Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

James

Xander is evil. Always has been. Remember all those times he was mean to poor old Angel? And the way he treated Cordelia? Now, his relentless mixture of selfishness and self-hatred boils over and spoils the end of one of the best episodes of the season.

Emma Caulfield yet holds the screen with her dazzling array of Anya-isms ("squish squish squish" and the look on her face when she tries out whisky). Which leaves poor old Nick Brendon to try and carry the can as Xander, spending the entire episode lashing out, crazy style at Spike, Anya, Buffy, garden gnomes...

Holding any sympathy for this guy is rapidly becoming hard. He's mean, he's spiteful - and his idea that Anya sleeps with Spike purely for revenge is puerile. Worse, he then turns on Buffy. How someone who's just dumped his girlfriend at the altar can scrabble so eagerly for the moral high ground is just baffling.

After another rather depressing couple of episodes, most of the regulars seem to be getting on this week.

Apart from Anya and Xander. Xander doesn't do moody all that well - he even gives up in the middle of the episode to go and mooch off screen as it sits so badly - but Anya, well, Anya does wronged women very well indeed, and is the highlight of the episode.

I think I should come clean at this point and admit that I am a bit of an Anya fan. The sequence where she tries to get the rest of the gang to wish horrible things to happen to Xander is a highlight of the last few weeks, one of the very few comedy moments of this season which really works. But, as she says later on, the Scoobies are all a bit nice for that kind of thing.

And then, just when the soap elements of this year, seem to have dragged things to a complete halt, Buffy and Spikes tryst gets brought out into the open, and the last scene brings real hope that it's all been worthwhile. I can't be the only one who was trying to hold back the tears.

Sometimes an episode will come along that may not have a great all-action plot, but has a script and the performances from the ensemble cast that are so great that it doesn't matter. Entropy is one such episode, with Anya's attempts to get Xander's friends to wish him ill failing hilariously.

Add some truly touching, humorous and, more importantly, real conversations between Willow and Tara, Dawn and Buffy and you may not have a classic episode, but one that entertains without alienating the audience with lots of angst. Oh, and you get to shout at Xander for being such a jerk.