"Grave" as "Becoming, Part Three"

The text below is by Alanna; many of the ideas are from discussions on IRC. Credit goes to the many people who participated in those chats; my apologies for not being able to remember specific names.

The parallels between season two's finale, "Becoming", and season six's finale, "Two to Go" and "Grave", are both obvious and subtextual. Both episodes ended seasons focusing on growth, with characters shifting allegiances to moral constructs and each other, and both capped dark seasons. If you look closely at the two episodes (focusing on "Grave" and "Becoming, Part Two"), the parallels are almost deliberate, leading one to wonder if perhaps "Grave" was meant to be "Becoming III".

DIALOGUE

1. One of many memorable lines of B2 is Spike telling Drusilla, "I don't want to hurt you, baby.... Doesn't mean I won't." In TTG, Buffy begins to physically take on Willow. She says, "I don't want to hurt you." After Willow punches her across the room, Buffy retorts, "I said I didn't want to. Didn't say I wouldn't."

2. When Kendra arrives in town, Buffy teases, "Let me guess. Your Watcher has informed you that a very dark power is about to rise in Sunnydale." In Grave, Giles comes back after a long absence. He tells Buffy, "There's an extremely powerful coven in Devon. They sensed the rise of a dangerous magical force here in Sunnydale. A dark force fueled by grief."

3. Willow threatens Buffy: "It was me who took you out of the earth. And now? The earth wants you back." Four years earlier, Buffy threatened Angel with, "You're going to hell," to which he responded, "Save me a seat."

4. As the power swells inside her, Willow says, "I've never been so connected. It's like... I can feel... everyone." Though no specific dialogue mirrors this in Becoming, it has a very similar feel to Angel's wonderment as he first senses Acathla's power.

5. Buffy advocates re-souling Angel because she wants him back the way he was. When discussing Willow's condition in Grave, Giles tells Buffy, "Should she survive... you ought to know, Buffy, that there's no guarantee she'll be as she was."

RELATIONSHIPS (ROMANTIC AND PLATONIC)

1. In both episodes, Buffy has to take down/destroy someone she loves in order to save the world. Both times, something has overcome the other person (Angel and Willow) to make them "not herself/himself."

2. Unlikely couples begin to emerge, though the fruition isn't seen (or may not be seen) until the next season's premiere: Willow and Xander in B2, Giles and Anya in Grave.

3. Xander pleads with Willow not to die before he can tell her everything he needs to say (this also happens in a slightly different manner in Grave). Anya pleads with a badly injured Giles not to die because she has so much she wants to say to him.

4. Demons work against their natures to help save the world. Spike forms an alliance with Buffy in B2; Anya -- now a vengeance demon again -- works with the others to fight Willow.

5. We see many parallels between the not-quite-villains in both episodes. Spike has been the (secondary) Big Bad all during season two, yet he fights alongside Buffy. Jonathan was a member of the Trio, yet he shifts back and forth between helping out the Scoobies and fleeing with Andrew. Drusilla and Andrew want to continue hurting the SG, while Spike and Jonathan help them.

THE DARK SIDE

1. Angel, Drusilla and Spike torture Giles both physically and emotionally, using his memories of Jenny Calendar to crush his spirit and reveal information. Willow tortures Giles in Grave, yet her motives are more visceral: she simply wants to inflict pain out of bitterness and revenge.

2. Both Angel and Willow taunt those to whom they were formerly so close, and both seem to take glee in causing pain. Their words are deliberately personal and hurtful.

3. The Big Bads have an emotional breakdown in the end, once they've realized just what they have done. Angel is re-ensouled and collapses in Buffy's arms. Willow's power fades and she collapses in Xander's arms, after he has told her over and over how much he loves her.

4. In B2, Buffy leaves town because she cannot handle her (emotional) world after it has been destroyed. She wants to give up and run away from it all. In Grave, she returns to the fold, to life. After her world was pulled back from the brink of destruction, she forges a new commitment to life. Buffy was separated from her loved ones by her grief, but she takes the grief and uses it to forge new ties.

5. All of the characters emerge into the bright light of day at the end of both episodes.

6. And, of course, the "evil" vampires (Angel and Spike) are given a soul and -- possibly -- redeemed for their past crimes. The difference is that Angel doesn't know about the re-souling and doesn't appear to want it at all. Spike, however, journeys to Africa specifically so he can regain his soul. He does this so that he can stop hurting Buffy and become the man she deserves. Angel revels in the loss of his soul and once it's gone, he attempts to destroy Buffy for making him feel like a man.

PLOT/ACTION/VISUALS

1. Giles knows the secret that will save the world. In B2, he knows of Acathla's true purpose and the way to harness its power. In Grave, he is the only one with a true understanding of how to fight Willow.

2. Formerly semi-passive characters come into their own. Willow becomes powerful with the resouling spell, which hints at her future as a Wicca to be reckoned with. Dawn picks up a sword and begins to fight alongside Buffy, perhaps foreshadowing her future in season seven as a Slayer/Warrior.

3. Angel calls on the effigy of a demon in B2 (Acathla). Willow calls on the effigy of a demon in Grave (Proserpexa).

4. Dawn and Angel both pick up swords, with the scenes filmed in such a way that calls our attention to the swords as a deliberate symbolic move.

5. Demons cause earthquakes.

6. The main Scooby hangout is the setting of some of the worst violence: the library and The Magic Box.

7. Willow uses her Resolve Face: "I'm not joking this time, Xander. Get out of her way." Of course, the emotions are quite different each time.

And in conclusion, the most obvious parallel:

The closing sequence is filmed in slow-motion, full of Very Deep Thoughts... with musical accompaniment by Sarah McLachlan. :)