Helpless

Ohhhhh....now I get it. Last episode, Joyce turns on Buffy, and leaving Buffy without a supportive parent figure...now---Helpless. Daddy turns on her, in essence. We are seeing the creation/growth of Buffy's fatal flaw, her sense of isolation.

It's Buffy's birthday, 18. She's excited about the Ice Capades; going each year with her Dad (a conspicuously absent character) is a ritual that she cherishes. She admits that it's childish--cotton candy, sparkly costumes--even as she tries to defend the artistry of the skaters. He cancels. She sucks it up, but in a touching scene, she tries to get Giles to offer to take her. The Giles-as-father-figure is in full bloom, with Buffy articulating it as clearly as she ever does. If Giles would offer, it would complete the transition into Buffy's dad, symbolically.

However, he's completely distracted. She's so wrapped up in her scheming that--childlike--she pays no attention to his mood. We find out why. He's shooting her up with a substance that, we realize in a bit, is sapping her strength. He seems distraught about doing it, but--ever the good soldier--he does.

A lot is written about this episode and Buffy's loss of strength: the men leering at her, her inability to save Cordelia from a bully, her clever dealing with the vampire test--but there's a bigger loss: a loss of trust in the adults around her. It's not a total loss, and they do redeem themselves, still having loving relationships, but her father, Joyce, and now Giles have revealed that they are human; they may have their own agendas, they may even knowingly hurt her. The most important rite of passage in this episode may not be the Counsel's Vampire test; it may be Buffy's realization that she is alone in a fundamental way.

In counterpoint, when Quentin fires Giles, he claims Giles loves Buffy with a father's love, and that renders him unfit to be a Watcher. He wants to protect and preserve her, to help instead of watch and guide. At that moment, Buffy probably doesn't believe that, but her subtle reactions to Giles' firing implies that she's considering what that means.

As is common in the Buffy-verse, love triumphs and Joyce, Buffy and Giles are pretty much fine post-Helpless,....but--as always in Sunnydale--the history is remembered and the lessons learned. When Giles conspires with Robin against Spike, he betrays Buffy again, nearly leaving her even more helpless than in this episode; again, he does it for what he believes are important reasons, and not easily. Giles is a more morally ambiguous character than I had realized--which isn't to say he is, but he's not the total background white hat I'd remembered.

Gingerbread

I didn't like this episode the first time I saw it. I know why--it is the darkest one yet, and the first time I watched the series, I didn't know how dark it would go. Joyce and Mrs. Rosenberg--first and only appearance of Willow's mom--join ranks with other parents to "take back Sunnydale from the monsters and the witches and the Slayers" and let the grownups run things. That means taking all Giles' books from the library for a mass book burning, providing fuel for burning Willow, Amy and Buffy.

The opening has Joyce wanting to see Buffy slay, to accept what Buffy is. Instead, between the reality of that and finding two dead children, she mobilizes to protect Buffy and Sunnydale by getting rid of the evil--which, ironically, includes Buffy. Before the end, we find out that the adults are influenced by a Hansel and Gretel type demon, which is dealt with and the parents are back to their willfully ignorant selves by the end.

Joyce is upset seeing the dead bodies, and Buffy holds her and comforts her--a counterpart to Buffy finding Joyce's body in season 5. Buffy is the adult in the scene, and does for her mother what she will not allow anyone to do for her when her mother's body is found.

The contrast between Willow's mom and Buffy's is overt; Joyce is trying hard and is aware of Buffy's life; Willow's mom can't even talk to her--didn't even realize she'd gotten her hair cut months before.

Darkness: the parents are attacking their children, Giles is essentially powerless, Oz and Xander work together--an important step in healing their Willow-rift, but ultimately not aiding Willow or Buffy. And although Willow plays at calling forth dark magic to try to get her mom's attention, Amy really does call on dark magic to save herself, turning into Amy the rat who will wrek havoc in season 6.

So what's it about? Still thinking, but we see the Mayor and Principal working together, which is not a good thing. And we get a hint that the good v evil can include humans on either side--and that even the kids can be morally ambiguous. Ultimately, I don't think this is an important episode, but I may revise that--and it does start working darker themes and real death in the mix. Even though the kids' were real....Joyce's reaction was. Big picture, that matters more.

Amends

What can I say about this episode that hasn't been said better by someone? It's almost fairy-tale like in its ending, a sudden, unexplained snow storm, hiding the sun so Angel doesn't commit suicide. Buffy had told him that they were done, finito--yet she was the one beside him as the miracle occurred, tearfully admitting that she loves him. Snow--white, pure, miraculous--all the things Angel isn't, yet apparently the Powers that Be decide to use super-symbolic-mojo to insure that Angel is around to get his own series.

Angel is trying to make amends for the evil he's done, but he's not the only one. Buffy reluctantly makes overtures to Faith, and Oz decides that he and Willow belong together. Xander and Cordy are still not civil, and we see Xander sleeping outside in the sudden snow as he avoids his family's dysfunctional Christmas eve celebration. White, fluffy snow baptizes the sleeping xander, symbolically exonerating him even though Cordy won't.

In the plot line and symbolically, the destruction wrought be Spike is washed away, but it's worth noting that unlike many television shows, the characters retain the memories of their flaws and failures, and grow--or at least change--from the experiences.

Worth noting: Joss uses very overtly religious symbolism in this one--and it does take place Christmas Eve/Morning--and Willow mentions several times that she is Jewish, although her last name (Rosenberg) is the main evidence of that. In the episode about forgiveness and redemption, even avowed atheist Joss heads to religious, probably because those are the archetypes we understand....I think.

In the Buffy-verse, the last several episodes are crucial to the myth-making and character development. Soon, season 3 will kick up a notch--but for now, we've had a respite from the Mayor as we explore and build the characters more.

The Wish

Another often-cited episode. It's Joss' version of "It's a Wonderful Life," in a sense, answering the question "what if Buffy hadn't moved to Sunnydale?" The inciting action: Cordelia, now recovered from her near-death experience and facing taunts and rejection from the cool kids (lead by Harmony), wishes that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. Abracadabra!

Anya is on the scene, vengeance demon extraordinaire! This is the first time we meet her, and she seems to be a plot device. She makes a passing reference to Xander as a loser, but other than that ironic moment, it's all vengeance, all the time.

The meat of the episode is simple, in my mind. A couple episodes back, Willow and Xander were bad. They kissed, they lusted, Willow tried to use magic in a manner foreshadowing later issues--just not the happy go lucky kids we expect. They were not truely bad, but they feel they've fallen--and, presumably, the audience is at least aware that they were not the "white hats" for an episode.

So...let's push that further. Vamp Willow and Vamp Xander are bad, no doubt. And they are obviously together, not just giving into a moment of temptation. In a sense, Joss and his merry band of elves are giving us the worst case--what if Willow and Xander had fallen as far as they seem to think they have? They are busy berating themselves for being human--and hurting Cordelia and Oz, who they really do like--so Joss created a reality where they joyfully hurt people.

And, as is usual in Sunnydale, true evil is named an punished. A scarred, leather-clad Buffy--the bad girl mirror of Faith--kills the Master, Vamp Willow and Vamp Xander, with the help of Angel, suggesting that they are destined? Maybe? And that Buffy is good and human and not Faith because she's got friends like Willow and Xander? Maybe?

In the alt-world, Giles is an ex-watcher, and Oz and a couple others work with him to fight the evil, but without Buffy, the fight is futile.

Redemption is needed, all have fallen in one way or another, and....that's where the next episode goes.