by Sanguine

Small disclaimer: there is some philosophizing below concerning religious matters. This is not meant to offend anyone, nor does it reflect my actual views on religion. It is simply an analysis of this element in this particular (fantasy) television show J

First, I loved last night’s episode. Michelle Trachtenberg did a fabulous job. What a talented young actress! Major, major kudos to her. Also kudos to Steven S. DeKnight (a strangely appropriate writer for a Knights of Byzantium episode!) for writing believable dialogue for each character. The only one that seemed a bit "off" was Xander . . . but more on that later.

Again, the issue of religion (and the concomitant issue of the discernment between good and evil) reared its ugly head in this episode. In one of the opening sequences of the show, we see the Knights of Byzantium chanting to God. This is notable, as it is one of the few times that the Christian God has made an appearance in name or deed in the Buffyverse. Jinx then appears and says, "Do you really think He’s going to help you? I fear your faith is sorely misplaced." The Knight thrusts a sword at him and replies, "So we test your faith now." At that moment Glory intercedes. Apparently she takes a more "hands on" approach than the Christian God to whom the Knights appeal. That the Knights are religious zealots is further established in a later scene between Glory and one of the Knights. She asks, "What is it with you religious types?" Then of course she sucks his brain, but his religiosity has been clearly set forth as his driving motivation. The Knights are on a Holy Crusade to destroy the key. So the key must be evil, no?

Later, at the Magic Shop Buffy and the Scoobies are discussing Glory. Giles reveals that she sucks people’s sanity in order to maintain her own. Tara responds, "At least vampires just kill you." Again, Tara becomes the voice that forces them to face the issue of moral relativism (remember in Checkpoint she was the one that asked about the Watcher’s Council being "good"). Glory is certainly a worse threat than a mere vampire. Vampires are easily contained. They may be staked or decapitated or burned. This season we have been forced to question how bad vampires actually are. But Glory definitely seems to be unambiguously "bad" She’s a goddess from the demon dimension—a brain-sucking goddess at that. And Buffy has no idea how to stop her or destroy her. Perhaps Glory really is the Big Bad for this season. She is definitely becoming more interesting with each passing episode.

Another interesting scene took place in the hospital. Dawn, being the intelligent 14-year- old that she kind of is, tries to find out more information. She heads straight for the psych ward. There, she finds one of the Knights of Byzantium, who praises God and says he must kill her. How sweet. Then she finds Ben. Ben gives her hot cocoa sans marshmallows and she spills her guts about her keydom. Ben is genuinely concerned and becomes panicked as he realizes that Glory is coming. Then, the big surprise! He actually turns into Glory. This morph maneuver raises all kinds of questions about the nature of Ben and Glory (not to be confused with Ben and Jerry, the makers of fine ice cream products). Can Glory simply take Ben’s place? Apparently so, and apparently she’s done it before, as she keeps her dress in his locker. Can Glory and Ben be at the same place at the same time? Perhaps not. Maybe that’s why Glory can’t "lay a finger" on Ben. She can’t hurt him because she can’t ever be in the same place as him. Also, the information that Giles was able to glean from the Council stated that there were three gods that ruled over the demon dimension. Glory, Ben?, and ???? Could it be Dawn? More questions arose from this little morph-out. Does Dawn not remember what happened? Right after it occurred, she asked Glory, "You’re Ben?" But when she tries to tell Buffy she mysteriously forgets (or just doesn’t tell her). This was deliciously ambiguous moment, and I look forward to seeing how much Dawn actually knows.

Returning to the question of good and evil. Dawn asks Glory if she is evil. Glory replies, "Totally! Well, no, not really. It depends on your point of view." I would argue that in the Buffyverse this season who is evil and who is not definitely does depend on your point of view. Obviously Glory would not view the key as evil, because it unlocks something (presumably something horrible) that she wants. The Knights of Byzantium obviously consider the key to be evil and they are on a mission from God to destroy it. What will the Scoobies think when they discover the key’s true nature? Will they think it is evil? Will they have to destroy it, even though it is currently taking the shape of Buffy’s sweet and endearing 14-year-old sister? A moral conundrum. I love it.

Now we come to another creature who is "totally evil" or not, depending on your point of view: Spike (this is my review, so we all knew it had to end up here sooner or later!) Buffy and Spike’s relationship seems to have taken an inexplicable step forward in the past two episodes, and I’m not quite sure why. One answer obvious answer is that it’s sweeps, James Marsters is currently one of the most popular actors on the show, and they wanted to write a Valentine’s Day episode for Spike and Buffy next week. I’m a bit disappointed that they’re rushing this story arc for the sake of ratings, but hey, I’m willing to go along for the ride. The second answer has to do with the plot and involves a bit of tortured logic. Why would Buffy go to Spike for help in last week’s episode and this week’s episode? The only reason I can think of is that somewhere deep down she knows he loves her, and therefore she is willing to trust him (even trust him with the very important key). Why do I think the step forward in their relationship is somewhat illogical? Well, in Fool for Love he didn’t try to kill her and even comforted her, but she was still mean to him in subsequent episodes. In Triangle she called him disgusting when he tried to help her. But all of a sudden in Checkpoint she is willing to send her mother and sister to him for protection. Perhaps she realized in Triangle that he was trying to help her and she’s starting to put 2+2 together and get 4. It’s a pretty quick transition though from hating him to trusting him and asking him for assistance.

In spite of my carping, I am enjoying what the writers are doing with Spike’s moral development. In Blood Ties Spike looked after Dawn, even though Buffy wasn’t around to see his noble (well OK, partially noble as he did steal something from the Magic Box) actions. He seems to genuinely care for Dawn. Does anyone else think William had a little sister? He tells Buffy the truth without much posturing (he was trying to protect Dawn) and as usual is very insightful about her hostility towards him (that playing "kick the Spike" makes her feel better). In return, Buffy asks for his help to find her and he is useful, showing remarkable understanding about Dawn’s psyche. He also comforts Buffy in a genuine (even selfless) fashion. Like the end of Fool for Love we see a glimmer of William surfacing, the "good man" he used to be. Buffy seems to accept his words and even appreciate them, taking their relationship (or I might even dare to call it a friendship) to another level. Did anyone else wonder if Glory, partially omnipotent goddess that she is, might be picking up on something when she called Spike Buffy’s boyfriend?

In brief, there were other elements in this episode that I really liked: Michelle’s acting (especially the scene where she cut herself—very powerful), Buffy’s demonstration of maturity as she admitted that she had been wrong (she did the mea culpa to both the Scoobies and to Spike!!), the conversation between Buffy and Joyce about Dawn (a conversation between two adults), Giles comment about already having the dress (too funny), Xander whacking Glory with the crowbar (go Xander!), the development of Ben and Glory into interesting characters, the establishment of the Knights of Byzantium as religious crusaders, and finally the mutual respect that Buffy and Spike exhibited towards each other.

I didn’t like Xander’s dwelling on Dawn having a crush on him (this was an awkward, almost creepy descent into buttmonkeydom for the Xand-man), the acceleration of intimacy in the relationship between Buffy and Spike for the purposes of sweeps (you can tell I’m ambivalent about this one, as it shows up in both the good & the bad column!), Joyce asking if the key is "dangerous" (she sounded a little too harsh here), and all the Scooby gang acting weird around Dawn. You’d think they would have learned a thing or two about keeping secrets, especially important secrets, after all these years.

Loved the episode, and if I had to assign a point value, I’d give it 9/10.

A quick note about the Crush promo: did anyone notice that Spike seems to be biting a woman and then there’s another shot of him with blood dripping from his fangs? In another scene he seems to be describing the effect of the chip (searing pain). I wonder if Spike gets the chip out next week? Or perhaps it’s just stock footage of him chomping and gnoshing. Anyone know?