Ep by ep; The KIller in Me

Oh my god, this is ep 135, we're into single figures left!

The Good; Always lovely to see Amy again, sadly her last appearance although she's back in the comics. Nice subplot with 'Is Giles the First?' and some creepy stuff in the old Initiative, very Halloween (the movie not the ep).

The Bad; I find the whole Willow/Kennedy storyline not that involving frankly and I'm normally a Willow fan. Rather ruins the surprise reveal of Amy when EAA's name is in the titles.

Best line; Spike; "Who you gonna call? You know that's never going to be usable again, is it?" (tell that to the 118 118 boys!) but also like; Initiative officer (of Spike) "We're here to help ass-face (noting Buffy's look) Those were agent Finn's exact words"

Women good/men bad; Pretty much all the Warren stuff

Jeez!; Will slapping Amy is shocking

Kinky dinky; When Buffy tries to tell the Initiative that Spike's 'chip' is malfunctioning they seem to think she's referring to something else. Andrew grabs Will's breasts, he and Dawn take the opportunity to feel up Willow/Warren and all the Scoobs grope Giles in the final scene. Giles is affronted that the Scoobes think he's evil because he'd take a group of nubile teenage girls on a camping trip and NOT touch them. Xander appears to wear Aquaman underwear, how does Willow know this? Amy's top is very revealing, I never appreciated how hot she was until this ep.

Captain Subtext; One big lesbian seduction of Willow by Kennedy. Kennedy says that Willow is sexy when she pouts, quite true. Kennedy presumes Willow is gay but Will never actually says so. She asks how long has she enjoyed sex with women (well doesn't EVERYONE?). Interestingly Will says she didn't fall in love with WOMEN but with one WOMAN. Will's mum hardly met Tara. Kennedy says she was first attracted to women when she was five (!) after watching Rhett sweep Scarlett up the staircase in Gone with the Wind. This scene is widely considered to be marital rape but then as a potential Slayer Kennedy has that dark sexual side we see in Faith and Buffy and in 'Get it done' we find out why. Note that Kennedy wishes to play the Rhett role who's the sexual aggressor just as Kennedy is courting Willow. Kennedy tells Willow she doesn't worry about her "Being too butch". More signs of Andrew and Xander bonding, love Anya and Dawn's little look at him. Dawn and Anya snuggle under a blanket. So, does Amy actually have a gay crush on Willow and is this all the result of jealousy? Certainly Amy at the end seems to be coming on to Kennedy, saying "You must be good" after the revelation about the kiss. Kennedy thinks Willow's freckles are 'lickable'.

Guantanamo Bay; The Initiative's new front is a flower shop, what is it with Buffy and florists?

Missing scenes; Presumably around this time Dawn receives her phonecall from Angelus but we never see it. Also the Scoobies never seem to notice the eternal darkness in LA or Jasmine but then they have their own worries.

Scoobies in bondage: Spike continues to keep himself chained up

Kills: one demon for Buffy

Scoobies go evil: Willow, big time Giles: 1 Cordy: 1 Will: 4 Jenny: 1 Angel: 1 Oz: 1 Joyce: 1 Xander: 4 Anya; 1 Dawn; 1 Buffy; 1 Spike; 1

Alternate scoobies: Willow as Warren Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 1 Will: 6 Jenny: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 2 Joyce: 2 Xander: 4 Tara; 1 Dawn;1 Spike; 1 Anya; 2

What the fanficcers thought; Read an interesting one where Willow's guilt manifest's itself differently, she's visited by Warren every night and he cuts skin from her body. In the follow up story she forgives him and then forgives herself, making him disappear and only dreaming of Tara from then on 'Deserving'. Another good one has Willow confronting Amy and we find out that this is all due to an unrequited gay crush from Amy for Willow. Amy tries to stab Will with her Bringer dagger and Xander shoots Amy with the gun Willow-as-Warren bought. She collapses and dies in the arms of a tearful Willow 'Catch me if I fall'.

Questions and observations; Weird to see flashbacks all the way back to season 4, seems a world away. SMG seems rather hoarse in the first scene. The series seems to be running out of money to judge by the commentary, all that CGI expensive. It strikes me that Spike has moved into the basement just as Xander moves out. Robson the Watcher has survived, the Watcher's Council is not entirely gone and can help Buffy and co in season 8. Shouldn't Xander pack some weapons when he heads off to the desert?

So is Amy working with the First (she uses it's catchphrase, 'It's about power')? But when she talks to Kennedy she seems to not even to be evil, that this is petty jealousy of Willow. OR maybe she's bitter at Willow having killed Rack and left Amy to have painful rehab on her own?

Is the leader of the Initiative team the same guy from the series The Unit? What a shame they couldn't have got Graham back. In the end where we see Warren weeping and saying "I'm sorry baby" is he actually grieving for Katrina?

Last sight and mention of Riley and the Initiative. We still have the ironing board that Xander and CC used to try to barricade the door with in BBB. It seems that Willow and Tara weren't very big on the whole lesbian or Wicca community thing, they were pretty private. Drew mentions in the commentary that he writes fanfiction, has anyone ever read any of his? Willow adopts Warren's 'gangsta' style of handgun holding, I wouldn't be worried if I were Kennedy, she's not going to hit anything.
Overall this was an okay ep but I find it a little incomplete.
6/10