- Caleb
by Aeryn -2.10.05
[ aaeryn@blkswan.com ]

  Ok, so I have been doing a lot of thinking on one of my favorite baddies, Caleb. Ah, Caleb. Here we have a perfect marionette for the first evil. Caleb is human. Yes, he does get power from the first evil, but it is also wise to remember that the slayers get power from a demon as well. It is offered to Buffy again, and she rejects it. Caleb needed no more training or seduction to be turned evil, for he was already there. He was a serial killer that preyed upon woman. Any women, in his eyes, were deserving of death. He believed that women did not possess souls, and he was doing them a special favor by killing them, aka cleansing them.

To me the word misogyny does not encompass the depth and furor of the hatred that Caleb possessed within him, Nathan Fillion made me truly believe this character and invest into him. I just wish we had more time with him. You’re a dirty girl. Wow. Talk about talking dirty to a girl. He seemed to have a way with the ladies. He was seductive to women, a natural magnet that drew women to him like Xander drew demon girls. Caleb, unlike Wesley (please read earlier article if confused why I throw this in now), is a true psychopath. I know, you maybe asking what the hell is Aeryn smoking, how the hell is Caleb seductive? My answer is I am not smoking anything.

Caleb uses the security women feel with that comes along with the cleric collar, old fashion charm, and of course, his way with words. Hell, I saw Nathan and I wanted him to call me a dirty girl. Let’s face it, if I had been Shannon, I would have been attracted to him up till he called me a whore of course. Course that is one of the things that probably drove Caleb. He would reenact these past murders with the First. It was his high to kill them, and to relive it was a way to recapture the same high.

His mission is simple. To rid the world of Buffy and those damned dirty girls, hell some of the Slayers-in-Training I wish he had killed. I would have given him money to kill. Just kidding, not really, ok just a few of them. Why does he hate women? Well, that isn’t a simple answer my friends.

Caleb is a good old boy. Now if you are from the South, you know what I am talking about. If you aren’t, well hell, I really don’t know how to explain the Good Old Boy Network to you. It is a bunch of old rich, high and mighty men that force their beliefs and desires onto the general public through uses of power, politics and social policy. Caleb reminds me of one of these good old boys. His belief is that women do not have souls and their primary mission in life is to take a man’s power through sex. After they have done that, they are like praying mantis, going from one man to the next until they corrupt each and every last one of them. They are like locus, a plague to be dealt with.

I believe his attack on Xander was a primary result of Xander rescuing Rona. Bad Xander, bad. Rona dirty girl, Rona should have died and not Molly. Anyways, Xander is the heart of the group. Unlike Caleb, he embraces women; he fights with them and for them. He has been contaminated by allowing these women to get into his heart, which he demonstrates by putting himself in physical danger to rescue Rona. He plucks out Xander’s eye and another man, Spike, rescues Xander.

Ah Caleb, his death came painfully and kinda over the top way, by splitting him in half, balls first. Thanks to Nathan, I have a warm spot in my heart for Caleb. “You wanna finish this, Bitch?” Priceless.

What is very interesting is that I have watched shows were the actors played other characters, but I been ok with them and got involved in their characters, felt or hated them, depending on the circumstances, however this rings true no matter how hard I try not for it to. Jonathan M. Woodward is the exception. I saw him in Buffy, then on Angel as Knox, then as the solider in Firefly. Everyone loves ‘The Message’ but me. I loved him as Holden Webster. I hated Knox for killing Winifred. I could not muster any sympathy for his character on Firefly. I think if I had seen Firefly before Angel, I would have, but no matter how many times I watch that episode I feel nothing. Everyone else, I have been ok with, but I truly think, that any time in the future when I see something with Jonathan M. Woodward, I will end up not liking the character or simply turning the channel. God, I am such a freak.

So many things I guess I could ramble on about concerning Caleb, but I think I hit all the yummy juicy pieces of marrow and sucked the life out of them. (Anyone know what movie that last line kinda refers to? Answer at the end of the article.) Geez, I have trivia in my article. God, I am such a dork.

God God God. Holden Webster asked us if God really existed. Buffy stated that the jury is still out on that one. Interesting, considering they have both died. A well different experience, Holden was turned, so his soul may know the answer, but his vampire side doesn’t know. Maybe that is why vampires are angry, cause they can’t go to heaven. Maybe that is why they look like squished up puppies on crack. Wouldn’t one think that Buffy would have a clue on if the whole God exists thing? Well, we know she thinks she was in heaven, however for all we know, she could have been in that psychiatric hospital having a pudding parfait.

Did you ever wonder what caused Caleb’s fall from grace? How he went from a preacher to a serial killer? I mean, his mother sure named him right. Can you imagine what a dynamic that relationship is? It would have to be truly fucked up to produce a man like Caleb. Wonder if his father was around, or had any siblings. No, Buffy had to kill him just when he was getting interesting, so no one will ever know how a baby grew up to be such a fucked up individual. Please, no one say the first did it. Caleb was already fallen from grace and killing when the first came along, I guarantee it.

Well, I am going to wrap up. Nathan thanks for Caleb. I never thought I would want to be called a dirty girl by a cleric before, until you showed up. Now that just adds to my list of ‘issues’ that I have to work out. I will send you and Joss the therapy bill, just make Joss pay your part he has the money.

Answer: Dead Poet’s Society

Pete: Aeryn you don't touch on an important point in this musing: Caleb was a human and Buffy killed him, breaking the "Slayers-Don't-Kill-Humans" rule. But it could also be said that once Caleb accepted the First into his heart, he was no longer a man. And that is not to say he wasn't evil through and through before the First got to him... Hmmm...something to ponder.
(14.05.2005, 13:13)

CordeliaChse: Aeryn, you goofy.
(10.02.2005, 16:20)

flipper1: You feel about Jonathan Woodward like I feel about Adam Busch. I will never like him in anything he will ever do colored am I but what he did in Seeing Red. Too bad, Adam.
(10.02.2005, 16:13)

The Great One: Boring..a bit to serious ..dont mean to be harsh,, but thats how I see it....Dead Poet's Society was a snoozefest too..in my opinion..
(10.02.2005, 14:56)