THE LONG WAY HOME PT. 4 (8x04)

An improvement over The Long Way Home Pt. 3 (8x03), but not by much. That would be my synopsis of this final issue of the first S8 arc. It shouldn't be surprising, then, when I say that I feel this continuation retains many of the problems of the last issue including Warren, some (but less) confusing narrative jumps, Amy's dumb evil smile (which from now on will simply represent her continued one-dimensionality), and the action-orientated style. This is like the second half of the Primeval (4x21) comparison I made. Let me use this opportunity to remind my fellow readers that the way I score these comics is completely non-comparable to how I score the series. A 75 here does not necessarily correspond to a 75 for an episode.

Since the issue itself jumps right into discussing what's going on with Warren, so will I. The explanation for why Warren is standing here, alive (?), is so extremely flimsy and confusing that I have to say that I'm both confirmed disappointed and not at all surprised. If Whedon had given us anything other than confusion he'd have broken good, established, and solid continuity. What we have now is the sense that somehow continuity is still broken, but we're just not sure how.

According to Warren, his "human life" is gone which, as directly interpreted, means he died. Yet, he also says that he got saved before dying. So, which one is it? "The Long Way Home Pt. 4" doesn't care to explain. Apparently Amy snatched Warren away right after Willow flayed him. Amy then put magical skin around him to keep him alive. Huh? If I'm to believe statement #1 from Warren then Amy somehow resurrected him (vital Buffyverse law broken -- very bad). But, if I'm to believe statement #2 from Warren, he didn't die at all! But, this also breaks continuity, because Warren did die. Hey Whedon, you rock, but you really need to go watch Conversations with Dead People (7x07) again. Nowish.

A large portion of this issue involves what's (not) happening to Willow. I'm really not happy that we're led to believe that Willow's really getting hurt and will be permanently damaged only to see her a-ok. Smiling, in fact. Warren was digging into her eyes with a sharp implement. What's with the cop-out? Come on...

This is about where Willow's glowy who-the-hell-knows-what-they-are new 'friends,' one of which looks like a female wookie, appear. With Warren in the picture, I actually thought it was a female wookie. This mystical 'escape' from Willow's pain is kind of cool, but these weird friends of hers are kind of ridiculous. The lack of any explanation of what they are doesn't help matters. What confuses me further is that they tell Willow that she's physically being hurt and that she won't survive much longer. Although Willow's faith in Buffy is expectedly sweet, when Buffy does finally get there Willow doesn't have a scratch on her. And there's zero explanation why. Not cool.

Anyway, Dawn's situation continues to interest me. While I'm not terribly pleased that it hasn't been dealt with yet, I do find it interesting to think about the possibilities surrounding why Dawn's got such a close connection to Willow now. It sure wasn't there from Villains (6x20) through Chosen (7x22). Dawn says, "Will is like a mom to me." The following panel is smile-worthy as Xander tells Buffy, "Oh I bet you loved hearing that." This disconnect between Dawn and Buffy, something that was built out of S6 and the thick of S7, is something that I fortunately do very much look forward to finding out about.

Anyway, the vast majority of the rest of this issue is completely consumed with action and battle. Much of this action, like the before-mentioned Primeval (4x21), proves to be surprisingly fun. These sequences clicked with me much more than the confusing Willow/Amy fight in the last issue. But, before we get to the action, there's some interesting prep-work. For one, I very much appreciated the Buffy/Satsu interaction and the continuity from The Long Way Home Pt. 2 (8x02) involving the training.

How about that cinnamon lip gloss? Does Satsu love Buffy? Although making Buffy a lesbian is definately not the direction I want to see her going (because it would be a complete cop-out of dealing with her relationship-issues -- plus, she's clearly thinking about guys still), I certainly don't have a problem with one loving her. This could prove to be interesting. How would Buffy react to that? Maybe we'll soon find out. Then again, maybe Xander (or someone else for that matter) gave Satsu that lip gloss for some reason. Who knows. I kind of wish there was a bit more conclusiveness on the matter though.

Now comes the big fight itself along with the long-awaited re-appearance of the Slayer Scythe. It's good to see it again! Even though it was used as an overly convenient plot device in S7, I still think the thing looks badass. Once Buffy and Satsu jump through the portal, we see an amazingly silly new convenience as Buffy and Satsu escape being hit from bullet fire when it's shown that the room has them flying around pretty much everywhere. That's just not even remotely realistic. Couldn't there been some sort of magical explanation of why they aren't being filled with bullets?

Regardless of the technical inconsistencies of the battle itself, it does look really cool. It's always fun to see Buffy wailing on people and giving them her stern face. It's here that there's a small, but I feel potentially important, moment. There's injured soldiers all over the floor when Buffy walks up to one and says, "we tried to be nice here but some of these men are dying. There's one person in this complex powerful enough to heal them. You can tell me where she is... OR." This, of course, ties into the final dialogue at the end where the General informs Buffy that the entire human race is against her because they think the slayers are a new master race that's going to attempt to slay everything. Buffy's offer of help to the soldiers and follow-through of that help after rescuing Willow already proves that the General's fears aren't remotely valid. But more on this in a bit.

I'm skeptically enjoying Buffy and Willow being connected through magic to the point of Buffy being able to use some of Willow's abilities. Black-eyed Buffy? Interesting. I hope we get to find out what that feels like for Buffy. I'm skeptical of this because I'm not sure I buy this closeness between them. In S7, there was certainly some connection (Same Time, Same Place [7x03] comes to mind) and strong cooperation (Get It Done [7x15] comes to mind), but they weren't nearly as tight as they used to be (as friends tend to become post high school). I hope this connection is better explained, because I rather got the impression that Willow had been gone for quite a while.

Buffy showing Amy her mom is another really cool moment, one which I hope and expect will be much further developed. As it stands now, Amy is a pathetically corny villain. Seeing a perfectly drawn version of her mom gives me an inkling of hope that something will come of this.

And so the end arrives with Buffy finding what I think is a dead Ethan Rayne (it's just so hard to be sure in comic form). The General (Voll?) explains his motives, although it doesn't entirely make sense. He says that this wing of the military is part of a group that's trying to prevent slayers from becoming a master race, which is somewhat of a valid concern. Buffy thinks it's a woman thing, and says as much to excess. Yes, Whedon, we get what Buffy's about, no need to repeat yourself by shoving it down our throats. Remember that little thing called subtlety that you used to use all too often? At the very least, that's not the reason why this group is so worked up. They have a problem with Buffy not being completely human.

I actually think this plot twist is pretty cool, but when the General elaborates the confusion starts to set in. This group thinks Buffy picked the wrong side in the fight against the First? Why? How would pure evil slaughtering everyone be any better than a group of super-humans slaughtering some demons? He says that if Buffy wins the demon inside her will overrun her and just start killing randomly. This is utterly moronic thinking, but even if, how is that not still a billion times better than the First sweeping the world with evil? This reasoning just makes absolutely no sense, which greatly hurts the credibility of this larger villain. A villain that's well-developed and has motives that we understand is far more intimidating, complex, and interesting than one that doesn't. Alas, I now fear that this 'villain' will closely resemble the one-dimensionality of Amy, both of which have absolutely zero clear motives for doing anything that they're doing.

Regardless of all the confusion, Buffy's final reaction to the news that she's against the entire human race? Perfect: "Oh. Kay." Although Whedon's idea here -- pitting Buffy and her slayers against humanity itself, a powerful twist on Buffy's struggle to be normal all her life -- is excellent, I'm afraid the execution of said idea has so far fallen flat. I very much hope that changes as we move forward.

So overall, I enjoyed this issue more than the last, but as made evedent up above, I've still got some serious qualms about how Whedon is executing his story. There are some serious flaws, holes, and various kinds of seaweed mucking up the works. Hopefully, for the sake of this long comic season, this is just the typically weak Whedon season opener and nothing more. I must say, though, that I'm really looking forward to the fascinating idea of Whedon's upcoming stand-alone issue along with Brian K. Vaughn's Faith arc coming up right after it. I'm crossing my fingers for some improvement.