Episode 7.01: "Lessons"
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by David Solomon
Aired 09/24/02

Wow. I was really looking forward to this episode! And, for once, I actually wasn't disappointed. Of course, that usually happens when Joss writes an episode. So, anyway, the ep starts out with a scene in Istanbul, with a very nimble teen girl running from two guys where dark, hooded robes. Like evil monks. (My fic title image for "Cuore Della Notte" has the same basic type of evil monks, actually.) Gotta assume this girl is a potential Slayer ... even though she looks a little old, like 18 or 19. Anyway, the evil monks catch her and there's a moment of really icky rape-ish sort of imagery, with one guy holding her down while the other rears up above her and pulls out a really ugly-looking curved knife ... and then the camera cuts away.

Then we get the first line of the new season, from Buffy. "It's about power. Who's got it. Who knows how to use it." She's teaching Dawn some slaying techniques, but the line is clearly meant to set up a lot more than just that. This is what the season is going to be about ... especially since we get a repetition of this theme in the last line of the episode, as well. So ... okay. Power. Well, could you vague that up a bit for us, Joss? Ah well. He doesn't like to show his hand too early.

So anyway, I notice right away that ... wow! The show got funny again! There's a vampire fledgeling in the first scene who asks Buffy's help getting out of his grave, because he's stuck. Humor! I remember when BTVS used to have humor! Well, looks like it's back.

And the show seems to be scary again, too. The manifest spirit thingies that keep attacking Buffy and Dawn and Dawn's new friends are pretty darn scary. It's been quite a while since we had honest-to-goodness scary stuff on this show, too. I mean ... Glory wasn't scary. She was just creepy. And Adam wasn't really scary. He was just sort of boring and annoying. The last time this show was honestly scary was when Angelus was around. And ... boy oh boy, was he scary! So, anyway, it's scary again ... and that's cool! I'm starting to remember why I started liking this show in the first place ... that whole combination of scary and funny ... both of which have been missing for too long. Coolness!

Buffy grew her hair out over the summer, and boy am I glad to see it! She's also wearing really pretty, subtly feminine clothes with little slashes and lacey bits that show flashes of skin here and there without looking trashy. Also, she's wearing some fantabulous earrings with these gorgeous teardrop-type thingies. Wish I could find some of those!

Oh, did I mention the new credits? They include the mummy hand! I laughed out loud when the mummy hand came on the screen, because that scene in "Life Serial" was just too funny. And the credits also include the hilarious full-cast scream moment from "Tabula Rasa," when they opened the door and saw the vampires outside the Magic Box. Hee hee. Okay, those are two of the coolest moments from Season 6, so I'm glad they chose to put them in the credits. Otherwise, I didn't notice any big changes, except that there are quite a few shots of Dark!Willow, which seems to imply that her magic struggle will continue.

So that seems like a good segueway into the Willow/Giles scene in England. They seemed to have a very strange, sort of romantic chemistry in their scenes together, which kept squicking me ... but Shannon (my husband) says it's just that Giles is treating Willow like a peer, instead of like a child. Oooooookay. Whatever. Anyway, Willow is getting all connected to the earth, and stuff, but is still guilting over the whole I-tried-to-destroy-the-whole-world-and-actually-did-kill-people thing, like it's a big deal or something, and Giles says this heavy portentous stuff that sounded like another big sign of things to come this season:

GILES: Do you want to be punished?
WILLOW: I want to be Willow.
GILES: You are. In the end, we all are who we are, no matter how much we may appear to have changed.

Hrm. I actually REALLY don't agree with that sentiment, since he's basically saying that people are incapable of change. On the other hand, there's definitely something to what he's saying, in that there's still some of Ripper in him, but even while he was Ripper, there was still the stuffy Rupert inside. There are obvious parallels to Spike, Willow, Anya, etc. I won't bother. I'm sure the show will make those parallels for me.

So then we flash over to a very cheery, spritely Buffy, and professional, debonair Xander. Huh? And they seem to be acting sort of couplish, which squicks me all over again. Dawn doesn't whine ... I mean, not once! Whoa! Wait ... what show am I watching? This is BTVS, right? Cheery Buffy? Non-whiny Dawn? Humor? Oooookay. I guess I can adjust. Dawn also looks gorgeous. She's cut her hair, but it's still pretty long, and all shiny as always.

Then Buffy meets Robin Wood, the new principal of Sunnydale High ... and whoa! He's way cute. He's this tall black guy with a great smile and sparkly little earrings in both ears. And he's got a sense of humor, too! I thought he might even be flirting with Buffy a bit, and she might even be flirting back. Hmmm. Oh, and his office is located directly over the Hellmouth, so he's either -- as Buffy and Xander inform us -- evil, or in danger. Well, either way, he's cute.

Then we jump over to Halfrek and Anya chatting over lattes, and we find out that Halfrek is definitely not Cecily, since she and Anya had some sort of competitive skirmish during the Crimean War. I wonder if they'll ever follow up on the fact that Halfrek recognized Spike in "Older and Far Away"? (I should have included that in my dangling threads discussion in my blog recently.)

Anyway, apparently Anya isn't being evil enough for her demon peers, and she's gonna get in trouble. Halfrek says more portentous stuff:

"Something's rising ... something older than the Old Ones ... and everybody's tail is twitching. This is a bad time to be a good guy."

Uh, yeah. Okay. We'll hear this refrain again, from other characters. For example, later, Willow has some sort of spaz attack, and then tells Giles:

"I saw the earth, Giles. I saw its teeth. [The hellmouth] is gonna open. It's gonna swallow us all."

By the end of episode 2 of the season, this whole big-badness-is-coming idea will be pounded into your head so thoroughly that you would be very hard-put to try to forget it.

Okay, anyway, so then Dawn meets Mini!Willow and Mini!Xander ... who we shall dub "The Scrappies." Kit is the Mini!Willow, and she's all punkish, with the black nail polish and the leave-me-alone attitude. But for some reason, she opens right up to Dawn. They team up with another outcast, the rather wimpy Carlos, also known as Mini!Xander. The Scrappies are rather charming, and Dawn is very much TakeCharge!Girl ... just like Buffy back in Season 1 with Original!Willow and Original!Xander. And near the end of the episode, Buffy gets a poorly-payed job counseling troubled kids at the high school, so she can sort of take up Giles' position as the "adult" leader of the trio.

So, Buffy's down in the basement of the high school, trying to save Dawn and the Scrappies from these ugly-looking, scary, zombie-type "manifest spirits" ... and they seem to be guarding a door. So of course Buffy jumps over them and opens the door ... and there's Spike! He is sporting the latest style in what Dr. Dawn so aptly termed "roots of redemption" ... long, greasy, dark curls, with blond tips as visible testament to his months of suffering. He's way loony, Drusilla-type loony, laughing strangely and muttering weird stuff. He's totally helpless and clearly in horrible pain. He's got all kinds of bloody scratches on his chest where he apparently (according to his brief explanation) tried to cut out his heart. He's just plain broken. Buffy just sort of gapes at him and asks him to help her kick the zombies' butts. He just sort of mumbles and starts whining and clinging to the wall, so she leaves him there and heads off to save Dawn. He's obviously not going anywhere, so she can have a long think about this whole Oh-my-god-Spike-is-back-and-inexplicably-loony-with-roots-of-redemption issue.

She saves Dawn and the Scrappies. Of course. With a little help from Xander, who's been doing construction work on the new school, so he's handily nearby, of course.

So, then, the entire final few minutes are in the little basement room with Spike, huddled, crouched, hugging himself protectively, and looking way crazy. He's mumbling, "The thing is ... I had a speech. I learned it all. Oh god ... she won't understand ... she won't understand..."

And then ... drum roll ... Warren walks up and starts talking to him. But it isn't actually Warren, it's some sort of shape-shifting thingamajiggie, so I'll just write down the big heavy portentous stuff it says, and mark for you where it changes into other characters' appearance:

(Warren) Of course she won't understand, Sparky. I'm beyond her understanding. She's a girl: sugar and spice and everything ... useless unless you're baking. I'm more than that. More than flesh. (Glory) More than blood. I'm ... you know, I honestly don't think there's a human word fabulous enough for me. Oh, my name will be on everyone's lips ... assuming their lips haven't been torn off. But not just yet. But that's all right, though. (Adam) I can be patient. Everything is well within parameters. She's exactly where I want her to be. And so are you, Number 17. You're right where you belong. (The Mayor ... woo hoo! The Mayor is cool!) So, what'd you think? You'd get your soul back and everything would be Jim Dandy? A soul's slippier than a greased weasel. Why do you think I sold mine? Well, you probably thought that you'd be your own man ... and I respect that ... but you never will. (Drusilla) You'll always be mine. You'll always be in the dark with me (echoes of "Dead Things," anyone?) ... singing our little songs. You like our little songs, don't you? You've always liked them, right from the beginning. And that's where we're going ... (The Master) right back to the beginning. Not the bang. Not the Word. The true beginning. The next few months are going to be quite a ride, and I think we're all going to learn something about ourselves in the process. (like that "In the end, we all are who we are, no matter how much we may appear to have changed"?) You'll learn you're a pathetic schmuck, if it hasn't sunk in already. Look at you. Tried to do what's 'right.' Just like her. You still don't get it. It's not about 'right' ... not about 'wrong' ... (Buffy) it's about power.