Becoming 2, Evil Allies, and other stuff by Pandora

BUFFYVERSE

Becoming 2, Evil Allies, and other stuff

POSTED BY: PANDORA
UPDATED: Monday, July 15, 2002 10:33
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VIEWED: 2460
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Friday, July 12, 2002 2:32 PM

Now, I just finished watching Becoming 2, and-

wow.

I'd forgotten, I really had.

The episode, of course, was very well done, but the last ten minutes just rip out your damn heart and stomp on it repeatedly with cleats and steel toes.

Spoilers for S2 (if you haven't seen this ep and you're a Buffy fan, you're hankerin' for a spankerin') -

Select to view spoiler:

from the lovely Danish shooting scripts site:

ANGLE: THE ORB

Glows and disappears, just as it did before.

INT. MANSION - CONTINUOUS - MORNING

Angel drops to his knees. Buffy swings her sword back, ready to cut off his head.

Suddenly he cries out in pain, and she sees:

CLOSE ON: HIS EYES

They glow for a moment.

He collapses on the floor. Buffy hesitates.

ANGEL
Oh. . .

He looks up.

ANGEL
Buffy?

He pulls himself up. She takes a step back, uncertain.

ANGEL
Buffy, what's going on?
I don't remember. . . where are we?

Her voice is very little when she speaks.

BUFFY
Angel?

ANGEL
(sees her cuts)
You're hurt!

He goes to her, takes her arm. Her swordarm hangs at her side, limp. He folds her into his arms.

ANGEL
God, I feel like I haven't seen you in months. . .
Buffy, everything's so muddled. . .

ANGLE: BUFFY'S FACE

As he holds her. At first afraid, confused, but at the warmth of his touch, the overwhelming rush of his return, her eyes close and with her free arm she grips him to her.

ANGEL
Oh, Buffy. . .

She opens her eyes, longing and hope in them. Then they see it.

CLOSE ON ACATHLA

The demon opens his mouth. Wide. We hear a low rumble, growing louder as the vortex (not unlike that Sliders thing) begins to emanate from his mouth.

She grips Angel tighter, despair gutting her.

ANGLE: BUFFY AND ANGEL

Are framed in front of the growing vortex.

ANGEL
What's happening, Buffy?

BUFFY
Shhhhh. . . it doesn't matter.

She pulls away to look at him. Kisses him passionately.

BUFFY
I love you.

ANGEL
I love you. . .

BUFFY
Close your eyes.

Serenely compliant, he closes them. She kisses him softly.

She steps back and thrusts the sword through his chest, directly into the chest of the demon.

There is an unearthly roar.

Angel's eyes open wide -- he looks down at himself impaled, at Buffy uncomprehendingly.

Buffy can't speak -- she tries not to cry as she takes another step back.

Angel reaches out to her -- and the vortex closes over him, sucks him into Hell. And is gone.

ANGLE: ACATHLA

His mouth closed once more.

ANGLE: BUFFY

Alone.

Now while all of this, IMO, is extremely, extremely well done, there's one moment in which I want to capture SMG's essence for being so damn GOOD...

After she tells Angel to close is eyes, and he does, the look on Buffy's face is so exquisitely pained, and so damn sad- mere words (at least mine) can't begin to convey it. I wish I had the S2 dvd so I could watch it frame by frame.

This girl has *talent*. It's ridiculous, is what it is.

I look at this story arc, which I've been watching over the past few weeks as FX has been airing the episodes, and honestly, the way they handled Angel's evilness seems way better than the way they handled Willow's. (I'll grant you that I haven't seen S6, but I couldn't resist reading all the scripts.) The logic of Willow's villany was understandable at first, but the length to which she went wasn't. The way that she killed Warren seemed too deliberate, no matter how grief-stricken she might have been. Her resistance to reason, her willingness to hurt her friends, didn't seem plausible, and ultimately, the "I'm going to end the world" thing seemed like a cheap way to have your classic Big Bad season ender. When I compare this to Angel's evil in S2, all soulless and evil and Angelus in full glory (pardon the pun), and then the climax, and then the denoument...

Well, I'll say that unless they cast magic over the script for the S6 finale, there are no candles being held.

When they promise a return to roots, I sincerely hope they mean it, lest I throw fecal matter at them like an angry monkey.

Pandora
who'll use gloves, because poo is nasty.

"Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies and I saw one of the babies
and the baby looked at me." -Ralph Wiggum

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Friday, July 12, 2002 2:43 PM

ZICSOFT

Well yeah. They got a log of mileage out Angelus because DB does Evil very well. (Rather better than he does Good, actually. I mostly find his character rather boring.) They could have done the same with Willow.

Hmm, maybe that's why the Dark Willow arc was so truncated. They'd done the Buffy Betrayed thing before and didn't want to do it again.

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Friday, July 12, 2002 2:58 PM

PANDORA

Quote:
Originally posted by Zicsoft:
Well yeah. They got a log of mileage out Angelus because DB does Evil very well. (Rather better than he does Good, actually. I mostly find his character rather boring.) They could have done the same with Willow.

Hmm, maybe that's why the Dark Willow arc was so truncated. They'd done the Buffy Betrayed thing before and didn't want to do it again.

Outside of your crack about DB's good Angel (which I do disagree with... I find good Angel sympathetic, sincere, and most of all, highly funny in the way of self-consciousness and -mockery), I see what you're saying. The problem is, if you're gonna have a big bad, it needs to be a Big Bad, not an Angsty Good.

Y'know?

Pandora

"Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies and I saw one of the babies
and the baby looked at me." -Ralph Wiggum

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Monday, July 15, 2002 1:02 AM

TLSMITH1963

I'm new to Buffy, so I saw Part 2 for the first time not too long ago. I cried as much as I did for Babylon 5's final episode. This show (Buffy) is *good*!

Tammy

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Monday, July 15, 2002 6:07 AM

HJERMSTED

Quote:

Now, I just finished watching Becoming 2, and-
wow.
I'd forgotten, I really had.
The episode, of course, was very well done, but the last ten minutes just rip out your damn heart and stomp on it repeatedly with cleats and steel toes.

A friend of mine who had never really seen a Buffy episode recently watched all of "Becoming 1 & 2" had raves for the episodes and is now seems very intrigued to see more BTVS.

And she should, it's great stuff. I remember watching the end of S2 with Buffy kicked out of her house/school and then leaving town on the bus. And that was it for the season. No new Buffy for three months! What would happen to her? That aspect of the season ending episode is lost now with F/X stringing all the seasons together.

Quote:

The logic of Willow's villany was understandable at first, but the length to which she went wasn't. The way that she killed Warren seemed too deliberate, no matter how grief-stricken she might have been. Her resistance to reason, her willingness to hurt her friends, didn't seem plausible, and ultimately, the "I'm going to end the world" thing seemed like a cheap way to have your classic Big Bad season ender. When I compare this to Angel's evil in S2, all soulless and evil and Angelus in full glory (pardon the pun), and then the climax, and then the denoument...

First Willow was a magic abuser that got carried away. Then she cleaned up her act (with no help from Amy) and sailed straight for awhile. Next she fell off the wagon bigtime consumed by grief and rage. The love of a dear friend pulled her back to reality.

The knee jerk reaction has been to describe what happened to Willow as "turning evil". I liken it more to having had "a very bad trip" that lead to vengeance, murder and ultimately megalomania (wanting to end the world's pain). In the context of a bad trip, the last few episodes of S6 make better sense to me.

ALSO: Just wanted to remind everyone that the F/X showings of Buffy are truncated versions of the original WB airings. This, of course, is to allow for more commercials. You'd be surprised how much of your favorite dialog is missing after the nips and tucks have been performed. The DVD sets are the only source of what you saw Tuesday nights (in the U.S.) all those years (or Monday nights for all you Buffy vets).

mattro

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Monday, July 15, 2002 10:33 AM

PANDORA

Quote:
Originally posted by Hjermsted:

The knee jerk reaction has been to describe what happened to Willow as "turning evil". I liken it more to having had "a very bad trip" that lead to vengeance, murder and ultimately megalomania (wanting to end the world's pain). In the context of a bad trip, the last few episodes of S6 make better sense to me.

mattro

While 'turning evil' might be the common term, it's not what I'd say happened. I think villany is a better term, because that *is* what happened- no matter the motivation, Willow *did* become a villain.

Now, as far as the bad trip aspect, I might buy that, but if that was the intent, the writers didn't do a good enough job by any stretch of the imagination clarifying that there was magic tripping to blame for Willow's behavior- yes, her hair and eyes were black. Yes, she wasn't being the Willow that we know. But there was no indication that Willow's perception of reality had been altered to the point where slowly and methodically killing three people would be justifiable. I'll buy it for the aftermath, but I still think that it wasn't nearly as well done as it could have been...

but that might just be me. :)

Pandora

"Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies and I saw one of the babies
and the baby looked at me." -Ralph Wiggum

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