LIFE SERIAL

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CAST
Sarah Michelle Gellar............Buffy Summers
Nicholas Brendon.................Xander Harris
Alyson Hannigan...............Willow Rosenberg
Emma Caulfield............................Anya
Michelle Trachtenberg.............Dawn Summers
James Marsters...........................Spike

GUEST STARS
Anthony Stewart Head..............Rupert Giles
Amber Benson..............................Tara
Danny Strong..........................Jonathan
Adam Busch..............................Warren
Tom Lenk................................Andrew

LIFE SERIAL

Buffy arrives back at the house after going to see Angel (See Flooded Review) and she brings chicken. However the others have just finished eating their evening meal.
Buffy is unwilling to talk about what happened with Angel so they don't prod any further. Giles enquires what Buffy plans to do next. She says she wants to go back to College but she will have to wait a while to sign up again. Tara and Willow come up with the idea that Buffy can join them at their classes until she can sign up for college again. Buffy likes this idea.

The Evil Trio of Andrew, Jonathan and Warren are modifying their new van. Warren shows Jon all the cool new things such as surveillance camera's allowing them to spy of the Slayer. They check on Andrew who to there shock is painting a really cool Death Star (Return of the Jedi model, as Andrew insists.) They make him remove it though as they are meant to be hard for Buffy to spot. They agree it's time to start messing with Buffy to try and find a weakness.

Opening Credits

Buffy and Willow go to lesson which is Social construction of reality. It's very complex and Buffy struggles to keep up with what is being said and she is left feeling dumb.
Next up Buffy has an Art lesson with Tara. As they go to the class Warren bumps into bump placing something on her clothes. Tara gives Buffy an Art book to look at. As Buffy is looking at the book, time speeds forward. She just thinks she spaced out for a moment. It keeps happening though and as she goes to Art class she arrives as it finishes. She goes outside but time and people around her keep on moving at a fast pace. As she is forced to hide to avoid being hurt she finds the thing that Warren placed on her. As she looks at it Warren causes it to self- destruct.

The next day Buffy goes to work at the construction yard with Xander. The men there are very hostile to her and just treat her as a little girl. She of course picks up heavy things with ease and works very fast, much to the dislike of the other workers who remind her that they get paid by the hour.
Andrew is up next and he prepares his way to test the slayer.
As the foreman comes to congratulate her on good work she has to push him away in a bid to save him from a monster attack. There are three of them and she manages to take them all out and save the other workers. One problem though is that the bodies turn to mush and vanish.
Of course no one believes her (except Xander) and the guys she saved are unwilling to tell the truth because it will make them look like cowards. Because she has wrecked the yard Xander is forced to sack her.
As the trio watch Buffy Andrew slips and sounds the horn, which is a very cool Star Wars theme. Buffy hears this and notices the van.

After failing with construction work, Buffy takes up Giles offer to work at the Magic Box. Anya explains the process of Special Orders to Buffy so that she knows how to ship products to customers.
This time Jonathan is up. He uses his magic bone (I am not lying) and begins to speak Latin.
I female customer comes into the Magic Box and Buffy goes to deal with her. The Lady is after a Mummy Hand and so Buffy goes to fetch it. The Mummy hand is alive though and she has to kill it to bring it to the Lady, she will not accept it.
The same lady comes through the door again and yet again asks for the Mummy Hand. Buffy continues having trouble getting it and the woman refuses it yet again. After this the woman comes in yet again and again and again, and many more times.
It seems Jonathan has cast a spell that will cause Buffy to loop in time until she can satisfy a customer.
As Buffy begins to get angry, she suddenly remembers the Special orders. She tells the Lady that she can't get that Mummy hand but she can get one sent to her. The Lady accepts and Buffy makes the sale, thus breaking the spell.
She becomes so annoyed that she leaves the shop.

Buffy goes to Spike's crypt and the two begin drinking. He tells her that they can go to see some demons to see what is happening to Buffy, it could also be funny. He tells her that it is her kind of fun and when she figures that out her life will get less confusing.
The two head off to a demon bar and they go into a back room where Spike engages in a card game with the other demons. They play for kittens by the way.
The trio are closing in on Buffy and they begin to talk about how evil they are and how they are like Dr No. They begin to argue who is the best Bond, Warren saying Connery, Jonathan saying Moore and Andrew saying Dalton, which gets him a slap round the head.
Spike wins the card games but Buffy spoils it by trying to help the kittens to escape. They then leave.
Outside in the van the three continue to argue about Bond and how lame both Dalton and Moore were, especially "Moonraker."
Buffy spots the van and goes over to investigate. As she gets closer the trio spot her.
As she gets really close a huge winged red demon appears before her saying that he has been testing her, she manages to hit him once and he explodes a smoke capsule and runs down the street. The demon catches up with the van and it morphs back into Jonathan, who is in pain. They all agree that they have a lot of information on the Slayer now. And even better they have stumbled across free cable porn!

Back at the house Buffy has finished being sick. Giles sits with her as she begins to pour out her heart that she is failing badly. Giles tells her to go easy on herself, things don't have to be thought out all at once. She yet again brings up her financial problems. Giles hands her a cheque to help her out. She is excited and goes to show dawn. She tells him that she will always feel safe knowing that he will always be here. He smiles back.
However as she leaves the room the smile vanishes from his face and he stares blankly into the air…

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Ok a few areas to deal with this week and I think I will start off with the trio of Andrew, Warren and Jonathan. These three have not been given a real chance and they get slated on the net a lot. I don't agree with this in the slightest.
I can understand why people won't like them and fair enough. However I understand their jokes so I find them amusing and cool (If that means that I am sad, so be it.)
The one thing that really interests me is something I said in the previous review, these three are human and I think it will be interesting to see how Buffy will finally deal with them. It's a new avenue so we may as well explore it.

Buffy and Spike seem to be getting a lot closer. She see's it as a friendship but its clear that Spike will soon try to take advantage of Buffys situation. I like to see them like this though, she seems happy and content and he is the only one she can really trust at the moment. She can be Buffy around him, when she is with others she is always wearing masks and trying to please them all.
Her readjustment to life is taking her by surprise more than anyone else. She just can't begin to live and she doesn't know what she wants to do with her life anymore.

Lastly I think Giles needs to be mentioned. That face at the end was very chilling and you know that it won't be long before he returns back to England. He hasn't given any just cause yet and that's the problem. I mean why does he want to leave? Maybe it will be answered in future episodes, who knows?

The rest of the cast take a MAJOR backseat in this episode so that's pretty much all that I can draw on.

A good episode all together but I can see a lot of people hating it. It fits in well with the tempo of the season so far but yet again it doesn't really stand out with the episodes that go before it. Saying that I think the episode gets a great 6 out of 10. Its well above average but the only thing keeping it from getting a four is the fact that there is maybe too much of the trio and not enough character or plot development.