(no subject)

This is not a full-fledged review like I used to do of Buffy, but more like awed rambling about last night's episode, which was amazing. I mean, I know that Joss Whedon is a genius, but he never fails to amaze me. Enclosed in the bracket of a song with beginning and coda montages set to cryptic lyrics written especially for this episode, "Conversations With Dead People" is a structural marvel. The metanarrative is that of self-relfexivity, with a bizzarre impromptu psychotherapy session between Buffy and a newly sired charming vamp, who is (or was) a psychology student at Dartmouth, throughout which she reflects on her positioning as the hero, and the determining effect it has on her relationships with people (both living and undead). It was amazing. And the Big Bad that is finally determined (although by no means really identified) is the creepiest this show has ever seen. I mean, Angelus in season 2 was creepy, but that played more on emotional impact and the audience's and Buffy's investment in Angel's character before his vampire id killed his soulful superego via sex with Buffy. This Evil, whatever it turns out to be, manipulates the characters in truly horrifying insidious ways and preys on their worst insecurities. I have no idea where this is going, but knowing Joss Whedon, probably somewhere really disturbing and heartbreaking, at least for the duration of a good long downward spiral. It's weird, it looks like this will be the last season, and I am not at all sure that he will give his characters any sort of varioation on a conventional happy ending.