I don't think it was necessarily that Tara was such a big "snack" compared to Glory's other victims. I think it was that Willow reaching in and yanking back her mental energy/coherence/flobotnum was like puncturing a big unstable balloon. Glory seemed to have a big problem with incoherence in her debut episode—that brain-sucking people mitigated—and I get the impression she'd never been on the receiving end of the treatment before.

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And I thought Glory was peaking with her ability to get out of Ben at will.

I think she was at peak for most of the season, but then in The Gift (and possible in WotW), Ben seems to be getting some control (back?) too. That's how they have the argument with each other in the alleyway. Glory does not want him popping out in that alley, because she does not want him helping Dawn (or killing Dawn, which he goes to do--with a broken bottle, at one point), but he is able to, just the same.

As for Tara's brain...it is set up at the Magic Box. Willow tells Buffy that she's been tracking their essences (or whatever) and thinks she might have found a way to restore Tara. She says this in a confessional tone--and that she knows she should have been looking into ways to help Dawn and Buffy with Glory, but that Tara's been her priority. Buffy understands this, because it is after she's told the gang if any of them try to touch Dawn, she'll kill 'em.

Anyhow, Willow's point is, even though she's been looking into this to help Tara, it might hurt Glory, as well. Once Willow does it, it knocks all three of them down. Glory gets up really disoriented, and says there's a "hole" and really can't finish her sentences or anything. I don't necessarily think you have to accept that this was anything unique to Tara, if you don't want to. Every time before Glory sucked a brain, she was out of it. She's just had one removed from her, so of course it is going to weaken her. Also, I forgot this, but Buffy(bot--I think) had the Dagon Sphere at first, which was known to repel Glory, and had thrown it to Glory. Glory, of course, crushed it, but it still took a toll.

But if she got yanked back in because she'd taken too much damage, that I can buy. And hey, maybe Ben was yanking too

This is mostly what I think the deal was. Ben wasn't a bad guy. Ben was weak, scared, and tired of having his life co-opted by the Hell Bitch. At first, he tried to protect Buffy and Dawn, even stabbing one of Glory's minions. He risked the Byzantium (which he seemed frightened of, in the hospital) when he went to help Giles in Spiral.

There are two places where his actions are less than honorable. He could have told Buffy the truth about Glory. It is totally understandable that he wouldn't though, because he knew she was the slayer, but did not know her well enough to know she'd try to help him, rather than kill him. Secondly, he didn't have to take Glory up on her offer of immortality. He did this, knowing that by giving over Dawn, he was allowing Glory to take an action that might end the world and would at least unleash all sorts of horror on the world, and he did this, knowing Dawn was an innocent who trusted him. But he was scared, and didn't want to die, and wanted to have his own life. He was desperate, and tired of fighting her. Also, I think it's likely that since Ben's feelings were beginning to taint and affect Glory, we can assume Glory's feelings may well have been beginning to taint and affect Ben.

All I know is that Ben looked a LOT like a guy I used to date, and I really wished I'd had Giles around to take care of that.

Hee.

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Cindy, I think the complete Gift previouslies was included as an extra on the Season 7 DVDs after fans got super-pissed. Too little too late, but there it is.

The Gift was my favorite episode for a long time. On infinite rewatch, it doesn't hold up as well, artistically, to me as, say, Restless or The Body, but it's still in my top 5. I feel it just as much as you.

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Cindy, I think the complete Gift previouslies was included as an extra on the Season 7 DVDs after fans got super-pissed. Too little too late, but there it is.

Oh, okay, that is what I heard, and I just misremembered it. Thanks, David.

The Gift was my favorite episode for a long time. On infinite rewatch, it doesn't hold up as well, artistically, to me as, say, Restless or The Body, but it's still in my top 5. I feel it just as much as you.

I was a Bronzer then, and of course immediately after it aired, Joss came to the boards to say SMG would be back as Buffy, yada yada yada. I already knew this, in that I was certain UPN didn't shell out a bundle that the WB wasn't willing to shell out, in order to buy a Buffyless Buffy. I just wanted to scream at him, "get out, Get Out, GET OUT," because I needed to believe the story I'd been told for a little while, before I started thinking about the future.

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Yeah, I actually watched season 5 first. And even after one season, that episode hurt me bad. I can't imagine what it must have been like after 5 years of getting to know her.

Then again, lots of people didn't feel it by then, so maybe I was lucky to watch it first. Taken out of the context of Seasons 1-4, it may be a better season. Not perfect, but so emotionally wrenching.

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I found Buffy during season 3. I can't remember if I had seen all the past episodes by the time The Gift aired. I don't think I had. For a long time, there were just select episodes from seasons 1 and 2 on VHS. I did buy those. And I finally ventured onto the internet to hunt down all backstory, which is how I fell into fandom.

It seems to me the DVDs weren't released until after FX had aired [however many] seasons at least once. And it seems to me that FX didn't start airing the old episodes until after season 5, but I can't remember. I do know I changed cable providers, in order to get FX, and my children still hesitate to touch my VCR, because I was religious in taping, and labeling those tapes. It was so wonderful to watch so much New-To-Me Buffy, regardless of the fact that I already knew what happened.

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Alien loves Eliza.

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Excellent. Now. Do we suspect there could be any kind of link between Ben and Glory?

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Are you all very stoned?

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As of last night, we're through Tabula Rasa in the great BtVS Re-Watch of '05. We started watching Once More, With Feeling, on Friday night, and fell asleep (this is a recurring theme in our Re-Watch Project), so last night, we began with that, then watched Fury's Making of... documentary DVD special feature, then watched Tabula Rasa.

I overdosed on Once More, With Feeling when it first aired. I was so darned impressed with j weewee, so pleased by the ways the actors acquitted themselves of their roles, and songs, and so excited that Actual Advancement to the Plot was made during the musical, that I couldn't get enough of it. I also played the CD a lot, because...well, because I could.

Anyhow, I think I've only rewatched it all of once since we bought the S6 DVDs (which was whenever they were first released, here). I was a little afraid going into it last night--afraid that it was going to bore me. It did not. My enjoyment is as if it were new. Only better--because I know the songs.

I doubt I have anything to say about the musical that hasn't been said before, so I'll close this rehash by saying it is still, in my opinion (dh's, too), one of the best episodes of the series, and I still feel a little put out that it didn't get an Emmy. I can't remember, but it seems to me it wasn't even nominated.

Tabula Rasa is one of those episodes I expected not to like. Well, I didn't expect to hate it, but I was still on a high from Once More, With Feeling, when TR was first broadcast, so I went into it, expecting to feel disappointed. I wasn't. It's another week where there is Actual Plot Advancement. The only element of this episode that disappointed me (and the season's progress through Tabula Rasa) was Giles' departure. I know there were meta reasons for having Giles leave when he did. I can even buy he would leave. Buffy was certainly all too comfortable letting him take on her responsibilities. I just took issue with him leaving quite that soon after finding out she'd been heaven. Apparently, I'm over that.

Oh, I was also a little disappointed that we went to a montage for the last few minutes of the episode. I like this version of Branch's Goodbye to You. And it even fits, with what is happening at the end of the episode. But I felt a bit ripped off at the time, and that still lingers. I'm a dialog junkie (be glad you don't have to read the swill I think of as "My writing").

I like what we see of Spike's character as Randy, even as the writers use it to take a poke at the Angel storyline. I like that Joan and Umad related to one another as sisters. I find it telling that Xander and Anya take little notice of one another. It is so nice to see Buffy enjoying life, and being happy to be a superhero, as Joan. I feel for her when her memory is restored, and she is paralyzed by it.

The kiss at the end? Reminds me why I was all for B/S while this was going on. I was a bit afraid that knowing what happens in Seeing Red would neutralize the heat. It didn't, and I'm glad of that, too.

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