Ragnarok

Since we aren't going to have new episodes to discuss, we're going to have weekly episode discussion threads for old episodes. New threads will, of course, appear each Tuesday.

Bargaining, Part 1

The Scooby Gang , with Willow now in charge, are continuing to protect the citizens of Sunnydale and are using the Buffybot to convince the forces of evil that the Slayer is still on duty. However, the deception is taking its toll on the gang as the bot serves as a constant reminder of who isn’t around any more. The master plan unravels completely when a vamp damages the bot in a fight and reports the facts to the Hellions, a roving demon gang. Unbeknownst to the rest of the gang, Willow, Xander, Tara and Anya are planning to resurrect Buffy. Anya obtains the last Urn of Osiris on e-bay, and Willow slaughters a fawn to obtain the last necessary ingredient. They plan to perform the spell that night, only to discover that Giles has departed for England. They chase him down at the airport in time to say goodbye. That night, the gang gathers around Buffy's grave to bring the Slayer back from the dead. Cuts manifest on Willow's arms and a snake is expelled from her mouth. Suddenly, the gang is attacked by the Hellions, who are led to the graveyard by the damaged Buffybot. As a fight commences between the Scooby Gang and the Hellions, Buffy's eyes open inside her coffin.

RtS: #33; beat Out of my Mind in the first round; lost to Earshot in the second round.

In my opinion, this ep (along with part 2) is one of the most underrated episodes in the show's history. The first shot of Willow, standing on the tomb directing the vampire hunters with her telepathy, was just genius. It established right away that Willow had taken charge of the Scoobs, had grown much more powerful in her witchcraft, and was enjoying both of these things a great deal. No more cute "don't hit the horsies" Willow. This Willow was scary. The other stroke of genius in this ep was the use of the Buffybot. I despised it in S5, but seeing the corrosive effect it had on all of the Scoobies made it completely believable that none of them had been able to accept Buffy's death and move on, and that they'd be easy marks for Willow's resurrection plans. The Parent-Teacher day scenes were very funny, Giles' departure hit all the right notes and the resurrection spell itself was suitably horrifying. Gotta say I did wonder why nobody thought to bring along a shovel, and I wasn't crazy about the Hellions, but these are nitpicks.

Please feel free to post your comments, screencaps, favorite scenes and quotes.

Next week: 6x02, Bargaining, Part 2.

Scythe

Ooh! New Season! I LOVE this season When it came on tv I was sitting there impatiently for hours waiting for it to come on wearing my Buffy t-shirt with my 'Buffy lives' badge pinned to it Good times

Did anyone else just really love Spike's hair in the two Bargaining episodes? It's all toussled and cool!

The buffybot was really funny in this episode

"That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo!"

and

"'If we want her to be exactly she'll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she's gone' who?"








Poor Bambi







Sorry the caps are a bit crappy, by normal sites don't like season 6 for some reason Or they just haven't got around to making many caps for it these are the only ones I could find that wouldn't flood the page

And I was like "YAY! BUFFY LIVES!"

vc318

It wasn't until Willow killed the deer that I saw how much she had changed. I mean, who wears all white when they know they're going to be taking the life of such a delicate creature? One minute you're thinking "Okay, here's our sweet little Willow all dressed in white" then bam! she just kills the deer. This episode built Willow's new character in a very powerful way.

Bronson

In your opinion, was their bring Buffy back a selfless act or selfish? I mean how could they really think that she a hero would have been in Hell? But also, was it maybe Willow's way of showing, "Look, how powerful I am? What do you guys think?

sum1

Dawn and Spike were the great stuff in this ep. Particularly their feelings over Buffy and reactions to the Buffybot. The made the tragedy of Buffy's death come across better than it did in The Gift. Dawn going to sleep next to the Buffybot was one heck of a scene.

sum1

Well, I've never seen Willow as sweet. She's always been self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-pitying, self-centered, self-serving and manipulative -a wolf in sheep's clothing to me.
Selfish on Willow's part. That's the way she's always been. I've carefully studied seven seasons of her character development and behavior and it's there all the way. Willow's always been about Willow at heart, no matter what she might convince others or herself.

Ragnarok

Willow did it because she could. She might have thought it possible that Buffy was trapped in a Hell dimension, but that was secondary. Willow had always done spells just to see if she could, or to see what would happen, without much thought to the consequences. Both Xander and Tara expressed doubts about the wisdom of performing the spell - Tara flat out stated that it was wrong to do it - but Willow beat down their objections because she'd made up her mind, she was going to do it and nobody was going to talk her out of it. That was a brilliant scene.

I suspect they dressed her in white so that we'd assume she was going to do some kind of white magic spell, so that her killing of the deer would be more of a shock. It worked, in my case. But it was a pretty dumb choice in other ways. I mean, Willow knew what she was there to do - you'd think she'd have worn something that wouldn't show blood quite so obviously.


She did always have all of those qualities - though I think she had many positive qualities too - and that's what made "New Willow" so fascinating to me. This wasn't a retcon. Willow had gained some power in the group - legitimately, I should add, as the Scoobies selected her as their leader after Buffy's death, and it was opening doors for all of her worst qualities to come out to play. At this stage of the season, I was really stoked to see how far they'd take it. I'm glad I didn't know they were going to wimp out at midseason.

sum1

Willow's the sort of person who should never have power. She's too weak, insecure, irresponsible, self-indulgent, etc. The faults she has without power get a chance to really manifest themselves bigtime once she's got power to misuse. And power corrupts that type of person like nobody else.

vc318

No, when I meant "Sweet Willow" I just meant that she was this innocent, quiet girl and then in seasdon 6 she just blew up in a very different way.

I think it was necessary for the sake of the world to bring back Buffy since she was the Slayer but I think it was selfish on the part of Willow to bring her back since she just missed her friend and thought it was justified since Buffy didn't die naturally.

Ragnarok

I don't disagree. I used the word "legitimately" to convey that Willow did not, by all available evidence, seize power initially. The Scoobies chose her to be the leader of their own free will. Subsequent events proved that they'd made a bad choice as Willow misused her power, but it doesn't change the fact that the first bad decision was a collective one.

See, that's where I'd disagree with you. What made New Willow so very, very interesting to me was that these changes didn't come out of nowhere. As far back as Season 2, we had an "innocent, quiet" Willow who wanted to hand out detentions as a substitute teacher and refused to listen to arguments when she decided to perform the curse from her hospital bed. Not to mention the Willow who tried out the teleport spell on Glory and admitted later she really didn't have any clear idea, before she performed it, what the result would be, and the Willow who sneakily pointed the way for Dawn to perform the resurrection spell on Joyce. And let us not forget the Willow who performed the spells to curse Oz and the whole gang in Wild at Heart and Something Blue. This new, scary Willow was a direct outgrowth of Willow's character development through the first five seasons, and I couldn't wait to see what she'd do next.

Once the bad guys found out about the bot, it probably was necessary to bring back Buffy. However, I think Willow decided to bring her back because she thought she could, and that was all the reason she needed. The rationalizations were simply intended to induce Tara, Xander and Anya to help, because she needed them to perform the spell. If it had been one that she could have performed solo, I honestly doubt she'd have clued any of them in until afterwards. She certainly made a point of keeping it a secret from anyone she didn't absolutely have to tell.

sum1

Willow was never just "this innocent quiet girl". She's always had a lot of rage and spite and bitter resentment in her, from way back. It's manifested plenty times. And an extreme example early on is in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (season 2). In that ep, when the spell made her want Xander all the more and he rejected her, her reaction was to come after him with an axe. Sure, the spell played an important part in bringing that out, but it was pretty clear it was bringing out an aggression that was very much a real part of her. Particularly seeing as it was reminiscent of some of her nasty self righteous tantrums.

Plus she's misused magic and misused it spitefully multiple times. Her approach to magic has always been careless, as far back season 2. From the beginning, she's treated it like a game and used it carelessly as a short cut around problems, often using it amorally.

Her misuse of magic shows up in her almost cursing Oz in Wild at Heart (season 4), in her later wishing she'd been able to use magic on him to keep him (she expressed that wish in Something Blue, season 4, showing she was ok with the idea of mind-controlling her partners, like she later did to Tara in season 6), in her allowing her spite and misuse of magic to curse her friends in Something Blue, in her going berserk and attacking wildly with magic when Tara was driven insane by Glory in Tough Love in season 5 (very reminiscent of Dark Willow of late season 6), in her sending Dawn to dangerous resurrection magic in Forever (season 5).

She demonstrated her unwillingness to face or discuss the dangers of her magic when she exploded at Tara in Tough Love. In Lover's Walk, season 3, she was going to use magic to deal with her and Xander's attraction to each other. That's an example of her using magic as a way of solving interpersonal/relationship problems -forshadowing her meddling with Tara's mind (twice!) in season 6 and her wishing in season 4 that she could have used magic to keep Oz.

Willow's "innocent quiet" thing has never been more than just a surface thing. What she became in season 6 was hinted at long before then.

Bronson

Considering how Willow came over to the dark side with her magic, can you imagine her as The Slayer? I mean would she have been like Faith do you think? Maybe that is why it was Buffy and not Willow, Anya, or Cordelia who was chosen.

What do you think?

sum1

You betcha, Willow wouldn't have had the strength to resist corruption (and it's worth noting that Faith was very weak at heart, too). She'd have been a totally self-serving mis-user of slayer power. And Anya? She spent 11 centuries murdering people all over the world and patting herself on the back for it. Cordy, once she'd matured, might have been ok as a slayer, but she didn't have Buffy's strength. Buffy had both strength and a sense of responsibilty, which made her a good slayer.

Bronson

Love your points. I agree with you.

Ragnarok

I tend to agree with respect to Willow and Anya. I don't necessarily agree with respect to Cordelia. The Cordelia I saw develop on Angel, at least from S1-3, would have made one hell of a slayer. The potential was always there, but she was such an appendage to the Scoobies that we only saw it in flashes - like the scene in Homecoming, when she bluffs Lyle Gorch with her lethal spatula of death I think if Cordelia had become a slayer at 15, she would have risen to the challenge like Buffy did.

Dawn and Spike were excellent in this episode, and you're especially right about Dawn's scene sleeping with the bot. But one of the strengths of this episode was the use of the whole ensemble. We needed to see how the entire group dynamic had changed over the summer so that we'd understand the stresses that existed even before Buffy's return, and in order to do that we needed fairly equal time for everyone. I thought that was done exceptionally well.