#hostile 17

Chaotic Buffy badges designed by me, Perfect as a gift or a treat for yourself to show your inner slayer in style.

Perfect for fandom-themed Ita bags or cosplays

Willow and Riley teaming up is brilliant. We get a reminder of what a good friend Willow is, we see hints of what a good person (mostly) Riley is, and we see some nice friend bonding (my fav!).

The juxtaposition of Buffy and Riley’s secret identities is fantastic. The scene where they’re both trying to get the other person to go away so they can fight Spike is sooooo good.

Willow and Spike have an amazing follow up interaction to the one in season 3...the drama of the moment where he attacks her as the music is blaring and it cuts out, only to find out he can’t “perform”? It’s such good writing! “Let’s try again”...brilliant. Willow internalizing his failure and Spike comforting her is such an amazing role reversal from Willow comforting a broken hearted Spike when he kidnapped her the year before. AND THEN HE COMPLIMENTS HER PINK FUZZY SWEATER.

And yet...the episode is plagued by this weird and unnecessary sexism. Do we really need to hear the gross convo between Parker and Forrest about Buffy just so Riley can realize he likes her? Talk about abusing a woman for the character development of a man...

On that note...what exactly does Forrest contribute? He seems to exist just to say gross sexist things as a way of highlighting Riley’s hometown good boy vibes. If I unpack that too much I just find racism.

*SPOILER WARNING for anyone new to watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer or intending to start watching soon*

Even after about 14 years since the last time we saw him on tv, I feel like it's still worth noting how interesting it was that Spike was able to love 2 different people without a soul (3 if you count Fred. Different kind of love than what he had for Dru and Buffy, but still love.) Spike loved Buffy before and after he got his soul back. He was fascinated with Drusilla while he was human, which led to his turning, and even then he actually fell in love with her. Angel only loved Buffy when he had his soul. When he was Angelus, he may have been physically attracted to her but he treated her like a challenging project, much like he did Drusilla before he turned her. That love he felt for Buffy was gone.