Kirsti: After the previouslies, we're at the hospital where Dawn's eating the jelly (L: JELL-O.) off Joyce's hospital tray with her fingers (EW). Joyce says she won't be offended if the girls go out for real people food. Buffy poo-poos her, and I can't help but notice that she's wearing a hoodie and tracksuit pants, which is the 2000s version of the Overalls of Overall Sadness. Poor Buff.
Lorraine: After a crap ton of previouslies, we start the episode with Joyce going in for her CAT scan. I start crying preemptively. It only took a few "JOYCE! :(" comments and some mysterious headaches to get me to this point.
Sweeney: I PUT FORTH SO MUCH EFFORT IN NOT EXPRESSING MY HOSPITAL!JOYCE FEELS. Since we're here now, I get to join in: JOYCE :(
Lor: I appreciate the effort. I'll pass the tissues.
Sweeney: I PUT FORTH SO MUCH EFFORT IN NOT EXPRESSING MY HOSPITAL!JOYCE FEELS. Since we're here now, I get to join in: JOYCE :(
Lor: I appreciate the effort. I'll pass the tissues.
Sweeney: Today's episode is called Fool For Love. You may have heard of it. I think it's been mentioned a few times in the comments? Just a few. I want everyone to know that I really was just plopped into this spot in the rotation, because that's what made sense. I didn't choose my numbers, THEY CHOSE ME. Or, like, Lor chose them for me. I'M SORRY THE BUFFYVERSE RANDOM NUMBER GODS LOVE ME BEST. But not really.
Lor: I think the Number Gods mostly ignore me. I always get filler episodes.
Lor: I think the Number Gods mostly ignore me. I always get filler episodes.
Kirsti: We open in the Bigger on the Inside Dorm Room which is what I'm gonna go ahead and insist on calling Willow and Tara's room. (L: Another nickname for the Nickname Graveyard then. I'd pour out wine in its honor, but LOL. I'm not wasting wine.) (Fair) Tara's telling Willow a story while Miss Kitty Fantastico plays on the floor. Willow gets sleepy, and Tara asks if she can keep the light on to look up some spells. Willow makes an Eyebrows of Innuendo comment about how she doesn't need to be snuggled, and then asks why Tara's been studying spells so much. Tara says that she a) needs to keep up with Willow, and b) likes to be useful to the Scoobies. It's pretty much adorable.
Lorraine: We start with a couple of monks running through darkened halls. One monk trips and falls and this is my stress dream. Not the monks or darkened hall part, but the part where I'm running away from something and keep tripping and falling. At least it isn't teeth falling out.
K: Mostly, monks running through darkened halls made me assume that the TARDIS was going to be turning up shortly. I'm still disappointed that it didn't.
Lor: Fair.
A title card tells us that this is happening two months ago.
K: Mostly, monks running through darkened halls made me assume that the TARDIS was going to be turning up shortly. I'm still disappointed that it didn't.
Lor: Fair.
A title card tells us that this is happening two months ago.
Sweeney: The episode begins with Buffy surveying the cemetery from the top of a crypt, clearly in full-on hunter mode. She runs around, staking vampires before they even come out of the ground. She's interrupted by Riley, who stakes a few vampires before Spike also shows up and also fights off a vampire. Buffy is annoyed by all the interruptions (K: Can't say I blame her. Get your own sacred calling, yo.) and takes this frustration out on Spike with some pointless stay-away-or-I'll-make-more-empty-threats-at-you banter.
Kirsti: I mostly love how indignant he gets when she's like "EW YOU JUST TASTED YOUR OWN NOSE BLOOD." Vampire, Buff. What did you expect?
Kirsti: I mostly love how indignant he gets when she's like "EW YOU JUST TASTED YOUR OWN NOSE BLOOD." Vampire, Buff. What did you expect?
I think I’m being punished by Whedon. First I get a Xander-centric episode, and then later today I get a bunch of insane dream sequences in Angel? What the hell did I do to deserve this?! SIGH.
Lorraine: Pfft. No sympathy from me. Get back to me if Whedon ever does an episode about anal lube.
K: Fair.
We open in the Fruit Roll Up Basement, where Xander, Anya, Buffy and Riley are watching kung fu movies. Anya’s arm is in a sling on account of the head wound she incurred in the last episode turned out to be an arm injury instead? IDK.
Lorraine: Pfft. No sympathy from me. Get back to me if Whedon ever does an episode about anal lube.
K: Fair.
We open in the Fruit Roll Up Basement, where Xander, Anya, Buffy and Riley are watching kung fu movies. Anya’s arm is in a sling on account of the head wound she incurred in the last episode turned out to be an arm injury instead? IDK.
There were split opinions on the whole randomly throwing out the fact Buffy has a sister thing. It was strange to me, but I also know that I'm not the exact audience it was written for. I only mean that I had 10 years of pop culture to tell me Dawn would show up eventually and a bit of foreshadowing last season told me she was probably Buffy's sister. That's a ton of build-up all leading to about 10 seconds last episode where it was all, "AND BUFFY HAS A SISTER LOLOL."
Sweeney: When I first watched last summer I sent our group of bloggy friends a series of DAFUQ? emails.
Sweeney: When I first watched last summer I sent our group of bloggy friends a series of DAFUQ? emails.
Sweeney: Season 5 has mixed reviews from all of you, but anything beats S4 in my book, so let's get started and leave that disappointment behind us. Buffy is lying in bed with Riley and unable to sleep because she knows her relationship is doomed. Or because she knows there's a vampire out there waiting to be staked. Whatever. She gets up, runs through the cemetery and gets to staking before returning to bed, knowing that it's just her doing the slaying and no more Initiative, and all is well in the world.
Lorraine: I got all sorts of Buffy answering the call of duty vibes from this scene. A lot of those very! significant! moments in Restless told us about Buffy coming up against her slayer nature and really belonging to this world.
Lorraine: I got all sorts of Buffy answering the call of duty vibes from this scene. A lot of those very! significant! moments in Restless told us about Buffy coming up against her slayer nature and really belonging to this world.