What is the Best Buffy Teaser From Season Five (Part Two)?

As promised, here is part two (or 5B) of the Best Buffy Teaser search. Enjoy.

"Blood Ties"--Written By Steven S. DeKnight; Directed By Michael Gershman

Conversation between the Scoobies in the "Blood Ties" teaser darts between Buffy's 20th birthday party, her reluctance to celebrate, Glory, the new information the council gave them about her being a god, how she's always on brink of insanity (to which Xander remarks: "And the fun keeps on leaving!" I love that line), The Key, the desire of Willow and Xander to know more about The Key, until Buffy reveals that Dawn is The Key. Then: Glory kills some knights who want to find and kill The Key. Indeed, the fun keeps on leaving.

The initial scene covers a lot of plot and story but Buffy's writers were so good at wrapping exposition in sparkling dialogue. Glory's scene introduces yet another threat and more displays of her incredible godly power. How will Buffy stop her?

"Crush"--Written By David Fury; Directed By Dan Attias

Spike's been in love with Buffy since "Out of My Mind" so in this teaser he tries to flirt with and charm Buffy at The Bronze. He fails. Xander insults him. Elsewhere, there's more Glory talk. Willow has had headaches because of her teleportation spells she used to discover more about the hellgod. More flirting happens between Buffy and Ben. We cut to an arriving train with only one arrival because that arriving passenger killed all the other passengers. Hm. Who could that be?

The scene at The Bronze is a welcome break from the intensity of the last few episodes. Buffy speaks for the audience when she says that she needs a break from the Glory stuff. There's some fun writing when Xander skirts around using Glory's name right as Ben shows up because Ben is Glory and Glory is Ben (though Xander will have hard time understanding that).

And who the devil is in that train? Who else but Drusilla, fresh from being torched in LA by Angel.

"I Was Made To Love You"--Written By Jane Espenson; Directed By James A. Contner

Buffy feels disgusted by the fact that Spike wants her. Any synonym for disgusted works for her. Buffy rants as she trains, which adds to the force of her kicks and punches. Xander's in the suit taking the brunt of Buffy's frustrations. The conversation switches to Buffy's cynicism abut love, her feelings that she's doomed to never love, that she always pushes men away because she's strong. Should she change? Xander jokes that living on a Hellmouth is a terrible place to build anything. Naturally, we next meet a woman who came to Sunnydale to find true love.

Love is the theme of this episode. Buffy's suffering from post-Riley blues. She's appalled that Spike would have any kind of sexual feeling for her. As per usual, Xander's there to cheer Buffy up as he has whenever she's down in the dumps. He's the heart of the group, after all. Meanwhile, the arrival of April makes us wonder who this bright, hopeful woman is.

"The Body"--Written & Directed By Joss Whedon

Buffy walks into her house, notices the flowers and is encouraged to see that good men still exist. She calls upstairs to see if her mom wants her to pick Dawn up from school. No answer. Buffy doesn't see the haunting image in the backround of Joyce lying on the couch, not moving. She turns to the family room and wonders what her mother's doing. Buffy recognizes that her mom's not moving and she's definitely not sleep. Buffy calls out, "Mom? Mom? Mommy..." and her voice shifts to that of a child's when she uses the word mommy.

"The Body" is a devastating episode of television. Joss captured the immediate experience of losing a loved one so well. The teaser, a repeat of the the last scene in "I Was Made To Love You" is as devastating as the rest of the episode. Buffy is a show that deals with demons, vampires and horror each week, yet the most haunting image in the series is the shot of Joyce sprawled on the couch, dead. The shot's more haunting and surprising because its composition: Joyce is out of focus and almost out of frame, so it catches the viewer by surprise. Sarah Michelle Gellar gives a devastating performance. Honest, heart wrenching, unflinching in its realistic portrayal of loss.

"Forever"--Written & Directed By Marti Noxon

"The Body" showed the immediate experience of a loved one's death. "Forever" opens with the next part of the process: the burial. Buffy needs to choose a coffin, and she can't really handle the choice, especially not with Dawn's rambling about finding a coffin their mother would like.

The scene's really about what's not said by the Summers sisters. Dawn openly grieves. Buffy doesn't. She needs to take care of business without falling apart. The teaser clearly shows two sisters who aren't connected at all in their grief, and they need each other, because it's only them now.

"Intervention"--Written By Jane Espenson; Directed By Michael Gershman

Giles, Buffy and Dawn are cleaning up after dinner. Following the cleaning, Giles suggests that he and Buffy resume their regular training schedule. Buffy balks. She's unsure if she wants to continue training because she worries about what being a slayer is doing to her. She feels like a stone. The word love feels foreign to her. She pushed Riley away. She's not sure if her mother knew how much she was loved. Giles suggests that he and she take a few days in the wilderness for a quest--it helps slayers re-focus and it teaches the slayer more about her role. Meanwhile, Warren delivers Spike his Buffy-bot.

The first part of the Giles-Buffy scene focuses on issues that Buffy's been dealing with the last few episodes. It allows the show to move forward without being disrespectful to the previous two episodes. But a big bad remains in town and the slayer needs to be in top form. The second part of the scene sets the plot up. She and Giles are going out in the wilderness for some First Slayer fun.

"Tough Love"--Written By Rebecca Kirshner; Directed By David Grossman

Buffy decides to leave college before the semester's through because she's dealing with too much to worry about school. Meanwhile, Ben loses his job because he hadn't shown up for two weeks on account of Glory taking over for those two weeks. Ben grows increasingly frustrated with Glory because she's messing up his life. As he packs his bags, Glory takes over again.

Not much going on in this one, though we do see the growing animosity Ben has for Glory. That's important for the end game. And we learned that Buffy loved her poetry class.

"Spiral"--Written By Steven S. DeKnight; Directed By James A. Contner

The episode picks up from the end of "Tough Love" when Glory destroyed the wall and a brain-sucked Tara ratted Dawn out as The Key. Buffy and Dawn run across campus. Glory follows in murderous pursuit until a bus hits her. That's when Ben takes over, which gives the Summer sisters time to run. Ben's a real threat, though, because if he's with Buffy and Dawn, Glory's only a transformation away.

"The Weight of the World"--Written By Doug Petrie; Directed By David Solomon

Glory feels different at the start of this episode. She feels no desire to murder anyone. She has Dawn, i.e. The Key, which is something she has wanted for an eternity. Something's off, though. Meanwhile, Buffy's catatonic after losing Dawn to Glory. So, we know the stakes: the Scoobies need to bring Buffy back before Glory regains her desire to use Dawn to open the portal. Convenient time for the hellgod's humanity to get to her, no?

"The Gift"--Written & Directed By Joss Whedon

A terrified kid confronts a savage vampire behind The Magic Box. The vampire threatens to kill the kid as the kid pleas for his life. Buffy shows up. She briefly engages in conversation with the vampire. He's never heard of the slayer. They fight. Buffy quickly dusts the vamp. Buffy remarks that it's been awhile since she met a vampire who didn't know her. The kid asks her how she did that. She tells him that it's what she does. The kid (or teen rather) says, "but you're just a girl." Buffy responds with, "That's what I keep saying."

During the original broadcast, the Previously On was a montage of the previous five seasons. This teaser restates the show's mission statement. It's a sequel to the "Prophecy Girl" teaser. And, like in "Prophecy Girl", Buffy will again die.

AND THE WINNER OF THE BEST BUFFY TEASER FROM SEASON FIVE IS..."The Body." Season 5's teasers are consistently good throughout but nothing beats "The Body." It should've won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing but it was a WB show so it didn't. The teaser is so sad, so honest and so devastating. It sets the tone for the ensuing 43 minutes. It's heartbreaking when SMG's voice becomes so little.

Here's a list of how I rank the teasers in descending order: 22. "Listening To Fear" 21. "Into The Woods" 20. "Shadow" 19. "Tough Love" 18. "Out of My Mind" 17. "The Replacement" 16. "Triangle" 15. "Buffy vs. Dracula" 14. "Spiral" 13. "Real Me" 12. "No Place Like Home" 11. "The Weight of the World" 10. "I Was Made To Love You" 9. "Blood Ties" 8. "Crush" 7. "Forever" 6. "Fool for Love" 5. "Family" 4. "Checkpoint" 3. "Intervention" 2. "The Gift" 1. "The Body"