GREATEST ENTRANCE EVER - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reaction - 6x21 - Two to Go

[@TheLexiCrowd]

F*CK YOU Youtbe and your bs copyright system!! After 6 attempts and wasting half of my day on this the reaction finally got through copyright!! Hope you enjoys and please can i get a like for all my hard work and self control on not throwing my laptop out the window in my anger ;)

[@trufamilybromontqc]

KZbin sucks,thank you Lexi❤

[@WisdomoftheSphynx]

Enjoyed it and it was well worth your effort. Just as Spike is undergoing the “trials” YT decided you had to as well 💪

[@Henrik_Holst]

It's not YT, It's Disney

[@ulrichs3061]

A like, a hug and all our love. THANK YOU.

[@faithvictoria9014]

youtube is insane about this sometimes. well done for managing to get this out despite all that pain :)

[@pcoleman1971]

I love Clem. "Your sister is the Slayer. I'm a demon. That's a real good incentive to stay on her good side." You can always count on him to provide some levity in an otherwise intense episode.

[@jonathanandrews8188]

I love that clem's big thing is taste tests between different routes of snacks

[@juliant]

The way Alyson Hannigan embraced this dark role was just so great

[@kurtsnyder4752]

A bit of this was in full, flower, with Lily in HIMYM.

[@guybrewin556]

Agreed. Her acting was amazing!! She sis SUCH a great job!!

[@guybrewin556]

​@@kurtsnyder4752 What? Sorry, I don't understand what you mean?

[@juliant]

@@guybrewin556 he's referring to Alyson Hannigans Character Lily in the TV show How I Met your Mother (HIMYM)

[@bensneb360]

Giles, his entrance at the end is one of the most bad ass entrances I’ve ever seen

[@babygirllynn2264]

“I’d like to test that theory” whenever I see Giles’ entrance I’m always like “Yes! Daddy’s home!” Lmao idk why it’s just so iconic. Whenever Giles does something badass I’m always here for it.

[@TigerNightmare]

"I'd like to test that theory." The first time I saw this, I just involuntarily went, "Giles!" His return is one of the best moments of the entire show. It makes up for his absence entirely.

[@chasingstreetlights]

I did the exact same! Such a perfect entrance!

[@HelloXrancidkitteh]

ugh, seriously! its SO good! and A.S. Head delivered that line perfectly!

[@deirdrestatham5730]

Same! Much squeeing was had.

[@FolkFaninMA]

Oh my God, same. I actually yelled at my TV ‘Where the h*ll have you been?’ And then proceeded to dance around my living room. 😂 If I had been following the Buffy boards back then, there would have been a high probability of being spoiled for that moment. So very glad I wasn’t. It’s still one of my very favorite moments of television.

[@babygirllynn2264]

Same! I was so happy to see Giles because I was like I wish Giles would come back he could probably bring Willow back because he’s her father figure then at the end of the episode Giles entrance I screamed “Yes! Giles!”

[@iread7]

What's so good (and tragic) about this arc with Willow is that it's been building since the end of season 2, when Willow first opened herself to magic. She started using, and identifying herself with, magic more and more. Magic gave her a way to escape the image of herself as a timid, nerdy loser. Like Xander, she also has a lot of insecurity being friends with a powerful woman like Buffy. Both struggle to ever feel like they aren't beneath Buffy (which is, of course, not how Buffy thinks about them at all - they're the rock that keeps her alive physically and spiritually). We see Willow try to do a spell to eliminate her and Xander's feelings for each other in Season 3. Then she's tempted to cast a spell on Oz when he hurts her in Season 4, and then tries to cast a spell to eliminate her pain over the breakup. Season 5 she's tempted to help Dawn bring Joyce back from the dead, and doesn't truly understand why that would be wrong. Magic allows her to meet Tara, someone who makes her feel truly loved, respected, and capable (not that Oz didn't also - their relationship was just more of a high school romance, whereas the relationship with Tara was more adult). The episode Reckless shows that college Willow feels like a fake, a loser pretending to be a powerful, capable woman. Willow ties her self-worth to both magic and Tara, because both made her feel like she had fully escaped being a loser. Season 6 shows that Tara is more important to her than magic, but then Tara dies and Willow is left without any sense of how to cope with that or how she is anything without Tara - so she buries herself in magic as the only thing that helped her escape her pain and self-hatred in the past. The tragedy of all this is that most of the audience fell in love with Willow in the pilot and have loved her ever since (possibly even more than Buffy). She was kind, giving, intelligent, sassy, funny, and incredibly strong. Magic didn't make Tara fall in love with Willow - it was her vibrant and good spirit that did that. Magic was just a superficial catalyst for them to meet. But the entire course of the show up till now Willow has never been able to see what the audience and Tara see, culminating in this arc of total self-destruction.

[@4Tom4lepus4]

"which is, of course, not how Buffy thinks about them at all" .... ... Are you sure about that? Totally agree with everything else though. I love how this 3-episode arc at the end kind of moved away from the magic = drugs narrative that the beginning of season 6 had pushed very very hard (bc I hated it) and instead moved it closer to a psychological place and, as you say, tying it to Willow's self-worth, self-image and her psychology as someone who was bullied and picked on for most of her life. It's a tragic but also fascinating and relatable development for her character, which is why even though I adore Tara, I'm glad we got this ending.

[@iread7]

@@4Tom4lepus4 Buffy's relationship to her friends is complicated. She does see herself as being superior or different in the sense of being physically stronger and having a destiny that they don't, but this isn't something she lords over them. It mainly manifests in Buffy feeling isolated. There are things that Xander and Willow just can't understand, because they don't have the responsibility that Buffy does (although she deserves the credit for actively and consistently choosing to take on this responsibility). The main point that I was trying to make is that Buffy sees Xander and Willow as far more capable and important to her than either of them realizes. Dark Willow referred to Willow as a "sidekick," and I don't think Buffy thinks of her friends as sidekicks. She may be the leader of the Scooby Gang, but that doesn't make them mere subordinates. Particularly now, they are her family.

[@DanielOrme]

@@4Tom4lepus4 Well said! The terrible magic=crack metaphor was the one thing that I hated about Season 6. The show had spent so much time beautifully setting up how Willow's growing and compulsive use of magic was predicated on her sense of self-worth, only to turn it into a literal addiction. This episode managed to get it back to what it should have been (mostly. The "Willow's a junkie" line is a last remnant of the literal magic=drugs idea, which we can now ignore).

[@mintyfresh3533]

*Restless

[@4Tom4lepus4]

@@DanielOrme 100% agree. I cringed so impossibly hard at their less-than-subtle magic = drug metaphor. Like, the whole "getting high on it" thing, the withdrawal symptoms, all of that was *so bad*, especially since the two seasons before showed how much Willow used it to define herself, her worth and express herself, without ANY physical type of reaction. It's what it should have been all along.

[@spaceshiplewis]

Tara's death is truly an UNFAIR death in terms of TV writing. This season is all about the realities of life. *The hardest thing in this world is to live in it* . Your loved one can get randomly shot and taken away in a blink of an eye. Unlike in TV, there is no build up to the inevitable or dramatic death scene or heroic sacrifice. Just a tiny piece of metal striking a vital organ. There is shock, denial, anger, denial, blame, denial, hate, rage all the grief. But this time the writers don't hold your hand to slowly walk you through through it, the story doesn't tell you what to feel or when to feel it. If you want to feel hate, you can feel that, if you want to stay in denial, you can do that. If you want to disassociate and not feel anything, that's ok too. Real life is like that. All you can do is keep on living, even on autopilot. The Big Bad in Season 6 is Life Itself. Life sucks.

[@spaceshiplewis]

And YES you can also feel like death is dumb. When a mother absentmindedly waves bye to her child and then that child gets shot at school, that's dumb. Real Life has a lot of "bad writing" and there is no melodrama.

[@guybrewin556]

Agreed, I think it's great!! It was just so quick and unexpected without any of the suspensful build up that usually comes with movies, TV shows etc... It's so much more realistic due to that. These few episodes remind me of The Body quite a lot... While they have a VERY different feel, tone, pace, etc. I still find them quite similar because A) They're two of the most realistic deaths in the show, both in terms of the actual death being realistic rather than supernatural, but also/mostly because as I said, it doesn't FEEL like a TV death with all the build up and sacrifice, nobility, meaning etc, they're just two sad deaths that came out of seemingly nowhere and for no reason... The deaths didn't have any meaning and nothing was achieved by them dying... Anyway, and B) I feel like they're both an examination of grief... But where The Body is an examination of grief manifesting in shock, The last 3 episodes of season 6 is about grief manifested in pure unadulterated rage!! If you take out the supernatural elements, it's super realistic. I think they're great, and the climax is super moving, touching, sad, etc. I've never understood why people hate it so much. I can understand people's kiddies with the rest of the season, but I don't get why people don't like the last 3 episodes.

[@echalone]

this... life is, after all, absurd :D

[@infinitygames9317]

Good to see people DO actually understand that. I think with a lot of newer audiences watching shows, they sometimes expect a lot more idealism. I see online quite a lot of people taking issue with Tara's death but I think it kind of had to happen. I was gutted, don't get me wrong. I love Tara. But Willow needed something to shove her off the edge, that could ONLY be Tara. Not only that though, but you're right when you say this season's big bad is life. Another example of all this is in TLOU Part 2. When that came out, the biggest hissy fit ever came with it over the death of Joel Miller. Certain people began to believe that if he had to die, it should've been in a heroic sacrifice. But if every main character death in fiction is a heroic sacrifice, that starts to get incredibly stupid. Sometimes, a random death is what a show, film or game needs. It worked in Game of Thrones a lot. It works here too.

[@Marwolaeth01]

There are a few moments in different tv shows that are so epic that I can’t wait for reaction channels to finally reach them. Giles’ entrance in this episode probably is number 1 on this list. The way they avoided spoiling his return meant I had no idea at all who had blasted willow until got to see him standing there. All the way through the reaction to him leaving, knowing he had to in order to return like this? Just genius. I think it was the Angel episode where Willow turns up to tell him about Buffy’s death where you said something about her not speaking to avoid having to put the actors name in the titles at the beginning of the show, and all I could think was how I’m glad they still put his name at the end of this one if that is the case. And, for the record, the reaction was 10/10… did not disappoint. There may even have been a tear or two at your delight.

[@katequick3602]

I always interpreted Tara's death as the unintended cost of bringing Buffy back from the dead at the bwginning of the season. I never felt Willow sacrificing a fawn was really the exchange required but that the PTBs took back a life important to Willow to pay for the life given - which was why it was so random.

[@TheMonkeyShowOnline]

As someone who LOVES this show, and has seen the whole thing multiple times, and thinks S6 is the absolute best season, and who has spent a lot of time thinking/talking about characters and plotlines... ...I never once thought/heard this theory, and I'm 100% accepting it as the perfect explanation for how 'random' Tara's death seems!!

[@4Tom4lepus4]

Idk about that, because Osiris never states anything to that effect when talking to Willow in 6x20. If that had been the case, I think they would have brought it up to push Willow over the edge even more.

[@zemoxian]

Interesting. I just always felt it was so random because it often is random. It’s just so unexpectedly senseless and realistic. Bystanders get hit all the time and it’s all so devastating. I’ve heard how this is supposed to be lazy or bad writing with the fridge your gays trope combo and everything. I still can’t help but feel devastated by Tara’s death.

[@TheGabygael]

I love that

[@Henrik_Holst]

@@4Tom4lepus4 and adding to it that, if Tara:s death had been the cost of magic, would that not have made her death supernatural and thus reversible with magic?

[@LiamDuke]

Ain't no entrance like a Rupert Giles entrance

[@TheLexiCrowd]

Simply the greatest!!

[@jonaskoelker]

He look at door, he Rip 'er right open.

[@nomohakon6257]

"I love a good entrance" "How are you at death scenes" Gold

[@TheMonkeyShowOnline]

"I'd like to test that theory," is one of my favorite moments of any show of all time :-)

[@BenBanjo87]

"Mom? Buffy? Tara? Waaah!" Can't deny, that was funny!! 😂

[@sueg3650]

Does anybody recognize "Rack" from Season 3's "Helpless"? He played Zachary Kralik during Buffy's 18th birthday test, the Tento di Cruciamentum.

[@robertmckenna3994]

In the immortal words of Principal Snyder,”In case you haven’t noticed, the police in Sunnydale are deeply stupid.”

[@Girl4Music]

RACK: “Tell me, Strawberry. What in this world do you want?” WILLOW: “Just to take a little tour.” Somebody else that deserved to die. Just the thought of what he did to her - with her… 😔

[@painlord2k]

It is X-Men's Dark Phoenix on Willow. Her love (Tara/Cyclops) die she go dark and crazy. The one manipulating her (Rack/Mastermind) believe he can control her and get wrecked- terminally. Jiles is Prof. X in this, of course.

[@Girl4Music]

@@painlord2k was Dark Phoenix a prostitute?

[@halloweenbeautyqueen666]

​@emmawilson809 Uh...no. Jean Grey gets brainwashed by a pervy mutant with illusion powers to join his group of evil mutants. Evil mutant snobs who dress like 18th century aristocrats (♂️) and Victorian courtesans (♀️).....it was a whole thing. Go read The Dark Phoenix saga, it's worth it!

[@Girl4Music]

@@halloweenbeautyqueen666 nah thanks. Nice to know Whedon and Fury are comic geeks though.

[@halloweenbeautyqueen666]

@Girl4Music Yeah, Whedon even had an acclaimed run on the X-men comic series. I think Buffy did Dark Phoenix a lot better than the live action X-men movies ever did. You get the gist!

[@Girl4Music]

Willow potraying Vampire Willow in ‘Doppelgängland’: “She bothered me. She's so weak and accommodating. She's always letting people walk all over her. And then she gets cranky with her friends for no reason. I just *couldn't* let her live.” Dark Willow in ‘Two To Go’: “Let me tell you something about Willow. She’s a loser. And she always has been. People picked on Willow through junior high, high school, right up until college. With her stupid mousy ways. And now? Willow's a junkie.” Well damn... The self-loathing is subtle but it is there. Interesting how she can only admit this about herself when she’s technically “someone else”.... Remind you of anyone?

[@camilleoreilly7063]

Faith?

[@Girl4Music]

@@camilleoreilly7063 yep. Faith Victoria has some really great character study parallel videos for them and it reveals how much Willow and Faith are alike as far as their dark phases and murder streaks go.

[@3dflux]

Lexi, your reaction to the Giles reveal is like a ray of sunshine

[@heather9857]

So let's talk about the Season 6 Big Bad now! : D Every time you contemplated the "little meanies" being the Big Bad of S6, I couldn't wait for you to get here. I love hearing different opinions and yours was different than mine regarding Tara's death. Tara's hit me hard because it was the concept of people don't always die for a cause, or from an illness. Sometimes people die because of random stupid shit. And it's meaningless. And that meaningless is painful, because it was so stupid, meant nothing and there was no reason for it to happen. I experienced this with a neighbor of mine and it haunted me for so long.

[@adrianopaparoni5584]

As fans we mirror the emotions of the grieving characters because we feel empathy towards them. Willow is vengeful, she feels rage and hatred. There was no grief to mirror in the previous episode. Since we are not processing an actual personal loss to us, the first impression, our first way of relating to that event, sticks with us. The empathy we feel towards Willow overpowers the grief we feel for the loss of Tara. Just a theory.

[@kirielbranson4843]

I agree. Except with Dawn, little time was spent on Tara being killed and the rest on Willow's rage.

[@saaaaltydaaalty310]

Thank you Lexi, I was having a lazy and lackluster Sunday waiting for the new Succession episode, then you come through to brighten this gloomy afternoon! 🖤

[@jp3813]

Your criticism of Tara's death kinda mirrors After Show Reactions' criticism of not being given enough time to mourn her passing. Her death was mostly treated as a plot device to make way for Dark Willow, the actual Big Bad of the season.

[@painlord2k]

The point being, when you get a loss from "random" violence, it is sudden, without warning, without reason or logic. You have no time to mourn, elaborate, digest what happened. In a form is like with "The Body", just there is an actual human to blame and throw your rage at.

[@jp3813]

@@painlord2k The point being that Tara was given such an exit. "Random violence" in this show was specifically chosen by the writers.

[@cruzinbosco]

Your reaction to the end!!! I love it so much! 🥰🥰🥰

[@travisbell736]

I’ve said this on other rectors about this episode that Giles has the best entrance EVER

[@elenavalsecchi]

I have many different feelings regarding Tara's death, I've changed my mind so many times and heard so many points of view that probably the way to sum it up is that, for me at least, it was a death that served the plot not a death that served the character. I don't know if there was another way to plausibly get Dark Willow (which was the priority I think) with Tara alive without completely messing up their relationship, and I also get the message behind her death being so random, however I feel that Tara as a character had still a lot to say and bring to the show. Maybe I would've accepted better her demise if she had been explored more as an individual during her and Willow's break up. She proved herself worthy of that in the glimpses that we saw of her relationship with Buffy. I the end though, even if I know it was done purely for adding angst, I'm glad we got to see Tillow back for one more time, cause to me it's probably the best relationship in the show and ending it with them apart would've been devastating for me.

[@Michael75579]

Tara's death was definitely done for plot reasons; apparently the show's writers have said that if Seth Green hadn't left the show and Willow and Oz were still together then it would have been Oz's death that sent Willow over the edge.

[@dmwalker24]

You're right, it was definitely for the plot, and not the character. It really did have to go down this way though. Going down the Dark Willow road any other way would have removed the sympathy for her. In this scenario we all completely understand what she's doing, even if we're not flat-out cheering for it. The problem is, there's no way to really bring her back if she turns evil without suffering some horrible injustice in the process. She has to be a victim too. And if she had turned evil while Tara was alive it would have been much darker.

[@elenavalsecchi]

​@@dmwalker24 couldn't have said it better

[@4Tom4lepus4]

@@elenavalsecchi I know what you mean. Tara had so much untapped potential as a character and we saw hints of it in season 6 with her growing friendship with Buffy outside of just being Willow's girlfriend, but at the end of the day, there's a hierarchy of importance to these characters.... and Willow at this point WAS the secondary main character and her story had a higher priority than Tara's. So as much as it sucked to lose Tara, I absolutely understand why they made that choice. (Ngl, I'm a bit of a lunatic, and knowing they would have killed Oz like this too almost makes me sad that Oz left the show - I love Tara x Willow much more than Oz x Willow, but if they had killed off a character who'd been on the show SO LONG in this random way... I would have loved to see that)

[@jp3813]

@@4Tom4lepus4 Well, Angel was just a supporting character until becoming a main one. Since Giles left the show, it would've been nice if Tara was promoted from the beginning of the season.

[@darthekul1]

Jonathan really said "frick us , go to jail do not collect 200 $"

[@peachy_lili]

my old Buffy fan brain stumbling upon new people watching and remembering how gnarly it was. I was like "..oh yeah, Willow FLAYED a guy!"

[@ruth2141]

About the way they killed Tara. Maybe you are lucky enough never to have lost someone you love to violence, but let me tell you -- it's always random, it's always stupid, and it never makes sense. And it isn't caused by a super villain or in some great battle against evil. It's caused by some stupid, selfish, thoughtless, random act of violence.

[@joymallory3405]

Exactly the way I’ve always seen her death. In the same way Joyce was killed by medical complications, these are moments where real life is more tragic than any supernatural plot because it’s so simple and fast that it feels unfair. No build up, no preparation for “battle”, just the tragedy of reality (things we don’t even want to talk about irl)

[@deirdrestatham5730]

@@joymallory3405 Yep. That’s why some of the deaths on the show hit harder because they are random or natural in a world where the fantastical is always happening.

[@jp3813]

I've lost a younger cousin that way, but the difference is I definitely had time to grieve. Since this show immediately wanted to get to Dark Willow, Tara's death was given very little time to sink in.

[@jp3813]

@@joymallory3405 Except Joyce was given plenty of time to be mourned.

[@ruth2141]

@@jp3813 The reason there was no grieving time was that Willow didn't take time to grieve or tell anyone what happened. To me, it's a continuation of the drug addiction metaphor that, instead of thinking about Tara, Willow immediately tries to "self-medicate" with magic.

[@becait]

i will always have mixed feelings about Tara's death but i will say that the feeling of no build up/set-up to the death, the way perhaps Jenny, Kendra, or Joyce seems apt for a death by gun violence.

[@jordanmatthewstelck]

I know I'm late to watching this but I remember watching this when it first aired and I threw the remote at the tv when giles appeared 😂

[@Kap00rwith2os]

27:45 SUCH a good entrance, gave me legit chills 😍😍😍

[@kirstiebriggs3068]

I just got up and this is the first thing I watched ❤️ Lexi your delight at Giles return was just perfect 👌 you sounded like an excited chipmunk which was so funny and sweet 😄 love your reactions SO MUCH!!! 😍 XxXxX

[@haddow777]

I love this show. Like, it usually takes a few watches, but this was foreshadowed in the pilot episode. At least, they planted the seed for Willow being dark then. We all fell for her wholesome innocence which reallu only first cracked when we got s glimpse of Vampire Willow. Vampire Willow was awesome, because she not only exposed Willow being gay, but also that she is really one of the baddest characters of the team. So, how did Willow's dark side first get exposed in the Pilot? The scene where she hacked into the City's computers. (Episode 2 is rhe second half of the pilot for any nitpickers). Look through all of Willow's past and you will see she was mainly a staunch rule follower, except that was never true. She was deathly afraid of getting in trouble and letting people down. Also, she was terrified of not being the best. So, having a tardy on her record was dearh incarnate to her. Her rule following was only so far as it would look to other people. In secret where no one could watch her though, it was a different matter. She gave away in the Pilot that she routinely hacked past firewalls and such to see what others hid from the world. As much to learn how to as much as to see what people didn't want her to see. Also, look at her learning magic. Every step of the way Giles had been trying to stop her and every step of the way, she would go through his stuff and find his private stashes. Even when she was kidnapped, she stayed there with killers to sneak a peak through the Mayor's office. The big difference between vampire Willow and Willow was that vampire Willow stopped caring about what people thought about her. That and regular Willow as a human has a conscience. Its not as lilly white pure as snow as we all believed. A part of dark Willow here is the dark magic taking over, but another part of it is the real Willow that's been obfuscated behind fear of others reactions being freed from any constraints. This is why I really love this show. So many shows have sudden twists in characters where they seem to awkwardly shift to acting a certain way that dosen't fit with the character development through the show. In Buffy, seeds were planted long ago for many of the actions they take now. Makes the rewatches almost better than the first time because you pick up on all these things you couldn't see before.

[@borgtennis]

Best reveal I'd ever seen at the time. The other one that was also a shocker was in 24, when in a rare occasion when Jack was surrounded with no options left and his best friend, we all thought dead showed up!!!! TV was at it's height.

[@tehcoolemu]

11:45 "Jonathan having his priorities straight." Yup. Andrew's priorities in that moment were decidedly not-straight. XD

[@invadertifxiii]

I disagree, I feel like it was done right because willow was meant to be the big bad of season 6 all along. They've been building it all season even last season

[@Girl4Music]

Yes, okay. Tara had to die for us to get Dark Willow but she still didn’t have to die like that. It’s the way she died that’s all wrong. Not that she died.

[@betaich]

The bigbad of season 6 was life itself and life sucks even if you are happy in one moment the next tragedy could strike like it did in a major way like with Tara @@Girl4Music

[@Girl4Music]

@@betaich boring. Done before. And Dark Willow is the Big Bad in my eyes.

[@bringmethecaah]

i clicked on this so fast, was so excited for you to see giles!!!

[@miktuna-jw8im]

Your excitement is so genuine. It makes my day!

[@painlord2k]

For all the talk about Dark Willow being unrestrained, if you analyze her words and her actions, it becomes apparent she is trying to scare the people she loves away from herself because she feel unworthy of them. When she talk about herself as a junky, you see her self denigrating aspect. Her "there is no coming back" is her decision to self destroy because her life is too much painful without Tara and with her sudden loss and she believes she will be forever alone. Silly girl. Like Buffy, she has friends that love her unconditionally.

[@scary2zombies]

"she got a lil angry huh" 😭 me describing wanda in multiverse of madness after killing off the illuminati

[@Girl4Music]

Posting my BUFFY REWATCH recap for ‘Two To Go’. May contain spoilers. The two people that ever wronged Willow the most are Warren and Veruca. And the way they wrong her the most are because of being the catalysts for her losing her lovers. Veruca made Oz walk out the door by manipulating him into thinking the wolf was who he was. Warren made Willow lose Tara by accidentally killing her. Anything that happened to Willow herself at any point didn’t cause her as much pain as anything that happened to her loved ones. Willow wrapped her entire self around the people she cared about that when she was without them, she was gone. After losing Oz: “I feel like I’ve been split down the center and half of me is lost.” After losing Tara: “The only thing I had going for me were the moments, just moments, when Tara would look at me and I was wonderful.” There’s a co-dependency to Willow’s character that is so fascinating to think and write about for me since I have never experienced this loss of identity in myself. So why then does she turn on and against her loved ones in this episode? If that of which causes her the most pain is pain to and losing her loved ones, why is she now suddenly attempting to hurt them? Well, the answer to that has already been answered. They’re in the way of her greater plans while she is riddled with an intense and confusing blend of emotions and themes that she cannot differentiate between because she’s lost all sense and control of self: anger, hatred, grief, vengeance, sorrow, pain and power. These greater plans that take most priority override everything else that matters at the moment and they’re being driven by all these emotions and themes at once. She’s running on nothing else but pure animalism. The more and more power she accumulates and absorbs into herself, the worse this gets. And the more and more people get in her way, innocent or not, loved ones or not, the more and more her rage is fuelled. The more and more likely she is to turn evil and completely lose all of her humanity. The more and more likely that she is to become a monster just like any demon or vampire. She’s at the brink here. She could topple over and submerge herself into the empty abyss, taking everything and everyone with her, at any moment. But there’s a reason why she doesn’t. At least, not yet. There is still a part of her that is clinging on to the surface, to the ground beneath her feet. To life and to humanity. And the reason is Tara. For the few moments that she thinks of Tara and all that Tara means to her, all of which Tara has done for her, and how much Tara loved her, she is propelled back to herself and back to the excruciatingly painful thought that Tara is gone. And then the whole cycle starts all over again. She’s mentally and emotionally stuck in a cycle between the immediate and stark urgency to kill Jonathan and Andrew and the dull ache of not wanting to bother at all if it doesn’t make a difference to the outcome. If it doesn’t bring her Tara back. If it doesn’t make her feel any better. But alas, because of the corruptive power of black magic, the former wins out. Now the question is would throwing around physical reflections and reminders of her roots in nerdism be more satisfying than throwing around a reflection and reminder of what grew her out of it? Not likely. ‘Cause it’s like the woman cannot live if she’s not living for somebody else - be it for the better or for the worse. Buffy and Willow’s showdown in ‘Two To Go’ is years of repressed jealousy, resentment and ignorance boiling to spill over. This showdown that occurs at the climax of this episode is the legendary Caesar VS Brutus showdown. WILLOW: “So. Here we are.” BUFFY: “Are we really gonna do this?” WILLOW: “Come on, this is a huge deal for me! Six years as a side man, and now I get to be the Slayer.” BUFFY: “A killer isn't a Slayer. Being a Slayer means something you can't conceive of.” WILLOW: “Oh, Buffy. You really need to have every square inch of your ass kicked.” BUFFY: “Then show me what you got. And I'll show you what a Slayer really is.” When it came right down to it, Willow perceived Buffy as a violent inhuman thing that would ultimately expose her greatest fear. And yet she’s the one that turned into the monster all because she couldn’t let her anger and hatred go and let the magic power that made her something a little more than human go to her head. Willow’s perception of Anya in her ‘Restless’ nightmare when her perception of Buffy unveiled her perception of herself: “It’s exactly like a Greek tragedy.” Definition of ‘Greek tragedy’ by Collins Dictionary: a play in which the protagonist, usually a person of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances with which he or she cannot deal FAITH VICTORIA: “Just like how the Roman empire fell because of inner corruption, Willow became Dark Willow because of her inability to reconcile her inner turmoil with her misuse of magic, and fell from grace in her own way.”

[@celinelia8127]

21:04 i lost my virginity when i was 29. so, what does that say about me? ... Mr Whedon?

[@steffanixoom]

I agree with the beginning, it felt like we all collectively lost Joyce. It felt like she died. It felt like they took the character of Tara away from us, it didn't feel like the *loss* of the character. I feel the writers didn't treat it with the gravity of the other losses. Where is the funeral, where is the grief? we didn't get any of it, we just got Tara taken away from the story, she wasn't mourned really

[@jsbaldo5556]

I'm really proud of Joss Whedon for KNOWING not to ruin important moments with the credits! You never have to worry with him, in fact some times he uses them as Misdirects like with Tara showing up just to die I have had to hide my eyes during credits of new seasons using just intuition on episodes I know I need to not know anything You would be SURPRISED how UNCOMMON it is to Mess with credits randomly, instead they will straight up reveal everything about an episode or new character before they are revealed, but Joss doesn't care about the standard or time or money to be careful with the credits, I've always wanted to create shows, and this is how I knew to do it and was always annoyed with how much They DO NOT CARE about spoiling with credits but once I found Joss's shows I was just applauding! That btw special guest star anthony at the end was like TAKE THAT AUDIENCE, YOU HAD NO IDEA! hha

[@Alifirecat]

Your intros slay me! -subscribing-

[@alooncnej4696]

excellent episode and ending of course, the interactions between Anya and Xander, Buffy and Willow, this season is so well written

[@KT-iy9vc]

I think the way Tara's death was written made sense for the plot. If they wanted Willow to go over the edge, sudden and "random" death was the way to go.

[@The_One_In_Black]

I don't know about that. There's a reason women in refrigerators is considered one of the laziest, most hated, and often misogynistic tropes in fiction.

[@sirmoonslosthismind]

@@The_One_In_Black killing loved ones is the most effective way to traumatize/motivate a character. it's the essence of storytelling. "women in refrigerators" are a trope because usually the main character is a heterosexual man and thus the loved one is a woman. but in a show where most of the main cast are female, killing women is kind of inevitable.

[@eduardofilippi7698]

I think you're right. The stupidity of that raised a 25-meter wave that both Willow and the audience surfed together.

[@Buffy8Fan]

I was curious about the introduction to the video vs Lexi's reaction. Sweet was more subdued. 🤣

[@TheLexiCrowd]

I didn’t wanna be upstaged in my own video 😂😂

[@ferrisulf]

I don't know what they had to do to get the special guest star part listed AFTER the episode. So many times appearances were spoiled when we caught someone's name before they appeared in an episode.

[@kyleellis1825]

Anya tortured for 1'000 years. She doesn't get to just ignore the fact that her actions is the reason Xander got the future visions.

[@balldalt]

Wow. Great commentary. Very insightful.

[@commonstragedy]

The other reason for the way they had Tara die was a plot device for causing Willow to go to the dark side.

[@hauntedbelle]

Your reaction to Giles is exactly the same as mine was when I watched it back when it first aired. Only jumping was involved in my case.

[@katiewhite190]

Your reaction to Giles was exactly mine when this ep aired.

[@Jontor11]

Best entrance...ever💯

[@Nexusofgeek]

that was a cool reaction. I think we were all surprised when Giles comes back to try to get the house in order. Very cool episode and the finale is just as amazing. Can't wait for that. Actually I have been rewatching this season and it isn't until this year that I realized this was telegraphed all the way back in episode 3 or 4. Very nicely done

[@invadertifxiii]

Omfg ur reaction to giles is priceless ❤

[@ryanbrooks8045]

It was definitely done to further the plot. It was done to push Willow over the edge. The problem is that the way they did it, it reduced her from a real character to a plot device.

[@Girl4Music]

They could have done the former and still avoided the latter. They just didn’t care.

[@lisas_long_lost_forehead6085]

Very much disagree with you. I've seen people being accidentally killed. No epic wise last words, no sense in happening at all. Person was here and now they are not.

[@Girl4Music]

@@lisas_long_lost_forehead6085 yeah, well they’ve done that many times before. It doesn’t tell us anything new. It’s just this time it’s happening to Willow.

[@tempsim9192]

Ima watchin before they take ya down Lexi!

[@Anthonylokison]

The reason why "Joss Whedon" had Tara killed off was to make Willow the Big Bad for this season. This season had all the hints: * Bring Buffy back using powerful Magics. * Feeling guilty for stealing Buffy from Heaven with Magic. * Using Magic to make Tara forget (more than once). * Getting caught by Tara for making her forget. * Tara leaving her for using magic and lying to her (more than once) * Willow has the power to change Amy back into a human. * Amy takes Willow out for a night of Bar Magic hopping. * Amy introduces Willow to the Warlock Rack who juices up her powers. All these things leading up and at the same time we are led to believe the Villains for this season are "The Trio" the 3 stooges "Lex Luthor wanna be's" that just so happens to be the "Straw that breaks the Camel's back", and Boom, Willow, Big Bad. And from this episode, the best line: "I'd like to test that Theory".

[@deirdrestatham5730]

It only took them 6 full seasons to figure out a special guest star surprise is ruined by the opening credits. lol

[@sirmoonslosthismind]

figuring out isn't the same as fixing. there are contractual obligations to deal with.

[@deirdrestatham5730]

@@sirmoonslosthismind I know how all of that works. I wasn’t dead serious. Hence the “lol”. Chill.

[@laura-327]

27:54 i felt that in my soul 😂

[@invadertifxiii]

Onfg ur reaction to giles is priceless ❤

[@Figgy5119]

Just curious for all the people who think Tara's death was a stupid writing choice, if the theme of the season is fighting your inner demons so we still want to result in a finale against Dark Willow, how do you propose we would have gotten there without it?

[@nathanielbacon2661]

It will always drive me nuts that Willow is able to fight Buffy hand to hand. The spell she casts on herself gives her strength equal to the slayer's, but none of her skill or agility or training. That fight should have been over in 30 seconds with Willow unconscious.

[@Girl4Music]

She would have been. But Buffy was pulling her punches.

[@NeloBladeOfRanni]

I mean she's most likely using her telekenisis to further enhance her physical fighting abilities

[@nathanielbacon2661]

@NeloBladeOfRanni Telekinesis doesn't give you martial arts training or faster reflexes. Buffy should have bodied her.

[@trexinvert]

For fans that favor season 3 and 5, they must never forget that only season 6 has the showdown between Dark Willow vs Buffy and also Giles.

[@TheJayden3977]

Season 6 is my close second favourite season after 5. That was great, but the showdowns between Glory and Buffy, and Glory and Willow were great.

[@kurtsnyder4752]

Rack wracked, racked, and wrecked

[@trufamilybromontqc]

The ending of this episode was so badass❤

[@celinelia8127]

the thing is that sure, story-wise Tara's death is kind of non-foreshadowed, but it is very common in the USA in the real world. being a random v;ctim of a sh00ting, where the sh00ter wasn't even targeting you.. it's something that happens a lot.

[@Theomite]

It was only a few years after watching this episode that I noticed a major plot hole: Willow knows about Hell dimensions along with the rest of the Scoobies. So why doesn't anyone tell her that she'll be reunited with Tara in death but not if she embraces Darkness. Telling her that she'll be cutting herself off from Tara entirely for eternity might've scared her out of DarkWillow mode.

[@Spalove]

No it wouldn’t. At this point I don’t think Willow cares what happens to her. She’s going through the grieving process. There’s very little room to stop and think logically.

[@notoriouslybratty]

Omgosh, KZbin stopped recommending your videos to me. I have to go back and watch a bunch of videos.

[@stanleysmith2221]

Fantastic reaction Fantastic episode 👏

[@rexracer3221]

Dark Willow... The Key was spelled into Dawn, so it probably could be undone with a powerful enough counter-spell. I thought Dark Willow wanted to tap into the power of The Key since it's pure mystical energy. That could've been a major motive.

[@afry6400]

I think the deal might be that most of those previous deaths were drawn out a bit. I think Tara's death was just so random and unexpected even if it was to set up this season's finale. I think they were purposefully trying to focus mostly on Willow and her pain and anger over Tara suddenly being dead.

[@FREEkdaman]

Tara's death while random, is a good representation of living in the good old US of A. Being angry is the right reaction to senseless gun violence.

[@kurtsnyder4752]

Tara's demise was to show the randomness of life,the collateral damage from others unintended consequences damage.

[@killianlpc]

A great title for this episode Willow now in true 'Darkman' mode, revenge is all that is driving her, and the other two, Andrew and Jonathan seem doomed. Anya explaining in a matter of fact way to the Prison Guard what is going to happen is very funny. Her chase is relentless, and the scream she lets out outside the Prison is really chilling. The other part of the story arc is Spike's quest to complete the tasks. Prophetic words indeed when Buffy says is she is running low on magic power, she is gonna need to juice up soon, and we switch to the abominable Rack. Willow of course is now more powerful as him, and takes his strength. The Willow and Dawn conversation is interesting, with Willow's now piercing eyes looking straight onto Dawn's mind. Willow saying to Dawn you weren't always human, and why is she crying as she is just a mystical ball of energy, this is so hurtful to Dawn. Funny too when Jonathan and Andrew are arguing and Anya says ' the annoying Virgin has a point '. Great dramatic and painful conversation in The Magic Box with Xander and Anya. Willow's great scene with Buffy at Rack's where she seems to release all her pent up anger and hurt she has endured over the years of Bullying and being thought of as a nerd, and now feels she has the power to take revenge on all is a very interesting concept from the writers, it seems now as she refers to herself as a 'junkie' but feels the need to get even on everybody. The killer line here is when Willow says to Buffy, 'you hate it here even more than I do'. We switch back to Spike briefly to see he has more tasks to complete, which is interesting as this story is sidelined here as the main event is in the Magic Box, but the Spike storyline even though peripheral here, is probably the most important for the whole Series! The Buffy/Willow showdown was inevitable. It seems so bitter when Willow says to Buffy 'years of being your sideman' there seems to almost actual hate and jealousy towards her here, she is of course just too powerful now, but a brilliant ending scene Willow is thrown across the room, and we see the return of a 'juiced up' Giles, great satisfaction for the viewer here setting up a great Finale.

[@B-Dad]

A fun read one day is the buffy novel dark twilight!?! Which is an alternate take on what could have happened with Willow that goes on for 3 books I believe. Very fun read.👍🏾😁

[@kyleellis1825]

Warren manslaughtered Tara. He didn't technically murder her because he had no intention of doing so.

[@Girl4Music]

He killed her. He has no remorse of doing so. That was enough.

[@kyleellis1825]

@@Girl4Music Oh I fully agree with his fate. Just pointing out what the crime technically was. Warren did murder Buffy though (or would have if Willow hadn't interefered). Tara would only have added about 5-10 years to his sentence. Buffy would have been a 25-life. Edit: Also, Katrina. He full on 2nd degree murdered her.

[@Girl4Music]

@@kyleellis1825 very true

[@zemoxian]

I sometimes wonder how fast Buffy can run. 25? 35mph?

[@jamescarson6823]

A death like Tara's actually happens in real life. Happened to a friend of mine many years ago. He caught a stray bullet at a robbery at a 7-11. Dead on the scene. He wasn't a target. The gunman panicked and fired. Hit my friend in the heart. Died almost instantly. I don't think it's to manipulate the audience. It's to show that f^cked up things happen sometimes.

[@sisterdebmac]

Once again, your feelings about what Joss did to Tara are on the nose with the way we all felt back in the day. We were pissed. Too mad and incredulous to be sad.

[@allocat5867]

Tara's death was a classic example of kill your gays... Totally makes sense to be angry about it instead of sad.

[@fighterck6241]

You need to watch What We do in the Shadows after the Buffyverse!😊

[@TheLexiCrowd]

That show is so high on my list!

[@JohnDoe-ls2zu]

@@TheLexiCrowd What We do in the Shadows is the perfect show for your sense of humor. You are going to laugh so hard!!

[@adamsteiff98]

Buffy gave countless number of emotional deaths. A shocking out-of-pocket death was definitely the perfect choice for Tara. It didn’t make me cry. Those types of things do happen, and the fact that they do it with Tara makes it all the more real.

[@davidmcleod5133]

Regarding your speech at the beginning regarding Tara and her death… yeah, that makes sense. I understand completely. I’ve always thought that in addition to “burying your gays,” the writers were guilty of “fridging” her (a trope popularized by comics in which something terrible happens to a side character -often a female love interest- to spur action on the hero’s part). They needed to get to an evil Willow, therefore Tara had to die. Lazy writing.

[@notoriouslybratty]

With all the horrible gun violence in the US, Tara’s death probably resonates with more and more people unfortunately.

[@peaceisnature]

Giles!

[@TJTrusty111]

Uh oh. Daddy's home.

[@sjbenson5618]

Hi Lexi I just want to point out is Nobody is important except Willow and Tara, Buffy, Warren, Dawn, and Xander don't understand who is more important here! Tara is dead, the sweetest most caring soul died from a selfish, self-centered prick, Nobody is hearing Willow. If a human killed Joyce then it would be all about Buffy and her getting justice over her mother's murder. They don't get it at all. it's not always about Buffy! It's Willow and Tara's time: Ps Willow did a lesbian vengeance scream

[@AndreaMGC]

I feel like they killed Tara just to get Evil Willow. There isn't really anything else that would have gotten her to be this evil except to lose Tara so that's what they did. I agree that it didn't have the emotional impact that she deserved but, like you, it made me angry and I wanted blood just like Willow did. Maybe that was their goal? To make us angry instead of sad? That way we could still relate and understand Willow's turn to evil. It's a narrow window where we go from cheering her on to kill people, and then saying "okay... whoa... too far...". I kind of love that.

[@kurtsnyder4752]

🎼🎶🎵He's got a theory, a little theory to test

[@crawdaddy1234]

I think Tara’s death was handled very well, actually. It seemed “random,” because sometimes life is random. * The “Big Bad” for season six isn’t the Trio or Dark Willow. The Big Bad is life, itself. * The reason the Trio were chosen as the ongoing villains is because they are immature in contrast of the Scoobies trying to figure out life - bills, marriage, depression (Buffy), drugs (Willow), etc.

[@blackkatt777]

It was a legitimate reason for Tara's death. In any modern day hero show or movie, the villain isn't evil for the sake of being evil. They're usually a good person who suffers a traumatic tragedy....Wanda Maximoff for example. So, Tara's death followed that formula. Plus, it drove home a point that this show...mostly by the Buffy character, that guns are stupid, useless and cause more trouble than solve them. The actor that played Sarjon (can't spell it right) the bad guy that helped Holtz take away Angel's son... Anyways, that actor played a werewolf hunter when hunting Oz and Buffy took his rifle and bent it. The episode Earshot. And I believe it was season 3 or 4 when she held a rifle and then tossed it and said "these....not helpful" So they make social points without being preachy, in a way the audience knows but can still make the point relevant to the story arc. And as Ramsey Bolton would say "If you think this story has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." Happiness is short lived in this supernatural world. The Scoobies joked about it at the end of an episode and then stopped laughing when they realized it might be true...foreshadowing perhap?...🤷🏾‍♀️ #TeamDarkWillow

[@jenhalbert3001]

You should dig the next episode, too.

[@Ateezwooyoung]

19:38 what? You wanted that so badly now you have what you wanted. That’s the price for vengeances. You cheered for Willow completely forgetting the consequences. Like everyone else. „An eye for an eye, makes the world go blind“ Revenge is never the answer, it just starts a circle or well.“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. one for yourself.“ Because in the process you will destroy yourself and often your loved ones and friends along with you. “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” „Revenge is hollow and insatiable. It never satisfies; it never heals. It leaves us remorseful or hungry for more.“ „Seeking justice is not revenge and seeking revenge is not justice“ Just saying….

[@MicukoFelton]

Giles! I missed him. He's so hot and that entrance was 🔥🔥 If Willow had turned Dawn into energy I'm pretty sure Willow would have sucked it into herself to make herself stronger, so no turning back from that.

[@HuntingViolets]

I think Tara died because this is the path Willow's been on for years, her journey to Dark Willow. And if you're not that upset about Tara but are fascinated by Dark Willow, that may have been the correct writing choice.

[@babygirllynn2264]

I love how they did Tara’s death I feel like it’s more realistic compared to Kendra’s death or even Buffy’s death because those were supernatural deaths and Joyce’s was so heartbreaking but we all had a feeling the illness might kill her there was gonna be chance with her being sick. But with Tara it was so unexpected so sudden and so unfair. It made no sense for Tara to die and that’s what made it so sad because she didn’t die because of some supernatural evil she didn’t die because of human imperfections of getting sick she died because someone murdered her a human at that. Basically I agree it was probably for more shock factor but it also works because it’s a human death someone took her away from Willow before her time. I think that’s why a lot of fans were angry with Tara’s death because it was so unnecessary and unfair.