So it turns out this season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer does have a Big Bad after all: Willow. With most of this season’s dangers and problems originating from within Buffy’s group of friends, this is the perfect way to conclude the season. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. What could be more horrifying than an enemy who is a brutal killer, and is also your best friend? Previous seasons raised the stakes each year, or at least tried to: the Master, Angelus, the Mayor, Adam, and finally Glory, who was actually a god. How do you raise the stakes from an actual god? This is how. You make it personal. The horror comes from within.

Villains is very much the first of a three-parter, so we mainly have actions without consequences. Those will follow. Mostly, this is just about sitting back and enjoying the spectacle of Dark Willow on the rampage: making a god scream in pain, absorbing magic directly from books, healing Buffy, going after Warren. These kinds of scenes are a gift for an actor, but even so, Alyson Hannigan is remarkable here. Her performance could easily have become too big, but instead she finds room for nuance. Moments of doubt, quiet moments of sadness, moments of goodness and loyalty amongst the thirst for revenge that drives Willow. Most of that is done just with the expression on her face.

The writer challenges us to pick a side, and probably wants us to pick the wrong one, so the ending has maximum impact. Xander has a point, when he says that Warren’s crimes are as bad as any vampire. In fact, thanks mainly to the incredibly brave performance from Adam Busch, Warren is more revolting than any villain I can recall in Buffy, and that’s saying something. Willow is right: he gets off on the power of killing women. Buffy was his “big O”. How could we not be on Willow’s side? And all the while, we are enjoying the sight of this super witch who can do anything, and maybe even thinking what it would be like to be that powerful. For once, one of the good guys has all the power. One of the good guys is unstoppable. One of the good guys gets sliced by an axe, and then gets back up again. How can we not love that?

Buffy’s words sew the seeds of doubt, if you feel like cheerleading Willow throughout this episode. The human world has its own rules, its own way of dealing with people like Warren. Maybe that argument might sound a little weak. It certainly does to Xander. Buffy can’t control everything, she can’t be a god, and the fact that magic damages the user indicates that the universe doesn’t want anyone to wield super powers over the human world. Again, an argument that might seem weak, when perhaps the most revolting of all villains Buffy ever had to face just did something almost all of them failed to do, and killed one of her best friends. Warren is a human with a soul. Why does that give him special privileges to murder, without fear of Buffy removing his evil from the world, when a vampire or demon would be fair game? A vampire like Spike maybe, who loves Buffy and fought along side her? A demon like Clem maybe, who is a gentle soul who has a movie night with Dawn? Buffy could kill either of them to protect human lives, and the universe is fine with that, but she can’t kill Warren. So maybe we are still on team Willow, until we get the argument that should really make us stop and think: it’s going to damage Willow, possibly beyond repair. If she kills Warren, she will always be a murderer. She might not be able to come back from that, and she says she isn’t coming back from it anyway. The power she is wielding could consume her. So if we want Willow to succeed, we also want her to lose. That’s the genius of the scenario we see play out here. And even so, we are invited to enjoy the show, because it’s just so exciting: Dark Willow does amazing things; a woman-hating killer is finally powerless, about to get his comeuppance. How can we not love what we are seeing? How can we not cheer her on, as she pursues that disgusting murderer through the woods. Come on Willow… come on Willow…

… and then she sews up his lips… and then she tortures him with a bullet burrowing into his body… and then she rips off his skin and burns his corpse. And the episode ends with no comfort for the viewer. Did we just get what we wanted? How does it feel?   RP

The view from the Sunnydale Press:

For such an intense episode, I don’t have a lot to say above Villains.  I like the ethical debate that springs from going after Warren.  I get it: Warren, in his childish fit, killed Tara.  Now Willow is out for revenge.  Buffy says no, because to kill humans makes them no worse than the monsters they fight.  (Convenient because as far as I recall the Knights Who Say Key were also human and I’d swear Buffy offed a few of them, but I admit I might be misremembering!)   Now I’ll be honest: I wanted Willow to have her revenge.  Like Dawn, I was so happy to see Willow and Tara together again, that Warren deserves to be punished and, as Xander points out, the law might not be able to provide the justice that’s deserved.   I know in my real life, I will never pursue revenge because typically that sort of thing just folds back on itself, but in movies… that’s different.  I can enjoy my revenge movies and shows with a clear conscience.  The bad guys can get their payback and I can enjoy watching it happen.  Still, of all the cast, Willow has been a favorite of mine since day one and seeing her go down a dark path is distressing because it makes me realize something that I don’t think I’m going to be happy with.  So I have to really think: do I want her to go down this path after all?

So let’s take a moment to talk about that realization.  First, kudos on the cinematography.  There are hints of Sam Raimi throughout this episode.  Willow’s dark appearance with those magnificent eyes is wonderful.  The use of tree limbs to secure Warren is excellent too; right out of Evil Dead.   But that realization is this: Warren was the main baddie of the Trio.  Andrew is nothing more than a follower and Jonathan actually helped Buffy defeat Warren (making him the most sympathetic of the group).  So when Willow says “one down” after stripping the flesh from Warren’s body, that implies she’s after the other 2?  So far, so good.  That should be fairly easy as they are locked in a cell, but does that mean the villain for the rest of the season is … Willow?!?!   For a season without any defined “big bad”, I’d hate to think it’s now going to be Willow!  Spike, on the other hand, who has gone off to bargain with a demon in a cave… that might be interesting.  Once he was turned into a rapist, I’m totally willing to see them dispatch him once and for all.  But Willow…?  With the power she’s just absorbed, how on earth will they stop her?  I have only one thought on that and he’s in England…

Willow leaves us with those words: “One down”.  The next episode also tells us what’s left of the season: “Two to go”.  I’m excited… ML

Read next in the Junkyard… Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Two to Go