Buffy S6 and Angel S3 Rewatch
Jan. 18th, 2026 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatTime got away from me last night - as it often does whenever I ramble on - and I wasn't able to finish writing down my thoughts on my rewatch of Buffy S6 (up to Villians) and Angel S2 (up to Forgiving).
It's snowing again, but not as heavy, and the floakes are much smaller. They almost look like sleep or rain, but they are definitely snow. I love it when it snows in New York City - it quiets the world just a nudge, blankets it in white, and it's pretty. All I hear on this quiet Sunday morning is the hissing and creaking of radiators. And since I woke up to a cool bedroom (64 degrees - I'd put on my window fan last night since it was too warm in the bedroom to start), I'm grateful for the heat now. It's 76 degrees F in the living room. Much colder outside of course - in the low thirties. But alas, it stopped, leaving but a trace.
Rewatching Angel and Buffy, I've picked up on various things that seem rather obvious now, but for some reason or other I didn't pick up on the first go around? I think it was because I was watching it embroiled in the fandom, and other fans can influence what I see on screen.
The Buffy fandom had gotten hoodwinked by a fake spoiler that Spike was going to get his chip out in S6. And the writers got tricky with the dialogue. But, now, it's pretty obvious to me - that's not what he's doing. The demon mentions restoration to his former self. He's still demon, the chip is just a bit of electronics. It doesn't keep him from doing demonic things. Why he increasingly chose not to - is interesting. The story-thread is obviously leading to Spike getting a soul. I mean it's not like the writers don't hammer us over the head with it in just about every other episode post Fool for Love. Even the description on Hulu is set up to fool the audience - stating Spike faces trials while he seeks to rid himself of his chip. (Which is clearly a mislead.) This doesn't track with his horror at how he hurt Buffy, to the point in which he left behind his jacket, or his exchange with Clem - no where in that is it clear that he'd want the chip removed. All you have to do is contrast Seeing Red with Out of My Mind - in both episodes a frustrated Spike attacks Buffy, in both he feels pain. In Out of My Mind - he can't hurt her - so he goes to get his chip removed - so that he can finally kill her. It doesn't work, he feels pain when he attacks her and rushes off furious. In Seeing Red - he can hurt her, but it's a sexual assault not an attempt to kill her. Note he could have tried to kill her - but there's no vamp face, and he doesn't attempt it. Yet, here he can. The chip no longer works on her. Getting the chip out in no way changes his relationship with Buffy. All it does is prove her right, that he can't change, and she can't trust him. Why people didn't see that while they were watching the show is beyond me? My guess is they didn't want to? That they didn't want Spike to be redeemed. They wanted him to be evil. They wanted S2-S4 Spike, they didn't like the Spike/Buffy relationship. They were going against the story thread and preferred the story or plot in their heads.
Speculating about a plot of an on-going series can be as detrimental to watching the series as well spoilers. Fanfiction can also spoil it for folks. A lot of fanfic writers had redeemed Spike without the soul, by just removing the chip, they were upset that the writers hadn't done the same.
Watching the series now? I realize redeeming Spike without a soul doesn't work - it goes against the thematic structure of the series. While Spike could do good things without a soul, and care for and even to a degree love Buffy without a soul - he can't do it wisely. He may feel a degree of empathy - but it's mainly as it relates to himself. It's shown here and there in the series.
Watching Angel at the same time as Buffy makes it even clearer.
There's a lot of foreshadowing in Angel S3 about Cordelia, Gunn and Fred's arcs. Also, it's made clear in S3 that Angel cares about his son, and possibly the people who help him. He literally would throw everyone under the bus to save Connor and himself. This is sharply contrasted with Buffy who only sacrifices herself for Dawn, and doesn't put Dawn above all else.
She cares about Dawn and protects Dawn, but she is also invested in saving Willow - who has gone dark, and even fought her, and betrayed her.
There's two episodes in S3 that foreshadow Fred's death in S5. Double or Nothing - where Gunn has traded his soul for a truck in his youth and signs in blood, and they threaten to take Fred too and he breaks up with her, and later when there's a slug infection as a side effect of dark magic, and Fred almost dies due to an invisible parasite that she's inhaled that is sucking all the water out of her. Wes is able to save her in this instance, but the slugs are a side effect of a spell that Angel cast.
Cordy's demise is also foreshadowed - she's made part demon, and rarely gets visions now - and no one questions it. Including Cordelia. (And it's clear to me that the writers didn't know what to do with her post Birthday. She disappears for about four episodes - which are more Wes focused - and it's important that she does, because otherwise Wes wouldn't have been quite as isolated. The Cordy/Angel & Wes dynamic is slowly dissolving, and with it Angel's connections to the world around him. ) Even if I didn't know they had written her out and killed her - I'd suspect it? Upon rewatch - it's clear that's the direction they are going in. I am finding the character less attractive and likable post-Birthday, though. She's kind of sanctimonious and patronizing - which yes, she'll be the next villain.
The writers are fascinated with abuses of power, and addictions to power. Cordelia up until she got the visions was powerless. The visions came with a painful side-effect. Now, she has powers. And she definitely doesn't want to give them up. Also, she's been playing the martyr - see, look, I saved Angel, took back my powers, and became part demon. By the way, the part demon - is most likely how she became the villain in S4, and gave birth to Jasmine. No one questioned it. And that killed her. So far - as of S3 - Cordy's arc is actually working.
Angel who refuses to forgive Wesley for taking his son (in an ill-advised attempt to save him), is now faced with a son who can't forgive him for all his misdeeds, and refuses to hear his side of the story. Holtz as promised, has raised Connor as his own, and turned Connor against his father. Also Connor has power. There's something to be said for - if you want to be forgiven, you need to start doing it yourself? Buffy forgave Angel for doing far worse. Gunn is correct when he states Angel is putting Angel first and doing what Angel wants to get what he wants. VK who plays Connor hated the role - and felt restricted. He's more attractive here, but he preferred Mad Men. Two characters that kind of get written into a corner are Connor and Cordelia. I think Dawn was written better on Buffy - helped by the fact that the writers avoided putting her into a relationship with Spike or Xander.
The best part of this arc is Dark Wesley. The episodes Loyalty through Forgiving are better than the ones that come after, and the difference is the first three focus more on Wesley and the later focus on Cordelia and Connor - who are weak links. Wes linking up with Lilah, and their push me/pull me relationship is nicely ambiguous and by far the most interesting of the doomed relationships in the series to date. Cordelia and Groo reminds me too much of Buffy and Riley, and doesn't go anywhere, the joke goes on almost too long. The difficulty is - that Wes is a far more interesting character than Cordelia is. So too, for that matter, is Fred and Gunn. Same is true of Connor - the actor is right to a degree - his character was written into a corner. It's not surprising that both were written out in S4, and Spike was brought in. Spike actually worked better in Angel and provided more humor. Cordelia was supposed to provide the humor, but midway through that ended, and she stopped being the comic relief - which sealed her doom.
Angel the Series is at its best when it focuses on WRH. The best episodes have WRH in them, or at the center. Holtz kind of pulled away from that a bit. Saijahn is actually a more entertaining villain than Holtz. As is Justine and WRH.
I finished all of S6 Buffy today - and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the last three episodes. The Willow arc does pay off for the most part - and Willow does get across that it's not magic that she's addicted to but power. The end of that season - is about various characters wrestling with power. And the various types of power. Xander - whose love of just Willow, his friend, saves the day. It's a neat bookend to the opening episode Bargaining - where Willow does a chaotic spell, hell on earth happens, and the gang is split, with Tara and Anya on one end of Sunnydale, and Willow and Xander on the other - in Grave, it's Xander and Willow, Anya and Giles, and Dawn and Buffy. And they slowly stumble out of the wreckage to find each other. Spike has left town, as has Andrew and Jonathan.
What surprised me about the end of S6 - is the writers felt the need to show us Spike hunting his soul and undergoing the trials to get it. I'm surprised they didn't just have him leave town and then mysteriously arrive again in S7? The fact that they didn't - means they wanted the audience to know he'd gotten his soul. No twists. They were redeeming Spike. Equally interesting - is Willow is saved by the love of her best friend who has known her entire life, wants nothing from her, and just loves her because of who she is. Platonic love. Same with Buffy - Buffy falls in love with her sister, and wants to show her sister the world - they bond and climb out of the ground together. Willow sends them into it, and together they climb out. Anya stays with Giles, she doesn't go after Xander, instead she stays by Giles side, and shows her platonic love for her mentor and co-owner.
Giles saves Willow - by dosing her with good magic or the magic that connects her to humanity, to those around her - her soul.
Both shows poke at the addictive nature of sex, romantic love, and power. Often using the metaphors of blood and vampirism. Using someone else to get off, or abusing their feelings - to get off. Buffy has sex with Spike to feel - abusing Spike's feelings for her to get off. He's evil, so it's okay, until it's really not. But she has feelings for him, and has fallen for him, which is why she gets off, but its also why she realizes how wrong it is. She can't trust or love him, without it destroying them both. Love is more than just sex. Andrew clearly has feelings for Warren. Warren cares about no one. And Jonathan cares about those around him more than he lets on. (I don't know why they chose Tom Lenk's Andrew over Danny Strong's Jonathan for S7, I'd have gone the opposite direction.) Anya and Xander's love is complicated. Xander clearly wanted friends with benefits or sex without commitment. But he lead poor Anya on and lead her to believe he wanted more. And Anya is no longer tolerant of his snipes and excuses.
And Willow got lost in Tara, to the point in which she felt that she was a loser without Tara. Similar to what happened with Oz. Without them - she was nothing, and felt lost, and wanted to get lost. Tara and Willow don't work on their relationship at all - instead they dive right in. And other on Angel? We have the doomed romances of Groo/Cordy - where Cordy clearly is just using Groo - but really in love with Angel, Gunn/Fred - and the differences that keep them from completely bonding, and Angel/Connor - where Angel wants to connect with his son, but is faced with a conflict similar to the one he had with his own father, yet in reverse.
I'm enjoying my re-watch far more than expected. I find both shows oddly comforting in a way, and it's fun to watch them without the greek chorus of a fan board in the background, with it's own demands and views on what is happening on screen - often clouding what I see myself. Truth of the matter is - people see different things, and relate to different things? Some people related most to Connor, some Cordelia, some Wes...or on Buffy? Some Buffy, some Spike, etc. No one sees the same show or performance, no one perceives it the same way, or thinks about it the same way. And that's the way it should be, I think?
At any rate, my takeaway from Buffy S6 - is while it is an uneven season, overall an enjoyable one. I like it a lot better than S1, 3, and 4. I tend to prefer the later seasons - I find them more relatable than the early ones?
It's snowing again, but not as heavy, and the floakes are much smaller. They almost look like sleep or rain, but they are definitely snow. I love it when it snows in New York City - it quiets the world just a nudge, blankets it in white, and it's pretty. All I hear on this quiet Sunday morning is the hissing and creaking of radiators. And since I woke up to a cool bedroom (64 degrees - I'd put on my window fan last night since it was too warm in the bedroom to start), I'm grateful for the heat now. It's 76 degrees F in the living room. Much colder outside of course - in the low thirties. But alas, it stopped, leaving but a trace.
Rewatching Angel and Buffy, I've picked up on various things that seem rather obvious now, but for some reason or other I didn't pick up on the first go around? I think it was because I was watching it embroiled in the fandom, and other fans can influence what I see on screen.
The Buffy fandom had gotten hoodwinked by a fake spoiler that Spike was going to get his chip out in S6. And the writers got tricky with the dialogue. But, now, it's pretty obvious to me - that's not what he's doing. The demon mentions restoration to his former self. He's still demon, the chip is just a bit of electronics. It doesn't keep him from doing demonic things. Why he increasingly chose not to - is interesting. The story-thread is obviously leading to Spike getting a soul. I mean it's not like the writers don't hammer us over the head with it in just about every other episode post Fool for Love. Even the description on Hulu is set up to fool the audience - stating Spike faces trials while he seeks to rid himself of his chip. (Which is clearly a mislead.) This doesn't track with his horror at how he hurt Buffy, to the point in which he left behind his jacket, or his exchange with Clem - no where in that is it clear that he'd want the chip removed. All you have to do is contrast Seeing Red with Out of My Mind - in both episodes a frustrated Spike attacks Buffy, in both he feels pain. In Out of My Mind - he can't hurt her - so he goes to get his chip removed - so that he can finally kill her. It doesn't work, he feels pain when he attacks her and rushes off furious. In Seeing Red - he can hurt her, but it's a sexual assault not an attempt to kill her. Note he could have tried to kill her - but there's no vamp face, and he doesn't attempt it. Yet, here he can. The chip no longer works on her. Getting the chip out in no way changes his relationship with Buffy. All it does is prove her right, that he can't change, and she can't trust him. Why people didn't see that while they were watching the show is beyond me? My guess is they didn't want to? That they didn't want Spike to be redeemed. They wanted him to be evil. They wanted S2-S4 Spike, they didn't like the Spike/Buffy relationship. They were going against the story thread and preferred the story or plot in their heads.
Speculating about a plot of an on-going series can be as detrimental to watching the series as well spoilers. Fanfiction can also spoil it for folks. A lot of fanfic writers had redeemed Spike without the soul, by just removing the chip, they were upset that the writers hadn't done the same.
Watching the series now? I realize redeeming Spike without a soul doesn't work - it goes against the thematic structure of the series. While Spike could do good things without a soul, and care for and even to a degree love Buffy without a soul - he can't do it wisely. He may feel a degree of empathy - but it's mainly as it relates to himself. It's shown here and there in the series.
Watching Angel at the same time as Buffy makes it even clearer.
There's a lot of foreshadowing in Angel S3 about Cordelia, Gunn and Fred's arcs. Also, it's made clear in S3 that Angel cares about his son, and possibly the people who help him. He literally would throw everyone under the bus to save Connor and himself. This is sharply contrasted with Buffy who only sacrifices herself for Dawn, and doesn't put Dawn above all else.
She cares about Dawn and protects Dawn, but she is also invested in saving Willow - who has gone dark, and even fought her, and betrayed her.
There's two episodes in S3 that foreshadow Fred's death in S5. Double or Nothing - where Gunn has traded his soul for a truck in his youth and signs in blood, and they threaten to take Fred too and he breaks up with her, and later when there's a slug infection as a side effect of dark magic, and Fred almost dies due to an invisible parasite that she's inhaled that is sucking all the water out of her. Wes is able to save her in this instance, but the slugs are a side effect of a spell that Angel cast.
Cordy's demise is also foreshadowed - she's made part demon, and rarely gets visions now - and no one questions it. Including Cordelia. (And it's clear to me that the writers didn't know what to do with her post Birthday. She disappears for about four episodes - which are more Wes focused - and it's important that she does, because otherwise Wes wouldn't have been quite as isolated. The Cordy/Angel & Wes dynamic is slowly dissolving, and with it Angel's connections to the world around him. ) Even if I didn't know they had written her out and killed her - I'd suspect it? Upon rewatch - it's clear that's the direction they are going in. I am finding the character less attractive and likable post-Birthday, though. She's kind of sanctimonious and patronizing - which yes, she'll be the next villain.
The writers are fascinated with abuses of power, and addictions to power. Cordelia up until she got the visions was powerless. The visions came with a painful side-effect. Now, she has powers. And she definitely doesn't want to give them up. Also, she's been playing the martyr - see, look, I saved Angel, took back my powers, and became part demon. By the way, the part demon - is most likely how she became the villain in S4, and gave birth to Jasmine. No one questioned it. And that killed her. So far - as of S3 - Cordy's arc is actually working.
Angel who refuses to forgive Wesley for taking his son (in an ill-advised attempt to save him), is now faced with a son who can't forgive him for all his misdeeds, and refuses to hear his side of the story. Holtz as promised, has raised Connor as his own, and turned Connor against his father. Also Connor has power. There's something to be said for - if you want to be forgiven, you need to start doing it yourself? Buffy forgave Angel for doing far worse. Gunn is correct when he states Angel is putting Angel first and doing what Angel wants to get what he wants. VK who plays Connor hated the role - and felt restricted. He's more attractive here, but he preferred Mad Men. Two characters that kind of get written into a corner are Connor and Cordelia. I think Dawn was written better on Buffy - helped by the fact that the writers avoided putting her into a relationship with Spike or Xander.
The best part of this arc is Dark Wesley. The episodes Loyalty through Forgiving are better than the ones that come after, and the difference is the first three focus more on Wesley and the later focus on Cordelia and Connor - who are weak links. Wes linking up with Lilah, and their push me/pull me relationship is nicely ambiguous and by far the most interesting of the doomed relationships in the series to date. Cordelia and Groo reminds me too much of Buffy and Riley, and doesn't go anywhere, the joke goes on almost too long. The difficulty is - that Wes is a far more interesting character than Cordelia is. So too, for that matter, is Fred and Gunn. Same is true of Connor - the actor is right to a degree - his character was written into a corner. It's not surprising that both were written out in S4, and Spike was brought in. Spike actually worked better in Angel and provided more humor. Cordelia was supposed to provide the humor, but midway through that ended, and she stopped being the comic relief - which sealed her doom.
Angel the Series is at its best when it focuses on WRH. The best episodes have WRH in them, or at the center. Holtz kind of pulled away from that a bit. Saijahn is actually a more entertaining villain than Holtz. As is Justine and WRH.
I finished all of S6 Buffy today - and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the last three episodes. The Willow arc does pay off for the most part - and Willow does get across that it's not magic that she's addicted to but power. The end of that season - is about various characters wrestling with power. And the various types of power. Xander - whose love of just Willow, his friend, saves the day. It's a neat bookend to the opening episode Bargaining - where Willow does a chaotic spell, hell on earth happens, and the gang is split, with Tara and Anya on one end of Sunnydale, and Willow and Xander on the other - in Grave, it's Xander and Willow, Anya and Giles, and Dawn and Buffy. And they slowly stumble out of the wreckage to find each other. Spike has left town, as has Andrew and Jonathan.
What surprised me about the end of S6 - is the writers felt the need to show us Spike hunting his soul and undergoing the trials to get it. I'm surprised they didn't just have him leave town and then mysteriously arrive again in S7? The fact that they didn't - means they wanted the audience to know he'd gotten his soul. No twists. They were redeeming Spike. Equally interesting - is Willow is saved by the love of her best friend who has known her entire life, wants nothing from her, and just loves her because of who she is. Platonic love. Same with Buffy - Buffy falls in love with her sister, and wants to show her sister the world - they bond and climb out of the ground together. Willow sends them into it, and together they climb out. Anya stays with Giles, she doesn't go after Xander, instead she stays by Giles side, and shows her platonic love for her mentor and co-owner.
Giles saves Willow - by dosing her with good magic or the magic that connects her to humanity, to those around her - her soul.
Both shows poke at the addictive nature of sex, romantic love, and power. Often using the metaphors of blood and vampirism. Using someone else to get off, or abusing their feelings - to get off. Buffy has sex with Spike to feel - abusing Spike's feelings for her to get off. He's evil, so it's okay, until it's really not. But she has feelings for him, and has fallen for him, which is why she gets off, but its also why she realizes how wrong it is. She can't trust or love him, without it destroying them both. Love is more than just sex. Andrew clearly has feelings for Warren. Warren cares about no one. And Jonathan cares about those around him more than he lets on. (I don't know why they chose Tom Lenk's Andrew over Danny Strong's Jonathan for S7, I'd have gone the opposite direction.) Anya and Xander's love is complicated. Xander clearly wanted friends with benefits or sex without commitment. But he lead poor Anya on and lead her to believe he wanted more. And Anya is no longer tolerant of his snipes and excuses.
And Willow got lost in Tara, to the point in which she felt that she was a loser without Tara. Similar to what happened with Oz. Without them - she was nothing, and felt lost, and wanted to get lost. Tara and Willow don't work on their relationship at all - instead they dive right in. And other on Angel? We have the doomed romances of Groo/Cordy - where Cordy clearly is just using Groo - but really in love with Angel, Gunn/Fred - and the differences that keep them from completely bonding, and Angel/Connor - where Angel wants to connect with his son, but is faced with a conflict similar to the one he had with his own father, yet in reverse.
I'm enjoying my re-watch far more than expected. I find both shows oddly comforting in a way, and it's fun to watch them without the greek chorus of a fan board in the background, with it's own demands and views on what is happening on screen - often clouding what I see myself. Truth of the matter is - people see different things, and relate to different things? Some people related most to Connor, some Cordelia, some Wes...or on Buffy? Some Buffy, some Spike, etc. No one sees the same show or performance, no one perceives it the same way, or thinks about it the same way. And that's the way it should be, I think?
At any rate, my takeaway from Buffy S6 - is while it is an uneven season, overall an enjoyable one. I like it a lot better than S1, 3, and 4. I tend to prefer the later seasons - I find them more relatable than the early ones?