7x07 “Conversations With Dead People”Episode Rating = 3
Together with “Selfless”, “Conversations With Dead People” would get my vote for the most overrated episode of the series (indeed, I was surprised to watch Joss Whedon’s countdown of his ten favourite “Buffy” shows on the DVDs and see this included). It’s not that this specific episode is awful, but it’s very much a letdown, and what was potentially interesting when it originally aired has long since dissipated in the aftermath of S7 (and knowing that ninety percent of what it brought up will mean nothing). On the plus side, I can say that there’s some cool stuff going on here structurally, but of the five intertwining threads, only one had any significant meaning, and even that wears thin on repeat viewings. Bearing this in mind (and factoring in the episode’s total avoidance of plot, lack of emotion and multiple problems with logic and character consistency) “Conversations With Dead People” comes out more as ‘passable’ than ‘good’, though in the interests of fairness, I’ll say that it could have been excellent with some extensive reworking.
What I Liked About “Conversations With Dead People”:- The overall tone and atmosphere is great. Bookmarking the episode with the song “Blue” made it feel structurally satisfying, and it was interesting to watch the characters go through various trials independent of each other, with the scarcest overlap.
- I thought the shots of Joyce on the Summers sofa were nicely creepy, as was ‘mother’s milk is red today’ daubed in blood on the wall.
- The Buffy piece was the best part of the ep, by a wide margin. The ‘deconstructed by evil’ motif that ran through it was excellent, with guest star Jonathon Woodward putting in a nice performance as Holden and getting many funny lines. It’s easy to tell that it was written by Joss – the dialogue had punch and wit to it, and dealt with important character issues in a fast paced manner. Although things did occasionally go overboard (one jokey reference from Holden about being the evil undead was great, many consecutive ones gave the impression that Joss was trying too hard), it was massively refreshing to get a glimpse of the old Buffy character. This ep was the first time she’d been sympathetic in a long while, and her character development was wonderful – we finally got to see her deal with some of the issues that should have been examined in S6, and the commentary on her personal psychology and attitude to relationships made sense. And despite thinking that it came out of the blue (given that only a few episodes ago, the show was portraying Spuffy as a black/white ‘Spike bad, Buffy good’ dynamic), it was fantastic to see Buffy acknowledge the nasty things she did to Spike during the course of their relationship.
What I found to be a mixed bag about “Conversations With Dead People”:- The “meanwhile, with Spike” plot thread. The mystery of his killings was good on first viewing, but it’s not that fun to watch knowing how silly and uninteresting the ensuing mini-arc in “Sleeper” and “Never Leave Me” is going to be.
- Jonathon and Andrew’s return was pretty unfortunate. I can’t say I was thrilled to have them pop up again (though Jonathon on his own would be fine), nor the imminent reappearance of the same ‘pop-culture references as jokes’ style of humour that was teeth-grindingly annoying at the end of “Flooded”. However, there was one good line (Andrew’s ‘bottom-eating’ translation of the prophecy), and while the scenes leading up to Jonathon’s death weren’t particularly emotional or engaging, they weren’t bad.
What I Disliked about “Conversations With Dead People”:- Unsurprisingly, the Dawn material was weak. We got yet more of her whining and screaming, though at least she had a legitimate reason for doing so this time. I was of two minds about her early behaviour – it was nicely light-hearted, but getting pizza on Buffy’s clothes and shooting a crossbow bolt into the wall was what I’d have expected her to do at the start of S5, not now. Little of the experience she had at the house made sense – parts were clichéd and over-the-top (the malfunctioning appliances and Dawn’s response being to smash them up with an axe), and the characterisation was questionable (like her casting spells. Some development there would have been nice – wouldn’t magic to banish demons be rather advanced?) If you then step back and look at what happened in terms of the S7 arc/the First’s plan, it fails to click, thanks to the lack of subsequent explanation. If the vision of Joyce we got was actually Joyce, why didn’t she say anything interesting or meaningful? If it was just the First in disguise, why go to all the effort of staging the entire demon ‘attack’ for the purposes of something so vague and useless? What won’t Buffy choose Dawn for? To be in the final fight? Why is that a problem? And knowing that the First just wants to open the Hellmouth and release its army, why is it goading the Scoobs when it could just work quietly in the background?
- Everything with Willow and Cassie failed – easily being the poorest aspect of the episode. It’s well-known that the scenes were originally written for Amber Benson, and when she decided against playing Tara as evil, the writers should have axed it all from the script. With Amber, this segment would have been profound, emotional and moving (at one point, the original script was floating around the Net, and just reading the scenes with Tara is more emotional than watching them with Cassie), but without her, it falls apart – the grief, romance and tragedy is all gone. Plus, the writers didn’t even do a good job of modifying the material – in several instances, Willow even talks to Cassie as though she were Tara instead of just a mediator.
- Ignoring the emotional issues, the First’s scheme with Cassie makes it seem both dense and completely random in its decisions, which harms not only this ep, but the entire seasonal arc. In the show’s universe, it doesn’t matter that Amber/Tara wouldn’t come back – the First would appear as the person most likely to provoke Willow to commit suicide. Let’s list its potential options:
- The love of her life
- Her best friend
- Her best friend’s mother, who Willow was close to
- A man she murdered a few months ago, and feels great guilt/remorse for killing
- A teacher and fellow Scooby whose murder greatly upset her
- Any number of dead high school and college acquaintances
- One of several powerful vampires she’d known
- One of several major evils she’d faced
- A total stranger who meant nothing to her
If you wanted to really harm someone emotionally, many of those options could work well – and the first one would work brilliantly. Yet for some reason, the First chooses the last option, which has (by far) the least emotional power, and would provide Willow with the lowest incentive to believe what was being said. It’s a monumentally bad decision, and one that really harms this episode.
- The CGI blood that accompanied Jonathon’s death was obviously fake in colour, texture and viscosity.
Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?If I’m honest, I like it less, if only because so little of it had any significant meaning. However, it was still comparatively watchable, so I’ve opted to keep my score the same. As I said in my old review, I think a grade of ‘3’ best represents “Conversations With Dead People”’s discrepancies - any lower would do a disservice to the wit and development of the Buffy piece, but any higher would ignore the major problems in the Willow and Dawn sections. Still, I can easily say that this ep had potential, and even with its other problems, I’d have marked it higher if the Willow segment had happened as it was originally intended.
