My review for the episode:
This is how much I remembered about this episode before watching again: nothing. It had been about six years from the previous time and I didn't even remember that there was a episode with Buffy invisible until I read some comments about it in a forum. To tell the truth this wasn't actually as bad episode as I expected it to be, then again it's not a good episode either.
After a miracle happened and I was rooting for Dawn and actually almost liked her in Wrecker, it is now gone and my irritation and loathing of the character has returned. Dawn is once again acting like a spoiled brat with 'it's all about me'-attitude. When Buffy is gathering away things that might make Willow fall off the wagon, Dawn whines “why do we have to get rid of so many things I like”. Argh! You don't wave bottles of alcohol in front of a recovering alcoholic! And during breakfast we get more of bratty selfish Dawn, she's really getting on my nerves and she's not even on this episode all that much. What I don't understand is why does Dawn blame Buffy for Willow turning into a druggie?! Even Tara who was Willow's girlfriend couldn't make Willow cut back, so how could Buffy who was just her friend make her stop using magic(crack)?! Buffy says she was too wrapped up in her own “dumb life”, but her problems are (and always have been) much more serious than anyone else's and it's not like any of her friends paid any attention to her problems, only Xander suggested a video club to make her forget Heaven and that was it.
To make her morning even better (that was sarcasm), Spike shows up and again starts harassing her. There is sun coming from between the blinds so why isn't Spike getting smoky since he's standing close to the window? But thankfully Xander comes in to interrupt Spike's harassing, he really has a good timing and it's good to see that with his small time on screen he manages to be useful, he's probably the most consistent character on the show. But on the other hand he unwittingly manages to push Buffy farther into Spike's clutches with his comment how only a complete loser would hook up with him, so Buffy can't confide in him with what's going on with Spike and get support from her friends. Like Buffy doesn't have enough problems, now she has to deal with a social service worker who thinks that she isn't fit to take care of Dawn and Spike loitering around certainly doesn't help. Buffy explaining Spike's blanket to be security blanket and then stating that “he has issues” did amuse me a little, but then comes a heavy anvil that just creates a come-on!-reaction, Willow's bag of herbs is very subtly magic weed. I know Buffy isn't the best person at making up excuses, but I highly doubt that she would have called a suspicious looking herbs magic weeds to a social service lady who can take Dawn away from her if she doesn't see her fit to be a guardian, that was beyond bad. Which brings me to a question of why is 15 year old Dawn in her 20 year old sister's care while she has a father living only two hours away, and why isn't he paying alimony?
After the social service worker threatens to take Dawn away from Buffy, Spike continues to crowd her. I'm really getting tired of him and it's only the beginning of the episode. But it tells a lot about how distressed Buffy is since soon after Spike tells her how much he loves her hair and harasses her, she cuts it off and then tells the hairdresser to make her different. As usual, the pervy nerds are boring and probably the only amusing thing they do is when Andrew is afraid that invisible Buffy might be among them and gets the others to fear it too. And I still love Jonathan even though he's not one of the good guys anymore, but he does stand up to Warren on helping Buffy so it makes up for it a little.
When Buffy is invisible there's a reference to Marcie (Out of mind, out of sight), so it's good to see the writers occasionally remember the past episodes. But I loved how Buffy and Anya strayed off topic into Buffy's new haircut and Anya thinking of cutting her hair. But Buffy's actions are severely out of character, the 'ghost of fashion victim's past' was pretty bad and while I did find her terrorizing the social service lady mildly funny it was still very out of character for her, it was far too mean to be Buffy.
Since I never cared about the magic is drugs story for Willow and perhaps that is why I really don't care for the rehab story either, her being tempted to pick up a book with magic because she's too lazy to get up from the chair and all the bottled water to remind us that she's cutting off magic/drugs, bored now. But my liking of Willow is returning and it is good to see her doing something useful like research. But she shows how clueless she is when she asks Xander, “Buffy is broken?”
I really didn't need to see Spike humping “thin air” and another out of character moment from Buffy comes when she is “playing” with Spike (biting his ear for example) in front of Xander, despite being invisible I find it hard to believe that it would be something that Buffy would do. After his little speech of how he doesn't want to be Buffy's dirty little secret, Spike doesn't seem/sound very set on her leaving and his “that's cheating” is in no way 'No', he makes no move to stop her or even look put off.
Another genius moment from Dawn as she sneaks back to the house after dark and to make her more helpless, she has a broken arm. She really likes to live on the edge. And if her acting bratty at the beginning of the episode and Spike annoying the time after that wasn't enough, now she's once again acting out because Buffy is invisible. Well, while Willow was annoying the hell out of me in the previous episode, now she's winning my affection back. It's good to see that she has something useful to do other than remind the viewers that she's going through the jitters of not using magic(drugs). Her getting captured and later kept captive looked pretty bad, but I believe it's hard to make a good scene with most of the characters invisible. Andrew and Jonathan playing the game in the middle of the hostage situation and the fight I did find amusing and Willow saving Buffy was great. And for some reason I always love it when characters get distracted with unimportant things in the middle of serious situation, so maybe that's why I love it when Buffy asks Jonathan “you have chest hair?” when while invisible he's complaining she's pulling his chest hair and later Willow telling Buffy her new hair is adorable. I actually kinda like the (hair)cut in this episode, not so much in the later episodes, maybe it's the highlights that bug me when it's a brighter scene. And I really liked the talk at the end as Buffy confessed to Willow that she actually got scared when Xander's message said she would die if the invisibility wasn't cured, she pretty much confesses that she had a death wish before it. And it's good to have a Buffy/Willow scene with some heart because this season has been lacking them.
Despite the spuffy sex, bad child services scene, bratty annoying Dawn and out of character Buffy, I liked this episode better than I expected. Well, maybe liked isn't the right word, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. This had plenty of potential, but unfortunately it was wasted and I'm surprised and disappointed that this was written by David Fury, not something I was expecting from him.
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