The forward momentum building from last week continues here, with the truth about the Key finally reaching the ears of the Scoobies and eventually Dawn herself. There are some strong components here, but too many acts of annoyance derailed my enjoyment of the episode as a whole. Crucially, the actress at the heart of the Key storyline just blows. Blood Ties is the debut of Michelle Trachtenberg's shrieky banshee acting ('get out... Get Out... Get Out!!!' is the audio equivalent of nails through my eyeballs), and while the material she's given here would obviously be challenging for any fourteen year-old actor, Trachtenberg bugs.At the same time, it felt like the writers cut corners in a huge way to get the big secret out. All the Scoobies act like morons here, making it painfully obvious to Dawn that something's wrong. Don't even get me started on Giles' big book of explicit Dawn-is-the-key notes. Gah.
The story is working as a kind of metaphor for a teenage identity crisis, with Dawn naturally being angsty and feeling like she doesn't belong. Which, you know, she doesn't. I have problems with some of the dialogue and the lack of character logic at work, but it's still a great concept. You feel for all three Summers women, all of whom have been thrown into this unpredictable and horrible situation by people who didn't consider the power of human emotion when they came up with this thing.
I continue to love the evolving Buffy/Spike relationship. What started off as another 'Buffy barges into Spike's crypt' scene ended up being far more grounded and emotional, Buffy even finding some further support from Spike when they tried to find Dawn. Love these two together.
Elsewhere, Ben is Glory. Yikes. Charlie Weber is terrible, but it's another doozy of a plot twist thrown in to an already busy storyline. Glory continues to be at her best during less showy moments, like her conversation with Dawn. She's actually scary there. Not so much with the brain-sucking in her boudoir.
Blood Ties is an important episode which features some decent individual scenes and ideas but sometimes feels contrived and silly, the script lurching from one blip of annoyance to the next. I'm enjoying season five, but it's not as strong as I remembered it being. B-
Credits
Guest stars Clare Kramer (Glory); Charlie Weber (Ben); Troy T. Blendell (Jinx); Amber Benson (Tara Maclay); Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers)
Writer Steven S. DeKnight Director Michael Gershman
It's hilarious that you bring up that "Get out..get out!" part, because it's more like bats flying around & screaming in my brain for me! Still a great episode. I can't say much about the whole character misconceptions here since it's been a couple of years, but the comedic effect always softens the blow of those off moments, at least for me. Great review as always.
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