Once More With Commentary: A Buffy Podcast

Angel is running the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart and discovering the perks and challenges of his new position, as are Fred, Wesley, Lorne and Gunn. Harmony returns as Angel’s new assistant, we meet the mysterious Eve, and Blondie Bear is back!

We made it to the end of Buffy! Cue some tears (but no bubbly, Allie is in Boston before noon). We start with the Angel finale, and the Wolfram & Hart deal has us very excited for next season, bye bye Jasmine! Then, we dive into the Buffy finale, where we appreciate the emotions while quibbling with some of the plot. Then, we go over our rankings for the show as a whole and how a non-binge viewing has changed our minds.

This week, Buffy reenacts the Sword In the Stone, Angel arrives in town, and everyone prepares for the final battle. Meanwhile on Angel, our hero is somehow also in a hell dimension, while his friends wait in a cell for his return with the word to destroy Jasmine.

It’s a brazil nut of an episode for Buffy this week, when Faith replaces Buffy as lead slayer and…everyone just has sex. Buffy finds her sword in the stone and Faith leads the potentials into a trap. On Angel, the gang is on the run from Jasmine’s minions, and they stumble on a very Rumplestiltskin-like clue to defeating her in the sewers.

On Buffy, tensions come to a head as the potentials, Giles and Xander confront Buffy over her leadership. Spike and Andrew take a road trip and learn more about what Caleb is after. In LA, Fred tries desperately to show Angel and the others the truth about Jasmine.

It’s refreshing for Buffy to again have a flesh and blood villain to fight instead of whatever the First is, and Caleb brings a real creep factor to this story. But would it have worked better if he were introduced earlier? Then, we didn’t hate Angel this week but we have a hard time believing this episode was seasons in the making and planning. And don’t get us started on Fred and the sweater.

This Buffy episode doesn’t quite live up to our memories of enjoying it, and we have our quibbles, but we do get some good flashbacks for both Spike and Principal Wood. Although, what is the show trying to say with these parallel tales? We aren’t sure. Let’s face it though, this episode didn’t have to try very hard to be better than Angel. Oh wow. But anyway… have you seen Yennefer’s eyeshadow on The Witcher?

Andrew treats us to his version of Masterpiece Theater this week, but his attempts to catalogue the work of the slayer lead ultimately to a confrontation of his own actions and part he’s played in the rise of the First. On Angel, the team starts to put the pieces together about Cordelia and the Beast’s master, while Gunn helps Gwen with a mission.

It’s a day in the life in Sunnyvale this week, as So.Much.Is.Happening. and we don’t quite know which part is supposed to be important? Let us not forget this is episode with the bonkers insanity of Buffy opening a portal with shadow puppets and Andrew making funnel cake!! As for Angel, we still don’t know what is supposed to be going on with Cordelia but thank god Willow showed up to breathe some life into the hotel!

We planned the TED Talk for Ginny’s wedding! But also, we discussed “First Date” and “Release” and since when was Buffy in love with Spike? That’s a bad retcon. Good retcon would be Principle Wood being the son of a slayer killed by Spike. We’ll allow that. As usual, there’s an interesting story on Angel that the show is ignoring. This week felt like a rehash, and we hope to be done with Angelus soon!