Buffy the Vampire Slayer S07 E05 – Sometimes it be’s that way.

Previously: Buffy tried to help a girl who ended up dying but who she still probably helped anyways. It was feelsy.
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Selfless

Lorraine: This is my second episode this season and it is again an episode a few of you have claimed to love. We know how well that worked out for me and Beneath You. Here’s hoping I can love this one. The previouslies are Anya heavy, which is a good sign.

Sweeney: No pressure or anything, Anya, but our happiness for the week rests on you.

Lor: We open at Chez Summers, where Dawn is helping Willow arrange some things while giving her advice that consists of, “do what everyone else does,” “nod and smile,” and generally, “fake it ’till you make it.” “Do what everyone else does,” seems like a good way to get dead in Sunnydale, even if we are just talking about Willow going back to college.

Buffy and Xander enter the room carrying a lamp and a box respectively. Xander wants to call Anya and check in on her, though he insists he has no hopes of getting back together with her. He just thinks Anya is looking sad, though Buffy, ever the Slayer, is more worried about that whole vengeance demon thing. Xan thinks Anya has changed.

Segue Magic to a room with men scattered around, all of them covered in blood and presumably dead. The music crescendos as we see more dead men and finally end the pan at Anya, sitting on the floor, her floral dress splattered with blood. “What have I done,” she asks, and we’re answered by a Wolf Howl.

Sweeney: Even having seen the episode, I was briefly concerned, based on the Scooby conversation, that this was going to be a delayed reveal. I was relieved that we were spared that so we could get right to it.

Kirsti: I, on the other hand, was convinced that this episode took place in season 6. And when it didn’t, I started to think that maybe I’d hallucinated it (which is exactly what I thought I’d done with the episode of The X-Files that guest stars Luke Wilson as a vampire sheriff). I was relieved to find out it was real.

Lor: Real and fast moving, ladies. Have no fear.

Post credits, an old timey, grainy filter tells us we’re in the past even before a title card appears to tell us we’re in Sjornjost, 880. Flashback Anya makes kissy faces at a bunny (!!) as fairy tale-esque music plays in the background.

A burly man enters and they have a conversation in what the Internet is leading me to believe is not entirely a real language but may be Swedish. (GUYS?) (K: I’m sure our good friend Wilhemina can help us out?) The man is pre-troll Olaf, and he addresses Anya as “Aud.” Anya notes that he smells of blood, but Olaf brushes it off, saying that a band of trolls is nothing to him. Anya flutters around him, offering to tend to him and pour him mead. He notices that their house is full of rabbits. They’ve been breeding quickly and Anya wants to give them away as a selfless act of goodwill. Olaf laughs cartoonishly and says her logic is insane troll logic, and mentions that it’s no wonder the bar matrons talk of her. The camera zooms a bit on Anya and she fixes Olaf with something of a murderous look. “You’ve been to the bar?” WHOOPS.

Olaf sighs. “It is not my fault they don’t take kindly to you. You speak your mind, and are annoying. It’s one of the things I love most about you.” Anya asks if Rannveig was there and Olaf just says that he has no interest in that lady and her wide, load bearing hips. Anya accepts this, hugs him, and says she just loves him so much she could burst. Olaf says she’ll always be his beautiful girl.

So, without knowing where else this episode will go, this flashback was pretty damn cheesy, but a few things that made me point at my screen all, “LOOK! LOOK!” (1) – The bunnies. Present day Anya HATES bunnies. Trauma, yo. (2) – The “you are annoying and speak too much,” thing is so Xander-like, it broke my heart. Poor Anya really was put through the emotional ringer twice. It doesn’t excuse the choices she made after (vengeance) but it was smart to remind us of this fact. (3) – One of the things I’ve disliked about Anya is how her blunt nature was sometimes played for laughs. I always assumed it was a “vengeance demon trying to reintegrate” thing, so the idea that Anya has always been a little blunt, a little off is really interesting. I wonder if some of you will see it as retcon, but I tentatively like it.

Sweeney: I do see it as retcon, but this is the sort of, “I acknowledge it and don’t care,” kind of retcon I can get behind. I adore Anya’s flashbacks, in part for their cheese. It’s fitting, you know? The vamp flashbacks all had moods meant to drive home the EVIL or brood/feels as they applied. Love or hate the way Anya’s been played for laughs, it would feel incongruous to have her flashback fall into either of those categories. This is Anya. Of course her flashback is a bit silly. AND YET, they still managed to drive home some key feelsy things (i.e., the Olaf/Xander comparison).

K: BRB, too busy having feels over the cheesy flashback of cheesiness to come up with properly worded responses.

Lor: Excellent point about the flashback matching Anya, Sweeney.

Present day. Anya washes blood off her hands nervously. We watch her for a few seconds before Spike’s voice cuts in: I don’t trust what I see any more. With that, we head over to the Basement of Don’t Go In There 2.0. Buffy is crouched down, eye level with Spike who is sitting on the floor. He explains that he’s seeing things and remembers that Dru was always seeing weird things. He used to look at her, think she was crazy, but she’d sit indoors and see the sky and she’d be so happy. (“I’m naming all the stars…“) Dru used to see stars and now Spike sees Dru.

K: Man, I miss Dru… 

Lor: Buffy regards Spike patiently and compassionately. She offers to help him, though he’d never ask. “Not after…” that thing he’ll vaguely reference enough times to satisfy some viewers’ idea of dealing with the post-attempted-rape fall-out. Not there yet. Maybe a few more pained looks and cut-off sentences. You never know.

B says that they will get through this together. We see now that she’s barefoot. She grabs his hand as the camera pans up and over as real!Buffy rounds the corner, revealing that understanding!Buffy was just one more thing in Spike’s head. Real Buffy is dressed head to toe in black, every bit the Slayer, and not the relaxed, comfortable, at home friend he was just imagining.

K: It’s interesting that Hallucination!Buffy was wearing white while Real!Buffy is in black. Especially seeing as we’ve had various moments throughout the series in which the Scoobies are referred to as the White Hats and the bad guys are referred to as the Black Hats…

Lor: Buffy addresses him tersely and says the basement is killing him. It’s the Hellmouth and no good can come of it. Spike laughs as Buffy tells him to prove he has a soul. She tells him to get up and get out, but Spike has nowhere else to go. This wasn’t Spike’s idea of help from Buffy, but she’s helping.

Cut to daytime at UC Sunnydale. Willow is walking and talking with a professor, trying to finagle her way back into classes. The professor is pretty understanding, since Willow is her best student and she did manage to ace her final last semester, like magic. As the professor wraps their conversation up, Willow spots Anya walking towards her, nervously fidgeting with a trench coat.

Professor gone, Willow calls out to Anya and happily explains that she’s signing back up for classes. It doesn’t take too long, though, for Willow to get suspicious. She asks what Anya’s doing walking out of a fraternity house mid-day. Anya lies that she has a new boyfriend and Willow seems genuinely happy for her, even after Anya TMI’s that she just finished having lots and lots of sex. Right before Anya leaves, Willow sees a spot of blood on her hands and I’m not sure how Anya missed it as we did watch her wash her hands vigorously but, okay. I’m sure something like that has happened to me, but with chocolate.

K: If it were me, the chocolate would be on my pants because I have a tendency to drop bits of chocolate into my lap and not realise until it’s melted into a giant poo-looking mush several hours later… #klassywithaK

Lor: I’m always dropping food down my boobs. This conversation is getting away from us.

Right after Anya leaves, Willow investigates the fraternity. There are blood stains everywhere and she presumably happens across the murder scene we saw in the teaser. (K: I wonder if she’s reminded, as I am, of Prophecy Girl in which Willow also finds a bunch of guys massacred…) She hears a voice saying, “I take it back,” over and over. She follows it to a closet and inside is a girl, her clothes blood stained, crying, pleading to take it back. Willow assures her that she’s fine, and in sobbed out pieces, the girl explains that her boyfriend invited her over under the guise of a party, when really he broke up with her in front of all his friends. They laughed as she cried and she wished that they could feel what it’s like to have your heart ripped out. Then, it came. A spider. Willow asks where the spider is and above her head we see it crawl across the ceiling.

Sweeney: CREEPY CRAWLY NOPE NOPE NOPE.

K: Despite everything, including the script, saying that it’s a spider, I’ve always thought of it as a giant wingless mosquito with too many legs… The NOPE roll still applies.

Lor: After a cut to black, Willow turns her head in time and uses magic to protect herself against the spider. The Closet Crier freaks out and Willow, eyes blacked out AND NO, OMG, STOP IT, tells her to shut her whimpering mouth. Willow throws the spider out the window and her eyes go back to normal. She sheepishly apologizes to the Closet Crier.

FLASHBACK back to Sjornjost,  where the villagers are freaking out because of a giant troll, who is of course, Olaf. He tries to explain that he’s Olaf and there is (purposefully) cheesy dialogue where the villagers cry things like,”hit him with fruits and various meats,” and “hide your babies and your beadwork!” which you’ve got to assume was the precursor to “hide yo kids, hide yo wife.” (S: A+)

Anya stands apart from the crowd and watches the mayhem. D’Hoffryn walks up next to her, very impressed by her spell. They speak to each other in English. Maybe the TARDIS is nearby and translating. MAYBE. (K: Head canon accepted.) D’Hoffryn asks what Olaf did, and Anya replies he did a “load bearing bar matron.” D’Hoffryn introduces himself and Anya does in kind. “I am Aud.” I only just pick up on how that sounds like “odd.” D’Hoffryn laughs and says she’s denying her true self. She’s Anyanka. He starts to explain about his vengeance demons, but Anya hasn’t heard of them.

 

D’Hoffryn continues his pitch about how her talents could be put to use punishing men who deserve it. “They all deserve it,” Anya says and D’Hoffryn is pretty much like, “yep.”

Cut to Buffy at work.

 

And everyone who’s ever had a desk job says, “sometimes it be’s that way.”

K: YUP. Except that now, unlike in 2003, we have social media to keep us entertained.

Lor: Mostly. Sometimes my desk job is such that even the Internet seems boring.

The call is from Willow, who tells Buffy about the frat boy murders and forgive the gif whiplash but hey, why not:

 

We cut to Anya’s place, where Hallie is praising her murder-enabling. Everyone is saying that Anya is back to her old self. Anya says she didn’t expect it to effect her so much, though Hallie assures her that she’ll get used to it. Anya, voice shaking a bit, starts to confide in Hallie about how she’s been feeling lately but is interrupted by Willow busting into the room and sternly demanding that Hallie get out. Hal starts to protest but Willow repeats her demand. This is a something that would normally earn a, “YOU GO AHEAD WILLOW!” but considering all the trauma of season 6, all I can think is, “NO. PLEASE NO. DON’T MAKE HER GET ANGRY.”

Willow’s apparently become the Hulk.

Sweeney: It’s too bad Buffy and Fifty Shades didn’t align a little differently – think of all the WILLOW SMASHING we could have done!

K: That would have been perfection. Now I has a sad.

Lor: I just have to think about how Fifty Shades is over, and I’m happy again.

Willow tells Anya that she has to stop vengeancing. Anya replies that those frat boys were humiliating the Closer Crier.

Willow: Anya, listen to me. You’re in trouble. You know it. I’m here to help you.
Anya: You’re here to— Well, that’s great, Willow. Flayed anybody lately, have you? How quickly they forget!
Willow: I haven’t forgotten one second of it.

Willow repeats that she wants to help and Anya repeats that they got what they deserved.

Cut to Buffy and Xander walking through the woods, hunting the spider demon. They don’t know Willow went after Anya. Mid-conversation they come across another body, heart ripped out. Xander spots gross, sticky, stringy stuff that Buffy deduces must be the spider demon’s webbing.

They hear the demon rustling up in the tree. It attacks Xander with a string of web, but Buffy pushes him out of the way just as the spider demon falls on top of her. She wrestles it for a second before managing to push it off her. It goes bounding back into the tree. Xander stands and says they should go home and get more swords and a protection amulet. Buffy only half pays attention as she spots the demon in the tree and throws her axe up at it. The spider falls out of the tree, dead. Xander is duly impressed.

K: He’s not the only one. A+ aim, Buff. I wish I could call on her to come and deal with the flock of 50-odd cockatoos that takes up residence in our neighbour’s sycamore tree every summer… I also feel the need to mention that when Xander’s being grossed out by having touched the spider demon’s webbing, he makes a Spiderman reference. Because obviously.

Lor: Back at Chez Summers, Buffy is worried about where the spider came from, but Willow’s there, waiting for them with explanations. We cut to post-explanation. Xander asks when she was planning on telling them, and Will says, “I’m telling you now,” and I mention that because “I’m telling you now,” just showed up in our last Supernatural post.

Xander is pretty upset that Will didn’t tell him sooner, considering that this is Anya they are talking about. Buffy calms him down and explains that Willow didn’t say anything before because she knew what Buffy would have to do. She has to kill Anya. Dramatic cut to black.

We come back to another flashback. A dinner table is all done up, and strewn across it and on the floor are dead men. In this parallel scene, Hallie praises Anya’s work, but here, Anya laughs along and basks in the compliments. They imply that whatever Anya did, she’s partly responsible for the 1905 Russian Revolution (K: Not to be confused with the 1917 Russian Revolution. Man, those Russians love their revolutions…). Hallie wants to go out and see the misery, but Anya wants to get back to work. Anya isn’t interested in seeing the world. All she cares about is exacting vengeance.

 

Back in the present, Buffy tries to explain that Anya is a demon now and not the same person Xander knew. He isn’t taking kindly to this development. We often mention our different methods for watching/recapping shows. For me, Buffy is a watch a few minutes/pause/recap show. I like the end result better when I recap as I go. That said, there were plenty of parts during this next scene where I wanted to pause and jump in and defend Buffy, (and even a part where I made a point Xander makes…) but I’m glad I let the entire thing play out because she does an excellent job defending herself, and we in turn get another bit of insight into what it means to be the Slayer. It’s a continuation of Willow’s observation that’s it’s Buffy’s job to think the bad things. Okay, so, back to the scene.

Xander doesn’t think Buffy has to kill Anya, but she doesn’t have any other options. She’s considered them, because it’s her job to think the bad things. It’s occurred to her that she might have to confront this vengeance demon living among them. Xander appeals to Willow, thinking that since these are mystical deaths, there might be something she can do. (WOOF. How can he bring that up to her?) Willow says she doesn’t have that kind of power and she doesn’t trust the power she does have.

Sweeney: +1 on that WOOF. I do get that he’s acting on feels right now, but in that one sentence there are feels enough to go around. And in the whole scene which I’ll let you get back to now:

Lor: Buffy comforts Willow, and acknowledges that this must be hard for Xander to hear. “Hard for me to hear? Buffy, you wanna kill Anya!” But Buffy doesn’t want to. Xander says this isn’t new ground for them. “When our friends go all crazy and start killing people, we help them.” Buffy says this is different, because Anya’s a demon. Xander sarcastically says that it must all be so simple.

Buffy: It is never simple.
Xander: No, of course not. You know, if there’s a mass-murdering demon that you’re, oh, say, boning, then it’s all gray area.
Buffy: Spike was harmless. He was helping.
Xander: He had no choice.
Buffy: And Anya did! She chose to become a demon. Twice.

Xander says Buffy has no idea what Anya is going through. Buffy doesn’t care. Xander has seen this behavior from Buffy before, where she steps away from everything human and becomes the law. He doesn’t think she knows what it feels like and is promptly reminded that she knows better than he’s remembering:

Buffy: I killed Angel! Do you even remember that? I would have given up everything I had to be with— I loved him more than I will ever love anything in this life. And I put a sword through his heart because I had to.
Willow: And that all worked out okay.
Buffy: Do you remember cheering me on? Both of you. Do you remember giving me Willow’s message: Kick his ass.
Willow: I never said that—
Xander: This is different—
Buffy: It is always different! It’s always complicated. And at some point, someone has to draw the line, and that is always going to be me. You get down on me for cutting myself off, but in the end the slayer is always cut off. There’s no mystical guidebook. No all-knowing council. Human rules don’t apply. There’s only me. I am the law.

 

SO MANY FEELINGS.

Sweeney: YUP.

K: In addition to having a lot of feels, I’m enormously relieved that Buffy brought up Angel. Because when Xander brought up how it’s fine for Spike to stay alive, my immediate reaction was “HEY XANDER, REMEMBER WHEN YOU ENCOURAGED HER TO KILL ANGEL FOR MONTHS?” So good job on bringing that up, Buff. 

Lor: Xander, more subdued now, says there has to be another way. Buffy tells him to find it. He leaves.

Later, Willow is searching through her drawers and she finds an amulet. In the bathroom, she pours sand in an ever-handy magical circle and chants in Latin while holding the amulet. She’s calling D’Hoffryn. (K: Using the amulet he gave her in Something Blue!) He appears with lots of pomp, but drops the act when he sees that it’s Willow. She greets him tentatively. He’s been expecting to hear from her after the flaying of Warren. Willow says that isn’t her anymore, though D’Hoffryn says he felt a little of her old self flare up just today. Willow changes the subject to Anya.

We Segue Magic over to Anya, returned to the frat house scene of the crime. Apparently no one has discovered the mass murder yet, so this frat house must not have been that popular. Xander arrives, claiming to want to help Anya. “Everyone is so considerate today. I should’ve slaughtered people weeks ago.” Ouch.

Xander apologizes and Anya snarks that she’s “all better now.” He isn’t trying to make it better. This isn’t an intervention. He’s here to warn her that Buffy is on her way. Anya doesn’t seem worried about the physical threat. Xander is the only one considering the interpersonal implications.

Buffy arrives. Xander tells her to leave, but she won’t. Anya puts her demon face on and smacks Xander out of the way. Anya and Buffy fight, with Anya coming out on top consistently throughout. I don’t know if I’m making this up, but it doesn’t really look like Buffy’s giving it her all. Buffy gets thrown to the floor. She apologizes to Anya as she stands. Anya doesn’t get why, since they appear evenly matched, and lunges at Buffy. B easily avoids her advance, pins her against the wall and stabs her in the heart.

After a black out, we’re in Xander and Anya’s apartment in 2001. I worried about how I would place this in the timeline, but as Xander sleeps, Anya hears her neighbors singing about mustard on a shirt. IT’S ONCE MORE WITH FEELING DAY. (Also, that sounds like the same Parking Ticket lady. MARTI NOXON?) Anya soons breaks out into her own song, about being “the missus.”

When Xander left Anya at the altar, we made some comments about how much of Anya’s existence and morality relied on Xander. She said in her vows that she wasn’t a person before she met him, and I maintained that she didn’t really, truly grow into her own person while she was with him. They were never married but it very much seemed like she was always Mrs. Xander Harris. In this song, she tells us she’s just, “lately Anya.” She sings brightly about why love makes sense even when it doesn’t. (K: My favourite line of this song is “Mrs. Anya Lame-Ass-Made-Up-Maiden-Name Harris,” because OBVIOUSLY.) She exits the balcony and is suddenly in her wedding dress as she sings, “just stand aside/Here comes the bride/I’ll be Missus/I will be his Missus/I will be—”

Cut to Anya, demon face gone, slumped against the wall, face tear streaked, and sword still in  her chest. Xander calls out for her and she wakes suddenly, gasping for air. She pulls the sword out of her chest and tells Buffy that it takes a lot more than that to kill a vengeance demon.

Sweeney: That abrupt shift, where the song cuts out mid-note, and is replaced by post-stab silence, was well done. A lot of punch in a scene change.

Lor: From wedding dress to blood and wounds.

Buffy and Anya fight again, though this time, Buffy more easily gets the upper hand. Xander intervenes by pushing Buffy off of Anya, though she yells at him to “stop trying to save [her].”

At that, we get some magical indoor lightening and D’Hoffryn appears. Buffy grabs her sword but he says he’s be gone before she could swing. “Isn’t that just like a slayer? Solving all her problems by sticking things with sharp objects.”

D’Hoffryn says he’s talked to Willow, and Xander tells him to stay away from her. D’Hoffryn says Xander is gallant, and understands what Anya saw in him. He goes on that Willow thinks Anya would be better outside of the vengeance fold, Buffy is clearly ready to stick her sharp object into the problem and Xander is seeing with “the eyeballs of love.” No one has actually asked Anya what she wants.

She’s crying now as she says she wants to take it back. She wants to undo the frat boy killings. D’Hoffryn asks her if she’s sure, because bringing them back would require the life and soul of a vengeance demon. That was vague enough that you just KNOW this isn’t going to end well. Anya tells him to do it, even after Xander protests. “This is my wish. Undo what I did.” D’Hoffryn acquiesces and with a hand gesture he makes Halfrek appear. She smiles and calls out to Anya then bursts into flames as she screams in pain and disappears.

K: The special effects on Hallie’s death remind me a lot of Supernatural for some reason.

Lor: Anya cries and D’Hoffryn, sounding more stern, more terrible, asks her who she thought she was dealing with. “Never go for the kill when you can go for the pain.” He tells her there will always be vengeance demons but she is no longer one. Anya would’ve rathered he killed her, though he says there is plenty of time for that. “From beneath you, it devours. Be patient. All good things in time.”

If I know my mystical prophecy, foreshadowing and Whedon Life Ruining, that sounds slightly like he’s insinuating Anya will die. LA LA LA. I CAN’T HEAR YOU, D’HOFFRYN.

He leaves because I gave him really good cold shoulder. Something like that.

Sweeney: Good job, girl!

K: You’re so good at TV that you’re now influencing the outcomes!

Lor: Anya walks out. Buffy sends Xander after her. Outside, Anya tells Xander to please, just go. He doesn’t think she should be alone, but for once, she thinks she should be. “My whole life, I’ve just clung to whatever came along.” Anya thanks him for everything and he nods and walks away.

Anya calls after him and asks what if she’s really nobody. Xander tells her not to be a dope. “I’m a dope?” she asks, still teary and faraway. “Sometimes,” he replies. “That’s a start.” 

Xander keeps walking away. Anya watches him for a bit, and I think about how easy it would be to call out to him, to accept his comfort and forgive his wrongdoings. But she doesn’t. She turns around and heads in the opposite direction.

I did love it, readers. It was a mine of continuity and character insights. Right from the beginning, we have Dawn telling Willow to just act like everyone else acts, and that was the Anya specialty. No matter how much she failed, she really tried to integrate into her new life and into the Scoobies.

Sweeney: Taking this to a feelsy place, but some of Anya’s best moments (i.e., The Body) have been when she snapped under the pressure of trying to behave like everyone else, even though that behavior made no sense to her.

Lor: I loved Buffy’s speech about being the Slayer. I loved that she brought up killing Angel and even briefly brought up the lie that I think was one of Xander’s worst moments on the show. It comes full circle here, as he finds himself in a similar position and he can’t pull the metaphorical trigger. But Buffy did, and she would again, and this is who she is.

Even so, I’m sticking to my story that she went easy on Anya. She let Xander get there first. She brought a sword, knowing it wouldn’t kill her. What was Buffy’s plan? Maybe she had enough confidence in Xander, Willow or even Anya herself. Maybe this was, after all, an intervention.

Sweeney: +1 everything you said in the first paragraph – the full circle aspect, the reminder of Xander’s lie, and Buffy’s commitment to being the Slayer. However, I have to say that there’s a core difference between killing Angel and killing Anya: Angel’s death was literally about preventing an apocalypse. I think that’s a big part of why she went a little easier on her. I’m not sure it was straight intervention – she probably still would have followed through if it felt necessary – but it simply wasn’t necessary in the same way that killing Angel had been.

Anyway, I also second all general flailing for this episode. The continuity tie-ins (even if some of it was total retcon) were all so much fun and it was fantastic to have this episode that really explained Anya in a way that also concurrently explained why it took so long to do that – her co-dependent identity needed to be demonstrated at great length in order for it to really have the resonance that it does here. In short: LOVE.

K: A big fat +1 to everything the girls have already said. If anyone needs me, I’ll be on the Couch of Feels.  

 

 

Next time: Xander and Spike team up to find out why all the girls want the high school quaterback in Buffy the Vampire Slayer S07 E06 – Him.