Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Tabula Rasa" Review (6x08)

Brief Synopsis: “Willow is devastated to learn that she pulled Buffy out of Heaven, not Hell. She resolves to make things better by casting a spell to make Buffy forget that she was ever in Heaven. The spell, of course, backfires and causes all the Scoobies to wake up in The Magic Box with no memories. The amnesiac Scoobies must piece together their lives and find a way to reverse the spell, while also dealing with vampires and demons that Spike owes kittens to.”


"Once More With Feeling" (6x07) quick link here                                                                                       "Smashed" (6x09) quick link here

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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?



“Tabula Rasa” is an unusually formatted episode. Instead of the episode escalating as it goes along, it starts really heavy, switches to light and comedic, then ends really heavy. After the drama at the conclusion of “Once More With Feeling” and everyone wondering where they go from Buffy revealing that she was dragged out of Heaven, not Hell, the unique formatting of this episode isn’t a coincidence. It’s typical of Joss and the writing team to start an episode in a light-hearted, funny, joyous way and then smash our souls into a million pieces, but it’s rare for a comedic episode to start dark. However, this darkness needs to happen. Buffy revealed the most haunting, harrowing, shocking piece of news that the show has experienced. If the Scoobies just all shrugged and moved on, it would have been unrealistic and a huge slap in the face to the show and the characters. Buffy needs to face the uncomfortableness that follows her revelation, while the rest of the Scoobies need to accept the consequences of it. Willow, Anya, Tara, and Xander need to take varying levels of responsibility in what Buffy is currently going through, while Giles, Dawn, and to a lesser extent, Spike, need to figure out how best to help Buffy heal and move forwards. Right from the opening couple of scenes, the show refuses to let us forget about the last ten minutes of “Once More With Feeling”. Buffy and Spike’s kiss is addressed first, and then Willow, Anya, Tara, and Xander’s conversation addresses Buffy telling them that they dragged her, involuntarily, out of Heaven.

As I mentioned in my review of “Once More With Feeling”, I was expecting the musical episode to be fun, light-hearted, and a useful excuse to break up the darkness of the season with a bit of comedy. The episode that does this turns out to be “Tabula Rasa”. There’s no denying that the darkness needs to be broken up for a while so the audience doesn’t get completely depressed and smothered. The first seven episodes of this season, and pretty much every episode that follows this one, are dark. Suffocatingly, wonderfully, gut-wrenchingly dark. As brave and wonderful as it is for a show to have the guts to do this, there needs to be something for us to laugh about at some point. However, we are in the Whedon World here. You can’t have Buffy’s game-changing revelation be swept under the rug, regardless of whether some comedy is needed. To quote Ramsay Snow (now Bolton) from “Game Of Thrones”, “if you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention”. Therefore, Joss Whedon and episode writer Rebecca Rand Kirshner make sure there are enough minutes left in the episode at the end to rip our hearts out, play with them, stomp on them, and drive a steamroller over the remains of them. The episode is really going out of its way to tell the audience that there is no happy, easy way out of this situation. There’s a lot of darkness and pain ahead before any sense of closure and happiness can be found. The middle section of “Tabula Rasa” offers the Scoobies and the audience a momentary distraction and shows the relationships the characters could be having if they didn’t have a history together. But, alas, this could never last. The conclusion of “Tabula Rasa” is the real kick-starting point for the overwhelming misery ahead. Thus far this season has primarily concentrated on Buffy’s isolation and depression, but now this wave of negativity extends to all of the Scoobies. Giles leaves, Willow and Tara break up, Xander and Anya feel guilty about bringing Buffy back from Heaven (and also have marriage worries), Spike is hurt and confused by Buffy’s treatment of him, and Dawn falls deeper and deeper into loneliness and kleptomania. These are all issues that take the whole season (or beyond that) to resolve.

The interesting thing about “Tabula Rasa” is that on paper it doesn’t look particularly funny. Everyone waking up together with no memory of who they are doesn’t seem like it’s going to invoke laughter. I’m currently just over halfway through a degree in psychology and criminology, and one of the topics I’ve just been reading about in depth is the notion of identity. How one is formed, whether it’s hereditary or social, how our memories and experiences shape our current identities. This is fascinating in relation to “Tabula Rasa” as the Scoobies still have some semblance of identity and personality, they just don’t have their memories or know who they are. They still have personality characteristics, they still remember how to speak English, and they still have subconscious feelings of familiarity or sibling affection, but they don’t have a clue who the feck they are. If you tweak the dialogue a little and change the music playing in the background, this episode could easily be transformed into a horror episode. Kudos to the team for playing the episode the way they did because it certainly worked.

Spike: “We kissed, you and me. All ‘Gone With The Wind’, with the rising music, and the rising...music, and what was that, Buffy?”
Buffy: “A spell?”
Spike: “Oh, don’t get all prim and proper with me. I know what kind of girl you really are. Don’t I?”
Buffy: “What we did is done. But I will never kiss you, Spike. Never touch you ever, ever again.”
*Suddenly Buffy grabs Spike and pulls him to the ground with her*

...Basically defines their conversations and actions throughout this season, doesn’t it? Also, was Spike about to refer to his rising penis before he stopped himself? Naughty, naughty.

It would appear that Spike is in some severe gambling debt...kitten gambling debt. I wonder what clawsed all the trouble? Spike’s usually purrfect at gambling. Pun-believable! Even more amusingly, a loan shark called ‘Teeth’, who happens to be a giant walking shark in a suit, is the thing that Spike owes the kittens to. Spike should run away to...Gilligan’s Island. I CAN’T HELP IT! THE PUNS KEEP POPPING INTO MY HEAD! The costume used for Teeth is terribly unrealistic, but it’s so funny that I’m going to allow it. In fact, it’s even funnier because of the terrible costume. Like how the werewolves on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” look like cuddly teddy bears. Speaking of Teeth, he appears in the canonical “Angel” continuation comic book series, “After The Fall” (basically, it’s “Angel” season 6, but because Joss was involved with it, it’s considered fact, not a side story). Teeth, going by the name of “Bro’os”, becomes the Lord of Santa Monica after Los Angeles is sucked into Hell by Wolfram & Hart. Bro’os helps Angel kill all the other Lords of Los Angeles at the time. After Wolfram & Hart rewind time so that none of that happened (but everyone retains their memories of it), the other Lords hunt Bro’os/Teeth down and kill him. Teeth is now dead in the Buffyverse. That’s almost as tragic as Joyce or Tara.

After the opening credits roll, the episode comes back on a conversation between Willow, Tara, Anya, and Xander all discussing that they dragged Buffy out of Heaven. It’s nice to see a scene where the Scoobies are simply discussing and addressing what they did in bringing Buffy back from the dead. For the first time this whole season, Willow admits that she was selfish and that they acted without thinking about the ramifications. FINALLY. I always expected the scene to focus more on Willow and Xander’s reactions to Buffy’s reveal than Tara and Anya’s, which is exactly what happens. The whole foundation of the show has been the relationships between the ‘core four’ characters, so it makes sense that Willow and Xander get most of the screen time here. Tara’s largest part of the scene comes after the initial conversation when Willow suggests using a spell to help Buffy forget that she was in Heaven. Xander knows that they made a mistake bringing Buffy back. He knows that they messed up. In Xander’s defence though, he was the only one of the four that expressed doubts and second-thoughts before they resurrected Buffy. He wasn’t sure if they were doing the right thing, he suggested telling Giles or Dawn, but he was shot down by Willow. The one thing that Willow said to convince Xander was “it’s Buffy”. Now, Xander is conflicted. He feels guilty for what they’ve put Buffy through, but at the same time he doesn’t want to feel miserable because his friend is no longer dead. It’s a weird situation to be in when you’re feeling guilty that your friend is alive. The problem is that Buffy isn’t just alive now that she’s been brought back from her afterlife, she’s depressed, miserable, and doesn’t want to be alive. It’s true that Xander doesn’t see the extent of Buffy’s mental problems right now, but they’re there to see! Giles has noticed them! It’s funny that Xander is referred to as the character that sees everything and for almost every season that’s true, but it’s certainly not in this season. He doesn’t notice how isolated Buffy is, he doesn’t notice just how much Willow has fallen into dark magic and manipulating the people around her, he doesn’t notice that Dawn is lonely and crying out for help...if Xander is the character who sees everything, then he’s suffering from temporary blindness in this season. Perhaps he’s too distracted by his wedding fears.

Willow is also feeling guilty, which she should be, and it’s nice to see her expressing this emotion. She mentions that she acted selfishly in being so insistent on bringing Buffy back without thinking about the consequences. Again, this is nice to see. Just when I was starting to like Willow again and feel a little empathy towards her, she slapped it away by suggesting that she does a spell so that Buffy forgets she was ever in Heaven. What. The. Fuck. The whole reason you’re feeling guilty and you’re in this mess is because you used magic! HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT MAGIC = BAD IN YOUR CASE RIGHT NOW! Using magic for self-serving reasons is what’s fucking up your life right now. Buffy’s depression, your fault. Tara imminently leaving you, your fault. Plus, let’s not forget what happened the last time Willow tried to use magic to get someone (herself) through pain quickly without dealing with it and taking the time to work through it. Has she forgotten about the events of “Something Blue” in season four? Willow had her will done in order to feel better about Oz leaving and she nearly got everyone killed. Giles was blind, Xander was a demon magnet, and Buffy and Spike thought they were engaged...which is kind of comical when you think about where Buffy and Spike are now the next time Willow tries to use magic to fix emotional issues. Even more shockingly, I wasn’t surprised by Willow’s suggestion. She’s fallen so far down the rabbit hole by this point that I was expecting her to suggest using magic to fix Buffy’s problems. Why face the issue and deal with it when you can brush it aside temporarily with magic? Even if Buffy would be better off without remembering Heaven, who is Willow to rob Buffy of those memories and feelings of peace?! Was mind-raping Tara not enough for her?! Willow says that she feels guilty about what she did, yet she’s dismissing her guilt by trying to brush the whole situation under the rug. At this point in the conversation, Tara explodes...

Willow: “I know a spell that will make her forget she was ever in Heaven.”
Tara: “God, what is wrong with you?!”
Xander: “I’m gonna go get that...phone, you probably don’t hear. High-pitched ring, ears like a dog.”
Anya: “I’m gonna help you with that.”

Willow and Tara have very different views on magic and have done for a while now. The first time when it really became apparent to me was during the last season’s “Forever”, when Tara was completely against trying to resurrect Joyce through magic, while Willow was more interested in whether or not it was possible...before bringing a book forward on the bookshelf to aid Dawn. Tara is of the opinion that magic shouldn’t be used to alter life and death, and it shouldn’t be used to manipulate your life how you see fit. In the last episode, “Once More With Feeling”, Tara discovered that Willow had used a spell so that Tara would forget about an argument they had. Making someone forget about an argument isn’t a bad thing. Doing it without their permission is. A very bad thing. It’s disgusting mind-rape. Having someone else choose what you can and cannot remember is horrific. Let’s also not forget that Tara was mind-raped in a similar way by Glory towards the end of the last season. She spent weeks in a schizophrenic-like state. Tara gives Willow one final chance, one final opportunity to fix their relationship...go one week without magic. Sounds easy on paper, doesn’t it? Just a week. But a week is a long time for addicts. I was surprised that Tara gave Willow one last chance, to be honest. I sure wouldn’t have. I was both impressed and surprised by Tara’s outburst and words to Willow here. Her character growth and strength was so subtle that I barely noticed it happened. What happened to the shy girl from “Hush” that barely spoke unless she was spoken to? Willow seems to be completely unaware that she’s controlling and manipulating everyone around her. When Tara refers to it as being ‘violated’, Willow is defensive and says that she didn’t mean to violate Tara at all, she just didn’t want to fight anymore. Tara’s response sets up the rest of this episode...“if you don’t want to fight, you don’t fight. You don’t use magic to make a fight disappear”. Change the context from ‘fighting’ to ‘forgetting’ and you have the rest of this episode displayed in front of you.

While Willow and Tara are borderline breaking up in one place, Giles and Buffy are breaking up in another context somewhere else. Giles gets so much stick from the fandom for leaving, which I can absolutely understand. But, to be fair to him, his reasoning does make sense. The only question I have on the matter was whether or not he should have waited a little longer before departing, but he addresses this question too. Of course, the real reason Giles is leaving again is because Tony Head wanted to spend more time in England with his family, after spending most of the past five years in California without them.

Giles: “As long as I stay you’ll always turn to me if there’s something comes up that you feel that you can’t handle, and I’ll step in because...because...because I can’t bear to see you suffer.”
-------------------------------------
Giles: “I’ve taught you all I can about being a Slayer and your mother has taught you what you needed to know about life. You...you’re not going to trust that until you’re forced to stand alone.”
Buffy: “But why now? Now that you know where I’ve been, what I’m going through?”
Giles: “Now more than ever. The temptation to give up is going to be overwhelming.”

Hmmm...I’m still in two minds about this. On the one hand, what Giles is saying makes sense. Since he returned in “Flooded”, how many times has Buffy ran away from something and left Giles to solve it for her? He helped her financially by giving her money, he sorted all her bills out for her while she ran away to meet Angel and avoid them, he was the one to tell Dawn off about lying at Halloween...whenever a situation comes up that demands that Buffy be an adult, she delegates it to Giles. When you consider what Buffy is currently battling against this makes perfect sense and is understandable, but it’s very unhealthy. Buffy won’t become an adult until she’s forced to become an adult and doesn’t have someone to delegate these tasks to. It’s why so many parental figures die in the fantasy genre. Harry Potter couldn’t be the hero he becomes while he had parents, a godparent, and a friendly headmaster to protect him at every turn. Same goes for Frodo, Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and a hundred other young characters. Eventually they have to stand without the guiding hands and become adults. On the flipside of this, look at what happens once Giles leaves! Everyone (bar Tara) messes up worse than they ever have. The Scoobies fall into complete and utter chaos once Giles disappears for a few months. In hindsight, perhaps he should have stayed for a while longer to aid Buffy through this traumatic time and then leave her to grow up and become an independent adult.

The conversation where Giles is explaining to Buffy why he’s leaving is gut-wrenching. You feel sorry for Buffy, you feel sorry for Giles because you can tell that he doesn’t want to go, he just feels it’s best for Buffy if he goes. Giles doesn’t know what’s going to come at the same time he’s leaving, he can’t possibly. He’s just doing the best he can with the information at his disposal. Both Buffy and Giles raise excellent, valid points in this exchange and there’s not really a right or wrong answer, just different perspectives. Of course, Giles doesn’t know quite the extent of what Buffy’s going through. If she confided in him her suicidal contemplations and just how isolated she feels, I don’t think he’d have left her alone for a single moment. Alas, Giles is acting with the information he has, not the information that we know. The important point to remember here is that nobody is wrong and there is no right or wrong answer to this situation, just different viewpoints. Giles acts in Buffy’s best interests, but in hindsight this turned out to be a mistake in the long run.

This is where the episode starts turning from depressing and deep to silly and hilarious. Willow secretly performs the spell she was talking about so that Buffy would forget about her time in Heaven. Firstly, how did Willow think she was going to get away with this? Even if the whole bag didn’t catch fire, Tara would still have noticed that Buffy had no memories from her time in Heaven! It would have been obvious what Willow had done and Tara would have broken up with her. The only logical viewpoint here is that Willow was making two things happen with this spell...making Buffy forget about her time in Heaven and making Tara forget about their argument at Xander and Anya’s apartment. When Willow is performing the spell she mentions both Buffy and Tara, so this is the case. Two mind-rapes for the price of one! You buy one violation, you get one free! Of course, nothing ever seems to run smoothly and according to plan in the Buffyverse, so the whole bag quickly catches fire, which results in everyone losing their identity. Oops.

Before the identity dramas begin, two more important things happen....1)    Spike’s disguise is the same outfit he was wearing during Xander’s dream sequence in “Restless”. It’s a great piece of continuity as during that scene in “Restless”, Giles said that Spike was like a son to him and Spike refers to Giles as his dad. After everyone loses their identity here, Spike believes that Giles is his dad.

 
2)    Just before the spell takes effect, Buffy is starting to tell the Scoobies about how overwhelmed and miserable she’s feeling, but the spell cuts in and everyone passes out. The spell kicked in right in the middle of Buffy talking about her deepest feelings and thoughts, which she hasn’t done yet to anyone except Spike. If the spell hadn’t kicked in and Buffy was able to keep talking, the Scoobies would have been fully aware of what Buffy was going through, they could have talked it all out, and they could have started supporting Buffy in a much deeper, much more meaningful way. This would have been huge for Buffy in helping her heal because everyone would have known just how much she’s struggling and how hard it is for her trying to adjust to life again. The whole season could have been much, much different if Buffy could have finished talking here. One more thing to blame Willow for! She dragged Buffy out of Heaven and now her spell has stolen away Buffy’s chance of expressing herself deeply to her friends.

Once everyone has woken up, it’s interesting to see how the Scoobies view themselves and each other while in the Tabula Rasa state of mind. It’s almost like they are who they were before the drama and heartache of the last season and the beginning of this one. It’s also clear that on some subconscious level, they remember certain parts of their identities and their relationships with everyone else in the group. Giles’ disappointment of Spike, Spike’s loathing of Giles, Willow having lesbian tendencies towards Tara, Xander and Willow thinking that they’re a couple because of their long, deep emotional history together, Xander both sexualises Willow and subsequently gets very insecure when he first wakes up next to her, which is something he used to do all the time in the first three seasons with pretty much every woman in his life, Buffy and Dawn realising that they’re sisters...these are all things that make sense if the Scoobies had their identities. Their subconscious instincts and intuition are still there, it’s just their memories that have disappeared. There are a few other things that are interesting as well. Firstly, even before they realise they’re sisters, Buffy starts stroking Dawn’s hair, like she’s subconsciously reassuring and protecting her little sister. Also, Xander and Anya have very, very limited interaction with each other compared to the other close relationships between the Scoobies. Xander and Anya, and Giles and Buffy are the only two relationships that are very close in the real world, but aren’t in the Tabula Rasa world. This again makes sense if they remember things somewhere deep down on the subconscious level as Buffy is currently angry with Giles for leaving, and both Xander and Anya are having severe marriage doubts and insecurities, which they expressed in “Once More With Feeling”.

I won’t lie to you, this episode is one of the funniest the show ever produces. An argument can be made for “Band Candy”, “Pangs”, “Something Blue”, “Storyteller”, or another episode being the funniest, but “Tabula Rasa” could certainly take that mantel. There are so many funny moments in the first ten minutes after the spell takes effect, so I’m going to break some of them down briefly in bullet-points...

•    Everything involving Giles and Spike together is pure gold. Their banter, the fact they think they’re father and son, Spike mentioning Giles’ classic midlife crisis transport, which is described exactly like the car Giles bought in “Real Me”, Spike complaining to Giles that he never shows him affection (even though he has no memories as to whether or not it’s true), their awkward hug later in the episode, Spike’s frustration and disgust over the fact that he’s English, and, of course, Spike’s rage over being called ‘Randy Giles’...

Spike: “’Made with care for Randy’...Randy Giles?! Why not just call me ‘Horny Giles’ or ‘Desperate-For-A-Shag Giles’?! I knew there was a reason I hated you!”
Giles (desperately trying not to laugh): “Randy’s...a family name, undoubtedly.”

•    Anya and Giles thinking that they’re husband and wife will always be the greatest television plot decision in the history of the universe...and that’s only partial hyperbole. To be fair, it does make sense. Giles and Anya do have a weird relationship where they own The Magic Box together, why wouldn’t they think they’re a couple? The best part, you ask? Their side-splittingly funny kiss right before the spell breaks and their uncomfortableness around each other after it has broken. They counteract their uncomfortableness and potential arousal by incessantly cleaning The Magic Box. Such LOLs.
•    Willow and Xander automatically assuming they’re a couple because they woke up all “snuggley wuggley”. Throughout the course of the past six years, we’ve seen them act like a couple time and time again, as well as have an affair together, so this makes for logical and amusing continuity.
•    Willow’s declaration to Dawn that she thinks she’s “kinda gay”.
•    Buffy and Dawn arguing like siblings even in the Tabula Rasa state. Even without their identities they can’t stop bickering. Then Buffy chooses the name ‘Joan’ and Dawn is disgusted. Perhaps Buffy chose the name Joan after Joan of Arc because of her subconscious remembering that Joan of Arc is considered a heroine in France and was a strong female leader. Makes sense.
•    Giles: “They seem to want spikes.”
Spike: “Oh!”
*Spike goes off and comes back with a handful of stakes*
Spike: “Let’s give ‘em these.”
Giles: “Well done.”

Daddy is trying to show his son some affection, I’d wager.

•    Anya’s phobia of bunnies coming back to bite her in the ass because of her stubbornness and not listening to her husband, ‘Rupey’. Anya refuses to listen to Giles that she’ perhaps using the wrong book in trying to get rid of the bunnies. She keeps creating more. How many bunnies were used during this episode?! Anya almost gets them both killed by refusing to switch book and creating a weird sword-fighting skeleton.
•    The moment where the vampires appear at the door of The Magic Box and all of the Scoobies scream and run away. Best. Moment. Ever. In fact, myself and some of my Scoobies tried re-enacting this moment somewhat at a Buffy convention last year. Lookie!...

 (I feel I'm the only one who was trying (bandana dude)! Also, Giles' face!)

•    This is followed up by Xander attempting to pray, even though he’s not sure of his religious affiliations.
•    Buffy’s face when she stakes a vampire and discovers that she’s “like a superhero or something”. Excellent over-the-top facial acting from Sarah. She’s so happy that she has superpowers. I kind of adore a Buffy who’s unburdened by life and her recent resurrection. Notice that she also protects Spike instinctively when he’s in trouble. This goes along with her subconsciously (and consciously) having lusty feelings for Spike recently in order to try to cope with her depression.
•    Probably my favourite comedic moment of the episode (outside of Spike’s discovery that he’s English)...

Spike: “I must be a noble vampire. A good guy on a mission of redemption. I help the hopeless. I’m a vampire with a soul!”
Buffy: “...A vampire with a soul? Oh my God, how lame is that?”

I love that the show is making fun of its own spinoff and one of its biggest heroes. Also, Buffy’s line about how lame a vampire with a soul is becomes even funnier once Spike returns to Sunnydale with a soul too.

All good things can’t last forever. As fun as it was to watch these characters act without their recent troubles and traumas, I knew it couldn’t last. With this being the Wonderful World of Whedon, I knew the episode was going to end on a depressing note too. You can’t have this much hilarity without Joss wanting to crush his audience. It’s against his religion to give us a happy ending. The crystal that was keeping the spell in place gets broken and everyone regains their identities. I wonder if the spell had a shelf life or if everyone would have been stuck identity-less forever if the crystal didn’t fall out of Willow’s pocket and get trodden on? Willow, Tara, Dawn, and Xander looking down at the fractured shards of crystal represents what’s to come next for the Scoobies. Since Buffy’s revelation at the end of “Once More With Feeling”, this is the Scoobies now. Splintered, fractured, broken beyond repair. No matter how hard they try, they’ll never be put back together the same way they were before Buffy’s death and subsequent resurrection. Xander and Dawn look thoroughly disappointed in Willow. Especially Xander as he knows that she’d just promised Tara not to do anymore magic. Tara, instead of being disappointed and devastated along with them, just looks pissed off. How dare Willow mind-rape her again?! How dare she mind-rape everyone?! This was the final straw for Tara and she moves out of Buffy’s house and breaks up with Willow. It’s a testament to Alyson’s facial acting that I still want to jump through the TV and hug her when she cries, even though everything is her fault entirely and she has only herself to blame. Willow and Tara have been the most stable couple on the show thus far, so their breakup hit me especially hard. However, Tara did what was best for her and I absolutely support and agree with her decision to leave Willow.

In comparison, when Buffy gets her memories and identity back, her face and behaviour instantly change. You can just see the pain and hurt hit her again. It’s written all over her face when the memories come flooding back. She’s overwhelmed by the grief and sadness, and depression that follow them. When Spike tries to help her back to her feet, she gives him a filthy look and runs away. Is this because she’s disgusted with herself for kissing him? Is it because she hates life right now and doesn’t want to be around anyone? Or is this part of a larger behavioural pattern of being nice to Spike when she wants something and being disgusted by Spike when she doesn’t need him around? All make a certain amount of sense.

The episode closes on one of the most depressing, tear-inducing scenes in the show’s history of creating tear-inducing scenes. We receive a montage of everyone looking miserable as the song “Goodbye To You” by Michelle Branch is being performed at The Bronze. “Goodbye To You” might just be the best use of a song in the show and it’s easily one of the most memorable. It works perfectly with the montage. The lyrics are also perfect with what is happening during the montage. The song is saying goodbye to someone that you love. You don’t want to leave them, you still love them, but it’s not right to stay. We see Giles flying away from Sunnydale, we see Tara packing up her belongings and moving out, we see Dawn running away from Tara and crying, we see Willow sat on the floor of the bathroom crying, and we see Buffy combating her feelings of isolation and depression once again by kissing Spike. I go back to a line that she sings to Spike just before their first kiss...“this isn’t real, but I just wanna feel”. At the moment, their relationship is happening for all the wrong reasons. This changes during the next season, but for right now Buffy doesn’t love Spike. Most of the time she loathes him. She’s just looking for an escape. As destructive as it is, I’m fascinated by their relationship and it makes for great television at the very least. The ending reminds me of “The Harsh Light Of Day”, which saw Buffy, Anya, and Harmony all walking around Sunnydale feeling alone and miserable. While in that episode they were hurting because of someone else’s actions, this time it all comes down to Willow. Willow is hurting because Tara is leaving her, which is a result of her not being able to control her manipulations through magic. Willow is the sole person responsible for Buffy being brought back, which is why Buffy is so miserable, and Giles only returned to Sunnydale in the first place because Willow resurrected Buffy. Pretty much everyone’s unhappy ending in this episode can be traced back to Willow and her increasing desire to control everyone around her. Some people are surprised that Willow turns into the season’s ‘Big Bad’, but the writing was definitely on the wall. Willow was a borderline villain long before her hair turned black and she got all veiny. With Giles - the father-figure and stability of the Scoobies – gone, the characters that remain are about to get even more depressed and make even more questionable decisions. Sadly, that’s a part of growing up.

Bring tissues for the next episode, people. This time they’ll serve a dual purpose. One to wipe tears away and one to aid you in watching the sex scene that closes out the episode. Things are about to get very interesting.


Quote Of The Episode

Giles: “We’ll all get our memory back and it’ll all be right as rain.”

Spike: “Oh, listen to Mary Poppins. He’s got his crust all stiff and upper with that nancy-boy accent. You Englishmen are always so...bloody hell. Sodding, blimey, shagging, knickers, bollocks! Oh, God! I’m English!”

Giles: “...Welcome to the Nancy Tribe.” 



FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10

What are your thoughts on "Tabula Rasa"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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