The Watchers' Rewatch

Anya is seeking the return of her pendant and enlists Willow (aka Old Reliable) in said quest. Then shenanigans ensue and whoopsie-daisies vampire Willow is now loose in our Sunnydale. Aw, beans. Further shenanigans then follow.

The aftermath of Faith killing Allan shows psychological distress, emotional manipulation, and absolutely no enjoyment from using the shredder. No, not the TMNT villain, that's always enjoyable.Also, I'm not saying a slightly trained man shouldn't be written to approach a bound Slayer's legs, but it is weird that it happens two more times before the end of season 4...

Hold onto your kneecaps, this episode brings us shock twists, a new watcher, larceny, sword-wielding vampires, threats of kneecap removal, immortality, and a corpulent demon yelling "moisten the front". Everything you'd want to put into your ears from a Buffy podcast, obvs.

There are some apocalypse demons in town, capable of going one on one with a Slayer. At the same time, the Hellmouth is due to erupt again, and this time it's grown! Giles resorts to consulting with spirit guides outside our temporal restrictions. Buffy and Angel face emotional decisions about which of them might survive the climactic fight, Willow prepares to cast a spell more dangerous than any she has attempted before, Faith shares a more personal side than we have seen from her before, and Oz is in an even more feral than normal werewolf phase.Oh, and this episode isn't about any of that. It's about Xander, a car, and a cake. And it's actually pretty flipping good.

It's Buffy's birthday, so it's time to... what's the word.... celebrate? No, that's not it... Prepare! That's the one! Prepare for horror and bloodshed that is. Of course.In a remarkably "on the nose" assessment of patriarchal power structures Buffy is having her physical agency reduced so that she can prove she's worthy of said physical agency. Or something. It's entirely barbaric and unnecessary so let's not waste time working out the actual purpose. She is to be locked in a building with an insane vampire and use her wits to defeat him. Until the whole plan goes sideways, said vampire creates a minion and goes out into the world. With the whole scenario compromised, the council scraps it and calls in help to deal with the now out of control vampire.... this just in... no they don't do that at all, they just let her walk into an even more dangerous situation, including an innocent hostage...For goodness' sake.

Angel is having visions of his past, and we're not talking whimsy here. They follow him through both the waking world and his dreams, giving him no rest. The First Evil is pushing him to do something terrible, but he eventually decides to make himself the victim in order to avoid bringing harm to anyone else, with the exception of anyone who rewatches this episode and sees his various hairstyles and/or facial hair. Then the greatest video game ever made saves his life... oh sorry a Deus Ex *Machina* saves his life. My mistake...

Cordelia decides that Buffy is the reason bad things happen to her. Cos without Buffy, all those world-ending or Sunnydale-threatening villains wouldn't exist.... oh wait...Enter new girl Anya, totally not Anyanka: Vengeance Demon extraordinaire. And an alternate reality where Xander and Willow are *still* together. Yeesh.

Well, it's finally time to put the majority of *that* storyline to bed. Thank goodness! Plus we get Spike for this episode - bonus! If only the episode weren't riddled with plot chasms...