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ummmm hello?? a key?!?!

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Buffy Season 5, Ep 5 - No Place Like Home

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Anonymous

I’ve been waiting for you to get to this episode! I love when Ms. Beauty sneaks up behind Buffy 😂

Andrew Pulrang

I think they pulled off the whole Dawn mystery and eventual reveal thing pretty well, considering the level of difficulty they were going for. Except for one thing … I think they made a slight mistake in having Dawn seem like she was being knowingly deceptive as soon as Buffy started to get the idea of something going on. That I think was an unnecessary red herring. If she’d played it exactly like a normal little sister reacting to the way Buffy was behaving, instead of acting vaguely mysterious, it would have been better. But that aside, I love the basic idea of Dawn being totally unaware of her unique identity, and everyone else being totally unaware of it too, except now for Buffy of course.

ghostofdurruti

I think the red herring where Dawn is acting super suspicious mostly works in retrospect. Her actions and words after Buffy hurts her are easily explicable as essentially meaning "when Mom gets back you're going to be in so much trouble"; they just seemed more sinister at first because the framing and the score made them seem so. There's one exception, though: I don't really buy that Dawn would just make Joyce a cup of tea instead of immediately telling her about Buffy throwing her against the wall when she got home. I mentioned the same (very minor) criticism on Alley's reaction a while back, and someone justified it as being a moment of maturity (i.e. Dawn saw how crappy Joyce was feeling and decided not to pile on more for her to deal with). Which... kind of make sense? But it's still very "convenient" for Dawn to have a sudden moment of maturity at exactly the point that would make her seem most suspicious to the audience haha.

ghostofdurruti

This is such a good episode. For one thing, it's chock full of hilarious character moments... Buffy and Giles' unspoken conversation about his... ah... shopkeeper's uniform? The "making money hand over fist" moment? Every single scene with Anya? Please. More than that, it really showcases SMG and Michelle Trachtenberg's chemistry--even though, as Buffy (finally) learns in this episode, they aren't *really* sisters, they sure do feel like they are. And that goes for both the many earlier scenes where Dawn seems to be going out of her way to annoy Buffy, and the much more tender scene at the end where Buffy apologizes for hurting her. You can *feel* Buffy's shift from "oh my god she's so annoying" to "I will protect her with my life." The opening scene in which the monks cast the spell to hide the Key and create Dawn just as The Beast (or Beauty? lol) bursts in is kind of evocative of the opening scene of "I Robot You Jane" from Season 1 (in which another group of monks cast a spell to bind the demon Moloch in a book). Maybe that's why I find the moment when "Two Months Ago" pops up on screen so weirdly funny; we're primed by that association to expect that it was taking place in like the 15th century or something. (As you said... "are we sure?" haha).

ghostofdurruti

Forgot to mention this: I have a theory that part of Buffy *knew* there was something off about Dawn. We know the Slayer has an innate ability to feel the presence of vampires; perhaps that extends to other supernatural beings as well. This (in addition to normal sibling tension) may have contributed to why she felt so annoyed by Dawn at first. Ironically, it's only once she knows the truth, that Dawn *wasn't* her sister (originally, at least) that she can fully accept her as her sister.

Ritchie

I've been looking forward to this one! For obvious reasons haha For one, the fact that you've been mentioning that you thought this wouldn't be revealed until the end of the season. Fantastic. Now I feel safe saying that I genuinely love Dawn. Yes, she's obviously a bit obnoxious at times but she has such little sister energy that I can't hate her. Plus, as seen by that final moment between Buffy and Dawn, it gives SUCH a phenomenal dynamic for the writers to work with. All of these main characters don't have any siblings so the sibling dynamic has been entirely absent. Sincerely one of my favorite additions to the show, to see Buffy have this new set of interactions and emotions with somebody who isn't a romantic interest or a potential friend.

Ritchie

Also, I always crack up at Buffy walking into Giles' shop for the first time and he's wearing that wizard costume. The silence is PERFECT

Jayme

buffy: what are you doing here...five words or less! spike: out. for. a. walk. b*tch🤙 i actually have a pin with this quote on it...oooh gotta love spike hahaha

Scott Andrews

This episode, for me, is exactly where the fifth season begins and it all begins to start making sense. And seeing you crush/fangirl over the "Beast" is amazing. We love to see it.

Bud Haven

You see Buffy sensing Spike behind the tree as she is leaving the house. In episode 1 Giles tells Buffy to try to sense vampires in the Bronze crowd. But she finds one because its dated fashion. It's an ability she has but isn't very powerful in her case.