The Watcher Diaries - Tough Love - Buffy Episode 5.19

Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 03.10.2010

Glory's search for the Key narrows down, and Tara pays the price, sending Willow into a magic fuelled rage!



5.19 Tough Love
Writer: Rebecca Rand Kirshner
Director: David Grossman

Watcher’s Notes

Buffy is officially a college dropout.

Ron Martin has the full review!

“Tough Love” is somewhat of a paradox. It’s boring, yet exciting. It’s predictable, yet surprising. It’s easily forgettable, yet so many arc storylines begin or are advanced here. I really enjoyed the fact that the creative team chose to pick on Tara for this episode. It makes sense from an artistic standpoint and from a storyline standpoint. Storyline wise, Tara is the next logical step from Spike.
With Spike, Glory’s minions saw how the Buffybot treated him special and hilarious situational misunderstanding ensued. Tara makes sense because the minions would have to know that the key was someone fairly new in Buffy’s life. Given that everyone believes Dawn has been around since the beginning, that would make Tara the newest member of the inner circle. The fact that Glory never questions why the gang would let the key wonder around alone at a cultural is small enough to be overlooked. Artistically, Tara is the best candidate for Glory bait because she is the most unknown member of the Scoobies and let’s face it, from a fan standpoint, she is probably the least popular. We know what Buffy, Xander, Giles and Willow are bringing to the table. We’ve had five years of that. Spike is worshipped like a demigod amongst the fanbase and Anya is wacky enough to be beloved for both comic relief and making Xander happy. Dawn is certainly out of the question, that just leaves Tara.

This is an important episode for Tara as it’s one of few (“Family” being the other that springs to mind) where she is the only Scooby holding a scene together. Certainly she gained some points with the fans for looking a God in the eyes while her hand is being crushed bad enough to bleed and refusing to give up who the key is. Basically, Tara was willing to die to keep the secret. These are things we remember. Of the Scoobies, the three most likely to give up the secret would have been Spike, Tara and Anya. Wet never get to see how Anya would react, but the fact that both Spike and Tara were willing to face death to protect Dawn tells us a lot about their character and that they belong alongside our long time heroes. Hey, Oz left tough shoes to fill. In some fans eyes, Tara never did fill those shoes, but in this episode she took a big step in that direction. All this plus Tara’s insanity is a convenient way to have the beans spilled to Glory when she surprises the hell out of the audience at the end of the episode.

The other big seed planted here is obviously the debut of Dark Willow. Tara gets hurt, Willow gets all black-eyed. Sound familiar? Willow’s actions mirror those of Giles from the Season Two episode “Passions” with Willow playing the role of Giles, Tara as Miss Calendar and Glory presenting herself as Angelus. The results were about the same; Willow hurt Glory (something that not even Buffy had been able to do up to this point), but Buffy saves her ass before she gets killed. We find out Dark Willow is not a character to be messed with.
That being said, I would like to point out that the argument that led to Tara leaving for the culture fair all by herself was pretty freaking weak. Both Willow and Tara are soft spoken as it is, so arguing just isn’t their strong point. Even with it’s flaws, the argument did hold two important points. 1) Tara is still not completely comfortable in the relationship. She fears Willow will go back to men, leaving her alone. 2)Tara feels Willow is getting too strong, magickly. This is a theme that will be re-introduced in Season Six, eventually leading to the split of the couple.
Another Season Six seed is planted here as Buffy complains to Giles about how hard it is trying to act like a guardian for Dawn. She basically pleads for Giles to tell her what and how to do it. This is the beginning of the scenario that will lead to Giles departure from the show. Too bad because Buffy never really is a very good guardian for Dawn.
Lastly, the writers give us parallel situation as they love to do. In the beginning of the episode the Willow/Tara relationship is strong while the Buffy/Dawn relationship is not so much. By the time the episode ends, Willow has taken over the guardian role for Tara and seems to be doing a much better job than Buffy is with Dawn. In Buffy’s defense, it has to be much harder dealing with a 15 year old girl than a full grown girl in a vegetative state. The ending where Glory finds out who the key is both surprising and effective because you know the end is now coming.

Ronny Sarnecky	On one hand, UGH! It’s a Tara episode. However, on the other hand, it was a really good episode that will have a lasting impact on not just this season, but next season as well. This was the first episode where Willow took a walk on the dark side when it comes to her witchcraft. Hell hath no fury like a Willow scorned. Even a pissed off witch was no match for a God, as Buffy foresaw. Of course, the biggest piece of information to take out of this episode was that Glory finally found out that Dawn was the “key.” For me, my favorite part of the episode was the underlying tone set between Buffy and Willow, as they seem to be drifting apart. Buffy feels that Willow can not relate to what she is going through in trying to raise Dawn. Willow even mentioned to Tara that she feels on the outside because her mom is still alive. However, by the end of the episode Willow knows exactly what Buffy is going through as she will now need to take care of Tara the way Buffy has to take care of Dawn.	8.5
Jeremy Thomas	You all know I love Tara (and kinda stand on my own with that), so the focus on Tara and Willow's relationship here was one I really enjoyed. Up to this point, the two ladies had mostly avoided what I call the Joss Whedon Rule of Relationship Hell. In other words, no romantic relationship on a show Joss Whedon is behind will ever last, and in fact it will end in soul-ripping heartbreak. This was the first hint of such happening with Willow and Tara, as they had their first real fight. It was over Tara's concerns over Willow's growing power as a witch, something which will become relevant in Season Six. She also expressed fear that Willow's days of Sapphic orientation may be limited. After the fight, Tara ends up at the cultural fair, and finds her sitting down next to none other than Glory. The poor girl's sanity gets drained, driving Willow to the first-ever appearance of Darth Rosenberg. Now, here is where precedent on this show made things work beautifully. Had we not seen the death of Jenny Calendar, the departure of Angel and Riley, and just a few episodes earlier the death of Joyce, it would have been easy to say "Oh, Tara will be fine, they'll get her back." But Buffy has always been proven to be a show where no one is safe. When Tara became a raving lunatic, there was absolutely no guarantee she was coming back. That's what makes this whole thing work. This episode was a necessary step in the escalation of the season, as Glory finally strikes close to home and galvanizes the team into action. Good stuff all-around.	8.5
Mike Gorman	We lose Tara and get the first look at Dark Willow. This is a pretty great episode over all and in my opinion upped the stakes of the season. Glory's attack on Tara was cold, calculated, and truly broke my heart to watch. Tara is still on the show, but she is gone in most senses of the word. This is c;early the season of tragedy and "Tough Love" shows us just how tough love can truly be, Willow will need to be strong now for the woman she loves, and I don't just mean in the eye dark magic throwing knives at a god kind of way. The challenges have begun. Things won't be the same. Damn I love this show.	8.5
Jason Chamberlain	Yep, too much Tara in this one for me! And if regular Tara is bad, ‘special ed’ Tara is even worse. On the other hand, there is some great stuff in here, namely the first appearance of Dark Willow. “I owe you PAIN!” Badass. That, and I like Spike’s brotherly advice to Dawn. It’s nice to see him integrating back into the group a little bit.	7

GRR!!! ARGH!!!

The 411: "Tough Love" is an excellently written episode that advances several storylines while performing some much needed strengthening of the Tara character. That being said, I never liked nor believed in the argument between Tara and Willow and the writer's seem to be holding the Ben/Glory thing together poorly in this episode, though it will get better later.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]