Buffy and Angel Rewatch part 30

B5.05 No Place Like Home
This is a brilliant episode and the best one of the season so far. Buffy discovering Dawn wasn't her sister had to come early in the season, otherwise the charade would've gone on too long. The reveal is highly touching and Buffy's change of attitude towards Dawn shows just how much she has grown, especially since she has been acting quite childishly towards Dawn in the last few episodes. I liked Glory's introduction, it captures her perfectly and helps to kick of the season's arc skillfully.
As for the other storyline, Giles opening the Magic Shop was pretty funny to watch. Whilst it was a little silly that so many people would visit the shop (though perhaps they had done some sort of promotion) in one day, it was funny to see Giles wilt under the pressure and Anya shine. (9/10)

A2.05 Dear Boy
Its episode like this one that make me glad that Darla was brought back by the producers and given a much more interesting personality than in season 1 of Buffy. Darla's torture of Angel was really stepped up here and it was delightful to watch. The way in which is she teased and manipulated Angel was brilliant and very creative. It also led up to that stellar scene between the two in which they spar both verbally and physically. That scene in the water tanks demonstrates just how well the actors and characters work together. Darla's evil nature in this episode is very intriguing as despite having a soul, she is just the same as she always was whereas Spike and Angel's conscious kicked in near instantaneously. Even though Darla will feel it in later episode, maybe its just that she's more evil than Angel or Spike. I also liked the flashbacks to Drusilla's siring, which I realise now were preludes to the Darla episode in a couple of episodes time.
Kate's reappearance in this role was a little more interesting than her last few and it fit well within the episode. One down point was that to me, Cordy, Wes and Gunn seemed very inactive in this episode. Surely if Angel might be going evil at least one of them might try to go look for him a bit earlier. (9/10)

B5.06 Family
This a very sweet episode and probably the only Tara centric episode we get. After discovering a little bit more about Tara, and her family, she becomes a lot more likable character, mostly because she becomes a character on her own rather than being just Willow's girlfriend. The couple themselves are also very sweet in this episode and its impossible not to ship for them even a little.
As for the Glory/Key storyline, I like that Buffy and Dawn's sister dynamic remained largely the same, but with Buffy being a bit more concerned now. I also liked that fact that she only told Giles which points to the magnitude of this secret as usually the Scoobies find out very quickly about these sorts of things. (8.5/10)

A2.06 Guise Will Be Guise
This is a bit of a fun frivolous episode, which is probably needed as the season gets very dark for the next set of episodes. Even though it isn't a stellar episode its nice to see Wesley coming to the forefront and also getting a little play so to speak. Wes stepped nicely into the role of protector and leader, foreshadowing events in later episodes. Alexis Denisof showed off his flair for comedy as well as drama in this episode, with him struggling to pretend to be Angel and also earnestly trying to protect Virginia.
Angel's storyline of going the Swamme was a little boring but its good for him to get some catharsis and someone to talk to, even if he was a fake. (7/10)