From: "macha" To: ; ; ; Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 8:49 PM Subject: on the stakes and the nature of nurture: dancing power and choices in LMPTM (BtVS 7.17) [exegesis by macha still unspoiled, on BtVS7.17 (#139 of BtVS and #220 in the buffyverse) Lies My Parents Told Me, written by David Fury and Drew Goddard & directed by David Fury; i now have seen the episode four times and read no commentary yet; all quotation is from my own transcription off the screen, unless it's from the Buffy Dialogue Database] It's New York City, 1977. Rooftop. Pouring rain (perfect setting for an AtS ep). Spike and Nikki Wood are fighting allout, fists and fangs. Spike is earning his reputation, making his bones, doing the long dance in gameface, enjoying himself enormously: S: Well, all right! Got the moves, don't you? I'm gonna ride you hard before I put you away, love. N: You sure about that? You actually look a bit wet and limp to me. And I ain't your love. There's a little boy hiding behind the bench. Spike loses his best chance to bite down when he's distracted by the sound of a trashcan being knocked over beside the bench. There's nobody else on the roof. So Spike probably knows the boy is there, but he never acknowledges him, much less tries to use him. Not Spike's style of dance, see? Angelus, he would have been right on it. Then Nikki throws a stake at Spike's heart, and he catches it between both palms, just as Buffy did with the sword long ago in her last fight with Angelus, Becoming 2, and throws it away: S: Spent a long time trying to track you down. Never do want the dance to end again so soon, do you Nikki? Music's just started, isn't it? By the way, love the coat. He steps nonchalantly off the roof and is gone. Nikki talks to her four-year-old boy Robin about being a Slayer. He wants to stay with her, but she's taking him to her Watcher's house while she goes hunting. "Always gotta work the mission", she tells him. "You know I love you. But I got a job to do. The mission is what matters. Right?" They go to leave. But the boy runs back to collect the abandoned stake. Cut to Spike, Buffy, and Robin Wood, in the midst of a big fight. All of them fighting flatout, Spike's got his coat and the Slayer her mission. Is this the same world? Not bloody likely. Buffy directs Spike to save Robin. He uses the handle end of a shovel to dust the vamp that has Robin cornered. "Little tip, mate", as he gives Robin a hand up. "The stake's your friend. Don't be afraid to use it." Robin stares at him. Spike walks away, saying "What?" off Robin's look. Robin says to himself "Just waiting for my moment." Cut to stake he's holding by his side: there's blood dripping from it, he's holding it so tight. Cut to titles. Okay, that's quite a lot of stake references for the first three minutes. Better keep an eye on them stakes. And while I got ya here, what are the stakes here anyway? Not an idle question, cause the mission is what matters. Isn't it? Ah, but what's the mission exactly? In the first scene, Spike's mission is to kill a Slayer. And his version of the dance, which is explicitly a covenant between the two parties to it, doesn't involve hunting down little boys to use as currency. Spike doesn't fight that kind of dirty. It's not about the boy. He's not Angelus, who'd do the boy in a second to lure the mother. But it's not inflicting a maximum of pain that interests Spike. It's not even winning, though being the Slayer of Slayers is, in fact, the source of his coveted reputation. But here's a secret: reputation is just part of his costume. What it's actually about, for him, is always the dance. I was obsessed. I mean, to most vampires, the Slayer was the subject of cold sweat and frightened whispers. But I never hid. Hell, I sought her out. I mean, if you're looking for fun, there's death, there's glory and sod all else, right? (shrugs) I was young. (Spike to Buffy, BtVS 5.07 Fool for Love, written by Douglas Petrie) And that's the way it is, just the same, for Nikki Wood also. One girl in all the world with the strength and skill to kill the vampires. It's exhilarating, intoxicating. You can see it in her eyes, waiting for the bell to ring announcing the next round. Faith would understand her. Like Spike she's living large on the Wild Hunt, the damoiselle chaceresse doing the Dance of Death with the Harlequin. She dances over the abyss and the abyss lends her power, or at least it will till the moment comes when it doesn't. She lives for it. She'll die for it. But here we are in the presentday. And the stakes, all the stakes, have been changed. Spike has switched sides, however inexplicable that may be to Nikki Wood's son. He has eschewed both death and glory in order to protect this Slayer and help her do whatever she thinks is needful. Which actually has already included helping her save the world twice, even though on both those occasions he was soulless, and now he isn't. And Robin, grown, has his own agenda, his very own collection of stakes. Currently, all the blood on his hands is his own, but he's in there waiting for his One Good Day. And the present Slayer is a maverick, building an army, making unorthodox alliances and learning to trust herself on the level of pure feeling, moving inexorably towards a final battle. And she's never been intoxicated by the dance, never been interested in either death or glory, and she's never gone dark, and she values all her connections to the world. And her mission isn't personal at all, she is not by choice an instrument of destruction but still, being the One Girl, she really means one final time to save what Giles once called this sorry world. Now Buffy's in Robin's office, trying to define normal on top of a hellmouth. She settles on this definition: "Hey, any apocalypse I avert without dying, yeah, those are the easy ones." Robin tells her she reminds him of his mother, bit of an ominous remark even in the ordinary world. Issues, anyone? No, I'm fine, thanks. Giles bursts in, voice of doom, proclaiming "total catastrophe". Buffy is alarmed. Turns out he's focussed on the lack of actual bookiness in the new library filled with computers. Where's Jenny Calendar when we need her to talk him down? Buffy wants to know the state of world save-age (answer: "I'm afraid war is inevitable"). Giles' grasp of the proper strategy is masterful: "So we should go before the school board." This analysis even confuses Robin, who is already confused by all this new information about Spike's soul, his chip, his trigger, but Giles is still fixated on the absent books. "Knowledge", he tells Buffy primly, "comes from crafted bindings and pages, Buffy. Not ones and zeros." Clearly Giles is having serious trouble finding the mission. Next he reveals, discussing the whole matter in front of Robin Wood, a man he just met, that his trip wasn't about apocalypsy stuff at all, as Buffy assumed, but rather All About Spike. Specifically Buffy's 'reckless' behavior in choosing to remove the chip from his head. Ah. So he's still questioning Buffy's judgment on that issue, in spite of her assessment of Spike as a "good man" and her expressed conviction that "you can't beat evil by doing evil" in 7.14 First Date when they last discussed it. Here's Spike still with a trigger, armed only with a soul, and now chipless, and Giles is darned near as alarmed about this as he is about the library situation. So he has returned triumphant with a plan that may help disarm the trigger. Accordingly they all convene in Buffy's basement, and Spike gets chained up again. Xander does the deed: he's focussed on wishing the chains had been there when he got it on with Anya, but when he's done (if my eyes didn't deceive me) he actually gives Spike a little punchy thing, you know that thing guys do that means solidarity! or sympathy! or courage! or something in that ballpark. Then Giles explains to Spike that the First is using something in his own subconscious to provoke a violent reaction. Willow uses a spell to animate a stone into a slithery leachlike thing that goes into Spike's brain and unleash "ideas, images, memories that will "reveal the root of the trigger's power. "Hopefully", he says to Spike, "once you understand what's setting you off, you can break its hold on you." First Spike experiences pain, and Buffy immediately goes to make sure he is all right (that's one, so don't blink). She's right beside him when he gets a flashback to William's house, presumably London in 1880. William is reciting poetry (bad, bad poetry) to his mother: Yet the smell it does linger, painting pictures in my mind. Her eyes, bowls of honey. Angel's hearts [something something - quite possibly hysterical deafness on my part, of course]. Oh, lark, grant a sign If crooked be Cupid's shaft. [hee hee, so the fanfic is right on that one, huh? - ahem. sorry. back to your scheduled program.] Hark, the lark. Her name it hath spake. Cecily, it discharges. From twixt its wee beak. [oh man, i want the button *right now*] "Oh, William", his mother says soulfully. "It's just scribbled", William says shyly: M: Nonsense. It's magnificent. I wonder, though, this Cecily of whom you write so often, would that be the Underwood's eldest girl? W: Ah, no, no. I do not presume. M: Oh, she's lovely. You shouldn't be alone. You need a woman in your life. W: I have a woman in my life. M: But you never - (stops as she figures it out. They both end up grinning at one another.) W: Well, do not mistake me. I do have hopes that one day there will be an addition to this household. But I will always look after you, Mother. This I promise. (She beams, then starts to cough up blood. Clearly she has consumption.) W: Should I send the coach for Dr Gull? M: No. I'll be all right. It has passed. Just sit with me awhile, will you? W: Of course. (He sits on the floor in front of her chair. She kisses the top of his head. She starts to sing: Early one morning, just as the sun was shining. I heard a maid sing in the valley below. Oh don't deceive me Oh, never leave me How could you use a poor maiden so?) Cut to basement. Spike vamps and grabs Buffy by the neck and goes berserk, throwing her across the room. Dawn gets hurt when he throws the bunk. He's howling. Finally the leachy thing falls to the floor, once more an inert stone. And he unvamps, still chained. Everyone staring. Commercial break. Back to same scene. Spike is now really upset about the chains: S: Get these sodding things off me. I'm fine. B: Don't you think you should take a little time to calm down? S: I am calm. This stone of yours is out, right? Did its job? So I'm detriggered, right? G: Spike, what do you remember about the song? S: Oh yeah, the song. It's called 'Early One Morning', old folk ditty. R: What's it mean to you? S: Mean? Nothing. It's just, my mom. It was her favorite. She used to sing it to me. When I was a baby. G: And? S: No and. That's it. Look, shouldn't you check on Dawnie? Clocked the niblet pretty fierce. B: She'll be okay. She's tough. Been a long time since I can remember him using affectionate nicknames to refer to Dawn. And he's really upset about the chains, which he generally hasn't been if they will protect the household from him. And he's not coming clean with Giles, and therefore (surprisingly) with Buffy. It's too intensely private, these memories. It's heartbreaking. His mother loves him (my god, "magnificent", she's a saint), and he loves his mother. They make each other happy. He's not going to share these intimate, lost memories with all these people, including the clearly hostile Wood, staring at him like some suspect specimen on a morgue table. It's not hard to imagine why the happiest memories would also be the most painful. But shouldn't he still be associating good things with the song? In short, Giles' methodology is working. And this argues, I'm afraid, for this Giles really being Giles. The First has no logical motive for disarming the trigger, though it might well enjoy the chance to muck about in Spike's head. Scene moves to livingroom. Willow is giving first aid to Dawn. Andrew answers the phone. Kennedy is extremely angry. "So Spike's trigger's been active this entire time." Rona backs her up: "How can Buffy take this for granted? He lives in our house. We train with him." Anya reveals her views: Don't waste your time down that road. Spike's got some sort of get out of jail free card that doesn't apply to the rest of us. I mean, he could slaughter a hundred frat boys... (off everyone's looks, she changes tack but holds on firmly to the grievance:) Forgiveness makes us human. Blah de blah blah blah. Forgiveness. Is it about forgiveness, really? Maybe it is for Anya. Spike hoped for forgiveness at the time he got the soul, he says in the church scene of 7.02 Beneath You, but the suggestion there is that actually having the soul disabused him of the notion. Does being human automatically always give everyone the high ground, then, when they look at Spike and name him demon? Does Anya herself feel remorse? Angel once told Faith, "to kill without remorse is to feel like a god". But does it matter if you feel remorse for things you cannot change? Does it matter to be sorry? Angel is, and he still feels it isn't worth much, not with those who have the right to reparations, and not in the Redemption Stakes. Andrew did survive his encounter with Buffy on the Seal because he learned to feel it. But that had to do with the fact that, on the Seal physically, it did matter. It's not the same, in real life: you can't ever give them back what you took. Andrew hands Willow the phone: it's Fred in L.A., looking for help. Two apocalypses, two towns, too few in both camps of the Chosen/Self-Appointed who have been feeling the mission enough to overlook the personal. Issues, issues everywhere and way too few who think. Anya is demonizing Spike in order to gloss over her own transgressions; at age eleven hundred, she's having a fit of pique and making a fetish of being human. Another round of Kick the Spike. And really it's because she's furious at Buffy, both for trying to kill her, or also for insisting on saving her? It's not easy to accept being saved: and it's particularly hard when your most powerful opponent is doing the saving. Willow, Xander, and Dawn, whatever they're thinking, know better than to engage. Rona's focussed on her own neck, but she's young, and she's never fought a battle. Kennedy's gearing her remarks to the always-popular neck issue, but her real subtext is, as usual, to question Buffy's leadership. Upstairs, downstairs, Revello Drive is beginning to look way too much like a nest of vipers. Back in the basement, Giles is still digging, and Spike is still chained: G: Spike, listen to me. What is it about your mother? S: I don't know. I got along fine with her. She was a nice lady. G: Well, there has to be more than that. S (shouting:) Well there bloody well isn't. Buffy heads for Spike (two, if you're not blinking). Giles asks her what she's doing. She answers, "I'm going to unchain him". Giles steps towards her and grabs her arm (i can't ever recall him physically interveningbefore in order to stop her from doing something): B: This is pointless, Giles. He doesn't know anything. Your... prophylactic stone didn't work. G: Because he's not cooperating. This process takes time. He's blocking whatever's flooding his consciousness, and while he does he's endangering us all. RW: So the trigger's still working. G: As much as ever. Buffy must know that Spike knows something: why else would he be so upset? She is responding to him here on the level of pure feeling: she feels his pain. And I think metaphorically she can no longer bear to see him restrained. The last time she wore chains herself was at the Well of the Slayer, being forced to accept the demon essence from the Men. The last time Spike wore chains in this basement he made that choice himself. And it's not so long ago that he stood there in chains and tried desperately to convince her to kill him. Giles' argument with her in First Date about Spike had to do with judgment: B: He can be a good man, Giles. I feel it. But he's never gonna get there if we don't give him the chance. G: Buffy, I want more for you. Your feelings for him are coloring your judgment. I can hear it in your voice. And that way lies a future filled with pain. I don't want that for you. B: We haven't... Things have been different since he came back. G: It doesn't matter if you're not physical with each other anymore. There's a connection. You rely on him, he relies on you. That's what's affecting your judgment. B: You think I'm losing sight of the big picture. But I'm not. When Spike had that chip, it was like having him in a muzzle. It was wrong. You can't beat evil by doing evil. I know that. G: Well, I hope you're right. You're gambling with a lot of lives. (BtVS 7.14 First Date, written by Jane Espenson, my transcription) Giles evidently is still caught inside this argument. And superficially, Giles is right about the fact that in this basement scene, Buffy's feelings for Spike are affecting her judgment. But it's important to remember her half of the argument in First Date: instinct tells her she's right about Spike, she says, and she is not by any means losing sight of the big picture. But in her view, Spike needs to be set free to choose. Giles disagrees for three reasons: he loves her and is trying to protect her from being hurt, he believes that control works better than free will (boy, did he get the wrong Slayer for that stance), and he does not trust her instincts or her judgment. Giles and Buffy have arrived at an impasse over this issue that is now only being mitigated by the father/daughter love they share. Spike moves in his chains, really frustrated, and Drusilla's hand in a black lace glove appears in his. Suddenly he's back in the parlour where he was earlier with his mother: D: Oo, such a pretty house you have, sweet Willy. (She waltzes with him.) Smells of daffodils. And viscera. W: Don't get too attached, now. Won't be here for long, love. D: Well then, should we give it a proper goodbye? (Growls) W: You're a saucy one, aren't you? (They make out on his mother's sofa.) W (eyes shining:): Dru. We'll bring this world to its knees. D: It's ripe and ready, my darling. Waiting for us to devour its fruit. W: We'll ravage the city together, my pet. Lay waste to all of Europe. The three of us will teach the snobs and elitists with their folderol just what... D (interrupting:) Three? W (casually, still thinking of glory:) You, me, and mother. We'll open up their veins and bathe in their blood as they scream our names across the... (off her look:) What? D: You want to bring your mom with us? W: Well, yeah. You'll like her. D (mad chuckle, and no wonder:) To eat, you mean. But she already knows that's not what he means. Well, where to start. The first thing to note clearly is that even though this vampire is obviously newly minted, there is no imbalance of power between them at all. Even in the makeout bit they are both aggressive, but alternate who's on top. It isn't entirely clear what Dru could be after, things look pretty normal between them, if you don't count the viscera remark: could she be yearning at that one particular moment for a 'normal' boy/girl thing? She is, after all, mad (though not, in her view at this moment - and she could be right there, nearly as mad as him). The second really big thing is that he's already a vampire, but this is most definitely still William. Entirely William. William who dreams of vengeance, but continues to love, and means to keep his promises. Theoretically, the glory of being a vampire, besides of course the immortality thing and the rush of enhanced senses and the release of becoming Other, is the gift of power to the powerless. The human is trapped inside the demon essence that takes the field. So Liam eats his family, the whole village, because he can and it pleases the demon Angelus to play that scenario out, but really it is Angelus who triumphs over Liam, when Darla takes pains to remind the boy in his own parlour, in the midst of slaughter, that his father has forever won. But here's William, back home in his own parlour, thinking of his mother, and his plan, oblivious to any possible difficulties and really so very far from imagining that she tastes like chicken. What, then, is the true nature of the vampire? And what is the true measure of this man? In comes mom. Possibly the funniest moment in all of Spike and Dru, this image of Spike and Dru both scrambling to their feet in a hurry to stand awkwardly, with priceless matching teenaged expressions (not that they're teenagers, but hey, Victorian period equivalent): caught by mom making out on mom's own couch. Luckily mom's a bit distracted herself: M: William? Where have you been? I've been beside myself for days. W: You needn't have worried, Mother. You'll never have to worry about anything again. Something has happened. I've changed. William. Transparently forthright, but really still no different at all in essence from the boy that stood here earlier declaiming his awful poetry to his mother's delight. Completely of a piece, he sees no difficulty in keeping both his promises: he means to look after his mother, and he means to lay waste to Europe. That's kinda the whole point of the thing, actually: W: It's true, mother. Drusilla, she... she has made me what I am. I am no longer bound to this mortal coil. I have become a creature of the night, a vampire. M: Are you drunk? W: Little bit. Think of it. No more sickness, no more dying. You'll never age another day. Let me do this for you. M: What are you talking about? And why are you acting so strangely? W: It's all right, mother. It's only me. We'll be together forever. M: William. W: It only hurts for a moment. Embracing her so very gently, nothing but love on his face, he vamps and then bites down. Cut to basement, where Spike opens his eyes. Willow comes down to tell Buffy she's heading for L.A. It's an interesting little exchange, in which nothing much is said but that in itself makes clear how much Buffy and Willow have learned to trust one another's judgment. Buffy lets Willow handle her end, to report back later. Such an interesting contrast to Giles and Robin downstairs, Anya and Kennedy and Rona upstairs. Then Giles says to Buffy, "think about what you're doing". "I have", she says evenly, unchains Spike, and goes upstairs without another word, Spike following closely after. Trust. Buffy's biggest issue, always. Who has she learned to trust? Giles means to follow, and is detained by Robin Wood. This is a pivotal conversation, and it's played as if both men are co-conspirators in a Shakespearean play. And it's a tragedy, oh yeah: R: Mr Giles. You got a moment? G: What's on your mind? R: Same thing that's on yours. We've got ourselves a problem. G: Spike. R: Yeah. If that trigger's still working, then the First must be waiting for just the right time to use it against us. G: It does seem doubtful the First simply forgot it had such a powerful weapon. R: Now awhile back it slipped up, told Andrew it wasn't time yet for Spike. So whatever the First's ultimate plan is, it is obvious that Spike must play an integral part in that. Something needs to be done. G: Buffy would never allow it (goes to leave) R: Buffy would listen to her Watcher, wouldn't she? G (bitter laugh:) I don't think you have much of an idea about the Watcher/Slayer dynamic. R: As a matter of fact, I was raised by a Watcher. G: You were? R: Bernard Crowley. Took me in when I was a young kid, trained me. G: Crowley. I remember the name. New York-based Watcher. Resigned shortly after his Slayer was.... You're Nikki Wood's son. R: Yes. G: Spike killed your mother. R: Yes. G: Does Buffy know this? R: She knows my mother was a Slayer. She doesn't know about Spike. G: And this has nothing to do with personal vengeance? R: Does it matter? He's an instrument of evil. Now he's gonna prove to be our undoing in this fight, Buffy's undoing, and she will never, never, see it coming. Now I'm talking about what needs to be done. For the greater good, Giles. You know I'm right. G (long pause:) What exactly do you propose? R: I just need you to keep Buffy away for a few hours. Oboy, the argument about the okayness of doing evil in order to achieve a greater good. Here it comes again. Listen, Buffy's on one side of this argument, and Giles is on the other, and it's the central problem of both The Gift and Storyteller so let's not pretend it's a foolish little conceit, an inconvenient scruple where world save-age is concerned, in or out of the buffyverse and get all outragey, okay? This episode completely settles it in my mind: we're going to in some sense redo The Gift, and change the ending. The central questions surrounding the greater good problem concern the existence of evil, and the meaning of power, and the importance of choices, and - remember this side of the question - how greater value can be assigned to a good choice by/in a moral ambiguous person/situation than in a good choice made within a clearly 'good' context. Buffy is taking an interesting position: she is unchaining Spike and giving him free will to act, even though (and partly because) she is a moral absolutist ("you can't beat evil by doing evil"). It's Buffy who has always maintained that core distinction between a Slayer and a killer: it's Tara who named Giles a killer in The Gift. Giles is a relativist: always pragmatic, he has an elastic measure he applies to any situation. Also, he lacks Buffy's instincts for what is 'right'. It's not entirely clear whether these are part of the Slayer's package or part of the girl's, but I'm betting they are Summers-issue, not Slayer-issue. Giles, on the other hand, demonstrates a notable lack of intuition and good instincts throughout First Date, and in fact confesses to Buffy that he's just pretending in that area. Plus you need a whole bunch of miscellaneous inner tools if you're gonna carry off the absolutist end: a strong moral compass, an ability to make hard unpopular decisions and stick by them, and scruples. You need to be sure you're right, but not too sure to change, cause otherwise you get zealotry and the sins of besetting self-righteousness. You need to actually care about whether you're doing the right thing. And people who lack those attributes are never gonna understand where you're coming from. And so, in this stately progress towards disaster, Buffy and her surrogate father Giles go to the cemetery, leaving Spike with Robin Wood. It's like watching the Cruciamentum all over again, with even less justification on Giles' side. And David Fury's the guy who wrote 3.12 Helpless, the episode in which Giles puts Buffy through the Council rite of the Cruciamentum when she turns 18: Buffy helpless, betrayed by Giles, the whole experiment disastrous, Quentin Travers' smarmy summation after. You know what? I don't think Buffy has ever dared to trust anyone except possibly her mother since that day. Chained to the Well of the Slayer. Except that she is now, monumentally, choosing to trust that Spike will act like a good man if she sets him free to make choices. How big is that, for a Slayer who lost her ability to love because she could not trust, and trust was everything to her? Not getting much backup except grief about that now, though, is she? Not seeing a lot of rejoicing about the Slayer centering herself, reaching past the blindfold for her best weapons: the purity of her soul and the radiance of her light. It's the end of the world again, but this Slayer is whole. So Giles takes her on this last spirit quest, claiming to act as both her guardian and her spirit guide. Did he lose himself when the axe of the Bringer came down? It's painful to watch this sequence, but I'm gonna lay it out anyway. Buffy's uneasy, but not really suspicious. She loves him; she trusts him not to hurt her. Cruciamentum: breach of trust, a dance to the end of love. Buffy says it might be better to focus on actual apocalypse-type issues than basic training. Giles claims his status as her teacher. He tells her that her life is chaos. She gives him permission to impart. He talks about the big picture (not, presumably, the school board vis a vis the books). He tells her that a general needs to make painful decisions. She argues that she is engaged in doing all of that every day. Cut to Robin's garage, refitted as a cautionary tale for vampires. Spike figures it out. "Stay away from the walls", Robin recommends (they're covered with crosses): clearly, he's been waiting a long time to have Spike over for a visit. Spike's not happy, he's not sure what exactly is going on, but he stays civil, and even offers a joke about being "not much for self-reflection". Is it because Buffy sent him here, and he's trusting her because he feels he cannot trust himself? Robin's changing his clothes, collecting weaponry, but he names Spike "the kinda guy that just careens through life, completely oblivious to the damage he's doing to everyone around him". Just what kinda guy is Spike anyway? What kinda guy was William? How did Spike ever get from there to here? Because here isn't where OldSpike ever would have come on his own two feet. Spike won't rise to any of the bait, and Robin ups the ...well, stakes: R: Oh, I know more about you than you think, Spike. See, I've been searching for you for a very, very long time. Ever since you killed my mother. S: Killed a lot of people's mothers. R: Yeah. You'd remember mine. She was a Slayer. S: So that's it, isn't it? Brought me here to kill me? R: No. I don't want to kill you, Spike. I want to kill the monster that took my mother away from me. It's interesting that Robin, focussed on his own personal mission, remains throughout fully aware that NewSpike is a completely different entity than OldSpike who killed Robin's mother. He wishes to access the other one, the one without the soul, so he can be sure to kill the one who is at fault. Giles, on the other hand, appears to believe that the two Spikes are not usefully different, and isn't nearly as punctilious about punishing the one for the sins of the other. Although Giles has been professionally observing Spike's Progress for years, Robin knows it isn't gonna be justice unless you've got the actual perpetrator. Giles, on the other hand, so much more impersonal in his approach, means to eliminate a potential problem, since the opportunity has come to hand. Passion drives the one, expedience drives the other. Both are indifferent to the mission of saving the world. And what drives Spike these days? Killed a lot of people's mothers." A small masterpiece of the impassive. Who lives at his core? He's so far from being Angel you have to wonder about the true effect of the soul: Buffy: You're not Angel. Angelus: You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? (BtVS 2.14 Innocence, written by Joss Whedon) And Buffy's counting on that soul, although she knows too many men have souls they never use. Remorse is another notion that isn't really practical, and we've been down that road before: S: I didn't come here to atone. B: Then what the hell do you want? S: I'm here to help you. (NewSpike to Buffy, BtVS 7.02 Beneath You, written by Douglas Petrie) How does he mean this? Is the emphasis on help, cause that's about the mission? Is the emphasis on Buffy, cause that's personal, which is how missions seem to get derailed at Revello Drive and at the Hyperion? Guess this is the night we get to find out who's on first, and where the high ground is. Cause this vampire, still with his rather chilly view of the value of human life, still remains dangerous. Unchipped. Unchained. Who's got the side of 'right'? Is Buffy recklessly endangering them all? Isn't Robin entitled to redress concerning the death of his mother? Robin goes after the vampire who did the deed. He presses the mouse button & 'Early One Morning' begins to play on the computer. Spike resists, you can see him fighting the compulsion, but he's been triggered and in the end he vamps. "There he is", says Robin, and wades in. Commercial break. Then William's entering the house in 1880 again, calling for his mother, who enters holding a music box, which is of course playing 'Early One Morning'. William regards her still full of love. Is it before or after? It's after, but he remains the same: S: Look at you. M: Yes. All better. S: You're glowing. M: Am I? But I suppose I have you to thank for all that, don't I? However will I repay you? S: Seeing you like this is payment enough. M: Oh, William. You're still tender. S: Well, this is as it should be, Mother. You and I together. It's heartbreaking. Who knows what he's getting up to when he leaves the house, but he leaves it all outside the front door. Tender indeed. No wonder mad Dru loved him in spite of himself. There he is in his mother's parlour, as loving as ever, and glad to see her no longer ill. A fairy tale, with canines, of happily ever after: M: Ah yes, 'us'. W: First we'll feast. Then the night is yours. Theatre, perhaps? Dancing? Tell me. What's your pleasure? M: Pleasure? To take my leave of you, of course. 'The lark hath spake, from twixt its wee beak.' You honestly thought I could bear an eternity of listening to that twaddle? Cut to Spike and Robin. "Fight back", Robin tells him. But, back to 1880, William doesn't: M: I feel extraordinary. It's as though I've been given new eyes. I see everything. Understand everything. W: Mother. M: I hate to be cruel. No I don't. I used to hate to be cruel in life. Now I find it rather freeing. Nothing less will pry your greedy little fingers off my apron strings, will it? W: Stop. Please. M: Ever since the day you first slithered from me like a parasite. W (short cut to Robin's garage and back:) What are you s... M: Had I known better, I could have spared myself a lifetime of tedium and just... (another short cut to Robin's garage and back:) dashed your brains out when I first saw you. (short cut to garage, and Robin burning a cross into Spike's face, and back:) God. I prayed you'd find a woman, to release me. But you scarcely showed an interest. Who could compare to your doddering, housebound mom? A captive audience for your witless prattle. (short cut to garage and back:) W: Whatever I was, that's not who I am any more. M: So. That's what you'll always be, a limp sentimental fool. So much for God. And who, then, is William now? He has power, and perhaps more confidence in himself, but he still feels love, human love, and he does not lack a conscience or he wouldn't still be standing here. Whoever he is, he's still William. There isn't any Spike to see. Short cut to garage. Robin says to Spike: "Hurts, doesn't it? This what it felt like? You beat the life out of her, toyed with her, (screaming:) when you snap her neck? Isn't that what Spike, if Spike had been there, should/would have done with his own mother? Isn't that what the Slayer does every day, killing the bad guys? No, and no. Cut to cemetery: G: Don't kill him yet. B: What? Why not? G: Because I'm asking you not to. Would you let this vampire live, if it meant saving the world? B (casually): Sure. Seems like a nice enough guy. Vamp: Thanks. B (perkily:) No problem. Vamp: My name's Richard. B: Hi, Rich. (keeps pummelling) Because this Slayer slays, she does not kill. Even if they're vampires. She's not doing what she does so well for fun. She's doing it because it's the work she has to do. It's not the rush she gets, it's not the power she wields. She takes no pleasure in it, it's just her job, ma'am, and she understands that her job is to save the world. So Holden will never get to leave the cemetery undead, even though she likes him well enough, because she always does her duty. Because it is her duty, she deals out justice. But the only time in her whole career that she ever dealt vengeance instead was to the vampire whore in Into the Woods, and she's had plenty of provocation. She tells Xander in Selfless that Spike was harmless, he was helping. Because he is not a danger, she lets him live. Just like she does with Anya, with Willow. It's a hard duty. But she has a mission. And love doesn't ever relieve her of it. Vengeance, however, is never who she is. B: Giles, we had this conversation. When I told you that I wouldn't sacrifice Dawn to stop Glory from destroying the world. G: Ah yes, but things are different now, aren't they? After what you've been through. Faced with the same choice now, you'd let her die. B: If I had to. To save the world. Yes. (Rich jumps her.) Can't I kill this guy yet? "When it's bad, Buffy won't choose you. She'll be against you." (PhantomJoyce to Dawn, BtVS 7.07 Conversations with Dead People, written by Jane Espenson & Drew Goddard). Sounds like foreshadowing, doesn't it? Last time Buffy did The Gift, she was at the end of her rope. She was presented with a moral dilemma she could not resolve, in which Dawn had to die to save the world, and it literally killed her. Dawn, in fact, meant to jump herself, because she understood the mission. But Buffy could not accept the sacrifice of her sister as a viable choice, even to save the world, and could not bear to live in a world in which those were the choices, and so in the end she switched sacrificial lambs and went herself. But this time she's not waiting for death to come to her. She's not caught in a sacrificial model. She hasn't got all her eggs in one basket. She's notably resourceful. She has much more powerful and focussed partners to work with. She is much stronger now, in terms of self-knowledge. And she's not predictive. At times this year, and notably in 7.10 Bring on the Night and 7.14 First Date, it has seemed to me, and I have reported, that Giles had been deliberately driving Buffy again to a point where, faced with an impossible or unbearable task, his Slayer moves again to a condition of catatonia. He's certainly seen that happen, so he knows which buttons to press. Why does he seem so indifferent to that possible result? Nevertheless he is right to point out that this time Buffy, unlike Giles and Robin in this episode, does mean to fulfill her mission. It's not personal, it's all about the big picture. But he's not allowing for Buffy's ethical line in the sand, just as he didn't in The Gift: "you can't fight evil by doing evil". That last battle will be staged in a different arena this time round, on Buffy's terms: she's moving towards assembling a field of trust on which to fight, in which sacrifice isn't an acceptable outcome. Giles, however, seems intent on moving in the other direction: G: So you really do understand the difficult decisions you'll have to make? That any one of us is expendable in this war? B: Have you heard my speeches? G: That you cannot allow any threat that might jeopardize our chances of winning. B: Yes, I get it. G: And yet there is Spike. There is indeed. Cut to garage. Spike's lying on the floor, badly beaten. Robin says to him: "An animal like you never cared for anyone but yourself. No one else mattered. Just all about the hunt." He removes Nikki's coat from Spike and folds it up. He grabs a crosspiece from the wall to use as a stake. Cut to 1880: M: You want to run, don't you? Scamper off and cry, to your new little trollop. Do you think you'll be able to love her? Think you'll be able to touch her without feeling me? All you've ever wanted is to be back inside. You finally got your wish, didn't you? Sank your teeth into me. An eternal kiss. W: No. I only wanted to make you well. M: You wanted your hands on me. Perhaps you'd like a chance to finish off what you've started. W: I loved you. I did. Not like this. M: Just like this. This is what you've always wanted. Who's my dark little prince? W: No. (throws her off.) M: Get out. Get out. (They struggle. She vamps.) There, there, precious. It will only hurt for a moment. W: I'm sorry. Cut to garage. Spike says "I'm sorry". Robin says "What?" Cut to 1880. And William stakes his mother, who dusts. Could there be a darker tale than that one? No demon made her, and no demon staked her. Love, human love, drove both decisions. And there we have it, the defining moment for the making of Spike out of William. The true cost of his love for his mother. No wonder he always responded to Joyce. No demon ever moved into some empty crypt when William was turned. It was William made the demon. As construct. As costume. As protection. Rage and necessity made a killer of that poet. It's an interesting old world, isn't it? And Spike rises as Master of Himself in the garage. He throws Robin off: R: Sorry? You think sorry's gonna make everything right? S: I wasn't talking to you. I don't give a piss about your mom. She was a Slayer. I was a vampire. That's the way the game is played. So, 'was' a vampire? R: Game? S: She knew what she was signing up for. R: Well, I didn't sign up for it. S: Well, that's the rub, isn't it? You didn't sign up for it, and somehow it's my fault. R: You took my childhood. You took her away. She was all I had. She was my world. S: And you weren't hers. Doesn't that piss you off? R: Shut up. You didn't know her. S: I know Slayers. No matter how many people they've got around them, they fight alone. Life of the Chosen One. The rest of us be damned. Your mother was no different. R: But she loved me. S: Not enough to quit, though, was it? Not enough to walk away. For you. I'll tell you a story. About a mother and son. See, like you, I loved my mother. So much so I turned her into a vampire. Yeah. So we could be together, forever. She said some nasty bits to me after I did that. Been wearing on me for quite some time. But you helped me figure something out. You see, unlike you, I had a mother who loved me back. And when I sired her, I set loose a demon, and it tore into me. But it was a demon talking. Not her. I realize that now. 'It was a demon talking', he says of his mother. But what demon in him was talking at any point in all those scenes with his mother? S: My mother loved me, with all her heart. I was her world. (Spike goes to push the button on the mouse and listen to the song. He doesn't vamp. He's beaten the trigger.) Thanks, doc. You cured me after all. I got my own free will now. I'm not under the First or anyone else's influences now. I just wanted you to know that (vamps). Before I kill you. (he goes for Robin's neck). Angel's scene, of course, in the hospital with Wesley and pillow. Cut to commercial break. Return to cemetery: G: Spike's a liability, Buffy. He refuses to see it, and so do you. Angel left here because he realized how harmful your relationship with him was. Spike, on the other hand, lacks such self-awareness. B: Spike is here because I want him here. We need him. I'm in the fight of my life. Vamp (flattered:) Really? B: Not you, Richard. G: You want Spike here, even after what he's done to you in the past. B: It's different now. He has a soul. G: And the First has exploited that to his disadvantage. B (epiphanied:) Omigod. (she takes the vamp.) You're stalling me. You're keeping me away.... G: It's time to stop playing the role of general, and start being one. Buffy runs off, Giles shouting after her: "This is the way wars are won." (count of three, for the unblinking.) Cut to Spike coming out of the garage, putting on the coat again. Buffy runs up, and asks Spike what happened. Spike opens the door again to reveal Robin slumped on the floor. "Omigod", Buffy says. Spike, still very angry, tells Buffy "I gave him a pass. Let him live. On account of the fact I killed his mother. But that's all he gets. He even so much as looks at me funny again, I'll kill him." He leaves. He's still dangerous. But he's not Angel either. Nobody had to pull him off this man who tried to kill him. How shall we define the free choices that make a good man? So now he's chosen to be done. Buffy goes in, helps Robin up. looks at the walls in the killing room. What she's thinking about the setup is clear: after all, she's been a vampire slayer for eight years. Nevertheless she speaks to him with real sympathy: B: I lost my mom, a couple of years ago. I came home and I found her dead on the couch. R: I'm sorry. B: I understand what you tried to do. But she's dead. R: Because he murdered her. B: I'm preparing to fight a war. And you're looking for revenge on a man who doesn't exist any more. R: Buffy, don't delude yourself. That man still exists. B: Spike is the strongest warrior we have. And we're gonna need him if we're gonna come out of this thing alive. You try anything again, he'll kill you. (Robin makes a disgusted sound.) More importantly, I'll let him. I have a mission. To win this war. To save the world. I don't have time for vendettas. (she turns and walks away) The mission is what matters. Buffy goes in to check on Dawn asleep, her sister who might have to die. She comes out to find Giles waiting for her in the hall: G: Buffy, I understand your anger. Please believe me. We did what we... B (cuts him off:) He's alive. Spike's alive. Wood failed. G: Well, that doesn't change anything. What I told you is still true. You need to learn... B (cuts him off again:) No. I think you've taught me everything I need to know. She walks away, closing the door in his face. We have two protagonists, and they are separate. Alone. And this needs to be true. Spike has his own story these days. Two protagonists, no question. The Slayer is always alone: the episode shows why, all too clearly. And rage and necessity have made a killer of that poet. Now they're both done with being docile, with being polite. And they don't need one another to save them, they can, and do, save themselves (though not by Giles' and Robin's way of reckoning). They set themselves free in the course of the piece. They are done with requiring rescue. The sympathy between them is based on trust, and that trust was built out of a hard place over three years of pain for both of them. They have been enemies. They have been lovers. They are friends and comrades. They patrol a landscape in a dimension Giles and Robin do not even see. They understand one another on some level the human non-combatants around them cannot know. Whenever Spike has chosen to kneel before her judgment, as Angel also once did before him, it isn't love or weakness that takes him there, but rather an absolute trust in the value of her judgment. That of the Slayer, and that of the girl. It's not a capitulation to a superior opponent, and it's not a belief that the power of love will ever save him from her stake. Because the Slayer is alone, and she will do whatever is needful to save the world. As he is alone, in a world that will never accept him. Trust was always Buffy's big issue, and, as we now see, it's Spike's too. Only Buffy trusts Spike absolutely. Only Spike trusts Buffy absolutely. Neither one of them extends absolute trust to anyone else, because Giles is never gonna get it back. Spike emphatically does not extend that right of judgment to the son of the Slayer he killed. He explicitly rejects every tenet of the redemption catalog here: remorse and forbearance and good deediness. But he chooses to own himself, as a demon and as a man. He takes Robin's measure, and he exacts his own judgment. And Buffy does the same with Giles and Robin. Now, they have chosen, separately, to live unchained. And it brings them strength and it brings them power. Inasmuch as they can see them at all, most of the humans around them are afraid of both Buffy and Spike. They fail to understand both the nature of strength and the nature of power. They rightly link the issues they see with trust, but they make the wrong assessment. Willow trusts Buffy, and Buffy on some level trusts Willow, that's clear in the exchange that sends Willow to Los Angeles after Fred's call. There are some signs to suggest that Xander also is beginning to come round to trusting Buffy (and even respecting Spike). But Giles and Robin and Anya and Kennedy and Rona do not trust, partly because because they misunderstand the nature of both strength and power, partly because they understand vengeance better than justice, partly because they seek control on their own behalf. This makes them the wildcards in Buffy's current apocalypse: even though they prefer to think Buffy and Spike are the wildcards. They're not focussed on battle strategies, but rather on their own grievances. They haven't correctly identified the mission, much less committed to it. What Robin and Giles tried to do was murder, and that one isn't over. There may yet be another round of Kill the Spike. Is this the way that wars are won? Two journeys. Five episodes left. Justice and vengeance are colliding. We passed redemption several exits back. Still working on the nature of Slayers, and the nature of vampires. Spike has reclaimed himself. Buffy's heart has already made its choices. Can she still be alone if he is there? We're back to the beginning, we're so close to the end. She's broken all the chains this time, and gone to find him. He doesn't know she's coming. She's playing out string in the labyrinth, feeling her way, and the answer is already there to find: Brown Hat Shadow Man (subtitle): We are at the beginning. The source of your strength. The well of the slayer's power. Red Hat Shadow Man (subtitle): This is why we have brought you here. Buffy: I thought I brought me here. Listen, you guys. I'm already the slayer, bursting with power. Really don't need any more. Red Hat Shadow Man (subtitle): The First Slayer did not talk so much. (re box he's holding:) Herein lies your truest strength. Black Hat Shadow Man (subtitle): The energy of the demon. Its spirit. Brown Hat Shadow Man (subtitle): Its heart. (BtVS 7.15 Get It Done, written by Douglas Petrie)