You're nothing but a sad little boy, Warren. It's time you grow up and pay for what you've done.
Yup. It's time to pay the piper on BTVS. Unfortunately, innocents get caught in the crossfire.
This season of Buffy could have been subtitled, "The Year of Behaving Jerkily." Xander summoned a dangerous demon, left Anya at the altar, and tried to kill a suicidal Spike. Willow mind-raped her girlfriend, humiliated the patrons of the Bronze, and got addicted to black mojo, And Buffy slept with Spike, an "evil, soulless, thing," beat said "evil, soulless thing" into a bloody pulp, ignored her teenaged sister, and displayed a level of shrewish selfishness heretofore unseen on television.
The subsidiary Scoobies, with the exception of Tara, have also not covered themselves in glory. Most of their actions were caused by the foul treatment doled out by the core Scoobies, but that still doesn't excuse their misdeeds. Dawn descended into kleptomania in a fruitless bid to gain her sister's attention. She also, albeit inadvertently, played kissy-face with a vampire and made a wish to a vengeance demon. In general, Dawn behaved like a shrieking banshee. But things are looking up for the Dawnster. In the past two episodes, she's shown a newfound maturity, although I'm not really sure why she's had a sudden transformation into a reasonable adolescent.
Anya, after being spurned by Mr. Beady Eyes at the altar, did not choose wisely. She accepted D'Hoffryn's offer to become a vengeance demon again, although apparently, she's in too much pain to grant anyone's wish. She also slept with Spike while under the influence of alcohol. I'm loathe to include this in a list of Anya's transgressions, as they were single and really weren't doing anything wrong, although from Buffy and Xander's reaction you'd think that Spanya were supposed to stay celibate for the rest of their lives.
Spike is the biggest disappointment of all. After being Buffy's confidant and friend at the beginning of the season, as soon as Buffy introduced him to the wonders of Slayer Sex, he took leave of his senses. His relationship with Buffy was beyond dysfunctional. She rewarded him for his Big Bad posturing, told him repeatedly that he was evil and disgusting, but then the Queen of Mixed-Messages kept coming back for more Spikey shenanigans. She gave him absolutely no reason to change. And Spike, being soulless, needed an external reason to be good, some reason to stay on the straight and narrow. Unlike last season, Buffy did not make him feel like a man (which according to Spike is "everything" to him) but rather made him feel like a monster. And Spike lowered himself to her lowest expectations. He sold demon eggs on the black market. When he thought his chip didn't work, he tried to bite a girl in an alleyway. He claimed ad nauseum that Buffy was a creature of darkness. And he slept with Anya (although really, that wasn't so bad, just pathetic).
Pushing such dark and sordid character developments to their logical conclusion, Seeing Red, by one of the strongest writers on the Mutant Enemy team, Steven S. DeKnight, could have been melodramatic garbage. But it wasn't. Beautifully acted, with standout performances by James Marsters, Alyson Hannigan, Nic Brendon, and Michelle Trachtenberg, it was painful to watch, but dramatically rewarding. We get the sense that the Scoobies are going to pay for their actions and that the penalty is going to be rather severe.
At the beginning of the episode Tara and Willow have reconciled, a bright spot in an otherwise grim landscape. Of course, we know that it's going to end badly, but their scenes throughout the episode were genuine and poignant. Their snuggle-fest is soon interrupted by Buffy, who comes with evidence from the Troika's lair. Tara, Willow, Dawn and Buffy slowly begin to sort through the piles of Geek Junk. Maybe they should ask Xander for help? No, he's pouting about the whole Anya/Spike/Buffy mess. Maybe Spike would have heard something in the demon bar? No, Spike's not "part of the team." How about Anya? She's good with the demon lore! Um, that whole being left at the altar thing kind of quelled her desire to help the Scoobs.
It's pretty damn sad when you've alienated everyone who might help you.
Let's consider Alienated Scooby Number One: Xander Harris. Xander, the man who was so afraid that he'd become his drunken, loutish father just a few episodes ago, has indeed become what he most feared. Guzzling beer and other forms of liquor like there's no tomorrow, he's a huge jerk to Buffy when she visits him for a friendly chat. Buffy whines about how hard it was coming back, and how Spike Sex somehow was the only thing that made it all better. She also echoes the sentiments of many redemptionistas when she asks why Xander hates Spike, considering that he fought side by side with Xander when Buffy was gone. Plus, Spike was a really good babysitter! Xander, ever the essentialist, replies, "But I never forgot what he really is." Oh, yeah. Evil, soulless thing. Whoops! Finally, at the end of the episode, Xander achieves some sort of catharsis, realising that maybe Buffy didn't confide in him because he gave her every reason to think he'd "be an ass about it." Well, duh! Actually, I kind of liked Xander at that moment. He seemed human.
Alienated Scooby Number Two, Anya Jenkins, or whatever her last name is, mopes through the entire episode. Aside from a funny scene in which she ignores a spurned woman's pleas for vengeance, she doesn't have much to do. She mopes around the Magic Box a bit, looking sad. Watching her prompts Peeping Xander's subsequent escape to the Bronze for some liquid comfort. One gets the feeling that she may be the next Scooby to go.
Alienated Scooby Number Three, like Alienated Scooby Number One, is seeking solace in the bottle. Ever the lovesick poet, Spike does not take rejection well. Last time Spike was dumped, he showed up drunk and disorderly in Sunnydale, only finding his purpose when he resolved to torture Drusilla into loving him again. His behaviour in Seeing Red was reminiscent of the Spike we saw in Lover's Walk, without the laughs.
Dawn soon arrives to chastise him for sleeping with Anya. Not caring that Buffy dumped Spike, she's angry with her friend for betraying her sister. "I don't know what happened between you two, but what you did last night? If you wanted to hurt Buffy, congratulations. It worked." Spike looks suitably guilty, and . . . Hey! Wait a minute. Spike looks GUILTY. Really guilty. A soulless evil thing shouldn't feel guilty because he slept with his ex's friend. Right?
So Spike decides to apologise to Buffy for shagging Anya. Buffy, having just cracked her back on a gravestone is sore and is really not in the mood to ameliorate Spike's guilt. He apologises, she mocks. He turns suicidal, saying she should have let Xander kill him. She tells him she couldn't do that. He pounces on the scrap of hope, claiming that Buffy really loves him. Buffy admits, "I have feelings for you. I do. But it's not love. I could never trust you enough for it to be love."
Maybe Buffy shouldn't love him. According to what we've seen this season, if the chip were removed and if he was suitably pissed off at Buffy Spike might go have himself a snack. Also, there was the whole demon egg debacle: major conflict of interest for the Slayer! And yeah, Spike has a tendency to sleep with Buffy's friends when drunk. I could almost hear Marti Noxon in the background, saying, "This is why, my dear children, Buffy and Spike (in his current form as evil, soulless vampire) can NEVER be together."
But Spike just doesn't get it. Trust? Bah! Highly overrated. It's "for old marrieds, Buffy. Great love is wild and passionate and dangerous. It burns and consumes."
"Until there's nothing left," Buffy replies, sounding suspiciously like Ms. Noxon. "Love like that doesn't last."
So there you have it. Spuffy love is impossible unless Spike stops being an evil, soulless vampire. Doesn't get much clearer than that.
BUT, just in case we didn't get it, Mutant Enemy gives us a nice visual to drive the point home. Spike stops listening and starts acting. Desperate to feel a connection with Buffy, Spike tries the only mode of communication that he's had available to him in the past. Sex. And in the past, when Buffy said no, she didn't really mean it. So, he forces her down, muttering almost incoherently about making her feel again, like she did when he was inside her. Spike and Buffy's relationship had always teetered on a dangerous precipice and, as he tries to rape her, it goes right over the edge. Finally, Buffy manages to stop him, pushing him away. "Ask me again why I could never love you," she spits, clutching her torn robe to her chest.
Spike looks stricken, "Buffy, my God! I didn't mean . . ."
And I genuinely think Spike didn't mean to rape Buffy. But that doesn't lessen the gravity of what he's done. Rushing from the house, he leaves his duster on the staircase. The duster. His trophy from the second Slayer he killed. A symbol of his Big Badness. Hmmmm.
Arriving back at his crypt, images of the attempted rape still flashing through his mind, he begins to drown his sorrows (is there an AA for vamps? Because I think Spike could use a twelve-step program). Clem arrives (and we all know that Clem makes everything better) bearing hot wings, only to find his buddy wallowing in remorse and guilt. Again, I say, huh? Evil, soulless undead? Remorse? Guilt? What is going on? Of course, for the past year Spike has felt guilty whenever he fails Dawn or Buffy (cf. The Gift, Bargaining). Whether or not he likes it, whether or not the Scoobies acknowledge it, he has changed. He didn't sexually assault Buffy because he is essentially evil. He sexually assaulted Buffy because he is an immature, emotionally arrested, pathetic, desperate man.
Sadly, Spike asks Clem, "Why do I feel this way?"
Clem tosses back Spike's words from Lover's Walk, "Love's a funny thing."
Spike is, once again, at the crossroads.
He can either go back, like he did in Lover's Walk, to evil (in that episode
personified by Drusilla), embracing his vampiric nature, or he can take
the harder path.
From the dialogue that follows,
it would appear that he's going to take the easy way out. "Everything
used to be so clear," he tells Clem. Just like the Scoobs, Spike
is emerging from emotional adolescence, the world of black and white, the
world with no consequences, into a world of gray. It's pretty frightening,
and he can't accept it. "It isn't supposed to be this way.
It's the chip," he rants. Sounding like Drusilla in Crush, he rambles,
"Steel and wires and silicon. It won't let me be a monster . . .
And I can't be a man. I'm nothing."
Clem counters, "Hey! Come on now, Mr. Negative. You never know what's just around the corner. Things change."
Indeed they do. After all the clues about Spike wanting to be a man for Buffy, about him being separated from her by the light, I'll be surprised if they don't bring him back as a human. Mind you, I don't want to see this particular plot twist, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see Human Spike or Hybrid Spike next season. Just in case we missed that CHANGES are in store for Spike, Spike addresses the camera on his way out of town, vowing, "I'll be back. And when I do, things are gonna change." OK, OK! The so-called evil THING is going to CHANGE into something else. Enough already!
In an nice parallel, the villain this season, Warren, is taking a similar path to William, choosing ultimate power to escape the alienation of his freakish life. Like Spike, Warren bolsters his strength through supernatural means, procuring two orbs that give him the ability to kick ass. He has his minions (Jonathan and the obviously Gay!Now Andrew). He has black leather. And he has a yen to beat up those who were mean to him in the past. He's also quite eager to kill Buffy, if the chance presents itself. When his orbs are smashed by the Slayer (a symbolic castration if ever there was one), he decides to take revenge. Taking the same action as a spurned Spike in Fool for Love, he dashes over to Casa del Summers, gun in hand. Unlike Spike in Fool for Love, Warren goes through with his plan, demonstrating that even with a soul, he's pretty damn evil. He shoots and scores. Buffy falls to the ground. Will she decide to live, or will she choose death? Bah! I already know the answer to that question.
Of more consequence is the stray bullet that breaks through the window, entering Tara's chest, splattering crimson on Willow's top. As her lover falls to the ground, Willow's eyes turn red. At her most vulnerable moment, she too chooses evil over good, power over weakness.
And darkness falls over Sunnydale.