Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series) Lessons (2002) User Reviews

Wicked beginning of 7th season!

[Mike1388 · 9/10 · 23 August 2010]

I really like it. It has the same creepy feeling from the first 4 season (which is the best!). So its Dawn's first day at school, Xander and Buffy drop her. With Buffy suspicions, she came down to explore and her suspicion comes true when she encounters a ghost in the bathroom. More exciting scenes were when Dawn is trapped with other two students (remind me of Willow and Xander back when they were in high school), and these ghosts start attacking them! I love it cause like i said a very well written, it has the same creepy feeling when you watch it. and Spike has its moment, he look sick and loony at the basement of the school (one wonder how he ended up there!), and he encounters many spirits starting from Warren, Gloria, The master vampire, etc it was epic.

I liked it!

[Quixii · 8/10 · 19 October 2015]

I found the other reviews interesting, because I quite liked this episode. Most of the other reviews went on to talk about how they felt about this whole season, rather than just this episode, and I guess that affected how they rated it. Which is fine, but not how I would think of it. So I haven't seen the rest of the season and don't know what's to come. But this is what I thought of this episode as is.

Randomly: I assume future episodes will explain that girl who gets kidnapped at the beginning? Because we don't go back to it the rest of the episode and that threw me off a bit. I like that Buffy is teaching Dawn how to hunt/protect herself. I don't like Dawn much, but she's well old enough now. Hopefully this will make her whine less, too. I like Willow training with Giles in England. He's kind of her Watcher now, and she's in recovery from everything that happened, and he's a good guy. I don't know, something about their scenes were just very pleasing to me.

Mostly I thought it was fun that they brought back some of the people who died when Buffy was in high school, by showing them angry in the school that's now been rebuilt. They're understandably angry; a lot of people died during Buffy's time at Sunnydale High. I don't blame Buffy - you really can't save them all - but I get why they would. I think this in combination with showing all the different Big Bads to Spike at the end was a really fun way of making a callback to the previous seasons. I don't know if they went into this season knowing it would be the last, but I thought it was fitting that the last season started with reminding us of the things that have happened in the previous six seasons.

I'm not saying it was the best episode of BtVS ever or anything, but I thought it was a good one.

Last season of the greatest show ever!

[Joxerlives · 8/10 · 11 July 2012]

The Good; Love Dawnies' first patrol and first day at SDH, so cool. The line up of baddies at the end is superb, they're so lucky they could get them all.

The Bad; Really dislike the scenes of the Potentials being killed, if it were anyone but Joss I'd say it was misogyny. Dawn seems to make a couple of friends at the end of the ep but they never occur again.

Best line; Dawn; (sadly, after Buffy has embarrassed her in front of the whole class) "I also have a sister"

Women good/men bad; The First as Warren very dismissive of Buffy

Jeez!; Even though it's only implied the zombie stabbing Dawn with the pencil is wince inducing. The killing of the potentials is also horrible.

Kinky dinky; Buffy comments on the hotness of Spike and Angel. The zombie guy wants to date Dawn, well she's already gone out with one dead guy and had a crush on another. Willow seems disappointed that Giles didn't put her in a dungeon. He asks her if she wants to be punished? (Surely if there was ever a time for Gillow this is it?)

Captain Subtext; Spike was once caned at school (presumably when human) Guantanamo Bay; A little anti-French racism from Anya.

Missing scenes; Reputedly they filmed a scene where Dawn decides to tell her real life story to her class, love to see that, roll on Buffy/Angel; Special Edition DVDs.

Apocalypses; 7,

Scoobies in bondage: Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 5 Will: 4 Jenny: 1 Angel: 4 Oz: 1 Faith: 3 Joyce: 1 Wes: 1 Xander; 2 Dawn; 4

Scoobies knocked out: Dawnie Buffy: 19 Giles: 12 Cordy: 6 Xander: 14 Will: 8 Jenny: 2 Angel: 6 Oz: 3 Faith: 1 Joyce: 3 Wes: 1 Anya;5 Dawn; 4 Tara; 1 Kills: 1 vamp for Buffy Buffy: 108 vamps, 58 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot Giles: 8 vamps, 2 demon, 1 human, 1 god.

Cordy: 3 vamps, a demon Will: 6 vamps + 3 demons +1 fawn+1 human.

Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans Xander: 6 vamps, 2 zombies, 1 a demon, Anya: 1 vamp and 1 a demon Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons Spike; 8 vamps and 6 demons Buffybot; 2 vamps Tara; 1 demon Dawn; 1 vamp + 1 demon Scoobies go evil: Giles: 1 Cordy: 1 Will: 3 Jenny: 1 Angel: 1 Oz: 1 Joyce: 1 Xander: 4 Anya; 1 Dawn; 1 Buffy; 1

Alternate scoobies: Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 1 Will: 5 Jenny: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 2 Joyce: 2 Xander: 4 Tara; 1 Dawn;1 Spike; 1 Anya; 2 Recurring characters killed: 12 Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce, Katrina, Tara

Sunnydale deaths; the 3 poor folks in the basement 97 Total number of scoobies: 3 the Dawnster is finally part of the Scoobies, about time too Xander, Buffy, Dawn Xander demon magnet: 5(6?) Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula? Scoobies shot: Giles: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 4 Riley; 1 Buffy; 1 Tara; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost: Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes? Cordy: 1? Buffy: 4 confirmed; Angel, Parker, Riley, Spike. 1 possible, Dracula(?) Angel: 1;Buffy Joyce: 1;Giles, 2 possible, Ted and Dracula(?) Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley Xander: 2; Faith, Anya Willow: 2;Oz and Tara Riley; 3; Buffy, Sandy and unnamed vampwhore Spike; 2 Buffy and Anya Anya; 2 Spike and Xander

Spike; good or bad? Don't have to ask that any more, not now he has his soul back

Dawn in peril; 12 isn't she always?

Dawn the bashful virgin; 9

Questions and observations; The zombies articulate what a lot of Buffy critics have said over the years, that she allows a lot of people to die. Personally I agree with Buffy, they should shut up, she does her best. I always think of the RAF in the Battle of Britain, bombers get through, thousands die but it's still a victory. So lovely that Buffy can quit the DMP and work at the school, she seems so happy.

Now, Halfrek refers to her and Anya in the Crimean War which was 1853-6 decades BEFORE Spike became a vampire. This implies that there never was a Cecilly, there was only ever Halfrek assuming her guise who took revenge on William for some unknown party. Xander looks great in his suit.

Dawn gets a mobile phone, about bloody time too, CC had one in Welcome to the Hellmouth and then we never see one again for over 122eps, AI had them for 3 years. Dawn comments on the fact that being sired seems to automatically teach you Tae-Kwan-Do. What a shame we never meet The Coven. Buffy fears Dawn will start smoking, it's hardly going to stunt her growth. So who was the werewolf who killed one of the ghosts? Oz? Verruca? Like Spike's hair better in this one. Lovely to see Buffy get a 'thank you' hug from Kit, she does so much it's nice she get's some appreciation. Dawn still a bit bitter about the Normal Again thing. Buffy says ghosts can't touch, Phantom Dennis can. Dawn is bitten by a vamp, I think Xander is the only Scooby who never will be.

Now I always thought they didn't know this was going to be the last season until halfway through but to judge by Joss' comments on the commentary he always intended it to the be the last from the beginning.

Marks out of 10; 8/10

Unfulfilled Potential.

[Son_of_Mansfield · 21 April 2006]

There is an image towards the end of this episode where Buffy stands around with Dawn, Kit, and Carlos in the new Sunnydale High School and it made me smile. Buffy had become Giles or what Giles had been to Buffy, Willow, and Xander. This seemed to be a great declaration of a return to the beginning of the series, not to replace it, but to pay to it the respect that the creator's had for it. But then the relentlessly dull and dimwitted fan boys clamored and the plot line, along with Kit and Carlos, disappeared like a sullen schoolgirl. So we were left with twenty Buffies coupled with the lonely and abrasive Dawn, who are basically the same character, except Dawn isn't the chosen one. But all that aside, this is a typically fit episode from Whedon with zombies, a charming new principal, a standard "I hate speeches" speech, and a great Twilight Zone reference. The only jarring aspect is the unspoken of separation of the gang. My favorite scene is the last, where The First shifts between all of the previous villains to announce itself.

8 out of 10.

Promises a season 7 that doesn't quite happen

[nightwishouge · 8/10 · 6 May 2021]

Season 7 bungles a lot of things, and that starts here, with Willow basically getting to go to a scenic "magic rehab" in the English countryside after murdering Warren last season. More and more the show is just letting characters off the hook for doing terrible things. I think in storytelling terms this is called "wanting to have your cake and eat it, too." Which is a dumb expression.

Apart from that, I really dig "Lessons". I like the idea of Dawn forming her own Scooby squad and solving high school mysteries. I don't think it should have become the focus of the show, but as a consistent B-story, it would have been a fun return to form, amidst the unrelenting serialized bleakness with the First and all the surrounding business that follows. I missed Sunnydale High, dammit. I want to spend more time there. And I think Principal Wood--who I very much enjoy as a late introduction to the series--would have been better served in that capacity of generally benevolent/mysterious/knows-more-than-he-lets-on overseer, rather than joining the main gang and becoming a romantic interest.

Also...Buffy herself. These days she's so angst-ridden, so tormented. "Lessons" gives her a lot of fun and endearing moments, like worrying about mom-hair. We won't see lighthearted, resilient Buffy for a long time after this.

The more things stay the same

[ossie85 · 8/10 · 23 August 2022]

A fresh new season has us all around the world, some girl is being chased in Istanbul while Giles is rehabilitating Willow in England. The reopening of Sunnydale high begins but spirits who blame Buffy for their death try to hurt Buffy, Dawn and Dawn's two new friends. Spike is hiding in the basement with his new soul. Anya is told by Halfrek that she is not performing well. Xander has been promoted.

Why It's So Good - A soft reboot, welcoming us back to Sunnydale high. The major players are in new places, and this episode sets this season up well, with a few new mysteries along the way.

Watch Out For - The Buffy Bad Guy Hall Of Fame.

Quote - "If at first you don't succeed . . . . Cheat." - Buffy.

The uneven beginning of an uneven season

[katierose295 · 6/10 · 5 September 2006]

In season seven I stop liking entire EPISODES and start liking individual SCENES within the episodes. Of all the BTVS seasons, seven has the most missed opportunities. The Scoobies just aren't right this whole year, none of the characters seem like themselves. (Spike and Willow, at least, have excuses to be a little "off," everyone else is just acting weird for no reason.) The story arc this season has a lot of wrong turns and dead ends. "Lessons" and "Conversations with Dead People," in particular, introduce concepts and ideas that never go anywhere. This season has things happening and changing with no explanation. The episodes don't seem to flow together or tell a cohesive story the way past seasons have. Plus, there are the Potentials, who just about ruin the entire show for me. That said, BTVS season seven has some flat out brilliant moments. Isloated scenes that can rival anything else on the show. "Lessons" is not a great episode, but it ends on one of the coolest scenes ever. If you're going to watch season seven, you should probably start with this episode.

"Lessons" revolves around the reopening of Sunnydale High. Yes, the school has been rebuilt directly over the the Hellmouth, again. Buffy is understandable worried when her sister heads off to class. She begins looking around the campus and runs into the good-looking new principal, Ribon Woods. Meanwhile, Willow is in Engalnd recovering with Giles. Her magic is no longer an addiction, but a part of her. She can feel something wrong within the earth, as is an evil darkness is trying to rise.

Back at Sunnydale High, Dawn and two fellow classmates are attacked by ghost things. Trapped in the basement, Dawn calls Buffy for help. While searching for her sister Buffy is confronted by the ghost things, who tell her that she's suppose to be the Slayer, but she allowed them to die. Buffy says that she doesn't care. She finds Spike hiding in a small room directly over the Hellmouth. He's acting crazy and doesn't seem to know what's going on. Still, he tells her that he thinks the ghost things are being controlled by and amulet. Buffy calls Xander to tracks down the amulet in a bathroom and he destroys it. Dawn and her new friends are saved. Principal Woods offers Buffy a job as a councilor.

There are some good parts to the episode. I actually like Principal Woods (most of the time, anyway) and his reaction to Buffy talking on her cell phone is just hilarious. Especially when she tells him it's an emergency phone call from her dog walker. Of course, it's really Dawn telling her about the ghosts in the basement. "They're all dead?" Buffy asks, trying to figure out what's attacking her sister. "Your dogs are dead?" Principal Woods gasps in genuine horror. It just cracks me up. Also, the scene with Halfreck and Anya in the coffee shop is really good. Halfreck is worried that Anya isn't fully committed to being a demon again. "It's a real bad time to be a good guy." The scenes with Willow and Giles are nice, too. The two of them have always had a special bond and it's great that they're coming together after the whole Dark Willow thing last season.

The best part of "Lessons" is Spike, though. (Granted, Spike is usually my favorite part of every episode, but still...) I have no idea why he's in the basement or how he got back to Sunnydale, and I don't care. His crazy, twitchy, brokenness is just so interesting to watch. His hair's all wrong. He's alternately crying and shouting and then having sudden moments of clarity. He's tried to cut the soul out of his chest. He's being haunted by the First and by his past, especially his attempted rape of Buffy. He's William and Spike and a mixture of the two. It's just brilliant. And then at the end, the First confronts him and morphs into all six of the show's previous Big Bads. From Warren, to Glory, to Adam, to the Mayor, to Dru, to the Master and finally into Buffy. Its speech to Spike as it changes it just so d*nm neat that you want to applaud. (I do think the season two's Big Bad was Angelus, not Drusilla, though. And Spike never met the Mayor or the Master on screen. But, I'm not really complaining.) This one scene is the coolest the First will ever be.

On the down side, Dawn's says something like "It's not fair to scare me on my first day of high school," which doesn't make any sense. Back in season five's "Tough Love" didn't she say that she was in the ninth grade? Wouldn't that make her a junior by season seven? Also, who put that magical charm thing in the bathroom? Is that ever explained? And who the heck are those two students that Dawn meets up with? We never see them again. Also, why would the First want Buffy to investigate the school? By targeting Dawn and pulling her into the basement, it was pretty much guaranteeing that Buffy would get involved. Which would allow her to find Spike, which is just what the First didn't want to happen, right? It wants to brainwash Spike or whatever. So why take a chance of reuniting him with Buffy by having them in the same place? Why not keep Buffy and Dawn out of it until the First is ready to strike? Am I missing something or was this just a really dumb, pointless plan?

My favorite (non-morphy Big Bad scene) part of the episode: Spike looking at Buffy sadly and murmuring, "Buffy, duck." She blinks at him in confusion, "Duck? There's a duck down here?" Then she get whacked in the head with a board. It makes me chuckle every time.

Back to School!

[Samuel-Shovel · 6/10 · 29 September 2018]

In the final season opener of BtVS, it's back to school time for the gang. Dawn is entering her freshman year of high school and Sunnyvale has just opened up the new campus... right on top of the old one! While scoping the new place out, Buffy comes across some zombie-ghosts that blame her for their demise.

They attack Buffy, Dawn, and a pair of two other new outcasts at the high school (the new Willow and Xander perhaps?). Buffy tries to find Dawn after she falls through the floor and into the basement of the old school. Buffy bumps into Spike who seems to be living down there and is half-mad. Buffy saves the day and the new principal offers her a part-time counseling job since she's been through similar stuff in her past.

Meanwhile, Giles is attempting to rehabilitate Willow in some far off land (presumably England). She's getting some schooling of her own as she tries to regain a sense of normalcy. The magic flows through her so powerfully now that she can no longer turn it off.

It is revealed that some type of shapeshifting beaming is talking to Spike and tormenting him about his retrieved soul. Spike may have bit off more than he can chew this time. Anya learns that the rest of the demons think she has gone soft and is now on the good side of good versus evil as signs point towards some ancient evil being on the way.

After the darkest season of Buffy yet, this season starts off with a bit of a reset, almost nostalgic for the early on seasons. A new ancient baddy is introduced, we're back in high school, we battle a monster of the week. This show knows where its bread is buttered! While not the greatest season opener of all time, it does the job of introducing a few new characters, a new villain for the season, and it brings the show back to a tone that we haven't seen in quiet a while.

The Beginning of the End

[mabbott10 · 6/10 · 25 July 2006]

Going into season 7, there was a lot of discussion on the boards about the possibility of this being the end of the series, or the possibility of continuing on without Sarah Michelle Gellar. We left season 6 with Willow having been pulled back from the brink of destruction, Buffy and Dawn forming a new relationship, Xander and Anya still broken apart, and Spike having regained his soul. Where to go from here?

As the season opener showed us, back to the beginning - with a wasted mini-montage of the previous 6 seasons baddies morphing into each other to spout off about evil and such. We are introduced to a new principal, Robin Woods who seems to have a sinister agenda and conveniently hires the college drop-out Buffy as a counselor in the newly rebuilt Sunnydale High. Can you say plot device? Worse, we're given a group of ghostly, zombie-like dead people who mostly stand around and shout at the main characters. Finally, we're given a resolution revolving around a spell that created the baddies, but we never find out who performed it or what they were trying to accomplish.

However, there are some goodies in the episode such as Dawn's training session. This is one of the few cases since season 5 that Michelle Trachtenberg gets an opportunity to do more than just stand around and whine about how everyone treats her and she makes the most of it. In all, the episode is worth watching but will have very little bearing on the story of the coming season.

Lessons: Well...I still need to learn a lesson...I need to stop watching BtVS

[skay_baltimore · 2/10 · 6 August 2010]

And...as Spike demonstrates...it's never too late to go back to school. (Although now he's nuttier than a Drusilla fruitcake.)

But seriously...there are STILL people out there who have watched this series and think that Dawn is the problem character, and not Buffy? Could there BE a more obnoxious, intrusive, embarrassing adult dealing with a high school student's first day than Buffy The Self-Esteem Slayer? Buffy's behavior wouldn't even be appropriate for a PRE-SCHOOLER'S first day! Yet legions of BtVS fans still whine about how whiny DAWN is? There's definitely something wrong with that picture.

Just like there's definitely something wrong with this entire episode.

Willow, after having killed Warren and Rack in the previous episode ends up in England, being hand tutored by Giles. Even she asks why she wasn't punished for what she'd done. "I killed people, Giles...When you brought me here I thought it was to kill me, or to lock me in some mystical dungeon for all Eternity...Instead, you go all Dumbledore on me." To which Giles replies: "Do you want to be punished?" Aye...there's the rub. Is it really up to Willow to decide whether or not she wants to be punished? Or whether she "wants to be Willow"? In a show that regurgitates line after sickening line from Buffy's melodramatic mouth about what's "right and wrong" -- to allow Willow's crimes to go unpunished is not just wrong -- it's insane.

(And after reading some responses on the forum board in which one rationalization after another flows to try to explain this insanity, one can only wonder about the mental status of the vast majority of the BtVS fan base.)

And gee whiz...back at Sunnydale High to start off the 7th and final season? What better way to say "We have no new ideas so we'll just recycle the old ones"?!! They ought to rename this "Buffy The Zombie Impersonator" -- because life, as we know it, left this series a long time ago.

And...Super Xander the construction foreman saves the day. Again.

And Buffy gets a reprieve from the Double Meat Palace and signs up to be a counselor at good old Sunnydale High.

And apparently...the parade of demons from the first 6 seasons has just begun...

And did I mention that Spike is not nuttier than a Drusilla fruitcake? (It's so hard to tell...my brain is totally numb from all of this stuff.)