Reviewed by Sanguine

As my little dialogue suggests, I really enjoyed David Fury's episode, Gone. It was everything a good BTVS episode should be: funny, exciting, and poignant. Over the last two seasons Buffy has become increasingly serialized, and it was refreshing to have a problem (Buffy's invisibility) that was solvable within the scope of a one hour episode. Another thing harkened back to the Good Old Days of Seasons 1-3; Xander and Willow actually had something substantial to do. During Seasons 4 and 5 the old Scoobs had to battle a slew of new regulars (Anya, Spike, Oz, and the most egregious time-sucker of all, Riley) for airtime. It was nice to see such a balanced episode that worked well as a stand alone and forwarded the primary story arcs.

The episode opens with Buffy packing up Willow's magic paraphernalia. The magic=drugs conceit is gently mocked (and mocked it should be) as Buffy compares a candle to a bong. Snicker, snicker. And later in the episode, the Social Services lady finds a bag of Willow's "magic weed." Hopefully Mutant Enemy realizes how silly Willow's physical addiction to magic is (complete with tremors and night sweats), and such jokes are meant to suggest that something more meaningful is going on. Let's hope that Willow's real problemsÑher profound insecurity, her identity crisisÑwill be addressed in a future episode. This could be an interesting storyline (a Scooby's seduction by the promise of absolute power), and it would significantly contribute to the continued graying of the Buffyverse.

Willow is not the only resident of the house on Revello Drive resisting temptation. As Buffy packs up Willow's possessions she comes across Spike's Zippo. Immediately, she flashes back to the house-destroying, mind-blowing sex they shared. But no! The virtuous Slayer must resist his evil vampiric lure, and she tosses the lighter in the box with Willow's addictive substances. Strangely, the lighter later makes its way out of the box into Buffy's front trouser pocket. Adding to the mystery, she resists returning it to its rightful owner; she lies to Spike, telling him she hasn't seen it. Is Buffy the sentimental type, carrying a memento of her conquest? Or has she taken up smoking? :-p

The next morning Temptation comes to call, in the shape of a smoking (and I'm not talking cigarettes here) Spike. Spike, again forgetting that vampires + sunlight=badness, decides to drop in on the Summers' household. Sure, he says he's there to pick up his lighter, but we know why he's really there (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Now the chip no longer works on Buffy, he just can't wait to kill her! Time to make the Slayer's neck his chalice and drink deep! Nah. Spike would rather compliment Buffy on her hair and coo endearments: "So, um, what should I call you then? Pet? Sweetheart? My little Goldilocks? You know I love this hair . . ." Obviously Spike didn't turn evil after Slayer!Sex, although I'm starting to wonder about Buffy. Anyway, her little tete a tete with the Bleached One is interrupted by Xander, who has quite clearly taken leave of his senses. Cursed by a "can I be blind too?" spell, he seems oblivious to the fact that Spike's hand is on Buffy's ass. At two points in the episode, here and when he interrupts Spike's "workout" in the crypt, the poor Xand-man simply cannot process the visual evidence before him. According to Xander, Buffy hates Spike. Vampires are EVIL. Buffy is the Slayer. Ergo, Buffy cannot be having sex with Spike, even though there were some awfully strange noises coming from an invisible-type person and Spike's ear was moving, kind of like someone invisible was kissing him, and Buffy's invisible, and . . . No. Xander just doesn't want to go there. He might have a nervous breakdown.

Xander has shown up at this most inopportune moment to take a rather surly Dawn to school (apparently, she's blaming Buffy for not protecting her against Dark!Willow). As they are about to leave, they are met at the door by the secretary from L.A. Law. What's she doing in Sunnydale? Oh, she's not actually the secretary from L.A. Law anymore! She's Doris Kroger, social worker extraordinaire, and she's come to evaluate Buffy's parenting skills (and, in my opinion, they need evaluating). Coming back from Heaven is bound to give any girl a major case of the wiggins, so I'm willing to cut Buffy a bit a slack. But Buffy should have disciplined Dawn for the Halloween disaster (although Buffy doesn't really have a leg to stand on where cavorting with vamps is concerned). Buffy also never addressed Dawn's light-fingered-ness (as a result of the Sweet debacle, Buffy knows that Dawn "accidentally" took the pendant from the Magic Box). In this episode Dawn sneaks home late, after Buffy expressly told her to "come right home after school." Of course, no one was there to check up on her, and even though Buffy sees Dawn doing the sneaking, she is too elated by her invisibility to care. "Does anyone really notice?" indeed. Dawn feels ignored and unloved. She needs attention from her sister, but Buffy is "too wrapped up in [her] own dumb life to notice." So, I kind of understand why Social Services Lady thinks Buffy is an unfit parent.

Although Buffy completely forgot about the appointment with Social Services, she desperately tries to act the part of a concerned and responsible guardian. Her efforts are undermined by Ms. Kroger's discovery of Willow's magic weed and her lounging, bleach-blond "boyfriend" who wants to finish their "chat." To Spike's credit, when he realises the gravity of Buffy's position he tries to salvage the situation: "Buffy's a great mum. Like when Dawn was hanging out too much in my crypt, she put a right stop to it." Points for effort, major deductions for execution. Needless to say, this comment doesn't inspire confidence, and Ms. Kroger places Buffy on "immediate probation." Spike tries to play the role of supportive "boyfriend," but Buffy wants none of it. She doesn't want him to be nice. That complicates things too much.

Buffy's chances for redemption don't look good in Gone. Her altercation with Spike and Ms. Kroger drives her to chop off her hair in a fit of pique: Goldilocks is no more (a sign of the evil to come!! bwahahaha) But Buffy's descent into moral turpitude really begins when the Troika shoot her with Warren's Invisibility Ray. Freed from society's rules, she torments a "fashion victim" in a studded cap, steals a parking cop's golf cart, and zips off to pay a visit to Ms. Kroger. She then causes a cow mug to dance before Ms. Kroger's eyes, telling her to "kill, Doris, kill!" Is there no end to Buffy's wickedness? While Ms. Kroger is in the bathroom, recovering from the shock of the killer cow mug incident, Buffy alters Dawn's case file. Instead of a truthful assessment of Buffy's parenting skills, Ms. Kroger's supervisor now sees, "All work and no play makes Doris a dull girl," written again and again (apparently Buffy has read the Shining, or at least has seen the movie with Jack Nicholson). In short, Buffy ruins Ms. Kroger's career, but at least she gets to keep custody of Dawn. Evil, I tell you. Pure evil!

Then she pays a visit to her erstwhile lover, Spike. "I told you; stop trying to see me," she says as she throws him against the wall. It's more comfortable for Buffy if Spike doesn't "see" her; she doesn't want him to get too close. If she really were to let him in, if she allowed him to really "see" her, she might get hurt. In spite of the violence (or perhaps because of it) sex ensues. But I'm not interested in analysing Spike's exercises, or whatever crazy euphemism you want to use to describe the Spike/Slayer sexcapades. What interests me is their post-coital conversation. Spike is a bit miffed by the close call with Xander: "That was bloody stupid!" he chastises Buffy. Buffy cruelly retorts, "What? Ashamed to be seen with me?" Pot? Kettle? Black! Of course, Spike has no problem being seen with Buffy. It's Buffy who's ashamed, feeling guilty about their relationship. She's fine using Spike for sex as long as he can stay her dirty little secret. As Spike says, "the only reason you're here is that you're not here." Buffy reacts defensively, referring to the destructive and hurtful conversation they had before their first sexual encounter: "As usual there's something wrong with Buffy. She came back all wrong." Buffy's right. There is something wrong with her. She's lying to her friends. She's ignoring her sister. And she's using a person for sex, but is unwilling to treat him with a modicum of decency or respect (and I would argue he has earned the right to be treated with respect, after enduring torture, saving Buffy's life, the life of her sister, and the lives of the Scoobies). Spike, ever perceptive, recognises the real issue. By being invisible, Buffy can feel free again. As non-corporeal Buffy she can float above her existence, never really touching the fire or letting it burn her. As Buffy confirms, she is "free of rules and reports, free of this life." "Free of life?" Spike replies. "Got another name for that. Dead." Spike doesn't want a dead Buffy: "[she] has to go on living / so one of [them] is living". He doesn't just want sex. He wants the whole enchilada. And invisible, "free from life" Buffy doesn't really do it for him. He decides to throw her out, and he eventually does, after being momentarily distracted by Buffy's, ahem, "cheating."

So, is Spike the injured party here? Is Buffy wrong for treating him like a thing, only existing for her own sexual pleasure? You betcha. Her rant after Spike throws her out sends a clear message to the audience. After wondering if she's in Bizarro World, she begins to mock Spike (in a very bad English accent): "'We're alike, you and me. Birds of a bloody feather.' Oh he's just so--" Her speech is interrupted as she plows into a small crowd of people. Angrily she yells, "Hey, I'm walking here!" even though it's clearly her fault. She then continues her sentence about Spike: " . . . insensitive. That's what he is." Who's really insensitive here? Spike's no angel but Buffy, the Invisi-Buffy who barges through crowds without so much as an "excuse me," the Buffy who constantly rejects her shagbuddy's attempts at emotional intimacy: she's not exactly radiating sensitivity herself. In spite of her annoyance with Spike, he was right for indicting her behaviour. Buffy needs to embrace life again and emotionally connect with those around her (as Dawn tells her, "I can't talk to you like this! I can't see you"). By the end of this week's episode, Buffy seems to have reached some sort of epiphany, admitting to Willow that she no longer wants to die. Definite progress! Hopefully by the next episode we'll see a kinder, gentler Buffy. Yeah, right.

A few final thoughts: I love the fact that the Big Bad this season will undoubtedly be human. It's refreshing to see BTVS move from the black-and-white perceptions of adolescence into the moral grayness of adulthood. As this week's episode demonstrates, demons can behave compassionately, Slayers can behave insensitively, and humans can be downright evil. The geek Troika may seem fairly harmless, but one of their crew revealed his true colours. Warren lied to his friends and was willing to kill the Slayer without compunction. If it hadn't been for Willow's creepily eager fascination with the schematics of his Invisibility Ray, Buffy would have been dead. Again.