Alien loves Eliza.

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

Are you all very stoned?

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.

The kiss at the end? Reminds me why I was all for B/S while this was going on.

Right up there with my list of Hottest Kisses EVAR in the Buffyverse. (A list which includes Xander/Mummy Girl and Oz/Veruca. Guh.)

Yeah. What did faith ask Buffy re Scott Hope? It was something along the lines of whether or not thinking of him "gives you that good, down low tickle?"

That kiss? Tickle tickle tickle. I'm surprised my original VHS tape didn't break in that very spot.

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.

I think that was the episode that accidentally got left off the nomination ballots.

I'm surprised my original VHS tape didn't break in that very spot.

Heh. Mine, too.

Oh, burn. I don't remember knowing that happened. Yikes. How unfair. It probably doesn't matter--in that it probably wouldn't have won. But it was so different, so good, and finally, a musical made sense (in that random groups of people seldom seem to break into harmonized, orchestrated songs and choreographed dance, in my corner of the world).

Heh. Mine, too.

One time, I think in an interview on the Succubus Club radio show, Jane Espenson talked about Buffy being one to keep her own counsel. It's very true, and one of the things I appreciate about her. That said, I always wanted to know what was going through her mind. What got her up off her barstool, and around the stairwell, to stop Spike from leaving the Bronze, and what she felt, afterwards, too.