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Get It Done.
This is a great episode and I love it.
*waits for de-friending*
Heh. This was another one I hadn't actually watched for years - and I was very pleasantly surprised! It's a taut, well written episode, that continually pushes things further. And every time you think it's done, it ups the ante yet again.
It begins with Buffy's dream: Potentials everywhere, The First Slayer. "It's Not Enough!"
Then, in a very nice bit of co-ordination, we have Buffy showing Principal Wood what she's working with, what constitutes 'not enough': A load of potentials who are really only scared children, a formerly evil geek, a scary powerful witch who only admits to 'dabbling' and a legendary (dark) warrior who fights like a vimpire. Buffy is not doing well and she knows it.
And then comes Chloe's suicide.
This is obviously the last straw for Buffy ("I'm the one with the power. And the First has me using that power to dig our graves!") She can just about protect all these people from physical harm, but she can't protect them from despair. That's their own battle and not one Buffy can fight for them. But she knows it can be won - she knows what it's like to be told at 16 that you're going to die. She knows what it's like look on death as the comfy alternative. She's been there and done that. Buffy's speech is harsh, but she has some *very* good points:
The First isn't impressed. It already knows us. It knows what we can do, and it's laughing. You want to surprise the enemy? Surprise yourselves. Force yourself to do what can't be done, or else we are not an army—we're just a bunch of girls waiting to be picked off and buried.
You know what it reminds me of? The argument in 'The Yoko Factor':
Buffy: No! No, you said you wanted to go. So let's go! All of us. We'll walk into that cave with you two attacking me and the funny drunk drooling on my shoe! Hey! Hey, maybe that's the secret way of killing Adam?! Is that it? Is that how you can help? You're not answering me! How can you possibly help? So . . . I guess I'm starting to understand why there's no ancient prophecy about a Chosen One . . and her friends.
The thing is, now they can help. They are powerful, but they're not using their power. See this episode ties in directly with 'Help' - what do you do when you know you can't help? Buffy doesn't have an answer (yet), but she knows that giving up is definitely the wrong answer. Cassie gave up - and it nearly got her butchered.
This is what Buffy said in 'Bring On The Night':
From now on, we won't just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. We will find them, and cut out their hearts one by one, until The First shows itself for what it really is.
Now she forces Willow and Spike to face their worst fears, as she jumps through the portal towards goodness knows what.
About Spike... oh I love his scenes. He's been trying so very hard to keep his demon at bay, to be Angel Mark II, and now Buffy tells him that what she wants is Spike! That's a bitter pill to swallow. But - I think it's actually very helpful in getting Spike to become a balanced person. Remember this bit from 'Guise Will Be Guise' when Angel talks to the fake swami:
Magev: “Fight!"
Angel: "I am fighting!"
Magev: "Yourself. You're fighting yourself. Fight me! Why are you holding back? Why can't you let go?"
Angel: "Because."
Magev: "Why?"
Angel over their locked staffs: "If I let it, it'll kill you."
Magev: "It?"
Angel disengages and steps back: "The demon."
Magev: "Ha! But the demon is you!"
Angel: "No."
Magev: "Yes! That's the thing you spend so much energy trying to conceal!"
Angel shakes his head: "No, I just - I can't let it control me."
Magev nods: "Ah. I see. (Hits Angel's knee hard then hooks the staff behind his legs to drop him onto his back) You *don't* think it controls you?"
Spike has the same fear. But Buffy pushes him, and he dares to let go of the control, to *be* the demon that tried to kill Buffy when they first met:
SPIKE: Sod off! (laughs) 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?
ANGELUS: No. A real kill. A good kill. It takes pure artistry. Without that, we're just animals.
As Spike becomes all fists and fangs in his fight with the demon, he lets out a howl, just like back in 'Doomed' when he discovered that the chip would let him fight demons:
That's right. I'm back. And I'm a BLOODY ANIMAL! Yeah!
Of course at the same time, Buffy is refusing to become less human in return for more powers, telling the Shadowmen that they're 'out of line'. And later wondering if maybe she was wrong...
I love the ending. The shot of all the Uber-vamps gives me goosebumps in the best possible way. What an episode.
Not nice. Not sweet. It doesn't pull it's punches and I love it because of that. I might even forgive Mr Petrie for AYW...
*waits for de-friending*
Heh. This was another one I hadn't actually watched for years - and I was very pleasantly surprised! It's a taut, well written episode, that continually pushes things further. And every time you think it's done, it ups the ante yet again.
It begins with Buffy's dream: Potentials everywhere, The First Slayer. "It's Not Enough!"
Then, in a very nice bit of co-ordination, we have Buffy showing Principal Wood what she's working with, what constitutes 'not enough': A load of potentials who are really only scared children, a formerly evil geek, a scary powerful witch who only admits to 'dabbling' and a legendary (dark) warrior who fights like a vimpire. Buffy is not doing well and she knows it.
And then comes Chloe's suicide.
This is obviously the last straw for Buffy ("I'm the one with the power. And the First has me using that power to dig our graves!") She can just about protect all these people from physical harm, but she can't protect them from despair. That's their own battle and not one Buffy can fight for them. But she knows it can be won - she knows what it's like to be told at 16 that you're going to die. She knows what it's like look on death as the comfy alternative. She's been there and done that. Buffy's speech is harsh, but she has some *very* good points:
The First isn't impressed. It already knows us. It knows what we can do, and it's laughing. You want to surprise the enemy? Surprise yourselves. Force yourself to do what can't be done, or else we are not an army—we're just a bunch of girls waiting to be picked off and buried.
You know what it reminds me of? The argument in 'The Yoko Factor':
Buffy: No! No, you said you wanted to go. So let's go! All of us. We'll walk into that cave with you two attacking me and the funny drunk drooling on my shoe! Hey! Hey, maybe that's the secret way of killing Adam?! Is that it? Is that how you can help? You're not answering me! How can you possibly help? So . . . I guess I'm starting to understand why there's no ancient prophecy about a Chosen One . . and her friends.
The thing is, now they can help. They are powerful, but they're not using their power. See this episode ties in directly with 'Help' - what do you do when you know you can't help? Buffy doesn't have an answer (yet), but she knows that giving up is definitely the wrong answer. Cassie gave up - and it nearly got her butchered.
This is what Buffy said in 'Bring On The Night':
From now on, we won't just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. We will find them, and cut out their hearts one by one, until The First shows itself for what it really is.
Now she forces Willow and Spike to face their worst fears, as she jumps through the portal towards goodness knows what.
About Spike... oh I love his scenes. He's been trying so very hard to keep his demon at bay, to be Angel Mark II, and now Buffy tells him that what she wants is Spike! That's a bitter pill to swallow. But - I think it's actually very helpful in getting Spike to become a balanced person. Remember this bit from 'Guise Will Be Guise' when Angel talks to the fake swami:
Magev: “Fight!"
Angel: "I am fighting!"
Magev: "Yourself. You're fighting yourself. Fight me! Why are you holding back? Why can't you let go?"
Angel: "Because."
Magev: "Why?"
Angel over their locked staffs: "If I let it, it'll kill you."
Magev: "It?"
Angel disengages and steps back: "The demon."
Magev: "Ha! But the demon is you!"
Angel: "No."
Magev: "Yes! That's the thing you spend so much energy trying to conceal!"
Angel shakes his head: "No, I just - I can't let it control me."
Magev nods: "Ah. I see. (Hits Angel's knee hard then hooks the staff behind his legs to drop him onto his back) You *don't* think it controls you?"
Spike has the same fear. But Buffy pushes him, and he dares to let go of the control, to *be* the demon that tried to kill Buffy when they first met:
SPIKE: Sod off! (laughs) 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?
ANGELUS: No. A real kill. A good kill. It takes pure artistry. Without that, we're just animals.
As Spike becomes all fists and fangs in his fight with the demon, he lets out a howl, just like back in 'Doomed' when he discovered that the chip would let him fight demons:
That's right. I'm back. And I'm a BLOODY ANIMAL! Yeah!
Of course at the same time, Buffy is refusing to become less human in return for more powers, telling the Shadowmen that they're 'out of line'. And later wondering if maybe she was wrong...
I love the ending. The shot of all the Uber-vamps gives me goosebumps in the best possible way. What an episode.
Not nice. Not sweet. It doesn't pull it's punches and I love it because of that. I might even forgive Mr Petrie for AYW...
no subject
I like the episode for the same reason: it adds a lot of depth and complexity to the metaphor. (Unless you're 3DMaster, I suppose...)(in-joke for atbvs people...).
Yes, the origin of the Slayer line was dark and demonic and abusive - but that doesn't mean that the Slayer power itself is tainted, any more than a child conceived through rape is itself to blame for that. "It's not about right, it's not about wrong; it's about power." What you do with that power is far more important than where it came from.
On a meta level, BtVS is the story of a teenage girl growing into a woman. Adulthood brings power, and the Slayer energy can be seen as a metaphor for that power. What the Shadowmen did was force the First Slayer into an adult's role before she was emotionally ready: the parallel is child sex abuse rather than 'just' rape. Or alternatively, I was reminded of the child soldiers in places like Sierra Leone and Congo, given guns that are almost as big as they are and sent to fight in the grown-ups' wars without understanding why. (Disturbingly, this is also what Buffy is currently attempting to do with the Potentials - mistakenly, as I pointed out in my comment above.)
However, adulthood and everything that goes with it - including the sex and violence - are not bad things in themelves. Quite the opposite - as long as you have an adult's understanding and maturity to go along with the role. I thought it was hugely significant that the Shadowmen wanted to give Buffy power, and instead she insisted on being given knowledge instead.
In that moment, she became an adult.