Surprise

Big episode, and I'm going to gloss over what might be the major points. Everyone knows it's Buffy's birthday and the gang is throwing a Surprise party, Buffy sleeps with Angel (in the non-sleeping sense of the phrase), and that Dru is healed and Spike is in a wheelchair. And that the Judge is back, thanks to Spike & Dru, and he's going to kill everyone. And Willow and Oz have their first date--and he sees Buffy dust a vamp, and accepts it with no fuss.

All obvious plot line, all commented on by endless Buffy scholars. Here's what struck me: water. three different times, forms of water figure in the story. Now, I know that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but think about it--everytime Whedon decides to put water in the plot, he's just complicated shooting the scene. First, Angel and Buffy are at the docks and Buffy gets thrown into the ocean, then Angel follows to save her. (Logic alert: He's wearing a long, heavy coat; she's dressed much lighter. Even considering that he doesn't need to breath...who's going to save whom?) Then, to escape from the Judge and the vamp squad at Dru's party, Buffy and Angel jump into the sewer, which is especially wet, soaking her through (as often as they are underground, the amount and effect of the water this time is unusual). Last, as Buffy sleeps, Angel goes out into a thunderstorm...he's Angelus again, but we don't know that yet; we just know he seems to be in pain and soaked through.

Water is oftem symbolic, and when you consider the effort it takes to put water in the visual, there must be meaning in the water imagery. Water is the source of life, it's purifying and cleansing. It's baptism. It can also be danger, threat. Each individual instance of water in the episode might fit those symbolic archetypes, but I'm still convinced I'm missing something. To use water 3 times (a symbolic number, too) is too obvious.

So I'm going to watch Innocence before I write too much more. I need to see if there's a pattern or meaning that becomes more obvious.