Older and Far Away

Older and Far Away
Written by Drew Z. Greenberg
Directed by Michael Grossman

Original Airdate: February 12, 2002

Plot:Lonely Dawn feels like the odd-girl out when the Scooby Gang throws a party in honor of Buffy's birthday, leading to a fateful wish that leaves the Slayer and her friends in a fix.

Review

Warning: If your wish is to avoid SPOILERS for the latest episode of Buffy, "Older and Far Away" I strongly suggest you turn back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead....

In short: The last few minutes were worth the ride.

"Ship in the bottle" shows are nothing new to science-fiction shows. From the original Star Trek's "The Doomsday Machine" to Farscape's recent "Crackers Don't Matter", ship in the bottle shows are something that have been done from the beginning and will, probably continue long into the future. (Heck, I even hear that this weeks Enterprise story is a ship in the bottle episode).

And while on a lot of levels, the concept of restricting your cast and crew into the regular sets can sound a bit confining and like it would hamper good storytelling, I can say that when you work with the limitation you get some really great stuff. Why? Because you find new ways to ratchet up the tension--whether it be by having a great guest-cast like "The Doomsday Machine" with William Windom as Commodore Decker or you take a chance to really mess with and explore the characters like "Crackers Don't Matter." In both cases, the limitations actually becomes strengths for the stories being told.

Which is exactly what happened this week with Buffy.

Let's face it--Buffy is probably an expensive show to produce. And every once in a while, they probably have to find a way to conserve the budget.

And I really don't mind seeing the results of this--provided they're as entertaining and as well-done as "Older and Far Away" turned out to be.

"Older and Far Away" started off slowly but it built the momentum until the final two acts seemed to fly by. A lot of this I have to credit the regular cast of Buffy with, but also equal credit needs to go to director Michael Grossman. The last two acts were confined to the Summers' home, but there was no point where I felt bored visually. Grossman managed to find new ways to come at things and make them visually interesting. Part of this may have been that there was the tension of the demon in the walls, but I think a lot of the credit has to go to him for managing to find a new way to look at something familiar.

But, again, a lot of credit needs to go the cast and to writer Dawn Z. Greenberg's script.

I'll admit the first few minutes left me a bit cold. I guess part of me is really tired of seeing the whole Dawn angst plotline since it seems so contrived. If I have one major complaint about season six, it's that Dawn's character has been taken from an well-rounded character into a one-note teenager character. Yes, Dawn is angry and lashing out at everyone and she feels ignored. It almost became predicable that Dawn would try to connect with (insert name of Scooby gang member here) and they would have something else to distract them and Dawn would get mad. It's almost as if you could throw this scene in just about every script and it would still feel right.

And yes, I can understand that we see Dawn stealing--in an attempt to get some attention from Buffy. I'm just glad that Dawn's behavior has finally come to light and maybe we can begin to deal with it. The thing is--I like Dawn. I loved the character last year and I liked the way that Buffy showed the sisterly relationship between Dawn and Buffy. It rang true--even when they were fighting and bickering. This year, it just feels like a bad sit-com. (Is it just me or does anyone else here Dawn as Jan Brady going, "Buffy, Buffy, Buffy!"?) And that's been a real shame since Dawn has so much potential.

But, again, I'm glad to see some movement in this plotline. I hope that perhaps several people have had their heads pulled out of the sand--most notably Buffy. There's also a large part of me that wonders just what Buffy will do with the leather coat Dawn stole for her. Will she keep it or will she attempt to return it? I hope this is an issue that will be brought up in a future episode, but I am not entirely sure that it will be.

And certainly it was interesting to see Dawn's attempts to find connections--from wanting to go to the mall with the Scooby gang to her guidance counselor. And let me just say that the whole guidance counselor is actually an evil-demon plotline really meshed with my feelings about guidance counselors from high school, so I really, really bought into this.

The idea of having everyone trapped together was an interesting one--especially since you brought outsiders to the party.

I loved seeing Anya's reason for inviting a guy to the party for Buffy. Whereas Xander tried to pass the motives off as a bit more self-less, leave it to Anya to say exactly what's on her mind and her real motivation. I loved her reasoning that she and Xander wanted someone to double date with and have another couple of share couple things with. That scene was funny, but it rang incredibly true. I can tell you that as a single friend who has friends who are couples--whether dating or married--this is a common thing to occur. I can't tell you how many times the coupled friends have a friend who is "perfect" for you. And it's always done with the best of intentions--they want me to be happy and maybe have a new way for all of us to hang out together. I can also say that it most of the time, it goes just as well as did for Buffy and her fix-up date. (It reminds me of the time a friend set me up with this girl who was perfect for me because I liked "Star Trek" and she'd heard of "Star Trek." Can you say "bad idea?")

But the party was also interesting because it brought a lot of things to the surface. Indeed, the very idea of trapping the Scooby gang together and then ratcheting things up a bit was hugely successful. It was interesting to see that Sophie and Richard were most concerned with getting out of the house to go to work, while the others slowly became concerned about other things. Indeed, I can't imagine what it would be like to go to a party with an ex, where you may already feel trapped to start with, and then find out the awkwardness just can't end. That was exactly what we saw with Tara and Willow, though it was interesting to see how this developed from a sense of awkwardness at first to Tara's passionate defense of Willow and her choice to not use magic later.

Also, seeing Dawn's fear at being discovered for her shoplifting worked well and did Buffy's not wanting to be within three feet of Spike.

Along the way, we got some really nice character stuff, but I think the episode was really stolen by two actresses. The first would be Emma Caulfield, who ran the gamut from happy to set-up Buffy with Richard and the possibilities of couple hanging out time to totally freaked out over being trapped. Caulfield went from happiness to dark intensity over the course of the entire story and did it was dramatic intensity. The scene where Anya stated that Willow had the power to free them but was being selfish because of her magic problem was chilling--but yet it rang so true. (And seeing Xander chime in with his feelings also worked in that scene). It was nice to see Anya get to do something more than just worry about the Magic Box and making money. Here we got to see a new side of her and it was interesting. I honestly wonder if there's not something more being set up here with Anya's fear and anger at being trapped and the heat she felt. I get a strong feeling that there the road to the altar for Anya and Xander is just beginning to hit speed bumps--and those things are only going to get bigger as the season goes along.

But, while Emma Caulfield was good, she was just barely edged out by Amber Benson.

I mentioned last week that I hadn't realized until we got Tara back on-screen how much I'd missed her. This week only served to confirm that yet again. Benson was superb in all of her scenes--from her barb to Spike about what was cramped after he comes on to Buffy in the hall to her passionate defense of Willow, Benson delivered. It's interesting to see how far this character has come--from the timid girl we first met back in season four to someone who is not afraid to stand up for her ex here and Willow's choices. Amber's work here was masterful and she deserves a pat on the back for a job that was extremely well done.

And I think any time you can steal the performance of the week in an episode featuring James Marsters, Allyson Hannigan and Sarah Michelle Gellar, that's really saying something.

But, while I liked most of what was going on here, there were some things that didn't click as well for me.

One thing that really seemed jarring was the whole monster plotline. In a lot of ways, Greenberg's script here reminded me a lot of some of the early Marti Noxon offerings such as Dead Man's Party and The Prom. Simply put--she had a lot of good character moments, but the monster plotline stuck out like a sore thumb. It felt tacked on a bit and it served to detract at times from what was really going on. I know that the reason the monster is let loose in the house is for tension and to make it more compelling that we have to get out of the house. But I didn't understand just why the demon could go into floors, walls, etc.

The other thing that bothered me was that Hali trapped herself with the crew. This seemed like almost too easy of a way out of the storyline. I had sort of hoped they'd have to destroy her pendant and thus make her like Anya. There is some potential storytelling there, but it may not ever be explored. Having Anya serve as another person in her place's guide would be interesting.

And Hali's connection to Spike. This should be really interesting to see. Obviously Spike was a bit jealous of Richard--his sarcastic barbs were hilarious and yet you could tell he wasn't thrilled by the idea. Now it will be interesting to see if Buffy becomes jealous of Hali. I can't imagine they would feature her twice and then just drop the character.

So, I guess that's about it for now except a few small things...

--It was nice to see Spike still looking rough around the edges from the beating he took at Buffy's hand last week.

--Sophie was nicely done. "My mom told me to say thank you for inviting me early so I won't forget" was an absolute riot of a line. (Also, I've known people like that, which makes it a bit funnier).

--I hope we see Dawn having to work off the debt she owes Anya in the Magic Box.

--I doubt we'll see Richard again. Let's face it--he did have a blind date from hell--from Spike's constant jabs to being stabbed. I don't think he's going to be lining up again soon for a date with Buffy.

--Spike's line about Buffy might want to consider not celebrating her birthday was a riot.

--So, when Willow passes out early-on is this because of her being tired or drunk or the forces working on her to not leave the house? It was something that struck me as odd, since no one else passed out trying to leave.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Overall, I liked what we got here with the exception of some minor, nit-picky details.

My rating: 8.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: No new episodes for two weeks. But when Buffy returns, so does a man from her past (and since we all know crossovers are out, that really narrows down who it could be!) See you in two weeks!