"Powers That Be in Whedonverse"

 

"POWERS THAT BE IN WHEDONVERSE"

While perusing one of the many BUFFYVERSE message boards on the Internet many years ago, I had come across a passage from an old article titled, "Classic CJL: Spike and the Whedonverse":

"In order to battle the new enemy (vampires), the Powers have called upon Slayers, Champions (welcome, Cordy!), Seers and Mystics, all dedicated to protecting the human race from the vampires and half-breed demons who feed upon and ravage the populace."

Like many other "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE" fans, I had believed in this nonsense . . . until I saw the Season Seven episode, (7.15) "Get It Done". Thanks to this particular episode, I finally came to the conclusion that the above comment about the so-called "Powers That Be" featured in both "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" and its spin-off, "ANGEL" just might not be true. Following the suicide of one of the Potential Slayers and a dream of the First Slayer, in "Get It Done", Buffy Summers had received a bag from Principal Robin Wood. The bag once belonged to his mother – a former Slayer from the 1970s named Nikki Wood. This bag eventually led Buffy to discover the true origins of a long line of vampire slayers.

In "Get It Done", Buffy finally discovered that the Powers That Be had not created the Slayer line. Instead, a trio of ancient African shamans had committed the dead in order to create a weapon (one of flesh) to fight vampires and other demons for them. And to insure this weapon would remain under their control – and under the controls of those that followed them – the shamans had guaranteed the Slayer line would continue through countless young females throughout the ages via a spell. Why? Because they had believed that adolescent girls and young women would be easily controlled, due to their ages and gender. So one has to wonder - did the First Slayer, Buffy, Faith Lehane, Kendra Young, Nikki Wood, Xin Rong and all of the Slayers before and after really had a sacred duty to defend humans against vampires and other demons, because of the Powers to Be? Or had they merely been reluctant conscripts in a never ending war waged against demons by these shamans and their descendants – the Watcher’s Council?

Speaking of vampires, here is another passage from the article . . . this time, it centered around Angel – the vampire with a soul, who had formed his own gang to fight demonic evil on his own show in Los Angeles:

"Of course, the biggest exception to the rule, the vamp who broke the mold, is Angel. The Powers and our Lord Joss have spent a great deal of time and effort guiding his path from Chaos, prepping him for his pivotal and unique role in the upcoming "End of Days" we’ve been waiting for since BtVS, Season 1."

I am curious. Exactly how did the vaunted Powers That Be guide Angel toward his actions in one of the late "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" episodes, (7.21) "End of Days"? I will admit that the Powers to Be had been responsible for placing him in Buffy’s path back in 1996. A demon named Whistler had introduced Angel to the future Slayer and within less than a year, the latter followed her to Sunnydale and his own future in demon slaying.

But the Powers That Be had not been responsible for giving him his soul back in 1898. A group of Kalderash gypsies from Romania had restored his human soul in an act of revenge for his murder of one of their children. This soul would afflict him with a conscience and condemn him to an eternity of guilt and remorse for the crimes he has committed. After Angel lost his soul again one hundred years later in 1998, one of Buffy’s close friends, Willow Rosenberg, restored his soul while he was engaged in a lethal sword fight against the Slayer. Come to think of it, Willow performed this act again five years later, on the behest of Angel’s Los Angeles associates. If the Powers to Be were not responsible for the various restorations of his soul, who would have become their "Champion" from the Shanshu Prophecy, if Angel had not killed that Kalderash gypsy child?

As for his role in "End of Days" – the only task Angel ended up performing was to hand Buffy the amulet that would help her defeat the First Evil’s plans to upset the balance of good and evil. Come to think of it, the heads of Wolfram and Hart – the law firm that served as the Powers That Be's opposite number – had given Angel that amulet. But another powerful and souled vampire, eventually wore the amulet in the "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE" series finale, (7.22) "Chosen" that led to the First Evil’s defeat.

That vampire proved to be Spike, originally a lovesick and failed Victorian poet who ended up being sired by one Drusilla, the very vampire who had been driven insane and sired by Angel or Angelus. Although Spike had originally traveled with Drusilla, Angel and his sire Darla for several years; he and Drusilla eventually broke away and became a romantic pair on their own. By the time he had reached Sunnydale in 1997, Spike had developed a reputation as the only vampire to have killed more than one Slayer (including Nikki Wood). He had hoped Buffy would prove to be his third Slayer. However, a series of events eventually led to Spike falling in love with Buffy, forming an alliance with her and her friends, and winning back his soul. Although Angel had brought the amulet to Sunnydale, Buffy had decided Spike would be the one to wear it during her final showdown against the First Evil. Buffy had decided . . . not the Powers That Be.

From what I have surmised, the Powers That Be had only committed one major act in their "war against evil" - they had used Whistler to guide Angel toward making his acquaintance with Buffy before she became a Slayer. They were certainly not responsible for the creation of the Slayer line. They were not responsible for Angel getting back his human soul . . . three times. Come to think of it, they were not responsible for Spike retrieving his soul. Apparently, William the Bloody had made the choice to regain his soul. No one had made it for him. And Buffy had decided which souled vampire would wear the mystical amulet during her fight against the First Evil. This only led me to wonder just how relevant were the Powers That Be in the Whedonverse.

"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.

"BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" Retrospect: (4.08) "Pangs"

While watching my DVD set box for Season Four of "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER", I came across this Thanksgiving episode called (4.08) "Pangs" and wrote the following article about it: 


"BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" RETROSPECT: (4.08) "Pangs"

Season Four has never been that popular with fans of "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER". It was the first season that did not feature the vampire Angel as a regular character. And it marked the beginning of Buffy Summer's romance with university teaching assistant/Army demon hunter Riley Finn. And many fans were not that thrilled by the Initiative storyline. I have never had a problem with Season Four. Mind you, I would not count it as among my top four out of seven seasons. But it featured at least two of my favorite "BUFFY"episodes of all time. And one of them is the holiday-themed "Pangs".

While preparing a Thanksgiving feast for her close friends in the absence of her mother, University of California Sunnydale student and vampire slayer Buffy Summers encounters the restless and vengeful spirit of a Native American, called Hus, whose people - the Chumash tribe - were wiped out by Spanish and American settlers. Hus's spirit was released during a groundbreaking ceremony for U.C. Sunnydale's new Anthropology building. Hus managed to murder the Curator for the building's museum and a local priest who had attending the ceremony. During her frantic efforts to prepare Thanksgiving and deal with Hus, Buffy is unaware that former boyfriend Angel has returned to Sunnydale to keep an eye on her, after a friend of his (former regular character Cordelia Chase) has received a vision of her being in danger. She is also unaware that soon-to-be boyfriend Riley Finn is part of an U.S. Army program called the Initiative, which hunts down and experiments on demons. One of the Initiative's victims turned out to be Buffy's current nemesis, vampire Spike, who had managed to escape from his Initiative prison in the previous episode, (4.07) "The Initiative". Due to his inability to feed upon or commit violence against humans, Spike is slowly starving. He first seeks help and refuge from fellow vampire Harmony, who refuses to have anything to do with him. Desperate, he turns to Buffy and the other Scoobies for refuge in exchange for information about the Initiative.

"Pangs" did provide a few problems for me. One, the episode's writer, Jane Espenson, erroneously stated that the Chumash had been wiped out. Despite the Spanish, Mexican and American governments; the band still exists. Two, Buffy informed her friends that her mother Joyce left Sunnydale to spend Thanksgiving with an aunt. Why did Buffy, who was eighteen at the time, stay in Sunnydale? Why did she fail to accompany her mother for what was obviously a family gathering? Did Buffy have something against this particular "Aunt Pauline"? Three, during her last fight with Hus and the Chumash spirits he had summoned, Buffy unsuccessfully used her knife on Hus and claimed that he and his fellow spirits do not die. Yet, in a scene later, Angel managed to break the neck of one Chumash spirit and impale another with a knife. Hmmmm . . . I smell inconsistency in the air. And four, Angel's visit to Sunnydale led to the "ANGEL" Season One episode, (1.08) "I Will Remember You", which I loathe with every fiber of my being.

Aside from these narrative hiccups, "Pangs" remains a personal favorite of mine. At first glance, it seemed like a stand-alone episode that had nothing to do with the season and series' plot arc. As it turned out, it did."Pangs" marked the first time Spike would hang out with the Scoobies. It led to another setback in Buffy and Angel's relationship. It marked the first time that the Scoobies became aware of the Initiative, thanks to Spike. And it provided another chapter in Buffy's growing relationship with Riley Finn. This seems like an awful lot, considering that this episode mainly focused on Buffy dealing with a Thanksgiving feast and a vengeance spirit - two topics that were quickly resolved by the end. But Espenson and director Michael Lange. But the best things I can say about "Pangs" is that it featured superb performances and some incredibly funny dialogue and camera visuals. 

I tried to think of some of the best dialogue found in the episode and came across several lines. Among my favorites featured Buffy's ability to remain focused . . . or obssessed with her feast, while discussing their problems with Hus. However, one should not be surprised that Spike was responsible for the funniest moment in the episode in a scene that featured both Buffy and her friend Willow Rosenberg's reluctance to destroy Hus, due to their guilt over the country's past with Native Americans:

BUFFY: Will, you know how bad I feel. This is eating me up -- (to Anya, who holds up the bottle of brandy) -- a quarter cup, and let it simmer -- (to Willow, as Anya goes back) -- but even though it's hard, we
have to end this. Yes, he's been wronged, and I personally would be ready to apologize...

SPIKE: Oh, someone put a stake in me!

XANDER: You got a lot of volunteers in here...

SPIKE: I just can't take this mamby-pamby boo-hooing over the bloody Indians!

WILLOW: The preferred term is --

SPIKE: You won! All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do! That's what Caesar did, he's not going around saying "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it!" The history of the world is not people making friends. You had better weapons, you massacred them, end of story!

BUFFY: Well, I think the Spaniards actually did a lot of... not that I don't like Spaniards...

SPIKE: Listen to you! How are you gonna fight anybody with that attitude?

WILLOW: We don't want to fight anybody.

BUFFY: I just want to have Thanksgiving.

SPIKE: Yeah, good luck.

WILLOW: If we could talk to him --

SPIKE: You exterminated his race. What could you possibly say that would make him feel better? It's kill or be killed here. Take your bloody pick.

James Marsters really acted the hell out of that scene. And I am not surprised. To this day, I believe that his portrayal of Spike was one of the best television performances I have ever seen . . . period. And he was really marvelous in this episode. So were Anthony Stewart Head, who did a top-notch job in giving a comic twist to a Rupert Giles who found himself manipulated by Buffy into holding the Scoobies' Thanksgiving feast at his apartment; Alyson Hannigan, who was also superb as best friend/witch Willow Rosenberg, who did not hesitate to express her conflict between dealing with Hus and her guilt over the region's ugly past in dealing with the Chumash people. Nicholas Brandon and Emma Caufield gave fine support as Buffy's two other friends, Xander Harris and former vengeance demon Anya Jenkins. Marc Blucas was charming as Buffy's soon-to-be boyfriend, Riley Finn. And he was ably supported by an exuberant Leonard Roberts. Mercedes McNab displayed excellent comic timing in scenes that featured recently sired vampire Harmony Kendall's encounters with Spike and Xander. David Boreanaz took a break from his new series at the time, "ANGEL" to give an intense, yet at times funny performance as Buffy's ex-vampire squeeze, Angel. But the real star of this episode was Sarah Michelle Gellar. She gave both a hilarious, yet poignant performance, revealing Buffy's somewhat obssessive determination to make her Thanksgiving a success. In fact, I believe I enjoyed her performance even more than Marsters. And that is quite an accomplishment, considering that Marsters is a natural-born scene stealer.

Yes, "Pangs" had a few problems. And its main narrative surrounding the dangers of a Native American vengeance spirit did not exactly strike me as memorable. However, I do believe that the narrative made an interesting comment on how conflicted Americans have become in viewing our county's history. More importantly, Spike's comments on the cirumstances that led to Hus' path of vengeance is a brutal reminder of how monstrous human beings can be - a foreshadow of the Scoobies' future behavior later in the series. Thanks to Jane Espenson's hilarious script, Michael Lange's direction and a superb cast led by Sarah Michelle Geller, "Pangs" remains one of my favorite "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" episodes to this day.

"Guidance and Estrangement"

"GUIDANCE AND ESTRANGEMENT"

During its seven seasons run, the television series, "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" has generated a good number of controversy amongst its fans, other viewers and the media in its approach to several subjects regarding its main character, Buffy Summers, and its supporting characters. Many of those subjects have included sex, violence, addiction, and discrimination – both gender and racial. But there seemed to be one topic that fans of the series seemed to be in conflict over – namely authority figures and how it pertained to Buffy’s relationship with her Watcher, Rupert Giles.

When the series first began in January 1997, Buffy and her mother, Joyce Summers, had recently moved from Los Angeles to Sunnydale; following the latter’s divorce from Buffy’s father, Hank. The Summers’ marriage had buckled under the strain of his infidelity and Buffy’s early activities as a Slayer in Los Angeles. The move to Sunnydale also meant the eventual erosion of daughter and father’s relationship. Since Buffy’s first Watcher, Merrick, had killed by a vampire named Lothos; the young Slayer found herself with a new Watcher – the English-born Rupert Giles.

The relationship between Buffy and Giles went through many stages and emotional upheavals. Due to her father’s declining presence in her life, the Slayer began to regard her Watcher as a new father figure. Yet, at the same time, she struggled to maintain a private life of her own – one that involved school and a social life – despite Giles’ insistence upon her focusing upon her training and duties as a Slayer. One such incident occurred when Buffy wanted to forego another training session to attend a fraternity party at Sunnydale’s University of California campus in (2.05) “Reptile Boy”. Despite their occasional bouts of conflict and the crisis surrounding the re-emergence of Angelus in late Season Two, Buffy’s view of Giles as a replacement for her father had grown stronger by mid-Season Three. Then came the Cruciamentum in the episode, (3.12) “Helpless”

The Cruciamentum was a test that senior members of the Watchers Council put each Slayer through on her eighteenth birthday. She must be weakened (namely stripped of her Slayer abilities) and left alone with a vampire to test her skills and resourcefulness. The weakened Slayer rarely survives such a test. As I had stated earlier, Buffy had truly began to regard Giles as a second father, especially since her own father failed to appear and take her to an ice show for her 18th birthday. Unfortunately for Buffy, the Cruciamentum test proved to be the first time that Giles would betray her. Showing more loyalty to the Council than the Slayer, he placed Buffy under hypnosis before stripping away her Slayer abilities with a drug. However, guilt over his betrayal and the danger of a psychotic vampire loose upon Sunnydale led Giles to confess his actions and help her deal with the vampire. Because of his actions, the leader of the Watchers Council – Quintin Travers – accused Giles of being too emotionally close to Buffy and fired him. However, Buffy severed her ties with the Watchers Council and continued to regard Giles as her Watcher. However, the Cruciamentum did not prove to be the last time that Buffy and Giles would clash.

Season Five provided more heartaches and crisis for Buffy than any previous season. Buffy’s relationship with her college boyfriend, Riley Finn, crashed and burned. She discovered that her old nemesis, the vampire Spike, had fallen in love with her. Joyce became seriously ill. And a new member joined the Summers household – a younger sister named Dawn. However, Buffy and the Scoobies eventually learned in (5.05) “No Place Like Home” that Dawn was originally a mystical object known as the Key, which can be used to open portals to alternate dimensions; a group of monks transformed the Key into human form and sent it to the Slayer for protection from the villainous hellgod, Glory. The hellgod wanted to use the Key (Dawn) to return to her home dimension. The memories of Buffy and her associates were altered, along with relevant records, so that they believed Dawn had always existed as Buffy’s sister. Once Glory discovered that Dawn was the Key, her presence became a threat to human existence. Giles certainly believed so and insisted that Buffy kill Dawn before Glory can use her blood in (5.22) “The Gift”. Fearful for Dawn’s life, Buffy asked Spike to protect the teenager from any threat. I can only wonder if she had viewed Giles as a possible threat.

Eventually, Buffy sacrificed her life to stop the threat of Glory and to close the portal that the hellgod had used Dawn’s blood to open. Several months following Buffy’s death, Giles decided to return home to England in (6.01) “Bargaining”. Following her resurrection, he returned to Sunnydale. However, he noticed that Buffy had begun a disturbing trend of depending upon him for everything – including matters in her non-Slayer life. In the episode, (6.07) “Tabula Rasa”, Giles decided to return to England in order for Buffy to gain independence. He did not return, until the crisis over Willow’s turn to evil evolved, following the death of her lover, Tara Maclay.

Giles’ return to England during Season Six proved to have a major impact upon his relationship with Buffy during the show’s seventh and final season. The impact of his disappearance would not be realized, until the two clashed over the status of a chip-free Spike in the episode, (7.17) "Lies My Parents Told Me". After acquiring his soul in Africa, during the Season Six finale, (6.22) “Grave”, Spike returned to Sunnydale, racked with guilt over his past as a vampire and his attempted rape of Buffy in (6.19) “Seeing Red”. And unbeknownst to himself and others, he was being mentally tormented and controlled by the season’s Big Bad – the non-corporeal being known as the First Evil. Spike’s troubles did not end there. By (7.13) “The Killer in Me”, the chip was slowly killing Spike and Buffy had to request help from her old flame, Army officer, Riley Finn, to remove the chip for good. Spike was finally free from the dangers of the chip, but not from the First Evil.

Buffy and Giles’ clash over Spike first spilled over in an amusing exchange featured in the beginning of the following episode, (7.14) “First Date”. However, Giles’ anxieties over Spike’s chip-free and First Evil-influenced state continued unabated. He continued to insist that Spike be contained or slayed, for the safety of the Potentials and the Scoobies, now residing inside the Summers house. Giles disappeared for two episodes and returned at the beginning of ”Lies My Parents Told Me” with a magical artifact called a Prokaryote stone. Willow used the stone and a spell to penetrate Spike's mind and make him more conscious of how the First Evil’s trigger worked. Needless to say, the session ended in disaster, with Spike unintentionally hurting Dawn (why Buffy allowed her to hang around, I do not know). Following the failure to break the First Evil’s hold on Spike, Giles conspired with Robin Wood – the son of a Slayer that Spike had killed back in 1977 – to kill the blond vampire behind Buffy’s back. Buffy eventually realized what Giles and Wood had conspired and coldly ended their Watcher-Slayer relationship . . . and friendship.

I am not really surprised that Buffy turned his back on him, following the incidents of ”Lies My Parents Told Me”. As I had earlier pointed out, it was not the first time he had betrayed her. He betrayed her in Season 3's "Helpless". But he realized his error and made amends in the end. In late Season 5's "The Gift", he continuously pressured Buffy to kill Dawn in order to save the world. Not only did she refuse, but she asked Spike to kill him or anyone else who made a move toward Dawn. Even if Dawn's death would have saved the world, I do not think that Buffy could have lived with herself if she had killed her younger sister. Her slide into catatonia in (5.21) “The Weight of the World”, following Glory’s abduction of Dawn, struck me as proof that Buffy would have serious problems with anything happening to her younger sister.

But Giles’ betrayal in "Lies My Parents Told Me" proved to be the last straw. Not only did Giles plotted behind her back, he never expressed any remorse for his actions. Worse, he only gave Spike once chance to deal with the First Evil’s trigger before he began plotting with Robin Wood behind Buffy's back. Giles never took into account that triggered or not, Spike was not the only dangerous person in that house. There was Willow, who was not only a very powerful witch, but still emotionally unsure about herself. And I suspect that if the First Evil had triggered Spike, he would have to deal with Willow, a powerful and experienced Slayer in the form Buffy, and a house full of potential Slayers. Giles never considered all of this or that Wood’s plotting centered on an emotional desire for revenge against Spike. Instead, he allowed his fears and his dislike of the vampire to rule his emotions. And he never expressed any remorse for his actions.

Buffy had been slowly maturing as a person throughout the series' run. By late Season Seven, it was time for her to realize that Giles did not always have the answers or that he was not always right. It was also time for her to realize that sometimes, every individual has to question authority figures . . . or rely upon him or herself and not a parent or a surrogate parent. Back in early Season Six, Giles realized that Buffy could not always depend upon him and that sooner or later, she would have to learn to stand on her own. Unfortunately, the destruction of the Watchers Council triggered a great deal of fear within Giles. He forgot about his resolve about Buffy becoming an adult, and tried to overcome this fear by resurrecting his old relationship with Buffy. By ”Lies My Parents Told Me” he failed to realize that she had matured too much for him to recapture it.

Buffy and Giles had failed to resolve their conflict over his final betrayal by the end of the series . . . despite their willingness to fight together in the final battle against the First Evil’s plans in (7.22) “Chosen”. Their relationship grew worse over Giles’ failure to inform Buffy about his and Faith Lehune’s dealings with a rogue Slayer named in one of the Season Eight stories featured in a series of comic books based upon the series. It was not until their dealings with the being known as Twilight (aka Angel) that Buffy and Giles finally reconciled. Unfortunately, their reconciliation did not last very long. While still under the guise of Twilight, Angel murdered Giles. Pity. It would have been nice to see Buffy and Giles develop an equal relationship between two friends and colleagues.

"BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" (4.22) "Restless" 10th Anniversary Photo Gallery

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the landmark "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" episode called (4.22) "Restless". Written and directed by Josh Whedon, Nick Marck and written by Tracey Forbes, the episode is about a series of bizarre dreams that illustrated the four main characters' overall themes as well as provided extensive hints about future developments. Below is a photo gallery marking the anniversary of "Restless":


"BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" (4.22) "Restless" 10th Anniversary Photo Gallery

"The Meaning Behind the First Evil"

Season Seven of ”BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” has been a favorite of mine for years. But it has been rather unpopular with many fans of the series. And I suspect that this unpopularity may have centered around the character and main villain of Season Seven – the First Evil:

 



”THE MEANING BEHIND THE FIRST EVIL”

If there is one nemesis that has baffled fans of ”BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” for the past six to seven years, it would have to be the First Evil. This entity first made its appearance in the Season Three episode, (3.10) “Amends” and became Buffy Summer’s main nemesis in Season Seven, the last season of the series.

In a nutshell, the First Evil is an incorporeal entity that is manifested from all of the evil in existence. It can assume the form of any person who has died, including vampires and dead persons who have been resurrected. Because of this, it has appeared in various forms over the course of the series as a method of manipulating others. For this reason, the First has appeared as Buffy Summers to the Slayer and her allies. But it has also assumed the forms of Warren Mears, Spike, and Jonathan Levinson on multiple occasions, and a variety of other forms less frequently. It was also able to merge with a corporeal individual, as it had done with a serial killer named Caleb, providing the latter with immense strength. The First Evil’s only real weakness was that it was non-corporeal, and could not do real physical damage. However, it was an expert at psychological manipulation, and could act through its servants such as the Bringers, Turok-Han, Caleb or whomever it could manage to control.

As I had stated earlier, the First Evil made its debut on ”BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” in the episode, ”Amends”. It tried to drive Angel into killing Buffy by appearing to him as Jenny Calendar and other people he had murdered as a souless vampire. The First Evil told Angel that it was responsible for his return from “Hell” and that he could end his sufferings by turning evil again. Whether or not this was true is unknown. In any event, it did not mind when Angel chose to kill himself, via a sunrise instead. After Buffy's confrontation with the First Evil, she managed to stop Angel from committing suicide.

Using Buffy’s second resurrection in the Season 6 premiere - (6.01) “Bargaining, Part I” as an excuse, the First Evil returned in full force in Season Seven in an attempt to eliminate the Slayer line permanently. Using servants such as the defrocked serial killer Caleb and the Harbingers of Death (or Bringers), the First Evil not only brought about the deaths of many Potential Slayers and Watchers, it also destroyed the Watcher’s Council (no loss there) and nearly came close to killing Buffy, Faith, the Scoobies and Spike. It used both Andrew Wells and Spike to raise the Turok-Han (a race of ancient powerful vampires stronger and fiercer than the regular vampires). It manipulated Spike by using an old English folk song - ”Early One Morning” - into killing again, hoping his actions would attract Buffy’ attentions. According to sources from the ”All Things Philosophical on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Angel the Series’” and ”Buffyverse Wiki” sites, the First Evil wanted to seize the opportunity to upset the balance between good and evil whenever the Slayer line was disrupted. It tried to manipulate Angel into committing suicide in ”Amends” about a year-and-a-half, following Buffy’s brief death and resuscitation in (1.12) “Prophecy Girl”. And about a year following Buffy’s resurrection in ”Bargaining”, it made its move to destroy the Slayer line and upset the moral balance permanently.

Many fans did not like the First Evil as Buffy’s main antagonist in Season Seven. From what I could gather from many message boards, forums and blogs; they seemed confused about the First Evil’s intentions or what it represented. Nor did they seemed impressed that it was the one Big Bad that Buffy could not destroy in a physical manner. Some fans even accused ”BUFFY” creator Joss Whedon of writing himself into a corner with the creation of the First Evil. Personally, I disagree. I do not feel that Whedon had written himself into a corner by bringing the First Evil back in Season Seven.

It is easier to identify a nemesis that is solid enough for someone – namely Buffy - to physically kill or fight. Nemesis like the Master, Angelus, Mayor Wilkins, Adam, Glory, Warren Mears or even Willow Rosenberg. But the First Evil was a different matter. It symbolized a continuation of the theme from Season 6 - namely "You are your own worst enemy". In other words, I believe that the First Evil symbolized the spirit of Evil that existed in everyone - from Buffy to some minor demon minion or some housewife.

I must be one of the few fans who actually enjoyed Season Seven. But even I had one or two issues about that particular season that did not sit right with me. One of those issues was the appearance of a supernatural being called Beljoxa's Eye in (7.11) “Showtime”. Rupert Giles and Anya Jenkins visited the being to learn everything they could about the First Evil. Instead of fulfilling their wishes, the Beljoxa’s Eye told them that that the First Evil cannot be destroyed and that it exists now because of a disruption in the Slayer's line, which was in fact, caused by the Slayer. Both Giles and Anya concluded that Buffy’s second resurrection brought about the return of the First Evil.

This did not make sense to me. One, I found it hard to believe that the First Evil existed because of Buffy’s resurrection. It had already existed before the events of ”Bargaining”. In fact, I believe that it had already existed before ”Amends”. Why? As I had stated earlier, I believe the First Evil was . . . or is the spirit of evil, itself. It was all of the negative thoughts, emotions and impulses that reside within all living beings. And the late Joyce Summers hinted this during Buffy’s dream in (7.12) “Bring On the Night”:

BUFFY: Something evil is coming.

JOYCE: Buffy, evil isn't coming, it's already here. Evil is always here. Don't you know? It's everywhere.

BUFFY: And I have to stop it.

JOYCE: How are you gonna do that?

BUFFY: I-I don't know yet, but—

JOYCE: Buffy, no matter what your friends expect of you, evil is a part of us. All of us. It's natural. And no one can stop that. No one can stop nature, not even—

Joyce would eventually be proven right in (7.22) “Chosen, the series finale. When Buffy, Spike, Faith, the Scoobies, Robin Wood, Dawn and the Potentials battled the First Evil’s army of Turok-Han vampires inside the Hellmouth; all they did – especially Spike – was ruin the First Evil's plans to upset the balance of good and evil in the mortal world. In my personal opinion, that imbalance already existed before Buffy’s first death in ”Prophecy Girl”. It never made any sense to me that a balance between good and evil had been maintained by the presence of one Slayer against a slew of vampires, demons and other forms supernatural evil for centuries. I suspect that the First Evil saw the presence of more than one Slayer and a vampire with a soul as a threat to that imbalance. Like many others, the First Evil believed that only one Slayer should exist. And as I had earlier stated, I found this belief rather ridiculous and I am glad that Buffy proved that it did not have to be so at the end of the series.

Would the Watcher’s Council or the African shamans who had first created the Slayer line approve of the idea of more than one Slayer in existence? I rather doubt it. I suspect that they may have feared the idea of dealing with more than one Slayer . . . or even more than two. I suspect that controlling the Slayer or wielding her as a weapon mattered more to the shamans and the Watcher’s Council than the idea of more than one warrior against the forces of Evil. And I would not be surprised if the First Evil – or their own inner darkness – prevented them from considering this possibility.

And I believe that is what the First Evil represented in Buffy’s story – the inner darkness that she, her sisters and friends all harbored within themselves . . . and which they had to learn to acknowledge. Buffy’s conversation with the vampire sired by Spike – Holden Webster – forced her to face and acknowledge her own inner darkness. By (7.15) “Get It Done”, she also realized that her two most powerful allies – Willow and Spike – needed to face their own darkness:

BUFFY: 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. (Spike stands and walks toward the door) Where are you going?

SPIKE: Out. Since I'm neither a girl, nor waiting. All this speechifying doesn't really apply to me, does it? (walks away)

BUFFY: (calls after him) Fine. Take a cell phone. That way, if I need someone to get weepy or whaled on, I can call you.

SPIKE: (turns to Buffy) If you've got something to say -

BUFFY: Just said it. You keep holding back, you might as well walk out that door.

SPIKE: Holding back? You're blind. I've been here, right in it - fighting, scrapping...

BUFFY: Since you got your soul back?

SPIKE: Well, as a matter of fact, I haven't quite been relishing the kill the way I used to.

BUFFY: You were a better fighter then.

SPIKE: I did this for you. The soul, the changes - it's what you wanted.

BUFFY: What I want is the Spike that's dangerous. The Spike that tried to kill me when we met.

SPIKE (angrily): Oh, you don't know how close you are to bringing him out.

BUFFY: I'm nowhere near him.

The above conversation was one of the most interesting I have ever come across during the series’ seven season run. A vampire Slayer – someone considered the epitome of goodness and light – encouraging a former killer to face that darkness that made him such an effective killer. She even gave a similar speech to Willow, who as “Darth Willow” nearly came close to destroying the world in the Season Six finale, (6.22) “Grave”. Many fans had thought Buffy may have lost her mind. I understood what Buffy was trying to say. During Season Seven, Spike and Willow had spent most of it wallowing in guilt over certain acts they had committed in Season Six. I could probably say the same about Buffy. Like Spike and Willow, she learned to face her past treatment of the blond vampire in the episode, (7.08) “Conversations with Dead People”. But duties and the re-emergence of the First Evil made her realize that she had no time to wallow in her guilt. Her rants against Spike and Willow in ”Get It Done” expressed her own impatience with their guilt and tendencies to hold themselves back in fear of releasing the inner darkness that made them fearsome. She forced both the vampire and the red-haired witch to realize that they can only be fully effective by learning to face their inner darkness . . . and controlling it. By facing the many aspects of their nature, could Spike and Willow learn to develop as individuals.

The First Evil’s activities forced Buffy to develop in another path. She had to start learning how to evolve beyond her inferiority/superiority complex and learn to connect with others . . . when the situation demanded. Thanks to her former Watcher, Rupert Giles, she tried to use this aloofness to become an authority figure to the many Potential Slayers that had arrived on her doorstep. She also had to learn not to allow her insecurities and fear (traits that originated from the negativity within) of being alone to give others like her former Watcher Rupert Giles and even her friends a chance to dictate her actions and behavior. Like Spike and Willow, she had to learn to become her own person. She had to stop being afraid to connect with others and at the same time, allowing them to dictate her behavior.

In the end, I found Season Seven to be very complex and mature on a level that may have eluded certain viewers. Before the season first began, Whedon and Mutant Enemy had announced that the series would take viewers back to how it used to be during the earlier seasons. And perhaps that was what they had been looking forward to . . . recapturing the past. Season Seven did just that . . . but with a twist. The season reminded viewers that no one can recapture the past. Not really. In a way, Spike and Willow tried to recapture their former selves – the mild-mannered Victorian gentleman and the shy computer geek. And Buffy, at Giles’ orders, tried to enforce her authority upon the Potential Slayers as the Watchers’ Council had done to her in the past. Even the fans got into the act. They wanted Whedon to take this season back to what "BUFFY" used to be, failing to realize that would never happen. Buffy and the Scoobies could never go back to being what they used to be. Too much had changed for them over the years. They had changed. And so had the series.

Not only did Buffy and the Scoobies' conflict with the First Evil - namely their own inner demons - made them realize they could not recapture their past. They may have learned something else. Battling the First Evil was like battling a part of them. In other words, they had been battling their worst enemy – namely themselves. And in doing so, continued the theme that had been prevalent throughout the series’ run . . . growing up.