Showing posts with label xander harris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xander harris. Show all posts

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Lover's Walk

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In this episode, the featured song is "My Way," the Frank Sinatra hit. Spike is shown singing it to himself after he returns to Sunnydale looking for his lost love Drusilla.

At the end of the episode after he captures her again, he drives away from Sunnydale singing along with the version of "My Way" sung by actor Gary Oldman in the movie "Sid and Nancy" about the life of Punk Rocker Sid Vicious and his girlfriend. They are clearly somewhat of an inspiration for the "Punkish" Spike and the totally whacked-out insane Drusilla.




Another thing fans love about this episode is the way Spike goes on and on about his love for Drusilla, even crying on the shoulders of both Joyce, Buffy's mother, and Willow when he takes her hostage so she will make a love potion for him.

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He's totally obsessed by love and only love. This places him the "Byronic Hero" category which certainly becomes evident later in the series when his devotion to Buffy is tested again and again until he becomes the true champion.

Spike: What do you know? It's your fault, the both of you! She belongs with me. I'm nothing without her.
Buffy: That I'll have to agree with. You're pathetic, you know that? You're not even a loser anymore, you're a shell of a loser.
Spike: Yeah. You're one to talk.
Buffy: Meaning?
Spike: The last time I looked in on you two, you were fighting to the death. Now you're back making googly-eyes at each other like nothing happened. Makes me want to heave.
Buffy: I don't know what you're talking about.
Spike: Oh, yeah. You're just friends.
Angel: That's right.
Spike: You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood...blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.
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In fact, the title "Lover's Walk" is ironic because Spike is the ONLY character who ends up with his true love.

Buffy and Angel finally go their separate ways so each can concentrate on the greater good.

Angel: Hey. I was wondering when you were coming.
Buffy: I'm not coming back. We're not friends. We never were. And I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can't fool myself. Or Spike, for some reason. What I want from you I can never have. You don't need me to take care of you anymore. So I'm gonna go.
Angel: I don't accept that.
Buffy: You have to.
Angel: How can...There's gotta be some way we can still see each other.
Buffy: There is: tell me that you don't love me.

Buffy is unaware that she would be taking many a "Lover's Walk" with Spike in future episodes.

Things end much more unhappily for Cordelia and Oz, who are shocked when they catch Xander and Willow embracing and finally sharing an innocent and tragic kiss at just the wrong moment. Cordelia runs away and is impaled on a large metal spike, which is symbolic on so many levels - love, vampires, Spike himself who is the reason the gang is in the old warehouse looking for Willow - but this definitely ends her relationship with Xander. She is next seen in "The Wish" making a deal with Anya the Vengeance Demon who nearly destroys Sunnydale by fulfilling Cordelia's wish that Buffy had never come there. Also ironic because Cordelia has to leave the show to make a place for Anya, who also falls in love with Xander and nearly marries him.

But Willow's romantic interest in Xander is also over. She and Oz continue to date into their college days until Oz suddenly has to leave town to find himself because actor Seth Green was leaving the show.

There is one more piece of music in this episode, which is the meloncholy guitar instrumental "Loneliness of Six" written by Christopher Beck, who composed the scores of many of the later episodes. The "Six" referred to in the song are Buffy, Angel, Xander, Cordelia, Willow and Oz. Spike would make a magical 7th, except he is not lonely anymore.



Friday, May 3, 2013

Nicholas Brendon at Awesome Con

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Hilarious interview with Nicholas Brendon (Xander on Buffy) via ReelFilm News. Currently he is co-starring on "Criminal Minds," after his Fox Show "Kitchen Confidential" was cancelled. He talks about that in detail, as well as "Firefly" and "The Avengers."

This is only Part One - I will add Part Two when it is posted.


Sunday, March 10, 2013

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Cibo Matto

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Cibo Matto is a group made up of two Japanese women singers, Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, Timo Ellis on Drums, and Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, on bass guitar. They disbanded in 2011, but soon got back together again for several fundraisers sponsored by Yoko Ono, including a benefit for the Japan Earthquake survivors. Their blog is Here and you can read more Here.

Both songs found in this episode are included on the 1997 album Super Relax. "Sugar Water" is also found on the imported UK version of Radio Sunnydale.



Cibo Matto played at the Bronze in Episode One of Season Two - "When She was Bad." In that episode (written by series creator Joss Whedon) Buffy is still reeling from her encounter with the evil Master Vampire in Season One that left her literally dead until discovered underground by Angel and Xander, who brought her back to life with CPR. Despite a summer away from Sunnydale with her well-meaning father, Buffy comes home acting sullen and quiet, plagued by nightmares and dark thoughts of death. Buffy mistreats everyone close to her, not just Cordelia who deserves it, but Xander who is still in love with her. In a famous scene, Buffy acts like a bitchy femme fatale, making both Angel and Willow jealous while she dances with Xander, whom she also torments by coming onto him sexually. The background music to all this is Cibo Matto's otherworldly sound.

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It's such an interesting plot twist to have the superhero behaving badly, and it works to humanize Buffy, who is physically strong but often emotionally vulnerable.

The two songs by Cibo Matto in this episode are "Spoon" and "Sugar Water."





One more interesting note: during the dance sequence, a man who looks very much like the vampire Spike dances in front of the band while watching Buffy and Xander. This predates the arrival of Spike later in Season Two, Episode 3 - "School Hard". And it isn't Spike because the same young man appears in the final classroom scene, ironically sitting in front of Buffy's desk, and in the sunlit classroom - so definitely not a vampire either. It's quite possible thought that Joss Whedon was foreshadowing Spike early in the season - he knew William the Bloody was coming to Sunnydale, after all, and this guy has exactly the same hair. Maybe the make-up artist was practicing, LOL.

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