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Post by Clare on Sept 26, 2008 11:57:24 GMT -5
7.21 End of Days - Episode #143
Armed with her new weapon, Buffy takes on Caleb and help arrives from an unexpected source. Meanwhile, the other Scoobies tend to their injured following a sewer tunnel explosion.
Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.
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Post by partcynic on Jan 31, 2011 9:57:49 GMT -5
After editing so many old reviews, this is actually the first new S7 one I've posted. Only one left to go!
7x21 “End of Days”
Episode Rating = 2
So, we’re on the penultimate episode of S7 (and the series), in a year that has devoted two thirds of its time to its arc. We’ve been given non-stop discussions of terror, fear and the battle to end all battles, yet this yapping has precluded action, and by episode twenty, we ‘re not really much further along with the plot than we were in “Conversations With Dead People”. However, that’s not a problem for our heroes, as they fortuitously discover a super-powerful weapon (and Angel drops by with a magical amulet) just before the final fight. With zero foreshadowing or real grounding in the narrative of the First, this pair of deus ex machinas means that most of what we’ve were shown was irrelevant (Turok-hans? Who cares? The can now be killed in one hit!) If this was the plan all along, I have to ask why the writers didn’t just have Buffy find the scythe half a season ago, instead of wasting so much time on nothing.
What I Liked about “End of Days”:
- Although Spike remained in his iffy ‘cuddly’ mode, most of the characters acted and sounded like themselves. It’s disappointing when writing the show’s figures in character is something worth praising, but it’s worth pointing out given the strange twists and turns people made during “Lies My Parents Told Me” and “Empty Places”.
- Kennedy was an acceptable leader at the start. I liked her insistence that they find and help Faith (she’s good when she’s respecting the chain of command instead of mouthing off), and she was the only potential who had the guts to be willing to fight against the Turok-hans.
- The Buffy/Faith scene was nicely written and featured some decent character moments. The information it contained (Faith’s constant feeling of being alone, and how she came to realise that Buffy felt that way too) wasn’t anything new, but it was good to see the Slayers be at some kind of peace with each other, and Faith’s “thank God we’re hot chicks with superpowers” was a great lampshade of the constant complaining Buffy does.
- In general, the dialogue was a touch better. I can’t remember any specific lines, but the attempts at humour were okay. Looking at the writing credits, I’m assuming that Jane Espenson was responsible for those bits, and am grateful for her presence.
What I found to be a mixed bag about “End of Days”:
- The Buffy/Spike material was pleasant, but it’s still a dragging bore that isn’t actually developing either of their characters. It’s sad to see how Spike has devolved from someone so vibrant and three-dimensional to a castrated Buffy-adjunct who’s always going on about his feelings. It’s not that men can’t be emotionally expressive (indeed, the show’s done very well on that front, such as in Xander’s final chat with Anya in “Into the Woods”), but Spike’s ‘voice’ here is filtered through a heavy shipper lens as opposed to sounding like something a guy like him might actually say. If I didn’t already know otherwise, I’d hardly have been surprised to hear that souled-Spike was the blueprint for Edward Cullen (and that’s not a compliment).
- Given how much time they’ve eaten up, it was nice that the potentials had minimal roles and that Wood didn’t appear, but at the same time, you’d think that they’d be necessary at this part of the arc.
- Andrew and Anya’s hospital chat was okay. As with Buffy/Faith, it didn’t say anything new or interesting (we’d already had Andrew learning to accept reality in “Storyteller”; and Anya’s choosing to stay and fight for the greater good was done two seasons ago in “The Gift”), but there was a little bit of emotion, and the wheelchair fight was funny.
What I Disliked about “End of Days”:
- The explosion in the tunnel should have resulted in some significant injuries or deaths. Sure, several people who didn’t even have names were killed, but it was hard to find the situation grave when no-one I cared about was hurt.
- When was the Seal of Danzalthar reactivated, and the additional Turok-hans summoned? How could it be opened again when it seemed to require that the victim be killed with a special knife (which the gang still has, and the First couldn’t have gotten hold of)?
- How did Buffy know where Faith et al were? She wasn’t around to hear of their plan in “Touched”, so she couldn’t have known their specific location. All she had to go on was the First’s comment that “Faith go boom”, so it’s a huge contrivance that she appears in the right place just in time to save the potentials from the Turok-hans.
- Why are all of the characters besides Kennedy and Amanda acting as though the ending of “Empty Places” never happened? To be fair, it shouldn’t have occurred in the first place, but that doesn’t give the show license to avoid it. There are a lot of trust issues here that need to be sorted out.
- Two episodes ago, Xander turned on Buffy because of her poor leadership skills, but now he’s unhappy that she doesn’t want him to fight? Some consistency would be appreciated – did he just see her brand new scythe and suddenly change his mind?
- Why do Xander and Buffy think it’s okay to drug Dawn, instead of just sitting her down and explaining things? Was this what Joyce meant when she said “Buffy won’t choose you”? Also, since when did Dawn carry a taser on her person, and why does she think it’s a good idea to electrocute someone controlling a car doing 60-70mph on a motorway?
- It’s fortunate that the first website Willow looks at contains the information that leads her and Giles to discover what the scythe is. The character also needs to have more to do than sit around and say “I’m afraid of magic”.
- Buffy randomly coming open the super-obvious secret temple was strange. It felt like we’d missed a scene where Willow and Giles had found out something and suggested that she check it out. Why have we never heard of or been inside this place in seven years? It’s not like it’s off the beaten track.
- I have to give a huge down for changing the show’s mythology in the second-to-last episode, simply to accommodate the ‘women rule, men suck’ seasonal theme. It now turns out that the Watchers have been watched by a secret group of feminist earth mothers, who decided that the best way to help victimised young women called to Slayerhood was by randomly burying a weapon somewhere, expecting the Slayer(s) to 1) somehow find it; 2) single-handedly bore through concrete to obtain it; and 3) be lucky enough to bring it to their arbitrarily located secret temple so they could explain what it was. If these ‘wise’ women have been there all along, why didn’t they contact the Slayers sooner and let them know of the super-powerful weapon they left lying around? Wouldn’t it have been helpful for Buffy to have it when she was dealing with all those other apocalypses?
- The actress who plays the earth mother gives a poor performance. Every one of her lines sounds stilted and forced, and the dialogue itself feels like it was cribbed from a cheap, made-for-TV movie.
- When Caleb is battling Buffy, he manages to wrench the scythe away from her multiple times. Why didn’t he just take off with it at that point, instead of keeping up the fight?
- Despite only having one entrance, Caleb, Angel and Spike all manage to make ‘surprise’ appearances at the temple. How do Caleb – and especially the just-arrived-in-town Angel – know where Buffy is?
- Buffy knows that Caleb is superhuman and is allied with a great source of evil, yet thinks that a single cut to the abdomen will be enough to stop him? Shouldn’t she have exploited the time he was on the ground to make sure he was really dead?
- Why did Spike go to the temple? It seemed like the First had led him there – but why would he listen to anything it had to say? How long had he been there for? If more than a few seconds, why didn’t he step in and help Buffy battle Caleb?
- The Buffy/Angel kiss was obviously done to appeal to old-school shippers, but it didn’t work. The characters aren’t in that place anymore, and we don’t need to resurrect that plot.
Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?
I still think it’s poor, but as I said when reviewing “Touched”, there’s no way these last few eps could have rectified all of the huge issues with the S7 arc. For the show, “End of Days” is sub-par, but it’s passable for the season, and I’m at the point where I’m watching for completion’s sake as opposed to for enjoyment. As such, I’m going to keep this episode’s prior score of two out of ten, and acknowledge that it at least had a couple of pleasant scenes.
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Post by cyclica on May 27, 2015 15:42:04 GMT -5
End of days.
Once again we have a season 7 'connector' episode where very little seems to happen. But this episode is surprisingly more watchable than many others in the arc.
There seem to be two reasons for this. First, that the main characters get to have a decent amount of screen time, with each of them having a role in the story, and some even being humorous. A small thing like this can go a long way, especially after so many drab scenes of arguing potentials and buffy speeches. There were lots of fun moments, like xander telling buffy if she dies, he'll bring her back, it's what he does. Willow and giles researching again was welcome, and I loved all of anya and Andrew's scenes (You love humans. You looove them!), and the lack of spike throughout most of the ep doesn't hurt either.
The second big plus would be the progress on the plot, though they all seem like small moments that should have occurred long ago. It's cool to finally find out what happened to miss kitty fantastic, and buffy's plan for xander to take dawn to safety makes sense, not to mention how welcome it is after her saying earlier she would be ok with sacrificing dawn if she had to. Willow revealed she is now able to handle small spells, but isn't ready to handle anything big. This would have been very useful to know long ago, when she was doing spells one minute and saying she can't the next (though I would still like more of a clarification between what constitutes and big and a small spell).
Buffy and faith's conversation was appreciated too, with faith finally realising that buffy's life isn't so wonderful after all, and faith should stop wishing she had it. At least this part of the ep felt like it belonged this late in she show's run, it was the conclusion to the long buffy/faith arc, and it's good we got to end the series with a moment like this. Shame it was so drab, though.
As always there are nitpicks-
The potentials at the start are attacked by ubervamps while in the bringer's lair, when buffy bursts I to rescue them. Ok so... why is the bringer's lair filled with water, did I miss something there? How did the ubervamps know the potentials were there? How did buffy know, did she follow the vamps? Where did the ubervamps come from anyway, isn't the hellmouth closed at this point? If the first can release as many ubervamps as it wants, what's to stop them doing so? What is the first waiting for? This is a big problem with the plot in general, we are not given a good enough reason why the first is wasting time, when it can seemingly put it's plan into action any time it wants.
Speaking of the first, why did it make caleb more powerful? I can understand doing so if caleb was about to put the power to use, like at the start of a fight or to heal an injury, but it came across as just a random point in the day, with no reason to power up.
The scythe. Aside form giving buffy and faith a 'feeling' of belonging to them, I don't see what makes this weapon different from any other. Buffy's success with it kinda makes me wish she would have remembered weapons exist during the first time she ever fought an ubervamp, and just picked up an axe and killed it.
Spike has never felt close to anyone? I guess when he got his soul returned, it pushed his drucilla memories out.
I can buy xander taking dawn to safety, but I can't see him chloroforming her, nor can I see buffy wanting him to.
The scene with the guardian is just nonsense, and possibly one of the worst moments of the show. So this whole time, there were people who were watching the watchers... why? It's not like they ever did anything. I can't imagine how empty and unfulfilling your life must be if you spend it watching some one who is watching someone else fight evil. Do they ever participate in the fight against evil themselves, or just sit around? Is there meant to be any significance to the guardians always being women? It's not like all watchers were men, not that men need women to watch over them, but at least then I would know what the message is. Why did she say 'we're the last surprise'? No one talks like that. She might as well say 'before the last episode, here's some last minute advice'. And why was caleb standing behind her? Did she invite him in earlier, and he was just standing there the whole time?
Overall, despite some problems, the good in the ep makes it watchable. I give it a 3.
Weird thing I noticed in the re-watch-
The entrance to the guardian's crypt had on top the same symbol that was used on season 4 of angel in the beast story arc, the ball with two wings on either side.
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Post by partcynic on May 30, 2015 16:49:06 GMT -5
Another good review - not that I would have expected any less!  Agreed. That said, it's pretty sad when it's considered a positive for the show to be focusing on the characters that actually matter, as opposed to the nobodies. Going back over S7 (and S6) with the benefits of time and additional maturity, it's astonishing just how incompetent they are. All nice moments. Yep! I would really like to get one last interview from the S7 staff/crew going over what exactly they were thinking as they filmed this stuff - it's very hard to understand how the series could go from the brilliance of S2/3 to such garbage. What substances do you have to be on to think that you could have your main character proclaim her willingness to kill her little sister, and expect people to applaud it? (And bear in mind that this is coming from someone who loathes Dawn). Yes - it was kind of soothing to have Buffy and Faith develop a true rapport. I won't quote the nitpick section since the only real response to it is 'lol, S7', but everything you said was accurate and true. But I agree with you (of course), and look forward to hearing your thoughts on "Chosen". |
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Post by cyclica on May 31, 2015 6:57:56 GMT -5
- When was the Seal of Danzalthar reactivated, and the additional Turok-hans summoned? How could it be opened again when it seemed to require that the victim be killed with a special knife (which the gang still has, and the First couldn’t have gotten hold of)? - Despite only having one entrance, Caleb, Angel and Spike all manage to make ‘surprise’ appearances at the temple. How do Caleb – and especially the just-arrived-in-town Angel – know where Buffy is? - Why did Spike go to the temple? It seemed like the First had led him there – but why would he listen to anything it had to say? How long had he been there for? If more than a few seconds, why didn’t he step in and help Buffy battle Caleb? All good points, and I'm kicking myself for missing them. - Two episodes ago, Xander turned on Buffy because of her poor leadership skills, but now he’s unhappy that she doesn’t want him to fight? Some consistency would be appreciated – did he just see her brand new scythe and suddenly change his mind? To be fair, he was always willing to fight, just not enter a fight he felt he couldn't possibly win, unless it was to help save the world. I can buy him wanting to join buffy in the final confrontation, but not in the vineyard 'search for something' fight. - Buffy randomly coming open the super-obvious secret temple was strange. It felt like we’d missed a scene where Willow and Giles had found out something and suggested that she check it out. Why have we never heard of or been inside this place in seven years? It’s not like it’s off the beaten track. It came across to me that she was doing a patrol in a random cemetery and found it by accident. At least that's how it looked, even if that would be too big a coincidence to suddenly find the place she needs to go. - I have to give a huge down for changing the show’s mythology in the second-to-last episode, simply to accommodate the ‘women rule, men suck’ seasonal theme. It now turns out that the Watchers have been watched by a secret group of feminist earth mothers, who decided that the best way to help victimised young women called to Slayerhood was by randomly burying a weapon somewhere, expecting the Slayer(s) to 1) somehow find it; 2) single-handedly bore through concrete to obtain it; and 3) be lucky enough to bring it to their arbitrarily located secret temple so they could explain what it was. If these ‘wise’ women have been there all along, why didn’t they contact the Slayers sooner and let them know of the super-powerful weapon they left lying around? Wouldn’t it have been helpful for Buffy to have it when she was dealing with all those other apocalypses? Agreed. It makes no sense that they decide to help now, and not all the previous occasions when buffy would have needed help. And just why did they bury the scythe anyway? You'd think the story would have been the other way around- caleb finds the scythe (maybe in the church that spike and andrew visited) and buries it so buffy can't use it, and the guardian finds out and tries to dig it up again. |
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