From: "macha" To: ; ; ; ; Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 2:16 PM Subject: on beyond sacrifice: becoming in light on beyond sacrifice: becoming in light [the last exegesis, quick and dirty, on the last episode, BtVS 7.22 Chosen, BtVS episode #144, buffyverse episode #232. i have seen the episode four times and read no commentary. all transcriptions from the episode are my own, but older quotation might be either mine or from Buffy dataBase. the last words of the piece are 'it's not yours', and if that's not true in the copy you're looking at, you don't have the whole thing, but the website for your list will have it, and soon so will The Crypt, right here: http://lubakmetyk.hispeed.com/others/macha/musings/7-22.txt musical accompaniment to this work by J.S. Bach. The Passions, of course. macha macha@ntl.sympatico.ca and on the morning of that day she rose, and put her tools away] In the pantheon of the Godless now, The Slayer lives in light. But her duty is dark, and her fate is fixed. Which parts of herself belong, then, to the girl, and which to the Slayer? Is she meant, truly, to live long enough to know? The Slayer slays, and the maiden pays. "A slaughterhouse is what it is", as Anya the master of the inconvenient truth says in End of Days. And we know, as she knows, she has lived too long on the endless fields of battle that are her only sure birthright. And still she cannot rest. Seven years down, and a short trip back Was the length of the Slayer's reign And in that time she died but twice But she came right back again. What is she meant for? What has she left undone that friends can call her even out of heaven into light that burns, harsh and bright and violent, to relive again the same set of hard choices she cannot escape? What has she done to make herself the Lamb, that endless sacrifice of grace that calls her back to duty when it's done, eternal champion bleeding for the world? G: But I have sworn to protect this sorry world, and sometimes that means saying and doing... what other people can't. What they shouldn't have to. B: You try to hurt her and you know I'll stop you. G: I know. B: This is how many apocalypses for us now? G: Oh well, six, at least. Feels like a hundred. B: I've always stopped them. Always won. G: Yes. B: I sacrificed Angel to save the world. I loved him *so* much... but I *knew*. What was right. I don't have that any more. I *don't* understand. I don't know how to live in this world, if these are the choices, if everything just gets stripped away. I don't see the point. I just wish... I just wish my mom was here. (starts to walk out) The spirit guide told me that Death is my gift. I guess that means a Slayer really is just a killer after all. (Buffy and Giles in the training room, BtVS 5.22 The Gift, written by Joss Whedon) And surely there are endless little girls to call. But it is Faith the Dark who holds the Slayer line. So Buffy's death will never change the line of succession. It is Buffy, not Faith, who is anomalous in the verse. It is not the sharing of power that is the problem, it is not the office that needs her, it is the girl that is doomed to relive everything until she learns - what?, caught in this loop and wearing her stigmata of suffering a little less lightly every year. It is Buffy who needs to meet the Guardian, because it is Buffy who can find a new model for how to use the axe. What is different about Buffy Summers? Three things. First. she confounds prophecy. She acts and cannot be played. She lives in the evitable. She is not predictive. Second, she will not do evil to fight evil. And third, metaphorically speaking, she sheds light. And these three things have three consequences. Although in her Office she has most always represented the rule of order, playing the good one, the sheriff ("I am the Law"), in herself she is by nature a chaos figure. And, she always knows the difference between good and evil, and acts only for and with good. Finally, the light inside her is so strong that it has drawn two creatures of darkness up out of the dark to stand eternally on behalf of light. No other Slayer we have ever seen has these qualities, and so we are entitled to suspect that they belong not to the Slayer but rather to the girl. In the buffyverse as it exists so far, there are only three protagonists, across two shows. Two vampires fell into her light, and were changed, and chose to act for Good, forever, against their natures. In the language of this World they were both Chosen by her, drawn and held, protected by her light although they burned until they learned to make good choices and were set free. By everything she knew they were forbidden and unclean, but still they came to her and knelt before her judgment and she chose to dream them whole, and let them unlive, and she trusted them to use their power to help until they learned to stand alone. And so of course they come to her at the End of Days, Angel in the clinch, Spike looking on from the shadows. Angel: Well, guess that qualifies as happy to see me. Buffy: Angel, what are you doing - Don't even - I just want to bask. (Beat.) Okay, I'm basked. What are you doing here? Not an auspicious beginning, you think? Still, down in the vault of the Guardian, with First Evil lurking and the preacher on the floor, we begin with imagery of sunlight from the Slayer who has lived two years in darkness. Two vampires fell into her light, now here they are. And for them she made choices that changed her world, her self, against all she knew, against advice: to lay the crossbow down, to give herself, to offer shelter, to offer faith. And through her choices they were changed, and chose to fight for light against their natures. Yeah, it's about choices. We're a long way past redemption now. Three protagonists spread across two shows, consequences of Buffy's gift for gathering. A: Not saving a damsel in distress, that's for sure. B: Well, you know me. Not much with the damseling. A: You got your share of distress, though. B: You heard? A: I got coverage on the whole thing. It's very gripping. It needs a third act. B: You have to leave L.A. Now ain't that cute, a window in to the conscious narrator. Possibly headed for Cleveland, I'm betting the last battle wasn't a picnic to shoot. 232 episodes in, and there's still no sign of an end to this story, tell you that much. And not a damsel to be had at either end of the Sunnydale/L.A. run, with the possible exception of Andrew. Buffy played damsel once, in 2.06 Halloween, but she got typecast in the role that night and swore to herself, never again, you bet. And Big Bad Spike was present that time too, ready to eat her, easy pickings on the only night she smelled of prey and not of predator. Remember that? The narrator expects us to remember, all of it. He remembers too, why he built that small blond girl, and it wasn't to die. Here's Caleb again, but our heroine's busy Having a Conversation and now she's bored with the Preacher, invincible or not: B (fighting:) Okay, how many times do I have to kill you? Ballpark figure? C: You understand nothing. You think you have power over me. Stupid girl. You'll never stop me. You don't have the [balls]. B (casually splitting him open with the axe from the crotch straight on up:) Who does nowadays? A (getting up from where Caleb threw him:) Okay, now I'm pissed. Where is he? B (starts to laugh, glancing at the pieces on both sides:) He had to split. FEB (2S, still watching:) Yeah, she needs you real bad. Girl power, the definitive illustration. Testosterone displays, wasted on Slayers, no question. No damsels here. Power, the First's deal: Buffy's first lesson to Dawn is that it isn't about power at all, but rather about what's real. And she tells the Men that it isn't power she needs, it's knowledge. Threes are a good, even with this tricky dynamic governing the room, because they herald change. Not endings, but beginnings. They're springboards, see, from here to somewhere else. Taking the Story forward, into OtherWhen. Also, of course, auspicious. Angel presents the first gift of his deal with Wolfram & Hart (A4.22 Home), Lilah's suspect file: "any port in an apocalypse", says Buffy. Then he shows her the Bauble: B: I can already tell you I have nothing that goes with that. A: It's not for you. B: Explaining? A: I don't know everything. It's very powerful, and probably very dangerous. Is it purifying power, or cleansing power, or scrubbing bubbles? Translation is a (exasperated noise) - Anyway, it bestows strength on the right person who wears it. B: And the right person is? A: Someone ensouled, but stronger than human, and a champion. As in me. B: Or me. A: No. I don't know nearly enough about this to risk you wearing it. Besides, you got that real cool axe thing. (Spike sneaks off, just at the wrong moment.) That Angel, always so prone to make her decisions for her. (One thing about Angel, though, unlike ME he knows the difference between an axe and a scythe. Especially given that they're not even slightly similar.) So these are the only three people in the world qualified to wear the Bauble. The royal three, some assembly required. Two vampires fell into her light. Angel to Lilah in Home: "I'm not bursting into flames". And Angel simply assumes that he will fight beside Buffy as her champion in the final battle. So he's really put out when she tells him she doesn't want him there. She wants a second front set up outside Sunnydale, in case she loses: A: Okay. That's one reason. What's the other? B: There is no other. (She walks away.) A: Is it Spike? (He follows her outside.) You're not telling me something. It's the scent. I remember it pretty well. B: Vampires. Anyone ever tell you the whole smelling-people thing's a little gross? A: Is he your boyfriend? B (tired of it, walking away:) Is that your business? A: You in love with him? Okay, maybe I'm out of line. This is kind of a curve ball for me. I mean, we are talking about Spike here. Angel and Spike, perfectly cast for an genuine eternal triangle or what? Angel's pretty consistent in considering Buffy his territory, and boy is he territorial. It's a predator thing. Remember how disappointed Angelus was earlier in the season to learn it was the other Slayer, Faith, who was coming? Plus there's the grandsire thing between the two vampires, and the collision between their worldviews, plus the whole personal history thing. Yeah, isn't AtS gonna be fascinating to watch next season? There goes the Angel Importance Field. B: It's different. He's different. He has a soul now. A: Huh. Well. B: What? A: That's great. (Peevish:) Everyone's got a soul now. B: It'll make a difference. A: You know, I started it. The whole having a soul. Before it was all the cool new thing. B: Omigod, are you twelve? A: I'm getting the brushoff for Captain Peroxide. It doesn't necessarily bring out the champion in me. Nossir, he doesn't like it. Cursed with it, mind, but damn proud of it all the same. Hey, I feel privileged to have got to witness this hilarious conversation, which I often imagined but never expected to get to see (thank you, Joss). And there goes his whole raison d'etre. Poof. Poor Angel, who so needs to have a purpose in this world. Now the Powers are gone, and Cordy's gone, and Connor's gone, and he's made a deal with the devil, and nobody in the past year has even thought to brief him on the fact that he is no longer unique. Why, those prophecies could apply to...? Ouch. B: You're not getting the brushoff. Are you just gonna come here and go all Dawson on me every time I have a boyfriend? A: Aha! Boyfriend! B: He's not. But (head held high:) he is in my heart. A: That'll end well. "In my heart" is one huge admission for Buffy, especially made to Angel. One result will be that Angel will become responsible for Spike: he won't be able to 'accidentally on purpose' kill him. No clumsy tripping on stakes, no piles of dust to sweep under the carpet. Buffy wouldn't like it: in predator terms, Buffy has marked the boy. Boy, that soul really is a curse, isn't it? Tsk. B: What was the highlight of our relationship? When you broke up with me, or when I killed you? (He considers, and says nothing.) Well considered. Intriguing question, though. In 2.22 Becoming 2 she killed him to save the world, and possibly never recovered. Angelus might vote for the day that Angel marked her, 3.22 Graduation Day. And that's where we are, really: another apocalypse with a twisted ending, another highschool about to blow, Buffy's decision to kill FaithDark to save Angel, Angel drinking the blood of the Slayer. And walking away for the last time. So, this is really another last time scene they're stuck in here. You think Buffy is doomed to repeat world saveage on the highschool ground until she gets it right? B: I'm well aware of my stellar history with guys. And no, I don't see fat grandchildren in the offing with Spike. But I don't think that really matters right now. Fat grandchildren. With Spike. Well. Imagine her thinking of that, especially when talking about vampire lovers. There's a challenge in there somewhere. It's gotta be her conversation with the Guardian in End of Days that's got her thinking in this direction, the first affirmation she got that she could actually win this fight. The first indication that Buffy might move, from a death to a life model. She tries to explain to Angel how she feels about herself, that she isn't finished, that she can't know who she'll be when she's done, so it's not time to make those kinds of choices. She 's thinking about the dreams: "You think you know ... what's to come ... what you are. You haven't even begun." Instead of seeing herself as an expiration date, this time she's daring to think of becoming. That part is new. Angel, of course, wants to know if he's got a chance when she's done, and he gets an ambiguous answer before he goes: B: Not really thinking that far ahead. That's kinda the point. (He hands over the Bauble.) A: I'll go start working on the second front. Make sure I don't have to use it. (He walks away.) B: I do sometimes think that far ahead. A (cheerier:) Sometimes is something. B: Be a long time. Years, if ever. A (grinning from the shadows:) I ain't getting any older. Does this give him an edge? Maybe a toehold. She doesn't rule it out. Back at Revello Drive her sister kicks her in the shins for trying to send her away. Buffy takes it pretty well. "If you get killed, I'm telling." Pretty much, they're all twelve on this particular night. Vamps included. Buffy goes downstairs to Spike, viciously attacking the punching bag. FirstEvil's whispers haven't had the slightest effect, in that he continues to wear his heart on his sleeve (days he has a sleeve, that is). He tells her straight out he was there, saw the kiss, heard about the Bauble. She says the kiss was a hello, he questions the tongue factor, she denies any tongue factor: B: Besides, he's gone. S: Oh, just popped by for a quickie then? B: Good. Good. I haven't had quite enough jealous vampire crap for one night. Spike evidently is way more threatened by Angel than he was by Wood, thus showing a firm grasp on reality: B (sighs:) You know, one of these days I'm just gonna put you two in a room and just let you wrassle it out. S: No problem at this end. B: Hmm. (perkily:) There could be oil of some kind involved. I'm in. Can we do that next season, please, Joss? They get to the Bauble: S: Someone with a soul, but more than human. Angel meant to wear it. That means I'm the qualified party. B: It's volatile. We don't know that.... S: Well, you need someone strong enough to bear it then. You were planning on giving it to Andrew? B: Angel said the amulet was meant to be worn by a champion. (He looks at her, then hangs his head. She hands him the amulet, looking into his eyes.) S: I've been called a lot of things in my time.... Yeah, but champion was never one. Her judgment on the purity of his intentions. Bit of a moment. Angel cast himself in the role, in the third act yet unwritten, but she would not set aside the one she had already Chosen. She names Spike hero now, for the first time. There follows a very intimate little spat, in sharp contrast to the stately setpiece earlier exchange with Angel: B (hanging her head:) Faith still has my room. S (outraged:) Well, you're not staying here. You can't buy me off with shiny beads and sweet talk. You got Angel breath. I'm not gonna just let you two whack me back and forth like a rubber ball. I've got my pride, you know. B: I understand. (She turns away. He blocks her path.) S: Clearly you don't, cause the whole having the pride thing was just a smokescreen. B: Thank god. (They both smile.) S (confiding:) I dunno what I would have done if you'd gone up those stairs. (She gives him a big smile and her hand caresses his cheek. One.) It feels like 4.09 Something Blue, that scene. If feels more intimate than desire, in the realm of love. No promises, on the eve of battle. Buffy initiates a passionate kiss (hello?) with Angel when they meet, after a long parting. But after that, in a very long scene, they do not touch, or even stay close. It's a constant in their relationship, because proximity is always a clear and present danger, because of the curse. It keeps the whole thing in the realm of fantasy, boasting the lure of the so-forbidden. It isn't (the lesson about power, the truth about choices) real. But Buffy and Spike are dancing a different dance altogether. Their encounters have the messiness, the feeling, of real life. They reveal themselves to one another. In the next shot they are curled up together on the cot, still dressed, his arm around her. She caresses it, before she gets up. Two. As she crosses the basement, there's a strange time lapse thing going on. FirstEvilCaleb appears, making threats. FEC: I will overrun this earth. And when this army outnumbers the humans on this earth, the scales will tip, and I will be made flesh. B: Talk on. I'm not afraid of you. FEC: Then why aren't you asleep? In your dead lover's arms. (She glances at the cot where Spike still sleeps, and he looks too.) Cause he can't help you. Nor Faith. Nor your friends. Cartainly not your wanna-slay brigade. None of those girlies will ever know real power unless you're dead. You know the drill. Now a curious thing happens. Caleb morphs into FirstEvilBuffy, who is wearing the same clothes Buffy is wearing. And at that point the angle of the shot changes, and you can see the basement stairs behind Buffy, and the door at the top ajar. So the imagery throughout the short scene is of levels, with the promise of light. Buffy on one side of the stairs, Spike sleeping on the other. Is it a portent of Ascensions? Of Enlightenment? FirstBuffy confronts the Slayer head-on, in side view. FEB (intones:) Into each generation a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world. She alone will have the strength and skill to - There's that word again. What you are. How you'll die. Alone. (Pause.) Where's your snappy comeback? B: You're right. FEB: Hmm. Not your best. It's a revelation. Not meant to be, of course, but still the real kicker's that it comes from FirstEvilBuffy, who admits she longs for connection, to the real girl. There's a way out of that basement Xander was caught in, in his dream in Restless. There's a way out of that confrontation, when the FirstSlayer told her in Restless she was meant to be alone. There's a way to change the ending, save the world without the sacrifice. S (shouts and wakes himself up:) I'm drowning in footware. (Sits up.) Huh. Weird dream. (He sees that Buffy's standing there.) Buffy. Is there something wrong? B: No. Yeah. Something that really never occurred to me before. We're gonna win. There's a warroom meeting in the bedroom. Looks like seeing through an open door. When the camera pulls back, though, it's a mirror. Dawn, Willow, Xander, Anya are all reflected in the mirror Buffy is standing on one side of (Faith on the other). Giles is off to the side, invisible except when he's speaking. Buffy's not issuing orders or giving speeches today, she's soliciting opinions. B (anxiously:) What do you think? X: That depends. Are you in any way - kidding? B: You don't think it's a good idea? F: It's pretty radical, B. G: It's a lot more than that. Buffy, what you said, it flies in the face of everything we've ever - that every generation has ever done in the fight against evil. (His face cracks with the grin that's overcoming his serious face:) I think it's bloody brilliant. (Faith starts to grin too.) B: You mean that? G: If you want my opinion. B: Really do. (Now he's really grinning.) WP: Whoa. Hey. Not to poop on the party here, but I'm the guy who's going to have to pull this thing off. F: It is beaucoup de mojo. W: This goes beyond anything I've ever done. It's a total loss of control. And not in a nice wholesome, my-girlfriend-has-a-pierced-tongue kind of way. B: I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could do it. W: I- I- I'm not sure that I'm stable enough. G: You can do this, Willow. We'll get the coven on the line, and we'll find out how they can help. D (loudly:) Oh! (muttering:) Pierced tongue. B (hurriedly:) Dawn needs to do a research thing. G: Yes. You do. D: It's cool. Watcher junior to the library. "Now give me back my friends." (Buffy to FirstSlayer, in Restless) Ah. So that's the lay of the futures market in Dawn's direction. Total loss of control, always Willow's nightmare (Restless again). Faith making the bed with Buffy ("just when we'd made it so nice", BtVS 4.15 This Year's Girl, written by Douglas Petrie). "I am not alone"; Buffy has finally won the battle with the First Slayer in Restless. G: I'll dig out my sources. Quite literally, actually. Two of the people I have to speak to are dead. Wow. Here I was thinking *he* was dead, but he's certainly come to life now. Love and trust and strength that Slayer's got so much of now she's giving it away in all directions. Hmm. Gave Spike the Bauble. Sorry. Back to our program. Anya: C'mon. Let's go summon the cannon fodder. X: That's not what we're calling them, sweetie. Anya: Not to their faces. What am I, insensitive? They all head off, leaving Buffy to hand Willow the axe. The troops gather in the livingroom. Buffy's giving an anti-speech about her Calling: B: I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there's evil, that I was Chosen to fight it. I wish a whole lot of the time that I hadn't been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn't been either. This isn't about wishes. This is about choices. She's standing just where she stood when they rejected her in Empty Places. Spike is at her right hand, Faith at her left. B: I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes, when its army is ready. Now. Tomorrow morning, I'm opening the Seal. I'm going down into the Hellmouth and I'm finishing this once and for all. Right now, you're asking yourself what makes this different, what makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one. It's true. None of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here's the part where you make a choice. Cut to Wood and Faith moving boxes at the school. Or maybe Faith is shedding baggage, because Wood clearly wins their interesting fight against Faith's isolationist Slayer view of intimacy, even after Faith's testosterone starts to flow and she undoes her belt buckle to have another go. Cut to Willow and Kennedy, Willow making notes. Willow's terrified of herself. She tells Kennedy she might have to kill her. Kennedy tells her Buffy believes in her. Willow picks up her notes to go over everything again just one more time. Cut to Giles, at the end of the diningroom table. This is such a fabulous scene, a Storyteller jewelled frame, a commentary on the whole business of making war and making movies and looking death in the eye: G: I'm all turned around. You're here. (He's looking at maps. The camera pulls back to reveal Xander, on Giles' left.) X: By the pillar, yeah. I'm protecting this area. G: That puts me over by the door. Demons around the perimeter. Right. I open the door. (Pan across to Andrew, on Giles' right, wearing a red hood.) Andrew: You go through the door and are confronted by Trogdor the Burningator. G: Oh, bugger it. Fight. (He rolls dice.) Andrew: [Audius] five hit points. Trogdor has badly wounded you. G: Wait a minute. What about my bag of illusions? Andrew (laughs bitterly:) Illusions against a Burningator? Silly, silly British man. Amanda: I've got time flux on a trapdoor. (She grins.) Andrew: Step down, girlfriend. You can't just - Amanda: I have double sorceror. And I carry the emerald chalice. Trogdor is frozen in time. Deal with it. X: Smackdown, red ridinghood. This could get ugly. G: Could it possibly get uglier? I used to be a highly respected Watcher. Now I'm a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily. I just want to go to sleep. Amanda: What kind of a person could sleep on a night like this? X (Pan back to X, reaching across to ruffle Anya's hair - she's passed out on the table:) Only the crazy ones. (She's snoring gently.) And there's Giles redeemed with one grin in the bedroom scene, plus the self-assessment of that single doily line above. Within the POV of the camera not obscura, within the metaphor of the gamesmanship that lies at the root of the art of war. Death models in a game of life. With the unreliable narrator as the dungeonmaster. The economical mastery that is the Mind of Joss. No time to do all this now, you say? Tick frickin' tock. Cut to Buffy, leaning against the pillar of the front verandah. It's the last time we'll ever see the house on Revello Drive. Cut to Spike on his cot, holding up the Bauble, and looking at it. Champion. "This isn't about wishes. It's about choices." So are they both engaged in making choices. She comes down the stairs to the basement and he puts the Bauble down and stands up. They look at one another from across the room. The screen blacks out deliberately. Three. So, did you blink? Cut to large school bus in front of the high school. It's morning. Significant, that, to the final battle. Lucifer the star of morning. Mourning. Wood leads the march into the school. Spike under a blanket. RW: Welcome to Sunnydale High. There's no running in the halls. No yelling. No gum chewing. Apart from that, there's only one rule. If they move, kill them. Great speech. Potentials with Buffy, Faith, and Spike, down to the Seal. Willow and Kennedy to Wood's office right over the Seal to do the magicks. 'Civilians', Wood names the rest of them. Three pairs: Giles and Wood to defend the lounge, Xander and Dawn to defend the atrium, Anya and Andrew to defend the north hall. Andrew: We will defend it with our very lives. Anya: Yes. We will defend it with his very life. X: And don't be afraid to use him as a human shield. Anya (enthused:) Good. Yes. Thanks. Andrew: I just wanna say how proud I am to die for this very special cause with you guys. And some people I'd like to thank (pulling speech from pocket), both good and evil. A shoutout (all wobbly voiced) to my brother Tucker who gave the inspiration to summon demons, and also - Anya (pulling him away:) Nobody cares, you little monkey. Gallows humour. Eleven hundred years of experience. Andrew who lives in the sacrificial. And Tucker's brother goes off with the Perfect Woman prepared to die. Should have taken the opportunity to kiss her first before the Oscar acceptance speech. Maybe if it had been Xander. Dawn refuses to have a conversation with Buffy in the goodbye. Buffy walks back. Only Willow, Xander, and Giles are still standing in the center hall. The oldest Scooby team. How many apocalypses is it now for them all? They've stopped counting. Another perfect scene between the four, standing in a circle. It's awkward for a moment. Then Buffy starts them rolling: B: What do you guys wanna do tomorrow? (It's her adolescent voice, the voice of "I broke a nail, I'm wearing a press-on", from their -- second, was it? -- apocalypse at Sunnydale). W: Nothing strenuous. X: Well, mini-golf is always the first thing that comes to mind. G: I think we can do better than that. (They're already stepping on each other's lines. They put the casual into casualties. The camera revolves around the circle they make.) B: Well, I was thinking about shopping, as usual. How long has it actually been since Buffy's been shopping? Everyone has left town. The stores have all been looted anyway. It doesn't matter. They're making a tomorrow for themselves. It's a ritual of love and safety. "I walk, I talk, I shop, I sneeze".... W: Ah. There's a new [I?] & B in the new mall. X: I could use a few items. G: Are we going to discuss this? Save the world, and go to the mall? (They're talking faster and faster. The camera's circling around them.) B: I'm having a wicked shoe craving. X: Aren't you on the patch? W: Those never work. G: And here I am, invisible to the eye, and can't do anything about it. X: See, I need a new look. It's this whole eyepatch thing. (He starts off down the hall without further ado, Willow and Buffy on either side, Giles looking after them.) B: Oh! You could go with the whole black secret agent look. W: Or with the puffy shirt. Pirate/... G (turning to go in the other direction:) The earth is definitely doomed. And there we are, as effortlessly as that, back to the beginning: G: We're at the center of a mystical convergence here. We may, in fact, stand between the Earth and its total destruction. B: Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school! X: Oh, yeah, that's a plan. 'Cause lots of schools aren't on Hellmouths. W: Maybe you could blow something up. They're really strict about that. B: I was thinking of a more subtle approach, y'know, like excessive not studying. G: The Earth is doomed! (BtVS 1.02 The Harvest, written by Joss Whedon) Cut to a frontal shot of Buffy and Willow and Xander, three, not talking any more, strolling casually down the hall. Willow goes into RW's office. Buffy & Xander grab hands for a moment, before he heads for the Atrium. Buffy keeps walking. The hall is littered with paper (old scripts, I wondered? thinking, naturally, of the text). The shot segues seamlessly into Buffy in the dark of the school basement, followed closely by Spike. They are down at the Seal, with Faith and all the Potentials. Buffy gives blood first, and they all follow, standing with their hands outstretched on the Seal, which opens up. Always about the blood. Death, communion, and community. Buffy and Faith look at one another, Chosen Two not meant to be, about-to-be-dead dichotomies, and move forward together. Willow and Kennedy sit on the floor, facing one another. K: They should be in place. W: Okay. Magic time. You ready to (laughs weakly:) kill me? K (calmly:) Starting to be. W: Good. Fun. Great. (She puts her hands on the axe in front of her.) Brace yourself. K (softly:) Come on, Red. Make it happen. Spike's concerned because his Bauble is inert. And he's not big with the Elizabeth Taylor look. "Cheer up, Liz", Faith tells him. "Willow's big spell doesn't work, it won't matter what you wear." Buffy keeps saying "I'm not worried". The three of them (three), two Slayers and a vampire hero, keep moving forward, slow, till they reach the chasm edge and look over. There are huge fires below, forges, and demons. So many. The demons look up. Willow's busy chanting. She has her hands on the axe. "Oh. My. Goddess", she says. The axe of the Guardians is emitting light. Cut back to the end of the livingroom scene, all present. Buffy's still talking: B: So here's the part where you make a choice. What if you could have that power? Now. In every generation one Slayer is born, because a bunch of Men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman (stopping to point at Willow) is more powerful than all of them combined. (Willow responds with a sickly smile.) So I say we change the rule. I say my power should be our power. (Cut to Kennedy, coming into hers, then Vi, Rona, Amanda, all blissful.) Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of this scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer will be a Slayer. Every girl who could have the Power will have the Power. Can stand up, will stand up. Slayers. Every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong? Cut back to the axe, Willow's hands still on it, light still rising from it. Cut to the dark, demons still charging. Cut to Vi, looking at them coming: "These guys are dust." The battle begins. They are all Slayers. Cut to Kennedy, euphoric. She looks at Willow, does a doubletake. Willow is shot in negative, laughing, glowing, still holding the axe. The Red Witch hasn't gone all DarkEyed Girl. She has gone White. white without and white within sympathetic magic, win. Tara would be so proud of her. Kennedy's plenty impressed. She lets go, slumps a little, WillowRed again, triumphant. She hands Kennedy the axe to take to Buffy, and falls over bonelessly to lie prone on the floor. And says, pure Willow, pure bliss: "That was nifty." Some of the demons get up the stairs. Anya's in front of Andrew. Anya: Oh, god, I'm terrified. I didn't think. I mean, I just thought you'd be terrified, and I would be sarcastic about it. Andrew: Picture happy things. A lake, candycanes, bunnies. Anya: Bunnies. Floppy, hoppy bunnies. (*Now* she's ready.) Buffy's shouting "Keep the line together. Drive them to the edge. We can't let them -", when she gets skewered from behind and falls face forward, like a tree toppling. Faith sees her down and goes to her, kneeling down (Faith who always loved her in spite of everything). Buffy, in agony, tells her to "hold the line" and gives her the axe. Faith relieves her feelings by laying into every demon handy. Anya is fighting well, till she's skewered from behind, and dies. Wood also gets skewered. Faith gets taken down by a bunch of demons, but throws the axe to Rona. Buffy is still on the ground, hurting, but aware the others are in trouble. Amanda goes down, dead. FirstEvilBuffy comes by to taunt Buffy: "You came pretty close to smacking me down. What more do you want?" "I want you", Buffy says, "to get out of my face." It's the final end to the sacrificial model. And the Slayer rises. Rona throws her the axe. And they start to win. And as they do, Spike in the midst of battle is transfixed beside the stairs going up and starts emitting light. The Bauble is working. Because that light in him is destroying all the Turok-han, in the battle and in the pit. He calls to her, she calls to him and goes. The light is blinding. Faith starts an evacuation. What is the Bauble? Does the light reveal it as a Guardian thing, like the axe? Is it Spike coming into his own? Or the consequence of joining? Is this what a shanshu looks like? Boy, if it is, Angel's gonna be really pissed: S: I can feel it, Buffy. B: What? S: My soul. It's really there. Kinda stings. It's a lifeforce, certainly. There is no death in it, iconically: You are full of love. You love with all your soul. It's brighter than the fire, blinding. That's why you pull away from it. (Spirit Guide to Buffy, in BtVS 5.18 Intervention, written by Jane Espenson - and after that Buffy kisses Spike for the first time, knowing love is her gift, and tells him she won't forget the gift he gave her) But it's his turn to choose. He earned these choices. The girls duck under the light to the stairs, run down the halls and out of the building, rescuing Andrew on the way. Giles and Wood are directing them to the bus. Xander looks for Anya but doesn't see her lying dead. Dawn comes and pulls him out of the building. Spike's still transfixed in light: Lucifer the star of morning fallen angel becoming Lord of Light in a single night And he chooses to let her go, at the moment when she chooses not to deny she loves him: S: Go on, then. B: No, you've done enough. You could still - S: No. You beat them back. It's for me to do the cleanup. F (on stairs:) Buffy, come on. S: Gotta move, lamb...School's out for bloody summer. B: Spike. S: I mean it. Gotta do this. (The pit is collapsing inward. She entwines her hand with his and he grasps it tightly. Flames come from it.) B: I love you. S: No you don't. But thanks for saying it. (She's crying. More stuff falls. She has to take her hand back.) Now go. It's a lifeforce, certainly. There is no death in it, iconically. And he claims it for himself. He severs their destinies. When she goes, he says to himself, Spike rather than William to the not-so-bitter end: "I want to see how it ends." But it's not an ending: The vampire with a soul, once he fulfils his destiny, will shanshu [live and die, that is, become mortal].... And if the beast shall find thee, and touch thee, thou shall be wounded in thy soul, and thou shall know madness, and the beast shall attack and cripple thee, and thou shalt know neither friend nor family. But thou shalt undo the beast... and thou shalt be restored.... Even as life and death are not two things but one. In darkness is the light, in light is the darkness. Arise! Arise! Arise! Arise! Arise! Arise! (from The Prophecies of Aberjian, AtS 1.22 To Shanshu in L.A., written by David Greenwalt) Faith's the last one on the bus. They take off. Buffy runs the halls, still with the axe. Everything's falling down. She goes up the stairs to the roof. Spike's laughing, exultant, a pure chaos figure, transfixed, transfigured, drawn to the fire as always: Come on. When was the last time you unleashed it? All out fight in a mob, back against the wall, nothing but fists and fangs? Don't you ever get tired of fights you know you're going to win? (Spike to Angelus, Yorkshire 1880, BtVS 5.07 Fool for Love, written by Douglas Petrie) as his body combusts, turning cinders but not dusting, still glowing, burnt clean, ecstatic, "purified", and still emitting light. This time he went for choices, not for wishes. On the bus Xander and Vi are dispensing first aid. Andrew says to himself "Why didn't I die?" Dawn's at the back of the bus, still looking for Buffy. And Buffy's following the bus on the tops of buildings, leaping from one to the other as they collapse behind her and beneath her. A chaos figure, dancing on the ruins of her city, on the dust of her duty: and riding all her symbols of the rule of order down to ground and free of all the weight of that at last Dawn sees her coming. No more full copper repipe. No more Sunnydale. Buffy and Joss between them took out first Hemery High, then Sunnydale High twice, and then the whole city: recipe for a happy life. Buffy leaps onto the top of the bus and rides it as whole blocks of Sunnydale fall into the abyss just behind them. "Ease off", Faith says. "We're clear". The bus stops, Buffy jumps down, Dawn jumps out and hugs her. No goodbyes. "I don't understand", Giles says. "What did this?" Buffy smiles sadly/proudly. "Spike." She walks to the edge of the road. Sunnydale is completely gone, fallen in. As she looks, the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign falls down into the chasm. Spike has managed to take it out at long last. X (stopping Andrew:) So did you see? Andrew: I - I was scared. I'm sorry. (He can't look at Xander. He's ashamed to be alive when Anya's not. He tries to walk away, but Xander stops him again.) X: Did you see what happened? I mean, was she - Andrew (finally turning to look Xander in the eye:) She was incredible. She died saving my life. X (claps him on the shoulder:) That's my girl. Always doing the stupid thing. (They grin at one another. Andrew nods.) Eleven hundred years of life and she still chose not to skedaddle. Not a bad epitaph. And one of Xander's best moments. F: Looks like the Hellmouth is officially closed for business. G: There's another one in Cleveland. (Off everyone's look:) Not to spoil the moment. The Slayer from Cleveland in The Wish, that Buffy never became, though it was a close call sometimes, in the last two seasons, when it took a dead man's very best efforts to keep her going. Cordelia's wish, that Buffy Summers has never come to Sunnydale, that Anyanka granted. In which Willow and Xander turned evil, and the Slayer walked through Angel's dust ("I waited for you, but you never came.") to her death at the hands of the Master. "It is what it is. We live, we die. Wishing doesn't change that." X: We saved the world. W: We changed the world. I can feel them, Buffy. All over. Slayers are awakening everywhere. D: We'll have to find them. W: We will. But this is a world of choices, better than wishes, and this Slayer has Chosen to remake the world, to exchange power for love. So this one lives, into a world chockful of Slayers. "So one of us is living". (Spike in 6.07 Once More, With Feeling, written by Joss Whedon) G: Yes, because the mall was actually in Sunnydale, so there's no hope of going there tomorrow. D: We destroyed the mall? I fought on the wrong side. X: All those shops gone. The Gap, Starbucks, Toys R Us. Who will remember all those landmarks, unless we tell the world about them? G: We have a lot of work ahead of us. F: Can I push him in? W: You've got my vote.... What do you think we should do, Buffy? F: Yeah, you're not the only Chosen any more. You just gotta live like a person. How's that feel? D: Yeah, Buffy, what are we gonna do now? (Buffy gets this big grin, and says nothing. Maybe she'll be a fireman when the floods roll back.) no more the closing of portals with blood. throw them all open. the time for sacrifice is done. you can't just buy off sunny girls from california with six pomegranate seeds and the prospect of six months winter. they're gonna want to shop around, flex the credit cards, model next years' shoes, check out the shades. you can't own them. sooner or later, they'll own you. get used to it. it's a golden age, but it's not yours.