Villans

[thebratqueen]

Let me start this out by saying that I did like the ep. I'm going to say that because I don't have much to say about the stuff I liked so this is going to give the impression that I thought the episode totally sucked. I don't think that. I actually think that this was BtVS's version of "Sleep Tight" - a good ep with good plot development that had some very unfortunate fatal flaws.

Of the good - I liked Dark!Willow. I liked most of the FX, I liked the concept of what Willow did with her powers and I liked how she tortured Warren at the end. But again of the good, this pretty much taps me out on comments. It was good, it was well done, I liked it, there's not much else to say.

So I gotta go to the stuff that was driving me nuts.

Directing. This was a badly directed episode. I'm kicking myself because yet again I didn't pay attention to the credits (I never do on Buffy beyond who wrote the ep and even then I forget sometimes) so I don't know who was behind the camera, but whoever it was did some sloppy work. There were some fatal flaws in the script here that good directing could have fuzzy-tigered us around but it just didn't. (See "Loyalty" over on Angel for a good example of directing that can successfully do this).

Emotions rang flat. Logic errors were glaringly obvious. And the emotions that should have connected us from one event to another didn't.

Part of my problem with the ep was that much as I Loved evil Willow, I had a hard time buying in to why she was evil. Yeah, Willow loved Tara, but their love was never a love of violent passion. Contrast Willow here with the Willow who went after Glory in The Gift - I buy that Willow. Tara was hurt, Tara was her baby, so Willow was going to take care of things.

The Willow of "Villans" broke into too much of an extreme by contrast. Now you could have gotten me there from here, but again here's where the flaw lies in the directing. When Tara gets shot Willow goes into quiet, earnest sobbing and bewildered denial. Then from nowhere she goes violent. Why? Yes, there are tons of reasons why but my point is none of them were on the screen. Since she was directed into the quiet response we needed to see a catalyst for the change. Either that or don't direct her to be quiet in the first place. Go for a more melodramatic "NOOOOOOOOO!" or something.

So that was my first problem with the direction of that scene. My second problem is both direction and writing. Why didn't Willow take a pulse? Why didn't she try to use magic to save Tara? I get that maybe she wasn't powerful enough but throw us a few sparks. She could try and then fail and that could be what gets her. Hell, why doesn't she call 911? Or notice the sirens outside? Or something? She does nothing to save Tara and I don't understand why.

Add on top of it she leaves the body in a heap. This is also why I had a hard time buying in to the violence of Willow's feelings. Yeah, the body is but a shell yadda yadda but grief doesn't care about that. Willow had enough time to change her clothes and she's not going to put Tara on the bed? Use magic to seal up the bullet wound? Say a soft goodbye? Or even a speech a la Spike of "I'll get the bastards that did this to you, baby, just you watch."? Dawn understood the importance of taking care of the body, so why not Willow who I'm supposed to believe cares this much?

It makes me wonder if in the shooting script there was something to this effect but it got cut for time. But then again you know my refrain - Throw me a line!

To contrast this though, I do want to highlight the fact that I liked that here we saw Willow take responsibility for what she was doing. I liked the "I'm not coming back" line. We needed more of this with the magic addiction storyline. Willow is telling us that she's making the active choice to do these things. Therefore it's her responsibility. I like that.

More logic problems though - I asked this after seeing the wildfeed and I'll ask it again: what was up with the car scene? Willow can apparently teleport herself and drive cars by magic (since we don't know offhand if she can do it the old fashioned way too) so why drag Xander and Buffy along? Why did Xander and Buffy go along? Why weren't they more vehement about Willow doing magic again? Why did it take until they were out in the desert before starting this conversation?

Then there's the next big logic problem - why was Warren running away in the woods? No, really, why? He's got a bad ass witch after him and he had hours to haul his ass outta town and Sunnydale is near an airport. What the fuck? How did running through the woods suggest itself as any kind of solution? He could have been on his way to Hong Kong by way of LAX by now, why wasn't he?? Give me something, anything! At least tell me he started out in a car, car broke down, Willow was right there and he had to hoof it. For fuck's sake he's got a jet pack.

And then there's my Marti Noxon problems. Let's get the small one first - Marti cannot handle this addiction metaphor. Not in any way, shape or form. And as you know one of my biggest beefs with the magic = bad = addiction thing is that they have never once explained to us why. That being said, I think the grand champion line of all time for just how badly they're handling this would have to go to Buffy's speech of "We are not meant to meddle in these things.... let's go get a locater spell." [TBQ slaps forehead in frustration] Sigh.

Of course this pales, though, to the bigger Marti Noxon problem. And before I get into this I've just got to ask - does Marti know that she's in charge? Did she miss that memo or something? Is she not aware that she Produces the damn show? She must not, because that's the only reason I can think of for why she keeps giving interviews saying "Spike is bad, Spike is evil, Spike can't be trusted" and then writes episodes that contradict that. Gah! Honey, it's your show! If you want him to be bad then write him bad, but don't write him as somebody trustworthy and then wonder why we think he's trustworthy!

You know you could have gotten me there from here. Admittedly mostly because it surprises me not at all that Marti "I'm a feminist" Noxon would completely disregard the seriousness of the attempted rape scene from last week (and, for Buffy's time, hours ago), but because of the chip I'd buy in to a "Dawn needs Spike, Spike can't physically hurt her, so okay" argument. But stop it there! Don't go on to have Buffy add that basically she takes Spike's word that he won't hurt Dawn!
Especially since Dawn matters more to Buffy than Buffy herself. I'm fine with a Buffy who's so depressed she doesn't care that she nearly got raped, but Dawn has always been the thing Buffy tried to protect above all else and no way can you get me to believe she'd put Dawn in a situation like that. Especially since Dawn wasn't in danger! Willow wasn't coming after her, there's no huge big bads in town - send her to Janice! Send her to Anya! Something! Dawn did not need super special preternatural backup here, she just needed a place to stay that wasn't home and wasn't being alone.

And what was up with the direction of Buffy when she found out Spike left town without leaving? I'm sorry but that came off like she was sad and she missed him. He just tried to rape her! Again, Marti - this is your show! Stop undercutting the "Spike is evil" stuff in your own damn eps if you want us to buy in to Spike being evil! It's just that simple!

Sigh. So you see what I'm saying - good ep, but some unfortunate fatal flaws. I'm ranking it right up there with Sleep Tight.