The One and Only Angel Season 5 Thread

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

XANDER: Too many girls. I miss Oz. He'd get it. He wouldn't say anything, but... (clears throat) he'd get it. (Willow turns her attention back to the computer)

 

One of my favorite lines ever. Still never really liked that ep much, though, but man, some golden moments.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I LOVE that episode. Buffy consoling April at the end was beautiful. The "She's a Robot" line was a reflection of how the show had evolved. This was all normal to them now. It was reflected in "The Gift" when Buffy went outside to fight the vamp at the beginning and said "wow, it's been a long time since I met one who didn't know me".

 

Xander dancing with Buffy at the beginning showed how far their relationship had progressed - Xander "got over" her and it was a purely platonic way of expressing their feelings for each other. They love each other. The same way Xander loves Willow. The same way Giles loves Buffy and they love Giles. They're a family. This was a predominant theme throughout the season and it was especially important in *this* episode and the next one... that being "the body". April's "love" for Warren was out of duty - she was programmed to love him. "I was made to love you". She had to. It was expected of her. Buffy felt the same way - if she doesn't have a man in her life, if she can't share her love, then what good is she? This is a play on the traditional role of women in the mans world. It was one that Ted - the previous robot du jour - wanted for Joyce. April sort of struck me as a throwback to those days. Then at the end on the swing sets, Buffy is in very non-traditional attire while April is more "lady like". Buffy is basically telling that way of life, that part of her, that it doesn't always have to be that way.

 

And then there are the words April says at the end about things getting darker before they get bright - which is definite foreshadowing to Joyces death. A mothers love is unconditional. The love between family is unconditional. When Joyce died, in terms of literal family, *in terms of blood*, all she had left was Dawn. That's part of the reason why Buffy protected her so much. That's why she was willing to let the world crumble, why she was willing to die, before any harm came to her. Dracula said the Slayers powers were rooted in Darkness, but "the gift" Buffy gave was out of love. So much stuff here...

Edited November 27, 2003 by RavishingRickRudo

[Mole 0]

Wow, RRR, I need to watch season 5 again to get all of that.

[dubq 0]

Holy crap, Season 5 comes out in less than two weeks! I'd completely forgot the release date! Awesome! Looks like I'm grabbing myself an early X-Mas prez.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

Argh, I hate the timing that the Angel and Buffy sets come out. I just finished Season 2, and they come back from Pylea, only to see Willow who tells them that Buffy died but damn it, I haven't gotten there yet!

[Mole 0]

Blame Fox.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Oh My God.

 

I watched "The Gift" again for the buzillionth time - and it actually got better. IMO, it's the best episode. There is SO MUCH STUFF in it. Every scene you can reference to a theme that was brought up in a previous episode. They built so much stuff in Season 5 and it all paid off in that last episode... then Season 6 comes along and totally and completely destroys it... which I think was the point; but dammit, it sure doesn't make it right

 

"Things are always darkest before it gets bright" is so awesome cause at the end Buffy "see's the light" (both literally -the sun- and figuratively -death/blood will close the portal-) and she sees if after the "darkness" (portal) is opened.

[Mole 0]

That is because Joss is the man, plain and simple.

 

I'm was thinking about watching it again too, I believe it is on my computer here at home somewhere....

 

RRR, what were the themes that were played during the season? I didn't catch all of them.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

The main theme is Family (duh). The subsections of that are Love and Blood (as in there are two types of families - those connected by blood, and those connected by love). Buffy has two families - Xander, Willow & Giles (with Anya & Tara), and Dawn & Joyce.

 

The best representation of this is in the eps. "Family" where Taras "bloodkin" come to take her back and Buffy & Gang stop them and declare themselves a family. Glory called Ben her "family". They were a family of circumstance, much like Buffy and Dawn. However, there was no love between them as there were with the Summer sisters.

 

And extention of "family" is home. Home is where you make it. Some people realize that, some don't. Glory didn't and she would do anything to get back.

 

"It doesn't matter where you came from, or, or how you got here. You are my sister."

 

This is what Buffy said to Dawn in bloodties (where Dawn finds out she is the key). It is a reference to both family and home.

 

Light and Darkness is another predominant theme in Buffy. They're contrasts. Buffy and Dawns relationship contrasted with Ben and Glorys. Dawn was "the light", Glory was from the darkness. Glory couldn't accept living on earth, Dawn could. Buffy was willing (and did) die for Dawn and saving the world. Ben wasn't strong enough. "Things get darkest before the get bright". Dracula said Buffys powers were rooted in darkness. Yet the First Slayer said, "You are full of love. You love with all of your soul. It's brighter than the fire ... blinding". Tara was "in the dark" after getting her brain sucked. At the end Buffy sees the sun rise and then jumps.

 

"Love"-wise, I kinda went through that with April. Unconditional love, the love of a mother, etc. All of this comes crashing down in "The Body", but gets rebuilt in "The Gift". Buffy tells the gang "I love you all", but she loves Dawn more. So the blood, in this case where love is there, is thicker than water. "Love will bring you your gift". You'll find the word "love" in this season to be used A LOT.

 

"Blood"-wise, it's a theme throughout. In "Dracula" Xander makes the comment "Blood is life" - even before it became important. Dawn cuts herself and asks if her blood is real. "Summers blood". "Why do you think Vampires drink it?...It makes you warm" - Spike.

 

...This is all very sloppy; but then again, I'm not getting marked on it ...

 

The fun stuff in the gift is how previous things play a part in defeating Glory:

 

Buffy Bot - I liked how they made the dialogue just believable enough for you to think its buffy - but upon further viewings you can see how it's Buffy bot.

 

War Hammer - it's nifty cause Willow said an earlier eps. "we have to find something heavier" to hit Glory with... Buffy ultimately beats Glory with it.

 

Dagansphere - weakens glory.

 

Tara/Willow - Tara leads the gang to Glory, Willow takes some of Glorys power away.

 

"GILES: But I've sworn to protect this sorry world, and sometimes that means saying and doing ... what other people can't. What they shouldn't have to. " That leads to Giles killing Ben (one of the best scenes EVER) - a thought that Xander thought was sick and that Buffy refused to do.

 

Xander the bowler and construction worker "picking up a spare".

 

Spike "crossing the threshold".

 

And of course, Buffy and blood and all that stuff.

[Mole 0]

Joss and the writing team really thought the season out to a T. Then again they were planing on everything ever since season 3, so they had lots of time to prepare.

 

That's one of the reason why season 4 sucked, they were just thinking about 5!

 

I watched "the Gift" last night, and the episode was amazing. One thing that I noticed was that Buffy seemed happy to jump and die.

 

Somtimes I believe that the show should of been over after season 5 because of how poetic everything was. However, one of the main themes of the whole series was that Buffy would always be alone, she was the chosen one. In "Chosen" that was no longer the case, she didn't have to worry about that anymore.

 

Where did they say Buffy was last? They said it during Angel this year, but I can't seem to remember.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Buffy is in Europe.

 

Know what I noticed about Buffy in that eps? She looked hot. Yeah. Tell me about it.

 

What I lllloooovvve about the Gift is that *everyone* has "their own" scene. Almost like a moment of clearity. Xander and Anya have their basement scene, Giles and Buffy have their training scene, Willow and Tara have their hugging scene, Dawn and Buffy have their pre-death scene, Spike and Buffy have their stair scene. They may not be long, but they're very effective. They give an ~EPIC~ sense to the show. Those small scenes gave a totality to it all - that everyone and everything is effected and that what will happen in the next few hours will determine the rest of their lives. There's a feeling that "everything has built towards this" (it doesn't hurt that they do a "Previously on Buffy" of the entire series to that point )

 

It didn't really establish anything; we all knew Giles had a dark past, we knew that Anya and Xander loved each other, we knew that Spike knows that Buffy doesn't and can't love him, we know that Buffy will give her life for Dawn, we know Tara and Willow love each other... but I think those scenes really did justice to those relationships and characters. If you watch that eps. you will "get" each and every person on that show.

[Ravenbomb 0]

that reminds me...

people who have the R2 Season 5 Buffy,

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me that the DVD left in the 'Previously on Buffy' thing on The Gift. That was one of the best things in the whole season to me.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Season 4 was AAAAAAAALLL about developing the characters for Season 5. Tara and Willows relationship, I found, was better in Season 5. As well as Xander and Anyas. Season 4 was an adjustment period and often those periods are uncomfortable. The relationships were well established for Season 5 and dealing with Dawn & Glory & Joyces death.

 

Plus, the "college experience" - IMO - was a bomb. They already did the uncomfortable learning experience in high school, and they did it well enough. They tried to go beyond that, but the results were "bad beer" and the initiative. Again, an adjustment period.

[Anakin Flair 0]

Damn, Rick. That's poetic *sniff*

[Guest Vitamin EC]

And we go from S5 to S4, which I really enjoyed for the most part. I'm like the worst Buffy fan ever.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

I loved Season 4 personally. It was different and kinda fun. Plus it has some of my favorite episodes: "Something Blue", "Hush", "Restless"

[Cavi 0]

Word, Rudo. "The Gift" is my favorite episode ever. So much awesome stuff in it. One of the things being the incredible scoring by Chris Beck. I always have to give that props.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

In terms of individual eps. Season 4 had a number of "great" ones and some of the shows most memorable moments. The one where Giles turns into a demon is fucking awesome. "Superstar", "Hush", "Restless" are all ****+ episodes. "Something Blue" could be considered ****+, though I don't immediately think of it when thinking about Season 4... I'm not a big fan of the 2 parter with Faith - but then again, I'm not a big fan of brain entering (didn't like it in Season 5 as well - one of the fewthings I disliked) and not a huge faith fan either. 6 "great" episodes for any show other than Buffy would be considered a successful season

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Oh yeah I forgot "Superstar", such a great episode.

[Mole 0]

Blah, "Superstar" didn't do jack shit for me.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

Plus, the "college experience" - IMO - was a bomb. They already did the uncomfortable learning experience in high school, and they did it well enough. They tried to go beyond that, but the results were "bad beer" and the initiative. Again, an adjustment period.

You know, its very weird that they completely dropped the whole UC Sunnydale stuff in terms of being a backdrop for the final 3 seasons.

 

Everyone kind of moved into Casa Summers after Joyce's death and the reserection of Buffy yeah I know someone had to care for Dawn but that gave them an easy way to never appear on college ever again

 

I mean we never did get to see Willow, the sole survivor of Sunnydale High's graduating class make it to her college graduation.

 

Not that there was any "need" for it, but considering she was the last one still in, it would have been nice to even mention it, unless Sunnydale went bye-bye before the school year ended

 

Steve

[Max Danger 0]

Well, she was absent from college for awhile, when she went all evil, so when she decided to go back in season seven, she probably would have had a lot to go before graduating.

 

I'm just wondering why Willow and Tara didn't get jobs while they were living at Buffy's home and helping to pay for things instead of Buffy having to work at Doublemeat Palace.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

No one graduated...which is kinda funny.

 

The only person who went to class every day was Tara...and she died before senior year.

 

Oz bailed as a freshman.

 

Buffy died before junior year.

 

Willow probably bould have made it...but the whole school kind of went ka-plooey.

[Ravenbomb 0]

I'm just wondering why Willow and Tara didn't get jobs while they were living at Buffy's home and helping to pay for things instead of Buffy having to work at Doublemeat Palace.

But then how/why would Buffy and Spike do it in the alley behind the DMP?

[Mole 0]

I'm just wondering why Willow and Tara didn't get jobs while they were living at Buffy's home and helping to pay for things instead of Buffy having to work at Doublemeat Palace.

But then how/why would Buffy and Spike do it in the alley behind the DMP?

What does Buffy and Spike doing it have to do with Tara and Willow getting a job?

 

They should of gotten a job, but I don't think that was ever answered for some reason. I believe they were just trying to make things even more difficult for Buffy by making her work only.

 

Hell, slayers should of gotten paid SOMETHING for doing their job. I know they were "chosen" to fight evil, but they need money too!

 

EDIT: Does anyone know the difference between the regular DVD sets and the collector's edition DVD sets? There is one up for bid on ebay, and it has 11 discs comapred to the 6 that season 3 has. What could possibly be on the other 5 discs?

Edited November 30, 2003 by MoleSlayer

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

See, I liked that they gave up on the college life and opted more with the relationships between characters and the big bads.... there's only so much you can do with having trouble with work and evil teachers and "boys".

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Actually they pretty much moved away from the College theme before Season 4 was even over.

[Mole 0]

I love this, two threads about Buffy.

 

I'll ask this question again, does anyone know the difference between the regular DVD sets and the collector's edition DVD sets? There is one up for bid on ebay, and it has 11 discs comapred to the 6 that season 3 has. What could possibly be on the other 5 discs?

[Guest JMA]

Personally, I never really liked Xander "getting over" Buffy. Of course, I'm also big fan of the first season of Buffy. I really didn't like the brother/sister type thing they had going at the end. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Buffy and Xander DID eventually get together.

[Guest Vitamin EC]

I'll ask this question again, does anyone know the difference between the regular DVD sets and the collector's edition DVD sets? There is one up for bid on ebay, and it has 11 discs comapred to the 6 that season 3 has. What could possibly be on the other 5 discs?

Linkage?