Review
Rob
Good, solid Buffy from Doug Petrie and Jane Espenson. A nice mix of humour and action, with a powerful final scene as Buffy realises the Watchers need her more than she needs them.
Travers' final revelation regarding Glory gives us a whole new perspective on her character, but does make her previous efforts to locate the Key seem a little lame. Shouldn't gods be a little more powerful and all-knowing?
Anya's attempts at creating an all-American personae to fool the Watchers' Council are hilarious, ditto Willow and Tara's flustered announcement of their sexuality.
Kim
Fighting demons with bureaucracy: ain't never gonna work. Yes, I'll be happy to slay you, but can I check your insurance documents first? And could you just sign there? Oh, sorry - I guess those claws make it a bit hard to hold a pen... shall we just settle for a... (what do you call that?) ...a hoof print then?
The Council scare me. Not because they're particularly powerful, or menacing, but because they harness the darkest force known to man - paperwork. Anyone who has seen Terry Gilliam's Brazil will know exactly what I'm on about - the careless cruelty of a faceless organisation can decide someone's fate with one wrongly filled in form...
James
What is it about the Watcher's Council? They're all English, right? As in, they live in England, and must come from all over England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. There are probably Watchers in Woking, Wolverhampton, Wigan, Warwick, Wells and Worcestershire. So why, why, why whenever they turn up in Buffy do they either sound like Dick Van Dyke or John Gielguid?
Is it too much to ask for just one nice, normal English bloke? Surely there are enough starving English actors in America who would jump at a chance to be in Buffy? Surely one of them has a strong-enough, interesting-enough English accent? I'd pick one from Birmingham personally.
Ann
Yaay! This story delivered a much-needed dose of strong, confident Buffy, complete with the humour which makes this programme so good.
Action-wise not a lot happened, but emotionally Checkpoint packed a punch, as the Slayer faced down and defeated those British cads the Watcher's Council at their own game. Why are the English so often the bad guys in Buffy, though?
Seeing the Scoobie’s re-affirming their loyalty to one another was great, and led to some very funny scenes, like Willow and Tara’s unnecessarily defiant justification of their relationship, and Anya’s panicked details about her early life "when she was younger and therefore shorter and smaller than now".
A couple of class Spike moments were also served up - the simpering lady librarian Watcher admitting to writing her thesis on him, and the intense discussion on soap operas with Joyce. This was classic Buffy, served up with style once again by Jane Espenson.
