it, less easy when my schedule changed and life stuff happened and I just didn't reschedule. Now I've had a bunch of stuff added to my plate of late and just haven't had time free when I was feeling like I could take on a project that required some thought and creativity. No comments about limited amount of creativity and thought that might actually appear to be in the recaps; the point is it takes some effort on my part and I've been not in the zone.

Lame excuse, but there you go. Maybe in the coming weeks I'll be back to it. I seem to have a 2-hour break whilst in the middle of nowhere (in relation to my home) on TTh now that may give me an in again to the blog. So we'll see how that goes.

Funny to talk as though I have readers. I know I don't, but that's the blog convention, to pretend you have an audience, and an audience that cares.

Lately been watching the Killing. Awesome Seattle noir mystery set inside a Vermeer painting. Totally geeking out over how beautifully it's shot. Almost don't care about the story or the mystery or the characters. It's just so pretty. Maybe I'm finally developing more of an eye for TV/Film visuals. That stuff used to just fly by me, but now I take the time to pay more attention. It's very interesting.

Also watching the Good Wife, which has more nuanced characters than most legal procedurals I've seen. Got through season 1 and moving on. Haven't seen Game of Thrones yet.

I watched Winter's Bone and Kick-Ass at home recently, found both enjoyable. Watched Rango and Super in the theaters and enjoyed them as well. Read all of Watchmen finally. Absolutely brilliant. Guess I'll have to see what they did with the movie at some point. Reminds me I want to see Sucker Punch for myself and see on which side of the divide I fall. Also hearing great things about Hanna. And want to see Scream 4 'cause I loved those movies. Yes, even the third one.

Finishing up the Shield with my viewing friend this week. That's been a fun ride. I think we'll probably move on to Spartacus next.

Been listening to a lot of podcasts: Gobbledygeek, NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour, Slate's Gabfest, Hellmouth & Investigating Angel podcasts, Nerdist, WTF with Mark Maron being in the highest rotation. Also Potentialcast, but I'm up and down with that one. I think they do a great job, and often it's fun to listen, but the tone is pretty well established to be snarky, MST3K-style and I just don't like hearing all Buffy episodes subjected to that. That's why I can't read TWOP Buffy recaps; I actually like (read freakin' adore) the show and it pains me to hear every aspect of it made fun of. Snark where appropriate is vastly different from make fun of everything even when they enjoyed the episode. Just not my thing.

I found myself, while rewatching Amends for example, thinking about how awful they're going to treat that episode, and it makes me sad and overly defensive. So I have to take a deep breath and move on from them sometimes. Bryan Curry is a great antidote because he talks about what he likes as well as what he doesn't, as well as tackling bigger themes that the potentials couldn't cover just because they haven't seen the whole show.

And that's about it for my entertainment food lately. As always, enjoying io9. And also Brain Pickings. Noel Murray (AV Club) on Fringe and Buffy. Jacob Clifton (TWOP) on anything anytime. Don't know why I turned this entry into a few of my (current) favorite things, but it is what it is.

Gotta head back into the breach now. Later

Buffy Season 8 - Issue #7 SPOILERS FOR BUFFY 1-8 ENTIRE & ANGEL THRU AFTER THE FALL

Part two of No Future For You. Evocative title, given it's for Faith. She's not participating fully in this new future she helped create either. And it's also referring to the end where, either through Buffy and Angel creating a new world that has a future and abandoning the old one to its demonic past, or through taking away the magic and everything they had built, the future is not quite what they (or we) hoped it would be.

We start on a voiceover from Faith, as we see a flashback to the fight she and Buffy had at the end of season 3. We hear Faith's perspective on their relationship. It's the reason she's alone so much now. "This is friendship" as we see Faith's face reflected in THE knife. Her list of friendship steps? 1. Meet someone you want as a friend. 2. Share everything with them while they share some of themselves with you. 3. "It all goes to crap." Then comes the pain and then sometimes you forgive it, but it's never the same again because the pain doesn't go away. "And in the end, no matter how many wicked good times you had together, you woulda been better off flying solo all along."

Thing is, I don't think Faith believes that last part, even though she lives like she does. I think she's still got a huge self-hate thing going on, and she more likely just doesn't think she deserves to be part of connections with other people. As always when it comes to Faith and Buffy, their parts are interchangable. Who hurts who first, who should be forgiver or forgiven, all of that goes back and forth. And part of this section of story is about how Faith isn't better off flying solo. Maybe she can't let herself be part of the larger family of slayers, but she is perfect for dealing one-on-one with other women who don't want to join the group, maybe making some connections there. Is this what the Faith spin-off would have been?

So Faith is thinking about all of this stuff with Buffy as she goes into the gala at Lady Genevieve's place, which makes sense, since she's the one heading out this time to kill a rogue slayer. Her and Buffy's roles, back and forth they go.

Giles is acting as her handler, she's got a 2-way radio bud in her ear and he's there to help her with her cover if need be. He starts (I'm sure) reiterating her objective, but she discards the radio, saying she's got too many voices in her head as it is.

Then she acts like a snobby aristocrat, spoiled brat type to get into the party without an invite. The footman or whatever is glad enough to pass her through, buying that she belongs there. Faith is sweating and nervous, not really up for the task. She's in the receiving line, and she's got two knives hidden as hair ornaments. Roden is watching over things from the balcony with two gargoyles. He's suspicious of her because she makes his "wand tingle, and not in the good way." Ew you very much.

Her cover name, BTW, is Hope Lyonne, daughter of the viscount of Avalon. There has been such a thing before, it looks like, but mostly Avalon is a big part of the King Arthur myth, being the isle where Excalibur was forged among other things. Hope is a reference to the episode where Faith first appeared, Faith, Hope & Trick, and also maybe a symbol of her possible transition, or maybe just what she needs now more than faith. Regarding Lyonne: Check this out, it's hysterical. http://www.kabalarians.com/Female/lyonne.htm.

(WRITER'S NOTE: Continuing after long hiatus between when I started this recap and now, when I'm finishing it)
We cut over to Scotland, for a brief interlude with Willow and Dawn. Giant Dawn is eating handfuls of apples from a tree. Willow needs to know exactly what happened if she's going to fix it. We get the first clue that maybe Kenny isn't to blame for what happened, at least in Dawn's mind, though we won't learn the details for a while. They have a nice moment, but it's interrupted before it can bear fruit (heh, see what I did there?). Buffy sent Renee to Will to get her to be "laptop-geek Willow" and check out their radar stations. As far as what they're going to do once the army guys come for them, Dawn says, "All's fair." Which of course refers to love and war, and I'd bet Dawnie's talking more about love right now, since she thinks she deserves what happened to her.

Back to Faith. She's out on the balcony (probably a specific name when it's on a huge mansion, but whatever), psyching herself up to kill a slayer. I have in my notes that this theme of good guys doing bad things touches on what Voll was afraid of and also links to the robbery and the overall balance issue. I think I know what I mean, but I'm so behind at this point I wrote that note probably 3 months ago. So I'll just let it stand.

Faith is definitely not excited about her assassin role. Ironically, her experience with this kind of thing that makes her well-suited for it is the very thing that makes her not want to do it. But her chance is coming. Gigi bums a fag from her and they talk about the crappy people at the party and bond over liking Amy Winehouse and hating their parents. Well, that's not going to make your job easier, Faith (I mean, Hope).

Gigi asks her, "You sure we're not sisters?" and Faith starts to answer while pulling out her knife, but then she's gone! Roden sent his gargoyles to deal with her. So we get a cool fight in the air. Faith is thinking about how she can't even say goodbye to Giles since she threw him away, wondering why she's "such a dick to every guy who's the least bit nice" to her. But she manages to shake it off and take out 2 gargoyles by crashing them into each other. Then Roden knocks her out with magic, and we're left with a crane shot of the aftermath, with Faith lying in the middle of the wreckage and Gigi and Roden looking on.

We have a little bit of an epilogue at this point. Faith comes to slowly, hearing the other two arguing about killing her. Gigi identifies with her, thinking she's a peer and not a commoner and being very impressed with her skill. Roden thinks that's what makes her dangerous. She's cleaned up and in Gigi's bed. And Gigi has decided to recruit Hope to her cause. She tells her about being one of a line of important, powerful people, an ancient force they're tapped into. "Roden says I'm going to lead the lot of us to take our rightful place at the head of this wretched society." After she takes care of the queen who's "holding us back." Whoa, Gigi has a serial killer wall starring Buffy. The biggest picture of her has the twilight symbol drawn over her face. The end.

So again we see a consequence of Buffy and Willow's spell in Chosen. Another activated slayer who thinks they're naturally at the top of the food chain and should act and be treated as such. It's interesting that they show this with both Simone, who is more low-class punk/rebel, gonna finally get some for myself type and Lady Geneveive, who is aristocratic entitled, gonna finally get even more for myself because I'm certainly not gonna let myself be set low in this new hierarchy type. Different motivations, but they come to the same conclusions when they receive the power.

And now Faith is left facing someone who is from a different world than her, but eerily similar in outlook and circumstance. And, as we'll see next issue, it's still all about Buffy.

Buffy Season 8 - Issue #6 SPOILERS FOR BUFFY 1-8 ENTIRE & ANGEL THRU AFTER THE FALL

So the first 5 issues of Buffy season 8 were The Long Way Home, referring to getting back to Sunnydale at the end as well as Buffy getting back on firmer ground of a sort with beginning to define a Big Bad for the season, defining an enemy to fight.

This next set of stories is called No Future For You. It's about Faith and Genevieve and slayers that aren't operating within the larger Buffy/Giles umbrella organization.

We open up on a v.o. by Faith, who's Batmanning up on the Hope Memorial bridge in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the other U.S. Hellmouth, as referenced in the Wish and Chosen. She's quoting Oh, The Places You'll Go, the Dr. Seuss book that sells out at graduation time. She's not happy in Cleveland. Her mom, when sober, would read it to her as a child. She's feeling very alone, and not in exciting locations.

Robin Wood calls her cell. She flirts a bit but it's business. Robin is running a squad of slayers in town, and they're taking out a nest of vamps. But one of the vampires was a single mom before she was turned, so there's children to worry about. Robin doesn't think the no0bs can handle that, so he called Faith.

She quotes again from the book as she ziplines off the bridge statue and heads off. "You're off to great places...today is your day." Poor Faith. She's not really feeling the connectedness of the great slayer collective either, plus she gets the shit jobs. Where's her Shanshu?

So of course all the kids were turned into mini vamps by their mother, 5 or 6 of them. And Faith has to take them all out. It's beautifully rendered, because we see her surrounded, then the pov pulls back out of the room and you see her silhouette as she begins staking them. We don't see it, just hear the dustings as we pull further and further back until we're out of the home, looking in. Very cinematic.

Faith heads home to her crappy place -- seriously, they can't get her better accommodations? I mean, I'm sure it's her choice, she's become quite the little brood-Angel, but damn. She sinks her stake into a wall full of older puncture wounds as she walks in. And someone asks, "Long night?"

Giles is there, wearing a hideous yellow submarine jumper and drinking the chamomile tea that's about all Faith has in the joint. (Although the design on the shirt, does it look a little like Spike's vehicle at the end?) Giles is making nice, but Faith figures he's here to give her another crap job, so she just asks what he wants.

Giles says he knows Faith was looking into forged passports to get the hell out of this dump (for some reason). He offers her papers and freedom to go anywhere, with a stipend, if she'll do one job for him. Faith doesn't trust the Watcher's Council to agree to anything that would be good for her (for some reason), but Giles basically is the entire Council right now and has the weight to make it happen. Must have some of the resources as well. And what he wants is for her to kill a slayer.

This one is setting up a lot, so it's really wordy, but not a lot actually happens. Giles tells her the deal. There's nearly 2,000 slayers out there now, and not all of them are choosing to use their powers in a good way. There's one in particular that is fated to usher in the end of the world if she's alive at the end of fall (the twilight of summer, you might say). Plus, fall's end, that wording alludes to the Fall from grace as well, which is Faith's whole deal really. But this slayer is not like Faith, wrong-headed but able to be rehabilitated; she has to be killed or we're doomed. Is Faith up to it?

She asks, "Who is this evil bitch?" and we cut to a black-haired aristocratic girl on a horse, saying she should like a puppy. Her name is Lady Genevieve Savidge, Gigi, and she's the daughter of an English duke. She's out with her tutor, Roden, supposedly learning the ins and outs of the foxhunt.

She mentions having nightmares and then senses something. It's a young girl, Roden's fox, a slayer. She was kidnapped for this hunt but fights back, kicking Genevieve and dirtying her shirt. She calls the girl a filthy commoner and backhands the crap out of her, snapping her neck without a thought. Then she's horrified, saying she thought the girl would be her equal in strength, is she not another slayer? Roden says she is, and that makes her first kill all the more impressive. What a jerkface.

Turns out tutor Roden is an Irish warlock who can call upon a couple of impressive-looking gargoyle-type demons to help dispose of annoyances like dead bodies. His book (grimoire?) has the Twilight symbol on it. Not good. Genevieve goes from shocked dismay to anger as she says she's tired of jumping through Roden's hoops and wants what was promised to her. So he's leading her by the nose, convincing her that her new abilities entitle her to something. We'll find out later that he's setting her up to depose Buffy.

Giles and Faith are still in Cleveland, much to Faith's disgust. They're in a big banquet hall with set tables where Giles intends to start her training. Faith doesn't think Giles can teach her much about wetworks (boy, is she out of that loop), but he says if that was it, he'd have taken a rifle and done it himself. The slayer's estate is mystically shielded (by Roden) so the only way to get to Genevieve is by going undercover and getting close to her "through subterfuge and cunning." Which Faith thinks means cunnilingus and she's not going there, thank you. (Leave that to Buffy. Or maybe then Faith will consider it since she likes to "share").

Anyhow, some of the irony cuts and jokes in this one don't quite work for me, but that's cool. Giles needs to teach Faith about high society in Britain, which is going to be a lot of memorizing stuff. Actually, it may not be an area that Faith feels confident, but it's got to be a little nice, training in something like that instead of decapitation techniques for a change.

But Faith is reluctant, thinking she's not the girl for this, and she starts to walk away. Giles says there's a reason why he wants Faith for this and he tries to take her arm. She flashes back to a kiddie vamp calling her a worthless whore and grabs a fork and stabs Giles in the arm. I don't know if one of the vamps actually called her that or she's confabulating, but the point is she still doesn't have a lot of self-love going on. It's about time someone in the slayer organization took some notice of where she's at in the head these days. Yay Giles.

She's instantly sorry about the fork, but Giles is chill. When he examines the wound, she sees his Eyghon tattoo for the first time and is surprised. That's right, she wasn't around in Band Candy; who knows what she was doing that episode, but she wasn't seeing Ripper. And she came to town after Dark Age, so she has no idea Giles is anything like her. He tells her she wasn't the first person to discover rebellion or let innocents be hurt through her stupidity. "You and I aren't so unalike." And he mentions that because of that, they have a greater responsibility to shoulder harsh burdens now. In a story that wasn't all that interesting to me up to now, it was really very cool to see them make that connection. And Faith starts learning utensils.

We flash over to Scotland for a quick not-quite-aside. Xander is trash talking a punching bag in the middle of the night as he preps for "sparring" with Renee. Buffy surprises him and gives him a hard time. He hides his shirtless self behind the bag and denies being anything other than a buddy to Renee.

Buffy can't sleep because of a recurring nightmare. She draws the Twilight symbol on the window and ponders it, saying they don't know its connection to the US Army hostility. They haven't heard from Giles for a few weeks, and Xander has a convoluted babblefest about him being more interested in checking out the new books (slayers) as opposed to the old (Buffy). Not that anybody's checking Buffy out. Again, it just didn't quite work for me; I don't know why. But it's important because it sets up Buffy's problems with Giles that come up later on when she finds out where he's been. They're just not that close anymore. And he's taking upon himself tasks that he doesn't want her to have to handle but not telling her about it. Kind of Lies My Parents Told Me still.

Anyway, Buffy's bad dream is of a creature that looks like a scary gryphon with a snake tongue and green flame mane chasing her. It says, "The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen." Funny that the flames are green, which in the comics is Willow magic, when it's supposed to refer to Genevieve. Maybe there's some leakage in the dream about the future Fray/Dark Willow stuff. Or maybe green just looked cool.

Back to England and a fun meta reference. We see Rose Tyler and the 10th Doctor in front of a telephone booth (red, not blue, probably for legal reasons)! Then we segue into the flat. Looks like a Watcher hangout or possibly -- actually I bet it's Giles' flat, since I think he gives it to Faith later. Full of books and artifacts. Faith has also been learning an accent, and how to swear in British, although that part probably was incidental. He's quizzing her as she comes down the stairs in a formal gown, feeling foolish. Giles looks, looks again and says she's actually "five by five." The end.

Like I said, a lot of setup, introduction of the players. Not much of Twilight other than Roden tying in in some way I don't fully understand. I can't remember all that happens in this section, so I'll have to see how that plays out. This is more about the other arc of the season that has to do with all the activated slayers and the different ways they see what has happened to them and what they choose to do with it. I'm liking all the different perspectives we're getting on that idea.