Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Myth, Metaphor & Morality

by Field, Mark

  Of course, she makes no connection with Webs either. He’s just a way for Buffy to talk to herself, another conversation with a dead person be it noted: “Whisper in a dead man’s ear/doesn’t make it real.” This isolation goes all the way back to the beginning of the slayer line: “First Slayer: No ... friends! Just the kill… We ... are ... alone!” It could hardly be otherwise when she’s the Slayer:

  HOLDEN

  So, all that time, you were a slayer?

  BUFFY

  The.

  HOLDEN

  "The", like as in "the only one"?

  BUFFY

  Pretty much.

  HOLDEN

  Oh. So, when you said not connected, that was kind of a telling statement, wasn't it—?

  Giles told Willow in Lessons that “it’s all connected”. Webs feels his own connection to a “powerful all-consuming evil” (and see trivia note 9). The bad guys are connected. How can Buffy achieve her own connection, not to evil but to other people, in light of the dilemma she expressed in Selfless: “You get down on me for cutting myself off, but in the end the slayer is always cut off.”? That’s Buffy’s dilemma for the season. In the words of director Nick Marck, “this episode is the set up for the season finale.” (DVD commentary)

  Everyone was unsure who or what Dawn saw. Jane Espenson had to confirm Dawn’s vision, and I’ll discuss that in two more episodes. Joyce’s words to Dawn will be controversial later, so I’ll be discussing them later as well. For now, they’re intended to put a rift between Dawn and Buffy, consistent with the theme of Buffy’s isolation we saw in her conversation with Webs.

  For Willow’s conversation, I want to copy here a discussion I had with local-max in comments to Older And Far Away (slight edit to avoid mild spoiler):

  Local-max: “I don’t think Tara is 100% wrong. I think Willow is so used to being powerless, and has grown accustomed over the years to both being smarter than her peers and to rules being essentially meaningless (she has to break out of “I can’t make the first move or I’ll be a slut” and “I can’t walk off campus when I’m not a senior!”, after all), that her judgment is fairly terrible; she can’t distinguish good uses of power from bad ones. I think Tara’s attitude is that Willow simply can’t be trusted with power, because she abuses it automatically, and if only Willow stops using power, well, everything will be better. That attitude is wrongheaded, though, because Willow needs to learn how to use power effectively, not just to give up on it. But I don’t think Tara’s position is psychologically incredible: I think that it makes a lot of sense for her, and for someone of her background, to have a knee-jerk feeling that Willow is just one of those people who can’t be trusted with power, and who can only be trusted otherwise.

  I think that you can argue that season seven continues Tara’s role as skeptic of Willow’s power, a role Willow has to grow beyond needing/wanting. “Cassie”, representing “Tara,” also functions as a dark mirror for Tara. While Giles tells Willow that giving up magic is harmful to her and that she should use her power for herself and others, “Tara” tells Willow that she can’t be trusted to do even a single spell, because her power itself is so deeply corrupting that she will eventually kill all her friends. And the ne plus ultra of that is, of course, that she should kill herself. What is killing herself but the ultimate way of cutting herself off from her power. The thing is, Tara—the real Tara—may have an element of being anti-power, where Willow is concerned, in a way that I actually do think is wrongheaded. But she would never take it to the extreme of wanting Willow to kill herself.”

  My response: “I'm not convinced that Tara's qualms about Willow's abuse of magic lead inexorably to the conclusion "no more magic". That's certainly one possible conclusion, and Willow's "mind wipe" behavior supports it. But there are less drastic reactions too, and Tara seems uniquely well-placed to do some teaching on the proper use of magic. Jumping to the most extreme solution in direct opposition to her original admiration of Willow's power, seems a bit discordant to me. Not "out of character", because I think your explanation is certainly a plausible read, but "off". Obviously, that's a very subjective reaction.”

  Willow certainly distrusts her magic, and perhaps she (at least in retrospect) got the same sense from Tara that local-max had. Willow certainly told Giles that she distrusted magic in Lessons and Beneath You. Her “mutual ‘no-see-ems’” spell in STSP can hardly have increased her confidence. Then, in Selfless, the old Willow came back for a minute when she threw the spider demon out the window, and D’Hoffryn called her on it. Her conversation here with “Cassie” was clearly designed to implant further doubts in her regarding her own ability.

  What saved Willow was not magic, but her love for Tara. She has no doubts on that score – Tara would never be a party to any effort to get Willow to kill herself. So while the Big Bad can play on Willow’s insecurities, there are parts of humanity it clearly doesn’t understand.

  Self-confidence is a key issue for everyone in S7, particularly Buffy. In addition, Willow is Buffy’s spirit, so any lack of self-confidence in Willow will reflect Buffy’s own internal doubts, just as Buffy’s doubts will be made manifest in Willow’s insecurities. But love is a key theme too.

  Lots of interesting discussion points in CWDP. Spike (see below) and Andrew both killed someone. Should they be treated differently? Different from Willow? Anya? Stay tuned – these will be major debates for the season.

  Actually, there was a great deal of debate after this episode over whether Spike actually killed the girl. Some thought it was the Big Bad. Others thought it a trick of some kind because, well, “he has a soul now”. He also has a chip, which we saw working in Beneath You and Help, but which obviously didn’t fire when he bit the woman here.

  Webs played expertly on Buffy’s fears regarding both herself and Spike; the two fears are connected, even if Buffy isn’t, as we’ll see. Consider Buffy’s dilemma if Webs told her the truth. She just made a big issue to Xander about the fact that she killed Angel. For her to have to stake Spike, when she admits to having indeterminate feelings about him, would be another level of pain. At the same time, she steeled herself to kill Anyanka, even if in the last resort, notwithstanding Xander’s accusation of a double standard. Actually pursuing a double standard would cause all kinds of problems, especially increasing her isolation from others.

  Trivia notes: (1) AFAIK, the time stamp at the beginning has no meaning except as the air date and time, though it could also set the beginning of the final arc towards Chosen. (2) Angie Hart, whose song opens and closes the episode, is a friend of Joss and performed on the show in two previous episodes. Joss co-wrote the song with her. (3) Joss also wrote the Buffy scenes, while Marti Noxon wrote the Willow scenes, Jane Espenson wrote Dawn’s scenes, and Drew Godard wrote the Trio. (4) This is the only episode in which Xander does not appear. (5) The original plan was for Tara to appear in the scenes opposite Willow. Amber Benson refused the role because of the fallout from Seeing Red; she didn’t want Tara to appear evil. (6) Cassie told Willow, “Remember that time on the bridge when you sang to each other?” This was a clue that Cassie wasn’t actually in communication with Tara: Tara sang on the bridge in OMWF, but Willow didn’t. (7) It’s a little hard to catch, but Dawn was talking on the phone to Kit, from Lessons. It’s a subtle way of reminding viewers that events continue to happen offscreen. (8) Webs wrote an essay on Vaclav Havel, a playwright and former president of Czechoslovakia. (9) Webs tells Buffy that being a vampire feels “Like I'm connected to a powerful all-consuming evil that's gonna suck the world into a fiery oblivion.” Compare what Jesse said in The Harvest: “I feel good, Xander! I feel strong! I'm connected, man, to everything!” (10) The joke about Scott Hope coming out is that Fab Filippo, who played Scott Hope, later played a gay character on the TV show Queer As Folk. (11) Buffy said she didn’t need therapy from “the evil dead”, referring to the movie of that title. (12) In the flash cuts behind Dawn, Joyce’s body is in the same positi
on on the couch as when Buffy found her. (13) Andrew called Jonathan “McFly”, referring to the main character in Back to the Future. (14) Jonathan used the Spanish word “cuesta” to mean “quest”. It actually means “hill” or “slope”. (15) Warren called Jonathan “Short Round”, after the character in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. (16) Cassie reminded Willow that she was “strong like an Amazon”. That was the phrase Willow and Tara used in The Body. (17) The pronunciation of “nemeses” refers to Warren’s dialogue in Gone. (18) Buffy’s use of the phrase “insane troll logic” refers to Triangle. (19) It may be a stretch, but I read Webs’ phrase asking Buffy if she was ready for “our little death match” as a Shakespearean reference to orgasm. (20) Cassie mentioned the Indigo Girls, who are a lesbian band. (21) Conversations won the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

  Sleeper

  Sleeper connects Spike’s “addiction recovery” story and the Big Bad (still unidentified). I now need to explain how Spike’s story since S4 intersects with the themes of S7.

  I’ve commented several times before on the “Clockwork Orange” theme that the show has been using with Spike since S4. In my first post, on The Initiative, I mentioned that the writers were using the American version of the novel. The difference between the American version, which Kubrick used for his movie, and the English version is that Anthony Burgess’s original novel had 21 chapters (representing the age of adulthood) and the American version ends with chapter 20.

  Chapter 20 ends with Alex’s conditioning reversed after he was deprogrammed, and with him looking forward to resuming his violent ways. That’s a very pessimistic outcome, of course, and what we’ve seen of Spike in S7 so far is a thematic recasting of Chapter 20. Remember that in Alex’s case the conditioning had to be removed, while in Spike’s case the chip/soul are still present and some form of conditioning has overridden them in order to get him to kill again.

  Sleeper finishes Chapter 20, but then it goes further to show Spike rejecting his instruction to feed off Buffy. This rejection sets up Chapter 21 of the novel, in which Alex has grown tired of the violence and settles down to raise a family. In short, Burgess saw Alex as ultimately on a path to redemption without the conditioning, and that’s roughly where Spike is at the end of Sleeper.

  The story line achieves this result by means of the metaphor of a very well-laid-out path for recovery from addiction, a theme that can also be read into A Clockwork Orange pretty easily as an alternative to Burgess’s growing up theme (and vice versa). Here’s how it’s played out so far, summarized from what I’ve mentioned in previous posts: in Lessons we saw Spike in the DTs, alone by himself in the basement, which continues into the beginning of Beneath You. He then comes into the world with bravado (BY), claiming he’s “changed” and therefore can handle "it" all on his own. He can't; as he said in his ravings in the teaser there, “not hardly ready”. He therefore tries to hide his new condition, but he can’t hold the pretense and confesses to Buffy in the church scene that she inspired him to “quit”.

  Because of the influence of the still-unidentified evil, he relapses into the DTs (STSP) and starts “drinking” secretly again, eventually going on a binge (CWDP and earlier, though we don't see it until the final scene of CWDP). In Sleeper we see the evil something appear to him mostly in his own form, indicating that his own weakness is the source of the problem. The fact that the evil is Spike’s own weakness tells us an important fact about the Big Bad.

  We get clues to the addiction theme, and to the fact that Spike is being controlled, early in the episode. When Buffy confronts Spike in his bedroom, he insists that she’s “trumped up some charge about me being back on the juice.” We need to know that something has controlled Spike, as opposed to him resuming his killing ways. That’s why we got the scene where Spike hit Xander in order to leave the apartment. His chip fired, meaning that it still works and that something is overriding it. The scenes of “Buffy” encouraging his binge and his own behaviorial changes also support the presence of external control.

  Later at The Bronze (a place no alcoholic should go), the Aimee Mann song “This is How it Goes” reinforces the addiction theme in its chorus: “It’s all about drugs, it’s all about shame/and whatever they want, don’t tell ‘em your name”. The title of her other song, “Pavlov’s Bell”, highlights the conditioning used to deprogram Spike and to get him to kill again, Pavlov being famous for his experiments in conditioning dogs to react to a bell. The chorus of “Pavlov’s Bell” ties together the drug use and the conditioning: “I'm all about denial --/But can't denial let me believe? … If you're what I need,/Then only you can save me/So come on baby -- give me the fix….”

  In both cases, the chorus of the song is played over key moments with Spike in the Bronze to give us powerful clues to the themes of the episode. With “This Is How It Goes”, the song fades out briefly, only to come back strongly on the chorus as Spike searches the Bronze for the girl he killed in CWDP. With “Pavlov’s Bell”, the chorus provides the background for Spike’s fight with the vamp on the upper level – “nobody knows that’s how I nearly fell, craving for love and ringing Pavlov’s Bell” – at which point he realizes that he’s been killing again.

  Spike now takes a major step for someone struggling with recovery and admits his problem to Buffy, bringing her to the house. The vampires rising up from the basement represent Buffy’s fears of Spike’s dark side. Since it’s not Spike’s basement, that means he’s not entirely responsible for them. Buffy defeats the vamps only after she sees Spike resist attacking her and change. Note, too, how the scene should bring to mind the events of Seeing Red. Here’s the dialogue:

  “Buffy fights the vampires, who have taken tools from the basement to fight her with. Spike-2 is talking to Spike.

  SPIKE-2

  You know what I want you to do.

  Buffy continues to fight the vampires, but they manage to get a hold on her, one on each arm, holding her up for Spike.

  SPIKE-2

  They're waiting for you. Take her, taste her, make her weak.

  Spike stands, and walks toward Buffy menacingly.

  BUFFY

  Spike, no!”

  In Seeing Red Buffy had to kick Spike away when he ignored her cries of “no”. This time, after he takes communion from her blood, his soul allows his love for Buffy to stop himself from repeating his sin:

  “SPIKE

  (in human face) I remember.

  Spike's horrified. His face is one of complete shock and disbelief that he could have actually done those things. He recoils from Buffy, staggering back to the far end of the room.”

  The way I see it, the chip allowed Spike the time and space for love to redeem him, i.e., for his soul to take over. Karen suggested in a comment to Smashed that “Quoting C.S. Lewis, who describes pretending and 'acting good' as real steps in moral development: ‘When you are not feeling particularly friendly, but you know you ought to be, the best thing you can do, very often, is to put on a friendly manner and behave as if you were a nicer person than you actually are... Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.’ Spike thinks he's better than he really is. In Tabula Rasa, he thinks he's a hero, a good guy, a vampire with a soul. He needs to act the part before he becomes the real thing.”

  That’s not all he needs to do, though. The key moment comes when Spike asks Buffy to help him. This is the biggest hurdle for a recovering addict – seeking help. Before this episode, Spike was unwilling to ask for help: “I could never ask”, he tells the false “Buffy” in Selfless. He was unwilling to seek help from anyone, least of all from Buffy, the woman he’d wronged. Now he’s “hit bottom” and he faces up to his failure, aided, perhaps, by the fact that his latest wrongs aren’t “really” him anymore. His guilt makes him ready to give up, but he seizes the last chance and asks Buffy for help. Buffy recognizes that Spike was under the control of something else: “There'
s something playing with us. All of us. … You didn't see him down there. He really didn't know what he'd done. It wasn't in his control.” For that reason, and because she’s Buffy, she agrees to help him.

  In my view, Sleeper is a terrific episode and a remarkable payoff to a theme which began 3 seasons previously.

  Trivia notes: (1) Xander wanted to analyze the facts in a “CSI-like manner”, referring to the TV show Crime Scene Investigation. (2) Xander made the same request for an “objective” analysis about Angel in the episode Angel. In both cases his prejudice seems pretty clear. Of course, given the events of S2, Xander does have some cause for his attitude. Just don’t mention Anya. (3) Xander described Spike as “cool as Cool Whip”, referring to the brand name whipped cream. (4) The song which we hear Spike humming in the teaser and which triggers Spike’s change, first with the harmonica on the Promenade and later sung in the basement by his evil twin, is the old folk song “Early One Morning”. The lyrics sing of a maiden betrayed by her suitor. (5) The Promenade, where we see Spike and Buffy walking, is an outdoor shopping area in Santa Monica. (6) Spike’s evil twin uses a line from “Early One Morning” when he asks Spike “how could you use a poor maiden so?”. (7) When Spike tells Buffy “it's still all about you” I take that as a reference to the internet debates regarding whether the show is “all about Buffy”. (8) The bouncer called Spike a “Billy Idol wannabe”, for which see the link. (9) The bouncer also said Spike was a “real player”, which is a slang expression for someone very promiscuous.

  Never Leave Me

  Never Leave Me – the title quotes the words of Spike’s trigger song, “Early One Morning” – reveals the identity of the Big Bad while tying together more tightly the threads of the Spike and Andrew story lines with each other and with the seasonal arc.