House of R - ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Season 5 Rewatch (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Mal and Jo are finally back in Sunnydale to continue their ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ rewatch! This time, they’re breaking down the first half of Season 5 (through Episode 10, “Into the Woods���). They talk about an incredible Spike episode, say goodbye to Riley, discuss the introduction of Dawn, and more! Plus, they give out some superlatives! (00:00) Intro(02:55) Opening Snapshot(45:12) Our favorite: S5E7, “Fool for Love”(01:13:26) Superlatives Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Mallory RubinProducer: Carlos ChiribogaProduction Assistant: Scott LeeStudio Production: Jacob CornettSocial: Jomi AdeniranAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

and welcome back to House of R. I'm Jonah Robinson, joining me today. It is the slayer of my heart. Mallory Rubin. Oh, forgive me, shiny special one. I beg of you to rip out my inadequate tongue. You're my glory. You're my glorificus. And I'm your drag. Dreg's actually pretty cool. I love a minion. It's Buffy Season 5. Right after this. Now more than ever, quality matters, but so does Price. At Marshall's. You don't have to choose. You can get the good stuff for less, the stuff that lasts. Because there's no point in tightening your belt if it's just going to break when you do.

Get the good stuff in store at Marshalls today. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life. saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca.com. Okay, quick programming reminders. Um, Buffy season five part one is today. Yes. Buffy season five, part two is next week. Oh my God. In between another

episode of lanterns, which are dropping on Mondays. A new episode of Ringer Quest is up on the Ringerverse feed. Another one coming next week. Wow. Cranking. All this content. Geez, crazy. Subscribe to the pod.

Follow us on on socials. Do it. At House of Our Pod on Instagram and TikTok, et cetera, et cetera. Email us, Hobbits and Dragons at gmail.com. Send us your Buffy Season 5 thoughts. We've already gotten some Buffy Season 5 emails. I'd like to see even more based on how many comments we got saying, where's Buffy Season 5? Here it is.

Now participate. Um, today's episode is Buffy Season 5, Episode 1, Buffy versus Dracula through episode 10 into the woods. Will there be slight smears of spoilers to the back half the season? Perhaps a little bit. Yeah, what's our, what's our, every time we reset on this, what's our process? I think there are some, like, I would say two massive major events that happen in the back half that maybe we just don't need to talk about. Great. But, I don't know. Glory's a God. I just feel like I kind of want to say that. even though that's not something you find out to the back half of the season.

I support you. Before we get into our opening snapshot and everything, I have a special Buffy Season 5 clip for you, Molly Rubin. This is just like, from the deepest core of my heart, Buffy Season 5 message to you. Are you ready? I'm so excited to find out what this is. I hope it's Riley flying away at long last. Close.

Here we go. And I'm still going to make you go to that doctor. That's me to you. Great stuff. Yeah. Someday you'll go to the doctor. Yep. And it will be because if I had Slayer's strength, I'd make you go, but I can't.

Listen, it's an interesting season to watch while thinking of how badly I need to seek medical attention. I'll say that. It's been impactful. You're beautiful. You're luminous. We want you to be well. All right. Anything else we need to mention before we get to the opening snapshot?

Let's snap. Let's do it. Delightful sound effects from Carlos. Shout out Carlos Chirovoga for giving us Buffy's sense. trick. The Howl of the Wolf. Makes us think of Oz. Oh yeah.

Makes us think of Seth Green. Makes us think of the Midnight Boys. Pugh-Pewo! Makes us think of the Midnight Boys. All right. Buffy Season 5, which aired September 26, 2000 to May 22nd, 2001. Here are the episodes. We will be talking about in brief and then one of them in depth.

The most important one. Maybe the most important episode of television ever? Let's talk about it. And then probably returning to it 20 times. times in the superlatives. It's Buffy versus Dracula, a very odd season premiere. I kind of liked it.

Real me. The replacement, out of my mind, no place like home, family, fool for love. Very important. Iconic.

Shadow, listening to fear, two, like, creature feature episodes back to back. A lot of special effects, questions, comments, are concerns on those.

And then, at long last, it's Riley's departure via helicopter. into the woods. Ten episodes, you had to wait. How did your heart feel as that helicopter lifted off? And Buffy, what a shame was just too late to stop him. Tragic. After that incredibly easy to understand, pitch from Zander to go chase your one true love. I almost punched a wall. Very odd. Fuck off, Sander. So you and Carlos had told me because I had insisted that you tell me. Yes. When? How long will

Riley Finn be in my life? So I remember, you know, you have these memories in your life, these core moments where you can almost see yourself outside of your body. You know, you're floating. I can like, whether this is a real memory or not, I don't know, probably not. But I see myself like when my dad was like, bye, parents are getting divorced. I remember when I was wearing these memories. Oh, when you guys said to me 10 more episodes of Riley. And I said 10 more episodes of Riley.

I can see all of us looking at each other. And I knew. You were so upset. Listen, I was glad to see him go, and I don't mind saying it. I am happy that he's gone. There were some interesting Riley moments in the story. I thought that Riley, we're in full spoiler territory now here for these 10 episodes. I thought that Riley and the vamp den was pretty interesting.

Provocative. Yeah, pretty interesting. Actually, I didn't mind that. Thrilled he's gone and excited to celebrate him slash kick him in the nuts one more time on the way up the door. I feel so mixed about it. I mean, I'm very happy he's gone. That's uncomplicated. But I think it's interesting in thinking about them writing him off.

I was trying to dig into sort of like what was at the other than clearly him not working as a love interest for Buffy. And clearly him being like a very boring character. So dull. Was there, were there any other reasons or at least reasons they gave? And Mark Blucus said in an interview that he did sign on for four seasons. So imagine that horror. I'd rather, I would simply rather not. They didn't even get four more seasons.

actually after he started. And then also, he kind of has claimed in certain interviews that it was like his idea, that he's like, Riley's not really doing anything. What do you say we write him off? And I'm like, okay, Mark, if you need, Mark Lucas seems absolutely lovely. delightful. Wonderful person. The fact that they wrote off Riley without killing him is something I always applaud.

Like, let's get a little bit more inventive than just like killing him off. And they really, they knew when they started the season that that's what they were doing. so they sort of really slow rolled it. But I think as a result, what that means is that a lot of the Riley stuff kind of dominates the first half of the season in a very unfortunate way. When I was watching the first 10 episodes, I was like, do I really like season five? Yeah. You know, and then I think there's enough good stuff in the first half. And then the back half is like once he's gone to huge sigh of relief, everything is a.

Yes. Spike just kind of slides into, you know, this role. and it's exactly what I wanted to be. Riley is not the only reason for this, but I will say, overall, without spoiling the particulars of the back half, we're going to talk about those 12 episodes, those 12 episodes in just mere days. I like season 5 overall, I put it third probably on my power ranking,

which is a living document until the end of the run. I think right now I'm 3, 2, 5, 4, 1. Okay. Probably. I'm not... You flip one and four? Yeah. Yeah. The first half of this season is not my favorite chunk of episodes

that we'll ever be discussing. Some highs, as you noted. But a lot of things that I loved about the show kind of changed in this stretch of episodes. And I don't mind spoiling that the back half is one of my favorite stretches, even though there are some episodes and though that are not all the time bangers, because there are a few episodes and just creative choices that are,

I have a deeper understanding of the way that this show has impacted, not only people I love like you, but storytelling because of some of the things that happened in the back half of this season. My favorite episode of the show to date is in the back half of this season, and I think two of the, certainly two of the 10 best episodes that I have seen so far are in the back half of the season. So I'm very excited for next week's pod. I don't know what your second one is.

That's exciting. We'll find out. We will. We will. And that could change because I have to rewatch them all still. But I mean, there's one that's just undeniable, obviously. I mean, undeniable. True.

To your point, yeah, the way in which, you know, we've had this category sort of throughout this idea of like school as hell as a category. And I just took it out of the dock the time because, like, they just kind of, there are a couple scenes of where they kind of pretend that Buffy is still going to college. But like, and like Tara and Willow live in the most ridiculous-looking dorm rooms you've ever seen, but they're still in school. But like other than that, the idea that this is a show centered around young people going to school. I mean, Dawn's going to junior high, I guess. But like is not really a thing anymore. And that's sad because it takes out. And we talked about this in the move from high school to college.

Yeah. But even more so here, it takes out this unifying principle of like we all do something together. And so they kind of try to replace it with like Giles buys the magic box and everyone like, Anya officially works there, which is great. Everything with like Anya and Giles own the magic box, I think is 10 out of 10 no notes. And then like Zander and Willow and Tara are often just like they're kind of also working there sometimes, you know? And which is like a little clunky, but like that's their replacement for we all go to school together. And then something I really struggled with these first 10 episodes. And again, one of my favorite episodes of all time is in this chunk.

And an amazing one. I cannot be mad about it. But I was like really missing the Willow and Buffy stuff. And I was like, this is my single Bair's note. There's barely any one-on-one Willow and Buffy conversations. Like they talk about Dawn a little bit. They talk about Joyce a little bit. But like in this first half, it's like Willow is Tara's girlfriend and learning some magic stuff.

but not really a character. And I looked it up because I was like, what's going on? And I believe Allison Hannigan was filming American Pie too while she was making the season. So I think she was like a bit preoccupied. She's kind of like, you know, lead of that movie. And so I think, I think that ate up some of her of her time and they accommodated that schedule. But like I couldn't really understand why Willow was so absent from the first half of the season. Yeah, it's, I feel very similarly.

So the volume of Riley stuff, obviously just for me, never going to be my favorite stretch of episodes. Okay. The college thing that you just noted is a huge, huge bummer to me. Like, I love, love, love that part of school. Now, both the presence of school and the school setting in their lives and the friendship aspects in which member of the Scoobies and which, like, you know, do a. or trio inside of a larger friend group spends the most time with each other. It's a little bit of a piece in the sense that there's a part of me that's like, okay, things change in people's lives.

And I actually like that, right? But I think that in the we can carry multiple truths in our mind at once version of assessing this, it's sort of undeniable that it doesn't quite feel the same when the – and we talked about this, obviously, in the season four pods. Like, I love high school stories and coming-of-age stories. I love college stories as well. And so college was a really interesting, like, as you are continuing to learn about yourself and new people and things and ideas and interests are coming into your life. Like, I missed that setting.

I think the need for Buffy to be focused on family was a kind of bold, creative, okay, sometimes terrible things happen in people's lives. Or there are changes. And I think that that is actually really interesting as a creative decision. I found myself so badly missing. Willow and Buffy and Willow Zander and Buffy specifically. And just in general, that college setting of like you're running into some guy you fucked the night before at the dining hall and he's a dick now. Like that stuff feels so central to kind of where we have found these characters so far. And so it almost felt to me a little bit like, again, I'm putting these things separate.

Something terrible has happened. Your mother is sick. You're trying to be present for your kid sister who's actually the McGuffin that is the key. That's in a different book. it, but like, it almost felt, I think in part because everybody is also in very serious relationships. Like, we fast forwarded multiple years in everybody's life. You know what I mean?

Everyone feels so old, especially when they're like looking after, like, when Tara and Willow are looking after Dawn or Zander and Anya are looking after Dawn, they feel like they're like late 20s, not 20. They're supposed to be 20. Yeah. And maybe in some cases, 19, you know what I mean? And they're behaving like they're in their late 20s all of a sudden. Yeah.

You know, especially I think we have the fun apartment hunt with Xander. And I did think that the Zander episode was wonderful, delightful. Yeah. But I was almost like, wait, it feels like everyone's ready to put down a mortgage, not just sign a lease. Yeah. All that said, Joyce, because one of the things I lamented about season four was like, where's Joyce? So Joyce and Buffy, that relationship, for deeply tragic reasons, being so centered was something that I found very impactful. I think glory is incredibly fun from the word go.

Yeah. And the spike stuff in this season is iconic and godtier and like unbelievably powerful. So there's a lot of great stuff in the season two again. I think the second half is better. I was going to save this for the Giles categories, but I will just note it at the top as we talk about kind of big picture thoughts. I have some bones to pick about what I will now be calling the D-Daddying of Giles. The fuck is this about?

What is this? Now, Giles going through his, am I useful? Like the ongoing journey of assessing what role he plays in their lives, I found that very touching. And the magic box, that's fun.

We need a new location, okay. New HQ for the Scoobies. Our guy Giles, Jenny, yeah, band candy, Olivia, the gigs,

singing and strumming. This guy, who is, walking, oozing sex, bought a place called Magic Box, and, like, very few sexy things happened with Giles inside of this season. I consider it a crime and a scandal. Just the season premiere, I guess, so far. Let's talk about that. Okay, so Dracula is the first season premiere, not written by Joss. I liked Dracula. I was fun. I'm medium like it. I mean, it's not at all time, but it was not a retardating. The main reason I don't like it, actually, from one of the categories.

Okay. Excit. First season premiere and art read by Joss. Marty Knox and gets the honors. And Marty will take over the show in season six a bit, like while Joss is busy doing Firefly and other things. So she's like really the air apparent. No two partners, which really stuck out to me when I was sort of like doing these notes on top of the season four notes. And like there's so many two partners in the season four. And in the first three seasons, of course. Yeah. And the fact that that's that.

idea is kind of gone here in season five is interesting. But more direct crossovers with Angel. Fool for Love most of all, which is like really hard for me to like not try to make you watch Darlo, which is the Angel episode that came out. They were so heavily advertised together. The same flashbacks are in both episodes except from different points of view. Okay. And so for example, when Angel is being such a little like being so pissy, at Spike about killing the Slayer during the Boxer Rebellion. It's not just that he's, like, jealous and mad that Spike killed a Slayer. He's actually re-insoled at that point. You just, like, don't know it when you're watching Buffy, and then you watch that scene

from his point of view and Angel, and he's, like, pretending to still be a vampire, but he's like, let's get out of here and not kill any more people. You know what I mean? Interesting. So I considered watching it. Yeah. Because I thought that Full for Love was. one of the most important installments in the history of television. Correct. You're right about it.

You're right about that. You should say so. Could not have been better. It was wonderful. Yeah. And so I thought, okay, the fact that there's a connected hour that could give me more of this, how could I deprive myself of it? I remain steadfast, though, that I will not watch Angel out of order. I just don't want to do it. It feels contrary to how I like to consume things. It's just very, it's very ploddy. But then again, it's like mild. boiler for the back half of the season five. Drusilla shows up and kind of spoils some stuff that's happening in Angel when she shows up the back half of season five of this show.

And so like I was like, uh, maybe she could have watched that episode, Darla. Anyway, something you think about. But this is the last time that Angel and Buffy will be on the same network because after this season, Buffy moves to the UPN, the UPN to UPN, and Angel's still on the WB. And so they can't really do these kinds of direct crossovers anymore once that happens. Okay. So this is sort of the last time they'll be that interconnected. We will still see some cross-pollination, but it'll be like special dispensation in order to do it.

I did like seeing Darla again. Yeah. It was fun. Great. Got a kick out of her. Drusilla being here. Fun. Always great.

Only three episodes of season were written and directed by Joss Whedon, and I think it shows. And in this first half, it's just the episode family. Right. Which I actually really like that episode. as well. A very thinly veiled metaphor, but you know, hey, Amy Adams is here and that's

always fun. Fucking Beth. Yeah. Cousin' Beth. Yeah, I like that episode as well. Looking through who are central to these first 10 episodes, it's like a Buffy episode, a Don episode, a Xander episode. I really like that Zander episode. Me too. Delightful.

Riley, Joyce-ish, glory kind of Tara, Spike, Joyce, Riley. And it's like, again, where's Willow? Also, you said Riley more than once. And disqualify. Just qualify. But this season is the season with the highest number of cast members with eight members of the principal cast from the episode Real Me to Into the Woods, which is wild. And we haven't even talked about Dawn yet.

Dawn. Tell me everything. Well, no, I want to hear from you. Like, I know you knew she was coming. I did. Yes. But I would like you to imagine. Okay, let me set the stage for you.

Please. Yeah. As I mentioned when we did season four, I skipped season four because I was like in the door, especially in New York College. We didn't have, we didn't watch TV that way. And I just, like, didn't watch it. And I didn't even catch up over the summer because, like, I don't know. I just didn't have that. I don't know. Yeah. I maybe saw an episode or two there, but I didn't, I didn't watch it. And then a friend of mine who turned out to be a very bad friend. But she was my Buffy friend for a little while. And she was into Buffy. And so beginning of sophomore year, she's like, come over and we'll

watch the season five premiere. Yeah. And so we watched Buffy together a bit that year. But I go over to her House, we're watching season five episode one. And I was like, Dracula's here? What? Yeah. And then I was like, what's going on with the show? And then Dawn's here? And like, no clue that was coming. You know? So like

the shock of of Dawn's appearance, not to mention some of the other surprises that wait at the end of the season, is just like, everyone was like, what the hell is going on here? Yeah. And then the next episode, you know, sort of.

But even when you rewatch Buffy versus Dracula at the beginning of the episode when Joyce is like, I'm going to have to get used to the house being so empty without you, you know what I mean? So it's like, okay, even as soon as several scenes ago, Dawn did not exist. So what was your reaction to her arrival? How did you feel she was used in this first half here? So this is one of the things about coming to a show with distance, right? I think I definitely told you this. I can't remember if I said it on the pot or not.

But, you know, you boot the show up. You boot up Buffy on Hulu. Oh, yeah. And the picture, the main art for the series is Dawn and Buffy. So I was like, huh. This is Dawn. This is Dawn who I've, like, I knew that Dawn was in the show, but I didn't really know, like, any particulars that she was the key.

The key, I think I did not know that she was Buffy. Sophie's sister. Mm-hmm. And I think I would not have understood how that could be possible, obviously. Right. But what I did know is that Dawn was going to become a major character. So that was kind of in my mind in a way that as soon as she appeared in the fifth season. It's crazy to say fifth season.

I know. On the one hand, I'm like, I can't believe that we have. Only two more to go? Yeah. That's God. We're near the end. It's sad. I kind of liked the Dawn stuff.

Yeah. I think that the, for a couple reasons. Though I have a question for you, one of the things that I didn't like as much, I'm really trying hard not to spoil back half of the season stuff as I say this. I'll keep it in check. And we have a Don specific category, so I'll hit more of the particulars when we get there that maybe like kind of flesh some of this out. Just broadly.

Yeah. I did want to ask you how much of this, if there's a sense of like what was determined versus discovered in real time. because it is a little bit. There's more, and especially re-watching these first 10 episodes, because I watched the whole season that I'm re-watching these episodes for the Part 1 Pod. Are they trying to fake?

How was it like we knew where this was going, but we're trying to just fake people out and put them on their heels that Dawn might know who she is, know why she's there, have malicious intent because there are more moments like that. Oh yeah, no, they knew. It was a fake out sort of thing. So when she's like, you know, she has no idea who I am or whatever.

And like the kind of very malicious, like, I'm going to make Joyce T. Dun, Dun, Don. I kind of like that, though. Like, we find out when Buffy finds out that, like, what Dawn is. I didn't mind it at all. I was more curious, like, were they actually open to a couple different paths potentially? Or was it always assured.

And then. So, okay, I, despite missing the, we're in the dorms, we're at college, we are in this very particular and specific college is college. And there's kind of nothing like it phase of our lives. I really liked, in general, just Buffy being back at home, back in the summer's home, back in the craftsman. Joyce being back is. Joyce being back, that relationship is so crucial. And so Dawn as a one of the, it's not just about Joyce, it's like Dawn is a reason, a real reason that Buffy has to be thinking about her family, right? She has this responsibility to a kid's sister.

And I liked the way that it evolved inside of these episodes and beyond from the real kind of like sisterly bickering and resentment. My kid's sister and Dawn has her resentment. My sister's the slayer. No one can understand it into, in part because of the conversation in the stretch of episodes that Joyce and Buffy have about it when Joyce has her clarity, right? Buffy resists and resents and then decides to protect. And I've always loved those aspects of Buffy's stories. So this felt like a really new and fresh, but of a piece way to, like, give us that aspect of Buffy's character where it is, there's so many aspects of this responsibility that she finds maddening and difficult and they pull her away from the parts of her life that she wants to live. And then because she's Buffy, not because she's the slayer, because she's Buffy.

She does it anyway. So I really liked what Dawn Unlocked on that front. I thought there was some obviously just very funny, like, my sister is fucking her boyfriend, so I have to leave the house. stuff and she has a crush on Xander stuff. Like all that's kind of fun. Anya and Don interacting iconic, it was hard not to pick that for like 40 categories. But the thing I liked best about it is the Linda

Lafian thing that we've talked about on a million pods. The greatest answer to a mystery is a person. The greatest answer to a mystery is a person. It's just like, it's a great one. So yeah, Lindelof first says that in regards to Desmond, but I think Dawn is like the perfect example of that.

What do you mean when you say the greatest answer? What is the key? The key is Dawn. She's child. She's a child that everyone has memories of all of a sudden. The way in which, like, Willow interacts with her, you know, and the way in which when you rewatch it, you know she's the key, when you rewatch the season from the beginning and, like, Willow says stuff like, oh, I don't know, I just always kind of feel protective of Dawn because of X, Y, Z. They're, like, programmed to protect, not just Buffy, but everyone is programmed to be protective of Dawn, which I think is, like, really, really sweet. The Dawn stuff, I would say, especially in this,

first stretch of the episodes really works for me better than I remember it working for me and I'll be curious if that remains true for the rest of rewatch or if the character will in any way wear out a welcome. I'll be curious to watch that.

Am I enjoying her character right now because I'm approaching it as a, you know, at a different time of my life or I'm interested in different kind of storytelling or have we just not gotten to the stretch of Dawn And then I'm just like, Dawn, she's still here. I could definitely see being a younger person watching this and being like,

Don is fucking annoying. I'm good on Don. I could definitely see that. But I guess I'm glad you brought up Willow and Zander and like the fact that everybody, because we've talked about this in other contexts, like a black mirror kind of, can you trust your own mind idea? Something I really like. So this idea of these false implanted forced upon you invasive memories, right? Meddling with your mind so that you don't have a sense of what is real in your

own life is so nefarious and insidious and foul. But it doesn't mean that the thing they feel for Dawn is not real. Yeah. Which is so interesting. It's just so interesting. So, yeah, like something about the way Willow calls her Donnie. Donnie. You know, there's like a depth of history and connection there that we come to understand

rationally, logically, is false. Yeah. But it doesn't feel that way to them. Like when the monk is dying and says to Buffy, like, she doesn't know that about Dawn. She doesn't know that. the accent. So, as you know, Adam had seen Buffy and loves Buffy and is watching it again with me and having a great time. One of the things that he was just could not stop laughing about this season was that I would say,

I would have to do an actual count. Maybe I'll keep track when we prepped for part two. But I'm going to say 95% of the previously ons included that scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was wondering why it was so indelible to me and I was like, oh, because you watched it every single time. It is at the top of every single episode. Incredible. All right.

So here's what Weeden said about why they put Dawn in the show, right? Our mission statement for season five was family. When you think you've moved on and grown up and moved out of the house and are living your life, family comes back. You realize that they're always a part of your life. Also, a very strong message with me is you make your own family, or sometimes it's made for you by monks. So the introduction of Dawn, redacted, the meeting of Tara's family, all that stuff was very deliberate. We knew year one of college's freedom and not a lot of mom, but Christine Southerly. And luckily, we're spending a year in Italy, so it's perfect.

God, goals. When we said perfect, then you'll come back and you'll be very heavy in season five and then yada, yada, yada. So, Glory and Buffy having similar motivations, which is like this, like, for glory, she just wants to go home. And for Buffy, it's to defend her home. And they're both after her, you know, find the key, protect the key sort of thing. Also, this idea of, like, family as an episode, as the one episode that just, Joss writes and directs inside of these first 10 episodes. He's like, here's the theme of the season, and here's an episode that we've titled

Family, in which Tara's shitty family will come and try to make her feel bad for being gay, I mean, actually, at college, and a demon and whatever. And Buffy has the line, like, we're family. I think especially after one of the scenes I love the most in family is when Zander and Buffy are talking about getting a family. present for Tara for her birthday. And they're like, she's so nice. She's so nice. They don't know anything about her. She's so nice. But like, but like, I don't really know. But she's so nice. And we like really like her. But, uh, you know, and then, but then when it's like time to circle

the wagons. Buffy's like, we're going to fucking circle the wagons around Tara. Let me tell you what. I really like that as well. And I think it's, you know, our scoobies are not perfect people. Right. They make mistakes. and they're very giving and very generous and very empathetic, but they're also because they're young people in the world, and this is true, very selfish and very insular sometimes. And so I like the idea, and I mean, that quote that you just read hits on both aspects of this,

because it has been so powerful, you know the thing I found myself forgetting watching this season that Buffy has not also known Zander and Willow their entire lives? That's the Xander-Willow bond, you know, the like, I'm proving I'm the real Zand-Ras. And I had to keep reminding myself that they have only known Buffy for a few years. And Buffy has only known them for a few years because it feels like they've known each other all since they took their first breath, right? And so the fact that it was so

powerful and life-altering for the three of them to forge that found family with each other, but that on just some level they haven't welcomed Tara into that. And Anya. And Anya. And like, I love the bickering between Anya and Willow, right? And like, the, I thought, that the moments where Tara voiced with some degree of like I sometimes it was well I'm asking you this because of dawn not because of me and then sometimes there was a little bit more like it's not all about your friends maybe that was about lashing out but boy it's tough to feel like you're outside of the Scooby gang right and that you it's so easy to understand that how true that would be totally that you you looked at and witnessed this this kind of unbreakable unflinching thing and you were

close to it and you were very close to one person inside of it but you knew that you weren't a part of it that's like really painful. And so I loved this episode acknowledging that and interrogating it and then finding a way to like widen the circle a little bit. And something I love about like the fact that it's challenging for terror, it's challenging for Anya. You know, Dawn is the kid's sister is like, you know, knocking on the door. Spike is, you know, has his own motivations for wanting to be closer to them, et cetera. Boy, does he. But then you think back to someone like Oz who like it was so easy for him. him because he's just Oz and he just doesn't like overthink these things and he's just sort of like I'm here. Here I am. Now I'm a part of it. You know what I mean? Or Cordelia

didn't really care that much about being a part of it. So she like was but she was also like but I could take it or leave it. I'm fine. Yeah. But she still had that thing, Cordelia still had that thing with Xander where she was just sort of like your precious Buffy like your precious Willow like you'll never choose me

over them. On the family front I just want to shout out yes, Amy Adams is here. Kevin Rankin, who shows up in like one gazillion TV shows Frontin'atlights, lost, you know, justified. Yeah, the devil himself on Justified. Like, I just love seeing Kevin Rankin every time. He's a piece of shit in this episode, but, you know.

And then Tom Link, I want to shout out. Tom Link is in season 5 episode two. He plays one of Harmony's minions. Harmony is minions. Incredible stuff from Harmony in these episodes. Tom Link is a very, plays a very important character. Season 6. Oh, exciting.

And so it's just one of those moments where you're just sort of like, oh, Tomlin came in and played like a random minion. I think you never see him out of his vampire makeup as that minion. Right. And so then, like, when they brought him back to play someone else entirely, they were just sort of like, you won't notice. It's fine. Okay. But it's really weird to see him there. And then I just want to shout out Miss Kitty Fantastico.

This is her last appearances in family. Nothing, like, happens to where they just kind of like forget she exists. And I just really love her and wanted to save her a flower. Same, obviously. Same. Yeah. Here's another weeding quote on Dawn and sort of what they wanted to do this season. He's like, in the same way Dawn was the next Riley ominous. When we did Dawn, part of the mission statement was, let's have a really important intense emotional relationship for Buffy that is not a boyfriend because let's not have her be defined by her boyfriend every time out of the bat. So season five, she's as intense as she was in season two with Angelis, but it's about her sister to me that was really beautiful. And I love that as a mission statement. I don't know that I agree that this, especially these first 10 episodes are not Buffy as defined by her relationship with Riley. Totally. And then, like, the Spike Buffy dynamic becomes very definitional going forward. And so there's something our producer Carlos said that he really loved about season five,

that he was like it's not as much about Buffy and her boyfriends. And in, like, a certain way it's not. And I agree with that. But I think in other ways, it doesn't really fulfill that prompt, especially given how much time is spent on the Buffy Riley dynamic in these first 10 episodes. So, yeah. I'm willing to return to that idea in the second part of the season. Not in this one, though.

Anything else do you want to say about the magic box is the new library? I feel like we already kind of touched on this. I think just that even more so than the high school library, this really pushed the ability to accept that nobody hears what they're talking about and has follow-up questions. It's just, I mean, especially when this becomes a booming hub of commerce. Yeah. And there's just their, like, dedicated research table that's like, you know, in the middle of the store.

Hilarious? Yeah. Yeah. Joyce will get into more in part two. Yes. Glory. Wonderful stuff. What do you want to say?

Fun. Claire Kramer. Really fun. Claire Kramer, yeah. Really, really fun. I, you know, the second that we see Ben for the first time, literally the second that we see him for the first time. And he introduces himself at the hospital and he's in his scrubs. I'm an intern.

Very shortly thereafter. We're running into him again. He's picking up pills from the floor. I'm like, this guy's going to be connected. to something, you know, immediately. Did you think maybe he would be like a new love interest for Buffy? I think a lot of people, that's what a lot of people thought, was just sort of like we're seeding in another possibility if Riley's leaving or something like that.

Yeah. Glory is, you know, I think I don't mind spoiling a category. But Gloria will be returning in Fitwatch, you know, just some iconic looks from the word go. Like red leather dress that she wear. I mean, red is her look, but there's this one like sort of burgundy red, I think when she goes into the magic box, to buy some items. That was very funny. That whole sequence. Really amazing.

So yeah, it's a strong start and, you know, obviously more to discuss in the next pod. But very intriguing and captivating. It's just kind of purely entertaining right away. And then there are a lot, very fun. And then there are a lot of, like, very intriguing parallels that are also nice. It's interesting. So this, like, idea of, like, so glorificus, the beast, that which cannot be named the Abomination, not the only Harry Potter reference this season.

A literal god. So, okay, that's something we find out in the back half, but I feel like it's worth talking about here. To go from Vampire, the Master, to Vampire Angelus or Spike or Dusillo, whoever you decide is the big bad of season two. To a demon, the mayor, to a fucking initiative. A Franken Adam, whatever. Tough. It's really tough when the initiative comes back this season. You're like, no.

Graham, go away. What? Insane moment with the doubles and her Riley's like, doesn't anybody else just want to put them in separate rooms and do experiments? Oh, no, nobody else wants me to reference the initiative, which we all love it so much. Just like, get this guy out of the show. Like this is episode three, I have seven more to go. To a God.

Yeah. And I guess the question I have, and we'll ask ourselves at the end of the season, where do we go from here? Where do we go from here? From a God to where? Okay, so what was Jesus, my God? fucking brain. When was, which season was the first evil? Oh, amends season three. So I remember at the time being like, that feels like one to file away. And especially with glory here, the conversations in this stretch of episodes about like, can't find anything in the books. Possible that it predates

language itself, the idea of something not new, but in fact very old. That feels like maybe something we'll return to. I have no idea in the next two seasons. So that's a possibility. While I really liked glory, I really like glory, I, we didn't say this at the top. I do think this stretch of episodes in particular felt a little vamp light to me. Yeah. A little vampire light. So she's the first big bad without even any vampire minions. Even the initiative had some like vampire stuff going on with them.

Yeah. I don't want to lose the, obviously we have, I mean, Spike is here. We get the vamp junkie den. There are vampires. Harmony's here with her miniar gang. Incredible stuff. But like I don't, I hope we don't lose the tether to that core. You know, something where like we have the Queller episode, the meteor crashes and it's like, oh, well, extraterrestrial.

Like the idea that we keep widening and widening. Quiller insane stuff. In some ways, it's interesting. It's the snake monster and the queller back to back that I really. if I had been in the season five writers and might have been like, do we want to put something between these two episodes? Maybe it's better to just get them out of the way back to back. But yeah, it's like, I don't know,

the idea that anything that is paranormal or supernatural would be the purview of the Slayer and the Scoobies is fun and gives the show room to, like, evolve and play. But there is something about just like the vampire slayer of it all that I think needs to remain central. And Glory is like, ugh, a slayer, how beneath me. How fucking common. Yeah.

That was pretty funny. Yeah. So Claire Kramer, who, I don't know why I'm starting up her name. If you rewatch Bring It On, which, of course, features the great Eliza Dushku. Claire Kramer is also very important in that movie. And so that's, like, such a fun, like, Buffy adjacent to have, like, faith in glory and bring it on any time you want to go watch that particular movie. A Buffy double, obviously.

they cast her, you know, a, what did they say? Like, petite, blonde, fashionable, you know, quippy, like all this sort of stuff like that. Like, she's supposed to be a Buffy double. But also a Cordelia sort of replacement, like, if they're feeling like an absence of that sort of bitchy Buffy energy that Cordelia brought. A lot of sass. And they lampshade it, right? Like, she was kind of like Cordelia actually is what Buffy says. They lampshade the magic box, too.

Like, Sanders said something about, like, you ever think you'd miss the high school library, right? Like, we know what we're doing. We're giving you a Cordelia replacement. We're giving you a high school library replacement in these moments, and we're just going to say it. But I just think it's interesting about, like, we talked about all these doublings or these sort of, like, mirror reflections, like, faith as the dark side of Buffy or, like, you know,

what do all these foils bring to us? This season, I don't know why it seems different to me to, like, talk about it as like a schism within. Yeah, sure. You know, the demon and the not demon parts of Spike, which we will talk about, or just sort of like the losing your mind aspect of all of these. Or like, what is Dawn? Is she an entity? Is she a little girl? How is she, how can she be both? The fake demon inside of Tara, you know, like the splitting of Xander into his best self and his most hapless self. I was definitely, I definitely had my like most hapless self, Zander morning this morning when I

I was telling Arjuna and I dumped my smoothie all over me. Oh, no. And then I nearly got into an accident on the freeway. I also nearly got in a car accident this morning. And then when you waved to me in the parking garage, that was right when I had dropped my laptop out of my laptop bag onto the concrete ground of the parking garage. And I was just like, should I just go home? That's what it felt like today.

Oh, boy. All right. This is, oh, we got an email I thought that was interesting about lanterns and Buffy from one of our listeners. Pat wrote in to say, this last episode of lanterns got me very much thinking about relationships between people competing for the same role in Buffy in particular. Kendra came into the show as the proto slayer. Buffy called her technique flawless, but then observed she still would have kicked Kendra's ass. Too much rule following and listening to Superior is not enough improvisation and charting your own path. John is very much the Kendron the situation needs to learn to let go a bit.

His strict upbringing and is searching for the right answers at moments to give the guardians are proof of that. But is how buffy or how much faith does he have in him? The ring choosing him being the ultimate justification for anything he feels is necessary. He has Sinestra whispering in his ears. And he is far from a Boy Scout in the comics. I love how wide open both characters' paths feel right now and can really see how going a variety of directions before the season ends. Interesting. So I just love to think about that about like this.

idea and in all of our like lanterns research that we've been doing as we process that show, the idea of the lantern as, um, similar to like the flat, like there's Superman, that's Clark Kent and there's Batman and that's Bruce Wayne and there's Wonder Woman and that's Diana Prince, right, you know, and then there's like Green Lantern, which can be a number. It's a rank. It's a moniker. And, you know, so thinking about the guardians and the watchers and like, you know, this idea of it being the watchers don't get to pick the slayer but they feel like

they are the tether for the slayer seek to control and guide I mean it's a great email to consider on the heels of what you were just tracking about the the various doubles or versions of that we've gotten because I you know

to the Toth Xander point you know I wondered why you didn't wave back and now I know I was like is my car so dirty the joke couldn't tell it was me. I was like, genuinely my laptop was craning to the ground as he waved to me. Stop.

I really, I really loved, I'm stepping on, I think, if I remember the picks I made a pick that I had for one of the categories. But like, I really loved the way that that led Buffy to think about the different aspects of herself. And not only what might be appealing for other people in her life, like that fucking drip Riley. but for her. So you think about like someone else is a version or a mirror or a double, but then thinking about the versions of you that you carry inside of yourself and whether those could possibly exist independent of each other, right? But also like I love that episode, episode three,

not just because that shot of the two Xander sort of laughing goofily at each other will be in the opening credits for the rest of the show. And so it's just like one of those like indelible. images for me, but like, but just the idea of like the best version of you get splintered off and you see them accomplish these things and you're like that there has to be magic or sorcery or, you know, the shiny little coin thing or like whatever is afoot because I certainly, there's nothing in me that could achieve that could have ever accomplished that. That's just, I think, a stunning thing to think about.

All right. Anything else you want to say before? we get into my favorite episode. Let's do it. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th,

join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the five, and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca. All right. Wait, your favorite episode?

Not ever. I mean, that's... No, but I was having to... Yeah, it's definitely passion. But I was having to reconsider my top five. Because, like, it's definitely passion and definitely, like, you know, surprise and innocence are up there.

And some of the ones that we haven't gotten to were gotten to discuss yet or certainly, but like, I genuinely think Fool for Love has to be in the top five for me. It's so good. It might be number five, but it might be higher. I just need to like, to your point, it's a living document, but I just need to like, I was like, there's, I don't think when I've, like, rattled off my top Buffy episodes that this has been one that I've named, but it is one that I go back to again and again. And it was one that you were partially familiar with because I had pulled out clips from it in some of our previous episodes, trying to find a non-spoiler way to do it, but really kind of failing.

Season 5, Episode 7, Fool for Love, written by Doug Petrie, directed by Nick Mark. Nick Mark, I want to say, directed Something Blue, an episode we really loved. Love for Love, Full for Love, Checkpoint, which is later this season, it's a good episode. Life Zero, which is a good episode. Double Meat Palace, which is an infamous episode, but I'll be curious how you feel about it. Beneath View, which is a great episode in Conversations with Dead People, which is an Alzheimer episode. So like a really good track record for this particular director.

This is another episode, another banger episode seven. We talked about this previously, like lie to me and some other like incredible episodes that we've highlighted before. It's been the seventh episode of a given season. I wanted to read this email from our listener, Allie, who said when I first watched Buffy in early high school on a slow internet connection at the beginning of Netflix streaming, Spike on the subway in Full for Love was the hottest thing I had ever seen. Co-Sign. In 2026, rewatching it, James Marster remains top-tier hot, but I was struck by how perfect the writing and editing are to make the moment work. Yeah.

This whole episode, and especially a transition despite speaking directly to Buffy within the memory, is a swing even for a show accustomed to taking swings. But the way it's cut together works, keeping you in the moment with Buffy as she's working through her desires and destiny. And so on this rewatch, I found myself sort of horny for the skill of storytelling as well as for the eyeliner and a British accent. Yeah, why not both? You know? Incredible. Tell me your top-line thoughts about Fool for Love.

Oh my God. I thought it was magical. That email actually really captures it quite well because it is an incredibly sexy episode. You know, the buffy spike dynamic. I continue to be sort of awed by the show's ability to give us a little taste of a thing it knows we want without going all the way in. It's just unbelievable. So, you know, we had our. were under a spell

and suddenly going to get married snuggling on Giles's armchair, something blue stretch, which was just very powerful and wonderful. You know, we've gotten different versions of it. We build inside of this season. Impossible to leave this out of the categories, but the sex dream that Spike has

when he realizes how he feels about Buffy. At the end of episode four, shout out the episode art for that episode for spoiling that that was coming in the episode. I was like, what's this? But, you know, we kept getting little. And this is a thing across stories. Someone has a dream.

So you get to see your shipping, or you're in a will, they won't they. And you get to see them kiss, but they haven't actually the show or the book. It's not really yet. Not onto that place where they can't walk it back. Yeah. So you can keep the tension,

that palpable yearning and need of the tension alive. This is just an incredible version of it. And I think that this, in full for love, I mean, it's a wonderful, wonderful spike episode. but it's also a wonderful Buffy episode. And that is what sends it into the stratosphere. Structurally, creatively, this idea of like, I am vulnerable. It took a fucking wound to the gut.

What is happening? What is going on? There's a sense of vulnerability more broadly for Buffy because, like, Joyce is not feeling well. There's this larger sense of like, you know, we have a great moment with Anya. And Glory beat the shit out of her. Glory kicked Buffy's ass, right? Handled her with ease. We have something like Anya.

You know, I loved the little Xander's trying to be like suave by mimicking Riley's massage. And Anya's like, ow, I dislocated my shoulder. But then that's comedy, but it builds toward a very sweet and poignant Anya Zander conversation about like, oh, you've realized what it means to be human. So there's this sense across the season of just confronting some level of the ticking clock, right? And so then Buffy and Giles having that moment where Buffy's like, I need to understand. I need to understand what has happened to the Slayers before so that I can avoid that happening to me. and the delicious moment of realizing that the Slayers, their journals, the histories, the watcher accounts, no one will be able to answer that question because the Slayer died.

The only person who could do it is Spike, who took down to is just like one of the all-time chef's kiss premise moments for how to get them in this place where Buffy is seeking the counsel of this figure who has been a simultaneous foe. you know, nemesis, threat, pain in the ass, and multiple times now an ally. Always of need, right, some sort of like there's a some sort of convenient moment or reason that they have to team up. But there's something more so for Spike than for Buffy that draws them to each other beyond that. Almost always.

Except, like, in a few episodes before this one in family, when he shows up and he's like, I'm going to watch these demons kill her. And then he like, I don't care what happens. And her, and not just saves her, the object of his crush, but, like, does this solid for Tara. I mean, he punches her in the face. But, like, you know, when he says, I like you to her dad when he's like, you're a real piece of shit, I like you. But, like, that's something that he does that is, like, an ally thing to do. Yeah.

Yeah. And there's, like a, I mean, obviously. Wrapped up in violence because of Spike. Spike is always doing horrible things. The way he treats harmony continues to be, like, totally reprehensible, you know. But he is, like, he's just. such a fascinating figure because I find

you know when we watch across this season him sink back into bad tendencies or his true nature depending on how you like what lens you're looking at it through it's interesting to kind of consider when we shift in our internal assessment of spike from

a bad guy who's capable of good things to someone I have convinced myself can be a hero and then he backslides and then the show reminds you of who he actually is Yeah. So it's just amazing. And then the getting the glimpses of history and like something like, you know, realizing that the monocers, right, William the Bloody and even just Spike and the railroad spikes, like that these were wounds that other things people said about him to hurt him. Your poetry is so bad, you're William the Bloody. And the idea of Spike is a character who reclaims something to say this is a sort of my spin doctoring is always on. And I'm going to like lean into this as something that is a badge of honor for me and like rebrand, right? It just all was great And the end scene on the porch is just unbelievable

It's just unbelievable So there's a couple of things that I want to mention It's funny because we spent our episode earlier this week On Lantern's talking about a flashback episode And like what makes a good flashback episode And so like thinking about You know this is An origin story for a character

Several seasons into Their existence on the show Thinking about that tension between what's going on in the modern day versus what's going on in the flashback. And it's like more of a sexual romantic tension versus like propulsive action tension that I was talking about. Spike to me is the blueprint of a character on an arc what you're talking about in terms of like when we talk about a Sawyer or a Jamie Lanister or something like that. Like Spike who, to your point, all those guys are on a slow crawl and an occasional backslide. Spike more than anyone else is just like one toe in front of another very, very slowly making us way.

for that crawl towards something or is he ever going to get there? We don't know. And I just think it's like excruciating and exquisite. Spike is an unreliable narrator, so you've got that tension inside of this flashback in terms of like when he says, what can I say, baby, I've always been bad. And then you cut to him as this like foppish poet, you know, Willie and the bloody awful poetry. Like it's just incredible. And then, yeah, all the things that have made him. where he got the name Spike, where he got the scar on his face, a real Indiana Jones with a whip sort of moment for him.

And the fact that he's been walking around in this sort of like, this thing that he, souvenir of killing a Slayer. That it's, that Slayer's name is Nikki Woods. Like he's wearing her coat and has been since the moment we met him. And so that shocking moment, I don't know if it's like, occurs to you the second you see her. But when he starts pulling that coat off of her and you're like, holy shit. Yeah. He has been wearing a dead Slayer's coat this whole time. It's an incredible TV moment.

Really, really great. I thought the entire subway sequence in part for what the email that you read outlined, like the breaking of the fourth wall. Yeah, the breaking of the wall the way that Spike is talking across time to Buffy and to us. and the substance of what he is saying. Those are one of just my favorite monologues in the show to date. I mean, it's incredible and very rich text thematically to parse.

But the idea that for Spike, because there are trophies, but he's wearing a skin, right? And it's in part because he wants to say, look, how big and bad I am, I took down my second Slayer, but also that he's a character who kind of wants to cloak himself

in the thing that he says he's better than her fears because he has a draw to it. And that's so much of what he's, saying to Buffy in that stretch about death is like the thing that you think you're avoiding and seeking to fend off or thwart is the thing that on some level you crave. And so Spike is a character who is constantly interrogating something about nature, his own or someone else's, but always lying to himself until you glimpse the depth of the truth is perfect. And like,

you know, the performance is so wonderful. His face is just so expressive and like a moment, you know, elsewhere, but a moment like when he has taken. Buffy to the Vampden because he wants to, he's falling in love with her, he's hot for her, he wants to fuck her and he can't wait to like, Narke on Riley. Narke on Riley. But the look on his face when he sees her walk out and sees how broken she is by this and how devastated and he's like, I did that to her. Like I made her feel that way.

And for a second, his face just collapses and crumbles. And, you know, so he comes to the summer's house at the end with the fucking shotgun. Yeah. Talking a big game, ready to show how tough he is. I've got my mannequin back home and we've done some fun role play, but I'm going to draw the line here. You can't hurt me anymore. And all it takes is one look at how shattered she is for all of that to melt away. Marces has this way of, like, it's incredible.

He has this way of, I'm sorry. You're having like a religious transcendent experience right now. It occurred to me this last time I rewatched it where in that scene when he sees her on the porch. Yeah. And it's not one of the, it's not the moment we have clips, so I, I feel fine describing it. He's looking at her with this, I'm an, I've come to kill you face. And it softens. And so it's like, Marsha can do this thing, this like thing where he like devamps his own face without the special effect.

Yes. You know what I mean? And it's just sort of like spike drops and William comes out. Yeah. And that's just an insane thing that he can do. It's so good. Okay. Let's go back to the beginning.

this incredible piece of lore which is Spike's poetry Can we watch this clip, please? My heart expands. It has grown abulgent inspired by your beauty

effulgent. Effulgent. It's grown abulgent. It's like, But a fold, I like can't hear the word of fold. Without thinking of this. Without thinking of this. It's like, it's perfect.

But grown a bulge in it? I mean. Oh my God. And shout out, I mean, shout out Spike's Flashbag wig. It's pretty phenomenal. Really good. Okay. And then the idea of the death of the slayer is, is something this season is obviously

like incredibly, I mean, the series is interested in thinking about Kendra, thinking about faith, thinking about these young women in their and their expiration dates and all the sort of stuff like that. thinking about this and how for Spike, okay, thinking about the way that Spike was made, when you see the moment that Drusilla first sees him in the Angel episode. So like he sort of, he's humiliated. Cessly's been like, you'll be beneath me, you know, like, well, blah. Which will be echoed in what Buffy says.

But Buffy, like, he doesn't tell Buffy this story. I know, yeah. So Buffy just says it. But, okay, but he's, he's, you know, he's upset. He's dashed out into the street. and he bumps into Darla, Angel, and Drusilla, but you don't get to see Angel and Darla yet. You know Liam's flashback wig when you see it,

but like, you know, that's them walking the other way. Yeah. In the Angel episode, Drusilla's like feeling a little bit like a third wheel or whatever, and she's like, you know, maybe I'll find myself like someone like wonderful and dashing at hands and blah blah, blah, and then he comes bumbling past. And Darla's like, or he could just turn the first. first idiot you see, you know, and then she goes and finds him in the alleyway. And so we,

from Spike's perspective, like this moment where Drusilla finds him and she can read his thoughts. And so, you know, she's saying everything that he needs to hear. And he is, and she, like, grabs his dick. And so he is, like, extremely, like, turn on. So this, like, muddying of sex and violence and love and how that from the beginning for him has been, like, a completely confusing mess. And so we get this post Boxer Rebellion shout out the special effects

and the costume and all the sort of stuff in this episode. But the post boxer rebellion slage and the Spike and Drusilla sexy encounter that we get here. Can we watch this clip, please? I ever hear them say the blood of a slayer

is a powerful aphrodisiac. Yeah. Have a taste. Important. I felt like I should include that. Anything you want to say about that? You know. Juliet let that.

That was great. When I'm taking my notes, what I do is like for the Buffy pods, I'll write down like a key line or something. And then I put the contenders for the categories under it. And that one was like, you know, look, could have just licked the finger. But we got the full suck. And it's a vampire. So we should always get the full suck. We should.

Very powerful, very important. Always be sucking. That is, I believe, Drusilla's motto. I also love, you know, to your point about these various wounds being how he has fashioned his persona. I also love thinking about when Spike sort of froze his look because a lot of times you meet vampires on this show and they are just sort of like locked it. So in this very episode, we meet the guy who gets the best of Buffy in the graveyard. is this sort of like hair metal 80s vamp, you know, and from the very beginning when Buffy's like, that guy's a vampire because of his, like, he's got disco clothes on, you know what I mean?

Like, this is something we've always, like, thought about in terms of vampires is like, when is their look frozen? And not all, you know, obviously, like, Angel has made himself over. I love when he's, like, making fun of spikes change an accent when, of course, Angel dropped his accent, et cetera, et cetera. Frankly, how dare he? But so Spike's, you know, Billy Idol sort of like late 70s look is his look. But I don't have a good answer for it, but I just like this idea of like he decided to press pause right then.

And it wasn't what he looked like when he was made. He's bleached his hair. Does he have to constantly bleach his vampire hair? I don't know the answer to that. Or did he just bleach it one? And that was it. and you can bleach it no more. I mean, I would have guessed the opposite.

Like, it's got to do a touch-up every day. Because, you know, think of the healing factor. Sure. Yeah. Those follicles are just repairing himself. I told you that Marcers just, like, had, like, scabs on his scalp from, like, how often they bleached his hair. Poor guy. Oh, my God.

Spike. But, yeah, like, I don't know. I'll be curious if any of our listeners have any thoughts about spikes look freezing there. Like, the last time he killed a Slayer. Yeah. Or, like, was that? Was that him feeling the height of his? I mean, it's an incredible look.

He looks amazing. He really does. Shout out that Julie enters the antlers of the chaos demon, which was promised to us in Lovers Walk when Spike is talking about Drew leaving him. I was in tears. I was laughing so hard when we panted that. Incredible moment. And the revelation's out of that episode that Drusilla is like, from so early on, you're obsessed with Buffy. can smell her on you.

Yep. You know? Yeah. And, you know, Spikes Revelation is so recent. But if you then go back and watch from Lovers Walk through season four. Right. And thinking about it in that context of like if Drusilla's right, which she is like, you know, all of his fascination with her from when, from their joining forces in season two on, like, when did this happen? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, especially because Spike is a character who just perseverates and can't stop thinking about the things that people have said to him or done to him. So, like, the idea that every single moment of encounter he's thinking back to what Drusilla said to him, like, kind of undoubtedly. Yeah. Fascinating. I mean, I think that what aspects of something that Spike says or hears kind of continue unabated and what, like, which aspects of you're, going to be flip at some point.

Like also in this episode, you know, in the early, the love confession and the poetry sequence, the, you know, I know I'm a bad poet, but I'm a good man. And then the idea that so much of our time with Spike has been defined by him saying out loud, I'm bad, baby. You know, it's like there's a, because both of those things are present there. There's like this need. The thing that does not change is the need to say out loud, this is what I am. This is who I am.

This is how I am. But he flipped it. Yeah. Because he had to, because he felt like that unlocked something about him. Because he was so vulnerable when he was his like, you know, spongy little poet lover boy. The lover boy aspect of Spike, which has always been part of his character from the very moment we met him. Just a big wife guy. Yeah. When Drew walks in and he drops the vamp face and he just sort of like softens when he sees her. But also, like if you think about one of the first times, I think it's the first time he sees her, that Spike goes to the bronze and Buffy is.

dancing and he's just sort of like stalking and watching her for the first time. And it's kind of like, was it actually then? Yeah. The same as Angel from the first time he saw her. Yeah. Helpfully here at a club instead of coming out of school. Yeah. Not as... Still have some notes for Angel on that one. Oh, so many. Okay. And then we need to talk about the cadence of the final flashback, which is, we cannot show you the whole thing, obviously, but like it is shot like it's building to an orgasm. Yes. Just the rhythm. The of the language, a subway train, like, hurtling through tunnels and, and just sort of all of that. And then, of course, the, like, the eye contact as he is.

And then talking about, you know, dancing as a metaphor for sex or, like, death as a metaphor for sex, which has always been, or a metaphor for orgasm as it has always been. Building toward a real good day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Let's go ahead and watch this. Death is your art. You make it with your hands day after day. That final gasp, that look of peace.

Part of you is desperate to know what's it like. Where does it lead you? I mean, listen, just fucking compare that. Compare that to, it's like all the tension just left my body. Oh, really? I had that on the schedule for later on. For Riley. Yeah. That final gas.

I have to believe, just because I know that they're musical nerds in the writer's room at Buffy, that when he says that final gas, that he does that repetitive of that, I have to think that's a reference to rent. There's a lyric, that drip of hurt, that pint of shame goes away as just plays the game. That sort of like lyrical use of language. But, yeah, I just, I mean, the way the lights go out and he's like flipped and, you know, Nikki was like on top of him, had the jump on him. And then he flips and he's just on top of her. And then he just like cuts up to, you know, like the whole thing had been cut where like they're fighting in the present day. And he's fighting Nikki and sort of like blows exchanged or cut together or the twirling of the pool cue and the twirling of the bit of the subway pole. Like all of that stuff together.

But then, yeah, when he just like looks up at her from the past. into the present is like just a stunner of a TV moment. Yeah. It's so good. And on the, what is this all a euphemism or a stand in for and that like idea of connection and sex and pleasure and release more broadly, but that specifically the idea of them, part of you is desperate to know what's it like. Where does it lead you?

You know, oh my God. Powerful. This is the, this is a, this is the part I clipped for. our greatest speeches and I just like couldn't leave it out like I felt bad including it but I just had to because it's just so good. Support you fully. Support you fully. Or maybe I didn't know. I think I used something else for speeches. What did I use this for? I can't remember. Who knows? Great. Enemies to lovers? Maybe. And then let's go ahead and just see Spike and Buffy together on the the back porch of the summers craftsmen. Like you can kind of only barely hear it but genuinely

astounding and kind of sacrilegious, they use the Buffy and Angel love theme there. Uh-huh. Which if I'm Angel, if I'm David Bariannis, I'm like, get my love theme out of your mouth. But that's like, that's astounding work. But yeah, it's an incredible moment. And like so much of Riley's boring story this season is about how like Buffy won't let him in. And like, yes, this is circumstantial. He just happens to show up when she is crying and vulnerable and upset.

on the back porch here. And he will then throw it in Riley's face after he's caught sweater sniffing in Buffy's room. And then not caught, but also panty swiping. Spike! It's just like, oh, she said that you didn't know? I knew since last night. There's a thing in the second half of the season that we won't spoil. But I was texting you like, don't do it, Spike, don't do it, Spike.

And you're like, well, he's got to do it. He's definitely going to do it. Then you kind of changed your mind on it. I did. And we're, fuck it, we're sick. I did share those texts with Jenny and Kristen. They were fans. Oh, my God.

So my pal's Jenny and Kristen, who I mentioned, obviously, every time we talk about this, who hosts the buffering podcast, we did a live show years ago, I think before I started working here for Fool for Love. And it was in San Francisco. And we definitely made fun of Angel's Axis. But my favorite thing that happened is that Jenny did an example of what it looked like when Spike, like hops over that barrel in slow-mo, which was in every promo for the, you know, and is in both the Darla episode and this episode. It's just like so bad and cheesy, but also great at the same

time. It worked. So like Jenny on the stage, like did an example of it and Kristen took it and slowed it down and put, like put up a slow-mo version of her doing it. But the whole gang is there and spice. Did you guys walk alongside in slow-mo? I don't think we did the full. We really should have supported her there. Sounds like an opportunity to revisit this. You're right. You know. You're right, you're right. I'm sad I wasn't there in the audience. That must have been a magical evening. Incredible episode.

What a wonderful experience it was to watch this. On the porch scene, sometimes the simplest moment is the most effective and powerful, right? The writing and the show, the prose, the stylistic choices, it could be kind of so gobsmacking and so gorgeous. Spike sees Buffy there, and he just says, is there something I can do? That's it.

is there something I can do? And there's a gentle, genuine desire to know. Not a, like, Riley, I need you to need me aspect of it, though obviously that's our kind of for everyone. But like, is there something I could do? Because I care about you and I don't want you to be sad, even though I came here with a shotgun. He's so good at yearning. It's truly unfair. All right. Anything else you want to say about this episode? I mean, it was just absolutely wonderful. I'll be also curious to see where it finishes on my episode power ranking. High. Definitely high. Top 10 probably, no matter what. No question. No question. It's just like every time I rewatch it, I'm just like really stunned by the work it does and how important it is for, you know, what they, it becomes increasingly clear, especially in the back half of the season, like how enamored the writers are. Yeah. With Spike. And we've talked about this before, just sort of like if you, if you, I.

I love Spike so much. I was completely under the thrall of this character and the writing for him and stuff like that. But there is no doubt that it slightly topples the balance of the show, like how much the writers were into Spike. Sure. If you want to talk about like, hey, where's our core scoobies or like where, you know, where's Giles or all this stuff like that? Like Spike is taking up a lot of oxygen in the show. And like I loved it as I was 19 when I watched this. but like, can you imagine?

I mean, being 19 and watching this. 19 at college and watching this is just, there's a lot. All right, let's do our superlatives. Carlos. Delightful. That's the, yeah, that's the guitar I heard earlier. So good. All right.

Favorite line, Holly Rubin. I always have such a hard time with the categories because there are so many contenders for each. So I have a couple runners up that I'll hit after you make your pick. I think my winner, oh, God, it's hard. Category, I'm already like, my 10 favorite number one picks are. I do think it's what we just talked about. Death is your art. You make it with your hands day after day, that final gasp, that look apiece.

Part of you is desperate to know what's it like. I think that's my pick. Mike is also from Full for Love. Yeah. And it's one you referenced. And we just keep coming, but you can tell 100. a thousand, a thousand thousand, and the armies of hell besides, and all we need is for one of us, just one, sooner or later to have the thing we're all hoping for. And that would be what,

one good day? The way he says a one good day, forever, just sort of like drilled into my brain. It's so, so, so good. Yeah. A couple other contenders. And as always, I feel weirdly, like, even though a favorite line is our first category, I end up slightly kind of. compromising this category because a lot of the things that could have been picks for this get picked in other categories. Yeah. Like funniest moment or emotional moment or, you know, or horny. Or, you know, or horny. Or Any of them. All the spike ones. Um, I did like, I really was struck by a couple other lines. So, uh, I got to say, not since Go Fish have I had so many picks from a perplexing episode. I have like shocking Dracula representation across my category set. I'm like, what the fuck is wrong with me?

But I did really like on the favorite line from... I love GoFish. I'll still support it. I remember like 80% of those categories. I had a nominee from GoFet. It's crazy. Yeah. You will have eternity to discover yourself.

Dracula and Buffy, you will have eternity to discover yourself. I was just like, fight me. Fight me. Fight me. I mean, it was incredibly powerful. Spike to Angel once again in full for love. Don't you ever get tired of fights. You know you're going.

going to win. I loved that. That was one that actually pulled me out of the show in a good way where I was like kind of just thinking about the way people live their lives and like what choices they make and why they do the things they do and like how much of it is about accomplishing something you know you can accomplish versus like challenging and testing yourself. I really liked that quite a bit. This could have been funniest I guess but glory to drag in episode eight. Dark incantation always overwritten really killed me. That's a fun little wink there. That was great.

And then for you, I had to toss out episode 10, Buffy to Joyce. Come on, wigs are fun. Wigwatch. What a time to be you. Joyce rejecting the wig life. But opting really rocking the scarf in many episodes to come. A lot of good scarf looks from Joyce. I guess I will add.

Yeah, you can put this anywhere in the spike category, in funniest moment or whatever. but Spike, I just saw you taste your own nose blood. You know what? I'm too grossed out to hear anything you have to say. Go home. And he goes, it's blood. It's what I do.

That was great. All right. So good. All right. Oh, my God. Best villain of the week. It's Dracula. It is.

The first text. I don't. It is. But honestly, there aren't a lot of, like, great villain of the week contenders. I kind of broke the rules on this. I'm going to give it to harmony, even though it's like kind of. Okay. Well, for all,

Harmony's eligible, then sure. That would be... Harmony's showing up... Is harmony eligible? Well, Harmony's showing up... The one episode where she's like, I'm the big bad of this season and I'm her nemesis.

Is like... So good. Really, really, really funny. I... On the Dracula front, first text, I believe, that I sent about the season was to you and Carlos

where I just said Dracula can get it. Like, this is just very powerful from the jump. It was weird. I was confused when I saw that this was going to be the episode, but I kind of liked the way it actually unfolded

inside of the episode. So the Xander stuff was hysterical. I have that coming in some other categories. Very, very funny. One of the best Xander episodes ever, honestly, is the Dracula episode. The Joyce just like admitting that she let him in because she wanted to fuck him. Incredible. The whole Buffy seduction, Dracula seduction of Buffy, really, really good. There are a lot of great lines there. You know, I've yearned for you for a creature whose darkness rivals my own. You have been tasted. You have been tasted. It's very good.

Jesus. I also got a kick out of, do you know why you cannot resist? Because you're famous. It's wonderful. Wonderful. I'm not hungry. No, the craving goes deeper than that. You think you know what you are, what's to come.

You haven't even begun. Which is from Restless. We love a callback. Sure do. All right. Best fit, I will say my answer is from Buffy versus Dracula. There we go. So three for three on Dracula appearing in the category.

grace so far. Can we continue? Can we keep it up? Probably. She brings back the red leather pants black tank top look from season three, which is her iconic look. And she also will bring it again later in the season. It's more of like a brown leather pant. But then she also wears like pink leather pants inside of this episode. So like the double leather pants, it just is always good. Buffy wears a lot of leather of the season. Leather trenches, leather pants. And this is her best hair season. Oh, her hair looks gorgeous. Amazing. Gorgeous. As you pointed out to me, a look that Lestat just. Absolutely. Steels. Stole.

entirely. Steels. I'm going with Spike Subway. Yeah. Subway fit. I mean. The clothes pins. He, incredible.

The bleach, spiky hair. The light wash jeans. The boots. The belt. The eyeliner. It's just incredible. And, you know, we already talked about it, but runner up, Glory's red dress.

dress and red heels and the fact that her pursuit of Buffy is just is thwarted by a heel, a high heel snapping, great stuff. Also quite like... Then she like stamps the building down. This is incredible. I liked Gloria on like one of those like, you know, a bed in the... Do you hear my shoulder crack? I did.

It's not great. It's not ideal. Do you think a bed in the round would fix it? It's possible. Maybe I should consider it and give it a try. So a bed in the round from one of these like kind of sex hotel sort of. And she's just luxuriating in like a kind of... burgundy, plush, velour, bathrobe thing, and surrounded by shoes.

Yeah. Incredible. Incredible. Worst fit, dear God, what were we wearing? Here's my first clip. Come to me. You know, I really think the thrall has gone out of our relationship. But I want to thank you for opening up my eyes a little.

What is this? It's like my main issue with that episode is in the early 2000s, we had a problem. Four for four on Dracula so far. It was the business casualification of going out clothes. Yeah, yeah, sure. Just like a lot of collared shirts and, you know, black slacks. And so like the vest dress shirt combo on Dracula, I think looks so dorky that it kind of ruins the episode for me in that way. Yeah.

It's really funny, especially because, like, Spikes open red dress shirt, which is part of his, like, most enduring look or whatever, 10 out of 10 notes. But he keeps the colored shirts open, so it looks like cool and casual. Dracula, I think, looks like a dork in that outfit. And, like, when he has the cloak on, it's kind of okay. But once it's just the vest and the, like, really, really early 2000s, like, kind of big, very crisp collar on the collared shirt, I just. college. I just think he looks terrible. So you did not find yourself saying, as Buffy did, you think you could just waft in here with your music video wind and your hypnoise. No? You're like, get out of here. Well, I did like how much they were using the Gary Oldman

Brandstoker Dracula, like, here comes the mist to like fuck you sort of moment. Yeah. Okay, four for four for Dracula. Will we go five for five? We'll find out. I think that's my last, Dracula. Um, my worst fit, dear God, what were we wearing is? So I have one that's kind of of of the moment and just one that feels less about the moment in time and more about the context of the scene. So in once again episode seven, when the great like we're calling them Tito's not Ruffles, but the Willow Sander and Anya are patrolling with Riley. That's another moment. Another part of Fool for Love that's so good, which is like sometimes they make the Scoobies deeply dumb for comedy and I'm not mad about it. So funny.

They're loudly munching on the chips. And Riley's like, guys, I'm like, to the stealth. What is this mean? That was so funny. So funny. But then Willow is wearing what I can only, so there's kind of like a flora fauna pant.

A like magenta, but with some kind of polka dot accent color chunky sweater. And then what I can only describe as a Paddington hat. Yeah. It's a real Paddington hat. Just a lot of mixed patterns for Willow. She goes like

all in on the mixed patterns this season. It's a lot. Brutal. Here's my other pick. Yeah. Riley in episode four is playing pickup hoops in Sweety Tank Top Great and jeans. Mark Blucas was, I believe, like, all state basketball. You can tell he's good.

Yeah. Yeah. Now, I have seen as recently as mere days ago, our beloved David Jacoby play basketball in this exact outfit, so I know it's a thing that's done, but everyone was like, you're wearing jeans. Riley, treat yourself to a pair of breathable gym shorts, my guy. Come on. This next category is a treasure trove. All right, Anya's most hilariously blunt and or horny moment.

I want to give you the honors because I'm hoping you picked what I'm hoping you picked. But you have a clip and I have a clip and they're not the same. We know they're not the same. I think that's what Carlos indicated. So you go first. A lone time always translates into get Don out of the house so we could have loud obnoxious sex. Oh, does that mean we can't? A tremendous pick, not what I was thinking slash hoping you would pick.

I was really hoping you would pick from the end of episode three when she was like, can we have two so that I can have sex with both of them? That's one of my runners-up, but I actually thought when I saw that you had a clip for this category. Oh, that I would take the Ono with me. All right, let's play Mike. You sold someone a Coles Amulet and a Sobeki and Bloodstone. Yes, I believe I did. Are you stupid or something?

Oh my God. She's perfect. Incredible. She's perfect. I love her. She is fucking the best. I find myself caring about her so deeply that it's just like almost unbearable. I love her so much.

Great Anya, stretch of episodes. Some other nominees from the blunt Anya category, learning how to play Monopoly in episode two. I'm so pleased. Can I trade in the children for more cats? I believe it's the game. of life. No, excuse me of life. Yeah, crap, look at this.

I'm burdened with a husband and several tiny pink children and more cash than I can reasonably manage. Incredible. Her, that, that there's a gif of her, like, hoping to trade the children for more money is, like, an all-time Anya giff. Just hysterical. Really good. And the kind of through line of her obsession with cash now that she's human is so funny.

Very good. In episode three, I already mentioned the, what are you doing? I have a dislocated shoulder response to the massage, which I loved. But on the, like, potential apartment that my boyfriend's saying he can't afford front, I just, on the blunt Anya, it was almost like a little mean, but it was, it was, I don't really feel like taking a beautiful tour of things I can't have was so savage and cutting. Really liked it. Related to the clip you had, the like, Giles sold it to her. Just telling on Giles when Buffy showed up was so funny. Yeah. A couple other ones, Rapid Fire here.

Episode 10. They're arguing about the chicken feed at the magic box. Anya, play nice. You know, fine. Take her side, even though I'm the one who sleeps with you and feeds you. She bathes you? Unbelievable. I quite liked in the Tara family episode family when she's doing, Ania's doing a little bit of like a demon fact-finding interrogation.

And she's like, some have been considered to be useful members of society. And then just the smile and the look of pride on her face, delightful. Obviously, as you said, the right before rejoining the two Xanders, I can take the boys home and we can all sex together. Just incredible, like, the look on Giles' face is... The fact that she doesn't even, like, try to, like, have a... Because she's gearing up to it, and you know why she wants it. And then she just says it. Says it out loud, because she's on you.

Because she's on it. Similarly, when Riley shows up in episode 10, and he's like, you guys mind clearing out? And it's because he's about to have a very painful conversation with Buffy, but Anya thinks that it's because they want to fuck in the training room. there's a funny thing with the faulty horse that you can try. Oh my God. Anya, a perfect character. Is there anything in the magic box that Anya and Zander have not secreted on? That's secreted.

Is there anything? She's a perfect character. Emma Coughfield, like, knowing exactly how to play her this season. It's so funny when you go back and look at her in season three before, like, they had figured out what they wanted Anya to be and Emma, you know, so Emma's playing her as, like, darker and more earnest and the fact that she like really tumbles into like perfect comic relief with some like actual pathos also and um and then also just so useful to the story to have all of ania's like ancestral demon knowledge which which uh yeah uh was there from the beginning in season

when she's like oh the mayor the ascension i know things you know like so this has always been true of ania but she has all this information spike has all this information yeah and And so it's not just Giles as, like, the only source of, like, all of this detailed information is really fun. Love it. All right. Most 2000 thing. Some interesting contenders. I felt I was a little spike heavy.

So while I wanted to go with the OPECU blind idiot, Dawson's Creek line, which is hysterical. I'm just going to go with the fact that. Especially since they were still on the WV when he did it. Great, little organic cross with the crossbro. Can't you see if she doesn't love you? I'm just going to go with the taking out an ad. in the paper in the newspaper for Magic Box. The yellow pages.

You stop to shop for all your occult needs. It's like incredible. Yeah, and Tara being like great in a heart to weed kind of way. Exactly. And then Glory like sees it. Yeah, it rips it out. Oh, she's after them. Nope.

Just needed to go do some shopping. And that was somewhere I found out I could. I do remember when we'd be like the new yellow pages are here. Okay. Mine's a somewhat topical one possibly. We're not going to dwell on it. I'll just say this. Don says, yeah, mom, I'm not going to Hogwarts.

And no one gets the joke and. She says, geez, crack a book sometime. I know. It is 2000. Yeah, the she who must not be named. He who must not be named of it all, as you already mentioned. Definitely. But yeah, just the idea that, like, no one in the room would get a Harry Potter reference

and not just because they're an alien in Rushville, Nebraska. You know, it's really interesting. They only made like 22 of them. All right, baby. It's your category. Horniest moment. Treasure Trove, as always. I have a clip.

You want me, Slayer? Come and get me. Oh, I'm coming. I'm coming right now. My notes was, this is from episode six. Poor Harmony. It's the Spike's latest, yeah, fighting and fucking Buffy sex fantasy. And then we cut to him actually fucking Harmony.

Brutal. Whatever one of my notes was, crotch to mouth. And I'm coming. I'm coming right now is just all timers. So, so, so good. Um, yeah, what do I have here? Again, a lot of crossover with other categories, for sure. Oh, yeah.

Man, it's hard to pick. A lot of Dracula contenders once again. I'm just going to say that if you're interested in another Dracula pick. Maybe it's Spike. What does he say in full full of hot little body? That's a great one. You put your hands with my hot little body. Oh, my God.

incredible stuff. I think that might be my pick. On the spike front in, you know, the end of episode four, when he will wake and it is, in fact, a dream, a sex dream, a love confession dream. But the fact that he just removes his shirt so that she can stake him, which she definitely could do through the shirt. But it's like, let's get Spike shirtless. That's a pretty horny moment. Great stuff there. Possibly Giles talking about being seduced by his car.

Yeah. Did seduce me all red and shiny? That's a great one. You know, we already saw the clip when we were talking about Fool for Love, but how can we not mention in the horny category, Spike seducing and fucking drew after killing the Slayer with the finger suck? I mean, incredible stuff. I do think, I mean, it's very grim, but also, like,

when Riley is getting sucked by that vampire and into the woods, where Buffy is watching him, like, and she's horrified, but he's, like, having an actual orgasm versus... He's in it. Any time we've ever seen him actually have sex, it just seemed sexy. Very mechanical, typically. You know what? Let's mention the Dracula contenders quickly.

I can feel your hunger. Buffy letting Dracula bite her. I can feel your hunger. That's horny. Giles explaining how Dracula courts his prey, she must want to be taken. She must burn for him. Also me describing Giles, obviously. And then when Joyce, as previously mentioned, explains why she let Dracula in,

She says when you girls are older, you'll understand, which is incredibly horny. It's great stuff. All right. Speaking of the anti-horny, it is Riley himself. This is Riley's category. Last time we're doing a Riley category. Usually it's sad. Riley's most exasperatingly dull category.

But we thought we would do something nice for him on his way out the door. So I've assembled a super cut of Riley's best moments in these 10 episodes, genuinely. Is it just one thing? for all the dark prince. People say they're recycling. They're not recycling. That was funny if you study Tagler and mythic rights and our complete dork.

And how come Zander didn't laugh? At least you weren't making time with the drackey babes like Giles here. Now it was not making time. I was just about to kill those loathsome creatures when Riley interrupted me. Really? You were gonna muzzle them to death?

So a lot of genuine celebration of Riley and then also the moment when he gets hit in the face with the football after saying the quarterback throws like a girl. Look at you. I'm doing fucking spin doctor PR for Riley Finn. The moment when he puts his leather jacket over a sleeping dawn is very sweet. It is. It is very sweet. And surrounded by moments where he's like, why didn't you tell me what's going on?

Why don't you need me? Why don't you need me? Why don't you want me? Listen, do I like him? No. Did I think I should give him a little present on the way at the door? You're so generous. You're so generous of spirit.

Okay. So my fine one, you are such a good person. This is like when you gave your Dr. Doom mask. That's what I was just thinking. It's like when I gave my doctor, incredible. My fine one nice thing is, I've already alluded to this, but in episode three, the Toth-Zander split episode,

when Riley and Buffy are in the car. And Buffy's like, would you prefer? Like, would you like this? If the, if Toth actually had hit me with the magic rod and Buffy and the Slayer were distinct entities. And he said, I have Buffy Buffy. Being the Slayer is part of who you are. You keep thinking I don't get that.

There's no part of you I'm not in love with. That's a lovely moment. That was really nice. And then he undercuts it constantly from there. But that was, that was very sweet. And like I said, I did quite like the vamp, the, the, the, the, the junkie Den stuff with Riley. I thought that was just frankly, like, more interesting as a character beat than a lot of what we had seen from him. When he meets that vampire in the bar and Willys, and then consents to being bitten and then Stakeser.

Similar to when Buffy lets that one vampire who was sucking on Riley leave and then javelin stakes her. She's running away. That was a shock. Boy. But let me tell you this. Like Riley. I am not a character who's actually capable of controlling my worst impulses and so after writing and my notes, fine, one nice thing I then wrote, drip, groin, yawn, yon, wine, here are a few of those too. Really trying to be sexy. Episode four, hey, Bobby says,

have the endurance of 10 men. Let's make it women just for the imagery. A real no-ho moment from Riley. Horrible. Stupid. I already read, this quote, but episode 10, it's like all attention just left my body. Oh, really? Because I had that schedule for a little later on. Riley trying to be sexy is so painful. And he's a very handsome

guy, but it's just like, my God. Also painful. Riley trying to be tough. Episode 10, challenging Spike. This is one of the worst lines and deliveries in a show that I would say is fabled for beautiful writing. I left reasonable three exits back. Really bad. But mostly, of course, it is just the crippling insecurity in a character. We love to see. Yeah, we do. It's human.

It's relatable. We love it. The way that Riley's need to be needed by Buffy manifested and the kind of like, I felt actually he's really in a lot of situations and scenes and arguments where he's saying, like, you just don't see it. You just don't get it. But then kind of like gaslighting and not actually able to acknowledge the truth. The final training room fight, the end fight, the departing ultimately, because thankfully the chopper blades were loud enough to spare us the ongoing nature of this relationship. All the things he says in this fight, I wanted to get a Buffy, I wanted to get you.

These girls, they made me feel something Buffy. They needed me when they bit me. It was beyond passion. They wanted to devour me all of me. They made me feel like they had such a hunger for me. There's a part of it where you're like, I get it. I get why you would want to feel that way. I actually think this is a really good conversation.

This scene is amazing. And then this part in particular, it's about letting me in. So you don't have to be on top of everything all the time. And she says, but I do. That's what part of being The Slayer is. And that's what this is really about, isn't it? You can't handle the fact that I'm stronger than you. And he says it's hard sometimes.

Yeah, but that's not it. And then it's like, isn't it? I think it's mostly that. I mean, it wasn't a problem when he had his, like, super strength. Yeah. There's a great article in Vulture. or New York Magazine about this episode written, like, they did a series years ago called, like,

I can't stop thinking about. And this one wrote about this episode and how, like, the end of this relationship with Riley, how, like, it's a very relatable thing to be with someone who's just like, it's just not there. Yeah. They're just not right. But everyone around you is telling you,

they're such a good guy. This is like the Xander speech in this, like, fuck you, Zander. But, like, the Zander's speech in this episode where it's just sort of like, he is the guy. he is right. And then what this person wrote in New York Magazine was like, and then when they leave you, because they always leave you because you've convinced yourself that like you're too neurotic or you're this, that and the other thing. Or it's you're the problem. If everyone is saying like, they're so nice, they're so good. And then they leave you. And then she was like, the reason I love this episode is like it should always be this way. Like not long drawn out, whatever, but just sort of like chopper blades. No contact with civilians. That's it. Over.

Incredible. Yeah, I really loved that. I loved... But, like, Buffy's standing up. First off, I felt kind of undone by the Xander Buffy scene. And then the run, which I actually kind of hate. What Buffy says to Riley in the way she challenges and pushes back in the scene, I loved.

And she's like, well, that's, like, this is all, this is it. Yeah. And again, from Riley, I do understand you would feel inadequate. You would. But he's just such a drag. I'm glad he's gone. Sorry. When Giles is like, hey, we made you this practice.

and Riley like tackles her and he's like, want to fight, want to fight? Like, ball blonde. It's like, crazy. It's not about you, my guy. Crazy. Not about you. All right. Speaking of Giles, Giles is most dad moment.

Okay, so again, not enough Giles for my liking. But I think just right from the jump, so I guess it's another Dracula pick, even though it's not about Dracula's from that episode. I think when he's telling Willow that he needs to move back to England, right? He's like outgrown his usefulness to the group. And then we build towards specifically at the end of the episode, Buffy, going to him and saying, I can't do it without you. I need your help. I need you to be my watcher again.

And just the way that his eyes like brighten and that spark is rekindled, I love to. So great in that episode every time Willow's like, oh, and Giles, we couldn't have done it without him. And he's like, Willow, chill. Great. The opening of family, which is Buffy telling Giles about Dawn. Yeah, my other contender. It's also just like really beautifully shot, like unusually shot. The camera is very low.

It's very dark and very intense. And just very much like these two together is so important to the show and important to us. I love that. And especially the fact that it is a conversation where Giles is like, what about your dad? What about Hank? Yeah. No, Spain. Right.

But also, like, they make a decision together to not tell the rest of the Scoobies. So there's something. We've tracked this across the seasons. Like, when is the character making a mistake by not telling somebody else something? But the fact that it is this like inside of it all, there is a truck. and the nature of this relationship because of the wisdom and the comfort and the like parental presence from Giles there. That was really, really lovely. I loved that.

Some real dad, like kind of doofy dad energy from Giles in episode three when he's miming a more fearsome and potent version of how he used the Ufftar fertility. Todd. That was really funny. I quite liked that. I enjoyed an episode for him the way he was just like real dad energy praising Xander's carpentry skills. That was really cute. And then, of course, you texted me and you were like, how did you not text me about this? Buffy walks into Magic Box.

Giles is standing there. Wizards room, pointing wizards hat. And no words. Yeah, Buffy just looks at him. No words pass. Witheringly, I will say. And then he just, his face falls and he sticks it off. Classic dad moment.

Great stuff there. I loved it. To go back to the, like, what I thought you were going to say about Jiles and Buffy. in that moment, at the beginning of family, when they make a decision together. Yeah. And it's sort of something we've been tracking throughout of just sort of like, when are the subgroups inside the groups? And this line that I always think about in love from the Oka Factor last season, when Willow says,

besides when is there any us two, you two are the two who are the two, I'm the other one. You know what I mean? Like all the times inside of this found family. And even inside of the like Don, Joyce, Buffy, when Buffy's like, you guys have a book club? Yeah. Like, what the fuck? Yeah. And Buffy's jealousy of the fact that Don gets to be a kid.

Yes. And I think that's one of the best bits of writing in terms of Don of just like, I want to like be cuddled by my mom and just like be a kid and I never got to be. I had to be the Slayer. You know what I mean? And so like her resentment of, of Dawn for that is really, really good. I love that. Oh, man.

Laughably bad digital effect. We brought this one back. We actually gave it a breather on season four because season four was. and terrible, but there's some... I would say maybe the worst. Oh, ever. Ever. Tell me.

Wow. Quite a bar to clear. Let's be honest. I mean, let's bring back Buffy v. Dracula and say the CGI storm that shows up at the beginning of the season is just like a bad way to start the season. It's very, very bad. Yeah. But in episode eight when Buffy hops on the back of a digital...

And it's like, so it's a CGI snake that looks terrible. Yes. And then they do a CGI digital double of Buffy hopping on. the back of the snake. And so it's just like one of the worst looking things you've ever seen. I also thought... I like the snake when he's a guy in a suit. Yeah.

I actually think it's really fun. Often the closer shots of the snake look good. The scales look good. There's a glimmer in the eye. But in that same, the sneaky wiki spawn of Sobeck, the motion where we switch to a digital animation. So after the encounter with Dawn, the kind of like... Sluttering out.

It's unbelievable. Anything from a distance or involving motion. That's the pick as well. Yeah. Dawn, she sure is here, huh? Like I said, I actually liked Don more in this stretch of episodes than I remember liking her. And also, like, and you and I had talked about this the other day, watching this, knowing that Michelle Tractonberg is gone way too soon is just, like, really hard.

Now it's like three actors. on the show. So watching any Giles or Zander or Dawn scene is a lot harder than it used to be. So here's in celebration of Dawn, she speaks for all of us here. Riley, my sister's boyfriend, is so into her. They're always kissing and groping. I bet they've had sex. Hey, kid.

Not a kid. Dawn hating Riley. Relatable content. Love it for us. Relatable content. Oh, boy. What do I want to pick here? Hmm. Hmm.

I guess I liked as a little bit of like breadcrumb kernel throughout this stretch of episodes. The comments, ooh, strange comments that somebody in an altered mental state makes about dogs. So we have episode two, The Man on the Street outside of the Magic Box telling her she doesn't belong. We have episode nine, hospital guy, previously brain sucked by glory. What is that thing?

There's no data. There's no pictures on this one. What is the data? There's no one in there. By the way, and then this guy's family just lets him like wander through the woods. Bruttle, tough. Queller, queller, fodder. Rock.

Queller episode. So many questions. Eyes like pools of gasoline. And then, of course, episode nine, Joyce, you know, most painfully of all. You think, get away from me. You're nothing. You're a shadow. I don't know who you are how you got here.

And then Don is saying to Buffy, like, why do people keep saying these things to me? And then Joyce will have this clarity, right? This is like in the lucid moment and say to Buffy, like, I know that what I glimpsed there for a minute was real. I liked the way that felt. It's really good. Yeah. Yeah. I will also add from family in the confrontation with Tara's terrible dad.

You want her, Mr. McClay. Come and claim her. No. She says, you want her, Mr. McLeigh, you can go ahead and take her. You just got to go through me. And Mr. McLean says, what? And Buffy says, you heard me. You want to take Tara out of here against her, really? You got to come through me. And Don says, and me and my axe, right? Don says, and Mr. McLei says, is this a joke. I'm not going to be threatened by two little girls. Don says, you don't want to mess with us. Buffy says, she's a hair puller. Just like the summer sister is just sort of like being the first two to step up for Tara. It's like, it's really sweet. And then, of course, Dad Giles comes in, just kind of like curves around. Yeah. It's not just two little girls. Yeah. I did like the kind of evolution of the Buffy Dawn's sisterly bickering, like a lot of the diary through line in episode two. And Buffy, you know, the real, like, heat with which she says things, like after Dawn has let Harmony in, right?

And Buffy's like, I was just a kid when I met my first vampire, but somehow I managed to remember the rules or she has to be protected and coddled from the Big Bad Wolf. But you know what? We're doing nothing but turning her into a little idiot tough who's going to get us all killed. And then the way that that builds toward, you know, like what we've already talked about, the episode five, the reveal, the big reveal about the key. Some of the things that we hear in there, you know, we knew the slayer would protect human, now human and helpless plea. She's an innocent in this.

She needs you. She's not my sister. She doesn't know that, which then makes Joyce's plea to Buffy in episode nine. you know, she does belong to us, though, when Buffy responds that with, yes, she does. Like, it feels so earned. Yeah. I really, really liked that. The Joy stuff is really good in this stretch here.

Yeah. Okay. Diles' most daddy moment. This is where I'm going to read our last email from a listener, Chris, who wrote in, in the delay between the season four, season five, Buffy coverage, he says, Is Mallory to distraught from Riley leaving to continue with the rewatch? or did you find that the scene of Giles being nuzzled to death by the draggy babes and the premiere is so hot that you needed an extended break to collect yourselves?

Thanks for asking. Let's see my clip. Again, as I noted already, not as much fodder for this category as I would like and have become frankly accustomed to, but that was really good. Yeah, I loved that. That's got to be it. And, like, the moment when Riley's pulling him out and I was like, oh, my shoe, I better go back and get it. No more chick bit for you.

Very good. Now, there's no other option for me. No, I will say, though, that I just want to note that Giles looked insanely hot in episode four, the aforementioned carpentry sequence with Xander. He's got like a cranberry Henley, you know, the overshirt, pulled off. So we're flashing forearm. I mean, we just got that smattering of chest hair, wonderful. But we're flashing forearm.

He's got a watch on. He's wearing jeans, the glasses, and he's got the dust mask on for construction for sawing wood, planks of wood, and planks of wood, we're on my mind just while watching that. Very manly. Look great. When Willow cries, we cry. Not our usual wealth of options here. Do you have anything?

I do, but I only had one contender for this, which felt to me. quite notable as a, you know, a telling thing about the stretch of episodes. So this is, I'm going with from episode six, from family. Willow has learned more about Tara's family, about Tara's history, Tara's insecurity and fear and concern about being a demon because of this lie that her controlling father and brother have told her. And so there are like a couple moments. You know, we get the go, you know, Tara, look at me. I trusted you more than anyone in my life. Was all that just a lie? No, do you want to leave? Like, the fear that Willow has that Tara doesn't want to be with her. And then, you know, we've talked about the Buffy moment and the Scooby moment of standing

up to defend Tara and embrace Tara and just the kind of gratitude on Willow's face, seeing that the people she loves the most have made room for someone she cares about so deeply, I thought was really touching. And when they're dancing at the bronze at the end of that episode, which I watched with my dad for some reason. I don't know why I was home. I looked up the date. I was like, why was I at home the first week of November? But I did. I did. I watch with my dad for some reason. I don't know. I definitely watched that with my dad. And I definitely remember that as a moment of like, are these ladies going to kiss and my dad's here? And it was just like a time when that wasn't done on television or whatever. And like they wanted, obviously like the writers wanted to and they're like,

I guess we'll do levitating dancing instead. They'll float. We'll just have them cuddle in bed a lot, but they'll never kiss. It's fine. I really loved. I look at what you are and it makes me proud. It makes me love you more. That was really sweet. So my, my only answer, can be that confrontation and family when Tara's terrible dad. Not the last we'll hear of him in my categories, but like Tara's terrible dad says, it's not your decision. And she goes, I know that. And I love that because she's like, it's not mine. It's not yours. It's Tara's. You know, I just really love that moment. Really good. All right. Spike's hottest, funniest, or most Spike moment. Yes, it's a three-parter. He deserves it. What do you got for me?

I want you to go first and take us through all of the meaningful things here to you. I mean, it's like, it's just all of it. But I will say, and I already texted you about this, but I think out for a walk, bitch. And then seeing all of the cigarettes, like, so knowing that he was like standing out there, yearning slash stalking. That's all he does. It's the thin line between yearning and stalking that he is constantly just straddling. Waiting under Buffy's window as she fucks another dude is. Real tough look for her guy. Spike stuff. Not great.

And then... Oh, man. Okay, once again, that confrontation with... Family really is a good episode. That confrontation with Tara's dad, when Jail says, and you're not just dealing with two little girls, Zander says, you're dealing with all of us, and then Spike says, except me. Zander says, except Spike. And Spike says, I don't care what happens. So good. It's just, that's the most spike. Like, that's the most spike man. Incredible. So, you know, that's my main stuff.

I could talk about it all day. I mean, this could be 50, 60. Yeah. I have a couple of clips, both to just because it was hard not to pick two clips for one category and has gifts to you and to all the bad babies. We'll start with hottest. Carlos, play my first clip, please. Oh, you.

Lovely, I love you. God, I love you so much. Oh, God, no. Please, no. Incredibly good. I hope that, I hope that everyone. who's just listening and not watching enjoyed all the all the smackage, the lip smackage that came with that clip. I know I did.

Yep. I know I did. I put this under hottest because I personally find Spike kind of dunking on Riley hot. But from episodes 8 and 10, couple lines, face it, white bread. Buffy's got a type and you're not it. She likes this dangerous, rough, occasionally bumpy in the forehead. region. Not that she doesn't like you, but sorry, Charlie, you're just not dark enough. And then you're not the long haul guy and you know it. Remind me, did you, um, did you watch Veronica

Mars? I can't remember if you did. No, never seen it. Okay. So there's like a very similar, like, there's this character, Duncan Kane, who's like a very Riley character. And then there's Logan Eccles, who's like a very spike character. And, um, Lily Kane, played by Amanda Seifred, who is Duncan Kate, who is the boring guy's sister. Okay. She says, clue in donut to him. She calls him donut from beyond the grave, I think, or maybe in a flashback. Anyway, clue in donut.

And so when Riley shows up in the first episode and he like brings all those donuts, I'm just sort of like, clue in donut. Like he's such a donut. Like he just is. Like this archetype, no, people, TV writers have tried. And I guess the success is Steve Rogers. Chris Evans is Steve Rogers. You know, like, people say they're recycling.

They're not recycling is, like, such a Steve Rogers, like, thing to say. So, like, and they call him Steve Rogers in this stretch, you know? So, like, yes, but mostly it does not work. This character. Anything else? You know what does work, though, is Spike saying to him, you know it or else you wouldn't be getting sucked jobs for two-bid vampire trolls. The girl needs a monster in her man. Yeah.

And that's not in your nature. The girl needs some monster in her man and that's not in your nature. It's really hot. And then I quite like to the sometimes I envy you so much it chokes me And sometimes I think I got the better deal to be that close to her and not have her to be all alone Even when you're holding her feeling her feeling her beneath you surrounding you the scent No, you got the better deal great stuff All right on to funniest I have another clip we've already talked about it but we deserve I think to see it

Five words or less Out for a walk Bitch It's just instantly going to be in the, you text it to people for the rest of your life. It's perfect. It's just unbelievable. God knows you need some satisfaction in life besides shagging captain cardboard. In episode five, iconic.

Most spike, I mean, there are always a million contenders, let's see. I do like when he says to Riley, you think of, you think I'm. I'm all hot for your honey, right? And Riley's like, because you are. And he goes, well, yeah. Well, yeah. Oh, man. Hot for your honey.

Yeah. Incredible. Once again, Dracula's here. This is a most, this felt so spiky. Like the fact that he's like, bugger owes me 11 pounds for one thing. You know him and know him. We're old rivals.

Then he got famous. Incredible. To harmony. A couple of the spike harmony. I mean, he's so mean. But. all puffed up and mighty thinking you're the new big bad incredible stuff oh you know what I this was a real spike moment the like kind of sexy oh my god this is hypnotic

listening to him say this and then he trips and falls into an open grave in episode four I will know your blood slayer I will make your neck my chalice and drink deep p-daoom p ow yeah that is a very I mean like it's very when he shows up in season four and he's like the big bad is back in town then he gets tased like he's forever falling at the graves and doing other things. She's wonderful. On the harmony front, I'm really excited for you to someday

if you want to rewatch Buffy and then like... Oh, I will. Well, like... Oh, I will. Just watch Harmony as she's used in high school, which is she's just like barely there, like a Cordelia light sort of thing. And then just like the excellent way that, you know,

so like you watch it again, you'll just be like... Similarly with like with Jonathan, where you just sort of like, oh, harmony. Oh, Jonathan. Here they are just randomly in the background. a shot and there will be really fun recurring characters on this show. Did we do it? Did we do all the spike stuff?

Yeah. Well, I mean, no, but yeah. Yes. We did our best. Funniest moments. I have a clip. I suppose you wanted me to see all these toys. I just want to shout out the buffering podcast for their relentless celebration of what they

call the crystal dildo in Tara's room. Wow. When Mr. McClay says these toys and he's holding the gertiest crystal you ever did see, what were Tara and Willow up to with that crystal practicing magic in a way that Amy Adams would not approve of. Yeah. So I just wanted to celebrate the crystal dildo. Incredible stuff. I love it.

I support it. Also a bunch of Xander stuff here is runners up, but I want to hear what you say. Let's see. what I actually want to pick is my winner here? Hmm. Um, hmm. Boy, we've talked about a lot of these.

I, it's hard not to just keep picking Spike stuff. The hardest I laughed all season. Was it the hardest I laughed all season? I don't know. So many of the Anya things were probably the actual pick for that. I think that the flashback in Full for Love to the 98

Drsula, Spike, why won't you push her away? But I did pet. I did it for you and you keep punishing me carrying all the creatures like this. And then we panned the drooling antlers of the chaos, demon. I was just in stitches. That was so funny. I'm going to give Allison Han again a funniest moment. She rarely gets them.

Not that she isn't really funny. Hey, wait till you have an evil, Zander says. Hey, wait until you have an evil twin. go, you handle it. And she's just like, the way she goes like, I handled it fine. I thought it was really good. In the Quiller episode, when Riley says, oh, that might be toxic, don't touch it. Daner says, oh yeah, touching it was my first impulse. Luckily, I've moved on to my second, which involves dry heaving and running like hell. And then Zander, on the spacefront,

Zander's saying, look how teeny mercury is compared to like Saturn, whereas in contrast, the cars are the same name. And then dials to Zanders, please, we have to worry about it. to do. Incredible. And then Zander says, am I right, Giles? And Giles says, I'm almost certain you're not. But to be fair, I wasn't listening. That killed me.

That was great. Oh, man. Buffy, a Buffy, when Buffy says, well, if this guy wants to fight with weapons, I've got a cover from A to Z, from Axe to Z other acts. That was incredible. Oh, my God. I have a Zander once again from the episode. Track.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, this killed me. Yeah. We only got it. It was a, I would have, if we had returned to this 10 times in the episode, I would have been thrilled. Like any of that's enough to fight the dark master. And they all look at him and he goes, Peter. And then he does it.

Very sure thereafter. You're drawing a lot of crazy conclusions about the unholy prince. Bader. So good. From Buffy versus Dracula. Yeah. I have. Damn it, you know what?

I'm sick of this crap. I'm sick of being the guy who eats insects and gets the funny. syphilis as of this moment it's over. I'm finished being everyone's butt monkey. Funny syphilis killed me. Yeah, funny syphilis. It's an iconic Xander moment. Incredible stuff. I just was laughing a lot in that episode. Actually, Riley saying, you're not just saying that because of those dark penetrating eyes of his Are You and Buffy says no. His eyes were, they were, there was no penetration. That made me laugh. Good stuff. Oh, oh, on the harmony front. Yeah. Harmony and Spike. So episode two. And episode four, actually. So episode two. Slayer. At last week, me, Bobby's like, we've met Harmony you have with. Just killed me. And then Spike in Harmony in episode four when he's like, I must have missed the memo. She says, there was a, Spike.

She's so funny. When in the, when the doctor is like pretending to take Spike's chip out and he's like, no smoking. And she's like, where is it? And then there's a sign. She's like, oh my God, I didn't see the sign. I'm so sorry. Everybody's the best. All right. Most emotional moment. It's actually really tough in the first half of this season to do this when there's so much to come in the back half. I know, I know, I know. I have here in the queller episode. Wow. No, in the queller's upstairs on Joyce's ceiling.

Don is pretending she can't hear her mom ranting. Buffy's downstairs doing the dishes in the dark. and she's crying. I thought that was... Okay. So when Tony Stark is doing the dishes, in Endgame, he's like distraction. I need a kind of regular life everyday thing.

And I remember, like, not outright mocking him. This came back to be really powerfully watching this episode, but I was like, yeah, Tony, he's got, like, robots to do the dish with floods of messages from people about this. Really? Which, like, I only now could understand. It's like,

the dishes when you're when you're going through some things. So that was, that was a nice, a nice moment across history there. Yeah, Buffy's listening to like mariachi music and doing the dishes and crying. Beautiful. I, I was like, can she not hear the screams? Yeah, the screen. I agree with you. I agree with you. But it is beautiful. The color is so funny. It's like so preposterous. But I don't know, just like her doing the dishes by herself in the dark in the kitchen. Especially like when we've seen like several episodes in the season of like all. three Summers women in the kitchen, like the cereal or, you know, all that sort of stuff. Yeah.

Absolutely. It's a great one. Let's see. Talked about like Tara feeling on the outside. Hmm. We've obviously talked about spike patting Buffy on the back. Okay. I will go with, so episode eight, this was, I found this very affecting.

Buffy believing, hoping, needing to believe, wanting to believe that there is a magical solution for what is happening to Joyce. And Riley's saying Buffy people get sick and Giles saying the mystical and the medical armament to mix Buffy. And then just the toll and the pressure in the hospital sequence when Riley comes to find her and he says, you know, you look pretty beat up. And she says minimal damage of the fighting kind. It's all the other kind. And it's just so, so sad. It's okay. Just let it out.

I'm right here. I can't. Not now. They need me. If I start now, I won't be able to stop. And just, you know, then it makes those moments where you do see, like, at the end of Full for Love, the, okay, Joyce has told her, like, I have to go in for observation, for evaluation.

And Buffy has to let it out. And, of course, later, one of the things Riley won't be able to handle is the idea that, like, she did cry, just not with him. I will say Riley sucks Yeah And and there are ways in which Buffy did lean on him She's like can you take Dawn to school

Can you do this? Can you do that? And he did it and all this sort of stuff like that If my partner was going through something terrible Of course And they were like I did cry You just never saw it It would be devastating What the fuck

It'd be devastating Like why would you not show me what is going on in your life And let me help you and just like tell me what is And they're like Because you're a piece of white bread And I don't really care On the spike front, I will end with this. Yes.

In full for love. When she says, you're beneath me and throws the money in him. And he's on the ground. And he's crying. Yeah. And he's gathering up the money. Very like Moulin Rouge. Thank you for curing me in my ridiculous obsession with love moment from Spike there.

It means a lot to me. Really good. You're beneath me. All right. We did it. It was fantastic. What a show. What a show.

Back half of the season even stronger. So we'll be back next week with that. There will be tears, I think. Hobbins and Dragons and Gmail.com, if you have season five thoughts, spike thoughts, the Buffy family thoughts, what's going on with Willow this season thoughts. If you know what Alison Hannigan was doing that she was not as involved this season, et cetera, et cetera. We will be back with Lanterns.

Yes. Episode four. Yes. Our current plan is to kind of pre-tape that. So just on the email front, we probably won't get to your episode for reactions because we will have pre-taped it's Labor Day weekend. Sure it is. How is that possible? How's it's it's September?

What happened there? I know. Someone was like, what are your big plans this weekend? I was like, what's happening this weekend? I love September. What? Oh, it's Labor Day. Thank you to our Scooby gang, who is here today, Carlos Jerboga with the incredible audio cues.

Amazing. Our Juno Rangu Powell, who is navigating both football season and Buffy season, the two most important. things that could be happening, I think. Scott Lee of the Lantern Corps himself. That's right. Jacob Cornett. Our guy is here. Jomey at dinner round on the social. Anything else? Peter. See you soon. Bye.

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