Spoiler Slayer

After watching 'Wrecked', I find myself with very little to say. Mainly because if I want to watch an After School Special, I'll tune into the Lifetime Movie Network.

I don't know, I guess I'm just not used to having the writers of this show be so obvious in their analogies. Especially when neither story really holds up to much scrutiny. If anyone can explain why Willow and Amy needed to go to the magic pusher, I hope they will enlighten me. There didn't seem to be much going on that had to do with casting spells, they certainly didn't look like they lasted days, and there definitely was a burn-out factor. Amy also used to come across as a very strong, albeit misguided character. When did she find the time to become a magic junkie. Plus, why was she rummaging around in Willow's room? There is a perfectly good magic shop right down the street, and I think one can find sage in most supermarkets.

But then the show really takes a wrong turn when they try to show that Willow's story arc is running parallel to the Buffy/Spike story arc. Which is totally not the case in my opinion. It's like comparing apples to oranges. Is Buffy putting anyone in danger by hanging out with Spike? If anything they're doing most of the slaying in town right now, I don't think the gang's been on a patrol in months. Maybe she's feeling a bit guilty by not coming home that one night, but at least she isn't taking Dawn out patrolling with her. I also think the ending was a bit of overkill, obviously Spike is not going to do anything to hurt Buffy. Looking at the way he looks after Dawn, I don't see what would put that into her mind.

Unless that was the point of this episode. Which might not be readily apparent until a few more episodes air. I'm also going to have to agree with the Xander fans, both Anya and him are getting very little in the way of airtime. Though I do think that it will change very soon, as I think I've figured out where the Buffy/Spike story arc might be going, and it's going to involve Xander and Anya in a major way. But I think that will be a ways off in the future. Willow is obviously going to have issues for some time to come, if only because the history of addiction storylines demand it.

In the end, too much was just left out. Where was the Troika (and the mysterious Phase Two), why isn't Buffy concerned about discovering what's wrong with her, and we really need to see way more of Anya and Xander (seriously, I think they were only in this episode to keep the running joke of Anya's hairstyle going). While there were strong performances from all of the cast, the story behind the emotions wasn't that great. It just wasn't the way I expected the sweeps run to end.