Buffy Season 8 Recap - Time of your Life - Part 2

Sorry this one has taken so long to get up, I've been trying to keep the story arcs posted relatively close to each other but between laptop problems and general life I've only just found time to continue. Here is the link to Part 1 of Time of your Life.

Questions answered in this issue: Who transported Buffy to the future?
















Whereas the previous issue showed the lead up to Buffy vanishing, this issue begins from Fray’s perspective and Buffy hasn’t arrived yet. Fray and her sister are flying through the air on a flying motorbike, they are looking for a vampire lair. Suddenly Fray realises they have found the lair which is a big van (also flying), Fray stabs the side of the van and rips open the metal revealing about a dozen vampires. Fray jumps from the bike and grabs one of the vampires and plummets with the vampire with her, Erin causes the van and the rest of the vampires to crash into a building killing them all. Fray and the vampire land on a car roof, she demands to know where her brother is but he refuses to answer. He tells Fray that the madwoman has promised to save them, Fray asks who the madwoman is but he simply tells her that the madwoman has lived for centuries and talks in riddles. Fray realises his uselessness and stakes him.

Fray and her sister arrive at the library of watcher’s diaries and Erin asks if Fray knows who the “madwoman” is. Fray takes a book from one of the shelves and tells her that she knows it is in the books somewhere and with a little research she will find the information she needs. The four armed monkey jumps on Erin which surprises her, Fray tells Erin that the monkey is named “gates” and he was once human, in fact he is the last Watcher, he was turned into a demon monkey during the battle of Starbucks, Erin asks where Starbucks is thinking it is an area somewhere but Fray also has no idea.

We now see Harth talking to the “madwoman”, her face obscured by the framing of the scene. Harth tells her that he is connected to Slayer’s past memories and he remembers fighting the madwoman as a past Slayer, the memories make it clear that the madwoman is connected to someone a Slayer loved and this Slayer whose memories he is bonded to is on her way, Buffy will be “here” soon. The madwoman refers to Buffy as the princess, perhaps in reference to Buffy having to save the prince. Harth asks the madwoman why she wants Buffy to come but more importantly why she wants Fray to be the one who finds her, surely having two Slayers to fight will make it harder to kill them. The madwoman tells Harth that vampires gain strength from working together while Slayers do not, “what happens in your time will cause your time to come” she tells him before running off in a comical madwoman way that is reminiscent of Drusilla.







Kennedy is putting a bandage around her abdomen, in the fight with the monster that replaced Buffy, Kennedy was stabbed. Kennedy asks Willow why she wouldn’t just let her kill it and Willow tells her that the spell that was used to take Buffy is complicated and killing the demon may have unforeseen circumstances. Kennedy asks Willow if this “temporal” event was meant to help them and Willow admits that she thought it was meant to help them, but apparently Saga Vasuki has manipulated her.

Xander breaks down the door to the castle which is burning with a green fire. Inside he is confronted with one of the head Slayers called Rowena, he asks for an update on the situation. She tells him that most of the Slayers escaped, “most?” he asks, and she tells him that they have lost some Slayers and begins crying. Xander needs her to keep her concentration on the situation and tries to comfort her by telling her that soldiers die, they can mourn later but they have to escape. Xander observes that the green fire shows that the attack was mystical as much as physical, the green fire then transforms into many green flamed reptilian soldiers. Xander tells Rowena to go get the rest of the Slayers out of the castle and then gets hit by a flaming arrow. The green reptilian stands over Xander and then gets hit to the floor by a bucking Dawn. Dawn tells Xander that to get out of the castle he’ll have to ride her, Xander begins to joke about the dirty innuendo but then gets onto Dawn. They ride out of the castle and into the woods.



Fray and her sister arrive at the top of a building, Fray tells Erin that the Slayer’s diaries told her that the “last Slayer” came here and was transformed so Fray is here to find out more information. The other panels follows present time events as Willow explains the situation to the New York Slayer squad, in the future someone recruits the demon to fight Fray, draw her out, then switches the future demon for ‘present’ Buffy. While she doesn’t know who did this, or why, all she does know is that the person is much more powerful than her.

The scene that started the story is now continued, Fray charges at Buffy and they fall from the building and then land on top of a flying car. Fray shouts abuse at Buffy who she still believes to be a demon, Fray’s future language confuses Buffy and sounds like gibberish. Buffy manages to get hold of Fray’s arms to stop her from attacking and tells her to look at the facts, they both have Slayer type power, they both have Scythes and they both hate vampires. Fray stops to think about it but can’t believe she is actually a past Slayer. Buffy asks Fray if this is the future or an alternate universe but Fray is still too shocked, she explains that Buffy Summers has been dead for over two hundred years, Buffy tells her that she time travelled but doesn’t know why and she was hoping Fray could explain, Fray tells her that she has somewhere quieter they can talk, asks Buffy to follow her and jumps from one flying car to another until she lands on a building. Buffy is left travelling into the distance on top of the flying car “I cant do that jumping thing” “Fray?” “Help?”.

Fray has eventually caught up with Buffy and Fray is taking Buffy somewhere, Buffy walks along and is suddenly very excited about being in the future. She asks Fray if she knows how to defeat Twilight, before Fray has a chance to answer Buffy starts asking more questions. “How many Slayers are there in this time?” Buffy explains that in her time she has just created hundreds of Slayers, she assumes that by now the Slayers are a great positive influence on the world. Fray tells Buffy that there is only one Slayer, and technically its only one half because the Slayer skills were split between her and Harth and Harth doesn’t count as a Slayer because he is a Lurk. Buffy puts her arm around Fray in comfort and tells her that she is sorry to hear that, Buffy allows a moments pause then asks Fray what a Lurk is. They have arrived at the place Fray was taking her to and Buffy is still talking to herself “So a lurk is a vampire, a spin is a lie and spled is good…”, Buffy is shocked at the state of the English language “I should have treated it better…” she says to herself. Fray asks “Gunther” to turn the lights on, the lights come on and reveals that Buffy and Fray are standing on glass and below them is water which holds a fish type man. Fray tells him that Buffy is a Slayer from the past and they don’t know why she has been transported here and asks Gunther if he knows anything. He tells Fray that he has heard rumours of a woman from ancient times who talks in riddles, Fray points out that the madwoman could be a vampire as they can live Hundreds of years. As Fray and Gunther continue their discussion Buffy sits down and puts her hand to her head, “this is really happening” she says to herself in shock.

Harth looks down at the vampires that are preparing for a coming attack on Fray, the Madwoman stands in the shadows behind Harth, she tells him that Buffy is starting to feel the weight of the world, the world’s loss and her own inevitable failure at running a Slayer army. Harth points out that the Madwoman seems saddened at Buffy’s sadness, Harth points out that his connection with Fray does the opposite, when Fray is sad it makes him joyful, he wonders why the Madwoman has such a strong connection with Buffy and tells her that there nothing stronger than love. The madwoman tells Harth that there is one thing stronger than love, the Madwoman is revealed to be Willow with black hair and black eyes, she tells Harth that “Time” is stronger than love.



Questions left open by this issue:
Why has future Willow transported Buffy to the future?
Why is Willow still alive after hundreds of years???