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Thoughts about 'Help'.
I'm not going to attempt to write down any thoughts as I do my S7 re-watch, but the discussions after AOQ's review of 'Help' really made me think, and helped crystallise something about why Cassie's death was such a big deal to Buffy. (A few points nicked from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
molly_may's excellent review.)
Having pondered Buffy's reaction all day I think I've pinpointed why this is such a big thing for her. It seems an odd, obvious sort of ending, because if there's anything that Buffy knows it's that you win some and you lose some:
- She could lose every night fighting random vampires (and came very close in FFL) - she slipped up. She's only human after all, and she makes mistakes.
- And sometimes she makes the wrong call - like being fooled by Angelus' ruse in 'Becoming I' which led to Kendra's death and Giles' capture and torture. Or - even more poignant - if she'd come home half an hour earlier she *might* have been able to save her mother. Perhaps.
She knows this, and lives with this every day. She screws up, people die - and she's learnt to live with that, because she has to.
But Cassie is different, because Buffy did everything right. She unravelled the plot, killed the demon, caught the arrow. Buffy (with the help of Xander, Willow, Principal Wood, Dawn and Spike of course) did her best - and it wasn't enough. That, I think, is what's eating her at the end. How can you fight something when you lose even when you do your very, very best?
And yes there's a good bit of 'Epiphany' in the last scene (Buffy goes back to work), although it was formulated first in 'Gingerbread':
ANGEL: Buffy, you know I'm still working things out; there's a lot I don't understand. But I know it's important to keep fighting and I learned that from you.
BUFFY: But we never --
ANGEL: We never win.
BUFFY: Not completely.
ANGEL: We never will. That's not why we fight. We do it 'cause there's things worth fighting for.
I think the problem with Cassie is, that maybe Buffy wondered if she was worth fighting for...
BUFFY: See? You can make a difference.
CASSIE: And you will.
And then she falls down dead, as if to prove that she was wrong. ("What do you do when you know maybe you can't help?")
In the last shot, Buffy keeps working - because you have to keep fighting, she knows that - but we see her through the glass, not from inside the office. A wall has gone up.
This marks the start of Buffy's fatalism in S7, which I think is tied to how the odds are stacked. Buffy is used to the odds being uneven, but if there is just the tiniest chance of success (even if it is only 0.01%) she has something to work with. When it's taken away, she doesn't know how to cope (see 'Weight of the World'). In S7 she lives with this for months - as far as she can tell, The First is impossible to defeat. She can fight, and she does, but it makes no difference. There is still the big heart attack waiting to happen, and nothing in her power can stop it.
Until the end. Until she sees that sliver of a chance that is all she ever needs; the thing that can unsettle the balance.
It really is very well put together!
ETA: Obviously, there are also very strong links back to 'Prophecy Girl'. Buffy knows exactly what it's like to find out at 16 that you have to die, no matter what:
Giles: ...this is the Codex. There is nothing in it that does not come to pass.
Angel: Then you're reading it wrong.
Giles: I wish to God I were! But it's very plain! Tomorrow night Buffy will face the Master, and she will die.
But Buffy discovers that in accepting her fate, she inadvertedly made it come to pass, and that there *was* another choice:
The Master: But prophecies are tricky creatures. They don't tell you everything. You're the one that sets me free! If you hadn't come, I couldn't go. Think about that!
It's a lesson Buffy takes to heart. But come 'Help' it gets turned on its head...
molly_may's excellent review.)Having pondered Buffy's reaction all day I think I've pinpointed why this is such a big thing for her. It seems an odd, obvious sort of ending, because if there's anything that Buffy knows it's that you win some and you lose some:
- She could lose every night fighting random vampires (and came very close in FFL) - she slipped up. She's only human after all, and she makes mistakes.
- And sometimes she makes the wrong call - like being fooled by Angelus' ruse in 'Becoming I' which led to Kendra's death and Giles' capture and torture. Or - even more poignant - if she'd come home half an hour earlier she *might* have been able to save her mother. Perhaps.
She knows this, and lives with this every day. She screws up, people die - and she's learnt to live with that, because she has to.
But Cassie is different, because Buffy did everything right. She unravelled the plot, killed the demon, caught the arrow. Buffy (with the help of Xander, Willow, Principal Wood, Dawn and Spike of course) did her best - and it wasn't enough. That, I think, is what's eating her at the end. How can you fight something when you lose even when you do your very, very best?
And yes there's a good bit of 'Epiphany' in the last scene (Buffy goes back to work), although it was formulated first in 'Gingerbread':
ANGEL: Buffy, you know I'm still working things out; there's a lot I don't understand. But I know it's important to keep fighting and I learned that from you.
BUFFY: But we never --
ANGEL: We never win.
BUFFY: Not completely.
ANGEL: We never will. That's not why we fight. We do it 'cause there's things worth fighting for.
I think the problem with Cassie is, that maybe Buffy wondered if she was worth fighting for...
BUFFY: See? You can make a difference.
CASSIE: And you will.
And then she falls down dead, as if to prove that she was wrong. ("What do you do when you know maybe you can't help?")
In the last shot, Buffy keeps working - because you have to keep fighting, she knows that - but we see her through the glass, not from inside the office. A wall has gone up.
This marks the start of Buffy's fatalism in S7, which I think is tied to how the odds are stacked. Buffy is used to the odds being uneven, but if there is just the tiniest chance of success (even if it is only 0.01%) she has something to work with. When it's taken away, she doesn't know how to cope (see 'Weight of the World'). In S7 she lives with this for months - as far as she can tell, The First is impossible to defeat. She can fight, and she does, but it makes no difference. There is still the big heart attack waiting to happen, and nothing in her power can stop it.
Until the end. Until she sees that sliver of a chance that is all she ever needs; the thing that can unsettle the balance.
It really is very well put together!
ETA: Obviously, there are also very strong links back to 'Prophecy Girl'. Buffy knows exactly what it's like to find out at 16 that you have to die, no matter what:
Giles: ...this is the Codex. There is nothing in it that does not come to pass.
Angel: Then you're reading it wrong.
Giles: I wish to God I were! But it's very plain! Tomorrow night Buffy will face the Master, and she will die.
But Buffy discovers that in accepting her fate, she inadvertedly made it come to pass, and that there *was* another choice:
The Master: But prophecies are tricky creatures. They don't tell you everything. You're the one that sets me free! If you hadn't come, I couldn't go. Think about that!
It's a lesson Buffy takes to heart. But come 'Help' it gets turned on its head...