On Peter and Wolf, chomping Ghora demons, Buffy and Angel smoochies, and SATAN!

Episode 5.17

 

Reviewed by Sanguine

"But you have a hand. A paid hand. A hand that isn’t the hand of illegal child labour."

Anya in "Forever"

I just had to start my review with that juicy little quote. Did I mention I like Anya? Anyway, as finals’ week approaches on many U.S. campuses of higher learning, I’ve decided to furnish portions of this review with multiple-choice interpretations. Choose your own adventure, if you will. Select the interpretation you like best. I promise it will be painless. It might even be fun!

This episode deals with the aftermath of Joyce’s death. The pain is not glossed over. Like "The Body" certain moments were overwhelmingly tense. For example, at the very beginning of the episode, writer-director Marti Noxon does a wonderful job heightening the tension as eerie music provides a haunting backdrop to Buffy’s selection of coffin. Given the music, one almost expects a vampire to jump out of one! Funerals are a big business and funeral directors sometimes prey on their customers’ grief to make greater profits. I don’t know if the funeral director in Sunnydale engages in this sort of behaviour, but he seemed rather smarmy when he complimented Buffy on her choice for the "deceased." The "deceased". It sounds so generic, so impassive, doesn’t it? But Joyce is no longer there, and neither Buffy nor Dawn know where she has gone. They just know they are left with a shell, a soulless Body that must be buried, committed to the cold ground.

Buffy reacts to her mother’s death by going into work mode (as the eldest child I could definitely see some of my behaviour in Buffy’s reaction). "I can’t control my mother’s death, but I can control the funeral. I can order white flowers. I can put a line in the program that states she didn’t want a wake. I can call my bastard father again to tell him that his ex-wife, our mother is gone." Details. Things that need to be done. Thankfully her old lover, Angel has somehow heard the news, and he shows up just in time to comfort Buffy. I found their scenes to be touching and I’m sure if you are a diehard B/A shipper you loved these scenes. However, I could not forget how much Angel’s life has changed in L.A. He has done many horrible things (shutting the lawyers in with Darla and Dru, sleeping with Darla and risking soul loss, firing Wes, Cordy, and Gunn). Could Buffy forgive him if she knew? Would she have kissed him? Even Buffy acknowledges that they cannot really be together; it is a classic tale of two star-crossed lovers, forever doomed to be apart because they’re on separate shows or possibly next year on separate networks.

The other Scoobies deal with their grief in different ways. Xander and Anya have a poignant post-coital moment, which, if we believe the spoilers, might foreshadow their impending nuptials. Anya, contemplating Joyce’s death, has discovered the true meaning of sex: "Sex is about making life." Xander gets a panicked look on his face and responds: "Right! When people are much older and way richer and far less stupid." Anya acknowledges that it’s not the right time, but they <B>could</B> do it; it’s a possibility.

Giles copes with his grief in solitude, sitting by himself in a darkened house, nursing a large drink. He puts on the song, "Tales of Brave Ulysses" that he and Joyce had listened to in "Band Candy."* In listening, he is not only remembering happier times (much happier times) with Joyce, but perhaps also is reflecting upon his lost youth. The song’s title--Ulysses was a mythological figure who spent a long time finding his way home after the Trojan Wars--also implies that Giles’ might be thinking about life as an aimless journey, but one with purpose as it does eventually lead "home."

Willow begins a journal. Time passes so quickly that she wants to savour every moment, every bagel, every thing that she does with Tara. Sometimes facing death makes us cherish life.

Spike has the most surprising reaction of all to Joyce’s death. Spike, as we all know, did not cover himself in glory in "Crush" or "I Was Made to Love You." He hit rock bottom, chaining Buffy up, and, when she refused to return his affections, ordering a BuffyBot to shag. Boy, is this one desperate (and lonely) bloke. In "Forever" Spike regains some of his lost dignity and seems to be clawing his way out of the moral pit into which he had flung himself. Marti Noxon seems to make clear on more than one occasion that Spike <B>is</B> capable of selfless, non-Buffy-motivated behaviour (although I'm not sure why they hammered this point home repeatedly--perhaps Spike does have a higher purpose after all). As Xander and Willow leave Buffy’s house they see Spike, clasping a bouquet of handpicked wildflowers, tied together by twine. Spike did not apparently steal these blooms from the corner store where his double was playing dominoes (but more on that later). Xander, who is concerned for his grieving friend, is not pleased to see the vampire. "You have got to be kidding," he sneers.

"I’m not going in," Spike says flatly.

"You’re not leaving those. You actually think you’re gonna score points with Buffy this way?"

"This isn’t about Buffy."

"Bull. We’re all hip to your doomed obsession."

"They’re for Joyce." Now Spike is getting a bit angry as he emphasises the last word and moves into Xander’s personal space.

"Like you care about her."

The two men are toe to toe and Willow feels as if she must intervene. Of course they ignore her.

"Care? Joyce was the only one of the lot of you that I could stand."

"And she’s the only one with a daughter you wanted to shag. I’m touched." (Well, Xander, technically you wanted to shag her too a few years ago. But you expressed your passion in a far more acceptable way than a certain peroxided blonde did).

"I liked the lady. Understand monkey boy? She was decent. She didn’t put on airs. Always had a nice cuppa for me. And she never treated me like a freak." We see tears glistening in Spike’s eyes at this point. Could he be serious? And how many times did he have a "cuppa" with Joyce? I would have liked to have seen more of that!!

"Her mistake," Xander spits back.

"Think what you want." Spike throws the flowers to the ground.

"Unbelievable. Guy thinks he can put on a big show and con Buffy into being his sex monkey."

Willow picks up the flowers and notices something. "Xander. He didn’t leave a card."

Precisely Willow. If Spike really had wanted to score points with Buffy, then he would have left a card. Willow and Xander’s facial expressions demonstrate that they have learned something new about Spike. Perhaps he is capable of forming genuine (non-sexual) attachments to people. Perhaps he is capable of caring. Perhaps a soulless vampire is a more complex creature than they had originally believed. On the other hand, this scene may be read in many different ways. Pick the one you like best:

  1. Spike waited until he saw Xander and Willow leave the house and then he made his move in the hopes that they would tell Buffy what a caring vamp he was.
  2. Spike has been replaced by a good twin and his evil side has let his hair go dark and is playing dominoes with Doc at the corner store.
  3. Marti Noxon loves sappiness and she can’t write Evil-Spike.
  4. They want to reconcile Spike with the Scooby Gang so future plotlines, in which he is pivotal, will make sense.
  5. They are violating the show’s canon because Spike is a popular character. Soulless vampires are evil. End of story.
  6. Spike is on the long and winding road to redemption baby! He may falter next week with the BuffyBot, but he’ll come out lookin’ a nice shade of gray by the end of the season.
  7. None of the above. Sanguine, what are you thinking?

Dawn reacts to her mother’s death by feeling deserted and becoming angry. At the end of the episode Dawn confronts Buffy about her lack of emotional response, accusing her of pushing her away. Indeed, that is often Buffy’s reaction when things go badly. She either runs away (end of Season 2) or shuts down, cutting people off (like when her mother was sick). She tries to do everything by herself, even though, as Dawn and Angel both point out, she has people to help and support her. Dawn, however, feels she has no one. She needs Joyce back so she won’t feel like such a freak, so she won’t feel so alone. "I need her. I don’t care if she . . . I’m not like you Buffy. I don’t have anybody." Dawn feels so desperate that she makes a very serious miscalculation. She decides to toy with the forces of life and death and bring her mother back from the grave. That is denial in its most profound form. She is refusing to believe in the permanence of her mother’s death.

After finding out from Willow and Tara that resurrection is possible, she steals one of their books (that Willow magically points out to her) and heads the Magic Store where she steals some additional supplies. With determination, Dawn heads to the graveyard. She begins a ritual, but is interrupted by . . . a reanimated corpse. Hey, it’s Spike!

"I hope it’s just dirt you’re after. Spell calls for anything more than that, you’re into zombie territory."

Spike is not impressed with Dawn’s plan to raise her mother from the dead, but perhaps figuring she’s going to try it anyway, he figures he might as well help her get it right.

Dawn, like many viewers of the show, is suspicious of Spike’s motivations for helping her.

"Spike, I’m not stupid. You’re like stalking my sister. You’d do anything to get in good with her." A little sis’s worst nightmare: you like my older sister better!

"Buffy never hears about this, OK? Found out what I was doing she’d drive a redwood through my chest." Well, Spike does have a point there. If Buffy found out, she would probably kill him, and it wouldn’t be unjustified from her perspective.

Dawn then asks the most important question: "Then if you don’t want credit, why are you helping me?"

Spike looks almost embarrassed. "I just don’t like to see Summers' women take it so hard on the chin is all." Then in typical morally-ambiguous-Spike fashion, he recovers from his moment of emotional vulnerability and makes a pro-forma threat to kill Dawn if she tattles. A rueful Dawn agrees to his ultimatum.

This exchange is also open to multivalent interpretations:

  1. Spike really does care about Dawn and Buffy and figures that he might be able to bring their mother back unscathed and unzombie like.
  2. Spike doesn’t see anything wrong with a reanimated corpse, being one himself.
  3. Spike is a rat bastard who is only doing this to re-establish an alliance with Dawn. Don’t worry. He’ll betray her. Vampires are incapable of being loyal or honest.
  4. Marti Noxon has really lost it here and they are ruining a perfectly good bad guy.
  5. None of the above. Sanguine, did you even watch the same episode as I did?

Spike (who I think does genuinely care about Dawn but has chosen a misguided way of showing it) calls upon Doc (Joel Grey--most excellent casting!), a powerful wizard. Doc greets Spike and Dawn with a strange statement. He looks at Spike and claims he’s seen him before. The hair’s a different colour and Spike’s well . . . a vampire . . . but they look the same. Apparently the other bloke is "big into dominoes." Sounds suspiciously William-esque. I wonder if one of William’s descendents, Spike’s "good" doppelganger is wandering around town. Either that, or Doc is being symbolic. He sees William’s soul trapped somewhere, whiling away the hours playing parlour games. Who knows? I hope they do something with this cryptic remark in a future episode. Doc then begins humming Peter’s theme from Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and we see something snakelike hanging from his robe. It’s interesting that he chooses to hum Peter’s theme, and not the Grandfather’s or the duck’s or the cat’s. It’s been a while since I’ve heard the piece, but I believe Peter’s theme symbolises the carefree youth skipping through the forest. Perhaps Dawn is skipping through the proverbial forest (into the woods) where she will find the Big Bad Wolf (Doc? Glory?). Doc informs Dawn and Spike that they must procure an egg from a Ghora demon, who is conveniently nesting on the Hellmouth. My dark suspicions about Doc were confirmed when he clasped Dawn’s hand at the end of their scene. We see that his eyes are pitch black . . . pure evil. Considering the snake reference, I almost wondered if Dawn was facing Satan himself. That certainly would be a Big Bad. In any case, this does not bode well.

Dawn and Spike descend into the sewers to find the nest of the Ghora, the demon that restores life to humans. They find her, guarding her eggs. A little distraction is order, which Spike happily provides. Little Bit (aka Dawn) grabs an egg and they dash out, but she unfortunately has a case of the clumsies and drops it. Spike's only weapon is lodged in the Ghora's neck, but Dawn rushes back in, against Spike's advice. He can't let her die, so he runs back as well, throwing stones and finally getting his weapon back. Dawn gets the eggs and runs away unscathed, but Spike wasn't so lucky. The Ghora demon chomped on his side a bit. Ouch! That must have hurt! What effect might the saliva of the Ghora demon have upon the human phantom of Spike? Hmmmm. Food for thought.

Anyhow, depending on your perspective, you could have thought this scene demonstrated:

  1. Spike's love of bloodshed and mayhem. He looked so happy fighting that demon, bless him!
  2. Spike really cares about Dawn and didn’t want her to get hurt. That's why he protected her and put his own life in danger.
  3. Spike is bluffing. He is biding his time, establishing trust with Dawn and then he's going to spit in her face when she's most vulnerable. Hello. Evil? Soulless? Ring bells?
  4. Again Marti Noxon is being irrational, tampering with the canon so that her episode will pack the most emotional wallop.
  5. A & B. "Spike likes violence / Spike likes Dawn" (to be sung to the tune of "Java Jive")
  6. None of the above. Sanguine, what crack are you smoking?

Now Dawn has all her supplies, she can do the spell. But is that wise? She has been warned by Spike, Doc, and the witches that resurrection spells do not always work. Dawn throws caution and common sense to the wind and does manage to complete the spell. Her mother (or at least the empty shell of her mother) knocks at the door. Buffy--an irrationally hopeful Buffy--runs towards the door. "Mommy!" At that moment, Dawn tears up the image of Joyce, breaking the spell. Humans ultimately do not have the power over life and death. "Forever" teaches us that we must accept with grace and dignity the fragility of our own existence.

*Thanks to Jerry from BAPS for this detail.

 

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