Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Myth, Metaphor & Morality

by Field, Mark

  When did Buffy formally adopt this role? In BotN, when she gave the stirring speech at the end. And when did Giles show up? Yes, in BotN. What did Giles tell her in that episode? “I'm afraid it falls to you, Buffy. Sorry. I mean, we'll do what we can, but you're the only one who has the strength to protect these girls—and the world—against what's coming.” Then he said similar things during the course of the next several episodes, at least through Lies My Parents Told Me. I see Giles’s philosophy in that episode as one of the lies we’re told by our parents. So the metaphor holds: Buffy’s mistake in S7 is one of mind, and it’s Giles who is, in substantial part, the origin of that mistake.

  Ok, but there’s still Giles the character. I’ve made this point before, but Giles’s behavior seems to me very true to life. He has a “child” who has become an adult, but spent the past year making serious mistakes of judgment. She may seem to be on track now, but she’s faced with a huge challenge and he’s not confident that she can handle it on her own. The temptation to step in as a parent is overwhelming, as I can personally attest. Giles has so much invested in Buffy, and is so concerned because of what happened in S6, that he pushes too hard. This is why he seems so unsympathetic in the middle of the season.

  If I’m right that the problem in S7 is an overreliance on mind, then it stands to reason that Buffy’s heart and spirit will feel somewhat left out and uncertain about their role. I think this describes Willow and Xander pretty well.

  Willow’s case is obvious. As a character, she’s uncertain of her magical power for the very good reason that in S6 she abused it. Metaphorically, it’s important in S7 that Willow be unsure of herself, lacking the inner confidence that her power is for good and that she is worthy of it, because that’s how Buffy feels, as she told Webs in CWDP.

  Willow’s struggle to balance her power – the theme of Xander’s conversation with her in Help – appears repeatedly throughout the season. Sometimes she’s too cautious, at other times she goes overboard; that’s why her use of magic seems inconsistent, at one minute unable to do a locator spell, in the next bringing Buffy back from the Shadowmen. Buffy struggles in the same way with her own exercise of power. The parallel between the two friends is explicit in Get it Done, where Anya describes Buffy’s “everybody sucks but me speech” and Willow sucks power from Anya and Kennedy.

  I should note that Kennedy plays an important role in Willow’s progress precisely because she makes it clear that she is attracted to Willow the person rather than Willow the powerful witch (from whom she actually recoils after GiD). Willow needs that reassurance that she’s valued for herself, not for her magic. In my view, Spike plays a similar role for Buffy in Touched (and see trivia note 11).

  By sharing power rather than grabbing it (contrast Chosen with Get it Done), the spirit is purified. The white, clearly feminine magic which purifies Willow – more than a little bit orgasmically, it must be said – tells us metaphorically that Buffy’s spirit is now pure because her spirit reached out to others and shared with them. In Get it Done Willow had taken power from Anya and Kennedy. Here she opened the channel of power for others – a channel the Shadowmen had closed – without taking any for herself. I’ll stress this because I think it’s important: the Scythe did not give power to the Potentials. No, as I interpret the spell it unlocked power already there, power which had been stifled by the decision of the Shadowmen to limit that power to one girl in all the world. The Scythe was the catalyst for the spell, nicely connecting with the conversation between Anya and Willow in GiD about the need for a catalyst.

  I said in my post on End of Days that the Scythe was a symbol akin to Excalibur. It seemed to apply to Buffy in that context, but here we see that the symbolism reached much further, namely to everyone whose power was unlocked.

  In assessing Xander’s role, we need to consider the status of Buffy’s heart. She’s doubly conflicted. First she’s conflicted about the seeming requirements of Generalship. For example, I think there’s reason to doubt that she really would sacrifice Dawn to save the world, notwithstanding her statement to Giles, because her kiss of Dawn at the end of LMPTM suggests she herself has doubts. Second, she’s uncertain about her relationship with Spike. This is perfectly mirrored by Xander’s on again/off again hesitancy about Anya. Both Xander and Buffy must decide how to deal with a recovering demon – I set out my theory of Spike at some length in earlier posts, and Anya is in the same basic position – and they aren’t sure whether to commit or not.

  As a side note, I’ll suggest that since the two relationships are being paralleled both in story and in metaphor, your attitude towards one may affect your view of the other. Thus, if you believe Xander really did love Anya, it makes most sense to believe that Buffy really did love Spike. OTOH, if you doubt that Buffy loved Spike, that’s a good reason to doubt that Xander loved Anya. I should emphasize that I don’t think it’s absolutely essential to see the two relationships like this, but it’s suggestive.

  Since we’re speaking of Anya, some viewers were upset that Anya died. Given that her role vis-à-vis Xander was intended to parallel that of Buffy and Spike, it made sense for both Anya and Spike to die (and see trivia note 20). Note that she died doing something truly, nobly Selfless. Joss: “Andrew learning that the thing that he's sort of reviled for, making up stories, becomes the thing that he helps Xander with, becomes the thing that he actually is good at, giving her the epic death that she didn't actually get to have.”

  Back to Xander, it’s only after Buffy has her insight about her isolation in Touched that she can restore her heart and spirit to their rightful place. She starts with Xander in the kitchen scene in End of Days, committing her human half (Dawn) to his care. With her heart now able to influence her judgment, she then welcomes Giles (“I really do.”) and Willow (“This woman is more powerful than all of them.”) into her plan. Xander protects Dawn in the fight, Giles organizes the escape, and Willow unlocks the Slayer power. The whole Buffy, united in heart, mind, and spirit, fully deserves her smile at the end.

  BtVS began by reversing our expectations: instead of the blonde girl being the victim, she kicks the demon’s ass. The show stayed true to that theme even at the end – all these years Buffy and her friends have tried desperately to keep the Hellmouth closed, but at the end the secret was to open it themselves.

  Rahael (AtPO): “What I was thinking also was that in a meta way, Sunnydale exists because Buffy is there. Kept all to herself, her power simply kept her in Sunnydale, imprisoned. Sunnydale (and indeed, the show, BtVS) exists because she is the one girl in all the world. But when the power is shared, all through the world, Sunnydale collapses, and the world lies open for the Scoobies.”

  As the show ends, we see Buffy contemplating the possibilities of the open road. That was deliberate metaphor – she can choose, rather than be chosen, and the possibilities are limitless. When Dawn asks Buffy “what are we going to do now?”, she’s talking to all of us. We are Buffy.

  Trivia notes: (1) Angel’s “not remotely reliable” source for the information on the First came from the AtS episode Home. (2) Angel’s description of the amulet as having cleansing power like “possibly Scrubbing Bubbles” refers to a commercial cleaning product. (3) Buffy asked Angel if he was “going to to go all Dawson on me”, referring to the main character of the TV show Dawson’s Creek. (4) Buffy’s statement that she’s “not done baking” references FE/Warren in Lessons: “She's a girl. Sugar and spice and everything...useless unless you're baking.” (5) Xander’s “party in my eye socket” line plays off a line from The Simpson’s episode Homer at the Bat. (6) I take Spike’s dream – “I’m drowning in footwear” – as a reference to the Shanshu prophecy. Spike is barefoot; that is, he’s sans shoes. (7) We first heard “Into every generation, a slayer is born. One girl in all the world. She alone will have the strength and skill to …” in Welcome to the Hellmouth. (8) Buffy’s decision to open the Hellmouth makes her speech in BOTN prophetic: “I'm standing on the
mouth of hell, and it is gonna swallow me whole. And it'll choke on me. We're not ready? They're not ready. They think we're gonna wait for the end to come, like we always do. I'm done waiting. They want an apocalypse? Oh, we'll give 'em one.” (9) Faith’s claim to Wood that she has “mad skills” is American slang meaning she’s great at, uh, it. (10) For Trogdor the Burninator, see the link. (11) Joss said of the scene where Buffy and Spike stand facing each other in the basement that “to me it's almost the most important shot in the show because it shows the mystery of their relationship and that's one where I wanted the audience to fill in the blank. I wanted whatever you want to have happened to have happened. If people believe that on their last night together they made love great; if people believe that on their last night together they talked all night, if people believe they had a fight, great. Whatever it is, it's up to the viewer; the viewer has earned that.” When I watched Chosen the first time, I assumed they had sex, and that’s still how I interpret the scene. (12) Xander’s proposal of miniature golf references several previous episodes, notably When She Was Bad: “Hey, I got a plan: how 'bout miniature golf.” (13) Buffy’s shoe craving may reference Spike’s dream or her own shoe shopping noted by Hank in WSWB. (14) As the core 4 part from each other in the hall, they do so in reverse order of their introduction to Buffy in WTTH. (15) Giles’s statement – “The earth is definitely doomed” – echoes his concluding line in The Harvest. (16) Buffy, Faith, and the Potentials opened the Hellmouth by using Andrew’s knife from Storyteller. (17) The scene of all the Turok-han, like the one in Get it Done, is an homage to the Peter Jackson movie version of Lord of the Rings. (18) Buffy has always won by changing the rules or finding a creative solution. Her insight to empower the Potentials reminds me of Captain Kirk’s response to the Kobayashi Maru. (19) Note the pun when Buffy tells the First to “get out of my face”. In American slang, that means to get away from me, to stop challenging me. Here it also means “stop taking my form”. (20) Emma Caulfield asked Joss to kill off Anya. She’d been having contract disputes with the network and didn’t want to return. Joss intended someone to die, and this made the decision easy. D’Hoffryn may have predicted Anya’s death with his final words in Selfless: “ANYA You should've killed me. D'HOFFRYN Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. From beneath you, it devours. Be patient. All good things in time.” Fittingly, Anya’s last word was “bunnies”. (21) Spike’s “school’s out for bloody summer” comes from the Alice Cooper song “School’s Out”. (22) When Buffy’s and Spike’s hands burst into flame, I see that as a reference to the opening lines of “Walk Through the Fire”: “I touch the fire and it freezes me/I look into it and it’s black./Why can’t I feel?/My skin should crack and peel./I want the fire back.” (23) Spike triumphed with his soul glowing. One might say effulgent. (24) Buffy’s “I love you” fulfills Cassie’s prophecy to Spike in Help (“She’ll tell you”). (25) Since Spike was the one who created the huge crater, having the “Welcome to Sunnydale” sign fall over is a neat reference back to School Hard and Lover’s Walk. In both episodes, he drove into Sunnydale and knocked over the sign with his car. (26) Giles mentioned the existence of another Hellmouth in Cleveland, which was first noted in The Wish. (27) The last word we hear Buffy say is “Spike”. (28) Chosen is the 100th episode since the First Evil was introduced in Episode 44, Amends. Just as Episode 100, The Gift, completed Buffy’s journey in the sense of bringing her to adulthood, so Chosen did in the sense of eliminating the loneliness of that journey.