Guest Starring: 
     
 Anthony Stewart Head: 
 (Giles) 
   
 Nathan Fillion: 
 (Caleb) 
   
 Eliza Dushku: 
 (Faith) 
   
 DB Woodside: 
 (Robin Wood) 
   
 Tom Lenk: 
 (Andrew) 
   
 Iyari Limon: 
 (Kennedy) 
   
 Indigo: 
 (Rona) 
   
 Sarah Hagan: 
 (Amanda) 
   
 Harry Groener: 
 (Mayor Richard Wilkins) 
   
 
 
  20. Touched.  
   
  Buffy, reeling from her rejection by her family and friends, goes in search of a mythical weapon which Caleb is guarding.  
   
  Great quotes:  
   
 
This guy is evil.
  • Spike: “I follow my blood, which doesn’t exactly flow in the direction of my head.”
  • Buffy: “I don’t wanna be the one.” Spike: “I don’t wanna be this good looking and athletic, but we all have crosses to bear.”
  • Xander considers the practicalities of holding a bringer hostage: “I’ll get the magazines and start ripping out letters: ‘Dear Mr First, if you want your Bringer back well we’ll be surprised since you’ve got like 3 million of them; so please disregard this letter your’s sincerely...”
 
  Fantastic moments:  
   
 
  • Alyson Hannigan is at her finest when she stutters in confusion after being propositioned by Kennedy “I’m scared that of we... and then I...” She shows timidity and toughness at the same time, it’s great acting.
  • Spike totally opens up to Buffy and admits that she’s the one for him, he says “you’re a hell of a woman” and generally succeeds in improving her self-esteem to the point that she’s ready to take Caleb on again. What do Buffy and Spike actually do on their night together? I suspect we are not meant to know.
  • There’s some exciting wire-work when Buffy fights Caleb, makes the episode look like ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’.
  • On the eve of battle what do the Scoobies do? They all pair up and have sex of course. It shows that Faith hasn’t really changed that much (she can only connect with a guy by jumping in his pants) and continues the long BtVS tradition of equating danger with sexuality and coolness.
 
  Duff Bits:  
   
 
  • Buffy wants to dink Tab? How uncool is she?
  • Yet more plot devices in this week’s episode. Now there is an item that The First wants the slayer not to have. Why do bad guys always make fundamental mistakes; like the way Caleb pushes over a barrel that conceals the entrance to the underground axe chamber?
  • The battle that Faith takes the Potentials into at the end of the episode smacks of low production values. All that darkness and flashing lights is a good way to cover up the fact that they are conserving their budget for the end of season finale.
 
  Dean's comments:  
   
 
A very powerful MacGuffin.
I understand the need to pull strings and plot threads together as the series is coming to an end, I also understand that the series has to come to a nadir before Buffy can rise like the Pheonix from the flames and save everyone; but did this episode really need to be a talky and unfocussed as it is? There are far too many characters floating around to give enough dialogue to, while the message of the episode is rather confusing. Are democracies unable to win wars? Have Buffy’s somewhat megalomanic tendencies over the last half a season in fact been what the Scoobies needed? Moralities aside, the episode has an exciting ending, lots of good ‘reality TV’ style handheld camera work and leaves us with the hope that all of the annoying Potentials might be taken out in one go. Plus there’s lots of sex, what else can you possibly want?
 
   
 5/10 
 
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