Top 10 Buffy Episodes

I’ve read enough of other people’s Top 10 Buffy eps. I want to do my own 🙂 This won’t interest anyone I know IRL so feel free to skippity skip this post. But if you’re a fan of the Vampire Slayer, then maybe you can argue with me on my choices 🙂

These are in seasonal order, not order of my faves:

10. “Innocence” Season 2

I love me some Angelus. There’s just something alluring about the deliciously evil demon wreaking havoc in Sunnydale. His obsession with Buffy in this story arc is fascinating to compare to other incarnations of Angelus that we get to see throughout the series and on “Angel.” In “Innocence,” Buffy and Angel finally hook up – Buffy unaware that this act will ruin everything and Angel seemingly unaware himself of the consequences, and when Angel experiences that moment of “perfect happiness” (Read: orgasm – albeit an O with the woman he truly loves) his gypsy curse kicks in and he loses his soul, letting loose his inner demon and bringing forth Angelus, the Master Vampire who terrorized Europe back in the day. David Boreanaz brings on the snark as Angelus and while I do love this episode, I think my favourite Angelus he does is Season 4 on “Angel” when the gang raises Angelus to try and stop the Big Beastie.

9. “Becoming, Part 2” Season 2

The grand finale to the Angelus story arc in season 2. Angelus has plotted to awaken a demon that will destroy the world and of course buffy must stop him. The angst factor was really ratcheted up in the previous episodes which makes the payoff at the end really worth it. The video above shows the final fight sequence between a heartbroken slayer and her former lover. At the last moment, Willow is able to restore Angel’s soul but too late, and Buffy – knowing her true love has returned, must still kill him to save the world. *deep sigh*

When I first saw this episode, it slapped me in the face with the angst and as we all know, I love the angst. Sarah Michelle Gellar displayer her ability to wrench emotion from you when her big old eyes fill with tears and David, once again, pulls off a difficult feat of switching characters mid-scene. That happens a lot on Buffy and I really dig watching the actors do that.

8. “Lovers Walk” Season 3

The Magnificent Spike (James Marsters) returns to SunnyD after the love of his unlife, Drusilla, leaves him for a chaos demon. Spike is drunk, heartbroken, and feeling bitey. He wants Willow to do a love spell on Dru and bring her back to him, so he kidnaps her and Xander to force them to do it.

I love this ep because A. I love Spike and B. It’s just funny. It’s full of little moments and bits of dialogue that crack you up. (“I bought her beautiful dresses with beautiful little girls in them..”) I think this episode gave James a chance to portray more than just the Big Bad and we see that Spike is more than just a typical minion-like vamp.

7. “Doppelgangland” Season 3

This was Allyson Hannigan‘s episode to shine and she just rocked it. EvilVamp Willow is fantastic and I wish we could have had more of her. In a previous episode where Cordelia wished everyone into an alternate reality in which Xander and Willow are Vampires, this one brings EvilVamp Willow into the normal reality causing much confusion for all.

Willow is my favourite female character on the show and so whenever the show focuses on her, it’s a great time.

6. “Hush” Season 4

The beasties in this one (The Gentlemen) are truly creepy. They come to Sunnydale to steal the hearts of residents (literally) and they cast a spell that steals everyone’s voices so they can’t scream when they tear out their hearts. Buffy and the scoobies have to find a way to defeat them. With the help of Giles’ hilarious transparencies, they do in the end of course.

The show won an Emmy for this one which features almost no dialogue throughout. It’s a testament to the strengths of the show – it’s actors, directors, creators, and writers that they can pull something like this off and make it so weirdly wonderful.

5. “Fool For Love” Season 5

In this episode, we learn a great deal about Spike – his past and we get to see his battles with the two slayers he’s killed. Buffy is injured while on patrol and it scares her enough to want to research past slayers and find out why and how they died. But there’s very little info about that in the Watcher’s Records because when a Slayer dies, their watcher finds it too painful to record. So Buffy has to turn to Spike for answers. She grills him on how he did it and in turn, Spike teaches her a lesson about being a Slayer.

We travel back and forth between the present and Spike’s past and it’s surprising to learn that Spike was not quite such a badass before he was turned. In fact, he was a bit of a priggish young man named William who was in love with a woman who disdained him and he wrote bad poetry. Really bad poetry. When Drusilla turned him, he became influenced by Angelus and his ruthlessness and adopted the working class accent and swagger that we all know and love.

This was just a beautiful episode from the ground up. The way the stories about Spike’s past served to mirror the present as Spike grappled with his discovery that he is in love with Buffy and Buffy learning Spike’s theory about the deaths of slayers hit home with her (and pissed her off too.) The whole thing was just woven together so beautifully that I think this is probably my most favourite episode of them all.

4. “Tabula Rasa” Season 6,

This is an episode that is both hilarious and sort of sad. Willow casts a spell that goes awry and makes everyone forget who they are. The deductions they make regarding their identity (Spike is Giles’ son Randy, Willow and Xander are dating, Anya and Giles are married??) are most amusing and the shenanigans that ensue are enjoyable to watch. But when the spell is broken, everyone goes back to being as miserable as they were before – Buffy depressed about being yanked out of heaven, Spike dealing with his unrequited love, Tara realizing Willow’s using the magicks again and leaves her.. It ends on a such a down note.

Season 6 is meant to be the year when Life is really the Big Bad for everyone. An interesting concept for the show and I thought they handled it very well. Relationships begin and end badly, death is everywhere (not that it isn’t usually, but this time death hits close to home and leads to EvilWitch Willow) and the characters are dealing with real life scary – rape and murder as opposed to demon scary.

3. “Beneath You” Season 7

Spike’s living in the basement of Sunnydale High and he’s a little… off his head. He’s dealing with a shiny new soul that he fought to regain (after attempting to rape Buffy in Season 6, Spike went through the demon trials to regain his sould so she could have “what she deserved” – a good man who would never hurt her.) He didn’t count on the soul racking him with the same guilt Angel suffers. Couple that with the First Evil manipulating him in the basement and well, he’s a little crazy.

In this episode a woman is being terrorized by a giant worm that Anya created after she became a vengeance demon again. The scoobies try to help her but Spike turns up, seemingly sane for now and offers to help. The gang is reluctant but eventually they accept his help. It doesn’t take long for him to lose it though and by the end of the episode, James Marsters delivers the most powerful scene (in my opinion) of the series in which he confronts Buffy in a church and through his mad ramblings she learns he has a soul now. I’ve watched this scene over and over and it gets to me every time.

2. “Storyteller” Season 7

Andrew, a former member of the evil trio from season 6, now a peripheral scooby who’s not quite accepted by everyone is the subject of this terrific episode in which he tries to document everything the Slayer is doing and everyone involved in her life. Tom Lenk is magnificent in this episode – hilarious and touching all at the same time as we learn the reason he’s such a storyteller – it’s so he doesn’t have to “deal” with his past crimes (namely the murder of his best friend) and by the end of the episode, he’ll have you crying as Buffy forces him to confront himself over everything he’s done.

I really enjoy Tom Lenk’s character, Andrew. I think he got the best lines and this episode really showcased Lenk’s talent.

1. “Lies My Parents Told Me” Season 7

Spike’s been hypnotised by The First and is being manipulated into killing humans but the gang needs to figure out the ‘trigger’ that sets Spike off. Giles and Principal Wood team up behind Buffy’s back to deal with Spike. Giles feels Spike is simply too dangerous and Wood is dealing with a darker purpose: His mother was the second Slayer that Spike killed. So while Giles keeps Buffy busy patrolling, Wood brings Spike to his garage (filled with crosses) and sets off Spike’s trigger. They battle, and eventually the trigger is broken.

What I loved about this episode was again travelling into Spike’s past and finding out what he did to his mother (and what she did to him. Eeesh) namely, he tried to save her from death by Consumption and instead he unleashed a nasty demon who tried to have sex with him and he ends up having to stake his own mum. This is something Spike’s buried deep so as not to deal with it. Wood’s forcing him to confront it is what broke the trigger.

The fight between Wood and Spike was stupendous and very moving really, for both men. Wood actually had to confront the fact that he didn’t come first with his mother who was stuck with the Slayer mission – something he always denied.

So there you have my top 10 Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes 🙂 Of course there are many more episodes I love – including the fantabulous “Once More with Feeling” musical episode that usually makes everyone’s top 10 list. I do love that episode as well. The whole ‘Angel’s back from Hell and can he and Buffy reconcile’ arc of S3 was fun – Spike and Buffy’s twisted relationship, the scene when Tara gets shot, anytime Spike tries to hurt a human after he’s chipped, The Gift… There’s just so much to love.

I might do top 10 Angel eps next time. Why? Because I can.

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Long shot

I’m looking for this Hopper-esque picture hanging behind the very delectable David Boreanaz:

Sometimes a piece of art just strikes you and for some reason this one struck me. I just love it and I would dearly love to have a print of it. My problem is after extensive googling, I’m not having any luck (and you try googling the word ‘Angel’ meaning the TV show and not getting a bunch of dreary aren’t-ceramic-angels-so-adorable sites.)

I’m hoping against hope that someone out there on the intertubes has seen the print (I’m pretty sure it’s a painting and not a photograph) and can either tell me the artist or point me to the mass-produced prints website that carries it. I actually don’t care if it’s mass-produced 🙂 But I’m really hoping it wasn’t just a one-off done for the show. I love the print and would really love to have it. It reminds me of a watercolor my mother did of a shop doorway in England.

Anyway here’s everything I’ve googled about the print:

Doorway art, print, Angel TV series props set design, Hyperion office, artwork above Cordelia’s desk, architecture doorway storefront restaurant pub (I don’t know if the building is a shop, a pub or just a residence, tho it looks like a shop)

That’s about it. I’ve poured through page after page of doorway art on sites like art.com to no avail.

Any help would be incredibly appreciated.

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Working Girl

Today was a rather monumental day at our house. Shannon was hired for her very first job 🙂

It’s a big deal for her (and for me, sentimental fool that I am.) She plans on saving for her own car. She’ll be working at DQ which, handily enough, is a mere 3 blocks away from home. I am digging on the funny symmetry of her first job and my first job. When I was just a titch older than her, I got a job at Oscar Hossenfelder’s Ice Cream Shoppe/restaurant down on Cannery Row. I was the soda fountain girl which meant I dished out Fudgebana sundaes, malts, Orgies (of the ice cream variety – it was the signature dish: 32 scoops consisting of every flavour we had), splits, shakes and any other ice cream variation you can think of to the tourists. It was a fun job actually (tho I may have felt differently at the time. Hauling 20 pound tubs of ice cream up from the basement was actually not so much fun, but there you go.)

And now Shannon’s going to be an ice cream girl at DQ 🙂 I hope she enjoys it. I’m going to be satisfied with having her just a few blocks away and not having to worry much about getting her to and from work.

She interviewed for the job last Tuesday and then spent an agonizing time waiting to see if she got the job. After numerous attempts to be the squeaky wheel and call the manager (and missing her each time) she finally got through tonight. She came tearing out of her room, knocking stuff over and excitedly told me she got the job. It was so amazing to see the thrill on her face 🙂

I suddenly feel like a dilly bar.

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So much fun

I was perusing the intertubes yesterday looking for this one chick’s BtVS dialogue remixes that I really liked and wanted more of when I found them. That’s not the cool part though. The cool part is that she explained what she used to make them – and one of the things was Acid Xpress which just so happens to be F-R-E-E 🙂

Now, I love to play to audio files. I have a huge library of wav files from various things because for some reason I like capturing audio from my favourite TV shows and movies. I can’t explain why. It might have started when I discovered I could change the boring audio sounds computers play on startup, or when you get an error or something. I preferred to personalize my comp with my own stuff. So I’ve always grabbed audio clips for just such a reason. And now I have another reason to use them – REMIXES 🙂

I had so much fun playing with the free version of Acid Xpress that I went and bought the full version today. And I’ve made three mixes so far all from Buffy or Angel (because those are the only clips I have on this particular laptop atm, plus I’m in a “phase” where I’m enamoured of both shows.)

These probably won’t be of interest to anyone who stops by this blog really, but here they are anyway:

(MP3 format. Right-clicky, Save as to play)
– Angelus Mix – This was made with the free Xpress version and so far it’s my favourite one I’ve done.
– Spike Mix – The first one I did with the full version. It’s ok. I can do better though.
– Angelus’ Passion Mix – Ok Angel again, but the sound clips I use make me tingly. I was looking more for just ambient music on this one.
– Angel’s Despair Mix – Ok Angel one more time, but I wanted to try a slow mix this time and Angel’s broody moodiness seemed to fit.

It helps if you know and love the BuffyVerse 🙂 I’ll post more when I make more 🙂 I take requests too!

But man, this software is da bomb. It comes with over 1700 wav loops to play with. I’m in heaven 🙂

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Am I ever glad this week is over.

I think my head’s about done in thinking about the Big Bad internet and the problems it can cause. As much as I love this place, I’m sort of enjoying my unintentional sabbatical from it. Not logging on much except to check email (and occasionally blog when the mood strikes.) Well, apart from at work when I have to be on. It’s been nothing but trouble at work. When my server host decided to “emigrate” my account to a new server without telling it, it royally screwed up just about everything I do on a daily basis.

And I couldn’t work out how to fix it. Tech support was full of wankers who talk down to me as if I don’t know anything (god I hate that) and at the end of they day they were pretty much no help at all. So while being extremely frustrated for days and days, I had people at work coming at me with one problem after another (all related to this server migration) and it just seemed to pile up. Thankfully things seem to be coming together ok but it’s still not 100%.

And then Wednesday it hit me hard that my mother died 6 years ago that day. And everything I do to block that out of my mind failed me. It was hard to finish out the day. See, I distract myself with anything I can. Some days I don’t have to work hard at it, but on days like Wednesday I do. I surf the web, work, read, blast music, escape into some movie or TV show – anything so that I don’t have to think of that horrible morning when she died. I sleep with a fan on every night so there’s white noise in the room I can concentrate on when I try to go to sleep. After she died I slept with the TV on so I could just mindlessly listen to it drone on (mostly CNN) and for a while it helped me get to sleep. Then it got distracting and I switched to the fan. I’ve gone through 2 fans so far since then.

Anyway, technical probs at work continued to pile up and Friday my sister told me she was having soe tests done to see if she’s got FLV, which is a genetic thing passed on to kids that causes blood clots. It’s how mom died. So while I thought I was doing good having made it past Wednesday without too much pain, that whole conversation pretty much made things worse. See, Friday was also my dad’s birthday. He would have been 60 if he hadn’t died suddenly himself. It just felt like too much. I told Kelly we had to change the subject. I couldn’t think about blood clots (which, quite frankly, I think about every single day. I’m afraid of them.) or mom or Dad’s birthday or I’d lose it right there in the newsroom.

So I went to the bathroom to collect myself so I could get back to work. When I came out though, I passed one of my favourite reporter’s desk and he, by way of just making friendly convo, asked me to tell him something to make him smile. Bad timing though. I did end up losing it a little just then and I feel like a complete idiot. But he was so very nice to me about it and strangely enough, I felt better as I walked back to my desk. He said when he gets to missing his mother, he thinks about one good memory he has of her, or he thinks about some funny thing he used to do to exasperate her. This ends up making him smile and he gets over it for a while. I thought that was really nice and the rest of the day felt better.

So the week’s over and next week will be better. There’s no more “anniversary” things coming up any time soon so that’s good. To be honest, I really don’t know why this year struck me so hard. Usually I’ve been able to get through them without thinking to much on it and I’ve been fine. Dunno what made this year different. Probably won’t either.

Oh one last bit of bad news – well, bad to me anyway – after all the crap this week, another of my favourite people at the paper told me he was quitting. That really made me sad, since I’m being so open here. I’m glad he found a better opportunity elsewhere and it’s probably a really good thing for him. I know how crazybusy he was at the paper and how draining that can be. But selfishly, he is one of the fun things about my job and I’m gonna miss working with him. It was really nice having a friend there who was weird and funny and shared a similar sense of humour.

But it’s Saturday now and the day has been so far so good. Hanging out with the kidlet who happens to have vaca next week, which is good for me because it means I don’t have to get up so early. So yay 🙂 And I took next Friday off because I can, so yay four day week and three day weekend.

Some good news came out of this week though. My dad’s getting hitched in a few months and taking off on a fantastico holiday in Europe. It’s going to be so cool. Well the whole trip sounds cool but the part that I’m tickled about is that they’re going to be in London for a few days at the beginning and I may be able to get them booked into my old pub/b&b. I’m hoping to anyway. When he mentioned the cost of them staying in some boring Radisson in London I mentioned my pub and I *think* the benefits of staying there may outweigh the cons for them. I hope so anyway. I’m just waiting to hear from Rory on whether he can get them in. Haven’t talked to him in years though, hope he remembers me. He should, I was enough of a pain in the ass for him 🙂

I think it will be spiffy if my father and his lovely new bride and my sister and new step-sisters can hang out in this old veddy veddy British pub in the middle of posh Buckinghamshire (near the PM’s Exchecquer estate no less.) I’ve been told they’re all quite the Anglophiles and it seems to me that they would really enjoy the Rising Sun’s atmo for the Britishness of it rather than stay in a Radisson where it would be like any other Radisson in the world. London’s only a short train ride away and for that matter Oxford is just as near to the pub. Anyway I hope it works out.

And thus ends my cathartic blog post for the day 🙂

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Bleary early morning

I’m trying to get back in the swing of blogging. I’ve had a bit of a dry spell lately. Dunno if it’s just a general weariness of writing mundane posts that aren’t that interesting or if I’m just too preoccupied with other stuff. Maybe a bit of both.

I decided (just now, at 6:23am) that when my brain says ‘hey maybe you should blog’ I’m just going to do it, even if I’ve got nothing of import to say.

So it’s very early (for me. I’m sure my dad has been up for hours and been running and is settled with his coffee as he gets ready for the day 🙂 and I should be blowdrying and getting dressed. Fridays rock. It’s jeans day at work (sad that I look forward to wearing denim at work eh?) and I intend to take advantage of that until that nice fun thing gets taken away.

Tonight the kid and I are going to carry on watching “Angel” and maybe play a bit of Buffy on the old PS2. She’s got her big District speech meet tomorrow so I’m hoping she’ll run through her speech with me a couple of times tonight as well. Wish her luck!

Anyway, stalled enough. Time to blowdry.

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