There are two great things about “Lovers Walk” : Cordelia and Spike.

On the whole, I think fans in general don’t give Cordy enough credit for how caring and brave she is during her tenure on Buffy.  I do remember getting choked up the night “Lover’s Walk” originally aired when the scene transition momentarily tricks us into thinking Cordy died; however,  most of the time, I remember being relatively dismissive of her.

I think the fans and scholars tend to focus on Cordy’s wondrous transformation on Angel.  And that is certainly called for.  However,  I think that focus polarizes Cordelia into bitch on Buffy and hero on Angel.  As I rewatch Buffy, I am noticing great qualities in Cordy – she is the most honest character, she stands up for herself, she is intelligent (even though she wants to hide her SAT scores to protect her rep), and she is incredibly tough.  Is she a bit shallow?  Of course!  But I think the fact that she’s concerned about her dry cleaning after nearly being sacrificed (“When She Was Bad”) also speaks volumes to her bravery.  The girl has seen a lot of scary things, but she is not backing down (think of how she stands up to Lyle in “Homecoming”).

All this to say it is incredibly heartbreaking when Cordy (and Oz) walk in and find Xander and Willow kissing.  It’s interesting storytelling, though, because we, the viewers, also sympathize with Willow and Xander.  It’s hard not to be somewhat excited over their first kiss (several episodes before) after watching Willow pine over him for the first two seasons. In fact, some part of me really wonders why Willow didn’t pick Xander over Oz, given their history together.  This is not to say anything against Oz – he’s fabulous.  But, after she gets caught, she realizes all she wants is Oz… and I’m just wondering where the years of Xander-love went…

Amidst the Willow/Oz/Xander/Cordy heartbreak, we get great narration on the continual Buffy/Angel heartbreak from Spike as he suffers through his own heartbreak.  The parallel stories are poignant.  However, with the return of Spike, I think this was definitely an episode written for the fans. We missed Spike, who we always love to hate.  And, yet, seeing him pine over Dru brings more humanity to him than ever before.  I think in this episode particularly we can see the fine line between Spike-without-soul vs. Spike-with-soul.  While his methods may differ, the man has a heart of gold.