Buffy Reviews

The Wish

Character - by Adreenis
Story - by JaKaL
As episodes go, The Wish was a little different than the others but quite enjoyable just the same. The story line seems, at the beginning at least, concerned with how Cordelia is dealing with the Xander/Willow situation, which she and Oz discovered at the end of the last episode, Lover's Walk.      We begin with Buffy, Xander and Willow doing some daylight demon slaying and discussing the situation. This cuts to Cordelia sitting in her room and burning pictures of the group. From here we see Cordelia's return to school where she faces ridicule at the hands of her old friends and rejection from the social circle she used to be a part of. All these things are results of her break-up with Xander, a situation she blames on Buffy because, as Cordy believes, it is Buffy's fault that she started dating Xander in the first place. Cordy also meets Anya, which is where the plot begins to twist and get really interesting. They begin to spend time together and Anya seems to be trying to get Cordelia to vent her anger.      The real story line is revealed when Cordy tells Anya that she wishes that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. Anya reveals herself to be Anyanka, an evil fairy who grants the wishes of scorned women, and grants Cordelia's wish. The story line, and the entire Buffy-verse, twists around the wish and we get to see what Sunnydale would be like without everyone's favourite Slayer.      Cordelia finds herself in different Sunnydale, where only she remembers what it had been like before she wished Buffy gone. At first, things seem perfect to Cordelia. Her friends accept her again and it seems like Xander Harris never happened to her. Slowly though, she, and the audience, get an idea of the truth of the new Sunnydale. The town is terrified and under curfew, the Bronze is shut down, Willow and Xander are vamps and Buffy is nowhere to be found.      After Cordelia is attacked by Xander and Willow, and rescued by Giles, Oz and a group of vampire hunters, we find out what has actually happened in Sunnydale. Without Buffy, the master rose and took control of the town. Now Xander and Willow are among his most vicious of servants, as is evidenced by the fact that they kill Cordelia as she tries to explain to Giles about the wish and what has happened. After this, Giles tries to contact Buffy and bring her to Sunnydale, and we also get to see a vicious and slightly mad Willow torture a battered Angel, now a prisoner of the Master.      Some things never change though as we see Giles go into research mode, trying to figure out what it was that Cordelia had been talking about, what had been done and how to reverse it. He discovers that Anyanka is involved and heads home to do more research; however, on the way he stops to confront a group of vamps and is saved by the one and only Slayer: Buffy, as she exists in this world.      Instead of helping Giles with the Anyanka angle, Buffy decides to take a crack at the Master. On the way, she finds and frees the battered Angel, whom she distrusts when she finds him to be a vampire. They proceed to attack the Master and his cronies, including Xander and Willow, and free the people they have captured, including Oz. As the fight ensues, Giles is at home attempting to destroy Anyanka's power and reverse the wish, even though he is unsure of just what it did. Before he does though, we see most of our favourite characters die. Xander kills Angel while trying to get to Buffy. Buffy then stakes Xander, Oz kills Willow by impaling her on a stake and finally the Master snaps Buffy's neck. At that moment, Giles meets with success and Cordelia's wish is nullified, returning everything to the moment she made she wish, a wish that Anyanka is now powerless to grant.      This wish-altered world plot line is original and, in my opinion, quite enjoyable. It is also a great way to create a filler episode. Afterall, there is plenty of rich story and action, but at the end of the episode, the show's main story line's have not been advanced or changed in any way. Also, the Xander and Willow vampires were exciting and fun to watch, once you got used to the idea. Just seeing the differences Cordelia's wish makes in the lives of the main characters makes this an enjoyable and worthwhile episode. The only part of this episode I didn't really enjoy at first was watching the main characters die. All in all, though, I'd have to say this was a great episode, deserving of 4 out of 5 eh's.
Villian - by Kaboo