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Storyline
The gang plans to celebrate their SAT scores bowling, Buffy's mother's insistence to go to a decent college is promoted by Giles and Angel. Willow has a worse regret then her relative failure, rekindling passion with Xander; determined to save their relationships with Oz and Cordelia, she visits a magic shop for the necessary ingredients for a reverse love potion. Xander finds her and objects to another inexperienced witch messing with him. They are actually stopped and captured by Spike, who has returned, observed Angel, followed Willow and now forces her to make a love potion to return Drusilla to him. Before Buffy and Angel have got hold of Spike and made him tell they're in the abandoned factory, the crypto-couple is found, kissing fearing their last hours, by Oz and Cordy, who thus get hurt in more then one way... Written by
KGF Vissers
Plot Summary
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Plot Synopsis
Certificate:
TV-PG
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Did You Know?
Trivia
As a child,
Charisma Carpenter really was impaled on a rebar. She was playing in the backyard of her house, where they were building a pool. There was no fence around it, and she slipped in and punctured her stomach on a piece of rebar poking out of the concrete.
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Goofs
At 16:43, as Xander walks toward Willow in the chemistry lab, the tip of the boom microphone dips into the frame.
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Quotes
Buffy:
She saw these scores and her head spun around and exploded.
Giles:
I-I've been on the Hellmouth too long. That was metaphorical, yes?
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Soundtracks
"My Way"
(uncredited)
Performed by
Gary Oldman,
James Marsters See more »
This is one of my favourite episodes of Buffy, and there are so many reasons why:
First and foremost, of course, is the fact that Spike is BACK! And he's...well, he's drunk, lonely and adorable as ever. He's returned to Sunnydale because Drusilla has left him, and he seeks Willow's less- than-voluntary help in winning her back, via a love spell. After kidnapping Willow and Xander, Spike pops over to the Summers' household to cry on Joyce's shoulder, with hilarious consequences. Eventually Spike forces Angel and Buffy to team up with him in order to get the things he needs for his spell, and in doing so get their friends back, but after fighting other vampires Spike realises that he doesn't need the spell at all: he'll instead win Dru back with sheer violence, force and determination.
This whole episode really highlights how different Spike is from all the other vampires - he's a lover and a fighter, but he'll happily switch teams when it suits him as evidenced by the epic fight scene with Buffy and Angel! This scene is definitely my favourite in the episode because it's just such a momentous thing - sure, Spike's sort of blackmailing them but you can tell, deep down, that both Angel and Buffy don't hate the guy as much as they claim. Hell, they all seem to have had fun fighting alongside each other, rather than amongst themselves for once.
Whilst that scene alone puts this episode up there as one of the best, the rest of the episode doesn't disappoint either. Giles is sadly absent for most of it, and Faith doesn't make an appearance once, but I think this is partly because Spike is such a larger-than-life character that he overshadows everyone else, and filling the screen with all the cast would only detract from him. So their absences aren't really felt at all! There are also lots of fun little interactions we don't see much of in other episodes - for example Spike and Joyce's conversation is absolute gold, whilst Cordelia and Oz also share a line or two for once.
The subplot - though calling it that may belittle the importance of it all - of the episode is however unfortunately the reveal of Willow and Xander's affair, as Cordi and Oz catch them making out in Spike's basement. Cordi then gets rather seriously injured, but is thankfully okay - however she wants Xander as far away from her as possible. Buffy and Angel then meet, and Buffy tells him that they can no longer be friends, because they never were friends. It seems that Spike's comments about their relationship really hit home, and Angel is left a broken man.
So as you can see, there's A LOT going on in this episode. Spike is pure brilliance, as always, dropping little pearls of wisdom about love whilst simultaneously bashing in the heads of any vampire who challenges him. But while Spike leaves the episode determined to win Dru back, all the other relationships of Sunnydale have taken serious blows. So if you're a fan of Angel/Buffy, Xander/Cordelia and Willow/Oz, this episode packs a punch alright! But beyond that it's impressive to see how well all their stories tie together, with Spike neatly summing up that 'love isn't brains' children. It's blood.'
I can't even think of anything to criticise about this episode...I suppose the only issue I do have with it is that Buffy and Angel didn't really need to work with Spike. They could quite easily have blown him off and found Willow and Xander themselves. They even knew where they were! It's not like there was any threat to them, Spike wasn't having them guarded and he was outnumbered by Buffy and Angel. We know they could have easily overpowered him. BUT I'm going to chalk all that up to them both having a soft spot for him somewhere. Why else would Buffy let him walk free?
Or the tl;dr version: 'Lover's Walk' is one of my favourite episodes of Buffy. Lots of wonderful Spike, and developments in relationships that aren't to be missed. Watch it already!