Episode Six: The Pack

Wow, was this one a surprise. I'd only seen it once before, and I didn't like it then. It's Xander-centric, but he's mean and rude and I thought it interrupted the flow of the season. I was considering skimming the scenes, whipping out a paragraph, then going to the next episode, "Angel," which is where I'd been waiting to get--it's where the love story picks up, and Angel's so... Anyway, I turned on The Pack and--taken in the context of the series, it's the most interesting episode yet.

First, what's BtVS really about? Girl Power? Sure. The existence of evil, and the fact that good people have to fight the good fight? Ok. That everybody needs people, who need people, are the luckiest...you know? Of course. That High school and life in general can be hellish, with metaphorical monsters stalking you? Umm...yeah. That redemption is difficult, but essential? Definitely. AND, that everyone has a dark side, that we are yin/yang, and need to seek balance, not letting the darkness take us? YES--and that's introduced in this episode.

This is the first episode with a dark tinge, foreshadowing the tone that is more prevalent in later seasons. While on a school field trip, Xander has been possessed by the spirit of a hyena and is now running with the pack of Sunnydale bullies--he quickly becomes the Alpha, of course. Whedon's trademark quick wit and fast lines abound, but not in every scene, and Giles' dry wit is more on display in this episode than previously.

There's one specific aspect of the show that strikes me: Xander turns predatory, mean, aggressive--and at the end, the girls explicitly allow him to take no responsibility for his actions because they know he was under the influence of the evil hyena and--importantly--they believe he has no memory of what happened. In their minds, none of it was Xander's fault, so they don't even tell him what he did, much less discuss the dynamics underlying Xander's actions. However, Giles outs him to the audience: Xander is well aware of what he did; amnesia isn't part of the animal spirit possession package. And Giles literally pats him on the shoulder, blessing Xander's sins of omission.

So what did Xander do? The less damning actions were against Willow. First, to the amusement of his Pack, he says that because he's going to drop geometry, he'll "never have to look at her pasty face again." He's well aware that she's got a crush on him, as proven by dialogue with Buffy later in the episode, and Willow has been his best friend since before kindergarten, as every Buffy fan knows. But hurting her in public, then later (after Buffy has caged him) wheedling and appealing to her as his best friend, claiming they were happy before Buffy : "Weren't things much simpler when it was just me and you," he asks, knowing how much Willow wants the "me & you" aspect of their relationship to blossom. At the end, although he doesn't apologize to Willow or acknowledge what he said hurt her, he saves her from the crazed zookeeper the second he is rid of the hyena-spirit, and he later hugs her as he says, "nobody messes with my Willow." For a love-struck 16 year old girl, that qualifies as affirmation, I'm sure.

But that wasn't all Xander did. In a very intense, fairly lengthy scene, Xander tries to rape Buffy. He is aggressive and mean, claiming that "We both know what you really want. You want danger, don't you? You like your men dangerous...dangerous and mean, right? Like Angel, your mystery guy. Well guess who just got mean." The transformation from goofy, harmless Xander to threatening, predatory Alpha is complete--and surprising, especially given Nicholas Bredon's scant resume at the time he started playing Xander. Later in the scene, he slams Buffy into a vending machine, saying "C'mon, Slayer, I like it when you're scared. The more I scare you, the better you smell." Then--instead of forcing a kiss--he goes for her neck, vamp-style.

Fast forward to season six and seven. Xander is overtly rude to Spike, especially after Spike attempts to rape Buffy. Xander repeatedly ridicules Spike's feelings, and rarely relates to Spike without that subtext. Is it because Xander knows that he is Spike? That when the guise of humanity was stripped away, he did exactly what Spike did--only with less justification? Spike and Buffy had been aggressively sexual; Spike's attempted rape didn't look that much different than the beginning of some of their consensual activities. And once Buffy kicked Spike away, he realized what he'd tried to do and was immediately upset.

Xander, however, gets kicked away and comes back for more--and that's without ever having any encouragement from Buffy that would imply interest. (Interestingly, I didn't time it, but I'm sure that the Xander attempted rape scene is significantly longer than the one with Spike) Without a soul, Xander is less human than Spike before he earns back his soul. Popular theory is that Xander's dislike of Buffy's boyfriends (except possibly Riley) is that he's jealous that Buffy doesn't ever respond to him romantically. And in the first season or two, that's an ongoing subtext. Later, though, I'm not as sure. It may be there somewhat, and Anya implies it a time or two, but as Xander matures, I think there's a chance he's more aware of the yin/yang within himself and how easily he crossed it. His evolution into the person who sees others, as is made explicit in season seven, comes because he has seen himself.

But in this episode, he's teflon. Any possible guilt slides off him, and the girls see only Xander's goofy, friendly demeanor at the end. After his conversation with Giles, though, he walks away with his head hanging. He knows what he did, and presumably is at least embarrassed, maybe appalled--and the girls don't even really have a clue about what's going on inside of Xander. Throughout the series, neither of them is gifted with emotional insight; in another gender twist, Xander evolves into the emotional savant of the Scoobies (another trait he shares with Spike, who without fail has more insight into people--especially Buffy--than they have themselves. Spike even echos Xander's speech about danger, claiming that Buffy "likes a little monster in her men.")

It's worth noting that because Xander never acknowledges what he did, he can't seek forgiveness or redemption; in contrast, although Spike doesn't exactly apologize for attempting to rape Buffy (saying that it's beyond simple words, or something like that), they do talk about it and is forgiven, even redeemed. Perhaps it is logical that Xander, young and inexperienced, doesn't find the way to broach the subject with Buffy. It's hard to imagine the more mature Xander of season six or seven not seeking resolution after letting his id loose. But still, it's possible that Xander's reactions to Spike says as much about Xander's own baggage as it does about Spike.

So Xander and Spike in a yin/yang do-si-do? Before this episode, I wouldn't have seen them as the negative image of each other, but now I'm thinking. Could be.

Three other quick points:

1. This is the first mention of "soul" in the series. Giles mentions it in connection with animal possession, saying "Humanity, the soul, is a perversion, a dilution of spirit The animal state is holy (to the Maori, who worship animal spirits)." The concept of soul is so crucial later in the series--and I suspect in the next episode about Angel, but I don't remember!
2. Buffy pulls a Simba at the end; the crazed zookeeper is killed by his hyena when he flies into the cage, meaning Buffy doesn't kill a human. In "The Lion King," Simba indirectly caused Scar (his uncle and King) to die by letting him fall to the hyena pack--so both Simba and Buffy are innocent.
3. Again, Xander is key in an early story. Whedon claims that he was Xander in high school, and it seems evident that in early episodes, they know the character better than they seem to know the other characters. At this point, Willow is still the brainy computer nerd who finds information and needs saved--little sense of her as a character.
   

Now, to watch "Angel!"