Mr Chase om den hårda skolan:
15. School Hard
All right, where to begin? First of all *Spike rocks!*. Sorry, just hade to get that of my chest. The best villain ever to grace the Buffyverse has entered Sunnydale with his equally rockin' girlfriend Drusilla. That pair plays off each other beautifully.
Spike is sort of a hooligan punk rocker vamp and Dru is a great gothic psycho psychic, and a rather unstable one at that. But you can tell there is genuine affection between them. I honestly fear what the unpredictable Dru might do if Spike wasn't there to keep her in check. They are sweet together and utterly scary at the same time. Finally some worthy opponents for Buffy and the Slayerettes!
And that Spike kills the annoying one (who he also calls by that fan name) doesn't hurt either. He also has a history with Angel, whom he calls his "sire", which should be interesting. And poor Xander gets caught in the middle when Angel was testing Spike, even if it was probably the other way around.
Let no one doubt that there is a new vampire in town and there will be "a little less ritual and a little more fun". The unorthodox Spike throws tradition out the window and this makes him even more dangerous, plus the fact that he has already killed to slayers in the past. He ignores the night of St. Vigeous and goes hunting at parent-teacher night at Sunnydale High instead. But of course he gets stopped by Buffy, with a little help from Buffy's mom. Wow, way to go Joyce, but I still find it difficult that she -- and the rest of the school -- doesn't realize that this wasn't any ordinary gang that crashed the party.
Totally surprising on my first watch was the revelation that principal Snyder is well aware of what's going on in Sunnydale, discussing the usual cover story of "gangs on PCP" with the chief of police. This explains a lot, but he obviously still doesn't now about the slayer-watcher presence on school grounds.
Ms Calendar is there to stay with Giles and the gang and that is amusing. And she still gets to taunt the poor librarian: "Rupert, you've got to read something that was published after 1066!"
Cordelia is also there to stay. Her gradual incorporation into the gang is shown when she for no apparent reason spends many hours helping them to make stakes. And she and Xander are standing pretty close together, hmmm... The following exchange was fun:
Xander: "Does anyone remember when Saturday night meant date night?"
Cordy: "You sure don't!"
Willow doesn't do much besides clogging a vamp with a heavy bust and sneaking some stealth blows at Cordelia (the lemonade, and then the aspirin prayer scene in the closet).
Spoiler s2ep11 onwards
What's up with Cordy and closets anyway, we're bound to find out
The funniest lines belonged to Spike, who else? Part of his appeal is his twisted sense of humour even as he is preparing massive slaughter. This one from his entrance is priceless:
"If every vampire who said he was at the crucifixion was actually there, it would have been like Woodstock. I was actually at Woodstock. That was a weird gig. I fed off a flower person and spent the next six hours watching my hand move."
Oh, and Xander's "I'm puttin' a collar with a little bell on that guy" about Angel mysteriously dropping in and out was hilarious.