Characters Seen:
Andrew
Buffy
Dawn
Faith
Kennedy
Oz
Riley
Willow
Xander

We open on Buffy flying.

Yes, you read that right … flying.  As in like Superman does.  Don’t worry, she’s as confused by it as we are, and she has no clue why or how she can do it , and she doesn’t understand why she feels the need to hide it from everyone else.

After landing she walks into Oz’s temple, while Willow and Oz walk around talking outside.  She apologizes to Oz for all the trouble they brought to his home, but he assures her that Bay (mother of his child) will be fine, and since it’s Tiber, they aren’t the first to bring war to the country.

Willow thanks him and she wonders how she can get her magicks back quickly … when she gets hit with green energy, her eyes glow, and … Willow is back to full power.  Oz seems shocked, and Willow tells him it was “like an aftershock.  Fallout from some cataclysmic mystical event.”  Oz asks her if she knows what it was, and she says she doesn’t because it hasn’t happened yet.

Xander and Dawn come running out to tell Willow that six of the Wiccans have gotten their powers back after collapsing.  They notice Willow is glowing and think it’s time to go after the three goddesses that are sill rampaging across the countryside.  Willow tells them to get the Wiccans on researching the temporal event she just felt, and she takes flight to go try and shove the goddesses back underground.

We cut to Buffy talking to a still injured Riley about the mistakes of the battle, but he informs her he saw intelligence, courage and compassion in the fact she is treating the wounded of the enemy.  He tells her he is proud of her, and she wonders if they gave him the most morphine … he says also a couple shots of Jack, but he thinks he’s good to drive.  She tells him to sleep.

We cut to Twilight standing over the unconscious bodies of Andrew, Faith and Giles.  He rambles about the amount of destruction, the confusion and the spell his Wiccans will make sure it is hours before they are missed, and days before they are sought.  He refers to Giles as her trust, Faith as her guilt and to Andrew as … “And your name will come back to me.”  He says that this will make Buffy finally see the truth, if she is able to see at all.

The Wiccans are casting a spell to find the missing Slayers, and Xander says they can send out a … “or wait.  We can wait.  They’ll show.”

Willow is trying to lasso the goddesses with magicks and they punt her.  She knows she is back to being sorceress supreme, but these goddesses are out of her league, and she worries what will happen if they reach a populated area.  She goes in for another go … and gets punted again.  ”Damn!  What am I, a hacky sack?”

A wonded soldier asks Buffy if she’s a witch.  She explains she’s a vampire Slayer.  He tells her that they (meaning Twilight’s army) told the soldiers that they had magic powers and would do things to them.  She says if they did, they would have healed them by now.  He asks her if she’s in love, she says they should take it slow, and he starts to tell Buffy about Jenna Abrams, and how he should have said something to her at the dance, and he doesn’t know what he was afraid of, and nothing could be worse … Buffy reaches over and closes his eyelids.

Xander says they’ll need that bed.  He asks how she is, and she says she is tired of seeing this, tired of causing it.  He tells her it’s a war, and she didn’t start it.  He informs her Willow got her powers back, and Buffy wants to know if she got more power.  Xander says she wasn’t dark if that’s what she means, and tells her that Willow has gone off to fight the goddesses.  He tells Buffy she’s proud of what she did, and she says that’s the same thing Riley said.  He says that Riley is a brainy guy, and she wonders when he became a fan of him.  ”Your one boyfriend who wasn’t a psychotic demon?  I was always team Riley.”

Buffy remembers he got all tough love about Riley, and he says it too little too late, and she says that’s her motto.  She asks if  she’s too late, and he wants to know for what.  She says for him.  He responds with “Whotothehowtothehammina?” (I’m going to transcribe this whole convo as we have waited eight seasons for it)

Buffy: You and Dawn.
Xander: Oh, is that a conversation that’s happening?
Buffy: No, it’s fine. Dawn’s a grown woman, and you’re a disgusting pedophile.
Xander: Whoa!
Buffy: Craddle Robber? Come on! I at least get craddle robber …
Xander: You get to mind your own beeswax.
Buffy: It is my beeswax! She’s my sister and you and I …
Xander: You and I what? Wait — Whats ‘too late again’ mean?
Buffy: Nothing! It just … it means … it’s just … what about me?
Xander: Yooou … have feelings. At me.
Buffy: Would that be good?
Xander: That would be great. … If it was a bunch of years ago and you actually meant it.
Buffy: You don’t know how …
Xander: Puh. Leaze.
Buffy: Feelings develop. People change!
Xander: And now you like me. I made the list.
Buffy: There’s not a –
Xander: Hey, that’s a big deal! I’m a potential romantic interest! I’m on the list — right after being gay. I rate almost as good as trying to change your sexual orientation. You went — THROUGH GAY — to me.
Buffy: I was having a phase! I’m supposed to have that phase!
Xander: And now all this comes right when I’m kissing your sister. Coincidence?
Buffy: No! I mean yes! I mean it’s been … happening! It has nothing to do with with seeing you kiss.
Xander: Of yes it does! It does because even if you felt something before, once you saw us together you should know the decent thing to do would be to keep it to yourself!
Buffy: That is the most — oh. Yeah.
Xander: Dawn has loved me her whole life. It’s not unweird, knowing her since she was little, and I do feel a tad bit bit Humbert Humbert … or Henry Higgins … I can never remember which is which … but she’s grown. And shrunk. She’s not the same. I’m kind of in love with her. Sorry.
Buffy: No, it’s good. I love you both. And I’m sorry I’m the worst person in the universe.
Xander: Ah, it’s part of your charm.
Buffy: You won’t tell Dawn how I’m the worst person in the universe?
Xander: Promise.
Buffy: And do I still get to make craddle-robber jokes?
Xander: Just used up your last.

As they hug, Dawn interrupts with “Uh, cough. Noise of cough.” Buffy tells her it was a friend hug “because of sad. No subtle bosom-pressing in hug.” Dawn says she knows Buffy could never do anything subtle. Xander tells Dawn the cat’s out of the bag, and Buffy says, “And I approve. I’m Buffy, and I approve of this kissage.” (Joss should write every issue … I miss his banter … and murdering of the English language.)

Dawn says she doesn’t care, and they have three goddess-sized problems.  Willow can’t handle them alone, and Buffy says she has an idea, and then gets shocked by Xander and dawn diving right into a public display of affection.

They talk to a giant astral projection of Willow’s head … and she worries her nostrils look huge.  Buffy says she looks fine, but they are finding out Willow’s magicks are bouncing off of the goddesses.  Buffy tells Willow to dig her a giant hole, and she’ll handle the rest.

Buffy heads outside with Xander, Dawn and Kennedy in tow.  They want to know if she’s going to use artillery.  She says no, and that it involves something she hoped not to mention.  Kennedy says “You’re a dyke.”  Xander says “It’s a nuke.  Dawn says, “You sacrifice a ‘key’ …” while making air quotes.  ”Thanks for the vote of no confidence and shut your mouths, and look.  Up in the sky.”  Buffy flies away.

Kennedy: That’s actually hot.
Xander: I … don’t agree.
Dawn: Gape. (she actually said “Gape.”)

Willow dug the hole … Buffy starts beating the crud out of the goddesses and shoves them in the hole. Willow says if they stay dormant they should all get the powers back now as she seals the hole. Buffy asks about herself, and Willow says she doesn’t get her.  Willow wants to run tests on her.  Buffy tells her Xander and Dawn are in love.  Willow is thrilled they finally figured it out.

End.

While I haven’t been a huge fan of the one-shot issues, just as he did in the television series, when Joss does the actual writing, you get a ton of story development.  Something is up with Buffy … Willow sensed something big happening … Xander and Dawn are outed … and we get the Xander/Buffy conversation we’ve waited for since season one.  A friend once told me, “If Joss has the writing and directing credits on an episode, expect pain.”  This wasn’t so much pain as the typical Joss way of saying, “Here comes the Big Bad fight, let me get these subplots out of the way and set up how Buffy will win.”

Joss can write as many one-shots as he wants if it was as good as this one.

If you enjoy these recaps, please consider purchasing your Buffy, the Vampire Slayer trade paperbacks through the links below to help support this site.

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 1	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 2	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 3
Includes Issues #1 – #5	Includes Issues #6 – #10	Includes Issues #11 – #15
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Buffy Season 8, Vol. 4	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 5	Fray Mini-Series
Includes Issues #16 – #20	Includes Issues #21 – #25	Includes all 8 issues of the series
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Post from: SeanPAune.com

Buffy Season 8, Issue 31

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Characters Seen:
Kennedy
Tara
Willow

Yes, I know I’m very late with this, but I have been insanely busy, and since it wasn’t a normal issue I figured I would get to it when I could.

Well, and since it wasn’t a normal issue, I’m also going to not be quite as detailed as I normally am on the main series issues.

Since Season 8 took off, we’ve gotten some hints about Willow having some sort of relationship with a female snake demon, Aluwyn, but we’ve gotten no real details on what exactly happened, or how it came about.  In this one-shot special we see Willow telling Kennedy that she has to go off some special training that all real witches go and do, but she had missed out on doing it at that time she should have because she was busy being busy with the Scoobies.  Kennedy feels she doesn’t need to go, but Willow finally tells here there isn’t a choice.

As Willow is descending into the mystical realm, she is taken aback as her guide meets her in what looks to be a train station … with kids in robes … getting on a train … yeah, they never call it by name, but Willow is horrified by how derivative kids have become.  Her guide agrees and takes into a field of flowers which leads to an interestign conversation about just how big of a “dyke” Willow really is.  (Joss said it folks, not me)

The first guide introduces her to Aluwyn who says that she will take Willow the rest of the way through the mystical realm, and Willow doesn’t take much time to decide she would rather have her original, wheel chair bound, guide back, but she follows Aluwyn any way.

The two of them immediately run into a giant black knight who says that Willow may not follow the path because she is tainted.  Aluwyn tells him that there is nothing that says the path is only for the righteous.  Aluwyn says this is all because the knight is angry with her for a love spell she once cast on him and tells him this will be a fight to the death … which Willow isn’t thrilled with and she gets wrapped up in something that makes her speak only in song titles while she fights the Knight.  Willow finally blows his armor part, much to Aluwyn’s amazement.

They move on next to a sea where Aluwyn tells her that Willow needs to take a sea journey and … Willow says enough.  Both guides I had mentioned in passing that she needed to get beneath the surface of things, and suddenly she has realized that beneath the surface means realizing that Aluwyn is not her actual guide, and none of this is real.

… the world peals away and she and Aluwyn are surrounded by giant entities that appear to be all sorts of Goddesses.  All of them are impressed with how fast Willow figured things out, and angry with Aluryn for misleading Willow for her own entertainment.  The Goddesses tell Aluryn to leave and to leave Willow alone.

She slithers off and Willow asks them who her guide is, and they say while there are many guides along the path to wisdom, it is obvious she has one in mind … and we see Tara standing in a sunlit field.  Willow sheds a tear, but she finally waves her hand and says “No.”  Tara disappears and the Goddesses question why she would wave her off since that is what she wished for.  Willow says she had hoped, but knew it was a lie.

I said I wanted to understand my power — and I do.  But under that, I wanted to know my fate.  Darkness?  enlightenment?  Was I a good witch, or a bad witch?  I feel the pull of each.  That was my secret motive … But it’s not.  Under the under, I just wanted her.  She was my light.  She was my order.  She was my journey.  Completed.

But either she’s an illusion … or Tara is at peace.  And either way, no thanks.

One of the Goddesses starts crying, which annoys one of the others, but they are all touched, but Willow must still choose a guide for her journey.  Willow says she has someone in mind…

We see Aluwyn by a river bank complaining to the wheel chair guide, the black knight a huge fly (that was delayed from helping win over Willow due to a fight with a giant leaf blower) about how they all kept her from aligning with the most powerful witch of her age.

Willow pops up out of the river … naked … and says it’s cold, to which Aluwyn replies she can see  that (you get the idea).  Willow says, “They say you’re no good.  That you run in circles, the snake that eats its tail.  I’ve got a bit of a rep myself.”  After a brief exchange Willow says she chooses the trickster to guide her, and they come to an agreement that Aluwyn will be her guide … all Willow wants to know is where they start.

Overall an interesting interlude from season 8, and nice to see some back story on this character that keeps popping up, but one thing that bugs me is that it has been all but bluntly said that Willow had sex with Aluwyn at some point which means she cheated on Kennedy.  Seems kind of un-Willow like to me.  I hadn’t really thought about it before at some point Willow had told Buffy that Kennedy died for a bit, and I figured it had been in that time period, but nope, looks like it was while Kennedy was alive.  Weird.

Anyway, not an essential part of the season 8 story by any means, but interesting to see.

If you enjoy these recaps, please consider purchasing your Buffy, the Vampire Slayer trade paperbacks through the links below to help support this site.

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 1	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 2	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 3
Includes Issues #1 – #5	Includes Issues #6 – #10	Includes Issues #11 – #15
Purchase from Barnes & Noble	Purchase from Barnes & Noble	Purchase from Barnes & Noble

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 4	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 5	Fray Mini-Series
Includes Issues #16 – #20	Includes Issues #21 – #25	Includes all 8 issues of the series
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Post from: SeanPAune.com

Buffy Season 8: Willow One-Shot

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The Buffy, the Vampire Slayer season 8 comic books have been running for quite some time now, and it appears that they will be brought to life in a manner of speaking.  It seems that a casting call has gone out for voices to turn the season 8 comic books into motion comics online.

According to an article on Sci-Fi Wire, it sounds a bit like we will see a mix of events from the comic as well as some events that happened “off screen”.  Some of the characters they are casting for are not included in the comic book, such as the “Slug Queen”.

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009, 3:15 PM Pacific BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (MOTION COMIC) Webisodes NON-UNION

Casting Director: Jeff Shuter
Interview Dates: Next week (w/o 11/16)
Shoot/Start Date: TBD
Pay Rate: Pay Provided (various for each character)
Location: Los Angeles

SUBMIT ELECTRONICALLY IMMEDIATELY

PLEASE SEND VOICE OVER LINKS/ REELS (IF POSSIBLE)

NOTE: ALSO INCLUDE PERFORMANCE VIDEOS OR ACTOR SLATES IF AVAILABLE. DO NOT SEND DEMO TAPES.

[ FAITH (V.O.) ]
Co-Star / Female / Caucasian / 20 – 25 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of FAITH – female, early 20’s, a slayer, displays a much darker, dangerously, fun-seeking, approach to both slaying and murder, she is the dark side of a slayer’s personality. Voice to match Eliza Dushku. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible). Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ KENNEDY (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Female / Caucasian / 20 – 25 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of KENNEDY – Female, caucasian, early 20s. A newly made slayer, Kennedy is also Willow’s girlfriend. She’s an out lesbian with an assertive personality. Voice to match Lyari Limon. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ LIEUTENANT MOLTER (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Female / African American / 30 – 35 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of LIEUTENANT MOLTER – Female, African American, early 30s. A lieutenant in the US Air Force – ally of the villain Twilight. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ DANIEL CRAIG (V.O.) ]
Guest-Star / Male / Caucasian / 30 – 40 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of actor DANIEL CRAIG – Male, caucasian, mid 30s. Voice to match actor Daniel Craig. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ RODEN (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Male / Caucasian / 30 – 40 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of RODEN – Male, caucasian, 30s. An Irish human warlock and the tutor of Lady Genevieve Savidge, one of the new slayers, manipulating her into becoming an assassin of slayers. He was also a servant of Twilight, who convinced Roden to serve him in exchange for surviving the coming purge. However, Roden ignored that Twilight did not intend them to survive, but that they would merely thin out the number of Twilight’s enemies. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ LADY GENEVIEVE (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Female / Caucasian / 25 – 30 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of LADY GENEVIEVE – Female, caucasian, British, late 20s. With Roden, she hunts and kills other slayers as part of his ‘Training’ her. However, she and faith find they share a lot in common; both as slayers and as troubled young women enticed by evil, despite their drastically different background. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ ROBIN WOOD (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Male / African American / 30 – 35 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of ROBIN WOOD – Male, African American, early 30s. Robin is in charge of a squad of slayers, and is shown to be working at the Hellmouth in Cleveland. In his one-panel appearance he calls Faith to tell her of a family that was recently attacked by vamps. Faith refers to him as ‘The ex’ implying the couple has ended their relationship since ‘Chosen.’ Voice match to D.B. Woodside. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ SEPHRILLIAN (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Male / All Ethnicities / 30 – 40 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of SEPHRILLIAN – Male, demon. A demon who walked in the realities of humans and the old ones, making him ‘Tichajt: – one of the demon elite. He resides in a domain between realities kept in stasis by Robin, a minder. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ FAERIE (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Female / All Ethnicities / 20 – 30 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of FAERIE – Female, faerie creature. She is a pixie fairy, helping one of the Buffy decoys. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ ROBIN (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Female / Caucasian / 20 – 25 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of ROBIN – Female, caucasian, early 20s. The minder of Sephrillian’s reality field, chosen to watch over a small house which serves as a mask to Sephrillian’s domain. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ RONA (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Female / African American / 20 – 25 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of RONA – Female, African American, early 20s. Rona is a new slayer, working as a squad leader. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ SLUG QUEEN (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Female / Caucasian / 40 – 50 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of SLUG QUEEN – Female, slug queen, 40-50s. The oldest survivor of the Slug Clan, the Slug Queen rules the underground Slug resistance against the force of Yamanh. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) Pay provided. Nonunion.

[ TWILIGHT (V.O.) ]
Supporting / Male / Caucasian / 30 – 40 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of TWILIGHT – Male, a villain with superhuman strengths, such as flying. Twilight is the leader of an Initiative-like group that shares his name. He views the expanded ranks of Slayers as a threat to humanity no better than an army of demons, and plans to bring about an end of magic, both good and evil. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible) and Pay provided. Nonunion

One of the most interesting things is the speed with which this appears to be coming together. This casting call went out on Friday the 13th and it indicates recording is to begin this week, minus the 16th.  There is no indication of when these will hit the Web, but if they are moving this fast, I would imagine it isn’t too far off in the future.

Lets all keep an eye out for the project.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Buffy Season 8 To Get Webisodes

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Characters Seen:
Amy
Andrew
Buffy
Dawn
Faith
Giles
Oz
Riley
Warren
Willow
Xander

This issue picks up with the Slayer/Wiccan team advancing on the soldiers as the Goddesses they summoned in the last issue lay waste to the battlefield.

Xander is calling for the Slayers to advance into the cleared areas and hold the territory.  In the meanwhile Slayers turn to one another asking if they have their powers back yet, but thus far they are all still powerless.

As the Goddesses continue destroying the soldiers, Warren is complaining to Amy and Twilight (there he is!  I knew he had to be somewhere around the fight!) that all of this was unnecessary, and that he was making progress with Andrew in tempting him to their side.

The General working with Twilight wants to pull his troops out, but Twilight says he wants the battle to continue so he can observe it.  The General says the Goddesses won’t stop until the troops are gone, but Twilight poses the thought that even that won’t stop them.

Xander & Dawn are giving the Slayers a talk on how to hold the ground they gain as the Goddesses push the troops back, and how they need to not just occupy it, but really make it theirs.  Dawn warns the Slayers that giants have a hard time knowing where they are stepping, so be careful.  Dawn asks Xander if her pores were that big when she was a giant, but Xander gives her a nervous & stuttering “no”.

Buffy and a few other Slayers are trying to turn a jeep upright and finally calls over Xander and Dawn to help them because they are still so weak.  Once it’s turned over, Buffy says she needs to get to something she saw in the middle of the battlefield, and Willow and Satsu (I think … I really hate Georges Jeantry’s art, it is impossible to tell who half the characters are as he lacks so many details) jumps in with her to head out.

Andrew and Giles are handing out more guns to the Slayers (er … shouldn’t that have been done ages ago?  Like, in issue #29?), and Andrew comments how he thought the Goddesses were supposed to make this be over quickly, but Giles say apparently they were wrong on that matter.

Inside the temple, Oz sits beside the ailing Bay who wants to know if the Goddess had come.  Oz tells her they did, and Bay says that they shouldn’t have come, which Oz isn’t sure if she means the Slayers or the Goddesses.  Bay simply replies with “We gave them everything.”

The jeep drives across the battlefield and Buffy keeps Willow from falling out as they get rocked by the footstep of one of the Goddesses.  Amy and Twilight watch through binoculars (which Warren wants to know why he doesn’t have a pair) and note that the Goddesses almost killed them.  As the jeep races across the battlefield, Buffy scrams at the Goddesses that they are the good guys, but then she notices that one of them is grabbing Slayers as well as the soldiers …

Buffy: The Goddesses, they’re not on our side.
Willow: What? We — They –
Buffy: They’re not on anyone’s side. They’re killers and we’re not getting our powers back.
Willow: We didn’t bring help. We brought death.

Dawn figures this out about the same time and calls for the Slayers to fall back to the temple.  As they enter, Oz asks Andrew why everyone is coming in and he says the Goddesses are killing indiscriminately.  Oz is confused since they called them, but Bay says it has been too long since they shared the surface with humans, they don’t recognize them.  A Slayer asks Faith if they are going to get their powers back, but she simply replies with, “No.”

Buffy finds Riley in the middle of the battlefield (HEY!  There he is!  We haven’t seen him since like issue #19!), he’s badly injured and she grabs him up into the jeep and tells Satsu (I’m still not sure …) to get him back to the temple for help.

As they drive back, they yell for the Slayers to take shelter where they can, and once back at the temple, Buffy gets Riley inside.  She calls for Xander who walks in and she runs over and hugs him with a smile, telling him she was worried about him (uh oh … after 8 seasons, we’re going THERE?!?).  A Slayer walks up and asks if Riley is a prisoner, Buffy says he isn’t and that he’s been working with them all along and he will tell them what Twilight has planned … which Andrew says he needs to wake up first.

Amy wonders why Buffy took Riley, which Twilight says he knows Riley was working with her all along.  Warren is confused as if Twilight knew this all along or is just figuring it out.  Amy tells him to shut up and they start arguing as Twilight starts to tell them they can’t trust anyone, anymore, and … he gives up as Amy and Warren continue arguing and walks away.

Buffy sits next to Riley and goes on about how he needs to wake up and help them figure out how to take out Twilight and the Goddesses at the same time, and how they need their powers back, and … Riley wakes up and says she needs a miracle, and he’s out.  He doesn’t know how she can win this.  Buffy wipes away tears and says, “No miracles.  No magicks.  So I guess what we have is …”

“… A losing battle.  Sometimes we fight them.  It’s unavoidable,” says Twilight.  The General says that they are just letting his men die, but Twilight says they were mortal and had to die sometime.  He says the Goddesses (who have now dug up the submarine and tossed it) will cleanse this valley and then move on to the next.

Buffy rallies the Slayers and Wiccans and tells them they aren’t getting their Magicks back, and they can’t run due to the Goddesses would move faster than they can.  So Buffy says they will stay at the temple, but do nothing to attract attention to themselves.  She says they need to collect their wounded, but then corrects herself to say also collect the wounded soldiers.  That they need to protect anything that bleeds.

As they march out, a soldier takes aim at Buffy, a Slayer shoves her out of the way, shooting the soldier, but in the meantime she shoves Buffy right into the hand of one of the Goddesses.  The Goddess lifts her up, looks at her, and drops her.

Five hours later Buffy wakes up, covered in snow and the Slayers and Wiccans are being marched off by the soldiers.  Buffy looks on from the distance, horrified.  She tries to center herself, she closes her eyes, meditates while standing up, opens her eyes and … screams “WHAT THE HELL?!” as she finds herself floating in the air high above the temple.

Decent issue, but the Riley thing would have had a lot more impact if we had seen him more than just the once so far this season.  It really lacked any emotional impact.  And, seriously, someone please replace Georges Jeanty as artist!  I am not one normally for knocking art, but when I have to figure out who is talking by knowing who is talking to them, your art sucks.  I know it isn’t always easy to capture a real person’s likeness, but this guy misses the mark so often it is actually distracting.

If you enjoy these recaps, please consider purchasing your Buffy, the Vampire Slayer trade paperbacks through the links below to help support this site.

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Includes Issues #1 – #5	Includes Issues #6 – #10	Includes Issues #11 – #15
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Buffy Season 8, Vol. 4	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 5	Fray Mini-Series
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Post from: SeanPAune.com

Buffy Season 8, Issue 30

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Characters Seen:
Andrew
Buffy
Dawn
Faith
Giles
Oz
Willow
Xander

The Slayers are preparing for traditional warfare as they know Twilight is coming.  Since they have been at Oz’s temple, they have surrendered their magicks up to the Earth to hide themselves, and now they are learning you can’t just flip a switch to bring them back.

The original Scoobies have split off to talk to various groups of Slayers about the coming attack, and the fact that without magicks they will have no force fields, no rapid healing and people will die.  Willow seems the most distraught by this and has an outburst during Buffy’s talk with a group of Slayers, Buffy tells her they need to have a sidebar.

They go off to speak with Oz and Bay (his Tibetan girlfriend in case you forgot), who is holding their baby.  Willow is screaming about how they said it would take months for the magicks to go away, but Bay explains that once you commit to it, you can’t just get it back on a whim.  Willow explains that this isn’t a “whim”, it’s a “need.”

Oz tries to comfort her, but Willow is still going on about how they agreed to be made weak.  Bay interrupts saying that they brought an army to her peaceful home, so who really has the right to be angry.  Oz asks Bay to hand him the baby, but Willow says there is no need to protect the baby, she isn’t mad at them, but instead is mad at herself.  She points to her eyes and says, “I’m so angry at me, I can’t believe these aren’t black.”

Willow goes on about this being the wrong decision, how she knows now she can’t have a family, that she must die in the future, which Buffy half-heartedly confirms.  The two old friends hug as Willow says that she could have all of this, but now she has lost everything.

Xander and Dawn are in the Slayer’s armory demonstrating a wide assortment of weapons to the now powerless girls.  Machine guns, mortars, various types of grenades, self-loading auto cannons and tons more.  Andrew asks Xander about “the big thing”, but he tells him not to worry about that.

Giles and Buffy are looking at two Chinese assault rifles on a bed when Buffy asks why he needs two.  He says one is for her, but she replies that Slayers don’t need guns.  He reminds her she is no longer a Slayer.  He asks what’s bothering her, but she brushes it off and says they need to find Andrew to discuss an idea she has.

We cut back to Xander and Dawn now training some Slayers on how to monitor the radar station, and trying to teach them the difference between “noise” and actual aircraft.  The Slayers feel out of place, like they won’t get it, but Xander and Dawn explain that they never had powers, and they could do this stuff, so surely the girls can.  One of them refers to the Scoobies as “Mama and Papa” which Dawn and Xander just smile about.

Buffy is talking with Andrew, she wants him to create illusions that they still have magicks.  While they talk, Andrew asks how she’s doing considering what she saw (we see a flashback to Xander and Dawn kissing), but she brushes it off.  An hour later Andrew has all sorts of smokes and potions cooking to make it appear that they still have their magicks

The temple is now surrounded by weapons, Dawn comments on how Buffy is strong even when she is weak, and she is worried about how they had to retreat even when they were strong.  Xander tries to comfort Dawn, and gives her a kiss, Buffy looks on with a pained look in her eye.

A Slayer spots a plane on the radar, three Slayers pop out with surface-to-air shoulder missiles and take it out, but it doesn’t matter as tanks are now rolling in across a small creek.  As the Slayers prepare, a werewolf appears and transforms into Monroe, the man that Oz mentioned left the temple.  He says his wolves have come to help as Twilight’s group wants to destroy all magicks, so this puts them on the same side.

The fight is joined and both sides are hitting each other hard.  The werewolves attack as they can, but …

Willow: Buffy, look.  We’re not even slowing them down.
Buffy: Yeah, I’m starting to think there’s a reason no one’s written a suspense novel where the conflict is wolves vs. tanks.

Xander shows up at Buffy’s request, she tells him she needs his big secret weapon … Xander says that sounds like a come-on if he’s ever heard one.  She says she has no time for jokes, but he says it used to amuse her.  She just tells him, “Get it.  Use it.  Now.”

The tank commanders are surprised to see a torpedo sliding down the hill towards them.  A Slayer asks is torpedoes even work on land … a tank explodes … someone shouts “TORPEDOES WORK ON LAND!”

The Slayers regroup in the radar room, but they are concerned they are losing, and they need the magicks.  It suddenly dawns on Willow that Bay has kept saying they “redirected” them, Buffy goes to find Bay and finds Oz is carrying a wounded Bay through the battlefield.  Oz asks for help to take care of Bay, but Buffy has to ask her where the magicks go.  Bay says they go into the Earth, but Buffy doesn’t believe her.  They get Bay inside and lay her down, and Buffy continues questioning her and says one of the words in the chant they have been doing is “invocation” and she knows they have been begging for something to help them, Bay says it is “wrathful goddesses.”

Bay says that is just ancient names for the Earth, but Buffy thinks “Earth” is just the modern word for these goddesses, and she thinks the magicks have been sucked out of them by the goddesses, and the more they got, the faster they took the magicks.  Bay says they have conducted a trade, and by giving them their powers, the goddesses protect them.  Buffy says she wants to cash in their trade.  Willow tells Buffy Bay has passed out from her wounds.

Willow runs off to get the scrolls, and Giles asks if this will work, going from pulling back to full-throttle forward.  Buffy says it does when she punches someone, and Giles says she has a good point.  Willow returns with the scrolls as the temple is rocked by an explosion, Buffy tells Xander and Dawn to buy them 10 minutes while they work on the scrolls.  Willow says it would be easier if they could read them, and Buffy says Bay can.  Buffy tries to wake up Bay, but Oz stops her.  Buffy says they need her help to keep everyone alive, and Bay wakes up long enough to say that if they have anger in them, they can call them … Buffy says she has some anger.

Outside the war rages on … the Earth cracks open … colored mist shoots out of it, and three ancient looking goddesses appear in giant size as the issue draws to a close.

Nice to see a lot of action in this issue, although the cover misleads you and you never see Twilight in this issue.  You aren’t sure if Buffy is jealous of Dawn kissing Xander instead of her, or is she’s just disturbed by the whole situation.  For the first time in quite a

If you enjoy these recaps, please consider purchasing your Buffy, the Vampire Slayer trade paperbacks through the links below to help support this site.

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 1	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 2	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 3
Includes Issues #1 – #5	Includes Issues #6 – #10	Includes Issues #11 – #15
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Buffy Season 8, Vol. 4	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 5	Fray Mini-Series
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Post from: SeanPAune.com

Buffy Season 8, Issue 29

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Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, has confirmed that the end of the Season 8 comic series will not be the end of our favorite blonde Slayer.  Speaking with MTV’s Splash Page column, he spoke about the length of the current season, and where he will go from here.

As for Buffy’s continuing adventures in the Dark Horse comic book series, Whedon said the end of her “Season Eight” is in sight—but fans shouldn’t be worried, he has “Season Nine” already mapped out.

“Well, 40 issues was always the goal, and that’s how we’re playing it,” he said of the current “Season Eight” run. “We’re around issue 30 now, we’ve got about 10 to go, five of which I have to write, so I have to get on that. Then we’ll pause for breath and then we’ll start Season Nine.”

“I have had for a long time a conception for Season Nine that is very different from Season Eight,” he added. “It may not run as long, because 40 issues sounds great until you realize that it’s four or five years.”

Seeing as I have been doing a summary/review of each issue of Buffy Season 8, I am thrilled to know the end point at last, but also horrified by doing another “season” of those.  Each issue takes me over two hours to write up, but since people seem to love them, continue to do them I will.  Just glad he mentioned there will be a breather between seasons!

I do agree with him that 40 issues is too much.  I wrote up the first issue on March 14, 2007, so seeing as I have been doing these for 2 & 1/2 years now, I would really like to see the story flow a bit faster.  Only 12 more issues to go in season 8!

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Joss Whedon Comfirms Buffy Season 9 Comic

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Characters Seen:
Amy
Andrew
Buffy
Dawn
Faith
Giles
Oz
Willow
Xander

We open up this issue with Andrew going to see Giles in the middle of the night.  Giles informs him there had better be a demon attack, and Andrew replies there is … or could be.  Giles goes to close the door, but Andrew puts his hand up and tells Giles that there is a spy in their midst.

Andrew tells him that he feels Warren finding him in the catacombs of Rome confirms it.  Giles says he doesn’t see the connection, but Andrew says that Twilight is good at being evil and at turning people, even making them kill.  Giles tells Andrew that is he starts spreading this theory that it will just result in finger pointing in other badness and tells him to drop it.  Andrew keeps on point, but Giles tells him to go to bed.

Not yet discouraged, Andrew heads back to his room and retrieves a video camera he had Xander pick up for him on his last trip in to town (remember they are still at Oz’s temple in the Himalyas – Sean).  He says he will start observing everyone, including Oz’s puppy as he struck Andrew as being “a bit dodgy”.

Andrew decides to start by speaking with Bay, Oz’s new girlfriend, about the process of getting magicks out of your life.  She tells him it is all about redirecting them into the Earth.  She tells him that it is also a mixture of meditation and hard work that will let you disconnect from the magicks, so Slayers are doing things like weaving, farming, churning butter, taking apart the submarine to trade its parts for high tech defenses and more.  They are also training the Slayers in traditional forms of fighting as they realize the girls will still face dangers.

With that interview complete, Andrew opts to start talking with the more disgruntled Slayers that are unhappy with how things are going.  This includes a brief interview with Satsu who’s only real comment is that she feels weak, and she doesn’t like it.  A few other Slayers complain, but they don’t linger on it for long.

Andrew decides to hide in a tree and observe Faith as she has always stood apart from the others.  He finds her and Buffy attempting to move a large boulder out of a field while a cat plays around on the boulder.  The conversation he captures isn’t one he expected:

Buffy: Man, this sucks.
Faith: Oooof
Buffy: Maybe we could just plant the garden around the boulder and call it a feature?
Faith: You miss what we’re giving up, don’t you?
Buffy: You don’t?
Faith: (she and Buffy are now using part of a tree to leverage the boulder out) It got to me. What we had to do. What I had to do. I’m not strong enough to have to be that strong. Good riddance.
Buffy: Every life meant something to you. Every one.
Faith: They did to you, too.
Buffy: Did they? I don’t know. I guess that’s why I need this. I need to feel that connected. I don’t want to stand … to stand over people any more.
Faith places a comforting hand on Buffy’s shoulder.

Andrew finds the bonding nice and moves on to observing Xander and Dawn as every one is a suspect.

Dawn: What do you suppose this says?
Xander: On the Chinese land mine? That says, ‘This side towards enemy.’
Dawn: How do you know? That’s what is says on claymores, but maybe the Chinese label the other side?
Xander: Humans point to the danger, not the sage. It’s a thing about humans.
Dawn: Maybe we should point to the safe sometime.
Xander: Maybe that’s what we’re doing here?
Dawn: Right. A chance. To have a life. For you to go for what you want, Xander.

Andrew wonders about Dawn’s cryptic reference, and is the thing Xander wants something that Twilight can give to him?

When he next catches up to Xander, he is sitting on a hill top with Buffy … and a yak.  Xander wants to know if Buffy has told Willow the big secret yet.  Buffy asks which one, and Xander reminds her of killing Willow in the future.  She says she worries about telling her because it might be what turns her evil.  While they talk, Buffy is sucking her thumb, and Xander asks if that is because of the secret, but Buffy informs him she has a splinter and it hurts like heck.  Apparently her powers are indeed leaving her if a splinter can hurt her now, and Buffy speculates she can feel more now.  Xander takes her hand in both of his and asks her to tell him.

They lay on the hilltop, and you get the distinct feeling of a potential kiss between the two as Buffy says there are very few people she loves … she resolves to talk to Willow.  Xander says she should come find him as soon as the two of them have talked, and she promises she will.

Andrew goes to interrogate Giles about knowing that Willow is going to go Dark Willow again.  Andrew confronts Giles about Will going Dark again, and Giles attempts to avoid it, but Andrew finally screams at him to answer the question, and he does … Willow will go Dark again.  Andrew says he wants to follow her for the safety of everyone, and if he finds anything they can deal with her.  Giles agrees with him, much to Andrew’s surprise.

The video switches to Andrew filming himself drawing a picture of Dark Willow coming after him and Jonathan.  It’s child-like in nature, but you get the idea, and he says they have a past, but he loves “real Willow”, and so he finds this all –he flips the page he’s drawing on to a snapped apart heart — heartbreaking.

Oz is sitting on Willow’s bed, holding his baby, as Willow is talking angrily about how she can’t seem to get a handle on dumping the magicks.  In the background the cat and the “dodgy” puppy are playing.  Oz is telling her it’s easy, she just has to work at it, instead of pulling the energy from around her, she needs to dump it in to the Earth instead of bottling all of the “poison” inside herself.  She asks, “But without the poison, what am I?”  Oz says that was a telling statement.

Willow continues being pissed off, and Oz wants to know why.  She says she’s angry with him because he got out of the game, he went out and had a real life, but now she feels like he is being fake and his true self.  He says this is real, and Willow can have a child too if she wants, she says he can’t.  Oz says there’s adoption and donors … Willow says it’s more about what she is and what she has to do.  Oz hugs her and tells her again she can just let it go, but she says she can’t.  Oz asks if she wants to watch the baby for a while, Willow seems shocked Oz would trust her, and asks him such.

Andrew cuts the video to himself again and says that was intense and he should follow Willow, but he can’t find her at first.  When he does finally catch up with her, Buffy has found her, and Willow seems to be enjoying her time with the baby.  As Willow begins talking about how she is finally believing she could have a life, that for so long she had thought she was just a force, and that meant no babies, but now she’s thinking different, and … “I killed you in the future,” Buffy interjects.

Buffy continues her apology:

Buffy: I went to the future and you there and very dark and I killed you and and I’m so sorry I didn’t tell –
Willow: It wasn’t me.
Buffy: What?
Willow: Sorry, because I know you meant this to be all dramatic and cleansy, and I know it must’ve been terrible for you, but that … if that was a possible me, I don’t think it still is.

And if it still is, well … I’ll work harder at this no-magic thing. So that it won’t be possible.
Buffy: It’s really — we’re really okay?
Willow: We’re great.

They hug, and Buffy says she is going to find Xander as she promised to find him after they talked.  Willow says Xander is a good guy, and Buffy agrees.  Willow adds after her, “We can all have futures, Buffy.  Even you.”

As she walks the halls, she tells Andrew to leave her alone with the camera, and as she gets to a door, Andrew dramatically narrates the scene of something stopping Buffy in her tracks … Andrew peaks in the room to see Xander and Dawn kissing.  He pans back to Buffy who looks stunned and finally says, “Go away, Andrew.”

At last Andrew gathers the Slayers to tell of his suspicions, and he apologizes to Willow dor suspecting her, and … as he talks, the cat that has been in the background all issue disappears in a light … Xander announces it must have been Amy.  Buffy calls for the Slayers to get ready … Twilight is coming for them.

You know, when this Buffy series started, I thought it would be nice to do these posts for the world, but 28 issues later, these things are taking me a minimum of 3 hours to write up as I have to decide how to describe each scene, what to quote, etc.  Please, for the love of all things Buffy, let us get to the end of this season!

That being said … interesting issue.  It felt like more stuff got advanced than it has in a long time.  The Xander/Dawn kiss is … well … it’s kinda icky.  The tension has always been there, but it just feels weird to “see” it happen finally.  Especially with Buffy apparently finally getting feelings for him.

Willow just saying, “Oh, I won’t go Dark, la la la” … um, yeah, this is Joss Whedon we’re talking about here, she just doomed herself to going full-on Dark again.

See ya in a month.

If you enjoy these recaps, please consider purchasing your Buffy, the Vampire Slayer trade paperbacks through the links below to help support this site.

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 1	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 2	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 3
Includes Issues #1 – #5	Includes Issues #6 – #10	Includes Issues #11 – #15
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Buffy Season 8, Vol. 4	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 5	Fray Mini-Series
Includes Issues #16 – #20	Includes Issues #21 – #25	Includes all 8 issues of the series
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Post from: SeanPAune.com

Buffy Season 8, Issue 28

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Characters Seen:
Amy
Buffy
Dawn
Giles
Oz
Warren
Willow
Xander

We open on Amy peering into a bowl and telling Twilight (HEY!  Remember him?  The big bad of this “season”?  Yeah, nice to see him again!) that all of the Slayers drowned.  He screams that the bowl lies and smacks it from Amy’s hands.  He also informs her that he “knows Buffy too well” to believe she would die silently.  Warren picks up on the reference, but nothing is said about it as they continue to search for all the missing Slayers.  Someone else in the room says they think they know where all of them went, and…

We cut to the submarine still sitting in the mountains in Tibet next to a temple.  Willow, Buffy, Giles, Dawn and Xander sit on the porch drinking tea with Oz.  A woman named Bay is serving the tea, and Oz explains “She’s the rest of me.”  He also says they should all meet the baby… a puppy barks and everyone jumps and stares at it.

Oz: Yeah. No.  See that’s the dog.

Another woman appears carrying a baby, and Oz introduces them all to him, but Giles and Buffy press Oz with the subject that they need to know if he can help them suppress the magical footprint they leave everywhere they go.

Oz flashes back to arriving at the temple, and the monks greeting him silently.  He tells them that a warlock in Romania sent him and he would appreciate it if they could do something soonish as the full moon is rising in the sky.  He changes and crushes the tea cup in his hand.

Next time we see him he is in a cage and Bay is offering him butter tea.  She sits outside the cage and they stare at one another.

Oz says they gave him herbs, charms and chants to help push the wolf down, and although he slipped a few times, he felt he was getting better.  he decided he could try to go back to America and we see a one panel reference to the episode where he changed and attacked Tara.  After that he went back to the temple and tried again, though he admits he sometimes has to fight the urge to just give in to it.

We cut back to Twilight talking with the guy who said they may have figured out where to locate the Slayers due to a spike in magic readings.  Another person says it’s an artifact, but Twilight wants to go to the location and check it out.

Oz continues his tale of learning to control his wolf side.  Bay says it was she that stopped Oz from giving into the wolf, and she taught him about the original religion of Tibet, Bon.  She taught him about the spirtual being in all things around them, and that if they just sat there and watched it, they would know they were a part of it.

He learned that containing the wolf wasn’t the way to do things, but you have to let the energy pass through you, back into the Earth.  From the art, this is when Oz fell for Bay, but he doesn’t discuss it.  We learn that more people started coming to the temple to learn how to control their werewolves (this isn’t made clear until later, but I’m spoiling you now to save myself trouble later on)  Specifically Oz tells them about an Englishman named Monroe he suffered terribly, but at the temple he find almost immediate relief.  He goes on about how you have to let the wolf pass through during the full moon and pass back in to the Earth.  (Yes, it jumped randomly in the book, I didn’t skip ahead)

Bay offers everyone more butter tea, they all pass saying they aren’t used to butter in their tea, but Bay says it isn’t really butter, just milk directly from Yaks.  (Everyone yaks)  Bay offers them a tour, and as they go to leave, Oz asks Willow if they’re okay.  She says something is bothering her, but not what he thinks and she’ll tell him later.

Oz tells them it takes about a year of full moons to get it right.  When Monroe felt he was ready, he went back in to the world and brought back dozens of new followers.  Then they discovered they had a rival to deal with.

Buffy: The Buddihists?
Oz: yeah, those safron-robed jerks were kicking our ass.
Giles: Really?
Oz: No, not really.  They don’t do that.

It seems that  Monroe decided to set up his own school of training that thinks like, Willow says “Like Veruca”, and Oz confirms it.  The group of werewolves that Monroe leads embraces their wolf sides.  Darn says Slayers are similar, but everyone shoots her a dirty look.

Monroe’s werewolves attacked Oz’s temple during a full moon while the bad wolves were at their strongest, and Oz’s were at their weakest.  The monks were killed, and just as Monroe is coming at Oz, Oz stops the story and Dawn cries out “Suspenseful!”

Amy is casting a spell for Twilight, and she believes she has pinpointed the source of the magical spike.  Someone else in the group comments on how wrong it is for them to be using magic when they are against it, but it goes unheard.

Back to Oz, Bay transformed and attacked the werewolf facing down Oz, killing it.  The others ran off, and Oz says from then on they carried knives.  Bay regrets what she did as she fears she made him in to a martyr.  Oz apologizes to Willow for not telling her about Bay and the baby, but Willow says that isn’t her problem.  She says she is jealous of his life and future, and she apologizes to him for being like that.

Meanwhile, Buffy and Bay talk:

Buffy: Twilight is tracking us, we need to learn to not be magical.
Bay: Really?  Because not teleporting submarines is a good first step.

The group conversation continues and Giles asks if Oz thinks his ways can help, to which Buffy adds that he must remember that Slayers are all magic all the time.  Oz thinks that his methods will help tone things down.  Bay says they most be devoted, if they don’t let it take complete hold that it could be more dangerous than not trying at all… Bay is interrupted as a werewolf attacks, she cuts it in the side with a knife and it runs off.  Oz continues and says that if this doesn’t work, Buffy has just made his home into a very big target.

Twilight and his people arrive where they think the spike happened to discover no one is there.  One of the random Twilight soldiers explains that the echo probably bounced due to the mountains, but Twilight says that this will not stand.

Oz says the Slayers need to exert themselves physically to wear themselves down to the mental aspect… so they go to bury the submarine.

Twilight says the man who found the spike is to be killed, and no one is to worry, Buffy and the Slayers can’t help what they are, and they will find them eventually.

If you enjoy these recaps, please consider purchasing your Buffy, the Vampire Slayer trade paperbacks through the links below to help support this site.

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 1	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 2	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 3
Includes Issues #1 – #5	Includes Issues #6 – #10	Includes Issues #11 – #15
Purchase from Barnes & Noble	Purchase from Barnes & Noble	Purchase from Barnes & Noble

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 4	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 5	Fray Mini-Series
Includes Issues #16 – #20	Includes Issues #21 – #25	Includes all 8 issues of the series
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Post from: SeanPAune.com

Buffy Season 8, Issue 27

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Characters Seen:
Amy (mentioned/off screen)
Andrew
Buffy
Dawn
Faith
Giles
Kennedy
Oz
Warren
Willow
Xander

We open on a sea gull carrying a fish, and the fish is complaining about how it liked the other way they did, but the seagull says they are all about sneaky now.

(No… I did not imagine all of that… stop looking at me funny! – Sean)

The seagull (who is obviously Willow) says to the fish (Buffy), that people now report when they see a witch and a Slayer flying, leading Buffy to concede it’s for the best.  Buffy asks Willow to turn her so she can look down and they discuss how their new base if fully concealed on an island, and it appears to be totally uninhabited.

After landing on the ground, and turning back to their normal forms, the pair walk in to a new castle discussing how they just need to keep from being found, and that Willow has an army of witches going day & night to keep the magicks powered.  They are using so much power now that Willow says they are beginning to warp the grid.  Buffy immediately turns to ask her if she’s alright or if she’s being pushed too far, to which Willow says she is fine, but is confused why Buffy is so concerned all of a sudden.  (Remember, Buffy encountered Dark Willow in the future a few issues back – Sean)

Buffy says she’s just being vigilant and that the best thing for them to do right now is to disappear, to which Satsu (huh?  When did she show back up? – Sean, yet again) questions what they are waiting for, “The judgment of history?”

We cut to Berlin where we find Faith and Giles living/hiding in a Nazi bunker from World War II.  Faith isn’t thrilled with where they are, but Giles assures her it is for the best.  Faith leaps up at the sound of pounding, and Giles says not to worry as the door is ten-inch thick steal.

… the door blows inwards, and demons pour into the bunker.

Faith says being underground was a bad idea since that is where demons live, but Giles reminds her that above ground humans fear them.  They fight their way to another room and lock themselves in.

In Rome, Andrew leads a group of Slayers through the catacombs under the city.  As they wander through a room filled with human bones in a decorative pattern, they hear a noise in another section that Andrew decides to go check out on his own.  As Andrew shines a light in the room, he sees a bloody foot with no skin on it moving… it’s Warren.  While Andrew screams and tries to run, Warren begs him to stay.  He says that Amy is done with him and is removing the spell that replaces his skin a ittle at a time so he is in horrible pain.

Warren says that he wanted to see Andrew one last time before he dies, and that he was misled and wrong.  He really felt that if Andrew killed Jonathan that they could live as gods.  He says he feels like a fool and is ashamed, but he figures Andrew knows how that feel living with the Slayer fascists.

Andrew says it’s nothing like that, but Warren informs him that Keith Olbermann referred to them as modern day “black shirts”.  Andrew is aghast “Keith” said that.  Just as Warren says he has a proposal for Andrew, a Slayer screams “GOATMEN!  GOATMEN!” and a young Slayer falls dead near Andrew.  He turns to see a large goat creature, and Warren shouts about Amy not giving him enough time to trick Andrew.  A massive fight breaks out with Andrew shouting at the Slayers to use the decorative bones in the room as weapons.  One Slayer finally shouts there is a way out.

Next we see Buffy and Faith riding in a box car across Germany, and that they need to get to Buffy… Andrew mumbles “Buffy” as he rides in the bed of a truck with his remaining Slayers… Willow and Kennedy are asleep in bed when Willow sits upright and yells out she needs to find Buffy.

Kennedy, Willow, Xander and Dawn stand outside Buffy’s bedroom door while Willow knocks and asks if she’s alone and can they come in.  They all agree it’s a good idea to check… (remember, they all walked in on Buffy in bed with Satsu – Sean)  Once they get in, Willow deals out the bad news:

Willow: I just got an alert.  They found us.
Buffy: Who found us?
Willow: Everyone.
Buffy pauses
Buffy: Which everyone?
Willow: Giles Faith, Andrew, five Slayers from the Italian group and every demon in Scotland.
Willow: … They’re not together.
Buffy: Use your magic! Get them inside!
Dawn: Not the demons.
Buffy: Not the demons.
Dawn: Good call.

The command center of the Slayer HQ is filled with hugging reunions as Willow hugs Giles and Andrew hugs Faith.  Satsu tells Buffy they snuck them in under the barricade and that’s it for people in or out unless they get breached.

Buffy hugs Giles and tells him she’s glad he’s back and he agrees.  (Okay, another interjection here… all “season” we’ve been told they had a falling out and it was ugly, and now they just hug and that’s it? – Sean)  After Buffy wipes her tears away she wants a run down of the defenses.  Xander says he has cameras and after that it is all Willow’s magicks team, and she rattles off a long list of defenses until Satsu calls out that the demons have arrived and another Slayer says the shields are already heating up.

Xander’s camera are quickly taken out so everyone heads to the roof as Willow has Wicca-Slayers up there alreadyw ith three layers of shielding.  Once they get up there we see just how many demons there are, and there is a bunch.  Xander spots they’ve brought siege engines with them to take the castle, and as Buffy makes a comment about midevial tech, a tank begins to roll across the bridge to the castle. Willow calls out for the birdge spell to go down and suddenly the land bridge disappears, dropping the tank and numerous demons into the water.

They think they have this won since this only leaves them with catapults, and then they see they are loading those with napalm, impact bombs and more.  A Wiccan-Slayer calls out that another shield has fallen just as napalm comes at them and you see numerous Slayers on the ground fly away from the explosion.  A Wiccan-Slayer falls over in a look of shock, Willow says she’s got brain-fry and is dead.

Satsu bring up a demon prisoner and Willow leaps at him saying she’s take him and both of them disappear in a crackle of pink energy.  Giles wonders where they went while Faith is ready to jump into the fray and Buffy says something has to be done as girls are dying.  Willow returns and says that a certain skinless demon just told her that they are all using the magicks as a beacon.  Just then the Wiccan-Slayers call out that the final shield is down and Buffy calls for everyone to head to the submarine.

We cut to Buffy and Giles talking on the sub where Buffy is defending Willow’s methods of getting the information, but Giles interjects that Buffy is going to lose Willow again, to which Buffy replies that he doesn’t know the half of it.  Buffy fills him on her trip to the future and how she had to kill Future Dark Willow.  Giles says normally he would be asked to be convinced, but he figured they don’t have the time to discuss it.  They move on to how the magicks are acting like a beacon to Twilight, and Buffy begins to wonder if maybe people are right about them being evil, and as she ponders it, Faith walks in asking if they know where they’re heading.  Giles says “no”, but Buffy says “yes” and says they need Willow to cast one last big spell, but they are going somewhere to be with a person who is about the most non-magic person around.

A shrine in the mountains, calm, peaceful, a man sits on the porch meditating until a wind chime tings, and his eye pops open.  In front of the shrine, on dry land, sits a submarine.

Oz says “huh”.

Okay… you know, I’ve complained about the stand-alone issues, but this issue is the first of a new story arc and I feel like I have been raced through a ton of events here.  What is the story behind Giles and Buffy now?  When did Twilight discover their hiding spot?  After two years of this series, it’s nice to see us finally getting back to the original story.

On a side note… I despise Georges Jeanty’s artwork.  Half the time I have to piece together who’s talking, or judge it strictly on hair color.  He is not a good artist, sorry, but it’s true.

See you back here for issue #27.

If you enjoy these recaps, please consider purchasing your Buffy, the Vampire Slayer trade paperbacks through the links below to help support this site.

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 1	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 2	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 3
Includes Issues #1 – #5	Includes Issues #6 – #10	Includes Issues #11 – #15
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Buffy Season 8, Vol. 4	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 5	Fray Mini-Series
Includes Issues #16 – #20	Includes Issues #21 – #25	Includes all 8 issues of the series
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Post from: SeanPAune.com

Buffy Season 8, Issue 26

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Characters Seen:
Andrew
Buffy
Dawn
Willow
Xander

A man with aged hands reaches for a tray of tools while we hear an “off screen” voice saying, “Not the knife.”  He replies “Yes” and after another brief exchange, you see an xacto knife being held to the face of a porcelain doll that looks surprisingly like Dawn Summers.

The doll asks the man how long he plans to do this to her, and he says he told her, “Until you’re safe.”

Back at the Slayers HQ, it looks like they’ve found a new castle to take over, and they are prepping for battle.  Buffy is walking down the hall while putting on a gauntlet with two spikes on it.  She is followed by Xander and two unknown Slayers.  Buffy is commenting on how she is generally okay with the things “Dawn’s not”, such as punctual, not returning Buffy’s Veronica Mars DVDs, not tidy and so on.  What she isn’t okay with is Dawn not being there.

Xander says she shouldn’t be worried, and to remember Dawn is a teenager and is probably off running around with her forest pals (remember, she’s a centaur now).  Buffy wants to go looking for her, but a vamp named Judas Cradle has assembled a vampire army that is sweeping the countryside and is headed to Slayer HQ.

As the Slayer’s put on armor, Buffy holds up her gauntlet with the spikes.

Buffy: I want to get my sister to safety too.  Can’t.  Not now.  The threat outside’s too bi to every Slayer I’ve got here.  I mean, look at me.  Who dresses like Wolverine for fun?

Xander: Certainly not me.  Any proof you’ve seen to the contrary could have been photoshopped, and besides, I was drunk.

Buffy laments that she hasn’t been a good sister to Dawn, and too much Slayer.  Xander tries to remind her she is THE Slayer, and she has to fight the battles.  He also informs Buffy he has someone looking into the spell on Dawn, a man on the inside.

After a change of scenery, we hear a doorbell ring, and a groggy college student answering a door.

Andrew: Hello.  I’m a college student attending college… who coincidentally also needs a roommate, completely by coincidence,and then I saw your ad.  I’m in.  So, you, what’s the rent bro?

The doll version of Dawn has snuck off her stand and is walking pass the other dolls in the old mans workshop when her foot makes a noise on a loose floor board.  One of the dolls asks her where she thinks she’s going.  She says they should all try to escape, but as the other dolls approach, they tell her the man made them, and they are home.  She says she had a spell put on her, and the dolls tell her that makes her different and that she can never leave as they tackle her to the ground.

Xander is monitoring the vampire army approaching and tells Buffy it turns out the “army” is really Judas Cradle’s family and some pub buddies.  As the handful of vamps crawl over the wall they are greeted by a full contingent of Slayers… who dispatch them in seconds.  Buffy now wants to find Dawn, so she and Xander set off into the woods to search for clues as to where she might be.  They find hoof prints that suddenly turn to little doll footprints which makes them think she has changed forms again.

Buffy: This spell took work.  How dangerous is this Kenny?

Xander: Hard to say.  You don’t usually get this strong a spell from the Thricewise community.  Apparently, he’s a nice guy who just snapped after Dawn boinked his roommate.

Buffy: How can I not know this?

Xander: (smacking his forehead) It cannot be because I just told you because I would never do that.  Bugger.  Hey, check me out, now I can hate myself in British.

The old man comes in to the work room and tells Dawn not to be mad at the other dolls, that they aren’t like her and don’t have souls.  He says he has to keep her safe because if she was to break her porcelain face her sould would pour out and be blasted apart into atoms.  She has to stay there and be safe.

Back with Andrew, he is asking Kenny if he knows of anyone into “magicks with a ‘k’”, and that’s why he got expelled from Wesleyan when his feminist studies professor accused him of witchcraft.  As he has this conversation he is setting down a statue of Yoda, and when Kenny responds, he says he knows enough about magicks to know Andrew is placing totems around the room.  As he asks Andrew is up to, the Slayers know they’ve been made and Willow immediately transports a large chunk of the apartment to Scotland, including Kenny and Andrew.  As soon as they get there, Kenny transforms to his Thricewise form and attempts to escape the HQ.

Meanwhile, Buffy and Xander continue to explore the forest when Buffy pulls a little tree creature off a branch, and she wants to know why he’s been following them since they entered the forest.  Buffy says they haven’t violated the truce with the forest creatures, so she wants to know why he’s following.  He tells her he won’t tell them anything, so she throws him… and breaks a window.  Buffy and Xander find a cottage in a clearing, but Xander is more curious why he has a bunch of tiny arrows sticking of his neck.  We see the trees are full of archer dolls, and then we see Xander collapsing due to the poison on the arrow.

Dawn takes the confusion as a chance to try to escape, but she gets caught by the doll maker, so shreams for Buffy.  As the Slayer runs towards the house, the Thricewise shows up and says he wants to help and that it was never supposed to go this far.  They break into the house, and as the dollmaker holds Dawn, she recognizes the Thricewise and says “Ken?” followed up by “I’m sorry.”

There is a burst of light and Dawn is returned to normal size and shape, albeit naked.

Buffy threatens the dollmaker, but as it looks like Buffy is going to put a hurt on him, the dolls beg her to spare him as he keeps them safe.  Buffy relents and just tells all of her people they need to go.

We next see Dawn walking across a field, hand-in-tentacle, with Kenny as she apologizes again and asks how far he wouldhave let it go.  He said he planned to stop at the fire slugs.  Kenny eventually apologizes also, and he and Dawn go their seperate ways.

As Dawn returns to the castle, she runs into Buffy and they have a talk about how they still need each othr, but they need to be more responsible for themselves.  As they walk off Dawn informs Buffy she scratched one her Veronic Mars DVDs… she informs Dawn she will die.

Glad to see the Dawn story wrapped up finally, but this really felt like it should have been two episodes.  How did the doll maker find Dawn?  What are his powers?  Just lots of little details felt like they were left out for no good reason.

If you enjoy these recaps, please consider purchasing your Buffy, the Vampire Slayer trade paperbacks through the links below to help support this site.

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 1	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 2	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 3
Includes Issues #1 – #5	Includes Issues #6 – #10	Includes Issues #11 – #15
Purchase from Barnes & Noble	Purchase from Barnes & Noble	Purchase from Barnes & Noble

Buffy Season 8, Vol. 4	Buffy Season 8, Vol. 5	Fray Mini-Series
Includes Issues #16 – #20	Includes Issues #21 – #25	Includes all 8 issues of the series
Purchase from Barnes & Noble	Purchase from Barnes & Noble	Purchase from Barnes & Noble

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Buffy Season 8, Issue 25

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