S5 ep 5 review, SPOILER
Miriam Rocke
wherein Buffy runs around with a dog named Toto and fights the Wicked
Witch of the West.
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Episode opens two months ago, with a small group of Czech monks.
Something is battering at the (barred) door, trying to get in. "Our
lives are not important," one of the monks says. "We must protect the
key." They do some ritual, we (the viewers) don't have a *clue* what.
Cut to present day, Buffy fighting a vampire. Standard witty
repartee. She dusts him, just before a night watchman comes up to
her, and gently shooes her away. No rave tonight -- darn. <G> As
she is turning to go, he picks up a glowing sphere (much like the Orb
of Thesulah, only, well, not), and tells her she forgot her "glow
ball". "What is it?" "I'll tell you when I find out..."
Cut to next morning. Buffy and Dawn are making Joyce a mom-pamper
platter; she still has headaches, and the doctors don't know what's
wrong. It's Giles' grand opening, though, and Joyce urges Buffy to
go. Which she does...
...to find the shop deserted, except for Giles, wearing a sorcerer
costume (dark red wizard-hat and cloak with silver stars), and more of
the Scooby Gang. Buffy takes advantage of the lack of customers to
sic them on the glow ball, to find out what it is. Dawn, meanwhile,
is being bratty again, and Buffy mentions to Willow how much she
wishes she were an only child.
When Buffy gets back, Joyce's head is still hurting, so Buffy goes to
fill the prescription. The cute intern from last week's episode
recognizes her, and they talk over a spazzing guy that turns out to be
the security guard from the night before. He starts making vague
prophecies of doom, including telling Buffy that "They'll come for you
through your family."
Cut to a Czech monk in the warehouse (the same one that Buffy found
the glow ball outside of). There's a boom on the door -- "The
beast" -- that manages to punch through metal. But it's no beast, at
least not in looks; it's a girl. (Blonde, but neither Buffy nor
Dawn.)
Back to the magic shop. There's been an actual customer! and Giles is
really giddy. Buffy comes running in with the announcement that
what's hurting her mom is supernatural. "Whatever touched this guy,
it made him see things that the rest of us aren't seeing."
And we go back to the warehouse, where the beast-girl has tied the
monk up with duct tape. She doesn't seem very nice; and she wants the
key. The monk remains unpersuaded -- "I...will tell you...nothing."
At the magic shop, there are way more customers, and Giles is starting
to panic. Buffy and Willow, meanwhile, are still trying to figure out
what the orb is and what's hurting Joyce. Anya mentions a sorcerer
that used to go into a trance that would allow him to see spells.
"All spells leave a trace signature; it's just not something
perceptible to the human eye." Buffy decides to do this trance, so
she can see what's wrong with Joyce.
She does the spell in her room at home; and Dawn starts bugging her.
Much like a younger sister -- or like someone trying to prevent the
spell. Hmmm. <g> Buffy goes into the trance, and when she opens her
eyes, the lighting everywhere is odd. She finds her mom -- and sees
nothing. But in a picture of the three of them (Joyce, Buffy, and
Dawn), Dawn is flickering in and out of 'existence'. Same with
another picture. Buffy goes up into Dawn's room, which is flickering
between two rooms, one Dawn's, one a darkened storage-type room. Dawn
herself, even, is flickering in and out. And Buffy realizes -- with a
big "duh!" from the audience -- that Dawn isn't really her sister.
Buffy confronts Dawn with this, but is interrupted by a call from
Giles. The gang has uncovered a lot about the orb, called a "dagon
sphere"; it's a protective device used to ward off ancient primordial
evil, and to "repel that which cannot be named." Buffy decides to go
back to the warehouse, even though that would leave Joyce (when she
gets back from wherever she is) alone with Dawn.
Spike is lurking in the bushes outside Buffy's house. He claims he
was out for a walk, just passing through; and then he goes into major
babble mode, like a horny teenager. "I never liked you, and your hair
is ugly!" He stalks off, and Buffy sees lots and lots of cigarettes
on the ground -- Spike wasn't just passing through. Hmmmm.
Buffy finds the monk -- and the beast-girl, who's stronger even than
Buffy. They fight for a while, and then Buffy grabs the monk and
dives out the warehouse window. The girl, trying to follow, breaks
the heel off her shoe, and in a flash of temper stamps her foot -- not
a good thing to do with super-strength; the foundation cracks, and the
walls come tumbling dowwwwn.
Meanwhile, the monk isn't looking so good, and he tells Buffy, "You
must protect the key." The key isn't an actual physical key; it's
energy, a portal, that opens "the door" (what door? Other dimension?)
The monks, in the ritual, made it human, and sent it to Buffy to
protect-- as Dawn. They built the memories so that Dawn would be
accepted as normal by them. The monk adds that Dawn, in addition to
being human and helpless, doesn't know what she is, and doesn't know
that she's not Buffy's sister.
The monk dies, and Buffy, shaken, goes home to a sulky Dawn. Buffy
follows her upstairs and apologises, persistently and in a very
touching way.
COMMENTS:
- Dawn doesn't know who or what she is. This makes sense; but it also
means that the apparent moments of knowledge really aren't; that the
"She thinks I'm just her kid sister. Boy, is she in for a big
surprise" in her diary ("Real Me") was just the normal posturing of a
kid sister who has a theory where Buffy was really adopted from a clan
of howler monkeys. It also means that Buffy is either going to have
to tell her, or is going to walk a fine line of pretending.
- We still don't know what's causing Joyce's headaches, since
Dawn-as-evil-thing was ruled out. The two strongest possibilities are
(1) some 'normal', mundane, physical cause, illness or disease or
migraines or something; or (2) that the fake memories the monks built
for her aren't setting quite write (which would explain the "Who *are*
you?" to Dawn, last week, when she got the first of the headaches.)
It's certainly not a spell, or at least not a spell specific to Joyce.
- The monks didn't just fabricate memories -- I think they fabricated
protective instincts towards Dawn. Or at any rate, Willow mentions
that she has an "involuntary empathy" towards Dawn. I think having a
group of Scoobies to help protect Dawn will help.
- If the monks performed the spell two months ago, where was Dawn in
all that time? We only saw her, what, four weeks ago? Unless the
spell we saw wasn't the moment when Dawn actually came into existence.
- The anti-Buffy is probably not dead, despite having a warehouse
collapse on her; I'd wager that at some point she comes back to try to
get to the key. I'm not sure, though, if she knows what form the key
is in.
- Overall: The Dawn situation was explained a bit better than I was
expecting; the episode, though, wasn't High Art. Maybe 7.5/10. Or 8,
just because the picture of Giles in the sorcerer costume is just too
cute. ;)
QUOTES:
"Go. Bring me back a flying broomstick."
"Those never really work."
- Joyce and Dawn
"You'll make money hand over fist." <makes a fist with one hand,
hovers the other hand over it> "Which I guess is a good thing."
- Buffy to Giles.
"They have the coolist talismen! -mans. Talisguys."
- Dawn
"It appears to be paranormal in origin."
"How can you tell?"
"Well, it's so shiny."
- Giles and Willow
"You're hurting the nice intern who is here to help you."
- Intern to spazzing security guard
"You've got some serious muscles for a girl."
"Well, it's just..."
"Radioactive spider bite?"
- Intern and Buffy
"I've never had to afford things before, and it's making me bitter."
- Anya
"There's too many of them...people. And they all seem to want
things."
"I hear ya. Stay British, you'll be okay."
- Giles and Xander
"Any suspects?"
"I've got the list narrowed down to just under infinity."
- Xander and Buffy
"What are you doing?"
"My boyfriend. Go away."
- Dawn and Buffy
"What are you doing here? Five words or less."
"Out for a walk. *pause* Bitch."
- Buffy and Spike
"I was feeling kind of...what's the medical term? Crappy."
- Joyce
"You hit me! What, are you crazy? You can't go around hitting
people!"
- Anti-Buffy to Buffy
"I just had a bad day."
"Join the club."
"Can I be president?
"I'm president. You can be the janitor."
- Buffy and Dawn
mir
--
Miriam Rocke "Just so we're clear, you guys
mrr...@ucdavis.edu know you're nuts, right?"
http://handel.cipic.ucdavis.edu/~mrrocke/ --BtVS, "Gingerbread"