Buffy the Vampire Slayer || 7x16 || Discussion
Added 2023-02-04 19:25:01 +0000 UTC7x16: "Storyteller"
Next: Angel 4x14 on Wed 2/8
Andrew, the filmmaker of the buffyverse, has a vision for this episode and I loved it lmaooo. Literally loved this episode and how we got to have a fun plot with Andrew, but it also gave us a LOT of progression for the rest of the cast <3 *chefs kiss*
Hope yall enjoyy! :D
Comments
Little note: I'm not sure if you ever watched to the end to the "Grr... Argh" Mutant Enemy sign off but it was changed in this episode to the "We are gods" song. Too funny. I have always enjoyed this episode but on rewatch with you, Alley, I really fell in love with it. I am struck by how "meta" it is for the show- not only because it is a story told mainly from an outsider's POV but also it is done in such a way that if you just happened upon this episode as a first-time watcher, it is a really helpful and entertaining way to bring you up-to-date. And as a long-time fan, I love the call-back to the early HS episodes like the disappearing girl and I love Buffy just flat-out telling Principal Wood the part of the original premise of the show: "There's a thing that happens here over the Hellmouth.. Where a way a thing feels actually starts happening for real.. Being at high school can feel like being at war. Now it's true." (i.e., High School is Hell... amiright!?). I also love Andrew describing Xander as "the Heart" of the Scoobies. This is in fact also one of the original premises of the show: Xander is metaphorically Buffy's heart, Willow is her spirit, Giles her mind (as is also placed in the subtext of "Primeval" and "Restless" in S4). The scene with Buffy and Andrew over the seal at the end is fantastic and even better upon rewatch in my opinion. Andrew is great, but SMG just really nails Buffy's complexity of emotions. Her unflinching nerve. Her resolve to do what needs to be done. Her sadness that this is the way it is. I really appreciate your observations at the end, Alley, you sum it up really well. Contrary to what Andrew is "narrating" as Buffy fights the students in the basement, good isn't always going to triumph over evil just because it's good. People will die. Good people will die. Probably Andrew will die.
StephanieB
2023-05-18 21:16:38 +0000 UTC"In my plan, we are beltless." is one of the best lines of dialogue in the show's history.
indaeo
2023-05-09 23:02:06 +0000 UTCBuffy, after rejecting the power last episode, asked the shadow men to tell her something she didn't know, and that's when she got to see the army, so if she started out asking, maybe she would have been told before. Also, kinda think Andrew do Anyas lines, coz he kinda relates to Anya, or he just find Xander hot, not sure if it ever became official, but i belive he is kinda gay.
Leonard Ledung
2023-02-27 19:32:57 +0000 UTCIt's kind of my favorite season 7 episode.
Gwenhwyfar Aine
2023-02-11 07:53:05 +0000 UTCIts Andrew's Zeppo episode. I've always found the twist at the end to be quite heart wrenching
Shawn Skelton
2023-02-07 06:26:02 +0000 UTCI think there's also a certain level of defeat in there. Maybe I'm reaching, but if his tears hadn't worked then there's nothing they can do to stop the seal from opening anyway, so why not just drain his blood and get it over with? I don't think Buffy would have *actually* done it, but given how she reacted to Dawn being taken at the end of season five, there's precedence for her to consider just giving up entirely.
Jamie Morgan
2023-02-06 19:37:10 +0000 UTCYep. Spikes always been very Extra. That's part of what I love about him too. When Druscilla turned him, he put thought into his whole image. He even changed his accent from upper crust to lower class.
Loves Bitca
2023-02-06 05:26:44 +0000 UTCHuh... I've always wondered what the symbolism was behind the Spike in front of the photographers scene meant in "Restless" (in Giles' dream sequence) I always thought it was something that the writers threw in in order to give James something to do in the episode... I never connected it to him "putting on a show" and being full of drama. Now that I heard Alley call him "a drama queen" while he was filming with Andrew I got a "flashback" to his scene in Restless and put it all together. I feel kinda dumb.. =P
Ashtara Levin
2023-02-06 02:53:12 +0000 UTCThe thing I always think of when I think of this episode is the weight of Buffy's silent gaze when Andrew asks her if the tears hadn't worked. I'm usually alone on this but I've always taken that silent look as tacit acknowledgment she... doesn't know. Which is to say, she'd have given real thought to killing him to see if it would work. She wasn't "acting" when she talked about the burden of this battle, how far to the brink they were, and that look to me felt like an admission that she doesn't know for sure herself.
Dan H
2023-02-06 01:59:47 +0000 UTCYour reaction to this episode changed my mind on it! I only really saw it for the comedy until your reaction. It was way deeper than just comedic. The empathy you showed for Andrew was great!
Luke
2023-02-05 21:58:12 +0000 UTCI can't believe this only just occurred to me - Andrew constantly calls himself 'evil', not because he was actually evil (let's face it, he was just a dweeb who got suckered into Warren's cult) but because he *lost*. He has this whole good-triumphing-over-bad thing because the only way he can contextualise his defeat is to make it black and white. Now he's deep in the grey area, realising he's done some very bad things, is trying to do good now...but if an ubervamp gets hold of him *none* of that is going to mean *anything*. Also, it's hilarious to me that Adam Busch's character got skinned alive and one season later he's prancing around in a toga!
Jamie Morgan
2023-02-05 21:37:06 +0000 UTCI always enjoyed this episode. If only for the outsider perspective.
Rob
2023-02-05 21:24:47 +0000 UTCAndrew is a cleverly written character, he’s weak willed and annoying, he was part of a group of villains who weren’t best loved and of the three you’d want to have a redemption story, you’d think it’s not him, but one thing I noticed about him watching through you is when the main characters remember his name so did you. That’s when I knew you were gonna love this episode, because Andrew grows on you. He’s quite sweet. even though he’s gone down the wrong path. You said is this another superstar, this actualy pushed superstar to the bottom of my favourite ‘breaking the format’ episodes
Steven morgan
2023-02-05 16:39:12 +0000 UTCStoryteller! Such a fantastic episode. Andrew's breakdown at the end is genuinely moving, and I love the little detail of him just switching the camera off at the end instead of talking to it - choosing to stop hiding behind a story. And we get so much insight into Buffy's frame of mind too, how she's feeling about the pressure she's under. But the main reason why it's a favourite is of course the bike romance cover slowmo scene. iconic.
Lucy
2023-02-05 07:15:11 +0000 UTCI'm voting for 'Dollhouse' being her next Whedon show.
Tim St. Croix
2023-02-05 03:01:35 +0000 UTCAlso please tell me you have "Firefly" on your docket sometime in the future (I can wait until Angel is over if need be).
Dee Aitch
2023-02-05 02:02:41 +0000 UTCYeah, last episode seemed somewhat slow and repetitive. We do the "potential dies because of being stupid" plot a second time, and there's even a point where we send all 20 potentials upstairs to cram into a few rooms in order to give the main cast a moment alone for plot reasons. This episode however is pretty darned good, as it has both the comedy of Superstar (the lampshading of yet another St Crispin's Day Speech from Buffy is comedy gold) and the ability to move Andrew past the point of being weirdo-hanger-on into a real character. Everything goes back to the quote from 5x22: "But you're just a girl." "That's what I keep saying."
Dee Aitch
2023-02-05 01:53:11 +0000 UTC
