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Episode 3.15: Consequences | Episode 3.17: Enemies
Characters:
| Buffy | Angel | Xander |
| Willow | Giles | Cordelia |
| Oz | Anya |
Overall (8/10)
Buffy:
The Watchers are putting Buffy and Faith through some tests now. It can be assumed that this is the result of the events of Bad Girls and Consequences. Buffy is in full compassionate-mode as far as Faith is concerned. Yet, her competitive side still wants to do better than Faith on the tests.
Aside from that, she plays second fiddle to Willow in this episode, which rarely happens.
Angel:
Angel gets very little to do. Except give us a fantabulously funny scene where he tells Buffy that Willow's dead...only to see her standing in the corner. Probably my favorite scene involving Angel. Ever.
He does make an interesting comment, though, when Willow is commenting on vamp!Willow's traits. Buffy tries to reassure her that vamps are nothing like their human selves. Angel starts to contradict her, but stops himself for Willow's sake.
This is going way back to the argument that started in S2's Lie to Me as to how much of the human remains in the vamp. This lends credence to my theory that the Watcher's Council teaches Slayers (Buffy) that vamps are simply demons with no similarities to their human counterparts. That way, it'll be easier for her to kill them. However, as indicated by Angel, the truth seems to be a bit more gray.
I'm not going to repeat my comments from my review of Lie to Me, but I will say that the numerous examples of vampires we see tend to show that some part of their human self does remain. Indeed, even with Willow's vamp self, we see some disturbing similarities.
Xander:
It's ironic that this episode which is All About Willow would show off the failure of The Zeppo which is All About Xander.
It's a brief scene and played for comedy (And it is very, very funny), but it's also a sign of how The Zeppo just didn't affect anything. Buffy, Giles, and Xander are in shock as they think Willow is dead. Giles makes the comment that she was the best of them. Xander mentions that she was much better than him.
It's funny, yes. But if the development that Xander had been given in The Zeppo had progressed outside that episode, it's not a comment that would have been made. Xander is still seeing himself as the most useless of the group, and he's not afraid to berate himself.
This episode is All About Willow!
And, unlike Xander's episode, this one has development that sticks.
The Willow of the early seasons lacks confidence in herself. She does as she's asked without any protest. However, given events with Faith and her own insecurities as to her development in comparison to her friends (See my notes on Consequences), Willow is feeling a little at a loss now. She doesn't think she has it in her to be more assertive.
Enter vamp!Willow. vamp!Willow is sexy, confident, assertive, and everything that our!Willow thinks she's not. At first, Willow is severely weirded out by vamp!Willow. However, she is forced to don vamp!Willow's dominatrix outfit (Thank you, Joss!) and act like she is vamp!Willow.
In doing so, she is able to see the power of confidence that vamp!Willow wields. She holds a room of vampires at bay. In doing so, she makes revelations about herself and about the parts of herself that she's not happy with.
It is this taste of true confidence and power that will stay with Willow. This is the beginning of her more assertive nature. This will progress through the rest of the series. It will save her life sometimes. It'll save her friends' lives at other times. And, when she takes it too far, it will end up killing people and trying to destroy the world.
And it all starts here.
But let's note that at the end, Willow is thoroughly disgusted with her vamp-self as she doesn't want to believe that she has that in her. However, when she sees the effect that vamp!Willow had on Percy, she re-thinks it as she sees the direct results that that power had.
Also, it's noteworthy that, at the beginning when the spell goes wrong, Willow lectures Anya about the use of magic. Willow, at this time, appears to still have some respect for magic. However, we'll see this change later on as she uses and abuses magic.
A couple other points to note is that this episode has some fantastic foreshadowing. Willow's "and I think I'm kinda gay" line does come to fruition in S4 (And, indeed, that exact line is repeated in S6's Tabula Rasa). Also, her ominous "Bored now" will rear its ugly head again in S6's Villians (Where we get to see just how similar our!Willow is to vamp!Willow).
This season has largely dealt with the Giles/Buffy relationship. It's easy to forget the wonderful Giles/Willow relationship. The two have always gotten along very well and had their own paternal relationship similar to the Giles/Buffy one. It's fitting, then, that he would rush to hug her upon finding her alive and non-vampy in this episode.
Brilliant scene.
Cordelia finally gets more than one scene! I'm in shock!
She gets to vent to vamp!Willow about the Willow/Xander kissage of earlier this season. Cordy sure does hold a grudge. It's actually a little disappointing that after her rescue by Wesley, she shrugs off the whole Willow-being-dead thing. I can't help but think that a little out of character as we had seen Cordelia start to feel genuine friendship towards the Scoobies. It looks like the break-up has reverted her back to her early S2 self.
Oz is a man of so few words, but he gets a chance to shine in this episode when he confronts vamp!Willow. He's under the impression that it's his Willow, and he's trying to appeal to whatever humanity might be in her. Of course, he doesn't get far as she only recognizes him as one of the "White Hats", but it's a touching scene for our Oz.
And Anya returns!
We see that she is having trouble adjusting to being a human. She's spent the last 1000 years as a demon, and now she's stuck in high school as a teen girl. Yeah, I'd be a little frustrated, too.
And I find it wonderfully ironic that she turns to Willow for help. We'll see later on that Willow and Anya will have a strained relationship in the series. But, for now, she's just trying to get her powers back.
We'll see later in the season that she reluctantly accepts her fate as a human and tries to adjust as best she can.
Anya, in trying to get back to her demony ways, accidentally unleashes vamp!Willow on Sunnydale. Wackiness ensues.
Anya is the direct cause of the bad things happening. But it's vamp!Willow that becomes the direct antagonist.
Not an arc episode. We do get to see Faith start her own paternal relationship with the Mayor. We also see that he's willing to send people out to kill Willow when she's getting close to information on him.
I absolutely love this episode. It does so much for Willow's character while at the same time being wonderfully hilarious. One of my favorites of the series.
Also, in a very bizarre bit of continuity, we will see Sandy, the girl that vamp!Willow bit, come back in S5 to help turn Riley to the dark side.
Special performance award goes to Alyson Hannigan for licking her own neck. Oh, you know that was coming.
8 out of 10. Wish I could rate it higher, but it lacks the emotional impact to get a higher score.
When our!Willow is pretending to be vamp!Willow at the Bronze. We see her slowly coming to realize her own weakness, and we see her recognizing the power that vamp!Willow has in her confidence.
Episode 3.15: Consequences | Episode 3.17: Enemies
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