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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
Well exactly. He barely knew her then. He's spent the time in between knowing her more intimately that he'd ever thought possible. There is a certain element of 'You always hurt the one you love' in all of this, and I don't believe that Spike can't see that. They always understood each other, even way back in S2, and I can't see how years worth of knowledge and understanding can translate into them knowing each other less.
on this one thing, no, Spike never changes or adapts.
I'm not sure how much I like the word 'change' in this instance, since it infers changing into something else, like alchemy. Spike's changes are more like refinement, becoming more himself, growing. F.ex. I like the new Doctor Who very much. That is a change, but it doesn't change the love I have for BtVS one bit. If anything, it enhances how much I *do* love Buffy.
I think we've had the rest of this conversation before
Yes, we have deja'd this vu... so I'll rec you this little ficlet, that explains better than many an essay what the scene says to me. To me it's all about emotions - and I know what I feel when I watch:
Forget-me-not.
no subject
And that process couldn't possibly make him think he'd been mistaken? Spike's convinced all through S6 that Buffy will love him if only he does this, that, or the other thing, culminating in trying to rape her and then getting a soul.
Getting a soul made Spike understand all the reasons Buffy couldn't or wouldn't love him in S8. Buffy flat out tells Spike in NLM that he doesn't understand her or even himself. (And if you do take those cut lines where Spike's explaining that she likes men who hurt her as canon, then I'd say that she's right; he doesn't understand her at all.) Spike tells Buffy that he knows she's not keeping him alive because of love and Buffy doesn't contradict him. While that doesn't necessarily mean Buffy doesn't love him (Buffy may not understand herself as well as she thinks she does, either) it's just one more reason Spike has not to be blithely confident that Buffy loves him and all is well.
I know what I feel when I watch:
Well, there's the thing. What I feel is irrelevant to what the characters may be feeling. I want Buffy and Spike to love each other and know that the other loves them. But we don't always get what we want. Or even what we need.
no subject
You mean these (which are on screen):
SPIKE: You like men who hurt you.
BUFFY: No.
SPIKE: You need the pain we cause you. You need the hate. You need it to do your job, to be the slayer.
BUFFY: No. I don't hate like that. Not you, or myself. Not anymore.
It ties in with their earlier conversation:
SPIKE: I'm feeling honest with myself. You used me.
BUFFY: Yes.
SPIKE: You told me that, of course. I never understood it though. Not until now. You hated yourself, and you took it out on me.
BUFFY: You figured that out just now?
SPIKE: Soul's not all about moonbeams and pennywhistles, luv. It's about self-loathing. I get it. Had to travel 'round the world, but I understand you now. I understand the violence inside.
She doesn't deny that she was in a bad place the year before or that Spike understands how she felt then. But she's moved past that now.
I'm not saying that he walks around in S7 singing "She loves me, she loves me!" to himself. It's a process, and I can't point my finger on an exact moment when Buffy starts loving him. The thing with Buffy is that she's not all that good with words - it's her actions you have to follow. And her actions say a lot in S7 when it comes to Spike.
What I feel is irrelevant to what the characters may be feeling.
Hmmm. I feel we are using the same words, but speaking different languages. When I watch something that's really well done (as BtVS mostly is), I get pulled into that world. I feel what the characters are feeling, I experience things with them - which is f.ex. why I still find it hard to understand that people came to hate Buffy after the alley-beating - I watch that scene and my heart bleeds for her because she's hurting so very badly.
Emotions always come first, analysis second - unless its something I don't like (when I'll distance myself and watch from a purely critical POV), or the characters don't work, in which case not even the best story can rescue it.