Wolves at the Gate

Now that the latest episode of Season Eight has put Wolves at the Gate to bed, this seems like an opportune moment to look back at the most recent sequence of Season Eights.

The arc, which starts when a group of transmogrifying Japanese goth vampires steal the Scythe. In light of the obvious similarities between their attackers and Dracula, Xander goes to visit his old friend, who confesses that he gambled away the secret to his powers in a game of pai gow. With Vlad in tow, the Slayers head to Tokyo only to fall into a cunning vampire trap. There is much with the killing, crushing and destroying. There is a battle of between a giant and a mecha. There is pain and there is loss. But there is also Resolution.

There was much crunchy goodness in Wolves although I was slightly uncertain about some of Dracula's somewhat racist comments. Although I suppose his comments are probably in keeping with the character and the period when Stoke wrote his novel, although I don't remember the novel being particularly racist — not when compared to, say, Sax Rohmer's novels — and, to be fair to the comic, Xander does call him on it. But still.

The arc also covered a lot of good character stuff, with the Buffy and Satsu thing handled rather tactfully in a way that added to both characters. There were a couple of nice Andrew moments — his determined efforts to play Margot Kidder to Willow's Christopher Reeve and his authentic Love at First Bite costume were great — and the dark hints from Kumiko, the psycho witch, about Willow's mentor must surely presage something bad.

All of which leaves me looking forward, breathlessly, to the next episode...