In a primarily action-oriented show, oh my God, are there so many fights to choose from, and you’d think that, due to my general apathy toward Vicious, that he wouldn’t be in my top choice. But you’d be wrong. Even though the final showdown between Vicious and Spike is epic, I just had to go with the first time we see them interact.

I could try to describe what happens, but I’m just going to post this video here so you can experience the awesome.

For me, this fight sticks out because of the subtext. At this point in the story, we know very little about what actually happened between them, but it’s very clear that there is some serious bad blood, deeply personal. Even though “Ballad of Fallen Angels” is only the fifth episode, we’ve seen enough of Spike’s martial arts skills to know that he is fighting with passion this time. And that music. Gah, “Rain” has to be one of Yoko Kanno’s best, and trust, we are going to get into her work on Day 25.

This scene does such a good job of being a fight scene that also serves as character development and plot movement. We want to know more about Spike and what’s going on between him and Vicious, who that woman in the window is, etc., and it’s also one of the big turning points of the show that catapults us to the finale. The fact that it’s this early in the series has always been fascinating to me, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to emulate in my own work.

And well, as you might expect, guess what this girl is going to go do now – watch “Ballad of Fallen Angels,” in case that wasn’t clear.

Art Credit: PennLive