Reviewed by Sanguine
In my opinion, "The Killer in Me" is the best BTVS episode written by Drew Z. Greenberg. Of course, that may not be saying much. Fans have constantly accused poor Drew of being the weakest writer on staff. As we have all learned over the years, a Mutant Enemy writer doesn't choose his or her subject. If (s)he's told that (s)he has to write an episode in which the gang gets trapped in the Casa Summers and nothing much happens, (s)he has to suck it up. A Mutant Enemy writer writes dialogue, some of which is inevitably changed by either Joss or Marti. Although I didn't detect the Jossian touch in this episode (there were too many clunky, implausible moments that slipped through), the basic plot of "The Killer in Me" was intriguing and Greenberg did a fine job.
"The Killer in Me" did not suffer from a lack of plot, as did previous episodes like "Showtime" and "Potential." Instead, it suffered from a surfeit of ideas. Giles, Willow, and Spike all have killers inside them. Giles may actually be the First; suspiciously he hasn't touched anything or anyone since he arrived in Sunnydale. Willow? Killer. And Spike? Much carnage to his name.
The Giles storyline was, by far, the weakest of the three. After setting up the possibility that Giles Is Evil, the threat is mitigated in a story that took approximately seven minutes total screen time. We see Giles ask Dawn to take Vi a file (EVIL!). We learn that Giles can't drive, ostensibly because he hasn't renewed his California Driver's License (EVIL!) We see Giles looking malevolent, sitting in front of a campfire (EVIL! EVIL!) But when the Scoobs find him and touch him, it's really Giles, even though this Giles talks funny, making an off-colour remark about touching girls. (EVIL!?!)
Though Giles isn't the First, we shouldn't forget that he still has a killer inside. He killed Ben (albeit for a good cause) and we have no idea what Ripper really got up to in the bad old days. Plus, he must have killed assorted Bringers to survive with his head still attached. Giles knows violence. He's been up close and personal with it. He knows what it is to kill. In fact, all the Scoobies know what it is to take a life or an unlife. It's part of the deal, fighting the big evil.
Speaking of the former big evil . . . yes, it's your friend and mine, the Spikester. Obviously, Spike has a killer inside him, the demon that coexists with his soul and still craves blood. But now he has another kind of killer inhabiting his body. Yup, the chip is misfiring! Death--the final kind of death--awaits him! OK, Mutant Enemy, enough already! Cut the poor guy a break. I know he has a lot of killing to live down, but geez! I'd be hard pressed to think of an episode this season in which Spike wasn't either 1) crazy; 2) in pain; 3) being tortured; 4) tremendously unhappy.
Poor Spike spends a lot of the episode bleeding, writhing on the floor, screaming, you know, the usual. The Slayer is really worried about him. He's in major pain, after all, and she does kind of like him. Well, more than kinda. Anyway, after some companionable and witty banter about "who she's gonna call" (yes, Spike, the line is still completely unusable) Buffy decides to ring her deus ex machina, Riley Finn.
After not hearing from Finn and after a particularly nasty episode of floor writhing, Spuffy decide that it's time to get some drugs from the old Initiative complex (drugs that they apparently used on Spike in the episode "The Initiative" but that we never saw onscreen). Advil just isn't cutting it anymore. So they pull up some turf and find the old place. Gee, and here I thought the government was going to pour cement down there. Guess they forgot. After fighting a demon in fatigues and Spike having another unpleasant chip episode, the Initiative guys finally show up and offer their help. Now Buffy has a choice: she can either a) repair the chip or b) take the chip out. Buffy never was good at multiple choice exams, and she looks downright puzzled. Hmmm. What to do? Tune in next week, and maybe we'll find out, in between the dating antics of Buffy and Xander. Having this moment relegated to the back seat really felt like a cheat to me. For years the chip has been an issue. And now its fate is dealt with offscreen. Drew, you chose pooorrrly.
So, two killers down, one to go. Of course, I speak of Willow. Sweet, little, I-Think-I'll-Make-The-World-Go-Kerflooey Willow. Yeah, skinning people and trying to bring on an apocalypse--it has to change you. And that's precisely what happens with Willow. She literally changes, wearing the habit of another murderer to symbolise her guilt--her guilt over her actual murder of Warren and her guilt over figuratively letting Tara die by moving on with Kennedy.
Kennedy comes on strong with Willow (Looky here! Willow really is a lesbian!!) and Willow capitulates to Kennedy's charms. Kissage ensues and Willow disappears, replaced by Warren, the "murderous, misogynist man," she killed. Neat-o. You become what you kill. Things don't look good for Buffy, if that's true.
Anyway, the longer Willow looks like Warren, the more she becomes Warren, complete with the misogynist murderer stuff. So Willow/Warren visits a gun shop and re-enacts last season's tragic shooting of Buffy and Tara. Except Kennedy replaces Buffy in this scenario. The final scene, in which Willow threatens Kennedy was one of the best of the episode, not because of Kennedy, but because of what it revealed about Willow's character. Kennedy is nothing more than a plot device, a foil that allows Willow to interact with someone other than the Scoobs, to reveal what's really been going on with her since the debacle of trying to end the world. And although Buffy used to be Willow's best friend, she can't confide in her. After all, they have too much history together, including the whole trying to kill each other thing. Sometimes it's easier to talk to an outsider. Thus, Kennedy.
For me, it was unclear if Willow was actually transforming into Warren or, if by looking and acting like Warren she could fully become what she feels like inside--a worthless, violent, murdering piece of scum. Amy's spell was fuzzy. We simply know that it was a penance malediction and that the spell "let's the victim's subconscious choose the form of punishment." Willow punishes herself by becoming her own worst self. Ironically, being Warren allowed Willow to say and do things that she wouldn't have otherwise. Slapping Amy, the woman who juiced her up on magic. Indicting Buffy/Kennedy for causing the situation (which can simultaneously be read as the death of Tara or the kiss with Kennedy). Later, it becomes evident that she's talking to Kennedy, not Buffy. Willow, not Warren, is angry that Kennedy tricked her into kissing her. In doing so, Willow killed Tara, metaphorically speaking. Tara had still been with her, but in kissing Kennedy, she had to let Tara go. She "let her be dead."
Letting go of grief, realising that
you no longer think about the dearly departed everyday--it can feel like
another death. When you can no longer remember the person's voice, the
way she tilted her head, her laugh. All gone. Irreversible. Unrecoverable.
But by letting go, one can begin to live again. And that's why the final
kiss worked for me. The first kiss with Kennedy had provoked guilt. Willow
felt that she, a murderer, was unworthy of love. And she felt that she
was betraying Tara, killing her memory. The final kiss was cathartic. Kennedy
tells her that it is just like a fairy tale. She's going to show Willow
that it's OK to move on, to let go of her grief. She's going to bring Willow
back to life with a kiss. And she does.