Vampiiritapja Buffy Tough Love (1996–2003) Online

"Tough Love" begins setting the stage for the season finale. This is an important episode in the story arc, with Glory finally finding out that Dawn is the key and Tara getting brain sucked. There are some slow parts to this episode, (**cough** Dawn **cough**) But all in all you really shouldn't miss "Tough Love" if you've been following the main story this season. Everything's about to come to a head.

"Tough Love" revolves around the relationships of Willow & Tara and Buffy & Dawn. Buffy has dropped out of college to take care of her little sister. And Dawn really does need all the help she can get. She's been skipping school and blowing off her homework. Her principal tells Buffy that if she can't keep Dawn on the straight and narrow, then the school will have to report her to social services. Buffy tries hard to be firmer with Dawn, which only makes her sister angry and resentful. Meanwhile, Glory is still determined to find the key and she has a new plan. She'll go after the newest Scoobie, (since the key has to be new to this world) which means that Tara is in trouble.

At the same time, Willow and Tara have gotten into an argument. Willow feels that Tara and Buffy are shutting her out because she doesn't have their shared experience of losing a mother. Tara is afraid that Willow is only having a fling with her and will one day return to a heterosexual life style. Tara goes off to the UC Sunnydale World Culture Fair. Willow goes to commiserate with Giles. At the Magic Box, they capture one of Glory's minions spying on them. He tells them that they're too late. Glory already knows that the key is Tara. Horrified at the mix-up, Willow rushes off to find her girlfriend. By the time she finds her, though, Tara has already been brain sucked.

Tara is taken to Sunnydale General (Or whatever the hospital's called) and admitted to the mental ward. Willow is heartbroken that this has happened to Tara. She vows revenge on Glory, by Buffy tells her it would be suicide. Willow pretends to agree, but in reality she heads to the Magic Box for supplies and then goes to Glory's mansion. Buffy has dropped Dawn off with Spike and she heads down into the tunnels to update them on Tara. When Spike hears that Buffy "explained" things to Willow and she promised not to go "all pay-back-y" on Glory, he's skeptical. He understands Willow a little but better than that. (He's always been good a reading Willow's moods. See, season four's "Something Blue" for another instance of Spike seeing through Willow's facade of normalcy when nobody else could.) He tells Buffy that "for the right person" he'd go after Glory, suicide mission or not. And so would Willow. Buffy immediately heads off to find her friend.

At Glory's Willow is putting up a good fight, but she's losing. Her magic isn't strong enough to hurt Glory for long. Buffy arrives just in time to save Willow and they escape. The next day, Buffy, Dawn, Tara and Willow go to Tara's dorm for lunch. Tara is still ranting and brain sucked, but Willow says that she'll always take care of "her girl." Buffy looks at Dawn and agrees. Both Willow and Buffy are dealing with the "tough" aspects of love, but they're willing to do whatever they have to keep Tara and Dawn safe. Just then, the wall to the dorm comes crashing in. Glory has ripped it down and, as she stands there, Tara begins screaming and mindlessly saying that Dawn is glowing. Glory realizes that she has finally found her key.

There are some good parts to this episode. I love Anya deciding that she's an American and capitalist now. Tara being brain sucked is terrible... "Like communism." Then, when Willow says that she won't be able to sleep without Tara, Anya sweetly says, "You can sleep with me. Hmm, well that sounded much less lesbian in my head." Anya has troubles in the human world, but she always tries to be a friend to the Scoobies. I just think that she's adorable. Also, I like Willow and Tara's argument. They're both so uncomfortable with the idea of fighting, but they have legitimate stuff that needs to be discussed. When Tara gets hurt and Willow whispers how Tara is her "everything" it just breaks your heart. Willow can be so sweet one minute and a complete bad ass the next. Her revenge on Glory is an indication of things to come. Finally, I like that Buffy told her teacher how much she liked poetry, considering that Spike used to be a poet and Angel gave Buffy a book of poems for her birthday back in season three's "Helpless." I'm always looking for a way to tie Spike and Angel into a scene.

On the downside, why did Glory just brain suck Tara? Why didn't she torture her for information first? She knows that Tara has been around Buffy and could know who the key is. Why not tie Tara up and beat her like she did with Spike? What with Tara not being an immortal vampire, I bet Glory could have gotten her to talk eventually. Also, I don't think that Giles should have let Buffy drop out of school. She's still very young and she need his help. As her only remaining parental figure, he should have stepped in and agreed to assist with raising Dawn while Buffy finished college.

My favorite part of the episode: Giles' "asking" Glory's minion some questions. Every once in a while, Ripper just has to came out.

Buffy drops the semester in the university to rebuild her family, and receives an ultimatum from the principal of Dawn's school, who threatens to send Dawn to a foster house if Buffy is not capable to control her. Willow and Tara have a quarrel, and Willow leaves Tara alone in a festival. Glory sucks Tara's mind, and Willow uses a powerful black magic trying to defeat Glory. Meanwhile, Dawn blames herself for the mess with her friends.

The climax of this episode is the conclusion, with Glory disclosing the identity of The Key. Willow realizes that she is not as powerful as she believes, and Spike gives good advices to Buffy. Glory asking if anybody has order an apocalypse is hilarious. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil: "Amor Violento" ("Violent Love")

In "Tough Love", Glory takes Tara, mistaking her for the Key. She eventually drains her brain when Tara refuses to give her any information. Tara has turned into a vegetable. Meanwhile, Buffy is frustrated with Dawn, specifically Dawn's schoolwork. If Dawn doesn't start going to class, Buffy may lose custody of her younger sister. Seeing revenge over Tara, Willow uses dark magic against Glory with little success. Buffy must come in and save her. At the end of the episode, Glory comes to get back at Willow and Buffy. Tara lets it slip that Dawn is the Key.

It's about time we got some type of plot development with this Key business. I feel like we've been stuck in limbo as the show's writers have been trying to figure out how to extend this plot until the end of the season. Tara's mental degradation and Glory's discovery that Dawn is the Key will bring some much needed energy to the next few episodes. I was really beginning to get bored with the status quo.

This episode's full of overacting. There's a lot of emotion monologues in this episode (some from Alyson Hannigan, some from Michelle Trachtenberg) that just really feel forced. Those two aren't the greatest at that sort of dialogue so it was a bit hard to watch. I'm also tiring a bit of Clare Kramer's portrayal of Glory. It's extremely hammy, which is nice in short bursts but the more she gets screentime, the more it begins to annoy.

Despite this episode radically improving the Key plot, the majority of the episode didn't work for me.

Tough love is a good episode following Glory thinking she finally tracked down the key and realizes Tara is only a witch. Willow is willing to use dark magic or isn't cautious with magic like her partner thus going full dark side attacking the goddess with snakes, throwing furniture and even fighting her on the ceiling. I found it was a close fight as their abilities are equal even though goddess gets the upper hand. It's been building up since forever but now we finally see it take roots that she's abusing her abilities and doesn't care about the consequences.

Another aspect is Glory finding out the key is Dawn now determined to take the last tie the slayer has to this world. First she loses her boyfriend, mom, drops out of college to take care of Dawn and now her sister may be snatched a way so she can go home. It seems like everything Spike mentioned in fool for love is coming true as Buffy now has no one and wishes for it all to end and the burden weighs to much to bear.

I really love this episode. It's the first episode of my favorites, that lead up to the Season Finale. It's just such a good buildup to the end, and it has a really good storyline.

In this episode, Buffy decides to take the semester off from college, so she can spend time with Dawn, and try to rebuild her family. Dawn has been skipping school, and the principal makes it very clear to Buffy that the state could take Dawn away from her, and put her into a foster home. Buffy lays down the law with Dawn, who doesn't take the news of a possible future too well. Willow, and Tara have a fight, and Tara ends up going to a festival alone, where Glory is waiting for her. Since Glory thinks Tara is the Key, she crushes her hand, and tries her blood. When Glory realizes that Tara is nothing more than a human, she sucks her mind away, and Willow could do nothing to stop her. Willow then tries to use black magic to defeat Glory, but it doesn't work. At the end, Glory discovers that Dawn is the Key.

Best part of the episode: Everything.

Overall, I give this episode a 9 out of 10, which in my ratings book is: Amazing.

The Good; Good scenes between Buffy and Dawn, excellent battle between Willow and Glory

The Bad; If you're a Tara fan it's pretty gut-wrenching

Best line; Minion; "Begging your pardon and begging in general"

Jeez!; Glory brainsucking Tara is awful although Clare Kramer gives a great performance describing the madness (which of course Glory experiences it too). Anya's racism against the French is also a bit much (and surely Anya is actually Swedish, yah?). Willow spits on Glory.

Kinky dinky; Glory bathes in front of her minions but blindfolds them.

Captain Subtext;

Tara and Willow have their first fight. A lot of people disliked this but couples fight, straight or gay, everyone has arguments. Willow refers to lesbo-street cred, she tells Tara that she's the only woman she's fallen in love with (again, bi rather than gay?). Implying that Tara has had gay lovers before? Anya offers to let Willow sleep with her admitting this sounds a lot more lesbian than she intended. Glory gives lots of little hints of lesbianism when she's 'holding' Tara's hand. Lovely scene at the end where Buffy and Willow are with 'their girls', Will kissing Tara and Buffy stroking Dawn's hair.

Guantanamo Bay; Giles tortures Glory's minion. With the same trick Angelus played on him?

Scoobies to the ER; Poor Tara, brainsucked.

Apocalypses; 5, Glory asks did anyone order one?

Scoobies in bondage: Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 5 Will: 3 Jenny: 1 Angel: 4 Oz: 1 Faith: 3 Joyce: 1 Wes: 1 Xander; 1 Dawn; 1 Scoobies knocked out: Buffy: 16 Giles: 10 Cordy: 6 Xander: 8 Will: 5 Jenny: 2 Angel: 6 Oz: 3 Faith: 1 Joyce: 3 Wes: 1 Anya;1 Kills: Buffy: 96 vamps, 32 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot Giles: 5 vamps, 1 demon Cordy: 3 vamps, a demon Will: 6 vamps Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans Xander: 5 vamps, 2 zombies, a demon, a demon Anya: 1vamp + a demon Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons Buffybot; 1 vamp Spike; 1 vamp and 1/2 a demon

Scoobies go evil: Giles: 1 Cordy: 1 Will: 2 Jenny: 1 Angel: 1 Oz: 1 Joyce: 1 Xander: 3

Alternate scoobies: Buffy: 6 Giles: 3 Cordy: 1 Will: 2 Jenny: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 2 Joyce: 2 Xander: 3

Recurring characters killed: 10 Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce Sunnydale deaths; 89; Total number of scoobies: 6 Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Tara, Xander demon magnet: 5(6?) Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula? Scoobies shot: Giles: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 4 Riley; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost: Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes? Cordy: 1? Buffy: 3 confirmed; Angel, Parker,Riley, 1 possible, Dracula(?) Angel: 1;Buffy Joyce: 1;Giles, 2 possible, Ted and Dracula(?) Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley Xander: 2; Faith, Anya Willow: 2;Oz and Tara Riley; 3; Buffy, Sandy and unnamed vampwhore

Questions and observations; You feel so bad for Buffy having to quit school and so bad for Ben being fired. Glory likes aspects of this dimension, changing her tune (because of Ben's influence?). The scenes with Buffy and Dawn over Dawn's truancy are heartrending, the terror they feel at the prospect of losing each other. Can't Dawn go to Aunt Arlene? Once again Tara says she fears Will's magic. Buffy's 'Things change' line may be from Batman Returns? What do people want petrified hamsters for? Marks out of 10; 7/10

Tough Love, aka "Buffy The Clueless Whiner", is definitely grate -- as in, it grates on my one remaining last nerve. For the life of me I do not know why the BtVS fan base constantly rags on Dawn but gives Buffy the Buffoon a free pass. Dawn is about the only character in the series who really gets it. She knows she's "The Key"; that she's not really Buffy's sister; that she's the creation of the monks; that the cover story of her life is a fabricated sham; that she puts everyone close to her in mortal danger; and that as a result, her very existence defies anything remotely societally sanctioned.

Yet despite that Buffy ignores Dawn's truth and continues to vacillate back and forth between being a grown up and being a helpless emotional cripple. She is as humorless and dogmatic in her attempts to teach Dawn as a Republican preacher -- running her mouth about how Willow doesn't understand anything about proper teaching methods; trying to "fix" Dawn by coming up with a schedule with check boxes, etc. She also demonstrates a total lack of awareness by trying to talk rationally to an enraged Willow while it's painfully obvious that Willow is beyond rational thinking. Spike demonstrates more insight into Willow's motivation than Buffy, her best friend.

Do people REALLY not get what a tragic flaw this is in the series -- when the main character is so oblivious to what's going on around her that it's impossible to take her seriously as any sort of hero figure?

Tough love? It's more like tough luck -- for anyone unfortunate to have had to suffer through this episode.