Episode Title: Dead Things
Original Air Date: 5th February, 2002
“Well, isn’t this usually the part where you kick me in the head and virtue fluttering?” – Spike
Considering the screwed up place the world has become over the last couple of months, with numerous figures of power being rightfully proven that they aren’t as omnipotent as they might quite liked to have believed. Of course with this in mind it only makes it the more akward that this weeks episode would revolve around the latest scheme from “The Trio” involving them using magic to hypnotise women into being their willing sex slaves.
Okay I don’t know about yourselves but there is something about this plot line which really made me feel a lot more uneasy than when it was originally aired. Be it the wisdom of age or perhaps changing attitudes there just seemed something more than alittle off watching this episode now and if it wasn’t for its importance for the character arc of Warren I would advise just skipping straight over it.
Elsewhere relationship issues are abound between Buffy and Spike who as we’ve covered several times before in these recaps really don’t come off as a convincing couple, but alas the writing team are determined that its going to happen, so hence we get a lot of akward refrences of kinky sex between the pair, despite them having all the sexual chemistry of cold tea…..of course the abundance of shippers for this pair would prove that I also could be in the wrong on this one.
Buffy’s main concerns about this relationship though are if her feelings for Spike might be down to her being brought back wrong especially with Spike now being able to hurt her without his chip going off. This of course is only adding to the guilt she feels about being involved with her former enemy especially while none of her friends have a clue that its happening. The kicker for the episode of course being that there nothing magic related about their relationship.
Still looking at the hijinks of “The Trio” you can on one hand see were the writers were going as here we have a group of socially awkward nerds who not being able to talk to girls or at least get them to like them back you can understand them wanting to come up with a way to correct this. The obvious downside to this being that the whole endevor has such date rape undertones to it which perhaps they could have stepped around had their first love slave and Warren’s ex to boot not highlighted it to them that what they are doing is rape!
Why Warren feels the need to go along with this plan is unclear especially as he’s been shown to have no issues with finding a girlfriend, even if he did get introduced to the show originally having built one let alone the Buffy-Bot for Spike. Still by having his ex as the girl they pick up only plays into his continuing journey to the dark side by having him bludgeon her to death with a wine bottle. His ruthless side really coming though in this scene much less how he’s concerned by his actions.
This murder sets up their interaction with Buffy for the episode which basically revolves around making her believe she killed her but it ends up coming off way too confused, while Spike’s attempts to make the body disappear by throwing her in the river only highlights why you shouldn’t trust him with such things.
A forgettable episode that gets way too dark while fumbling over more sensetive subject material. As such it could be edited out of the season to zero detrimental effect.
Next Episode: Older and Far Away
Channel: Superhero 