Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S6/E18 Entropy

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Things fall apart; they fall apart so hard.

Anya is again a vengeance demon and tries to get The Scoobies to wish something bad would happen to Xander. The Scoobies discover the Trio's network of surveillance cameras. Willow and Tara get back together.

  • Aesop Amnesia: Averted with Dawn, who remembers the lesson of "Older and Far Away" about making wishes.
  • Action Prologue: An exciting sequence of the Trio running down vampires in ATV's (and Spike and Buffy dusting same vamps) compensates for how things don't start hotting up again until the final act.
  • An Axe to Grind: Xander tries to kill Spike with Buffy's axe, but fortunately he swings it so hard it gets stuck in the wall.
  • A Shared Suffering: Anya and Spike realise they've a lot in common as demons who never really fit in with the Scoobies.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Averted as Anya can't get anyone to wish harm on Xander, especially a Genre Savvy Dawn. Played straight with Buffy telling Spike to "move on" -- then being confronted by the sight of him screwing Anya.
  • Big Damn Kiss: Willow and Tara.
  • Buffy-Speak

Xander: That's not Proactive Guy. That's Sit-Around-And-Wait-For-The-Rest-of-His-Life-To-Turn-To-Crap Guy.

    • Spike goes to the Magic Box because he needs a thing (a numbing spell).
  • Captain Obvious

Xander: Okay, clearly I'm not handling this well.
Anya: WELL, DUH!

  • Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Spike denies placing the camera in Buffy's garden, and Buffy realises he's telling the truth.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Anya trying to curse Xander directly. "Those are metaphorical intestines. You're not in any real pain!" Plus Anya's first thought on seeing Spike is that she must get someone else to wish he'd become a woman, as her reputation had been built on helping Woman Scorned.
  • Continuity Nod: Xander assuming that Spike is behind the GnomeCam is a reference to Spike's Stalker with a Crush behaviour the year before, when he'd lurk outside Buffy's house. Willow fills in Tara on the Scoobies adventures since she walked out (mentioning "Gone", "Doublemeat Palace" and "As You Were").
  • Corner of Woe: Buffy sits in a lawnchair in the dark after seeing Spike sleeping with Anya.
  • Demon Scorned / Demons Do It On Tables: Anya and Spike.
  • Cutting the Knot: Tara gets her priorities right.

Tara: Things fall apart; they fall apart so hard.
Willow: Tara?
Tara: You can't ever...put them back the way they were.
Willow: Are you okay?
Tara: I'm sorry, it's just... You know, it takes time. You can't just...have coffee and expect--
Willow: I know.
Tara: There's so much to work through. Trust has to be built again, on both sides. You have to learn if we're even the same people we were, if we can fit in each other's lives; it's a long and important process and can we just skip it? Can you just be kissing me now?

Tara: Okay, wait, it was under her wig?
Willow: Well, it was this thing, it just came out from inside her head.
Tara: That's disgusting. What did it look like?
Willow: Well... let's put it this way. If I wasn't gay before...

Buffy: I tried to kill my friends, my sister, last week ... and guess how much they hate me. Zero.

  • Failed a Spot Check: Buffy and Spike don't notice the Trio scooping up the disk from under their noses as they're too busy fighting vamps and exchanging Casual Danger Dialogue about their non-love life.
  • Game Face / Evil Sounds Deep: Our cue that Anya has returned to being a vengeance demon.
  • Get Out!: When Buffy tells Spike that his love isn't real and he should move on, Spike interrupts her with a "Get out" that sounds exceptionally menacing.
  • Generation Xerox: Buffy fears she's turning into Season 1 Joyce.

Buffy: (realizing) I'm cramping your teenage style.
Dawn: No--
Buffy: Yes, I am. (alarmed) I'm the embarrassing mom who tries too hard. When did this happen?

Buffy: Anya, Xander's my friend. I know what he did was wrong, and ... if it had happened to me, I'd--
Anya: (hopefully) Wish his penis would explode?
[[[Smash Cut]] to the Magic Box.]
Dawn: I never use that word anymore.

No, the mature solution is for you to spend your whole life telling stupid, pointless jokes so that no one will notice that you are just a scared, insecure little boy!

  • Hollywood Hacking: Willow picks up the Trio's wireless camera signals and uses it to find their location. "I'm still me!"
  • Ho Yay: Andrew watching Spike having sex.

He is so cool. (glances at the others, self-consciously) And, I mean, the girl is hot too.

Spike: I've tried to make it clear to you, but you won't see it. Something happened to me. The way I feel ... about you ... it's different. And no matter how hard you try to convince yourself it isn't, it's real.
Buffy: I think it is. (Spike looks at her hopefully) For you.

Anya: Wait. Wait. (very soft whisper) What are we doing?
Spike: Moving on.

  • Ironic Hell: Halfrek put a spell on a man who didn't pay child support so he'd get paper cuts every time he handled paperwork that wasn't a child support payment.
  • In Vino Veritas: Averted -- Spike is careful not to mention the name of the girl he's griping about to Anya while they're finding the bottom of a bottle of Scotch. He doesn't hesitate to vent about the Scoobies hypocrisy though.
  • Just Friends: Tara and the girl Willow saw her peck on the cheek in the last episode.
  • Lady in Red: Anya getting her vengeance on. She turns out to be wearing a black bra underneath, so it may be a case of Red and Black Keep Back.
  • Last-Second Word Swap: Buffy still doesn't want to mention Spuffy.

Guys!? There's only been 4... 3! Only 3!

    • Or Willow mention Tillow.

Tara: It's not like living with the house full of family, or sharing your room with someone you--
Willow: Are-are friends with?

Xander: I may have practiced that a couple times in front of the mirror.

  • Never Be a Hero: Dawn expresses her desire to start working with Buffy, a theme which would be carried over into Season 7.

Buffy: Dawn, I work very hard to keep you away from that stuff. I don't want you around dangerous things that can kill you.
Dawn: Which would be a perfectly reasonable argument, if my sister was chosen to protect the world from tax audits? But, see, my sister is you, and ... dangerous things that want to kill me seem to find me.

Dawn: You guys went out patrolling every night when you were my age.
Buffy: True ... but technically, you're one-and-a-half.

Willow: 'Uh', 'um' ... various sounds of hesitation...

"Oh the great Xander thinks so. Shudder, GASP, it must be true.

Buffy: I want to find these guys!

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