6.21 Two To Go

[Clare]

6.21 Two To Go - Episode #121
Buffy tries to protect Jonathan and Andrew from a vengeance-fuelled Willow, but is powerless until help arrives from an unexpected source.

Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.

[cyclica]

One down.... two to go.

Ok this is one of those episodes that is so completely part of the arc that it cannot possibly be enjoyed by itself. I enjoyed the dark willow arc in the last few eps of this season, but this episode doesn’t really advance the plot much. Willow is after andrew and jonathan, who are being protected by the gang. Nothing else much happens.

There were some good moments in the episode. I loved jonathan talking about how he’s known willow almost as long as buffy and xander, and how much she’s changed. Dark willow had some good scenes, like taking rack on a little tour (as he did to her earlier in the year), spinning the room around so rack’s place became the magic box, and the whole fight with buffy at the end, which was one of the better fights that has ever taken place on the show (with giles’s surprise appearance being a great way to end the ep) . And the token spike scene where he fought the fire guy was fine, although all of spike’s Africa scenes could easily have been put into a single episode instead of padded out into three.

As always there’s some flaws, like anya teleporting all over the place in front of the prison guard, unnecessarily. And then willow hits her, and screams for no apparent reason. And I’ve said this before, but the nerds could really have used that invisibility gun right about now. And clem’s wussiness is really starting to annoy.

But they’re minor complaints, really this episode’s only big flaw is that it can’t be watched on its own, and that so little really happens.

I give it a 4.

[partcynic]

6x21 “Two To Go”

Episode Rating = 3

I’m now on the second evil Willow edition, and I’m already having a hard time thinking of things to say. Since these three eps are more connectors than individual stories, the positives and weaknesses remain consistent, with only a few things changing here and there. Out of the trio, I’d say that “Two To Go” edges “Villains” out as the best, as while it doesn’t have much focus or any great scenes, it doesn’t have any really bad ones either. Being centred on over-the-top action sequences, this ep is best enjoyed for the stupid but enjoyable fluff it is, and it’s a reasonable way to pass 42 minutes provided you don’t try to think about what you’re seeing. I know that’s damning with faint praise, but at this point I’ve given up on finding depth, wit or emotion in the series, and am just allowing myself to be passively entranced by the car chases and cool purple lightning bolts.

What I Liked about “Two To Go”:

- Like with “Villains”, it was nice to get an episode where things happened. In terms of plot progression, there was very little, but the multiple, extravagant set-pieces (Willow breaking into the police station; magical truck chase; the great transition with Willow transporting everyone from Rack’s to the Magic Box; the climactic Slayer vs Witch battle) provided enough eye-candy to prevent things from feeling like a waste of time.

- Jonathon was comparatively sympathetic, and I liked the show followed through on his development; having him be the only Trio member who was willing to suffer the consequences of his actions. I especially liked him putting his sword to Andrew’s throat and telling him they were going to turn themselves in (would have loved it if he’d just killed him, but what we got will suffice).

- The joke with Spike realising that the battle he’d endured was just his first test was amusing, and the fight itself decently choreographed.

- Rack is wonderfully sleazy, and I liked the connection to “Wrecked” in his dialogue with Willow (and then her turning his “take a little tour” phrase back on him).

- I laughed out loud at Willow taunting Dawn about her whining – I’m so thankful the writers finally got a clue regarding how annoying she’s been. However, I did also like that Dawn tried to bring up Tara (she seemed like the only person besides Willow to remember what had sparked these events), and the subsequent Willow/Buffy chat (where Willow said that the only time she felt she had worth was when she was with Tara) was actually emotional.

- The obvious highlight was Giles’ return – which was one-hundred percent kickass. Who’d have thought that the lecturing starched-shirt of S1 would become a walking personification of cool?

What I found to be a mixed bag about “Two To Go”:

- Buffy’s ethical stance has completely changed in the space of about an hour (of Buffyverse time). At the start, she’s spouting nonsense about how killing a person fundamentally changes you, but a little later, she’s forgotten about Warren, and is now saying that murdering Jonathon and Andrew is the line Willow can’t cross. Didn’t she state in “Villains” that it was absolutely unacceptable to kill anyone? That said, I did love it when she told the now-Duo that she was more concerned about Willow than protecting them - it was a welcome change from simplistic moralising.

- Spike’s scenes were better than in the last episode (thanks to the reduced role for the cheese-dripping demon guide), but they were still gratuitous. I can’t see how a couple of fights are a suitable test for getting one’s soul back, and it would be good if James Marsters could 1) find a shirt and 2) keep it on for an entire episode.

- As I mentioned in the positives section, the big set-pieces are fun, but they’re also mind-blowingly stupid. The big fight was ridiculous in how every single punch seemed to result in a character going flying and destroying something, and the car chase earlier on was silly.

What I Disliked about “Two To Go”:

- The writers messed up in never putting limits on Willow’s powers, and now they have to resort to strange plot contrivances in order to make the story work. They begin by fundamentally changing Willow’s motivations at the start (it’s not grief any more, now she’s just super-high), and they couldn’t offer convincing explanations for many of her actions. There’s no believable reason for her not “waving her arms and making [Jonathon and Andrew] dead” (after all, that’s what she attempts in “Grave”), and I can’t see why she’d commandeer a truck to go after them when she could just re-use her ‘step in front of vehicle and make it come to a halt’ trick from “Villains”. In addition, if she was so desperate to go after the remaining nerds, why not just teleport out of the shop and avoid fighting Buffy altogether? Or why not re-use the sleeping spell she cast on the first police officer she encountered, and knock Buffy out that way? But then again, those things would require thought and attention to detail, and this ep is just about spectacle.

- I have a hard time believing Willow’s sudden personality change. I understand that she was angry, grieving, and went off the rails, but I can’t see how Tara’s death would make her happy to torment and hurt people she’d known and loved long before she even met Tara. Murdering Warren? Certainly. Trying to kill Buffy, Xander and Dawn? Not believable in the slightest. It doesn’t help that the ‘engulfed by magic’ excuse is a cheap way of absolving Willow of some of the responsibility for her actions, which is a big no-no in a season that’s supposed to be about growing up.

- When Willow breaks into the police station, why do none of the officers shoot at her? They point their guns and shout a lot, but they don’t actually do anything. And was there a point to that uber-scream when Willow found that the nerds were gone (besides artificially creating tension for the first act break?)

- Andrew is a terrible character with awful dialogue, and is played by an actor with zero charisma and no apparent sense of comic timing (though in the interests of fairness, he may be talented but unable to demonstrate it thanks to the poor material). I hated all of his scenes (especially that endless chat in the jail cell), and I really wish the writers hadn’t chosen to bring him back in S7.

- Xander’s character development is sagging badly. He’s continuing to be a self-righteous, obnoxious fool to Anya, and it still hasn’t dawned on him that he’s the one to blame for the demise of their relationship. This really should have been sorted out by now.

- Clem is an uninteresting figure, and I don’t know why we had to waste precious time hearing him discuss nachos. I know some people may find him funny, but as with Andrew, I’m not one of them. And what happened to him after he took Dawn to Rack’s? Did he turn chicken and run away?

- How did Buffy find Rack’s place? She wasn’t able to locate it in “Wrecked”. And isn’t it fortunate that she miraculously appears just as Willow’s about to put Dawn out of her misery?

- The book of protection spells should have been mentioned/foreshadowed at some point before – as is, its sudden appearance is contrived. Anya also deciphered the text rather quickly – at one point, she’s not even sure what language it’s in, yet a couple of minutes later, she’s translated it and is able to use its barrier spell to save the nerds.

- The dialogue prior to the Buffy/Willow fight is cartoony in the worst possible way, and the accompanying camera zoom-ins corny and amateurish. In addition, Willow’s battle skills were too much – the spell she cast on herself was to increase her bodily strength, not to make her a martial arts master. And why do physical enhancement magics always give their recipients strength equal to a Slayer (see also Warren’s orbs in “Seeing Red”), and never above it?

Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?

I like it as much as I did before – which isn’t a huge amount, but enough for me to be vaguely fond of it. Although it’s sadly further evidence of the show having lost all of its former depth, the shallow material here was at least somewhat entertaining (unlike a good half of the season), and that’s all I can ask for at this point. Ultimately, “Two To Go” is far too silly and flawed to ever be called a good episode, but it does its job within the evil Willow arc competently, and that’s enough to bag it a score of three out of ten.