There has obviously been dissent within the ranks of the Scoobies for most of the season. When the year opened, it was Buffy who was feeling shut-out. Then the Initiative arrived, and Buffy dropped her friends for her new army buddies and her hunky soldier boyfriend. Willow was initially troubled by Oz's departure, then she too moved away from her circle after she met Tara. Xander and Giles have been on the periphery of things all year, both having lost their traditional 'roles' when Sunnydale High went up in flames. The Yoko Factor exploits the angst by having these issues come to the forefront, but I'm not sure the episode in general works that well at all.Away from the cave fight scene and Forest's strangely flat death scene, this is Buffy as soap opera, with various lengthy discussions about group politics, relationship woes and repression of emotions. But while other episodes explore similar territory to more success, there's something generally 'blah' about The Yoko Factor, the dialogue not sparkling like it usually does. The eventual blow-out felt a little contrived, too. The writing, away from the reactions to Willow's coming out, was off, and Anthony Stewart Head's drunk acting was ridiculously embarrassing.
Meanwhile, we have an unnecessary Angel crossover. Considering he's headlining another show, I didn't feel we needed to have immediate resolution to his arguments with Buffy over on his series. Honestly, what he said to her made a lot of sense, and I kind of wish the writers had just allowed the yelling to sink in to both characters before they embarked on the inevitable kiss-and-make-up parade. Maybe it was a contractual thing? His scenes with Buffy were sweet, sure, but I'm not sure we actually needed them.
I understand what the show was aiming for with this episode, but there was something awkwardly underwhelming with a lot of what was depicted. It feels like everybody's checked out of this season, characters going around in circles and the major story arc feeling more strained by the week. Can we just call it a day on season four? C
Credits
Guest stars Amber Benson (Tara Maclay); Leonard Roberts (Forrest Gates); Conor O'Farrell (Colonel McNamara); George Hertzberg (Adam); Emma Caulfield (Anya); David Boreanaz (Angel)
Writer Doug Petrie Director David Grossman
Awesome review, I agree with some of what you said here.
ReplyDeleteI felt like the split, though it had been building all season, was a tad forced, but I still think that the performances sold it a lot better than it did for you, and I thought Head's drunk acting was pretty lol worthy!
As for Forests death, I think it's the biggest non-death the show ever had, no emotion or impact whatsoever, except for Riley of course.
And Angel's appearance here was for no other reason than to create some boyfriend drama with Riley. Blah.