I'm Sure The Romantic Music From Buffy And Angel's Ice Rink Date Playing As Buffy And Kendra Say Goodbye

I'm sure the romantic music from Buffy and Angel's ice rink date playing as Buffy and Kendra say goodbye means nothing. You know, maybe the music is supposed to symbolise Buffy considering her path in life, which connects to ice skating and this last conversation. It just sounds romantic. It doesn't mean anything.

but what if they kissed, though?

In general, I'm noticing a lot of Faith-in-Buffy on this rewatch that I missed on previous watches. 'Prophecy Girl' has a lot of it (after she dies, but also her smile while she's fighting vamps at the start of the episode), and obviously Buffy in 'When She Was Bad' is full of Faith.

And now, in 'What's My Line pt. 2', it's astonishing how much Buffy is Faith to Kendra. The way she provokes her, tries to bring out the passion in her - it's so Faith, so much a mirror of Buffy and Faith's relationship, with Buffy in the Faith roll. Just, you know, less homoerotic.

... I mean, it's still pretty homoerotic. Just... less so.

In Reptile Boy, once again the Angel relationship takes a step forward in an episode about older sexual predators preying on high-schoolers; like Teacher's Pet, the appeal of an older partner is recognized and questioned, and the dangers they represent are confronted. And Angel continues to stress the age difference between him and Buffy as a problem. I really didn't pay much attention to it when I was younger, but the show is way more aware of the issues here than I realised.

Also, yeah, the "When I kiss you I want to die," line is a complete non-sequiter - hell, they've barely even kissed. It might make some sense in Season 3, but it really doesn't fit where they are at this point in the series, and it really sounds way more like a reason to end a relationship than to begin one.

There is however a much more natural connection to her death drive when she expresses a desire to be swept up in an out-of-control romance - it's the "Seize the day, because tomorrow you might be dead" thing again. She wants to embrace passion now without regard for any possible consequences, because on some level she's deeply aware that she might not live to see those consequences; and if she denies herself now, she might not live to see real passion. I'd argue that both her vampire romances are defined by her inability to imagine a future for herself, simply taking whatever love or pleasure she can get right now - because the present is all that she can really believe in.

I love that the scariest assassin in What's My Line is just Woman With Gun. Like, the bug guy is spooky, but turning to bugs is actually a pretty innefficient assassination technique compared to Gun Lady's strategy of:

1) Find target and 2) Shoot them with gun

Join me on the path to Twilightenment

I like to think she joined the Order recently. She needed to a way to make some money after the divorce, and stumbled onto a demon bar looking for a job, and someone suggested she join as a joke. But she'd been thinking about getting a gun anyway, and thought What the hell, why not?

Soon, she's the Order's top assassin. Turns out, Demon Made Of Fire and Guy Who Invades Peoples Dreams just can't compete with her power of 'just shoot them with a gun'.

I love that the scariest assassin in What's My Line is just Woman With Gun. Like, the bug guy is spooky, but turning to bugs is actually a pretty innefficient assassination technique compared to Gun Lady's strategy of:

1) Find target and 2) Shoot them with gun

There’s like 12 different kinds of tension in this image.