Spoiler Slayer

A Tip On A Turtle

'Help' was an intriguing episode and ended up being one that I enjoyed more than I expected. I've always like Rebecca's style, though I am more than slightly amused that she picked an episode with this theme. For the newer folks to the site, you might not recall some of my past updates where I commented on the similarities between 'Tough Love' and Season Six. Rebecca, whether intentionally or unintentionally, has the habit of telegraphing upcoming storylines in her episodes. In essence, providing us with a glimpse of what's to come.

The biggest surprise in 'Help', was the dramatic change in both of the Summers sisters. Dawn has matured a great deal from her 'Get Out' days, and Buffy also seems to be finding her way in the adult world as well. In fact, one could argue that the 'B' storyline of the Summers was more important than the 'Reptile Boy' redux in means of the story. It really does come down to how the characters are written. I think if Dawn had been written this way since the beginning, she might be a liked a bit more by the average fan.

The Scooby dynamic has made a nice comeback, so I really don't mind the stand-alone aspect of these early episodes. I'm more than a bit surprised that the Spike storyline isn't being advanced further at the moment. With the exception of the revelation of the soul in 'Beneath You', most of his scenes have been played as either crazy Spike or helpful Spike. I don't see much that is going to change over the next few episodes, so I can only hope his story arc will be developed during Sweeps.

While Cassie's little aside to Spike was what the fans of Buffy/Spike were hoping for, I have doubts that the two of them are going to be the focus of Sweeps. It's all going to come down to what happens between Xander and Anya in 'Selfless'. If there isn't a sign of reconciliation between them, then I think it's going to be a ship-free season (at least for the first half).

One of the other comments made by Cassie was also interesting. Such as Buffy being underground sometime in the future. For a moment, I recalled the rumors floating around that Buffy would be sucked into the Hellmouth (and out of the loop for one or more episodes). Some have even pointed out that it might coincide with her visit to Saturday Night Live. The last time she did this, her face time in the episode filmed that week was brief. However, do you really want to do that during a Sweeps episode? Unfortunately, I have very little in the way of solid info for the Sweeps episodes (at least after 'Him'), so you never know.

All in all, it was a very good episode. However, while cryptic comments, premonitions, and strange dreams are nice for a while, I'm looking forward to some serious story in the near future.

Buff-Fest

Herc posted an update at AICN, which is actually part of the MTV release from yesterday. If you want to read a bit about the Breeders visit to the Bronze, check it out.