Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Myth, Metaphor & Morality
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The question answered in No Place Like Home, at least somewhat cryptically, was actually asked by Joyce in Out Of My Mind:
Joyce turns away from the stove, holding the two plates. Suddenly she stops and blinks as if dizzy. Dawn looks up from unwrapping the prize.
JOYCE: (confused) Oh, what is the... (looks at Dawn) Who are you?
“She is the Key.” Dawn is the Key to the season and Glory wants her. And if it’s all about Buffy, this means that Dawn is the Key to Buffy.
BUFFY I didn't ask for this! I don't even know... what is she?
MONK Human... now human. And helpless. Please... she's an innocent in this.
Trivia notes: (1) The episode title is a reference to The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy says it when she returns to Kansas. It seems clearly intended to apply to Dawn. (2) NPLH aired on October 24, 2000. The events in the teaser took place two months previously, i.e., at the end of August 2000. (3) State of Siege provided an important trivia note: “the untranslated word [the monks] repeat is "cloveka" (with haceks, the little upside down hats, on the c and the e), which is the vocative for "human" in Czech, meaning that they are calling the living energy into human form.” (4) To make money “hand over fist” (Buffy’s comment to Giles) is to make it very quickly. (5) Ben’s suggestion to Buffy of a radioactive spider bite is a reference to how Spiderman got his powers. (6) Willow teasingly called Giles a “capitalist running dog”, which is a literal translation of a Chinese communist insult meaning “lapdog”. (7) Note Joyce’s words to Buffy just before Buffy discovers through her trance that Dawn isn’t really her sister: “You’re so grown up.”
Family
I see Family and NPLH as a two-parter; Family opens the same night as NPLH ended. Both episodes deal with someone who’s not technically a member of the family, but who is accepted into it through love. One deals with Buffy/Dawn, the other with Willow/Tara, the teaser highlighting both stories. Tara’s story of the kitty can even serve as an allegory for what happens to Dawn and to her:
WILLOW VOICEOVER: Tell me a story.
TARA VOICEOVER: Okay. Once upon a time, there was, um ... a kitty. She was very little, and she was all alone, and nobody wanted her.
WILLOW VOICEOVER: This is a very upsetting story.
TARA VOICEOVER: Oh, oh, but it gets better.
TARA VOICEOVER: 'Cause one day the kitty was running around in the street and a man came, and swooped her up...
TARA: And took her to the pound. …
WILLOW: (cuddling kitten) Did the kitty get chosen by some nice people?
TARA: Well, now you ruined the ending.
The two episodes parallel each other in important ways:
Tara and Dawn are both outsiders who feel left out of the SG. From Real Me: “TARA: (OS) Poor Dawn. … It's just ... I, I think it's tough for her, not being able to ... well, allowed to, you know, help. WILLOW: Help? TARA: Oh, you. You guys. The slayer circle. WILLOW: Well, Buffy doesn't really need ... a-and I think Dawn's a little young. TARA: I-I know, you're right. It's just hard. That outsider feeling. Willow looks over at her. WILLOW: Tara ... you're not an outsider.
TARA: Well, yeah. I kinda am.”;
In Real Me Buffy thinks Dawn may be a demon or evil. That’s the concern about Tara in Family. Just to give you some idea of how far in advance this point was planned, in Goodbye Iowa Tara deliberately ruined the spell to find the demon: “Willow: Thespia, goddess, ruler of all darkness, we implore you, open a window to the world of the underbeing. (Both blow but Tara surreptitiously lowers her hand and dumps her powder under the bed spread while Willow is actually blowing her powder.)” Willow even refers to that spell in this episode: “WILLOW: … I was thinking. Maybe we could try that, that spell, you know, the one to find demons? TARA: That didn't work.” We’ve had a lingering doubt about Tara ever since: who or what is she? Can she be trusted? Those doubts were reinforced by Tara’s look in this scene in Real Me (I mentioned it in my post there): “WILLOW: You're one of the good guys. (Tara's smile disappears and she pulls away, disengaging herself from Willow's embrace. Willow doesn't notice her expression.)”;
Buffy “pulled back the curtain” to see Dawn’s true nature, while Tara “lifted the veil” so that Buffy could see what Tara thought would be her own demon side;
Glory demanded the return of her Key, Mr. MacLay demands that Tara return to her family, and both find their true home;
We learned the origin of Dawn in NPLH just as we learn the origin of Tara here;
At the end of Family, Willow tells Tara that it’s “magic” which causes her to love Tara (“TARA: Every time I- (takes a deep breath) even when I'm at my worst ... you always make me feel special. Willow smiles. TARA: How do you do that? WILLOW: Magic.”). It’s magic which generated Buffy’s feelings towards Dawn (“BUFFY: My memories... my mom's? MONK: We built them.”).
On the surface, Family demonstrates that Tara is part of Buffy’s family, but in a deeper sense it reinforces Buffy’s decision to accept that Dawn is. Joss: “When she realises “Dawn is not actually my sister” and says “I don’t care, I feel a need to protect this girl” – it’s about accepting that family is part of your life, even when you think of yourself as independent, and it’s about the extraordinary love that a family can bring you. And we’d very much said Buffy’s love interest is going to be her sister for year five. We knew way back when. It actually started with a conversation I had with Doug Petrie in year three, where we said well, they’re going to college and we’ll do that crazy freedom in year four, and in year five, let’s bring it back to family.”
Two quick, related points about Willow and Tara’s relationship. First, the witch/gay metaphor is front and center in this episode, as it has been since Hush. All the dialogue about Tara being a “demon” and the references by Mr. Maclay to that being the source of her witchcraft could apply equally to her being gay. And did you notice the crystal “toy” Mr. Maclay picked up next to the bed?
Second, the scene in the teaser with Tara and Willow actually in bed together seems so natural nowadays that it’s easy to forget just how UNusual it was when it first aired. Another scene of two women in a bed playing with a cat? As Whistler might say, “Hello to the imagery!”. This was a BFD at the time, as Joss kept pushing the envelope with respect to what could be shown on TV with gay couples.
Although the episode focuses on Tara (and Dawn, in my reading), there are quite a few scenes in Family which affect the ongoing seasonal plot. Buffy “could definitely use a break from all this craziness”, but there’s plenty of it in Family. Leaving aside for now the crazy people filling up the hospital, I’ll just talk about the regular characters. Dawn “makes [Buffy] crazy.” Buffy, in turn, seems to have that effect on Riley and Spike.
Riley told Buffy in NPLH that he was “ok”, but we see here that he’s gone further round the bend. Hanging out in Willy’s Place is borderline suicidal; he’s probably safe only because they know his relation to Buffy. He thinks he’s being daring and proving his ability to handle the dangers, but really he’s not escaping Buffy’s protection, he’s taking advantage of it without her knowledge or input. As a result of going off and being foolish, he wasn’t present in that scene where Buffy declared “we’re family”.
Spike has gone from wanting to kill Buffy in OomM to saving her life here in Family. You have to wonder what a vamp psychologist would say about that.
We got another clue about Glory in Family as well. Buffy described the new villain as “kind of like Cordelia”. This is just as significant a clue as the ones we were given in NPLH.
Trivia notes: (1) The teaser builds on an incident from Out Of My Mind towards a plot development which will be important at the end of S5 and the centerpiece of S6. (2) Buffy’s reference to Glory as “Miss Congeniality” refers to the movie of that title which came out in 2000. (3) Megan Gray (Sandy) also played the girl bitten in the Bronze by VampWillow in Dopplegangland, suggesting that VampWillow sired her then. (4
) Amy Adams played Cousin Beth. It was one of her very first acting jobs.
Fool For Love
Episode 7. We expect something dramatic and important from Episode 7 and we certainly get it from Fool For Love. It’s a fan favorite and in my personal top 20. The whole episode is beautifully constructed, but I have to give special praise to the way Spike’s fight with the NY Slayer intercuts with his present dialogue/fight with Buffy. At the end, the past Spike talks directly to Buffy in the present. Brilliant.
The most important feature of the episode is that it employs the literary device of the unreliable narrator (Spike). Watch the first two transitions between his present dialogue with Buffy and the scenes we see from his past. In each case, Spike’s claim about his past is directly refuted by what we see after the cut. I’ll give you the first example; the second is the same:
“BUFFY
Were you born this big a pain in the ass?
SPIKE
What can I tell you, baby? I've always been bad.
CUT TO:
INT. LONDON (1880)- VICTORIAN PARLOR- NIGHT
Spike, then the human William, is sitting and composing poetry off in the corner of a dinner party. The spirited laughter of the party-goers can be heard in the background. William's hair is long and unruly and he's dressed as a proper gentleman, complete with tie and reading spectacles. He's awkward and bookish- none of the confident swagger we're used to.”
The only thing bad about William was his poetry. Spike was in no way “always” bad. He created his persona after Drusilla sired him. “Was he always tough, was he always bad? It was much more interesting to make him a foppish dandy in the beginning and have him turn into Spike. What you'll notice too, if you're watching carefully is that you'll see James [Marsters] transform from this guy here, having his feelings hurt, being this dandy poet. Piece by piece he will turn into Spike throughout this episode. Here he's got different hair, different clothes, glasses, a different accent even and no scar over his eyebrow. And you will see one by one him acquire all these things. So he literally builds Spike piece by piece.” (Writer Doug Petrie, DVD commentary.)
One way to interpret this process is that we, the viewers, are seeing Spike’s actual memories of what happened. What he told Buffy was likely something quite different, though we have no way to know with certainty. We definitely should doubt that he told her some of the more embarrassing points, such as Cecily’s “You’re beneath me.” That would undercut his carefully cultivated self-image in front of someone he’s trying to impress.
Now, if it’s true that these flash cuts completely undermine what Spike has just said to Buffy (and it is), consider (1) whether he told her the truth or told her lies about his past, that is, whether he told her what we saw or something else; and (2) assuming, as seems likely, that he told her at least some lies, whether we should trust anything else he tells her in the present dialogue. On the latter point rests a crucial interpretation of the season finale.
For all Spike’s braggadocio in this episode, the message he delivers to Buffy takes no credit for himself in his most (in)famous feats, namely killing the two Slayers. “That final gasp. That look of peace. Part of you is desperate to know: What's it like? Where does it lead you? And now you see, that's the secret. Not the punch you didn't throw or the kicks you didn't land. Every Slayer... has a death wish.” Spike didn’t kill the Slayers; they wanted to die. Note that we have no idea if this is true – the Slayers themselves don’t get to speak. All we know is that Spike makes this claim and that it’s against his interest to claim it.
As I see it, there are 2 reasons to believe Spike and 3 to disbelieve him.
He's credible because what he says underplays his own abilities and attributes his success to the Slayers wanting to die. In addition, there's the fact that he does hit a nerve with Buffy. We’ve seen since Faith’s arrival in S3 the sex and death and love and pain issues of Slayers and vampires.
The reasons we shouldn't believe him are (a) that he's doesn't know those Slayers well enough to judge their mental state and, in one case, never even spoke to her; (b) that we don't actually see them "want" to die in either case; and, (c) that as I emphasized, the episode itself undercuts Spike's narrative.
There's a point of logic here as well, since Spike reasons from the particular to the general: even if we assume that the two Slayers he killed did have a death wish, that wouldn't necessarily mean all others did or that Buffy herself does.
I do think it can be read either way, and I'll have more to say later on.
Let’s talk about the implications of his claim. In my Introduction, I said that if I were asked to identify the single most important message communicated by BtVS, my response would be this: accept responsibility. I’ll continue by quoting myself:
“This theme appears early in the very first episode, Welcome to the Hellmouth:
“Buffy: Oh, why can't you people just leave me alone?
Giles: Because you are the Slayer. (comes down the stairs) Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires...”
If Buffy didn’t accept her responsibility as The Slayer, there’d be no story to tell. That’s why the Prologue to every episode in Season 1 recites that “In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.” (My emphasis.)
Note that word, “alone” and its complements, “One” and “the”. That’s responsibility, all right. There’s nobody who can take her place, no higher power to aid her:
“Buffy: (exhales) You don't have anything useful to tell me, do you? What are you, just some immortal demon sent down to even the score between good and evil?
Whistler: (impressed) Wow. Good guess. (grins)
Buffy: (steps up to him) Well, why don't you try getting off your immortal ass and fighting evil once in a while? 'Cause I'm sick and tired of doing it myself.” Becoming 2.
One consequence of death is that it removes the responsibility we all accept as authentic existentialists acting in the world. The Slayer bears the ultimate in that responsibility: she alone can save the world from the demons, the vampires, and the forces of darkness. And it’s only by her death that she can pass that responsibility to another. The Slayers he killed, Spike says, wanted to let go of that responsibility; it had become too much for them to bear. Keeping in mind the good reasons to be skeptical of Spike’s claims, the message to Buffy that only death allows the Slayer to pass on her responsibility strikes me as correct and consistent with what we’ll see later in the season.
What makes the whole sequence particularly brilliant is that every bit of Spike’s description of his encounters with the previous Slayers is rife with sexual innuendo. We know he’s now in love with Buffy. At the end of the scene in the alley he insists that she wants to “dance”:
“His passion aroused, Spike leans in to kiss her. She backs away in horror.
BUFFY
What the hell are you doing?
He grabs Buffy by the arms, his words coming in a breathless pant.
SPIKE
Come on. I can feel it, Slayer. You know you want to dance.”
Everything Spike says or does regarding the two Slayers has a sexual implication. He’d previously said he could have “danced” all night with the NY Slayer. He got off on the death of the Chinese Slayer in a blatantly erotic scene with Dru, and insists that Buffy does when she slays: “I suppose you're telling me you don't?” He uses terms with double meaning throughout the night (“How many of my kind reckon you've done?”). Even his description of the Slayers’ deaths reads that way: “That final gasp. That look of peace. Part of you is desperate to know: What's it like?” And how will that happen? When he “slips in” and has himself “a real good day”.
Spike’s whole discussion of the Slayers “wanting” death nearly screams out that he’s talking about the Little Death – orgasm
– as well. The erotic metaphor of the vampire here overlaps completely with the death of the two Slayers, with Spike’s feelings for Buffy, and with the essential point of the episode as it affects the finale. It’s beautifully done.
So given the double meaning, what did Buffy mean when she said, “Say it's true. Say I do want to [“dance”]. It wouldn't be you, Spike. It would never be you. You’re beneath me.” I think the whole point of the dialogue is that you can read it either way. She rejected his sexual advance, of course, but she’s also telling him that she’d never let him be the one to kill her even if she got to the point where she “wanted” to die.
In fact, we could interpret the whole episode as one of projection on Spike’s part. Whereas Angelus always remained in control and wanted his victims helpless, Spike was in for the thrill. He needed to be close to the edge: “Come on. When was the last time you unleashed it? All out fight against a mob, back against the wall, nothing but fists and fangs? Don't you ever get tired of fights you know you're going to win?”
He sought out the Slayers because they alone could give him the rush he craved. He dances right to the edge of death. And, of course, he has experienced it – it made him feel alive for the very first time.
Because the interpretation of FFL so strongly affects the interpretation of the season’s conclusion, I’ll have more to say about it when I discuss the last two episodes.
Some additional points:
The physical injury Buffy suffers at the beginning of the episode – a stab in the gut – serves as a metaphor for the emotional one at the end (Joyce’s need for a CAT scan to evaluate a condition much more serious than anyone thought).
Riley’s behavior towards the vamp who staked Buffy veers wildly from protective to reckless. He may have seen Buffy’s vulnerability as his opportunity to prove that he’s her equal. All he really proves is that he’s rash.