'Something Blue' reminds me of 'The Zeppo' a bit.
It’s a spiral of great playful moments
one on top of the other,
that represent the writers feeling completely empowered to PLAY with these
wonderful established characters.
When you consider 'School Hard;
“--I'll make it quick."
"It won't hurt a bit."
"No, Spike."
"It's gonna hurt a lot."
...to this episode,
"That's my girl."
[smooch]
"Stop that right now! I can hear the smacking."
and that it doesn’t feel cheap or unearned
(Willow found her way to magic over seasons,
and the haywire spell here is an expression of her grief)
you really get a sense of what makes 'Buffy' such a SPECIAL and unique series.
And this episode foreshadows tonally the things the show is capable of at its heights.
Willow is still feeling the effects of Oz’s departure, as she wanders his abandoned room
and seeks his scent in his left behind clothing.
Riley and Buffy are still fumbling through some adorable early dating problems.
"Is there something you want to tell me."
"What?"
“Oh."
(chuckle)
"Yes."
"I AM a lesbian.”
And Riley inadvertently hints at Buffy’s secret identity.
“There’s a lot about you that needs puzzling out.”
Out on patrol, Buffy is telling Willow all about the latest news between Riley and her,
but seems strangely ambivalent.
"But, I just feel like something's missing."
“He’s not trying to make you miserable?”
Spike is still being held captive at Casa De Giles and Buffy is pumping him for information.
Spike, unable to fend for himself,
might be prolonging the situation to be taken care of.
And Buffy feeding him blood through a straw out of the "Kiss the Librarian" mug
is one of the most memorable and hilarious single images in the series.
Willow is putting on a good front for her friends
and both Giles and Buffy mention how she appears to be doing better.
“What are you people blind?"
"She’s hanging on by a thread.”
This sets up an interesting element of Spike’s character that we’ll touch on later.
Willow returns to Oz’s room again and finds it's empty.
After a meltdown,
she first gets drunk at The Bronze off one beer.
What a lightweight.
As Buffy tries to get through to her
the two of them have some surprisingly foreshadowy conversations.
“I just can’t stand feeling this way.”
"I know."
"It's just how it is."
“You have to go through the pain.”
But instead of coping, Willow once again
turns to magic to solve her grief.
We’ve been here before
with 'Lovers Walk'
and 'Wild at Heart'.
And the pairing here of Willow turning to both alcohol and magic to numb her pain is
the strongest metaphor for magic as vice
since Giles revealed he once abused black magic to get high in 'The Dark Age'.
The spell doesn’t appear to do anything.
The next day, Giles comes to check on Willow
and in a fit of frustration she tells him he doesn’t see anything,
causing Giles to lose his vision.
Spike escapes from the impaired Giles
and Buffy has to leave Willow to go and find him.
When she does Willow once again accidenta-spells, this time sending Buffy right to him.
The accidenta-spells trigger Spike and Buffy into a hilarious romance and engagement,
and Xander into a demon magnet.
After one of the most insanely delightful set of scenes on the show,
the gang figures out that Willow is the cause of the mayhem.
Anya’s old boss, D’Hoffryn, played by Andy Umberger
making his second appearance in the Buffyverse this year, after playing the psychic surgeon in the 'Angel' episode 'I Fall to Pieces',
brings Willow to his dimension and offers her a job as a vengeance demon.
Will turns him down
and everything returns to normal.
Will guilt bakes that evening
“Don’t I get a cookie?”
--"No."
There isn’t a whole lot here that is of consequence to the season,
but there is a lot of character development.
For instance, Buffy telling Riley she's engaged is brushed off rather easily,
though his final line is unbelievably cringe inducing:
“You really have a lot to learn about women, Riley.”
“You’re gonna teach me.”
[yuck noises]
GUH.
What a weird and terrible last line for a wonderful single episode.
In fairness, other than that bit of explosive cringe,
I do think that Riley gets a little unfairly associated with
the stunted and awkward "will-we or won’t-we" dance he and Buffy do in the early half of 'Season 4'.
For some people, this phase of a relationship IS stunted and awkward.
It rings true to me.
So why didn’t the spell work the way Willow wanted?
“Out of my passions a web be spun. From this eve forth my will be done."
Well, the key word being passions.
She can’t affect the book because it isn’t something she feels passionate for.
And when she wills that her heart be healed, well, there is an inherent contradiction to
emotionally not wanting to feel any emotions.
She doesn’t actually feel passionately yet about wanting to heal.
Her actions leading up to the scene,
including with the alcohol,
are all a passion for denial,
not healing.
No, the thing that Willow feels passionately for...
...is Oz.
And had any of her wording included him in this episode, things might have gone differently.
Regardless of whether she intended the spell to affect just her, as opposed
to the previous time(s) she used magic for selfish ends,
a pattern around Willow’s ability to cope continues to emerge.
And I love the double meaning inherent to her conversation with Buffy midway through.
“I AM a bad witch.”
“No, you’re a good witch.”
Buffy thinks they’re talking about Willow’s ability
but she also doesn’t yet know about Willow’s magical misuse from here and in 'Season 3'.
But Willow knows.
And her self-hatred could also allow us to read
bad vs. good
as dark vs. light.
Evil vs benevolent.
Excepting Willow’s suffering, this may actually be the funniest episode in the series,
and I think there is an interesting question of what makes an episode that borders on sitcom
work in a series as dramatic as 'Buffy'.
I think preventing an episode like this from feeling like a very special one-off,
rather than one that is still grounded in the universe is done by properly employing the use of perspective.
As we talked about in 'The Zeppo', that story,
which seems to be mocking the drama we love so much, works
because we’re seeing the world through Xander’s perspective.
The world isn’t suddenly changing and behaving in a way we’re unfamiliar with.
I’m not sure 'Something Blue' would have worked as well had everyone begun behaving in opposition to their normal characters,
but the reason why so much of the comedy between Spike and
Buffy works as well as it does,
is because Giles carries the grounded perspective of the show.
“Oh for God's sake.”
"This is nonsense. Something is making...
"...you act this way."
"Don't you realize what you're doing?"
But there are SO many moments of comedic brilliance
and some of it feels as though it reaches the level of Mamet-like verbal ballet.
"Spike and I are getting married!"
"HOW?"
"WHAT?"
"HOW?"
“Three excellent questions.”
And we see just a crazy willingness by the writers to absolutely commit to the humor.
Take the Amy joke.
Actress Elizabeth (Anne) Allen hasn’t been on the show since 'Gingerbread'
and she returns for a 3 second and naked hilarious cameo.
This episode also has one of my favorite lines in the series,
when Xander and Anya discover Spike and Buffy making out.
“Can I be blind too?”
Though it’s less funny if you really think about it.
The episode was written by Tracey Forbes, writer of the "major" hits
'Beer Bad' and
'Where the Wild Things Are'.
Douglas Petrie is listed as the executive story editor on this one and given the standout goodness of it
it seems likely that he had a major hand in it.
As usual, the title has a nice double meaning.
'Something Blue' is from an old folk rhyme
detailing what a bride should wear at her wedding for good luck.
"Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue."
Blue is also a synonym for depressed, in this case, Willow.
In keeping with the Scoobies acting as a metaphorical model for Buffy,
it’s no surprise then that, in this episode, what is up for Willow, is letting go.
As let's not forget,
Buffy has just returned from L.A., visiting Angel, and the events of 'I Will Remember You',
which she comments on in the episode's opening.
"Seeing Angel in L.A...."
"...even for five minutes."
“Hello to the pain.”
There is an idea here that Buffy may need to let go of the only model she’s currently had for love,
if she’s to have it again with someone else.
In this case, Riley.
When two people connect they create something wholly unique between them,
a strand of emotional DNA made when one person’s heart pairs with another.
And to expect that same tapestry to emerge in the next relationship
is a good way to prevent love from happening again.
But in truth, the idea of “getting-over-it” is probably a lie,
implying that we somehow clear away the refuse of the last relationship,
find our way back to emotionally unsullied "single",
and adventure onward.
That just isn’t what letting go actually is.
Letting go is a muscle untensing.
And though a relationship may end, that doesn’t leave us more incomplete than we were.
Everything shared,
everything we became in their light,
and all the love they gave us
we carry it with us.
Always.
SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THE SERIES.
"I’m cookie dough."
"Don’t I get a cookie?"