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Buffy 6x19 (Extended) - Seeing Red (Patreon)

Published:
2023-08-25 16:33:58
Edited:
2024-07-16 23:56:06
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

reaction link: click here. 

please be extra mindful of spoilers/hinting towards answers/the next episode.

Files

Comments

Wisdom of the Sphynx

And. Here. We. Go. 🥺 Edit: I don’t think any of us were expecting an after show discussion this time. And I know the first time I watched it I had to go right to the next one for answers. I basically binge watched the rest of the season after 19. Sending love ❤️‍🩹

Keenan White

Well this is a very interesting thumbnail, not what I was expecting, I was pretty worried about you going into this next reaction, I hope you’re doing okay ❤️

Girl4Music

I guess she just wants to focus on the happier moments.

Ron Fehr

Your shirt may have a tint of orange, but it basically looks red to me. Also, I like that you put Willow and Tara where they are completely visible.

Girl4Music

I don’t know if I want to watch this. I’m so nervous.

CeNedra

🫣 me trying to avoid the comment section before watching the reaction 🙈🙈🙈🫣

Ron Fehr

James Marsters mentioned that he felt uneasy about the scene where he assaulted Buffy, probably the hardest scenes for him to partake in. It seems to me that Spike did feel some remorse for what he did to her, just after she said "Ask me again why I could never live you!" I thought I heard him start to say something in a whisper. My guess is he was about to say something like "My God! What have I done?" Am I alone in thinking this?

Keenan White

Yeah, that’s how I took it.

Khanach

Don’t know about you, but I don’t see a Warren funko in our future… (Yeah, I make stupid jokes when I don’t know what to say. Did I mention Xander is my favourite character?)

Ron Fehr

I'm so sorry that you had to see that ending, especially after what I'm guessing was one of you favorite opening scenes.

HuntingSwan

I know it was hard for you but if it's any consolation it was a great reaction!

KiwiJello

I was ok until you started crying and now I am sobbing. Again. We all feel it. /HUGS

CeNedra

I had to wait a week after this one 🫣

Ron Fehr

From what I understand, it was also a plan originally to have Eric Balfour (Jessie) in the opening credits in the first two episodes of the series. Although it was a nice surprise to have Amber Benson in the opening credits, I don't think it should have been done just to have that happen to her at the end.

CeNedra

Sending you virtual hugs 🤗🤗🤗 watching you just broke my heart 💔

Preaching to the Horse's Mouth

Me, watching your reaction to Hush: This is the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Also me: This poor girl is going to get fucking destroyed.

Girl4Music

Well I watched it. I’m so sorry Domi 😔 I’m sorry for those horrific choices the writers made. I’m sorry you had to see them. You’re right. By the laws of physics, it would be impossible for that bullet to hit Tara, let alone go right through a fucking window and then right through her. It’s bullshit. The Spike scene too. All of it. All of it is some fucked up writing choices. I was extremely nervous for your reaction to this episode. I’m just so, so sorry.

JenM

I am so sorry Domi. I have been dreading this for you 😢. Hugs

Girl4Music

The phrase “Seeing Red” has several definitions to it. There’s the literal definition that you’re seeing the colour red obviously. But it’s also used for describing someone feeling sudden abject rage and all rational thought goes out of the window because their emotions are that intense and overwhelming because they’re so angry and they can’t stop acting out of aggression. Then there’s also the definition that you don’t intend or mean to do something, you just do it out of instinct or nature. … Make of those definitions what you will. I think they all apply.

Michael

As Warren was flailing his arm the gun pointed upward, but your right the trajectory of the bullet would have hit the second floor and Tara at an angle not straight through her heart

Michael

At a convention with Buffy actors Amber said she was told they were killing her character at the beginning of season six but they kept pushing it back . Her death probably was going to be different like from a demon not some nerd with a gun

Girl4Music

Don’t feel you need to talk about what you don’t want to talk about right now honey. We understand. We feel the same way. I mean I don’t hate ‘Seeing Red’ mostly because it sets up events going forward that I do like but it’s still extremely uncomfortable to watch. Especially the AR/SA. But then that’s always something that bothers me in Buffy whether the narrative acknowledges it or not.

Girl4Music

Precisely. Clearly whoever wrote this episode doesn’t understand how the laws of physics work. You’d have to call it divine intervention. Fate. But even that doesn’t compute. And it’s extremely difficult for somebody like me - who thrives on logic - to accept this interpretation. There’s just no fucking way.

Ron Fehr

Although I won't argue with the impossibility of the bullet hitting Tara the way it did, I can't help wondering if your comments are just wishful thinking.

Girl4Music

And it would have been much more appropriate. In service to her character and her arc. Respectful and purposeful. Not out of an accident that she had no awareness of. Not from a stray bullet.

Raven Dark

Uh oh... Just so you know, watching this episode on my own doesn't make me cry anymore, but I haven't even started the reaction yet, and my eyes are already watering. Buffy's first watcher to Domi: You see? You see your power?

Girl4Music

It’s like with ‘The Body’. The reaction to it is what everybody talks about regarding it being exceptional art/entertainment. Not actually what happens in it. How it affects us. The problem is that ‘The Body’ already covered it very well. It didn’t need to be done again. And the impending inevitability of death when it comes to love doesn’t need to be repeated over and over again because then it does go stale. If you kill Romeo and Juliet once, It’s profound If you kill them twice, it’s just cruel. A tragic romance is only compelling the one time. After that…. It’s just death. I’ve explained this a lot better elsewhere in commentary to the bury your gays trope. Here I’m just clumsily rehashing.

Raven Dark

I get it. Usually, even the really hard episodes don't effect me the way they did the first hundred times, and reactions to the hard ones rarely make me upset, but when I saw this one pop up, I felt physically ill. The whole time Domi was gushing over her Funkle Pops, my heart was breaking. I've known, since she reaction to Willow and Tara's relationship that this one was going to hurt.

Raven Dark

Yeah, see, it's the same with me. I actually like this episode because of where it takes the show, but there are certain aspects I wish they'd handled better. It's like I have to shut my brain off to accept it, and that makes me sad, especially when I know it won't have the impact on some reactors it should have. This episode undercuts itself.

Bud Haven

Anybody hinting at what happens next episode or after will have their post tagged. Domi will never see it.I’m using a liberal definition of hinting.

Ron Fehr

I had the same feeling several times, whenever I knew there was an episode that was going to pull on Domi's heartstrings. And the temptation to warn her was there too. Fortunately, respect for the reactor won out in these instances. The worst part of this one was how it started out so cheery and ended so sadly.

rattusprat

To me at least, you have basically nailed the point of the bathroom scene by thinking back to your previous unease when Spike ignored Buffy saying no. That was never OK. The bathroom scene shows us why it was never OK. No should always mean no. There is no requirement or expectation for you to ship the Spuffy (Bike) relationship this season. While some of it was hot, the show was also showing us a very unhealthy dynamic. It's OK to look at it and say "it was hot, the toxic stuff isn't actually real because it's only a TV show, so I ship it", and it's also OK to look at it and say "that was a toxic mess, I don't ship it at all."

Captain Hammer

It's a long back yard and they were at the end of it. If you you remember, Tara could see Xander approach Buffy even though she wasn't standing right near the window. If she had line of sight to them they they would have line of sight back to her.

Ron Fehr

I had never really considered all of this before, but it seems to me like the only way that Warren could have hit Tara directly would be if he was in the same area as Buffy and Xander. He shot at a distance, so the last bullet should have probably just hit her shoulder, since it would have come at an angle.

Ron Fehr

If I understood Lexi correctly, she implied that the bathroom scene needn't have been quite so long, that we need only get the general idea of what Spike was doing to her.

CuteLiLRN

Um you are asking for logic in a show about vampires, demons, witchcraft, and all things supernatural…that seems illogical.

Girl4Music

Which is why it’s called the “bury your gays” trope. They have the gay couple make love the entire episode and then punish you for enjoying it by killing one or even both of them off immediately afterward. I’m not saying this was the intention. But it most definitely is how it feels.

Girl4Music

And it’s not like Buffy doesn’t show the same behaviour when it comes to that. Almost as if she’s learned from Spike in that trying to coerce sexual activity when the other person doesn’t want to engage in it in that moment is okay because it’s just Spike. Because he does it with her, she figured it’s fine to do it with him. But ‘no’ always means no. Doesn’t matter who it is. Spike being less than a person or human doesn’t make it okay to do that. So they were both assaulting the other really. There was such violence in their coupling and both of them kept perpetuating it.

Bud Haven

I fall into the it's a toxic mess and I ship it anyway category.

Ray D

I hope you’re doing OK. I’ve been worried about you seeing this one for a while. Sending my love. The season of sadness and depression strikes again.

Ray D

As for Spike and Buffy, their sexual relationship has always been a mix of violence mixed in together with the sex. The first time they slept together was during a fight. Almost every time they had sex in the season it would start with spike initiating it, Buffy saying no and protesting, spike pushing harder and then it resulting in sex. I am in no way blaming Buffy for what spike did in this episode but the show has shown us all season that Buffy saying no to spikes advances has usually resulted in them having sex and you can see where in spikes mind, the violence and Buffy saying no hasn’t been the end in the past. So in his mind he was just doing that again. You can see him realize it at the end what had really happened.

Girl4Music

The whole reason for them doing it was to remind us that Spike was a soulless monster. They weren’t going to ease up on the intensity and severity of the assault just because we wouldn’t want to see it. They made sure to frame it as bad as it is because it was a man raping a woman. So it was as violent as possible. The whole point was to tell Spuffy shippers “be careful what you wish for”. Which is sick. Somebody with that mentality needs fucking help. You should never want to teach your audience a lesson. You should never want to traumatize them like that. They should be free to feel whichever way they want to feel about your art/entertainment. The only possible way I can tolerate that this scene happened is to remind myself that AR/SA was never successful. Buffy was strong enough to stop him. To push and throw him off of her. It doesn’t make it any easier to digest because he still attempted it but it is tolerable because it wasn’t successful and she is the Slayer. Willow and Tara on the other hand was successful. Despite that not being framed as rape/sexual assault, Willow actually was successful in raping/sexually assaulting Tara through deception. And hey. If a “good person” with a soul can do that to the woman she loves… then it’s not far fetched that an “evil soulless thing” can do it to the woman he loves. That’s honestly the only way I can view it to make it tolerable to my eyes and ears. All in all, it’s making the statement that Love can be toxic and destructive. Not so much that the Love isn’t there or isn’t real. Just that it is selfish, twisted and warped. Abuse happens in Love. That’s just the truth. It’s not all puppies and rainbows. It can be very unpleasant. For all the parallels drawn between Willow and Buffy this season, I feel it’s actually Willow and Spike that are the true parallel because they’re the abusive partners in their respective relationships. I mean Buffy is just depressed. Isn’t in the right state of mind to notice her actions and choices but is still aware of just how wrong she is for it. Spike and Willow… you could try hitting them over the head with “It’s wrong” but it wouldn’t ever register. So as for the blatant excuse that Spike only does it because he is a vampire that doesn’t have a soul, No. Not when you have human ensouled people doing the same thing. It’s tolerable if it’s understandable. And this is the only way I can understand it. If Willow is capable of raping/sexually assaulting her girlfriend. Then Spike is capable of raping/sexually assaulting Buffy. It has nothing to fucking do with the soul. It’s all to do with the mindset. Not understanding that ‘no’ means no. Disregarding, ignoring and taking away the other person’s ability and right to consent to sexual activity either through physical force or mental deception or just by coercion is rape/sexual assault.

Girl4Music

Yep. That he simply went too far this time. And she was in a weakened state. The way they have written Spike’s character this season has been ugly given the beauty of his character at the end of Season 5 and the start of Season 6. It’s been like emotional whiplash. And the excuse for it has always been “He is this way because he doesn’t have a soul.” But when you have human ensouled entities doing the exact same thing,… that excuse just doesn’t work. I mean you’ve got Willow and Warren and Amy doing incredibly abusive things. All human, all ensouled, all capable of knowing and understanding the difference between right and wrong. So if you’re gonna say the “soul” is what justifies what happens with Spike, how on Earth do you justify it with Willow, Warren and Amy? They’re just as abusive this season. They’re do just as wrong and evil as Spike does. What’s their excuse?

Girl4Music

As far I’m concerned, they had the right idea, they just executed it all wrong. First of all, Tara’s death was going to happen a lot earlier in the season and likely involved the whole “magic addiction” arc to it. That she likely died because Willow was reckless and careless with her use of magic and the ultimate consequence was her love dying. And that would have made the statement that abusers reap what they sow. Turning her death into an uncontrollable and irreversible accident after they reconciled and Willow was doing well in recovery makes it feel like gay people deserve no happiness. Either way, the take-away is punishment. Only punishing an abuser is appropriate. Punishing a lesbian isn’t. Bury your gays may not have been the intention. But it certainly feels like it with how blatantly discriminatory and cruel towards homosexuals it looks having Willow and Tara make love for the ENTIRE episode and Tara suddenly gets accidentally shot immediately after by a misogynistic incel with a gun without her even being aware of what was coming to her. It feels as if they’re saying “they deserve it” because they’re gay. Not because one of them is a victim of consequence for other being careless with them. It was executed all wrong. If the what was always meant to happen, then the how, why, when, where and who was all wrong. They should have just killed her off in ‘Tabula Rasa’ when she had absolutely no memory of who she was avoiding insulting her character development of taking back her power. Tara’s death is supposed to make us feel catharsis because death is just what happens in a show like this. So the way it made us feel with Jenny and Joyce’s death. The grieving process is supposed to eventually be accepted and healed. But all it does is just makes us feel hurt because the wound it left never heals. And the reasons as to why is because it doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel fair. And it insults a beloved character and her arc.

Ron Fehr

It can make one wonder why having a soul is better than not having one, when both types can be abusive. Whereas ensouled people, as you put it, are "capable of knowing and understanding the difference between right and wrong, " they still have the choice to change their behavior. Does that mean that soulless beings don't have that choice? Which brings me back to my question. Why is having a soul generally considered better than not?

Girl4Music

Precisely. Not having a soul means that you’re missing an internal moral compass. Now if the lore was truly demonic possession, this tracks. But if it’s not, if it’s more like demonic corruption (which is how the lore comes across most of the time), it doesn’t. But this is never how they played it with Spike. With possession, the soulless entity doesn’t have a choice to change because they’re not actually that entity that lose their soul. They’re just some random demon. Spike clearly is the very same entity that lost his soul. They make that apparent in the show constantly with showing us how his human informs and influences him more than his demon. They show that CHOICE is always something that he is capable of regardless which way the pendulum swings for him. Evil or good. Right or wrong. Peace or war. Healthy or destructive. It doesn’t matter. He CHOOSES it. Does he CHOOSE to rape/sexually assault Buffy or does his soulless NATURE compel him to? The answer, at least to me, is neither. Neither are applicable. It’s character assassination. It’s out of character. Not because he doesn’t understand that ‘no’ means no. But because he is so tripped up with guilt and regret immediately after that he CHOOSES to do what he does and his NATURE can’t stop him from doing it.

Girl4Music

Not from that far away. The trajectory of that bullet at the speed it was going would have arched forwards but not upwards. I’m no mathematician but it seems physically impossible that that bullet could hit Tara. Warren arched his arm upwards when he shot his final bullet. But what I’m saying is that bullet from that gun wouldn’t reach as far as the window. It wouldn’t be powerful enough.

Girl4Music

This would be true if the show was truly only about vampires, demons, witchcraft and all things supernatural. It isn’t. It’s an effective metaphor for very real and logical things. Which is why it’s so damn compelling to watch for me.

Girl4Music

It wouldn’t have hit her at all. It would go as far as the window and then bounce off. Only rifles have the power to go through a window and then right through a body. I’m sure somebody will have tried to assess this mathematically and come to the same conclusion. For a hand gun to have an impact so powerful that we would see Tara’s blood spurt against Willow’s shirt. It just doesn’t seem possible. I could be wrong. Regardless, they won’t really have thought any of this through if the whole point was for that bullet to kill Tara.

Girl4Music

He does say it later on in the crypt but immediately after “why didn’t I do it?” He is that confused on his feelings about what he just did. He is supposed to be the “monster”, so why does the “man” feel so guilty about it? He should want this. This is the way it should be. And yet he is revolted by his actions. Suddenly being a soulless vampire doesn’t cut it. Suddenly attempting something as evil as rape severely unnerves him. Suddenly he is conflicted with his sense of morality. All of this shouldn’t be possible for a demonically possessed soulless entity to feel or think. And yet he does. He already has a moral compass. A fabricated one. And it’s not the chip. He keeps blaming it on the chip. But the chip is an intention alarm, not a moral compass. Not a soul. Feeling major guilt and suffering trauma for what he had done means that he possesses a conscience. He has learned a sense of morality as a demon entity. Is a soul necessary? This is the debate. My insistent stance is it is not. He isn’t quite there yet but he will grow into it. Just simply give him the opportunity to.

Ron Fehr

Joss Whedon once said that Spike was somewhat of an anomaly in the vampire community. This proves it.

Girl4Music

I disagree. The anomaly is Angel.

Terri

It's also okay to understand "this is a fictional world with WAY different rules than our own, so what may seem horrible to us isn't always the same there." I hate what Spike does. It has always felt out of character to me. But I understand why the writers needed to do it in the overall picture of the show. It doesn't stop me from shipping Buffy/Spike. This isn't real life and Spike isn't even a human. So I just don't stress about that stuff.

Terri

This is it. I don't think Spike went in with the intention to SA/rape Buffy. They had a dynamic that was all about fighting, attraction and sex. It was all mixed up into this ball of emotion. Buffy herself had pushed Spike more than once. You see it at the end of the scene...Spike's face tells us he didn't mean things to go in that direction. So it never felt as harsh to me as some people view it. I also separate out that Spike is a vampire in a world of supernatural. They have different rules than humans really. And it's a fictional world. I know WHY they did this scene, but it never made sense to me. We've seen Spike put Buffy first time and time again. To the point of letting her beat him to a pulp in attempts to save her from herself. He's let her put all her anger and depression on him. So I don't think Spike would push it this far. Even though he lets her beat him up...he rarely returns the favor. Also, Buffy is STRONG. If you look at the scene...she isn't using her strength. She could have stopped him at any time. But she let it play out. It's because they needed it to for the PLOT. Otherwise...it makes no sense. Overall...I still ship them. I don't care if it's "toxic" or whatever. It's still fun and I don't take the show as seriously as some that try to litigate all the character's behaviors.

Girl4Music

I think it’s because of her injury that she was not at full strength so that’s why she couldn’t stop him sooner. But yep. Agreed.

Ron Fehr

True, now that he has a soul. I wonder if he meant that Spike was an anomaly as a 'soulless' vampire.

Rachel Espiritu

To be honest, I think a lot of us weren't even expecting a reaction video this week or ever again.

John

Video starts. Domi: Look at these cute Funko dolls of Willow and Tara! Me: Oh, no . . . I've been dreading this episode ever since "Hush"--dreading it more than any other reactor's reaction who has made it this far. Your reaction to that last scene was tough to watch.

Zachary Becker

== Spike == This episode is a reminder that Spike is a soulless evil demon. Buffy and Spike were never a "thing", she used him as a way to cope with being resurrected out of heaven, and feeling disconnected from her friends. He is also using her because he cannot be the monster he wants to be. Spike's entire history is defined by feeling inadequate (due to who he was as a human), and using his new found strength as a vampire to demonstrate his superiority. With previous slayers, this was killing them, but with Buffy it became about sex. Anyone who was on the Spike + Buffy train should definitely feel very different about Spike at this point, but should also understand, he is not "different" you were misled along with Buffy the entire time. Spike is not a "good guy", he is literally a soulless evil demon. == Tara == I don't believe Tara is taken from us because the writer's don't value her because she is gay, she is taken from us because we as the audience value her so much. In fact the writers very intentionally set her up so that the audience would love her so much especially from the start of season 6. Compare to if they had killed her off in Season 4 or 5. It just wouldn't of had the same impact on the audience. However, watching how she grew as a character, and became central to the Scoobies, then they took her away during the break up to make us miss her, only to give her back to really drive the pain hard. This is almost exactly what they did with Joyce. If Joyce had died in one of the earlier seasons, she was not developed enough to have the impact it had in Season 5. We would have been sad for Buffy. However, by Season 5, Joyce was a character we came to love and value ourselves as the audience, so when she died, while we were still sad for Buffy, we were sad because we loved Joyce too, and were aligned with the all the characters in how their were processing her death. (She was also temporarily, taken from us in a way by us thinking she would succumb to her brain tumor when we first learned about it, but they give her back to us when she goes through her surgery, and is, as far as we are concerned, cured, similar to how Tara is taken from us and given back through the breakup) What happened with Tara isn't sad because of how it affects Willow (which is the case in a typical "fridging"), it's sad because we love Tara, and are aligned with Willow's anger and sadness.

Girl4Music

Completely disagree with what you said about Spike however what you said about Tara, - yeah that makes sense. They wanted to make her the real MVP so that when she was permanently taken from us, it would just hit us that much harder and make us just as hurt and angry as Willow. See the thing is that I don’t actually have a problem with Tara dying. I felt it was appropriate given it was always meant to happen. What I have a problem with is how she died. How it undermines her as a character in that she goes through this whole arc in refusing not to be abused anymore, in taking back her power from her abusers - only to be shot dead by a stray bullet in the back. It feels like a betrayal for her character just to advance the seasonal plot and Willow’s character arc. While they make her out to be all important to the Scooby fold it still feels like they’re saying she was never strong enough as a character to deal with her demons the way the other characters can. Forgetting the blatant bury your gays trope and the discrimination against recovering addicts, this death this way really sucks for Tara. Her death should have been more respectful and purposeful to HER as a character in HER own arc. I still hold the insistent stance that she should have been killed off in ‘Tabula Rasa’ while under the affects of amnesia caused by Willow’s spell. Forcing Willow to understand the ultimate risks and consequences to using magic so recklessly and carelessly and the severity of her actions and choices in putting her loved ones in mortal danger. Then the message taken from what happens becomes abusers reap what they sow. It’s punishing an abuser. Not punishing gay people or recovering addicts for just trying to live a more fulfilled life.

Zachary Becker

I always felt that Tara's death was senseless and unfair to make it more relatable. As opposed to having her taken out by a demon, she is unexpectedly and unfairly taken by something oh too familiar in the real world. This amplifies the pain for the audience in my opinion. This is like Joyce, in that her death wasn't supernatural, but unlike Joyce it's senseless and needless violence which aligns us further with Willow's anger. I think similarly, if Glory had killed Tara and not just did her brain sucking thing, we would have been sad, but it wouldn't have had the same impact. Similarly a death in Tabula Rasa would have made too much sense, and not been very unexpected. The unfairness of her death is important to how it's portrayed. I don't think it would have been nearly as memorable without it.

Stewart Denew

James Marsters didn't just "feel uneasy" but has actually had it written into his contracts ongoing that he would NEVER do anything like that again.

Troika S

Yeah. Twenty years and "Your shirt.." still sits as one of those gut punch lines I just never get over. Still get the same empty, hollow feeling I did the first time. Spike's been pretty unambiguously written and played as an obsessive stalker for numerous seasons now. We literally watch him fantasize about hurting Buffy while having sex with harmony, to say nothing of the other on-screen abuse Harmony takes from him. Horrific as his actions are, I'm glad the writers committed to it instead of just trying to reframe their horribly messed up dynamic as something romantic because fans just ignored all his red flags to ship them. It's just about the only plot thread in Season 6 that works to be honest. There was never anything romantic about Spike and Buffy, just a tragedy waiting to happen. the only reason it didn't happen sooner is the network they were on wouldn't have allowed it.

Christine

LOL the closed caption at the end has Xander saying "Puffy" instead of Buffy.

Robert Geiman

It’s so weird, this was the episode I was most looking forward to Domi reacting to and once it was released and I spent two days refusing to watch it because I couldn’t bear to see her reaction to it. Ugh, I wish I could give her a big virtual hug…

Domi E

Appreciate it ❤️

Domi E

Aw thank you 🥹❤️

Domi E

Aw no, I’m sorry!! Sending hugs back 💓💓

Domi E

Thank you honey!! ❤️

Domi E

Oh gosh! Don’t even remind me of Hush I’m gonna be so sad.

Domi E

Appreciate you ❤️Tight hugs back!

Domi E

Awww ❤️❤️❤️

Domi E

Thank you Raymond🫶🏼I appreciate it!

Domi E

Aww 😭Sending you so many hugs Robert!!

Girl4Music

It amplifies the pain but the pain is still there even years after the show ended. That impact is palpable. Blinding. But the experience is numb, empty, hollow. The hurt doesn’t heal. There’s no catharsis. No way to grieve. No way to accept the pain. You say that’s the point so that we can relate to and resonate with Willow’s anger. But it doesn’t hit the same if all we can ever feel is anger.

Ava Sinclair

Man, I was dreading this and dreading this and well...it was just as horribly sad as I thought it was going to be. While I don't think Tara's death was a case of 'bury your gays', it was definitely a case of 'hurt your core audience as much as possible'. I truly think it's gotten sadder since I first saw it, not less. Seeing how much people younger than me love Tara and relate to her, and how much it hurts them to lose her...back when it was airing, a lot of people didn't like Tara. People said she was 'boring' (and since she's the character I relate the most to, that stung). But the current viewers LOVE her so much, the way I always loved her, and it's hard to watch y'all lose her too. :( Especially you, Domi, because your love for her is so pure. I will say the rest of the season is an epic arc but at the end of the day...I'M JUST FREAKING SAD. And don't even get me started on Buffy/Spike; I love them both individually but had a really hard time shipping their relationship because it was so toxic. But this was so BEYOND and in my opinion, absolutely fucking unnecessary. I hate this episode. Well, I hate the last half of it. Anyway, I genuinely hope you're ok and am sending you massive cyber hugs. I have so enjoyed and had such a good time watching your reactions and I hope to see you continue.

Rio de Tanana

Tara is dead. Has been for over 20 years. Fandom bringing it up ad naseum is never going to change that.

Rio de Tanana

There’s videos of her talking to about this. I thought she was told by a very excited Whedon right before hiatus. That can be checked.

Rio de Tanana

According to Amber Benson, Whedon was super excited about Dark Willow and didn’t think past that. This wasn’t a BYG, according to her. He’s said he was surprised by the reaction people have had. Parts of this show haven’t aged well.

Erik Griffiths

Remember, Spike is a soulless thing, he's a murderer that was on a leash.

madfem

If that's true, why did they make Buffy say "These are never helpful! " (talking about guns) very emphatically at least twice throughout the season ?? They were obviously setting the gun thing up

Corey

If this helps at all...Tara and Warren dated in real life for about 6 years around this time. I always find that a little funny.

Janel Davis

I love the "serial killer in prison" comment Buffy once made.

Janel Davis

Thank you for keeping the camera rolling and sharing your feelings with us. It's extremely common for reactors to turn the camera off after the final scene because it's just too much vulnerability to share with the world. I totally get that, but I appreciate it so much when reactors have the courage to share their true reaction ❤

Nicamon

Remember Spike is a souless murderer only when the Plot needs him to be and that's why I hate him as a character!X-[

Nicamon

Then why do people stay on board of the Spuffy ship until this very episode? 😡💢 Why did you need the graphic scene to remember he's "a souless thing"? If you really believed it, you would have never shipped Spuffy from the very beginning. And, in case it's not clear enough because of the English language, I don't mean specifically you Erik Griffiths, I mean "you" as in "all of you Spuffy shippers".

Felix

i'm a new subscriber to your patreon because i was dying to see the rest of your buffy reactions, and can i say you starting off this reaction by showing off your tara and willow figures actually made me tear up it was so heartbreaking, like what are the odds omg.