by Field, Mark
What Giles says is perfectly logical (Giles = mind), even inevitable, given what he knows, indeed, what we all know. Faith aside because she’s in prison, the situation is now as it was in Welcome to the Hellmouth when Giles explained to Buffy why she had to accept her duty as the Slayer in essentially the same words: “Because you are the Slayer. Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a Chosen One….” Every single episode in S1 repeated this point in the introduction: “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.”
Buffy’s role as the Slayer means that she must necessarily end up in charge. I’ve discussed that consequence previously, most notably in connection with Xander’s Lie in Becoming, and it’s directly related to the season 7 themes. Think of it this way: Because she’s the Slayer, only she can be the General. That’s been true since I pointed it out in my post on Becoming, since Jane Espenson said it on the DVD commentary to Earshot, and since Buffy reiterated it in Selfless: “in the end the Slayer is always cut off. There's no mystical guidebook. No all-knowing council. Human rules don't apply. There's only me. I am the law.”
So what Giles says may seem harsh, and Xander calls him on it, but it’s logically inescapable.
Thus, it’s in response to Giles’s statement that Buffy delivers her speech at the end. That speech, and the events which follow in the next episode, form the first turning point in the season and you need to be thinking about its consequences from this point on. Buffy’s asserting her role as General in a dramatic and forceful way. But of course Generals are isolated and we know that Buffy feels isolated; in fact, being the General is precisely what causes her sense of isolation. This is Buffy’s dilemma, and it’s directly tied to both of the other concerns she’s expressed in previous episodes, namely that she’s isolated and that she can’t save them all.
Given the First’s all out war on the Council and Buffy’s call to war in turn, I thought it would be interesting to quote DEN on the similarity to old war movies:
“The "war" metaphor is shaping s7 to the point where BOTN resembles those old WWI movies like "Wings" and "Dawn Patrol." Willow is the veteran with too many combat hours, muttering "sorry I let you down, old boy" as her shaking hands try to hold a scotch and soda. Xander is the cockney gunner, keeping his sense of humor as things unravel. Anya is the squadron American, the volunteer from far away, never quite understanding the people she fights alongside. In Giles we have the wise and experienced adjudant, prohibited by age and wounds from climbing into a cockpit. The SiTs are the green lieutenants, doomed to early and horrible deaths--certainly doomed if, like Annabella, they panic and break formation. And there's Buffy, coming on like Errol Flynn or Richard Barthelmess. ‘Chaps, I know it's hell up there. Von Richthofen's flying circus is tearing us to pieces. We're outnumbered and outgunned. But the lads in the trenches are counting on us, and the squadron will do its duty to the last man!’"
No matter how many times I watch Buffy’s speech, I get chills. Not just the words but SMG’s delivery, both just suck you in. If you really love the speech, though, ask yourself just how Buffy’s going to “kill” an incorporeal being, particularly in light of “Joyce’s” obviously true statements.
Trivia notes: (1) The chronology of this episode is impossible to square with the date stamp at the beginning of CWDP. (2) Yes, we saw “Joyce” touch things, even though the First shouldn’t be able to. That’s because Buffy is dreaming of her. As in all dreams, the ordinary rules don’t apply. (3) Xander mentioned the mummy hand while repairing the windows, which was from Life Serial. (4) Xander’s description of Andrew as “Sleeping Ugly” is, of course, a reference to Sleeping Beauty. (5) Dawn suggested that Andrew was in a “fugue state”, which is “a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality and other identifying characteristics of individuality.” (6) Dawn mentioned that “kids of today like Jackass”, which was a movie. Of sorts. (7) The scene of Spike held under water was originally supposed to be Holy Water, but the Standards & Practices folks (a euphemism for censors) nixed that. As a result, the scene doesn’t make any sense because vampires don’t breathe and so holding them underwater is pointless. (8) Kennedy apologized for “the British invasion” in Buffy’s kitchen, which refers to the numerous British music groups which followed The Beatles to America. (9) The Turok-han name was an obvious homage to Lord of the Rings. (10) Camden Toy, who played Gnarl and one of the Gentlemen, plays the Ubervamp. (11) Principal Wood mentioned the movies of Rob Schneider, for whom see the link. Describing his movies as “evil” is a joke. (12) Principal Wood told Buffy that “I'm only saying that once you see true evil, it can have some serious afterburn, and then you can't unsee what you saw. Ever.” “Afterburn” is a term from psychotherapy which means "the period of time before a past event is assimilated". Note that his words apply to Buffy seeing the First. (13) Xander’s suggestion to trap the Ubervamp in the pantry is a reference to the movie Signs by M. Night Shyamalan. (14) Andrew’s “spider sense” is a reference to Spiderman. (15) For Andrew’s mention of various “super-villain[s] like Dr. Doom or Apocalypse or-or The Riddler”, see the links. (16) To get really obvious, the scene with Buffy and the Ubervamp in the factory is an homage to The Terminator.
Showtime
Showtime is episode 11. In seasons 3 and 5, episode 11 showed us the basic problem Buffy will face in the finale, but with a wrong or incomplete solution (seasons 2 and 6 did that in episode 14). That’s what Showtime does. I won’t give any details because of spoilers, but I can say that the wrong solution here is directly related to every single one of the themes we’ve seen in S7.
The statements of Beljoxa’s Eye (see trivia note 4) are intended to be cryptic. Lots of viewers were confused by them and even got angry that later episodes seemed to ignore them. As I read S7, though, the statements were entirely consistent with the seasonal themes and contain an important clue. I’ll have to explain all this in the finale. If you think carefully about some of the questions the Potentials ask themselves in the basement, you’ll get some clues.
What I can do now is to draw your attention to Giles’s use of the word “balance” when he laid all the responsibility on Buffy in BotN: “If the slayer line is eliminated, then the hellmouth has no guardian. The balance is destroyed.” What he’s saying is that the First intends to change the world in a fundamental way. That’s what the First itself told Willow in CWDP: “Fact is, the whole good-versus-evil, balancing the scales thing—I'm over it. I'm done with the mortal coil. But believe me, I'm going for a big finish.” And that’s what Beljoxa’s Eye is telling Giles and Anya here:
GILES
If The First has been around for all time, then why hasn't it attempted something like this before? Why now?
BELJOXA'S EYE
The opportunity has only recently presented itself.
GILES
Opportunity?
BELJOXA'S EYE
The mystical forces surrounding the Chosen line have become irrevocably altered, become unstable, vulnerable.
ANYA
Something The First did?
BELJOXA'S EYE
The First Evil did not cause the disruption, only seized upon it to extinguish the lives of the Chosen forever.
Beljoxa’s Eye also repeated what “Joyce” told Buffy in BotN: “It cannot be fought, it cannot be killed. The First Evil has been and always will be. Since before the universe was born, long after there is nothing else, it will go on.”
Remember from S3 that Joss is an absurdist (see my post on Amends). In absurdist philosophy, as in existentialism, the world has certain fundamental characteristics that can’t be changed (see my posts on Gingerbread and Graduation Day). Absurdism opposes revolution because it attempts to change these fundamental characteristics, but endorses rebellion because it does not (Id.). The First is trying for fundamental
change and it sees the opportunity to make that change. The question is whether Buffy can defeat that change with an act of rebellion rather than revolution. It’s worth considering which one she’s attempting now.
Some people felt that Buffy had no real strategy in confronting the Ubervamp. I disagree. I think that the Ubervamp was under orders not to kill Buffy and that Buffy knew this. From BotN:
BUFFY The First - that's what it wants.
GILES Yes. To erase all the Slayers-in-training and their Watchers, along with their methods...
BUFFY And then Faith. Then me.
IOW, Buffy believed that she was last in line, that the Ubervamp wasn’t supposed to kill her. Now, we know this isn’t quite right – Faith is actually last in line – but it doesn’t make any difference for this episode. Buffy still has to go last of all those in Sunnydale and only after all the other Potentials, even those outside Sunnydale, are gone. She made her plan to fight with this knowledge in mind. It gave her a real advantage, and made her strategy pretty sensible.
Consistent with the comparison I made in the post on BotN to the events of The Harvest, dusting the Ubervamp here compares with dusting Luke in that episode. In both cases Buffy faced a foe who had defeated her previously and appeared too strong. In both cases the scene was quasi-public and took place on a stage. In The Harvest Buffy had to convince herself (and maybe the nascent SG) that she could protect the world. Here her goal was to show the Potentials that she could protect them. She did that; you can see it in the look on Kennedy’s face at the end of the fight.
But in focusing on her heroic defeat of the Ubervamp we may lose sight of an important, if implicit, message her actions also sent. It’s one that got delivered in The Harvest too, and it’s been with us since the beginning. The battleground she constructed deliberately highlighted the fact that she was facing the Ubervamp by herself. She and Willow and Xander expressly discouraged anyone else from helping:
DAWN
Buffy, you can't take that thing on yourself.
KENNEDY
I'll stay.
BUFFY
No! …
BUFFY
Willow, Xander, take everyone to a safe location. Get 'em out of here. Now!
Everyone but Buffy and Dawn follows Willow.
XANDER
(touches Dawn's arm) Have to go, Dawnie.
***
Kennedy aims her crossbow at the Turok-Han, but Willow waves her off.
WILLOW
Just watch. It's showtime.
***
RONA
It's killing her.
MOLLY
We have to do something.
WILLOW
Wait!
Note that discouraging others from helping is exactly what she did with Xander in The Harvest, an episode expressly referenced here and in BotN:
Xander: So, what's the plan? We saddle up, right?
Buffy: There's no 'we', okay? I'm the Slayer, and you're not.
While Xander disobeyed orders and went with her in The Harvest, here in Showtime her friends, the Potentials, Dawn -- they were all just bystanders to a performance, not participants. This is Buffy’s show and she’s showing off. Hence the title.
What this did was to emphasize that Buffy has the power and they – “they” being everyone else, even Willow, whose barrier failed – don’t. The job of the others was to play a supporting role, to applaud the hero at the end. Buffy may be protecting them, but they aren’t in any meaningful way a part of the victory.
After she defeated the Ubervamp, Buffy announced “here endeth the lesson”. That same phrase has been used twice before on the show, once by the Master in Never Kill A Boy On The First Date and once by Spike in Fool for Love. In my view, the repetition of this phrase was deliberate and should be a big honking clue about the way we’re supposed to interpret the events of this episode.
As the group leaves Thunderdome, the First/Eve glares down at them. It’s not just angry that Buffy killed the Ubervamp, it understands what we see next: that Buffy will rescue Spike. Spike’s faith in Buffy has been rewarded and nothing could now shake that faith.
The final scene begs comparison to that in Intervention. There, Buffy kissed Spike to show her appreciation for what he’d done. But at that stage, unsouled Spike still belonged in his crypt so she left him there. This time she takes him with her. It’s a wonderful moment. Buffy told Webs that she felt “not so much” connected, but Spike feels it:
I think that [Joss] does feel like it's sort of a meaningless void, and what matters is the struggle to find the good. And the relationships you build with people while you struggle. And in some ways you'll never find it, but the quest and the questors, and the people that you find, who are not necessarily your family, are the only thing that lends the journey meaning. I think that is his major theme. Marti Noxon
What makes Buffy especially dangerous to the First is that she doesn’t merely defeat evil, she redeems it.
Trivia notes: (1) Back to the beginning: “Welcome to the hellmouth.” Buffy’s greeting to Rona is, of course, the title of the very first episode. If you recall Buffy’s attitude in that episode, that will help, I think, in understanding the psychology of Potentials like Rona. (2) Andrew is “Episode 1 bored”, referring to The Phantom Menace. (3) Xander’s description of the Ubervamp as “the vampire time forgot” plays on the title of the movie The Land That Time Forgot. (4) Beljoxa seems to be a portmanteau word which means “good (bel) joke (joxa)” (think Joxer [Joker] from Xena). (5) Willow mentioned bringing a newbie “in from the cold”. That’s a reference to the novel (or movie) The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. (6) Andrew realized Buffy had a “license to kill”. That’s the title of a James Bond movie starring Timothy Dalton and produced by the Broccolis. Andrew said in Life Serial that he liked Dalton as Bond. (7) Andrew wanted to play the Kevin Bacon game, for which see the link. (8) Andrew’s references to the Justice League and the Imperium are to comic books. (9) Dawn asked how many Ubervamps were at the Geneva Convention, referring to the international conventions which define the laws of war. (10) Andrew’s plea for “deflector shields” is a Star Wars reference. So is Xander’s description of the Ubervamp as “snaggletooth”. (11) When Buffy tells the Ubervamp that she’s the thing that monsters have nightmares about, that’s a near quote of what she told the Ugly Man in Nightmares. (12) The “Thunderdome” scene is taken from the movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, as is Andrew’s quote from that movie, “Two men enter. One man leaves.”
Potential
Potential is a very important episode, though not really a favorite of mine. I suggested in my post on BotN that you should be asking yourself the question, what is a Potential, metaphorically? Andrew, of all people, tells us the answer here: “It's like—well, it's almost like this metaphor for womanhood, isn't it? The sort of flowering that happens when a girl realizes that she's part of a fertile heritage stretching back to Eve…”
So the Potentials are women, but they’re typical women before they’re empowered – think Buffy at Hemery High as we saw her in Becoming I. They show us all the faults of women, not as such, but in a condition of powerlessness. I see the Potentials as representing the less attractive aspects of womanhood precisely because they lack power. You’re supposed to find them pretty flawed – remember that Buffy described herself in Helpless, the obvious predecessor to Potential, this way: “Before I was the Slayer, I was... Well, I, I don't wanna say shallow, but... Let's say a certain person, who will remain nameless, we'll just call her Spordelia, looked like a classical philosopher next to me. Angel, if I'm not the Slayer, what do I do? What do I have to offer?”
Powerlessness creates incentives to behave in a child-like manner. There’s no point in behaving as an adult if you can’t, or aren’t allowed to, do much of anything. But there’s also the continuing metaphor of Slayer/adulthood that we’ve watched with Buffy for 7 years. The Potentials are potential adults, but they aren’t there yet.
> This leads naturally to wondering whether Buffy is preparing them for adulthood, and if she is, whether she’s going about it in the right way. There’s no doubt that she’s using some traditional methods, but she modifies them. For example, did Buffy re-enact the Cruciamentum with the Potentials? Not in my view. I see several important differences: there were 4 potentials, not Buffy all alone; they had weapons, whereas in the intended Cruciamentum Buffy would have had none; the vampire was ordinary, not Kralik; and she and Spike were just outside, presumably ready to intervene if necessary.
I’ll let you decide if her changes were good or bad; I think they’re good. Her speech to the Potentials, though, struck a number of viewers the wrong way, even if more in tone than in substance:
“BUFFY: You're all gonna die. But you knew that already. (paces in front of them) 'Cause that's the cool reward for being human. Big dessert at the end of the meal. Don't kid yourselves, you guys. This whole thing is all about death. (stands still) You think you're different 'cause you might be the next slayer? Death is what a slayer breathes, what a slayer dreams about when she sleeps. Death is what a slayer lives. My death could make you the next slayer. (walks back to retrieve her axe from the target) Oh, goody. Rapt attention. I love that so much. …
So when I kicked its ass, the whole Firsty circus decided to back off for a while. Good news? Means we probably don't have to worry about it pulling Spike's strings for a while. (stands still) Here's the half-empty. Time away means time to regroup. And part of that regrouping is coming back stronger than ever. The odds are against us. Time is against us. And some of us will die in this battle. Decide now that it's not going to be you. (walks closer to the girls) I know you're all tired, far away from home, anxious. But you're all special. Most people in this world have no idea why they're here or what they want to do. You do. You have a mission, a reason for being here. You're not here by chance. You're here because you are the chosen ones.”