It's kind of fitting that Season 7 is so concerned with the Potentials, because there's a lot of potential in the season that I think is kind of wasted. It starts by returning to Sunnydale High, which I think is a great idea. A lot of the Buffy's best moments came from mingling monsters and high school, and to have Dawn there as a student, Xander around doing construction and Buffy as the counselor had potential to return to some of that greatness. In fact, two of my favorite episodes of the season, "Help" and "Him", make great use of that high school setting, and really feel a lot like episodes from seasons 2 and 3. The problem is that they abandon the high school far too early. Instead of developing characters there and making better use of the mystery surrounding Principal Wood, the show brings in the Potentials, who really are a serious problem for the season. Far too few of the potentials have any kind of personality. We're meant to care that these girls are being hunted and they're dying in fights, but for most of them we know as little about them as we do about the vampires and Bringers they're trying to escape. You either have to find really good actresses who can build a character with little screen time (which they did not), or you have to devote more time to at least a few of the potentials so that we actually care about them. It also helps if the one girl that we do spend a lot of time isn't someone that we hate (but more on that later). Imagine, if you will, an alternate Season 7 where the early going centers around the school. You could bring Willow in as a teacher, and have her, Buffy and Xander confront various supernatural problems at the high school, all while wondering about this mysterious and slightly shady principal. Perhaps these adventures have them crossing paths with the same few girls over and over again, girls who we get to know, who form their own semi-Scooby Gang with Dawn, girls who then turn out to be Potentials. Isn't that a better foundation for the second half of the season? A return to the high school, a reminder of where the show came from, and a chance to identify with some of these Potentials. I know, hindsight is 20/20, and maybe that idea wouldn't have worked out either, but I think they really missed an opportunity with the return to the high school.
The Potentials are the victim of what is really a problem for the whole season, which is a lack of focus. There are so many characters that we're trying to deal with, both new and old, and so much exposition to deliver that a lot of our characters get overlooked. This is particularly a problem in the case of our Scooby Gang. Xander, in particular, gets the short shrift. For large chunks of the season, he's relegated to repairing holes in the house and occasionally exchanging nerdy banter with Andrew. He's really marginalized. Other than him getting de-eyed by Caleb, can you think of one Xander moment that stands out in Season 7? I can't, and I just watched it. He's one of our three foundational characters! Similarly, Anya, after a terrific start to the season, gets placed on the back burner. "Selfless" is the second-best episode of the season, and it could have set up some great material for Anya (and Xander for that matter). Instead, she largely hangs out in the background of the house and occasionally says something threatening to Andrew. There's a great moment with her and Andrew in "End of Days", and it makes you go "where has she been all season?" It's a shame, because Anya is a great character, and she's treated pretty poorly this season, then unceremoniously offed.
There are 2 major problems in this season, but we'll get to those in a moment. Right now, I want to talk about what worked in Season 7. First of all, this season featured some really powerful imagery. Buffy has always been strong at the thematic use of imagery, Season 7 makes particularly good use of it. The final scene of "Lessons", with our introduction to The First, is fantastic as it takes on the forms of all our Big Bads, finally taking Buffy's form. There's the final scene of "Beneath You", with Spike embracing a cross while it burns him. There's Willow finally finding pure magic in the scythe, and glowing white. That's just a few examples of how this season uses imagery really effectively. There are visuals that really stick with you. There are 3 new characters added to our ensemble who really work well. The first is Principal Wood, who is a fantastic character who I kind of wish we'd seen a bit more of. The early misdirects are well-handled, until the reveal that Wood is actually the son of a Slayer. And not just any Slayer, but the Slayer who Spike killed. That's a great foundation for a character, and D.B. Woodside does a great job with him (unlike some of the other characters brought on mid-way through *coughRileycough*, he really gets the cadence of Whedonesque dialogue). He's a nice foil for Spike, and he provides the outsider's view that Season 6 was so greatly lacking.
We also get Caleb the "Priest" at the end of the season, and anytime you can get Nathan Fillion on your show, it's a good thing. Caleb is a delightfully evil villain, and knocks Buffy around physically like no one had since Glory. He's menacing, gives our Big Bad a physical presence, and Fillion knocks every line out of the park. It's kind of a heavy-handed, super-misogynist character, and could've really fallen flat in the hands of a lesser actor, but Fillion just nails the casual menace, and it makes Caleb work really well. The last character that really works in Season 7 is Andrew. Andrew isn't a new character, per-say, but he's much more prominent and in a drastically different role this season. There are apparently people out there who do not like Andrew. I do not understand these people. Andrew might be my single favorite thing about this season. He provides much-needed comic relief, but he also has a genuine character arc that has emotional resonance (I'll get more into this when I talk about "Storyteller"). He works well with basically every character, but particularly plays well off of Xander, Anya and Spike. Most of all, though, he's really hilarious, and even when he gets only a few lines in an episode, they're usually great.
The last real positive for this season is The First, who I think is used very effectively most of the time. I've already mentioned that great scene in episode 1 when we're introduced to The First, but the way it tortures our heroes is some great psychological evil, and I love how it often appears as Buffy. It's not a traditional Big Bad, but I'm ok with that. There are some problems with how they use The First, but for the most part it's pretty effective, and I like that it provides an enemy that Buffy can't punch.
So, with that said, there are two BIG issues I have with this season that really sour it for me. The first issue is the events at the end of "Empty Places", when everyone turns against Buffy. Now, normally I would just consign this to a single event in a bad episode and leave it at that. I mean, Buffy has had plenty of bad episodes, it seems kind of silly to pick on one scene when talking about the whole season. However, it's such a major event in the season and happens so close to the finale that it really throws a shadow on the whole thing. With very little reason, the entire group turns against Buffy and takes up Faith's side. It would be understandable for the Potentials to turn against her, I get that. They've suffered a harsh defeat and Faith is definitely "cooler" than Buffy. I can almost even buy Xander turning against her. I mean, he did lose his eye, he's probably not thinking straight. It's a stretch, but I could maybe buy it. For Willow and Giles to turn against her is patently ridiculous, and for Dawn to turn against her and actually kick her out of her house is totally unbelievable. This is their best friend, the hero who has saved the world at least 7 or 8 times. Now, on the eve of the apocalypse, they're going to cast her out??? Not only are they going to throw Buffy out, but they're going to stand behind Faith? It's such a terrible moment (the worst scene in the whole series) and at such a pivotal point in the season that it throws a pall over the whole ending to the season. It's such a massive miscalculation on the part of the writers, and it's hard to believe that no one realized what a huge betrayal of our characters this was.
The other major problem with Season 7, and this is the biggie, is Kennedy. We really only get one Potential developed into a full-fledged character, and she is an abysmal drain on the season. Kennedy is an annoying, badly-acted character who the show pushes on us whether we like it or not (we do not). Her relationship with Willow is rushed and never feels authentic. There are major emotional moments (particularly in "The Killer In Me ") between the two of them that require us to care about this relationship, and those moments just fall completely flat because there's no foundation there. For no readily apparent reason, Kennedy takes on a role as leader of the Potentials, The show attempts to bring her into our inner circle of heroes, but she's such a shell of a character that it kind of offends us to see her integrated into the Scooby Gang. I hate Kennedy. Hate hate hate. Just a terrible character.
With that said, some thoughts on the Season 7's best episodes:
Help: I really like this episode, and it's mostly because I really like the character of Cassie. The actress that plays her does a great job (I'm glad they were able to bring her back in "Conversations With Dead People"), and her plight really mirrors that of the Potentials (and Buffy in the early seasons). She knows her fate, she knows she has no future, and that's played out with just the right balance of sadness and resignation. In a lot of ways, this episode nails the themes of destiny and inevitability far better than anything with the Potentials ever does. I love Cassie's speech when Buffy confronts her halfway through the episode:
"You think I want this? You think I don't care? Believe me, I want to...be here, do things. I want to graduate from high school, and I want to go to the stupid winter formal... I have this friend, and it would be fun to go with him. Just to dance and hear lame music to wear a silly dress and laugh and stuff. I'd like to go. There's a lot of stuff I'd like to do. I'd love to ice skate at Rockefeller Center. And I'd love to see my cousins grow up and see how they turn out 'cause they're really mean and I think they're gonna be fat. I'd love to backpack across the country or, I don't know, fall in love, but I won't. I just never will."
Selfless: The last great Anya episode. The interspersing of funny flashbacks from Anya's past with the horror of her present situation is really effective. The tone is managed really well, as the humor balances out an otherwise very drama-heavy episode. There's a discussion here that the show really needed to have. If Anya is a demon again, does Buffy have to kill her, and if so, what makes Anya different from Spike and Angel? The moment where Buffy runs Anya through with the sword is legitimately shocking.
Him: Nothing monumental happens in this episode, it's just really, really funny. It's a throwback to earlier episodes of Buffy like "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", and is the only episode of the season that really takes full advantage of returning to the high school setting. Due to an enchanted letterman's jacket, all of our female heroes become smitten with high school stud RJ, hilarity ensues. It's got a ton of great visual comedy (Xander tackling the rocket launcher-toting Buffy outside of Wood's window is one of my favorite visual bits the show ever did), and tons of hilarious lines.
Buffy: "Willow, you're a gay woman...and he isn't.
Willow: "This isn't about his physical presence, it's about his heart."
Buffy: "His physical presence has a penis!"
Willow: I can work around it."
Willow: "Damn love spell. I have tried every anti-love spell spell I can find."
Anya: "Even if you found the right one, the guy would probably just do an anti-anti-love spell spell... spell."
Willow: "Aw, man, now I gotta start all over. Hecate hates that."
Conversations With Dead People: The episode that first really introduces us to our Big Bad, and it does so brilliantly. It's easily the best episode of the season, and it isn't hard to see why. It has 4 distinct sections, each written by one of the series' best writers (Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard, Jane Espenson and Marti Noxon). Dawn's story is the one I find least-compelling, but only because the rest are so good. The Whedon-penned Buffy section is excellent, featuring some funny, snappy dialogue and exploring the nature of Buffy's relationships. The reintroduction of Jonathan and Andrew is also great. It is also packed with plenty of humor:
Andrew: "It eats you, starting with your bottom"
Andrew: "That boy is our last hope"
Warren/The First: "No, there is another."
Andrew: "Wait. Really? Who's our other hope?"
Warren: "No, I was just going with it. It was a thing. He’s our last hope."
The humor of this section is mixed with darkness though (as Buffy so often is), and the last shot of Andrew stabbing Jonathan and his blood running onto the seal is legitimately sad. Jonathan has flirted around the edges of the show since Season 2, and he's really grown into a sympathetic and lovable character. Lastly, there's the Willow story, which is probably my favorite. Again, it's probably because I really like the actress who plays Cassie, and her conversation with Willow is at first touching, and then creepy. The whole episode is really a tribute to the tension you can create with just dialogue and solid acting. It's great.
Storyteller: I love Storyteller. It's Andrew-centric, and I love Andrew. Also, as I've written about in the past, I love it when movies/shows deal with the stories we tell ourselves. It's why I love movies like "The Brothers Bloom", "Memento" and "Inception". This episode explores that theme through Andrew's filming of our heroes. He's narrating a sort of documentary of what's going on, because "the story needs to be told." Only, Andrew's version of the story is a little fantastical, a little outrageous, and a lot vague on the fact that he killed his friend to open up the Hellmouth. It's a really funny episode, particularly his idea of what "Warren's" plan was ("We are as gods!"), but it's also very poignant. In the end, Andrew has to face up to the fact that he, of his own volition, plunged a knife into his friend, and we've seen enough of Andrew through Seasons 6 and 7 for it to ring true when Buffy yells at him to "Stop telling stories!" From the beginning, Andrew has always lived in a fantasy world. When Warren started going off the deep end and Jonathan started feeling guilty, he just wanted to be a comic-book supervillain, delivering dramatic speeches and jetpacking away. He never admitted that they had done anything wrong. By the end of this episode though, things have changed. Before switching the camera off, he looks into it and announces "I killed my best friend. There's a big fight coming up and I think I'm going to die. And I guess that's how it should be." He's stopped telling stories, and reality has reared its ugly head.
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