Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Angel – dvd 136

Following actual yesterday’s two cliffhangers, let’s get in to Buffy The Vampire Slayer – End of Days. The bomb in the arsenal where the potentials were attacking goes off. Would this be survivable? I’m uncertain.

Buffy has found the magic axe. Caleb says “So… you found it. Not impressed. ‘Cause the question now, girlie girl, is can you pry it from solid rock before I come over there and…” at which point Buffy pulls it out of the stone. “Darn.”

Now she’s got the axe, Caleb is told by The First to let her go, telling her that Faith and the Potentials are in trouble. Which they clearly are, in the aftermath of the explosion. Faith looks like she took the worst of it.

Back at the house, Andrew has made a food run to the local abandoned supermarket. Giles: “Oh! Jaffa Cakes.”

Attempting to escape from the collapsed arsenal, the potentials are set upon by more Bringers.

It’s all looking bad until Buffy arrives.

After the Bringers are Brought down, they all get back to the house. Lots of casualties. Buffy, Giles and Willow look at the magic axe, and decide, with no reason I can see, that it’s called a Scythe. It’s not a scythe, no matter how cool that word is. I suspect the writers only called it that for this joke. Buffy: “The only thing I know for sure is it made Caleb back off in a hurry.” Willow: “So it’s true. Scythe matters.”

Buffy asks Xander to do something for her, but he doesn’t seem happy to do it. “Buffy, do you get that? If I do this, that’s it for me for this fight. I feel like you’re puttin’ me out to pasture.”

Willow and Giles are trying to work out what the scythe is, and who made it. Willow is researching – I guess the power is back on after last episode. And look at this page. That’s something called “The Axe of Dekeron” when that’s clearly a scythe. Does Joss Whedon have dyslaxia? (also please enjoy the IP address with two subnets > 256. The TV internet equivalent of a 555 phone number.)

Willow: “Man, none of these sound right. I mean, look. Here’s one that’s just “M” question mark. What the heck is that?” Giles: “Let me see. It’s not a question mark. It’s the international phonetics alphabet symbol for glottal stop.” I looked this up and it’s correct. This leads Giles to connect to ancient hieroglyphs, and then to places where pagans used to bury their dead.

Out at his car, Xander knocks out Dawn with some choloroform, and drives off with her.

Caleb joins with the First. I preferred it when it looked like Buffy.

Spike sees Buffy for the first time since they hooked up the previous night. Spike: “And you did it. Fulfilled your mission. Found the Holy Grail or the Holy Hand Grenade, or whatever the hell that is.” Buffy: “Right now, we’re going with scythe.” They also have a bit of a heart to heart about last night. Spike is definitely in love.

Anya and Andrew are at the hospital finding medical supplies. When they’ve stocked up, “So, wheelchair fight?”

Somehow, all of Willow and Giles’ research into ancient hieroglyphics, and pagan burial traditions, has led Buffy to a pyramid shaped tomb in Sunnydale cemetery. That’s handy, although I guess since the ~~axe~~ scythe was also there, it’s not entirely unexpected.

There, she meets a woman, one who has been there for a very long time, who forged the scythe and hid it in the rock, I don’t think any of this really makes any sense.

Perhaps it would have made more sense if she had been able to finish her exposition, but wouldn’t you know it, Caleb is also there and kills her.

On the road, Dawn wakes up and reads the letter Buffy left for her. “Dearest Dawn, Don’t be angry with Xander. He only did what I told him to do. This isn’t the place for either of you. Please know that I love you and that everything I do is for you. I promised once to show you this beautiful world, and I’m gonna do everything I can to make that happen.”

So she does what any sensible girl would do, and tases Xander as he’s driving.

Buffy and Caleb have a big old fight. I don’t quite understand how she’s able to survive being hit by him now, when in the previous episode she would have died. Maybe it’s the ~~axe~~ scythe. But Caleb does seem to have the upper hand, and gets the ~~axe~~ scythe himself, until surprise! Angel arrives to knock him down.

Caleb’s not out, though. Angel offers to help her out. Angel: “Ah, it’s one of those things you have to finish yourself.” Buffy: “Really kinda is.” Angel (to Caleb): “You are so gonna lose. God, I miss watching this.” And after a bit more slugging, Buffy finishes him off with an ~~axe~~ a scythe to the stomach.

“Well, at least you could tell me you’re glad to see me.”

But who’s in the shadows, watching the happy reunion. It’s Spike, with the First whispering in her ear. “That bitch.”

And that’s the end of that episode.

The next recording is Angel – Sacrifice. Angel and the gang get out of the hotel after beating up Connor a bit. I think Angel is getting a little bit too angry about this. This isn’t the way to bond.

Jasmine eats some more people and heals Connor in the process. This is definitely a loony sex cult metaphor.

They have to stop for petrol, and it gets very creepy when Jasmine can possess everyone in the city.

Eluding the police, they end up in the tunnels of the city (it’s Angel, he’s always in the tunnels). They come across a group of people who aren’t under Jasmine’s power, one of whom used to know Gunn. They’ve been underground for a few weeks, and there’s some kind of monster outside.

They go looking for the monster. It grabs Wesley. “We loved her first. Before your kind was, my kind loved her. Stood stone on stone, built the temple, always making ready.”

The little kid who’s with the underground gang gets out to the surface, and when Gunn and Fred bring him back down, he’s already been possessed by Jasmine, who also possesses the others.

The gang try and escape, but Connor is down there now, and he’s brought an army.

Angel and Wesley kill the monster, and Wesley tells Angel that the secret to defeating Jasmine is knowing her name, and there’s an artefact that will open a portal to the monster’s dimension where they can find the keeper of her name.

While the rest of them are trying to stop Connor and his soldiers getting in, Wesley opens the portal. Only Angel can go through because the atmosphere is toxic. So Angel goes through leaving the others to fight Connor’s army.