Rob

As you will gather from the rest of the reviews, we're really not big fans of this one. It's dull and preachy, with the final scene possibly one of the most forced pieces of scripting ever seen on the show. Buffy presents a pretty good case for returning to the vineyard, but she's slapped down by her buddies in painfully unconvincing ways.

Even Andrew, usually a ray of sunshine in any season seven episode, is a little under-served by the writers here. That said, the interplay between him and Spike as they bike off on their mission is quite endearing.

An episode that features Faith giving it her all on the dancefloor always calls for minor celebration, but it just feels like a lazy crowd-pleaser.

James

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Daniel

There's a tiny problem with Empty Places - it just doesn't make sense. Fair enough, some of the potentials may have doubts about Buffy's leadership skills and big plan, but for everyone including Willow and Xander to desert her is a bit difficult to take. Last week, you may recall, Xander gave a rousing speech to get the potentials behind Buffy, but this week he's quick to ditch Buffy when the plan isn't to his liking. It's just sloppy scriptwriting and just a plot device to put Faith in the centre frame. Unfortunately, this opportunity is mostly wasted and just involves a pointless barroom brawl in the bronze. Calib's Hicksville accent is also beginning to grate and only humour involving Clem leaving town and Spike and Andrew boding over snacks saves the episode from being a complete waste of 45 minutes.