3/19: Choices

[William the Bloody]

Written by David Fury
Directed by James A. Contner
Air DAte: 5/4/99

The mayor imprisons Willow after Buffy and Angel steal a box containing demonic energy which the Mayor needs for his Ascension Day.

[beccaelizabeth]

First a note on the title - in Dead Man's Party Joyce told Buffy "you made some bad choices, you have to live with some consequences"
choices, then consequences
episode title order says consequences, then choices
always you get more choices

talking about the long term with Angel
er, yes, so very likely. 50? Not with the life she thought she would be having.

so many choices
of college etc
Aunt Arlene in Illinois
actual family of Buffy. huh.

Cordelia in uber bitch mode
the money loss thing has to have happened after last week or Buffy would have heard it.
And this week she is in the shop with the shiny dress
that she ends up having to work to get (as we see at the end of the ep)
so she got in
but Xander's 'sour grapes' theory is almost right
because newly poor Cordelia is

Wesley falling back on Council authority *wince*
right thought, wrong way
(Buffy's plan, not so much worky)

"Perhaps if circumstances were different"
"I'll make them different"
so very true
albeit taking longer than she intended

Wesley's social skills keep on deteriorating. Stompy tantrums are really not going to help.
"I'm in charge" is not something an in charge person actually has to say.

on the other hand, the scoobies are shutting out Wesley, and really he isn't actually wrong. He says 'danger!' and things go all wrong so he was right.

And then Wesley arguing for a different plan when Buffy is all 'lets give the box back!'
they couldn't brainstorm, think of something like 'fake box' or something?
it was not a binary choice
we don't know what the Ascension would have been like without that box. Maybe people would still have died.
but with the information and resources available, Wes was right.

I love Oz with the emphatic gesture
not wasting any words on it
but still, they should have looked into other options first.

also, assuming that they would get Willow back alive for a trade is an emotional assumption
last time they went looking for a friend after vampires captured him they did indeed find him - all vampired himself. People can be bait and bad guys at once. Why do they not account for that possibility? Too emotionally difficult?
there was no basis for assuming the bad guys would play nice enough to actually make the trade.
stupid plan.

And now Willow sits down to read. Er, hello? In what world is that the good plan? She is in a room with a telephone, she can't call her friends to see what the plan is? It also has windows, she can't throw the books out and leave? Stupid. Purely stupid.

Big speech about too late, you made your choice. Luckily Willow gets a different speech when she needs it.

I like Willow's dress.
Yeah, irrelevant.

Mayor speech entirely irrelevant too. No Slayer ever had a long term to worry about.

Talking of dumbth - is there any particular reason the Mayor doesn't have Willow gutted as soon as they're in the same room as the box?
"I keep my campaign promises" I guess, he's Lawful Evil, stick to a trade. Except for praising Faith and forgiving Trick when they kill the seller instead.

A couple of machine guns could have ended team good right then and there. And the Mayor is already invulnerable, so he doesn't have to worry.

now with the scary fighty bit. nasty. and they're all stuck there in the dark with them. very atmospheric.

and the knife all gone. awwww.

"Why couldn't you be dealing drugs like normal people?" ;D

And Willow is getting all praised? eesh. Yeah, because tearing a few pages out makes it all good. Windows! All five books!
setting fire to his cupboard might have done fun stuff too.

*sigh*

I'm not saying that leaving Willow to die is of the good. Definitely not of the good. Especially since they have a tiny little recruitment problem to think of, as in nobody wants to be doing this stuff anyway so losing one isn't good at all. Practical level, very not good. But. Losing the box? Also not of the good.
stupid binary thinking. other plans, more good.

Willow choosing to stay to help fight, cool. But Willow seems to think she's good at this stuff and have this confidence thing going on and... actually kind of worrying, considering.

They started using 'wicca' instead of 'witch' after Gingerbread. Which kind of makes haracter sense, if Willow got scared enough. But it annoys.

and again with the "You look at something and you think you know exactly what you're seeing, and then you find out it's something else entirely."
end with the theme.

well, actually ending with B/A in graveyard, but since they're about to believe the bad guy I try not to pay attention to that bit.