"Buffy's Relationship With the Scoobies"

 

"BUFFY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SCOOBIES"

Recently, I did a re-watch of (3.07) "Revelations", a Season Three episode from the fantasy series, "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER". I found myself thinking about the scene in which the Scoobies reveal to adolescent vampire slayer Buffy Summers their knowledge that her former vampire boyfriend, Angel aka Angelus, is still alive.

Back in the late 19th century, Angel had angered a Romani clan when he had killed one of their people. To punish him, they cursed with his human soul, leading to great personal torment and the decision to resist the evil impulses that come with being a vampire. After a century, Angel lost his soul in mid-Season Two, thanks to a moment of happiness he had experienced during sex with Buffy. Following the loss of his soul, Angel resumed his old persona of the ruthless and sadistic Angelus.

In the Season Two finale, "Becoming (Part 2)", Angelus decided to destroy the world by summoning the demon Acaltha. Buffy's friend and neophyte witch Willow Rosenberg manages to restore Angel's cursed soul at the last moment. However, Buffy was forced to kill him to save the world from Acathla and Angel was sent to hell. In the Season Three episode, (3.03) "Faith, Hope and Trick", an unknown party returned Angel from hell. Buffy found him and decided to keep his presence a secret from her friends and her Watcher Rupert Giles. In "Revelations", Xander discovered Buffy kissing a resurrected Angel, during his search for a mystical glove. After he revealed Buffy's secret to Giles, Willow and Cordelia Chase; all hell broke loose, and the quartet staged an angry intervention for Buffy.

Now, I realize that they had a right to be angry at Buffy. She had failed to tell them about Angel's resurrection. But for some reason, this intervention scene pissed me off. If there is one thing about Buffy's relationship with Giles and the Scoobies that has burned me for years was their penchant of putting Buffy on a pedestal and dictating her behavior and moral compass. Worse, Buffy had always given their behavior a pass, due to her own fear of losing their friendship. Had Buffy ever put such pressure on Xander, Willow or Giles? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I have no idea. For years, they put her on this pedestal called "THE SLAYER" and rarely allow Buffy to be herself or have her own life.

Xander was the worst offender of them all. I still do not know how this character came to be so beloved by the series' fans. Granted, Xander could be entertaining. But of all the Scoobies, he was probably the most self-righteous of the bunch. And he had allowed his self-righteousness, along with his jealousy toward Buffy's relationships with both Angel and another vampire, Spike, to compromise his own morals without any remorse. Good examples were his lie to Willow about Buffy's wish to re-soul Angel in "Becoming (Part 2)"; and his attempt to murder a chipped Spike in the Season Six episode, (6.18) "Entropy" for having sex with Anya, the fiancée he had dumped at the altar. Even in "Revelations", he had behaved in the most self-righteous manner about Buffy's lie regarding Angel. Yet at the same time, he was cheating on his girlfriend Cordelia with a series of sexual encounters (namely kissing). This means, Willow was equally guilty of being a hypocrite. Some would say that Xander and Willow's infidelity was never a threat. But their actions ended up hurting Cordelia in more ways than one, after the latter discovered their minor affair.

I believe "Revelations" proved to be the first time the Scoobies tried to enforce their will upon Buffy's moral compass. However, the pinnacle of Buffy's relationship transformed in their attempt to enforce their will upon her existence in the Season Six premiere, (6.01) "Bargaining (Part 1)". Following Buffy's sacrificial death in the Season Five finale, (5.22) "The Gift"; Willow, along with Xander, his new girlfriend and ex-demon Anya, and Willow's girlfriend Tara Maclay's assistance; brought Buffy back from the dead. They made this decision to resurrect Buffy without her consent or without informing Buffy's younger sister Dawn, Spike or Giles. The Scobbies had done this, because they had felt they needed "THE SLAYER" to deal with vampire and other demonic elements in Sunnydale, California. They believed that Sunnydale needed a Slayer. Despite the fact that Sunnydale had managed to exist without a Slayer for nearly a century before Buffy's arrival. Did Buffy ever complain about the Scoobies' resurrection of her? Once . . . when she had been briefly possessed by a demon in (6.03) "After Life". Otherwise, no . . . I cannot recall Buffy calling out the Scoobies for the resurrection.

The Scoobies' penchant for throwing Buffy's flaws and mistakes into her face; while at the same time, ignoring or making excuses for their own has been problematic for me. Perhaps Whedon had intended for this scenario as an example of Buffy's own insecurities. After all, she had allowed her friends to get away with this behavior for years - even in Season Seven. During the series' last year, the Scoobies and the Potential Slayers had rejected Buffy's leadership following their failure to deal with Caleb, a defrocked priest who had become the right-hand man for the First Evil in (7.19) "Empty Places". They had accused her of becoming emotionally remote and a poor leader. I never had a problem with the Scoobies and the Potentials rejecting Buffy's leadership. They had every right to do so. But what I could not accept was that in doing so, they kicked her out of her own house. And she allowed them to do this. And yet . . . Buffy quickly forgave them when they had decided to follow her again.

I am not saying that Buffy should not have forgiven the Scoobies for their hypocrisy and demands that she live up to their ideal of being the Slayer. I simply wish that she had not been so quick to do so. I wish she had not been so desperate to maintain their friendship, even when they failed to be a good friend of hers. I realize that a lot of the series' fans tend to regard Buffy's relationship with the Scoobies as among the greatest friendships depicted on television. Personally, I have always regarded her friendship with Willow and Xander rather questionable. And I wish that Joss Whedon had found the time to address it.