Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Amends - S03E10 Review

AMENDS
SEASON 3 EPISODE 10

Oddly enough, this is probably the episode that I've watched the least out of the entire series.  And I'm not really sure why.  It's not bad at all but for some reason I always find myself skipping it.  It bears a lot of resemblance to Becoming in that it deals with a lot of Angel's personal demons, but it's more difficult to watch due to his soulfulness, it's probably the most depressing that Angel gets up until he has his own show, at least.

We open up in Ireland with a man named Daniel running through town before being caught by Angelus, who is sporting some pretty cool facial hair.  It's nice to see Angelus again, even if it's just for a moment before Angel wakes up from what we now know was a nightmare.  He gets up and starts walking about the streets when he runs into Buffy who is busy Christmas shopping.  They make awkward small talk for a minute before Angel gets distracted when he thinks he sees Daniel walking.  The next day, Buffy talks to Xander and Willow about his odd behavior to which Xander reacts in typical Xander fashion.  Afterwards they discuss Christmas plans and Willow has to remind everyone that she's Jewish.  It's kind of funny because it comes up so infrequently that she might as well not be Jewish at all.

The gang runs into Cordy who has completely reverted to her old ways and insults Xander and, indirectly, the rest of the group.  She brags about getting to go to Aspen for Christmas then takes off again, and soon enough, Oz shows up wanting to talk to Willow alone.  They go to an empty classroom and Oz actually sort of pours his heart out to her.  It basically boils down to "I miss you" and they decide to give it another shot.  I feel like he lets her off a bit easily, but I guess those enormous eyes are hard to resist.  At least one of the two relationships wasn't ruined by the evil Xander/Willow tryst.

Later, Buffy and her mom go Christmas tree shopping and Joyce suggests that they have Faith over for Christmas.  It's been awhile since we've seen Faith; I guess only two episodes, but they were two really big ones so it feels like she's been out of the fray a lot longer.  Joyce also freaks out when Buffy mentions Giles name, harkening back to Band Candy and their... encounter.  Buffy notices that a big patch of the Christmas trees are all dead and finds it weird but thinks nothing else of it.  She heads over to Faith's to invite her over but she declines, clearly lying about having a party to go to.  She comes off as far more sympathetic in this episode than pretty much any preceding episode, showing some pretty subtle vulnerability, actually.

Angel shows up at Giles's house, who is cooking like the manly man he is.  Giles is incredibly hostile towards him due to the whole being tortured thing in Season 2, though I think if anyone would understand Angel not being entirely responsible for Angelus's actions, it would be Giles.  He does let him in, but keeps a crossbow on him the whole time as Angel explains his dreams and visions.  He then begins to see Jenny in Giles's house and freaks out, running away.  Back at his house, he has another dream in which he has a magnificent stache.  Oh, and he also kills someone.  After he gets up, he finds Jenny in his house.  She transforms into Daniel and it's clear that all of Angel's demons are the same thing.

Meanwhile, Buffy realizes that she somehow got sucked into Angel's dream (which isn't really explained) and goes to Giles, who finally decides to help him.  Even Xander decides to join in with the helping.  How sweet!  Willow joins in and the group begins a studying montage.  Willow mentions that Oz is coming over for some hanging on Christmas Eve since her parents are out of town.  Back at Angel's, he's getting hammered by all of the guilt that the spirits can conjure up.  David Boreanaz is really good in this scene.  Well, this whole episode really.  Seeing a more vulnerable side of Angel is always a good thing.  Then Buffy and Angel fall asleep at the same time and... have dream sex?  It's implied that the spirits are doing it, but it's still pretty weird.  Turns out, the spirits really want Buffy dead.

At the library, Giles comes in and tells Buffy about a being called The First; the ultimate incarnation of evil.  It's pretty much the devil, and it has these human cult-like followers called the bringers that could be putting Angel in this funk with magic; Giles thinks that maybe The First brought Angel back, so Buffy and Xander decide to do some investigating at Willy the Snitch's bar.  He helps a little bit and even compliments Xander.  Maybe the ol' Snitch isn't so bad after all.  Buffy and Xand share a nice moment outside of the bar and Xander reassures her that it's all going to work out.  Later that night, Oz goes to Willow's only to find that she's planning to seduce him.  It's a funny, cute, and awkward scene; very mature of Oz, anyway.

As Buffy and her mom prepare for the night, Faith shows up at the door and they invite her in.  Buffy heads upstairs for a minute to find Angel in her room, freaking out.  The First tries to get Angel to kill her but he dives out the window.  Buffy and Giles work to find out where the bringers are hiding and Buffy finally makes the connection that it's at the Christmas tree store, under where all the dead trees were.  She finds the guys and they run off, but The First shows up to gloat for awhile.  It taunts that Angel will be dead by sunrise and then shows it's true form, which is a rather silly looking devil thing.

Buffy takes off, looking for Angel, finally finding him on a hill, waiting for the sun to rise so he can kill himself.  He thinks that he's eventually going to slip and lose his soul again, but Buffy talks him down after a passionate speech and a short variation of the always awesome Buffy/Angel theme.  The two are fantastic here; Joss often mentions that the moment he realized David Boreanaz needed a spinoff was the scene in I Only Have Eyes for You when Angelus is possessed by the teacher, but I think this is probably his finest scene on Buffy.  After the two have a heated argument, it begins to snow in the blazingly hot Sunnydale.  Almost a sign, perhaps?  Buffy and Angel then walk through the snow, hand in hand as a really pretty score plays us out.

I'm not really sure how this is my least-watched episode; maybe it's because it comes off the heels of The Wish.  I don't know.  But it's a great episode.  As good as The Wish, maybe even a little better.  It really explores Angel's guilt explicitly, while also moving forward Willow and Oz's relationship.  Plus, David and Sarah get that last scene to really really shine; certainly one of the best scenes in the whole season.  It's a great episode, and one of the all-too-rare Buffy Christmas episodes.

****1/2