I had a hard time watching "Wrecked," the last original episode of Buffy to run before a month of repeats. First of all, I had enjoyed "Smashed", the previous week's episode, so I was anxious to see the follow-up. I had expected, since "Smashed" ended so brilliantly with Buffy and Spike, that "Wrecked" would delve deeper into that relationship. However, that storyline took a backseat to Willow's fight with her ever growing addiction to magick.
For those who might not know the backstory, Willow is one of Buffy's oldest friends in Sunnydale, and in Season One was the innocent, nerdy, and naïve friend who didn't really do much other than surf the net for otherworldly information to help the Scooby Gang hunt vampires and demons. In Season Two she started studying magick under the tutelage of Miss Jenny Calendar, Sunnydale's computer teacher. By the end of the same season Willow was a beginner witch and aided Buffy in thwarting an apocalypse. In Season Four she continued to hone her quickly advancing skills with another witch, Tara, who became her girlfriend. Cut to Season Five, and even Tara is nervous about Willow's obvious expertise - and viewers see Willow completely embrace darker skills under the guise of helping Buffy avert yet another apocalypse (although this time Buffy sacrifices her own life in the season finale).
So begins Season Six, and from the first episode we see a Willow who is abusing her abilities by bringing Buffy back from the dead. She selfishly coerces Buffy's other pals Xander and Anya, as well as Tara, to help her with a powerful spell to raise Buffy from from her grave. The spell seems to go awry when demons interfere, but even more disturbing is the effect the spell has on Willow. Eyes blackened, she convulses until a huge snake spews from her mouth, to the horror of her friends. But the spell works, and Buffy returns to Sunnydale from death. Happy at Buffy's return, Willow's girlfriend and pals decide to look the other way regarding Willow's magickal experience at Buffy's grave.
Cut to a few episodes later, and Tara accuses Willow of using magick too much, and asks her to stop. In the fabulous episode "Tabula Rasa", Tara begs Willow to go one week without magick. Powerless to stop, Willow whips up a spell to make Tara and Buffy both forget their problems (respectively, Tara's fear of Willow's magick and Buffy's sadness at being ripped from Heaven (as admitted in the glorious musical episode "Once More, With Feeling")). But the spell goes beyond Willow's hopes and makes everyone forget not just their problems, but who they are. At the episode's end, the spell broken, Tara realizes that Willow couldn't even go one day without doing magick, and ends their relationship.
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