Previously: Willow turned into Warren and a magical, fairy tale kiss cured her. Spike’s chip broke and gave him killer migraines.
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First Date
Lorraine: We jump back in time to that moment in London where Giles is about to get his head chopped off by a Rage Ninja. This time, we see the whole scene through: Giles grabs the axe like a, well, ninja and uses it to cut the Bringer’s head off. In the present, Giles is telling this story to Buffy and the Potentials as they walk through a cemetery. This group includes a new Potential named Chao-Ahn. He’s going on and on about how it was a mix of luck, years and years of training and an uncanny sense, so you just know something is about to catch him off guard.
Sweeney: It’s season 7 people. You should all have learned your lesson about self-assured speech-giving by now.
Lor: Sure enough, that something comes in the form of Spike who tackles him. At the same time, Giles notes that Spike isn’t in pain and Spike notes that Giles isn’t the First. Spike’s observation wins out as he explains that Anya said he was the First. Really, no one who ever watched the last episode expected Buffy to repair that chip. We all knew what was coming.
Giles asks Spike would try to tackle the incorporeal First, as Buffy sports a little smirk in the background. Spike says he didn’t think about it. (K: Apparently having his chip removed made him dumb. Also, he seems to have recovered from that major brain surgery pretty damned quickly, as has his hair.) Giles now returns to his question about Spike not being in any pain. Him and Buffy tag-team an explanation that’s seems to be slightly played for chuckles. See, there was a choice, and they chose to remove the chip. Giles is shocked and the Potentials are confused. And then there is Chao-Ahn, who in Cantonese, says she doesn’t understand a word they are saying. Language barrier rimshot!
Wolf howl.
Buffy is sitting at her vanity, putting on some earrings. Giles stands at the door and tells her that this is very dangerous. Buffy jokes that all the horror stories about wearing hoops are just myths. Yeah, that’s not what Giles was talking about. He means chip-less Spike. I’m not sure I buy all the protest. I mean, I guess I do, but in the end it just highlights how unconcerned everyone has been about sleeper agent Spike. Buffy says she made the call based on instinct, just like Giles was talking about. He totally made that up, though. He knew the Bringer was there because his shoes squeaked. Damn. You think the forces of evil would’ve found some noise free footwear by now.
Kirsti: Squeak free footwear costs extra, Lor. And based on the number of Bringers the First has and how quickly Buffy’s dispatching them, the First is buying their robes and shoes in bulk, as cheaply as possible.
Lor: Thrifty evil. I dig it.
Giles goes on about how Spike is now added to the dangers they are protecting the Potentials from. Buffy now randomly brings up Principal Wood. Okay, not randomly, I guess if they are listing evils, but holy shit, it’s only been 4 minutes and this whole thing has been so artless. So yeah, HOW ABOUT THAT PRINCIPAL, EH? He was near or around a shovel.
Sweeney: People in fictional universes should follow our lead and engage in a comprehensive study of other fictional universes in order to learn important rules, like the guilt inherent in being near or around a shovel.
Lor: Buffy claims to be looking into Principal Wood, and Giles says that’s awful responsible of her, which balances out the whole un-chipping Spike thing. Buffy claims nothing has changed because Spike had the chip when the First made him kill and sire people. Giles argues that they don’t know if the chip was even working then. Maybe a new and improved chip would’ve made him useless to the First. Buffy thinks Spike’s new and improved soul is what’s going to keep him from hurting people. B knows that Spike can be a good man-pire. She can feeeeeeel it. Giles wants more for Buffy than a future full of feelings and clouded judgement. Buffy says she isn’t losing sight of the big picture. Keeping Spike chipped was evil and you can’t fight evil with evil. She leaves and Giles calls after her that he hopes she’s right.
Sweeney: There are two separate threads here. I’m actually on Buffy’s side on this one, in large part because fuck the Initiative. (I mean, Spike wouldn’t still be around if they hadn’t chipped him, but I digress.) In general, it’s a unfair to concurrently place mountains of pressure on Buffy without having a little faith in your judgement. “Save the world, but do it how I say.”
That said: Giles is also not wrong for stepping in, as someone who cares about Buffy, to tell her to make sure she’s got the personal side of that judgment in check.
K: I’m somewhere in the middle, but I think the point that Giles was trying to make was more than Buffy shouldn’t have been making the decision alone. They should have had an old style Scoobies discussion to work out what to do. But she made the decision without consulting anyone, and is now having to deal with the fallout in the form of Giles’ “Dude, WTF?”-ness. Which is kind of a theme for the rest of the season, really…
Lor: Yeah, I don’t think either one of them is wrong. It’s interesting to see Giles trying to deal with adult Buffy. She isn’t 16 anymore, and he can’t just lecture her on the evils of dating while Slayer. He’s worried for her and he’s worried for the Potential and he doesn’t have the same faith in Spike. Both arguments make sense.
Xander is at a home improvement store watching a tool demo. He turns and sees an attractive young demon standing near by. “But Lorraine,” you say. “That’s a girl, not a demon.” A-ha-ha, I say. Xander was instantly attracted to this person. I say, demon. Xander approaches her and OH. MY. GOD. This is not just a girl, this is an ASHANTI. Sweet 2003, it’s Ashanti. Wow. I… wow. Okay. (S: LOVE IT, 2003.)
Xander offers to help Ashanti (“Lissa”) with the rope she’s shopping for. You know who also walked into a home improvement store for a bit of rope, but was really there to meet a person? Christian Grey. I DON’T TRUST YOU, ASHANTI.
Sweeney: READING FIFTY SHADES MADE THAT SCENE INFINITELY BETTER. Mostly because I knew you had to recap it and I got to picture you exasperated as you blogged about sexual hardware store purchases for the second time. It’s getting to be a habit, girl.
K: I didn’t even read Fifty Shades, and my notes say “Xand, don’t pick up women at the hardware store. That’s Christian Grey territory.”
Lor: Cool. Glad we were all on the same ruined train.
Mid-rope talk, Xander asks Ashanti out for coffee and she smiles.
Sunnydale High School 2.0. Buffy sneaks into Principal Wood’s office which is a good plan except for the part where it isn’t. She asks herself, “If I were a sign of being evil, where would I be?” She spots a large cabinet and approaches it, but of course, Wood finds her. She pretends she was looking for some supplies. Before she leaves, Wood asks her out to dinner. (S: This date was solicited in the middle of chatter about sexual harassment and contracts. I only laugh to keep away the I’m-so-ruined tears.) She leaves, he closes the door behind her and then pulls out a bloodied knife. He opens the cabinet Buffy was going to inspect, revealing a white board. He lifts it up further revealing an array of weapons.
K: This super secret wall of murder knives reminds me far too much of Supernatural.
Lor: Chez Summers. Willow is folding laundry as Buffy tells her about dinner with Principal Wood. Buffy wonders why he asked her out, considering everything from him being truly interested to it being work related. Willow laughs when Buffy says maybe she’s been doing such a great job, he wants to promote her. Yeah, we’ve seen her fall asleep on a student and tell Amanda bullies sometimes bully you out of love. No promotion, girl. Willow says she’ll have to dress for the ambiguity. What does one wear to possibly get murdered or laid? Huh.
Buffy says that Wood isn’t even overly suspicious, but he does spend all that time on top of the Hellmouth with is like a shower of evil from underneath. Willow notes that that isn’t really a shower so Buffy amends that it is a bidet of evil. Willow wants to know if Buffy is possibly interested in Wood, and she doesn’t know, but he is good looking and solid and smart and normal. You know what? She does like him, and this could be good for her. Willow agrees and says that dating will help her move on. Buffy asks why everyone thinks she’s still in love with Spike, but that isn’t even what Willow was talking about. She meant move on from her super self reliance. Still in love with Spike is an interesting choice of words, it should be noted.
Awkward moment is interrupted by Xander’s entrance. He asks them all to guess what happened.
K: I’m also going to bring back the Willow Rosenberg Crazy Birthday Cake Fashion Disaster Seal, because from the front, Willow is wearing perfectly normal grey cargo-y pants. But then the camera pans around, AND THEY HAVE A GIANT SPRAY OF PURPLE FLOWERS ACROSS ONE BUTT CHEEK.
Okay, so it’s nothing on the old days where she wore fuzzy sweaters with smily faces on them, but I’ll take what I can get in the Mocking Sunnydale Fashions stakes.
Lor: Giles gets back from a mall trip with Chao-Ahn, complaining about how gross malls are. Xander exposits that Chao-Ahn was pulled out of her home and wasn’t allowed to bring anything, hence the mall trip. Plus, she’s also dealing with that hilarious language barrier. Giles’s Cantonese is really thin, but he’s thankful that ice cream is a universal language. Chao-Ahn, in Cantonese of course, says that she’s lactose intolerant and very uncomfortable at the moment. Giles leads her upstairs to put away her things. Buffy asks Willow to do a “computer check” on Principal Wood. Willow asks if Xander wants the same for Ashanti, and he says nope, because he wants to go in blind. “If trouble’s going to find you, it’s going to find you.” Yep. Demon.
Sweeney: But also, like, Xander. There’d be no dates if he held a strict no-demon dating policy. (I’m kidding. I’d choose no dates. Like, everyone should currently be choosing no dates, because apocalypse.)
Lor: Andrew is in the kitchen reading the manual for a microwave. First!Jonathan shows up and tells Andrew that he doesn’t need a manual, the microwave is intuitive. Andrew pulls out a cross and tries to rebuke the First. It doesn’t work. Andrew asks what “Jonathan slash the First” wants, though he’s taking orders from Buffy now, in an attempt to redeem himself for killing Jonathan. First!Jonathan says that Andrew will never belong to her squad, because he’s a murderer. Andrew’s all, “no, it’s cool. Anya, Willow and Spike are all murderers too.” First!Jonathan claims that Andrew is the only who is being required to redeem himself, though. A fight is coming, and First!Jonathan claims that after it, the slayer gang won’t exists anymore, but evil will. And as long as evil is around, Andrew can remain at the First’s side. All he has to do is kill the Potentials, and he can use the gun Willow brought into the house.
Buffy is in a lace camisole while Anya tries to clean her shirt. She’s unsuccessful, saying that it’s either pizza or blood. Buffy thanks her for trying. Anya rants a little about how Xander’s date is probably a sham, meant to make her jealous and it’s totally working. Buffy takes this as her cue to get the heck out of there.
Sweeney: Poor Anya, though. Watching the dude who left you at the altar go on a date has to be rough, and she has nobody who really gives half a shit to talk to.
K: Truth. Anya needs a sassy best friend, yo. Also, you’d think that after eight years of being the Slayer, Buffy would be an expert at getting out mysterious red stains…
Lor: In the hall, Buffy meets Spike. She nervously tries to cover up, but there isn’t much she can do. Spike tells her she looks nice and also heard about the date. Buffy babbles about it being possibly a non-date, but Spike assures her that he’s fine. He’s not being noble, he truly is fine. He’s given up his hope for them. Buffy thanks him and suggests he start dating again too. She takes off and Spike looks decidedly not okay with it.
Xander is pretty excited when Ashanti actually shows up for their date. They joke about hot chocolate and macho points.
Willow sits with Kennedy, Amanda and Dawn. It turns out, she can’t find anything on Principal Wood. All the stuff she’s found on Google is from when he moved to Sunnydale. Anya storms in with a bunch of papers, Giles hot on her tail, saying whatever she’s holding is educational.
K: Meanwhile, I’m busy having Hush flashbacks. Clearly, Giles shouldn’t be allowed to illustrate things…
Lor: Giles says perhaps he should reconsider his flash card education. Willow asks if perhaps he wants to get research-y in the meanwhile since they are investigating Buffy’s date. Anya grouses that everyone has a date apparently. It’s Datefest 2003. Giles: For God’s sake! How can anyone think about their social life? We are about to fight the original primal evil. These girls are in mortal danger. Didn’t you see the flashcards? This isn’t right. I’M SAYING, GILES. THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING. I mean, fine, everyone and their mom can go on a date but (1) – don’t expect the First to be the great, super danger you’ve built it up to be when everyone is taking time to date and (2) – no one can be surprised that the middle of this season is dragging like crazy. They built up the season nicely and they’ve suddenly slammed on the brakes. That’s all I’m saying.
Sweeney:
Lor: Principal Wood is leading Buffy down a dark alley and I have no idea what she’s wearing. It’s lacey and long and over jeans and… it should probably not be spoke of. No good can come of looking at it directly. (K: It’s also kind of mullet-y. Just issue it the WRCBC Fashion Disaster Seal and move on for everyone’s safety…) Buffy is really suspicious of this whole alley thing, but Wood promises that there’s this great restaurant tucked away back here. Just behind the pack of vampires waiting to attack. Buffy springs into action. She stakes a few vampires and yells at Wood for setting her up, but then sees that he’s fighting and staking vampires of his own. That all done, Wood puts his stake in his pocket and tells Buffy they need to talk.
Xander is telling Ashanti about how he left Anya at the altar. That is some heavy first date talk and Ashanti seems to be taking it in good humor. So, demon, yeah? Xander guesses that Anya must be thinking about the whole ordeal a lot lately because their would-be anniversary is coming up. Ashanti asks if it would’ve been better if he had gone through with the wedding with doubts. He guesses not and smiles when Ashanti says it all worked out well for her. Plus, she knows knows of something fun to do.
In the seriously stupidly located alley restaurant, Principal Wood explains to Buffy that he’s taken on a vampire before and a few demons. Buffy says he’s a freelancer, and he thinks that’s a good way to say it. Plus, he knows Buffy is the Slayer. He enjoys being a principal but he did come to Sunnydale on purpose, because of the Hellmouth, just like he hired Buffy on purpose and not for her counseling skills. He didn’t tell her before this moment, because he wasn’t sure if he was ready to jump into the big fight against evil. Now, the fight is starting and there isn’t time to worry.
Buffy asks how Wood knows about Slayer and he reveals that his mother was the slayer. I don’t know if the timing works out, but if the color coding is anything to go by, this probably means that his mom was the Slayer Spike killed in Fool for Love. Wood confirms that she was killed by a vampire, one he looked for, but never managed to find. Buffy is taken aback by all this and giggles as she asks if he has any powers. He doesn’t, though he was raised by a Watcher, so he’s well trained. Buffy notes that he finally decided to tell her all this in a romantic, stupidly located restaurant. He’s all, “yeaaaaah…” and the eyebrow waggle is implied.
K: For being down a dodgy, vampire infested back alley in Sunnydale, this restaurant is a) enormous, and b) really busy…
Lor: Chez Summers. Andrew shows First!Jonathan that he found the gun. The First says there will be panic when Andrew starts shooting the girls, so it’d be smart to lock them up in the basement. Andrew asks why the First just doesn’t make Spike do it. First!Jonathan answers that it’s not his time yet. (Because of plot.) Andrew nervously walks over to a desk and asks if the First has any weaknesses. He also asks if the First is made up of all the evil impulses of humans. The First says these are a lot of questions. Andrew’s all, “yeah, ’cause I’m evil.” and then asks when they are going to kill Buffy. First!Jonathan: Are you wearing a wire?
We quickly cut to the dining room where Willow is listening in via headphones. Oh goodness. Willow panics. Back in the living room, the First says Andrew can’t squirm free. The First puts its hands against its chest and pulls them black bloody. This is what Andrew did to Jonathan, who is now in an eternity of pain. Before our eyes, First!Jonathan is decaying. Andrew tells him to stop looking like Johnathan. He won’t shoot innocent girls because he’s good now, and he’ll pay for killing Jonathan when all is said and done. First!Jonathan says he’ll pay for more than that, because the biggest, baddest evil is now mad at him.
In the dining room, the girls realize that they can now all hear the First. (K: Which a) is very Voldemort-esque, and b) begs the question WHY THE HELL WERE THEY USING A WIRE IF THEY COULDN’T HEAR ANYTHING THE FIRST WAS SAYING???) It appears behind Amanda and she yells when she turns to see him. He’s even further decayed. The flesh on one side of his face is open, and his eye is completely white. First!Jonathan: So many dead girls. There’ll be so many. It disappears.
Sweeney: I bet it’s mostly just pissed that its mommy told it that it was the ultimate evil and a BFD but no1curr enough to even put their libidos on hold for it. Sorry, bro. French restaurants to try and stuff.
Lor: A+
Xander is shirtless. “I knew it,” he says because Ashanti is in fact a demon. We’re in the Basement of Don’t Go In There 2.0 and Xander is strapped to the wheel thing above the Seal of Danthazar. Ashanti thanks Xander for his earlier help picking a strong rope. Xander asks if all this is because he’s friends with the Slayer, because it can’t just be that demon women are attracted to him. And yet.
Chez Summers. Willow states the obvious: recording the First didn’t go to well. Dawn is taking the wire off of Andrew’s chest, and hey Tom Lenk! I see those cuts. Spike asks if their objective in recording the ultimate evil was to royally piss it off. Andrew whines that redemption is hard. Willow says that they were just trying to gain some information, seeing as how they currently know nothing about the First. Andrew whines some more and Dawn tells him he did a good job. Andrew shares that the First wanted him to shoot all the Potentials. Dawn is a bit relieved at that but tries to cover it up. Giles repeats that this is why time is crucial and people shouldn’t be on dates. Man, Giles. You are kind of beating my point to death. It’s not me, guys. It’s Giles.
Spike offers to go get Buffy but Willow says she’ll just call. First, though, she gets a text message from Xander. Who texted her while strapped to a wheel, how exactly? Probably with magic. Anyway, the text is in a code they developed long ago that we are just hearing about now. It either means that he’s getting laid or his date is a demon. Everyone’s all, “yeah, demon.” Spike offers to go get Buffy again, but Willow stops him. She’ll call. Of course, though, Buffy has left her cell phone. Spike runs off to go sniff after her.
Stupidly Located Restaurant. Buffy is foodgasming over a dessert, saying it’s the best thing she’s ever had in her mouth. Across the Internets, Spike fangirls object, I’m sure. Wood feeds her the next bite and then Spike is there. Buffy asks what he’s doing there, and he tells her it’s Xander.
Xander tells Ashanti she doesn’t know what she’s doing, but it appears she knows all about the OG Vamp the seal will release. She says the final fight is coming and everyone must pick their sides. She picks up a big knife and her eyes glow yellow. She stabs Xander in the gut and his blood starts dripping onto the seal.
Wood is driving to Sunnydale High 2.0, because Willow did a locator spell to find Xander. Spike’s in the backseat. Wood asks how Buffy and Spike know each other and she too quickly answers that they work together in the struggle against evil. This most awkward car ride continues in silence.
Sweeney: Somebody didn’t attend ELJ’s school for vehicular conversation writing! Surely someone’s inner schizophrenic is up to something interesting!
K: Do you think Wood has an inner goddess who’s doing gymnastics right about now?
Lor: Once the Fifty Shades references start, they are are really hard to stop.
Basement of Don’t Go in There 2.0. Buffy rushes in and starts fighting Ashanti. Buffy is kicked aside and then Ashanti goes after Spike. She starts to strangle Spike, and he puts his vamp grill on. Wood sees him vamped out but is snapped into action by Xander’s cries for help. Wood cuts Xander’s ties as the seal starts to open. Thankfully, it’s a slow opening seal, see, so Wood manages to get him completely cut away before the OG Vamp is fully released.
K: Also, I call bullshit because last time, the seal needed all of Jonathan’s blood plus the eight quarts of pig blood that Andrew bought at the butcher. This time? Like half a cup.
Lor: Also, I wondered about the whole seal thing anyways. Do all the OG Vamps get a number? Do they line up and wait their turn? Is it a fight to the exit? These are important questions.
Meanwhile, Buffy is still fighting Ashanti and eventually manages to behead her. Ashanti’s body gets all beasty like. Guess not even Xander would date her if she looked like that. Nice call on the Ashanti cover.
Buffy goes to check on Spike and they stare at each other longingly because.
Buffy looks over to find Wood looking at her. Buffy stands and goes to check on Xander who is the one with the stomach wound. He asks how her date is going. Buffy looks up at Wood who is glaring at Spike. Spike looks between them.
Chez Summers. Anya is pacing and freaking out because no one is home yet. Willow notes that Anya was just angry at Xander and now she’s worried. She admits she has changeful but intense feelings. Anya tells Giles she’s worried and he agrees it might be time for a reconnaissance mission. Choa-Ahn comes downstairs and she’s wearing a red silk robe. ‘Cause she’s Asian, you know? In Cantonese, she asks if the flashcard monsters are attacking. Giles offers her a glass of warm milk and she yells that he’s trying to kill her.
Dawn calls that everyone is back. Anya is upset that Xander is in one piece. Xander explains that another demon was attracted to him and he’s decided to go gay. He turns to Willow for help gaying him up. Buffy says he’ll just attract male demons. Giles yells at them that that’s enough. He calls them children. He grabs the handy flash cards and says that they aren’t a joke. Girls are going to die and it’s time to get serious. He walks off.
Sweeney: Good point, but we can also see how they’d be confused on this matter.
K: Meanwhile, I’m wondering why Xander and his stab wound aren’t in the hospital. Sure, it’s hard to explain how you got gut stabbed. But it’s better than – to use a Cordy-ism – waking up in a coma because you have a perforated liver or whatever.
Lor: Buffy is sitting on the couch, deep in thought. Spike enters and sits next to her. He asks if she knows about the whole First/wire thing. She does. Spike shares that the First told Andrew it wasn’t Spike’s time yet.
We cut to Wood brushing his teeth. His mother, who is in fact the Slayer from Fool for Love, is behind him. He immediately knows that it’s the First and walks right through it to prove it. Wood wonders why it would show up now. First!Nikki says that he’s moving up in the world and it makes a mother proud. He says it’ll make his mother very proud when he helps take out the First. Until then, he has no use for the First. He turns away but the First draws him back by asking if he wants to know who killed his mother. Turns out, Wood already knows him and fought along side him. He quickly guesses that it’s Spike. Wood thanks First!Nikki for the information.
Another #meh episode for me. I’ve already expressed that I think the pacing has been way off on this season so far. Buffy has always done a good job with mixing humor with more serious stuff, but I truly feel that skill has been lacking in these last few episodes. It may just be me, but I didn’t find Xander’s subplot or the Chao-Ahn jokes funny at all. Ashanti was funny. Not her character, just her presence.
Sweeney: The Chao-Ahn jokes were just stupid. Yay! for the fact that they acknowledged how illogical it would be for all the Potentials to be fluent in English, but the execution was a big flop.
K: Especially when you stop to think about why she’d even get on the plane with Giles with that kind of language barrier. I mean, she didn’t have a Watcher and the Council has been blown up. It’s not like he can just ask someone to translate…
Lor: I enjoyed the scenes with Principal Wood the most in the episode. I didn’t think he would turn out evil, just because they tried very hard to make him seem possibly evil. I loved how excited Buffy got at the revelation that his mother was a Slayer. Imagine to have someone else in on that lifestyle, but also, she might allow herself to hope for her own future. Then again, Nikki died when Wood was just 4…
Sweeney: It’s a mixed bag, for sure. Still, as Buffy’s currently at this point where she’s trying to figure out how to maneuver through some semblance of a life outside being the Slayer, the fact of having a child is a level of normalcy beyond anything that Buffy had really considered.
K: I liked the last scene between Wood and First!Nikki. But I can’t help but feel like it would have been stronger if Wood had known Spike for more than two minutes. If the reveal on Wood as the son of a Slayer had come a few episodes earlier, and he’d been working with the Scoobies since then, the “you fought by his side” comment that leads him to realise that Spike’s his mother’s killer would have been far more effective. Or something.
Lor: A good point.
Andrew has gotten a lot of love in comments, but not necessarily from us. I disliked the Trio so much that it’s been hard disassociating him from that. He does get some good lines in, however, and Tom Lenk plays him perfectly. Also, I think it’s a misconception about Snark Ladies that once a character does something bad, we will never forgive them. Clearly, no, because we love Willow, Faith and have even grown to appreciate Xander. Drusilla wasn’t big with me, but now I squee every time she appears. Speaking for myself, I just don’t like Spike and I think his whole redemption arc was mishandled. That got away from me. My point is that Andrew is growing on me.
Not much else to say. Any episode now, I’m sure this season will take off.
K: Or not.
Next time: Buffy confronts the men who created the original recipe Slayer in Buffy the Vampire Slayer S07 E15 – Get it Done.
SCHEDULING NOTE: In order to adjust our viewing for crossover magic, we will be posting a second Buffy post in lieu of the usual Angel post.
Thursday’s Buffyverse posts will be BtVS 7×15 & BtVS 7×16. We resume Buffy/Angel next Monday (Feb 2) with BtVS 7×17 & AtS 4×15.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
