5.17 - Forever

After the funeral, Dawn does something drastic.


***

Marti Noxon is awesome. She is so in tune with Joss that sometimes I can't tell their dialog apart. Same goes with Doug Petrie. And yes, even Jane Espenson, who at this point is one of the best and most competent writers on the show.

Marti writes and directs here, and she does a fantastic job. We have the funeral, and the mundane details again, showing us that no matter how much pain we are in, not everyone is going to be aware that they aren't being helpful. Take the coffin salesman here, for example. Clearly Buffy is upset by having to pick this, but the guy acts like he's selling her a toaster.

What I loved was that Angel came to the funeral and sat with Buffy in the cemetery all night long, until the dawn. He just spent time with her and showed her his support. They come from different worlds now, but he was there for her in her time of grief, and once again I couldn't help but feel like they are made to be together.

By the way, while I'm on the subject of Angel, I feel I should say that season 5 for me has been the best season since season 2. It's the first one that has the emotional plot points that get me so invested. Seasons 3 and 4 had some great character pieces in them, but this season has the great character pieces AND makes me all girly again. Having Angel back and kissing on the Buffster just feels natural and right.

So then Dawn goes and decides that she's going to resurrect Joyce using magics. She gets away with it too, with the help of Spike. Now, if you ask me, I think that this whole resurrection thing went a little too far. I don't think she should have gotten away with it, but I think the point that Marti was trying to make is that Buffy wanted Joyce back just as much as Dawn did if not more, and I like that it was Dawn who ripped up the picture, canceling the whole spell. I don't know, tough, having the body come back...it felt a little gaudy and wrong. Then again, that's probably the point.

Rating: 9/10