Dawn's Review

"Something Blue" opens up with Willow slipping into Oz' old room and cradling one of his shirts. She's clearly not over him and still hurting.

Scene change to one of the school lobbies where Buffy watches as Riley helps some women put up a "Lesbian Alliance" arch hanging. When Buffy asks him if he wants to confess anything, he admits to being a lesbian and then asks her to go with him on a campus picnic. One amusing conversation later (Riley apparently "practices" talking with Buffy before actually doing so), Buffy accepts.

It's night and Buffy and Willow are patrolling the cemetery and talking about Riley. Buffy admits to liking him a lot and (paraphrasing) finding him attractive. She worries that she's still hung up on "bad boys" and won't be able to treat her relationship with Riley as it deserves simply because she's used to mental anguish (aka angst) when dealing with men. She stops talking for a moment to stake a vampire and they move on.

Spike time; It's after Thanksgiving and Spike is apparently living (chained up) in Giles' bathtub and being fed cold pigs blood through a straw. Spike is being a master of vagueness since he fully expects them to kill him onces he's told them everything he knows. Giles tries to reassure him that they wouldn't kill anyone harmless (the word "impotent" is used) -- which does not make Spike any happier. When Spike makes a smart remark about Buffy getting blood for Angel, she starts to taunt him and offers her neck.

Giles goes into the living room where he and Willow discuss putting a truth spell on Spike in order to get the information out of him. Willow offers to get the ingredients the next day and leaves. Back in the bathroom, Giles and Buffy talk about Willow. They're both glad she seems to be getting over Oz. Spike, seeming embarrassed that he can tell, says they're both wrong and Willow's hanging on by a thread.

Willow has gone back to Oz' room... but it's now empty of all his things. The next thing we see, she's in her dorm room with Buffy and breaking down. Buffy is trying to give her the "give it time" speech, but Willow is to upset to really hear it.

The next morning, Giles' phones Willow to remind her about the ingredients and leaves a message on her answering machine. In the background, Spike is being really annoying -- he's apparently addicted to certain tv shows.

It's picnic day. Buffy and Riley are enjoying their date and start talking about cars. Riley enjoys driving for fun, while Buffy admits that she doesn't drive. He offers to take her out. Lots of double entendres later... Willow interrupts and totally downs the mood. She's really, really down. It's like seeing Oz' room empty pulled the scab off her emotional wound, and it's fresh and new. She's hurting bad.

At the Bronze that night, Buffy, Anya and Xander are talking about Willow. Anya offers that if she still had her powers, she'd liquify Oz' entrails for Willow -- which Xander thinks is really sweet. They see Willow, who instead of moping, is dancing wildly on the dance floor. She comes over and tells them she's decided to quit her angsting. Then the beer falls out of her coat and we find out she's sloshed. When Buffy and Xander try to talk her out of drowning her sorrows, she fights back by pointing out that Xander has nothing to be happy about.

Buffy pulls Willow away. Willow just wants the hurting to end. She doesn't want to feel like her heart is ripped in two anymore. Late that night, Willow sneaks out of her room and starts a spell to "have her will be done" and infuses it with her "passion".

The next morning, she's feeling hopeless because none of her stated "wills" are coming true when Giles arrives. He reminds her of the truth spell ingredients and after apologizing for not bringing them over, she gives them to him. When she reveals she did a spell, he remonstrates her -- to Willow's annoyance. Her self-confidence takes a beating because she think he's attacking her competence as a witch and in anger she says "you don't see at all". At these words her eyes flare blue and Giles... Giles leaves because he's having problems seeing.

The next thing we see, Giles has somehow moved Spike, chains and all, into the living room and is trying to do the spell... but he can't quite see the page properly. When Spike notices the key for the chains dropping out of Giles' pocket, he makes his move and escapes, pushing Giles out of the way as he does so.

Buffy is trying to comfort Willow yet again when Giles phones her to tell her of Spikes escape. Willow, hurt that Buffy's choosing to go after a "harmless" Spike rather than stay with her and have a girl's night, "says" that Spike is standing outside and Buffy will find him in two seconds -- which then happens. Spike recognizes the area and starts to tear up the dirt to try and get back into the underground secret facility so he can be "fixed", but Buffy grabs him and takes him back to Giles.

Willow, hurt by Buffy's desertion, goes to Xander for comfort and he really does try but it doesn't help much. He just succeeds in making her angrier, and Willow "says" that Buffy and Spike should get married...

(meanwhile in Giles' apartment, we are treated to the sight of Spike on his knees proposing and a very, very happy Buffy accepting -- to Giles' complete horror)

Still on an annoyed roll, Willow turns the table and starts attacking Xander's love choices and points out that he's a "demon magnet".

Spike and Buffy are alternately arguing, talking about their wedding and making kissy-face. Buffy is all over him and they are both acting infatuated. Buffy does stop for a minute to ask Giles to give her away in the ceremony. Giles' is disgusted and although worried that he's gone completely blind, is also relieved that he doesn't have to watch Buffy and Spike. He does realize that he's under a spell, and Spike offers to go and get the ingredients for a general reversal spell... since they're almost family.

Buffy wanders out and she's a wedding dress in a window and goes gaga. When Riley appears, she assures him that she wants them to "always be friends" but she's getting married. Riley is very, very confused and goes off. Buffy is hurt that no one seems to be happy for her and Spike.

Back in Xander's apartment, Anya is there and they start to make out... until a demon appears. No problem. Anya knows how to kill it, and after a fight, they drown it. They're relieved but wondering what's going on... when another demon appears.

It turns out that the magic store is out of the ingredients for the reversal spell till tomorrow, so Buffy, Spike and Giles and back at his apartment. When a very upset Xander and Anya arrive, they get even more upset to see Spike walking around free of chains and holding Buffy's hand. Xander finally remembers Willow saying he was a demon magnet and they realize that Willow's "will be done" spell is working -- although Buffy totally denies being under a spell, her love for Spike being strong and true.

Willow, back from her trip to Xander's, goes back into her dorm room but get's kidnapped by a demon that looks suspiciously familiar. When the gang arrives and Anya sees the black circle left on the floor when Willow "poofed" out, she realized that it's her old boss, D'Hoffren, who's taken Willow. They leave, and we get to hear about Anya. Apparently a thousand years ago she had been dumped and was retaliating by inflicting spells on her ex when D'Hoffren showed up and offerred to make her a demon.

Passing through the cemetery, they start being attacked by demons again. Spike is worried that he won't be able to protect Buffy. They run into a crypt and Anya tries to summon D'Hoffren but she can't remember the spell. The demons finally break down the door and a fight ensues. We don't get to see whether Spike can fight demons, but it looks like after a couple of demons got inside he went back to barring to door to prevent any more from coming in. He finally gets knocked aside and Buffy, concerned that he was hurt, starts kissing him again -- oblivious to the fact that Xander is being choked to death by a demon.

Meanwhile in another dimension, D"Hoffren, admiring everything that Willow's done to inflict pain on her friends, offers to make her a demon and shows her on a neat holographic tv device what's happening in the crypt. Willow's horrified and sorry about what he's done. All she wants to do is get back to help her friends and so she turns him down. D'Hoffren ... accepts her refusal but tells her she can always change her mind.

Willow "poofed" back and reverses the spell. The demon attacking Xander disappears, and we get to witness Spike and Buffy being extremely disgusted at their behaviour.

Filled with guilt, Willow is baking chocolate chip cookies for everyone. Spike is tied back up again and things are sort've back to normal... Buffy remembers telling Riley about getting married, but gets out of it by pretending to him that it was all a big joke. Riley is still confused but happy she's single.

Continuity

Xander continues to be touchy about living in his parents basement.

Anya's backstory is revealed and we get to see the demon that changed her into a vengence demon again.

The Initiative is still being talked about and the Buffy gang is working on getting more information.

Relationships

Buffy and Spike continue to annoy each other and fight throughout the entire episode -- even when they're wildly in love.

Xander and Anya relationship is continuing and I think they've taken over as the "happiest strange couple in Sunnydale". Anya, as evidences by her attacking anything that tries to hurt Xander, really cares about him, while Xander seems to be both getting used to her and liking her a lot more. I'm still not sure whether Xander loves her or the sex but he definitely likes her.

Xander and Willow on the other hand... the bonds of friendship are weakening and even though Xander has started to act 100% more emotionally mature than in the first three seasons, it seems as if Willow is sabotaging their friendship by attacking his weak points.

Characters

Spike thinks that the reason he can't attack anyone is because he's under a spell. But, and this is interesting, he can still hit people -- he just has to accept the pain afterwards. If Spike is sufficiently motivated, I don't think the pain will stop him at all. It's unclear whether he can hurt non-demons.

Willow continues her downward slide both emotionally and in her relationships with her friends. She's insecure about her abilities as a witch and is starting to react by hurting others -- not a good trend. She does stop herself in the end and resolves to fix everything at least.

Anya is quickly becoming one of my favourite characters on this show. She's fully confortable with magic, demons and fighting for what she cares about. She lacks any guilt about being a vengence demon and seems amused at Willow's "guilt and inner tumoil" at the end.

Best Moments

Rat to a very happy Amy. Amy to Rat.

Any scene in which Buffy and Spike "make up" after they fight. The wedding cake bride and groom scene being a highlight.

The Riley/Buffy scene where she tells him she's getting married.

D'Hoffren offering Willow a token and telling her to "give him a chant" if she changes her mind about being a demon.

The look of absolute horror and disgust on both Spike's and Buffy's faces when the tell ends and they realize just what they've been doing. "Spike lips!"

Willow's "Speak no evil" T-shirt at the end.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 -- because it was good and I'm a sucker for good Spike scenes and seeing him chained up in a bathtub didn't hurt.

SunSpeak

"Doesn't anyone ever have to bathroom in the middle of the night in the dorm? What about the smoke detectors?" -- Judy

"Poor Riley. He's obviously already dealt with some pretty weird and strange things in his life. I don't think they've prepared him for Buffy. I do like him. Forgive me, Angelphiles, but I like him *heaps* better than Angel. He'll be oodles of fun discovering things if they go that direction with him. I mean, simply discovering the escaped experimental subject's name happens to be Spike might be interesting. Just thoughts burbling out of my head, but how's he gonna feel about just killing them all? I mean, they're working to make the things non-dangerous...Buffy just kills 'em outright. I don't recall anything that really indicates a particular viewpoint he's got but I may not have been paying attention. What brings him to this job - simply going along with his professor or does he have a personal reason for doing this work? (A relative or friend who's been turned and who he wants back springs to mind...)" -- Jennie

"Is it just the society I grew up in? Everywhere I've been, when someone is in pain or heartbroken, well, you give them a hug. You pat them on the head and tell them inane phrases like "it'll be ok." Yet Willow is telling all of her friends how much pain she's in and they just stand at a discreet distance and say "well, give it time."??? Did I just miss the society lesson in school that says hugging is wrong?"
"Yeah, sure the first two or three times or if you're really fond of them four times they tell you about how horrible their life has become. Then you go to less demonstrative things such as saying "well, it will be okay. I know it's hard now but time will help". Then you go to distracting techniques so you can get them thinking about other things. Maybe we just didn't see all of the initial comforting sessions and are just seeing the compassion-fatigued discussions. I don't see Xander or Buffy not hugging Willow if she needed it. Not to mention that we're not dealing with a death, serious illness or another great tragedy here. Its a love relationship gone down the tubes. Though it has been a while since I've been in college I remember those endless conversations of "the love of my life has left me". It gets old, there are other problems to deal with, and in the end they just need to get over it or they need to go for the complete nervous breakdown so you can have endless conversations about their therapy sessions. "
"Well, I'm sure Buffy did the hugging thing in Wild at Heart and after. And although the Oz calling for his stuff thing was new and painful.... it's been a couple of weeks. And sometimes, after a couple of weeks, the hugs start to feel hollow and all you can do is step back, offer support, and let the person deal with the pain however they need to. That kind of seems like what Buffy and Giles were doing last night. This is the same gang that basically stood back and judged Buffy upon her return from LA though last season. Not that she made it easy. But... comfort doesn't seem to come too easily to them."-- Abby, Maddog and Mary Beth

"Buffy tends to distance herself from painful things and ignore them. Since this is how she deals (or not in her case) she unconsciously handles it in the same manner for others. Xander comes from a home where fighting is the norm, especially given the aparent alcohol abuse that has been alluded to in his family. Given this environment, casual touching and tactile comfort was probably rare if not non-existant for him. We've only seen him say or do it when he just wanted an excuse to touch one of the girls. Giles is such a repressed person it's not funny. It's like he's got a definite 'personal space margin' about him and rarely crosses it. Only for mortal danger and extreme personal mental distress. I mean, look, he couldn't even show Buffy how relieved he was when she came home last season if DMP. I think this is part of his upbringing and possibly a part of the reason for his youthful rebellion. Basically, people who have either been raised with lots of hugs & such are more likely to offer same for comfort & such. Those who don't, won't." -- Julie

"I like Spike in chains in a bathtub. I like that in a way that's just not right."
"Yeah, I'm with ya there. It's just so right in a really really wrong way." -- Mary Beth and Deb

"Now Spike and *Willow* on the other hand.... He seems to know her very well..... too well..... frighteningly well. It's interesting."
"And he looked slightly embarrassed by having to point out to her friends that they'd missed what was perfectly obvious to him. Or was he just embarrassed that it *was* obvious to him." -- Mary Beth and Deb

"Spike chained in the bathtub? Where can I get one of my own??"

-- Maureen

"Gotta admit, I'm liking Riley more and more. If *this* relationship goes south badly because of slayage, etc., I'm going to be *very* pissed. I think Riley could be good for Buffy in several ways. He obviously likes her a lot, and she really needs to be around a guy who likes and respects her. He obviously believes in taking things slow - he's not gonna rush her like the twerp did. But when/if they finally do the deed - I think he's gonna be *great*. I just keep thinking about his little "driving" speech. Oh, my. Go with the flow, boyo, go with the flow!" -- Maureen

"Spike the relationship guru. He's what? Two for two now? (remember him telling Buffy & Angel why platonic wouldn't work with them in LW?)"
"Yeah, what's *up* with that, anyway?? Spike just doesn't strike me as psychoanalyzing-guy, but he keeps seeing things that no one else is seeing or acnowledging. He's got hidden depths! Spike: the Dr. Ruth of the Un-dead." -- Julie and Maureen

"And I, too, loved her hair. I also liked that when they decided to go and summon demon-conversion guy that the actress sat, and, with complete comfort, drew her circle in the dust around her...very nicely done. Anya is still fine with that, which makes sense in terms of the physical stuff being much more programmed in by muscle memory. Then she went to do the recitation and it fell apart...which I also thought was hilarious. I loved her getting stuck and just starting all the way over hoping that she'd remember it in sequence if she just ran right through it--muscle memory again. I am *really* enjoying Anya's presence this year; she's been one of my favorite things about the show." -- Amy

"But I was moreso watching for Riley. And, dammit, I liked him. He's cute. He's sweet. And when he gets all intense talking about driving or when he says "you'll teach me" -- he's pretty darned adorable. I hesitate to say sexy.... cuz he's sexy different. But, yeah, I see it now. And I got all sniffly and teary-eyed. Dammit. Joss made me cry cuz I decided I liked Riley and could, even after IWRY, give him a chance and root for him to make Buffy happy. I don't think I'm supposed to cry when I decide I like a character am I? I hate Joss.... To sum up my babbling, still having trouble with the manipulation. Still wishing more than anything that Buffy and Angel could find a way. But finally seeing what it is about Riley... and feeling like a "traitor" for it. I'm sad and confused. And I still hate Joss." -- Mary Beth

""You're gonna teach me." < siiiigh > < thud >"
"< fanfanfan > Up until that moment, I *liked* Riley for being a goofy sweetie. But I could not for one moment imagine him as a hottie. Now... yow!" -- Maureen and Chris

"There were various points I was howling at last night, that when read them on the quote list, were only pretty funny, not screamingly so... which points up again what good actors they have on this show. I think Lizbet said that the fun thing was, Spike and Buffy were perfectly in character during their "romance" --- still contentious, still mouthy, sappy as anyone just-in-love is, sure, but basically themselves. And as such, the sheer irony of those words coming out of their mouths made it much, much funnier. Well, that and Giles's reactions. James and SMG are geniuses." -- Chris

"As for the lack of Willow-Support... I'm with Maddog. It's been three weeks. She shouldn't, and she won't be, over it by now--- but she can't expect everyone to continually drop everything to give her support at this point. Or be justified in whining about it when they don't. Especially when she keeps picking her needy times for when Buffy's in the middle of a date, or has to track down Spike. It sucks to still hurt when your head has come to terms with the fact that you've lost something. But she was letting that get in the way of the support they *were* giving her." -- Chris

"Amy! Yayy! They do have the right rat. And can you believe they brought her back for one and a half naked seconds? That's just wild. < g > I'm wondering if Hecate hit her with one of those year-and-a-day punishments for trying to turn the lynch mob into fish, and if she'll automatically become a girl again around the anniversary of "Gingerbread." If so, they only have two more months to go before that happens. If not, they could find a prince to kiss her." -- Chris