2/13: Surprise

[William the Bloody]

Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by Michael Lange
Air date: 1/19/98

On Buffy's seventeenth birthday, she and Angel prevent Spike and Drusilla from resurrecting the Judge, a demon who has the power to destroy humanity.

[jeff]

A very relationship heavy episode. You have Buffy/Angel taking the next step in their relationship. Then the possibility of Angel having to leave. Then him not leaving and they taking the next step, along with the ending result of that action.

You have Spike/Dru flipping roles in their relationship, With Dru the strong one and Spike the hurt one. You can really tell Spike is very uncomfortable in this role. As much as he loves Dru, he also feels the need to protect her and be her comforter. Even as he is in the wheelchair he is trying to remain in control of the situation, he just has to be reliant upon others to do his dirty work, so he is stuck in the chair while they get to have all the "fun".

You have Xander/Cordelia trying to figure out what the hell their relationship is.
your first real look at Xander trying to make this a little more than a broom closet relationship. He gets hurt a little when cordy says he has nothing to be embarrassed about but she does. Still he uses his joking mechanism much more after that scene, the jokes are really his way of coping with the rejection he so often receives.

You have Oz/Willow taking the first step in their relationship. The scene where Oz asks out Willow is just so superb of a scene. Oz just steals every scene he is in though. Their relationship is in the adorable cute just getting started new phase and it is such a joy to watch it play out. Even after knowing the end result of it. I still love their scenes together.

ALso Giles/Jenny still walking on eggshells with their relationship. You could really get the feeling that both wanted to patch things up more in this relationship but turning out that both had a hidden past that haunts them, not just Giles. This really throwed a twist in my view of how Jenny handled the whole Ripper scenerio, I feel she should have been more understanding than she was. It may have been that she reacted to being posessed but she took that out on Giles , I never really liked that.