Twelve episodes reviewed all at once!
I must admit, I didn’t write the reviews as I went along, so my memories of the first one (Kaleidoscope) are very hazy. So, Rachel is back and although Hamish’s love for her was enough to bring her back from the dead, it took a lot of energy and sacrifices to do so. Nevertheless, I do like Rachel in this broken manner, as it indicates the closeness to link with Dana.
As for Celeste quickly taking control of the Coven, it’s no wonder she doesn’t have much love for the others and that Jilhandra would do almost anything to get rid of her. But even someone as crafty as Celeste would have had plenty of time to have made plans and waited for the right opportunity to set them in motion.
With Higher Ground (and all throughout the episode I had the Chili Peppers cover in my head), Delaney only wanted to do the right thing and help her mother. What she should have realised that Kira didn’t need her daughter’s help, and you could tell that Kira was secretly relieved that Delaney lost her power. So for Delaney to travel to the higher dimensions and ask for her powers back… well there is always a price - especially since Hope already foresaw this and even tried to tell Delaney so.
As for Tori doing a runner in the hope that she would not put the others in danger; that seemed like a good plan in theory. I totally called the trucker being Hamish, but I don’t think you needed to be a genius on that one.
Magnum Cum Laude was one of my favourite episodes to read. It was also interesting to note that I read this before I read the previous two episodes - that was why this episode didn’t make a hell of a lot sense in the beginning.
I did like the demons teleporting to Academy and the full-scale attack certainly put the girls through their paces but something they’d rather not have. The welcome return of Alita made good use of closure, particularly for Sofia. It wasn’t a surprise that Delaney would say yes, but even then… her irresponsiblity of wanting her powers may have upset the balance of power, it still meant she got her powers back and that will come in handy for sure.
Will and Testament is a great way of seeing how human Frankie is, and to see how she reacts to the death of someone close to her. Although the episode did drag on in bits, Cassandra was getting as annoying as Hamish in how close she came to dying and then slipping through the cracks. You can bet that Frankie will be at the front of the line to kill her for what she did to her father.
With Humanitarian, having Erika continue her assault on the Cabal can either been seen as a good thing or a bad thing. Erika had a plan all along and that was to bring back Maria from the dead. Seeing as how wonderful that’s going for Rachel at the moment, Erika isn’t thinking to clearly on that scale. I do like Skye and Erika still play off each other well, but you can tell that Skye won’t for a second kill her former friend if push came to shove.
A Mother Knows, had Lady Huang have one of her visions that is supposedly never wrong. It’s tragic she took the path she did, and it was all for the love of her son. However, I could never remember if Dade immunity to magic was revealed earlier or not.
Darkest Days, was interestingly put. Seeing as it dealt directly with Sofia and Delaney. It was quant to have Faith back in the mix, but she seemed prefunctory in this episode. It was only then we realise it was an exercise in letting go of their darkest desires that it made sense in the end. At the girls are at peace, or are they?
New Order… well that’s a bit graphic. Sure Cassandra among many women (both young and old) are a little peeved at being a Slayer and how incompetant the Watcher’s Council can be, but to have gone down the path she was heading? Okay, I had to say I called it that Fitzgerald was dead all along, but it was blatantly clear that she wasn’t going to make it, and based on that assumption… it was clear that the culling of the main characters and supports is now in full effect.
Finger in the Dam had a bit of a shock. To be fair, I never once cared about Mela and Fran as characters, and that’s probably why the twist with Mela being Celeste’s granddaughter hit me a little harder than most. But… even after the reveal, I still don’t care about Mela. All I seemed to care about was how and when she was going to die. It seems that being under the care and tutelage of Hamish, meant that she was going to pull some slippery escapes of her own.
Pull the Trigger really set the bar in killing off a main character, but of all the main characters it had to be Skye? Erika’s vendetta against the Cabal reach full effect with the planned destruction of all their bases, but that would mean killing thousands of innocents, just so the Cabal are no more? You can tell that Maria will be a thorn in Erika’s side, and Skye along with Tori weren’t helping either.
I did like that Tori accepted responsibilty for Erika’s evilness, but Erika herself admitted she would have gone to another vampire to be sired… it seems once she lost Maria way back when, she lost her will to live. It’s good to see that Maria and Skye both had the balls to stand up to her like that. But while those girls were away, the Academy get’s completely wrecked by the Coven and oh, oh… Tori feels a little different which means Hamish…
(A side note: Debbie featured in one of the episodes and buggered if I remember which one. Despite her ability to absorb pain and injuries, it was a nice way of “KILLING HER OFF” that did it. If and when Mike comes back to reading this again, he still won’t be pleased.)
A trip down memory lane and a visit to Glastonbury Tor in As One Chapter Ends… Did the Academy and the Slayers have any idea that the Coven would go there as well? This is not going to end well and I was right. Seems a bit one-sided at the moment; hope the girls pull through on this one.
Sacrifice can only mean one thing: another character will die - and in spectacular fashion. With icon pointing the bloody obvious, Kira certainly knows the meaning of sacrifice, yet I get the feeling it was more to do with not allowing Delaney to have the Tor’s power consume and not letting it fall into the hands of Celeste, which can only count as a big “fuck you” to Celeste on Kira’s part. Still the light-show must have been awesome to watch, particularly if you were stoned. (Oh boy do I know how to digress…)
Into Each Generation: I had this picture in my mind in how this will end, and that picture wasn’t met. The huge surprise of the GIGANTIC Hellmouth that Celeste helped create and open is and always will be a terrible idea despite how evil and awesome she seems to think she is. Because the last time a Hellmouth was opened, it wasn’t a walk in the park for no-one.
It however didn’t take a genius to realise that Celeste was the lynch-pin to the Hellmouth staying opening permanently, so they needed to get close enough to her. Easy said than done, right?
Here, we see the Leverage style flashbacks referring to clues in previous episodes - such as the extremely pointless (well I thought so, and I’m pretty certain other did as well) exercises that Lady Huang made Sofia do. In this case they weren’t so pointless after all!
We get another character sacrificing herself for well, it had to be for glory right? It rhymes with Tori. (Crickets).
When it came to Mela taking on all the Slayer power, and she was (nor any girl for that matter) built to take on that kind of power, I was kind of hoping she’d die, but it was clear that the power would have to return back where it came.
Now this is where I thought what happened next was a bit off for me. You basically rehashed what happened in Chosen in Buffy S7. What should have happened was that Sofia should have made sure the Slayer power went back to just one single girl. It gives a whole new meaning to the words: “Into Every Generation).
So the series was left opened ended. Okay, I can see that this will lead up to Ragnarok, but I felt a little cheated with that ending. I can’t complain though, it did finish on a high.
I did like that little scene where Sofia was chatting with the dead Slayers that gave up their lives over the course of the series. Of course, Sofia might be a little mad (and by this stage who wouldn’t be?) but I wouldn’t say it to her face though.
