the wednesday morning recap
Oct. 2nd, 2002 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamajoanSmallville
As many people are saying on lj today, it was the Gayest Episode Ever. I particularly liked the look that Chloe and Lana exchanged after Chloe said that Clark was "apparently immune to (some members of) the opposite sex." Gee, if the *opposite* sex doesn't turn him on, then that must mean ... naah! ;)
Not much else to say about this ep that hasn't already been said. The Lex/Martha scene was great. The heat vision = sex metaphor was anvilicious, but in a funny way, so that was okay. The Chloe/Clark thing continues to be confusing and annoying; just frickin' get it on already, you two! And it's soooooo damn obvious that they're setting us up to think that Lana will discover Clark's secret when realy it's gonna be Pete.
Buffy
As for Buffy, it was FANTASTIC. I'm totally boggled by those of y'all who are saying it sucked or was just okay. Can people try to put aside their Spuffy-related animosity, and re-watch that final scene with an open mind, and observe how unbelievably brilliant an actor James Marsters is, how perfect the writing and directing were?
And even aside from that, really. Can't you see what an amazing breadth of meaning is being set up here -- how many layers there are to everything? Sometimes a Hellmouth is just a Hellmouth, but not this time, my friends. There are some really fascinating points being made here about good and evil, repentance and forgiveness, what it means to be human. The part where Anya sneers at the others that they are "so ... *human*" was poignant, because Anya's problem right now is that *she* is too human as well. Dawn -- as human as any of them, and yet she's not. Willow -- will forgiveness from her friends, if/when she gets it, really be enough? Xander -- has he really moved on from the angst of the Wedding That Wasn't? (I'm guessing not, there are still emotional repercussions that will make him look hypocritical for telling Anya to get over it.)
And what *about* Spike? Over the summer everyone was all, "I just hope he doesn't turn into Angel Lite." Well, you got your wish, cuz he sure ain't that. Check out Souled-Spike, the manic-depressive vampire with his very own conduit to the First Evil. He's insane! No, he's perfectly normal for Spike! No, he's insane! How can you not like that? At his core Spike's problem is that he doesn't know what he wants from Buffy, or he doesn't know how to articulate it. He wants her to beat him up, to stake him. He wants her to love him. He wants her to hate him. He wants her to forgive him. The beauty of being human is that you *can* want all these things, simultaneously, and it's not oxymoronic. Spike's mistake was thinking that everything would be clearer, easier, when he had his soul (or his chip removed). What I think a lot of people are missing is the fact that he was already showing pangs of conscience *before* being re-ensouled; it was conscience that made him want it! Whether he thought he was asking the demon to remove his chip, or to restore his soul, is a BIG question remaining in my mind, the answer to which would make a huge difference in the interpretation of the storyline. (But no, I don't want to be spoiled, so just keep it to yourself if you know!)
I could go on and on, but that's what I have the ACIDIC list for anyway, so I'll stop now. ;)
As many people are saying on lj today, it was the Gayest Episode Ever. I particularly liked the look that Chloe and Lana exchanged after Chloe said that Clark was "apparently immune to (some members of) the opposite sex." Gee, if the *opposite* sex doesn't turn him on, then that must mean ... naah! ;)
Not much else to say about this ep that hasn't already been said. The Lex/Martha scene was great. The heat vision = sex metaphor was anvilicious, but in a funny way, so that was okay. The Chloe/Clark thing continues to be confusing and annoying; just frickin' get it on already, you two! And it's soooooo damn obvious that they're setting us up to think that Lana will discover Clark's secret when realy it's gonna be Pete.
Buffy
As for Buffy, it was FANTASTIC. I'm totally boggled by those of y'all who are saying it sucked or was just okay. Can people try to put aside their Spuffy-related animosity, and re-watch that final scene with an open mind, and observe how unbelievably brilliant an actor James Marsters is, how perfect the writing and directing were?
And even aside from that, really. Can't you see what an amazing breadth of meaning is being set up here -- how many layers there are to everything? Sometimes a Hellmouth is just a Hellmouth, but not this time, my friends. There are some really fascinating points being made here about good and evil, repentance and forgiveness, what it means to be human. The part where Anya sneers at the others that they are "so ... *human*" was poignant, because Anya's problem right now is that *she* is too human as well. Dawn -- as human as any of them, and yet she's not. Willow -- will forgiveness from her friends, if/when she gets it, really be enough? Xander -- has he really moved on from the angst of the Wedding That Wasn't? (I'm guessing not, there are still emotional repercussions that will make him look hypocritical for telling Anya to get over it.)
And what *about* Spike? Over the summer everyone was all, "I just hope he doesn't turn into Angel Lite." Well, you got your wish, cuz he sure ain't that. Check out Souled-Spike, the manic-depressive vampire with his very own conduit to the First Evil. He's insane! No, he's perfectly normal for Spike! No, he's insane! How can you not like that? At his core Spike's problem is that he doesn't know what he wants from Buffy, or he doesn't know how to articulate it. He wants her to beat him up, to stake him. He wants her to love him. He wants her to hate him. He wants her to forgive him. The beauty of being human is that you *can* want all these things, simultaneously, and it's not oxymoronic. Spike's mistake was thinking that everything would be clearer, easier, when he had his soul (or his chip removed). What I think a lot of people are missing is the fact that he was already showing pangs of conscience *before* being re-ensouled; it was conscience that made him want it! Whether he thought he was asking the demon to remove his chip, or to restore his soul, is a BIG question remaining in my mind, the answer to which would make a huge difference in the interpretation of the storyline. (But no, I don't want to be spoiled, so just keep it to yourself if you know!)
I could go on and on, but that's what I have the ACIDIC list for anyway, so I'll stop now. ;)
Joss already mentioned it this summer...
Date: 2002-10-02 04:28 pm (UTC)S
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...Okay. Joss has mentioned several times this summer that Spike intended to get his soul all the time along, but that they wrote his lines to be deliberately misleading; actually, they didn't even tell James Marsters, who was as surprised as everybody else when he found out that the soul hadn't been an accident, but something that Spike was really seeking.
Re: Joss already mentioned it this summer...
Date: 2002-10-03 08:40 am (UTC)Memo to Joss & marti: Tell the actor, you mornic imbiciles, so that his line readings will then make sense.
Poor Marsters. Poor us, for having scenes which made no sense.