Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"No Place Like Home"

Airdate: October 24, 2000

I suppose it would be only fair to give a new character a chance to grow on me. I suppose I should be more open-minded and forgiving and give it time and open my heart to the possibilities...

But I'm just not that big a person. I could pretend to be objective about all this, but it just wouldn't be the truth. And the truth is that if Dawn were anywhere within my reach at any moment, I would throttle her. I don't really have a problem with Michelle Trachtenburg. She really does seem to be trying hard with the material -- sometimes a little too hard -- but I'm sure she's a nice person undeserving of abuse. Unlike other actresses who shall remain unnamed (cough Julie Benz cough), she doesn't really bug me. It's her character that I simply can't stomach.

The main point for any character, especially in a horror series, is making the audience care whether that person lives or dies or suffers some horrible emotional trauma. On Buffy they've already accomplished that with Dawn; I do care. Unfortunately, my caring extends as far as wishing her dead, so I don't think it's working out exactly the way it's supposed to. I want to point out that I'm not a hater of all new characters; I didn't jump on the "Die Riley Die" bandwagons before season four, and I actually like other somewhat new characters like Anya and Tara (and Miss Kitty Fantastico). I've always liked Angel's Kate, though it's not really a popular opinion. But they seem to have a problem on Buffy with overusing the new folks and not really developing them. Many of these characters are peripheral and do little to snag my interest -- Tara, for example, is defined almost solely by her "Willow's girlfriend" status -- while others are so rapidly and aggressively developed that I feel I'm being beaten over the head with them. Despite the heavy use of these new characters, they also don't tend to come off as developed after their story arcs are through; after a season and a half, Riley is just now becoming a character I might begin to pay some attention to, and others are just beginning to lose their one-note status.

To get to the actual plot of the episode, "No Place Like Home" really cements the fact that Dawn is supposed to be a sympathetic character, by finally telling us just how she came to be in Buffy's life and family. Buffy's searching for the mysterious root of her mother's illness, fearing that some demon has cast a spell of some kind on Joyce, and puts herself into a funky trance in which she finally sees the truth: Dawn isn't really her sister. As she tries to figure out just what the hell is going on, she's confronted by the new bad guy -- an angry chick in a red dress called Glory -- and the monks who cast the spell to put Dawn in Buffy's life. There's various misadventures, but essentially what we know is that Dawn is the "Key" given human form, and that she's an innocent that doesn't know she's different from the other kids.

Yes, she's very different. She's short bus different.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that the past few years and all those cryptic "Little Sister" comments have been leading up to this. The whole "Key" idea is still vague, and we'll undoubtedly learn more about this sinister little plot as Glory and Dawn get more play, but I just can't really bring myself to care about it. I'd rather see something happening with the characters I actually like... you know, the ones I've been in love with for years now. Call me a foe to change, but I'd much rather see a full hour of Xander's beautiful Snoopy Dance than see another ten seconds of Dawn acting like an eight-year-old. I realize that she'll be sticking around despite my intense desire that she'd leave, but let's at least give some dignity back to the young teen set and let Dawn act a little more her age.

Oh, and I have an idea for a touching future storyline. Dawn falls down a well. Nobody knows, and nobody rescues her. It's all very tragic. I think it'll be this winter's tearjerker.

-- Lisa Kincaid

Buffy the Vampire Slayer airs at 8/7c, Tuesday nights on the WB.

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