Passion

I'm currently rereading William Goldman's The Princess Bride. If you've never read it, I highly recommend it (even if you have read it - I got my battered old copy some time in the '80s and, clearly, I still return to it). The central conceit is that Goldman has edited and annotated an old book by one H.S. Morgenstern, and he occasionally interrupts the tale to talk about something he's edited out, explain a certain reference, or just randomly opine. And in one segment, he warns readers that things aren't always fair, both in life and in this book. Specifically, he warns, the wrong people die.

Now that, of course, turns out to be a cop-out. Our hero Westley does, in fact, die - and then, as in the beloved film, Miracle Max eventually brings him back to life (he was only mostly dead, as it turns out, not all dead). I'm not saying I don't love the book - just that it was a cop-out.

The Whedonverse doesn't cop out. And when Jenny Calendar dies, she's the wrong people. I'm not ashamed to admit it got a little dusty in here a couple of times, and I might have had to get a tissue. But at the end of the day, this remains one of the extraordinary things about this series (and, again, about all of Whedon's work - I still hate thinking about Wash in Serenity). It acknowledges that life isn't fair, and the wrong people die, often unexpectedly. And that's important. And heartbreaking. And true.

***

Also of note: why did no one think before that perhaps Angel's invitations to both Buffy's and Willow's houses might be a problem? And lastly, this episode featured another Jonathan moment - this time accompanied by Ellie Kemper of The Office fame in a non-speaking role as a fellow student who ventures into the library with Jonathan. Awesome.