by Field, Mark
Riley ex machina (h/t Exegy). This episode reinforces my view that the writers, particularly Doug Petrie, had a very different attitude towards Riley than the fans, and misjudged their reaction to him. Does anyone really believe that it’s Riley, rather than Angel, who would have the impact on Buffy we see in this episode?
Sam told Buffy how “ripped up inside” Riley was about Buffy: “The only thing that could ... help Riley work it out was time. Lots of time. Took him a year to get over you.” This is sloppy. Riley left 14 months ago and has been married for 4 months – so long ago that he implausibly forgot to mention it. Assuming a month or two of “courtship” (his word in The Initiative), he was over Buffy in 6-8 months max.
Riley's “pep talk” to Buffy in AYW brought to mind Xander's similar speech in The Freshman. Both came when Buffy was down, confused and ineffective (was it just me or were her initial attempts to fight the Suvolte demon very unSlayer-like?). Xander's speech worked for me, Riley's didn't. Why?
Xander, whatever his faults, worships Buffy. He has from the beginning. He is the most ordinary of the characters. By ordinary, I mean he's not an image, he's a person with flaws. His recognition of those flaws is both endearing (sometimes) and the reason why we accept his hero worship; people who don't recognize their own flaws generally worship only themselves. Buffy could respond to him because she and we could see Xander’s devotion.
Riley, in contrast, comes across here as a stereotype. He's the child from Seventh Heaven or Ozzie and Harriet. Too good to be true. I think of him as an image from the 50s of what we were all "supposed" to be. His character has completely regressed – it’s as if the events of Goodbye Iowa through Into the Woods never happened, and it’s doubtful that regression means progress. The episode title even implies this.
When this Riley delivers his speech to Buffy, there is no sense of hero worship in it because we can't believe this Riley sees Buffy as a hero. This Riley sees himself in the heroic image. When delivered from this background, his speech is condescending. Not "I admire you", but "You're better than this", an attitude he made clear in his earlier comments like "He's evil or had you forgotten that?" and "It doesn't really touch you". Buffy reacted not because she felt his sincerity but because she felt his reproach.
And he never asked about her mother.
The only way to read the episode as anything more than a writer’s misjudgment, it seems to me, is to interpret the episode as a Buffy fantasy. That is, we’d see it as her daydream about something that might happen to take her away from a life she hates. I see two problems with such an interpretation. First, there’s an episode coming up which uses this idea, albeit in a very different way. Second, and more important, this theory runs aground on the point I made above – it’s just not realistic that Buffy’s fantasy would include Riley rather than Angel.
If we are supposed to see it as a daydream, it doesn’t really get Buffy anywhere except to break up with Spike. That could be seen as progress, particularly since she did it with respect. OTOH, as I’ve argued before, I think the sex with Spike is a symptom, not a cause, of Buffy’s problems this season.
On the subject of Spike, I think it’s important that Buffy referred to him as William in the scene at the end. She was apologizing to the human being, not to the monster: “I'm using you. … I'm just ... being weak, and selfish... and it's killing me. … I'm sorry ... William.”
William became a monster because one woman rejected him and another came along to affirm that monster. Now a woman has rejected the monster while affirming the human. William/Spike’s life has come full circle.
Buffy’s apology raises an interesting issue about the nature of moral wrong. In his book Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson made the following argument against slavery:
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism....Our children see this, and learn to imitate it....The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances.
I've always thought this a clever tactical argument. The only people who could, in practice, eliminate slavery in Virginia in 1783 were the slaveholders. Jefferson showed that it was in their interest to do so: by abusing their slaves, they were killing themselves.
This is, if I'm not mistaken, the very effect Buffy attributes to herself. But consider the case of slavery. Do we really think slavery a moral wrong because of its effect on the slaveholder? And if not, how does this affect your view of Buffy and the conclusion of AYW?
Trivia note: (1) The title is a military command which means to disregard the previous order and return the situation before it was issued. (2) Spike’s role as arms dealer, including the name “The Doctor”, was loosely based on the story of Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar. I’m no fan of the magic/drugs metaphor, but I suspect this episode could have succeeded – or at least fit better with the season themes – if they had stayed with the drug dealer model. (3) Todd’s reference to the “glass ceiling” is to the way in which women are unable to rise in a corporate hierarchy. (4) Todd mentioned that he and Buffy don’t work at “Burger World”, which is where Beavis and Butthead work. (5) Dawn brought Willow an “Arnold Palmer”, which is iced tea and lemonade. (6) Todd used the word “zeitgeist”, which means “spirit of the time”. (7) The scene where Riley shouts about the wild bear was taken from the movie Men in Black. (8) Buffy’s “mazel tov” to Riley is a Yiddish expression meaning literally “good luck” and in context “congratulations”. (9) Xander referred to Riley as “love taker, heartbreaker”, which is the title of a song by Pat Benatar. (10) Spike called Riley a “tin soldier”, referring to the children’s toys. (11) Xander mentioned Nick Fury from the Avengers. Ten years later… (12) Riley’s mention of “bug hunts” is possibly a reference to Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.
Hell’s Bells
“We know what we are, but not what we may be.” Hamlet, Act IV, sc. 5.
Metaphorically, Xander couldn’t marry Anya. He’s Buffy’s “heart”, and this season her heart is unsure, conflicted. We’ve seen that uncertainty in her half-hearted pursuit of the Trio and in her relationship with Spike. We’ll know Buffy has recovered from her malaise when her heart is sure again. And vice versa.
Xander’s not just a metaphor, of course, he’s fully developed character in his own right, so we need to look at this episode from that angle as well. For me, there are three factors contributing to his decision to walk out. One is his relationship with Buffy. The second is how much he really loves Anya, an issue I’ve raised before in my post on Into the Woods. The third factor is Xander’s own family background. I’ll discuss these in this order.
Xander, as I’ll discuss below, fears his own weaknesses. He’s able to overcome those weaknesses, in part, because he sees himself as valuable to Buffy. His vision suggests that when that's gone, there will nothing worthwhile left in him. He also senses that he’s going to have to put Buffy’s mission aside for Anya. The thing that makes him feel enough of a man to believe that he can get married (his ability to help Buffy) is the same thing he stands to lose if he goes through with it.
I’ve said before that I thought Xander’s speech to Anya in Into the Woods rang false. In my eyes, Xander didn’t behave as if he loved Anya “powerfully, painfully”. Xander rarely defended her, he often criticized her, there was always an air of patronizing about his sarcasm towards her. I collected instances of these in my posts on Into the Woods and Doublemeat Palace. That treatment, we now see, turns out to be consistent with, though not nearly as obnoxious as, the way Xander’s father behaves towards his mother; it’s part of Xander’s fear revealed here in Hell’s Bells.
Xander’s vision also included physical abuse, though he has never been physically abusive towards Anya, nor do I think he ever would be. We didn’t see that with his father, but it doesn’t take much to imagine that physical abuse also was part of the Harris household. It’s not surprising, then, that Xander would fear it even if I don’t think it’s likely. The potential for physical abuse does fit with the season theme, given Xander’s metaphorical role and Buffy’s relationship with Spike.
Xander made the decision to cancel the wedding just like he made the decision to announce it – without letting Anya have any real say. As Tara told Willow in TR, “But you don't get to decide what is better for us, Will. We're in a relationship, we are supposed to decide together.” It’s worse in Xander’s case, because he told Anya just last episode that he very much wanted to be married to her:
ANYA: So our wedding... (Xander nodding) ...is not our marriage. (smiles)
XANDER: Separate things. One fills me with a dread akin to public speaking engagements.
ANYA: And that would be the wedding.
XANDER: Which will be over soon.
ANYA: But our marriage...
XANDER: That lasts forever.
And a year ago he actually promised Anya to give her warning if he decided to leave:
ANYA: If you ever decide to go, I want a warning. You know, big flashing red lights, and-and-and one of those clocks that counts down like a bomb in a movie? And there's a whole bunch of, of colored wires, and I'm not sure which is the right one to cut, but I guess the green one, and then at the last second "No! The red one!" and then click, it stops with three-tenths of a second left, but then you don't leave. (pause) Like that, okay? XANDER: Check. Big bomb clock. (Triangle)
In light of all this, one way to see Xander’s speech in ItW is that it did for him exactly what I think his speech to Buffy did for her (see my post on that episode): he talked himself into thinking something he didn't completely feel. He rushed into proposing to Anya before considering what marriage meant. He tried to force himself to go through with the wedding even though he didn't want to. I think the fact that he and Anya were not a couple in Tabula Rasa tends to confirm this view.
Xander’s relationship with Anya has also raised issues regarding Xander’s judgmental reactions to Angel (and even Spike, though to a lesser extent). Anya is in a similar situation as Angel was when Buffy met him. Angelus was a vicious, violent demon who committed unspeakable crimes until he got his soul. Anyanka’s career as a vengeance demon was arguably worse if for no other reason than that it was 4 times as long. Both became human by chance and their own “mistakes” in the choice of victim. Unlike Angel, Anya showed occasional nostalgia for her former life (Doppelgangland, Pangs, her continued relationship with Halfrek and D’Hoffryn). Xander’s criticism of Angel looks pretty hypocritical in this light.
The demon’s “poetic justice” revenge drives this point home, but it would be a mistake for us to see Xander’s reaction as motivated solely by doubts about Anya. They aren’t, though the demon leads Anya to think that. Xander’s doubts are mostly about himself – he thought his family was his destiny instead of his origin. He hasn't realized what Spike said to Dawn in Crush, "It doesn't matter much how you start out." It’s not surprising that Xander thinks this way – it’s exactly what he thought about Angel. Metaphorically, we might see this as expressing Buffy’s concern that her Slayer power will eventually corrupt her human side; when Xander walks out of the wedding for fear of what he might become, that’s a form of Buffy’s refusal to accept her adulthood.
By leaving Xander demonstrated that he isn’t ready for adulthood either. As manwitch put it 10 years ago, “You don't avoid becoming your father by running and hiding from the situation. You avoid becoming your father by being in the same situation and being different.”
In comments, State of Siege offered a much more favorable take on Xander’s relationship with Anya. It’s worth reading as a contrast to mine. I'd put it this way: Xander wants someone he can put on a pedestal. He wants (his idealized) Buffy. Anya's flaws make it impossible for Xander to put her on a pedestal. In order for the relationship to work, he needs to learn to stop doing that (and to stop expressing his disappointment when the woman fails to live up to his ideal). Anya is therefore a test of Xander's maturity.
Xander told Anya that didn’t leave because of her, but he certainly does have doubts about Anya. Those doubts were the focal point of OMWF: “Am I marrying a demon?”Anya may not be a demon, but she’s no fairy princess either. She never has made much effort to realize her humanity; the closest she came was when she finally got her wedding vows right. But not until she confronted the demon she created has she had the opportunity to come face to face with her past wrongdoing. If remorse is an essential condition for redemption, then Anya hasn’t shown that yet. The ending scene suggests that D’Hoffryn has offered her her powers back. In that case we’ll find out if Anya’s commitment to humanity is real or if it’s still a work in progress (Xander’s words in The Prom).
On a purely structural note, I have substantial criticisms of Hell’s Bells. In particular, it’s hard to explain the absence of Willow, Buffy, Tara, and Dawn from the scene in which Xander tells Anya he’s leaving. All four were standing there next to him just a moment before, but they are completely absent thereafter. That’s a real flaw in the plotting and it’s distracting. So is the absence of Giles without any mention of him.
Trivia notes: (1) Willow wanted to wear a tuxedo and be “Marlene Dietrich-y”, after the 1930s film star. (2) Uncle Rory wanted an Irish coffee: coffee and whiskey. (3) Mr. Harris said that Krelvin came from a long line of “geeks”. The joke is that the word “geek” originated in the circus – they were the “freaks” in circus side-shows. (4) The “Bison Lodge” is a takeoff of Moose Lodges. (5) Uncle Rory is a taxidermist, which we learned in The Dark Age. (6) Clem mentioned the Commedia dell’arte, for which see the link. (7) Xander asked Buffy if she wanted to “get lucky”, which is an American idiom meaning to have sex. (8) Buffy responded with “into the breach with you”, which plays off a line from Henry V (“once more unto the breach”) and tells Xander to brave the crowd. (9) Dawn referred to Spike’s date as a “Manic Panicked freak”. The reference is to a New York-based chain specializing in hair dye and related products. (10) Dawn described Spike as “macking” with his date, a slang term meaning “making out with”. (11) Mr. Harris said that marriage saved him from a dose of the “clap”, a slang term meaning venereal disease. (12) Joss wrote the Buffy/Spike scene. (13) Spike tells Buffy she “glows”, a reminder of William in Fool For Love when he wanted a synonym for “glowing” and ended up with “effulgent”. (14) Willow reminded Xander of their last experience with formal wear, which was when they first kissed in Homecoming. (15) Anya’s reference to herself as a “sex poodle” was a joke about Jane Espenson, who called herself that. (16) Mr. Harris asked the bartender for a “double Jack”, meaning a double shot of Jack Daniels whiskey.
Normal Again
Normal Again is another one of the reasons I think S6, at its best, is brilliant. It’s a Top Ten episode for me, one of at least 4 this season (along with OMWF, Smashed, and Dead Things). I think of it as Buffy’s last temptation before her incarnation as an adult who accepts her responsibilities. And yeah, I’m using that vocabulary intentionally.
The asylum looked pretty horrific, so we need to consider why Buffy would find it “tempting”. It wasn’t the asylum itself, it was the promise held out of a “normal” life with her mother and father. Basically, she was being offered the chance to return to her childhood, and to escape from the problems of adulthood which she can’t seem to solve.
The key scene takes place in the basement, i.e., Buffy’s metaphorical subconscious. The demon was chained down there, naturally enough; it’s where we all keep our demons. Xander, Willow and Dawn aren’t usually there, so Buffy had to force them in order to repress/destroy them as the doctor urged. Why were Tara and Spike
not captured and dragged to the basement? My view is that W/X/D were insisting that she stay in their world. Tara refused to judge her, and Spike said it didn't matter which choice she made, as long as she made one. AsylumBuffy didn't need to kill them off to break her ties to SunnydaleBuffy. Therefore they weren't in the basement.
There’s another factor as well, in my view. Buffy’s friends have caused her untold grief this season. Willow and Xander pulled her out of heaven; Xander summoned a demon which nearly killed her; Willow violated her mind; Willow nearly killed Dawn; Dawn shoplifts and is needy despite Buffy’s own troubles. Through it all, Buffy has forgiven them. She hid the nature of her return, she apologized to Willow for not noticing that Willow was “drowning”, she never even mentioned Willow’s “mind wipe”, an event so serious that Tara up and left Willow because of it. All this is bound to create resentments in Buffy’s subconscious, and I think we can see her loosing the demon on her friends as a reflection of that resentment.
Andrew summoned this demon. I’ve said before that I think Life Serial established a template for the season as a whole. In that episode, Andrew summoned the demons who attacked her at the construction site. The construction workers said that the whole incident was all in her imagination: “I don't know what you're talking about. All I know is you were losin' it or something. … You're trippin', sweetie.” Buffy then protests to Xander, “I didn't imagine this, Xander.” Here, the demon’s poison works by creating an imaginary world for Buffy, one where, in Spike’s words, “we're all little figments of Buffy's funny-farm delusion.”
Spike’s behavior was, as usual, controversial. Some viewers saw him as giving Buffy the “tough love” advice she needed. Others thought he manipulated her by giving her an ultimatum which caused her, at least for a while, to become willing to sacrifice her friends.