7.08 Sleeper

[Clare]

7.08 Sleeper - Episode #130
Buffy fears that Spike may have returned to his murderous ways - it soon turns out that a new evil force is on the attack.

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

[partcynic]

7x08 “Sleeper”

Episode Rating = 3

Even if many of the standalone episodes from the first part of S7 were mediocre or poor, they at least had the benefit of being self-contained, meaning that you could still hold out for a better showing next time. Unfortunately, S7 post-“Conversations With Dead People” plants itself firmly in the S6 lane of ‘all arc, all the time’, yet doesn’t bother to put anything interesting in the arc. It’s depressing to think that the remainder of the show is just going to be Spuffy and endless attempts at making the First seem scary, though I can at least say that the concept of “Sleeper” had promise. The notion that Spike was killing again was definitely a cool one, but it was written with zero flair or depth, and added nothing to our understanding of his character. Instead, the episode slowly plodded from start to finish, with little mystery, little suspense, and nothing to care about once it was over. Still, it was fine as far as mindless fluff goes, and you can always count on James Marsters to produce a good performance.

What I Liked about “Sleeper”:

- It was nice to pick up right where “CWDP” left off, and there was a sense of tenseness/desperation in Buffy’s first chat with Xander.

- Anya provided the episode’s best scenes, courtesy of having the only decent jokes. She got some good lines with Xander (especially the ass-biting comment and his reply), and the scene with her investigating Spike’s room, being caught and pretending she wanted sex was funny despite being unbelievable (as Anya should know better and the usually-perceptive Spike is oblivious to a transparent acting job).

- Aimee Mann’s performance at the Bronze was good. It reminded me of the old days to have time spent showing a live band, and I loved her quip about being “sick of vampire towns” (and the incredulous reaction she had to the dusted vampire falling off the balcony and combusting). It was a neat fourth-wall moment for the show to point out that the existence of vampires and demons really should be common knowledge by now.

- Buffy’s line about Billy Idol stealing his look from Spike was probably the single best one here. It was witty, and unlike Anya’s comedy, didn’t rely on repeating the same old character tropes.

What I Disliked about “Sleeper”:

- This episode had very little plot, and walked a linear path from beginning to end. Nothing was surprising or shocking, and the writers should have credited the viewers with more intelligence and stopped trying to create mystery about the identity of the great evil – it was obvious it was the First, even on initial viewing. Although the first two acts moved relatively quickly, parts three and four were badly paced and dragged, with an overload of drab, talk-filled scenes that advanced nothing.

- I’m completely over the Spuffy stuff. One of the good things about unstable, basement-dwelling Spike was that it meant we didn’t have to sit through lots of self-pitying angst, but it was out in full force here. We got multiple scenes of Spike whining, multiple scenes of Buffy whining, and even one where they whined together. None of it was interesting or meaningful in terms of character/plot progression, and Spike’s ‘oh, the weight of my soul is too much to bear’ schtick was done better with Angel six years ago.

- The fallout from the Dawn/Joyce conversation was questionably handled. Michelle Trachtenberg went overboard in conveying Dawn’s uncertainty and stressed the double meaning in every line she spoke, and I’m surprised that Buffy didn’t want to know what Joyce had said (even if it was just the First in disguise) – after all, she’s Buffy’s mother too.

- Why’s the First going to all this effort (and exposing itself to the gang) just to make Spike sire a few people? If you possessed such a powerful and potentially dangerous instrument, wouldn’t you use it to cause some real damage? If the First just wants to mess with the Scoobs, why not kill Xander/Willow/Dawn and turn them into vampires? And as a final point, how does making a few extra vamps figure into its overall, army-releasing goal?

- The scene with Spike at the Bronze was overlong. The balcony fight was tacked on in an attempt to try and make things exciting, but it didn’t work. Given that Spike is supposed to be a badass, has many decades of fighting experience, and has won against two Slayers, why was he having so much trouble with a newborn? Plus, “one bite stand” is the single worst pun we’ve had since Xander’s “heads up” when Buffy decapitated a vampire with a cymbal in “The Harvest”.

- Giles’ screentime was a waste, and it’s worse when you think that Tony Head is only contracted for a set number of eps per season. Couldn’t he have been given something interesting to do? Beyond that frustration, the cliffhanger ending was both cheap and useless, providing the unwelcome start of the nonsensical, come-to-nothing ‘Is Giles dead, is he alive’ arc.

- It’s sad to see what Willow and Xander have been reduced to. They were once such three-dimensional and vibrant characters, but they’re now pancake-flat and relegated to bland, tokenistic scenes that position them as little more than glorified extras.

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

Less. I think that this review might be the shortest one I’ve written in two or three seasons (or perhaps overall), and that’s because there’s really nothing here to comment on. Nothing struck me as good, but nothing was unspeakably awful – it was just slow, boring and contained little to encourage repeat viewings, a la “Goodbye, Iowa” and “Into the Woods”. Because of this, I’ve chosen to keep my old score of a low three out of ten, recognising that “Sleeper” is passable, but not something I’d ever spontaneously decide to sit down and view.