Spoiler Slayer

'Conversations With Dead People' Review

Just covering the review of the episode today. I've decided to split off the speculation because I just haven't finished gathering all my thoughts on that. Since it looks to a quiet weekend, that'll be in tomorrow's post.

With the exception of Spike and Holden, the show dealt chiefly with the female leads (Buffy, Willow, and Dawn). While I'm surprised they didn't pull Anya into the mix as well, we did just recently have an episode devoted to her story. Although it was strange that Xander was omitted completely from the episode, I would be more concerned if Spike had a larger role than he did. This season is not about the men, it's about the women (which will become even more obvious once the Slayers-In-Training start arriving in Sunnydale).

I am disappointed that Amber Benson chose not to return as Tara. The reasons have been attributed to everything from money to fan reaction to her death last season, I'm not sure if we'll ever know for sure. I personally feel that it's probably the latter, as money probably wouldn't have been a sticking point for Fox. Seeing the role that she would have taken, I can understand if that was the reason. However, there have been characters who have returned to 'haunt' the show (including Warren in this episode and if the shooting report is right, Jonathan in an upcoming episode). It's a TV show, and for the sake of the story it would have been more interesting if the conversation had been with Tara rather than someone Willow never met. It would have been much darker and twisted, but that is part of the charm of the series. I doubt that the fans would have thought any less of her if she had taken on this part. By not appearing, I think everyone ends up losing. But Azura Skye filled in nicely, and maybe managed to come off a bit more evil than Amber would have.

It was another strong performance from Michelle Trachtenberg. It was good to see her handling herself without the support of the Scoobies, and resolving the issue as well. Though her quick research and solution via magic was a bit of a stretch, it opened up another path for her character. We've seen her fight side by side with Buffy, now we also see that she has a bit of Willow in reserve as well.

If there was a weak spot in the episode, it was Buffy's session with Dr. Vampy. While it's nice to see that Buffy realizes what she did wrong last season, it also didn't seem like anything had changed. There was more than a little bit of Season Six Buffy in this episode. It seemed more like a method to keep her away from the house, so Dawn could deal with the spirits on her own. If the point was the psycho-analysis, it would have been much more interesting to have it come from someone much better suited to do it, Doctor Walsh. It would have built further on the 'girl power' theme of the episode, and might have tied a bit more into the Shapeshifter's master plan as well. Neither did it do much good to have her admit that she was wrong about her relationship with Spike, only to bring up the fact that Spike's killing again at the end.

Since Spike didn't have any lines, there's not much to say about his role in this episode. The method used to tell the story was well-chosen, and I like that there is no ambiguity about what Spike is doing. If Holden had merely told Buffy that Spike had sired him, we might have wondered if it was a mistake on Holden's part. By having Spike's story interwoven with the others, it's hard to deny that Spike is once again siring vampires.

In the end, it was another quality episode. The threads are being pulled together, and it won't be long before both the Scoobies and the audience are fully aware of what's going on in Sunnydale. Where I see this going over the next few episodes, and how this will tie into the story after Sweeps, will be the topic of tomorrow's update. But I'll tease you with the title...

Expect The Unexpected