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What can't we face if we're together? Part 1
A DVD review of Buffy Season 6 from Darkworlds Watcher. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow. |
 The Scooby Gang fought all sorts of monsters in the first five seasons of BUFFY: vampires and demons galore, a couple of Frankenstein monsters, some robots, and, oh yeah, a god. But in Season Six, they faced their greatest challenge yet: themselves.
The DVD release of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER's sixth season presents a chance to take another look at this controversial year. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't happy, and it was sometimes painful to watch, but above all else, season six was emotionally real. It took the life-shattering events of season six for Buffy, Willow, and Xander to become adults and re-establish their bonds, but they had to hit bottom to do it.
XANDER - "THAT'S WHY I'LL NEVER TELL HER THAT I'M PETRIFIED."
Xander loved Anya. His proposal in THE GIFT was a grand gesture to see them through the battle. He thought this was the way things were supposed to be: find the girl, ask her to marry you, and a narrator says, "And they lived happily ever after." His view of marriage wasn’t that of an adult. In his mind, marriage was part of the "being a grown-up" normality thing he was going for.
Buffy's death affected him deeply, and it was a huge reminder that life doesn't always have a happy ending. Rather than announcing his engagement to Anya, he asked her to keep it secret. Everything was suddenly more serious and real. He realized that becoming a husband also meant becoming a grown-up, and he couldn't deal. His faults seemed larger, and his self-doubts became more crushing. Could he be an adult and be any good at it? Would they always be happy together?
Xander finally decided to announce the engagement in ALL THE WAY, a title that refers as much to Xander's plan to take the plunge as it did to Dawn's date with a vampire. After the big news went public, Anya was free to talk about her plans for the wedding and all the post-wedding bliss, including major purchases and (gasp!) children. Xander panicked.
The episode that followed was the brilliant ONCE MORE WITH FEELING. Just as the others did, Xander and Anya sang about their respective fears and doubts. The big revelation was that the musical situation was Xander's fault. He had no idea that his actions would cause people to die, that honesty would reign, or that he might become a demon's queen. He stammered out an explanation, "I just thought there were gonna be dances and songs. I just wanted to make sure we'd work out. Get a happy ending."
Normally, this would've been a huge red flag. But after the revelations of the musical extravaganzas - especially that they'd ripped Buffy out of heaven - his mistake was quickly forgotten. Anya, still terrified of mortality, got the wedding wheels turning as quickly as possible. Willow and Tara imploded, Buffy sank deeper into depression, Giles left town, and Xander was left to plod on the path he'd set for himself. He never dealt with his issues, never spoke to anyone about his doubts, and he went from day to day doing what he was supposed to do... until the wedding day
It wasn’t one of his friends who forced him confront his doubts. A demon presented Xander's worst fears to him in 3-D and Technicolor. Shaken, he had to try to reconcile these visions with the conscious realization that he might ruin Anya's life, just as he felt his father had ruined his mother's life. He truly believed that he would hurt Anya more by marrying her than by not marrying her. Breaking both of their hearts, he left before the ceremony began.
Anya's vision of a perfect mortal life was shattered. At D'Hoffryn's invitation, she cast her humanity away and once again became a demon. Who could blame her? She went back to what she knew, what she was once comfortable with, and what she once excelled at: vengeance.
It didn't take long for Xander to realize he'd screwed up. He continued to optimistically hope they might reconcile, until Anya turned to the also-hurting Spike for solace. This disgusted Xander, anti-vampire man that he is, and learning that Spike had also been with Buffy compounded his anger – in some ways, this was even more of a betrayal for him. Xander knew that he hurt Anya, but learning that Buffy had been hiding something like this was a complete shock.
Xander's discovery that Anya was once again a vengeance demon sealed the deal. By season’s end both Anya and Xander were alone, but at least Xander and Buffy finally started to rebuild their friendship.
BUFFY - "THIS ISN'T REAL, BUT I JUST WANT TO FEEL..."
At the end of Season Five, Buffy sacrificed her life to save both her sister and the world. This was a huge sacrifice, but her state of mind when she dove off of the tower was not the best. She was still dealing with her mother's tragic and very human death. Her adversary du jour, a bona-fide god, repeatedly bested her. And then her sister was abducted. It was all too much to bear.
Dying did more than save the world - it gave Buffy a way out. With the death of her mother, she'd been ripped out of the blissful ignorance of childhood. The mantle of adulthood descends suddenly, and she's not ready. She dives off to tower to save the world, but she also escaped from the burdens of life.
After she was torn out of heaven, she had to adjust to life; everything from harsh sensations to mundane matters like bills and plumbing. The already-dead Spike became her confidant. She couldn't tell her friends for fear of the pain it would cause, and she didn’t think Willow or Xander could or would understand. To her, Spike is the only one who could identify with how she felt. Eventually, this led to Buffy's attempt to drown her misery with sex.
Sex does not automatically involve love; BUFFY has always been clear about this. Buffy was depressed and engulfed by the numbness that accompanies it, and she used Spike. Being with him let her feel something. Whether the feeling was pleasure or pain, and no matter how much self-loathing it induced, at least it was better than nothing.
Spike did love Buffy, but it was the selfish love of a soulless creature. He took advantage of Buffy's state of mind for his own gratification. He used Buffy, just as much as Buffy used Spike. Spike continually tried to drag Buffy into "the dark." Believing that she belonged with him, he attempted to isolate her. He wanted Buffy on his terms.
Buffy was too engulfed in despair to notice when Willow began to go off the deep end until Dawn was injured, or that Xander was already starting to flounder. Riley's reappearance in AS YOU WERE made her begin to confront who she had become, and she finally put an end to the cycle of mutual use.
Spike didn't take no for an answer for long. Frustrated, and believing that Buffy loved him, he tried to rape her. He wanted to possess her. Spike was still a vampire: no soul, no conscience. He wanted Buffy in order to have her; he didn't want Buffy for the person she was.
Once he realized the depths to which he had fallen, Spike left town in search of a soul. In striving to earn his soul back in order to give Buffy what she deserved, there is evidence of a selfless love. At long last, we saw that there may be hope for Spike.
Meanwhile, Buffy’s friendship with Xander was in tatters after his discovery of her trysts with Spike. Xander was already bitter about his recent life, and Buffy took the brunt of his lashing out. Xander offers the olive branch a short time later... right before Willow falls apart.
Immediately, with Willow as "Darth Rosenberg," Buffy had to sit up and look around in order to protect the people she cared about, and she saw them - primarily Dawn - in a whole new light. She realized she did have exactly what she sang about all those months ago: "All the joys life sends: family, and friends.” She remembered that life truly is worth living.
Part 2 will be posted tomorrow.
| | [by RavenU (Darkworlds) ] [0 comments]
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