Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S6/E19 Seeing Red

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    • E01 Welcome to the Hellmouth
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    • E01 Anne
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    • E01 The Freshman
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    • E01 Buffy vs. Dracula
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    • E19 Seeing Red
      • YMMV
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Ask me again why I could never love you!

Warren steals a pair of demon orbs that give him superpowers. Spike's attempt to reconcile with Buffy goes disastrously wrong. After Buffy foils the Trio's latest scheme, Warren takes a terrible revenge.

• Accidental Murder / Innocent Bystander: After shooting Buffy, Warren fires another round while fleeing to cover his escape -- the bullet ends up striking Tara, who was in an upstairs room and completely unaware of events.
• Attempted Rape: You know the scene.
• Big No: Andrew seeing the archway collapse on Warren.
• Booby Trap: The Trio's basement gets torn apart by buzzsaws after Buffy enters it.
• Bullets Do Not Work That Way: Again, you know the scene. In fact, quoting the Diabolus Ex Machina page: "The gunman was outside on the ground shooting a pistol randomly into the air and yet on pure luck managed a hit so precise that a Marine sniper perched on the opposite rooftop with a rifle would have been hard-pressed to match it." Damn you Joss.
  • It's called a bullet ricocheting. It happens tragically in real life; therefore, there's Truth in Television.
    • Ok, but still... Damn you Joss.
• Bully Hunter: The first thing Warren does on gaining superpowers is look up someone who bullied him in school and pick a fight with him by hitting on his girlfriend.
• Bury Your Gays: Joss tried to avert this by stating that if Oz was in Tara's place, he would've died too.
• Chekhov's Gun: Spike leaves his Badass Longcoat in Buffy's apartment, and doesn't put it back on until Season 7 in a He's Back moment.
• Covered in Gunge: Jonathan after wearing the Neezla skin.
• Cliff Hanger
• Curse Cut Short: Warren gets out "I swear to God I'm gonna take you down, you piece of sh--" before taking off in his jetpack.
• Daylight Horror: Spike's rape attempt occurs in a brightly-lit bathroom, in deliberate contrast to their rough but mutual sex in crypts, catwalks and dark alleys.
• Description Cut
  • The Xander/Buffy argument cutting to Tara saying "It's all a mess." (the Trio's captured files)
  • Warren says, "Let's make some noise." Cut to Buffy fighting a vampire.
• Did the Earth Move For You, Too?: Willow and Tara.

Tara: When did morning happen? Willow: After the moon went down. (kisses Tara) I forgot how good this could feel... us together... without the magic. Tara: There was plenty of magic.

• Double Entendre: Tara and Willow work in as many as possible.

Willow: Hey. Clothes. Tara: Better not get used to them.

• • Willow and Tara are going through the stuff Buffy retrieved. Unfortunately they're doing it while lying in bed together.

Tara: What about the Trio's evil scheme? Willow: (moving over to Tara) I'm busy working on my own.

• Double Meaning Title
• Downer Ending: Both Buffy and Tara have been shot by Warren.
• Dramatic Irony: It's only when things are about to break down completely between Buffy and Spike that they start to have that 'relationship' talk Spike wanted back in "Gone" and "Tabula Rasa".
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Buffy gets a back injury during a fight with a vampire, and falls against the bathtub when Spike grabs her, injuring herself again in the same spot. This (along with sheer panic and disbelief that this is happening to her) slows Buffy's response to Spike's attack.
• The Easy Way or the Hard Way

Buffy: There's two ways this can end. And right now, I'm thinkin' they're both going to hurt. (Warren climbs out of the rubble) Andrew: I think you're right.

• Drowning My Sorrows: Spike and Xander.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Spike assumes that Buffy stopped Xander from killing him because she's secretly in love with him.
• Evil Makeover: Averted when Warren activates the orbs.

Andrew: [You] don't look any different. I thought they were supposed to make us all huge and veiny.

• Failed Attempt At Drama: After Buffy has defeated Warren and Andrew, the former escapes using a Jet Pack. Andrew reveals that he has a jet pack as well, and tells Buffy that it's not over and We Will Meet Again before jetting into an overhanging roof and knocking himself unconscious.
• Famous Last Words: "Your shirt..."
• Foreshadowing: Jonathan re Warren. "He's going to end up getting us thrown into jail. Or worse."
• Friendship Moment: When making up after their previous argument, Xander says he doesn't know what he'd do without Buffy and Willow, to which Buffy replies "Let's never find out".
• Geographic Flexibility: Sunnydale has an amusement park too.
• Get a Room: Averted -- everyone is eager to give the lovebirds their personal space.
• Get Out!: The first thing Buffy says to Spike in the bathroom scene. It goes downhill from there.
• A Glass in the Hand: Spike breaks a bottle in his hand after having a Flashback Echo of his Attempted Rape of Buffy.
• Heel Face Turn: Jonathan tips Buffy to Warren's Achilles Heel.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: For once, this is true.

Buffy: [Anya did] something very stupid. Xander: With your boyfriend. Buffy: He is not my boyfriend.

• Hide Your Gays: Averted; after two years of lesbian love being conveyed by Held Gaze, Intertwined Fingers and Does This Remind You of Anything? subtext, we suddenly have three Tillow smoochy scenes in a single episode! I wonder why...
• Ho Yay: Andrew re Warren.

I can't wait to get my hands on his orbs.

• Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Willow is saying (re Buffy and Spike) "You know, when two people have such strong feelings for each other--" when a bedsheet-wrapped Tara steps out into the corridor, turning Dawn into Squee Girl.
• Is That the Best You Can Do?: Buffy knocks Warren into a stone archway. He gets up unharmed.

Warren: Is that all ya got? (archway collapses on top of him)

• Last-Second Word Swap: More Ho Yay from Andrew re Warren.

Andrew: He never really loved... hanging out with us.

• Living Bodysuit: The Trio skin the Neezla demon so they can pass through the energy barrier and steal the orbs.
• Love Hurts

Spike: I wanted something, anything to make these feelings stop; I just wanted it to stop! (whispers) You should have let him kill me.

• Love Makes You Evil
• Modesty Bedsheet: Given that it involves two women, at least it's less conspicuous.
• Neck Snap: Warren tests his new powers by doing this to a Neezla demon.
• Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner

Warren: Say goodnight, bitch! (Buffy snatches the orbs off Warren and smashes them) Buffy: Goodnight, bitch! (Warren gets Punched Across the Room)

• Person as Verb

Willow: Tara and I can Sherlock around. Andrew: You can't Siegfried and Roy the barrier. Buffy: Jonathan and Andrew got clinked, but Warren pulled a Rocket Man.

• Promotion to Opening Titles: Amber Benson, Dead Star Walking
• Metaphorgotten: Both Anya and Xander start talking to a woman in a bar and end up ranting about their recent problems.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Spike, though he immediately asks, "Why didn't I do it?"
• Punched Across the Room / Punch Catch: Warren now has this power.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The writers knew that Spike had to commit something particularly shocking to make his decision to undergo the Demon Trials plausible, especially given his Badass Decay. In-Universe Spike is horrified because he tried to rape Buffy, not for the rape itself -- in fact he's just as upset that he didn't go through with it. Xander views the act as one with the mass murders Spike committed in his pre-chip days. Buffy appears to blame herself, conscious of how her desire for rough sex and "No" Means "Yes" behaviour has led up to this point.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Rule of Symbolism: Willow and Tara wake up among red sheets.
• Sex Equals Love: What Spike believes -- all that violent passion must have meant something to her, right?
• Shout-Out: When Spike complains about the chip in his head, Clem suggests using a wet cloth.
• So Happy Together: Tillow
• Some Kind of Force Field: The barrier protecting the orbs.
• Shower of Angst: Inverted from the usual scenario. Buffy is about to have a hot shower to soothe her back injury when Spike walks in on her -- her vulnerability at that point only increases the tension. When Xander finds Buffy afterwards, she's sitting on the floor crying, not in the shower.
• Speaking Simlish: Spoofed; the ancient text the geeks had in their basement is actually a Klingon love poem.
• Squee: Dawn on realising Willow and Tara have gotten back together again.
• Static Stun Gun: Used by the Trio on the Nezzla demon.
• Stay Frosty: Warren to Andrew.
• Super Strength / Nigh Invulnerability: The Orbs of Nezzla'khan give Warren these powers.
• Supervillain Packing Heat / Mundane Solution
• Tempting Fate / Rhetorical Question Blunder

Buffy: How hard you gonna hit when you're blowin' in the wind? (Vampire kicks Buffy into a tombstone just as she dusts him) Buffy: (groaning) That was rhetorical.

• Tested on Humans: Warren tests Jonathan's ability to survive the Nezzla demon barrier by shoving him through it.
• That Came Out Wrong: Willow and Tara come downstairs all Holding Hands and giggly.

Willow: Okay, we're here, ready for action! ...uh, bad guy fighting action.

• There Was a Door: Buffy breaking into the Trio's basement (ahhh, Percussive Therapy for Woman Scorned). Warren rips the door off an armoured truck.
• Third-Act Stupidity: Warren attacks Buffy in her home instead of fleeing Sunnydale. Likely a sign of his Villainous Breakdown by this stage.
• This Is Your Brain on Evil: Warren activating the orbs.
• Toasted Buns: Warren yelps as he takes off with his Jet Pack.
• Victim Falls For Rapist: Spike believes Buffy is in denial about her love for him, and so tries to force himself on her, hoping to reignite the violent passion of their sexual relationship.

I know you felt it. When I was inside you. You'll feel it again, Buffy. I'm gonna make you feel it!

• Twisted Echo Cut

Anya: And then he thinks he can just sweep the carnage underneath the rug by saying , "Oh-" Cut to Andrew: (backing off from a demon) I'm sorry! Sorry!

• Visual Innuendo / Freud Was Right: Feminist icon Buffy destroys Straw Misogynist Warren's power by busting his balls...err, orbs. He responds by getting a gun.
• We Will Meet Again: Spike on his bike.

Get nice and comfy, Slayer. I'll be back. And when I do, things are gonna change.

• Wham! Episode
• White Shirt of Death / Blood-Splattered Innocents: Willow's white shirt gets splattered with Tara's blood.
• Worf Had the Flu: Spike's attempted rape of Buffy only got as far as it did because a run-of-the-mill vampire had got a lucky shot in earlier (as she was staking him, no less). Both injuries carry over into Buffy's fight with a superpowered Warren -- even with super-strength and near-invulnerability, he can tell she's off her game.
• You Fight Like a Cow

Warren: You think maybe you could put in a word for me with that Anya chick? 'Cause if she's taking it from a vamp, I think I might have a chance. Xander punches Warren -- and gasps in pain. Warren: No wonder she's screwing a dead guy. You hit like a girl. Xander: Well, at least I know how to get one.

• You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!: Buffy whines "Oh come on!" after seeing Warren take off in a Jet Pack.