Being Human. Spoilers for everything.

[elisi]

Blood on your hands, or blood in your heart? Motivated by guilt, or motivated by love?
There are going to be a lot of quotes from BtVS and AtS in this post.


Mitchell

SPIKE: "I know that I'm a monster. But you treat me like a man. And that's – "

And that's important. That's enough. That's what will keep you going, keep you believing when guilt threatens to overwhelm you. When all you can see is the blood on your hands, the somebody that can see your heart is all you have to give you a reason to go on. The somebody that believes in you. The somebody that keeps sight of your soul.

Is the monster within, or the monster without? Is it what we are, or how we are treated?

The vampires in Being Human are different to those in the Jossverse. There is no cure, no 'chip', or soul, to insert to make the monster behave. On the other hand, the monster feels guilt, if it lets itself... But it's always a monster. Being treated like a man will never be enough.

To demonstrate I'm going to indulge in a little show-and-tell. Because the very first thing we learn about Mitchell (other than that Herrick sired him when he was a soldier during WW1 and that it's now the present day) is this. I've taken the liberty of putting the images next to ones from episode 4 of S3:







Heart and head. A Vampire's heart doesn't beat. No blood in a Vampire's heart. Blood on a Vampire's hands. Because that's it, isn't it? The Vampire doesn't wear his guilt in his heart, he wears it on his hands. Guilt doesn't come from within; it comes from without. You make it with your hands, day after day. Guilt is in acts, not thoughts.

The very, very first thing we are shown is that he kills people - and that he feels guilty about it. And the ONLY reason the girl in S3 doesn't end up like Lauren is Annie's presence. George and Annie both got to know Lauren. Lauren that Mitchell couldn't take responsibility for, but that he couldn't quite deny either. Lauren who never came to terms with being a vampire and ended up begging Mitchell to stake her...

I love the consistency of this show.

I've said for a long time that I love Mitchell to pieces, but he isn't safe. Watching him finally accept that, completely, as well as the consequences, was one of the most satisfying things ever.

Must also just take a brief moment to talk about Mitchell/Herrick... Because it's the most extraordinary thing, but I think they managed to create a sire/childe relationship without any UST. They get up close and personal, they can be utterly focussed on each other, and their bond runs very deep, but it's a parent/child - or teacher/pupil - relationship, nothing more. IMHO at any rate. Still, it works beautifully and Mitchell's scene with Herrick, locked in the cage, was just incredible. Finally topped by that amazing scene in the car. So perfect.


Lia

We don't stop being human when we lose our hearts; nor when we lose our heads. And every last vestige of humanity can be drained from us, but as long as somebody, somewhere cares, we are not dust.

Oh Lia. Lia was a wonderful surprise. "Revenge really sucks, huh?' Loved the fact that she'd bluffed the whole thing, and yet it all came true, quite simply because of everyone being themselves. Also, she was just a scared and hurting girl, lashing out, not thinking about the consequences. But her story made me think of the ways in which monsters manifest monsters. I didn't much like the S2 arc with the crazy religious stuff, but trying to put it into context it fits rather well. To quote one of my favourite conversations from AtS:

SPIKE: She's too far gone to help. She's...one of us now. She's a monster.
ANGEL: She's an innocent victim.
SPIKE: So were we... once upon a time.
ANGEL: Once upon a time.

Lia - in great part thanks to Annie - sees what is happening before it's too late for herself. And Mitchell, interestingly enough, helps Tom from going down the path of revenge. Kemp, as we saw in S2, is the end product of that, a vampire-created human monster.


Annie (and George and Nina)

Heart and head. What is is that makes us human? The ability to love with our hearts when our heads tell us not to? Or the ability to love with our heads when our hearts tell us not to?

The gender reversal is something else I found very interesting. At the end we had Mitchell (an emotional wreck, begging, manipulative, desperate, clear sighted, determined) and George (distraught, trying to find a way out, pleading, scared of losing his best friend, deeply unwilling to kill him himself) - and as contrast Annie and Nina (sad, but determined, knowing what had to be done and not ready to back down). How often have we seen this? I mean... really? 99 times out of a 100 it's the men who go off stoically to 'do what must be done', and the women (such emotional creatures!) who plead with them. 'Selfless' (BtVS 7.05) would be another good example of gender reversal. 'Amends' (BtVS 3.10), however, does provide me with a very good contrast, so I'll shamelessly use it:

ANGEL: Am I a thing worth saving, huh? Am I a righteous man? The world wants me gone!
BUFFY: (tearfully) What about me? I love you so much...

Mitchell tries to use this argument at the beginning of the episode (You love me, don't you? Then help me get out. I kept silent because of you...) and I love Annie too much for words for shooting him down every time. Here's Buffy again (and I'm sorry to use Buffy, but it is a good contrast. She grew up a lot later.):

BUFFY: (crying) And I hate it! I hate that it's *so* hard... and that you can hurt me *so* much. (sobs, then harshly) I know everything that you did, because you did it to me. Oh, God! I wish that I wished you dead. I don't. (whispers) I can't.

Interestingly, I think it's the fact that Annie has been victimised - but not by Mitchell - which enables her to see things so clearly. She does not have the power to forgive him - so she can't, and won't, let him off the hook.

(I also love that she never even considers the role of 'Guardian Angel', of nobly spending eternity making sure that he doesn't kill again. I never liked the imbalance in relationships like that.)

I've not talked about Nina yet, but her acknowledgment of the fact that she's the one who would have to pick up the pieces was painfully honest and true, and I'm so glad she said it. (Love Nina, don't have a lot to say.)

Of course, into the equation comes Wyndham. Sidebar: I love the contrast between Herrick and Wyndham. Herrick is effective, but in many ways a blunt instrument, gleeful in his evil, and oddly a bit human because of it. Wyndham is coldly efficient, and scary on a very different level. And, to quote AtS one more time:

ANGEL: People who don't care about anything will never understand the people who do.
HAMILTON: Yeah, but we won't care.

Ah, but they should. Because caring is what makes people human. Caring will make people do things they never dreamed themselves capable of doing. Something personally painful, yet selfless, but also morally right... And yet also an act of salvation, which will, in turn, bring with it great future danger. People who care fight for each other in every way they can.

GEORGE: I'm doing this because I love you...

~~~

And now I need to go to bed. Hope this actually makes sense...


Credit: All quotes not from BtVS/AtS are from the_royal_anna's Post on 'Damage'.