Harsh Light of Day

Vamp Time! From the first scene, where Buffy is watching Parker in a mirror at the Bronze to the end scene when Buffy decides to send the Gem of Amarra to Angel (without speaking his name, of course), the episode is about vampires.

Watching Angel in a mirror was never an option; several episodes play with the fact that he could sneak up on her when she was looking in a mirror. He's gone, though, and Parker is here. The subplot of Buffy sleeping with, then getting dumped by Parker is woven throughout the vamp line of Spike and whiny new girlfriend Harmony looking for the gem. (Note: it's a Holy grail image for vamps, a point Giles makes)

Buffy apparently is over Angel, and the multiple ironies of her giving the gem to Angel is not even alluded to: first, Angel leaves, refusing to commit, then she gives him a ring--a symbol of commitment; also, his major reason for leaving was that he couldn't give Buffy a normal life, going outside during the day, moving around at will, but with the gem, he could do all that. He wouldn't age, of course, while Buffy would--but they could have had a long "normal" life (especially considering a slayer's usual life span). She gives him all that while still smarting from the slight wounds Parker inflicted. In fact, Oz delivers the ring so we don't even get the satisfaction of a Buffy/Angel reunion (although that does happen in a few episodes, I think). As Buffy begins other relationships, reinforcing that they are all 2nd to Angel is a reoccurring theme; the fact that her brief Parker relationship takes place at the same time she's earning a prize that could change Angel's life is not an accident--sure, she can play with boytoys, but Angel is still there in the background. There's no doubt that she'd leave Riley for Angel, and the Spike/Angel argument is one that is still being fought in fanfic!

This is a sexisode, with Xander going into full goof mode as Anya strips and announces that she thinks that having sex with him will cure her of her crush. (Note the parallel: that does cure Parker of his crush, but cements it for Anya) Amid double takes and comic reactions, the "romance" of Anya and Xander is underway, seemingly out of the blue. When Buffy accuses him in season 5 (i think) of being with Anya because it's convenient and she's willing, it seems possible that she's right until Xander makes his big speech to Anya to clarify. But that's a season (or so) away, and for now, Anya is comic relief--and she takes the role left by Cordelia's absense: truthteller, blurting out what shouldn't be said. Her reason for doing so is different, but often the purpose is the same--to call the character's (and audience's) attention to something we're too polite, or scared, or oblivious to notice.

And Spike--he's back. Mean, focused, and mesmerizing. Could Spike kill Buffy? Could Buffy dust Spike? Would Whedon let either of them win? That seems to be the question he tapdances around for the next few seasons...in this episode, Buffy wins the round and gets the ring, but it's close.

Now to more fun--the Halloween episode is next, and this is Halloween night. Guess what ghouls and ghosts will be scaring me!

Prophecy Girl: Entre Act

Quick note about something I forgot to mention earlier: In the very last episode, as Buffy is sending Xander away to keep Dawn safe (which doesn't work), Xander says something like, "I always thought I'd be there for you (with you?) at the very end." There's an implication, if I remember correctly, that he expected to have her back, to be able to pick up the flag, in a sense.

In "Prophecy Girl," this attitude surfaces but is not made explicit by Xander's insistence that he is following her to the Master, and his forcing Angel to go also (would Angel have gone anyway? Probably--if he had known. He doesn't know until Xander shows up at his door, and Angel insists that neither Buffy nor Xander know how overmatched they are).

NOt sure what I'm going to make of that, or if that's going to fit in definition of manhood, or Xander's infatutation with Buffy, but I wanted to mention it. Buffy is only alive because Xander followed; does he think he can be her savior again, or is it just needing to know she wouldn't die alone? Gotta see as this all transpires.

Episode 8: I Robot, You Jane

Finally, a Willow-centric episode. Her computer-geekiness is highlighted, and she gets to play "infatuated girl" very cutely. The show's take on technology is interesting. Willow is the uber-techie, and her skills are often the deus ex machina of the plot. She's essential in that capacity. However, she and Jenny Calendar are just about the only people who touch computers in the show. I can't remember very many times that Xander or Buffy do, and Giles is blatantly anti-tech, although he's willing to have Willow use them.

For all Willow's savvy, though, it's Xander who understands that anyone can be anything on the internet. While Buffy is worrying that Willow's online boyfriend might "have a hairy back," Xander points out that Malcolm could be creepy and dangerous. Makes me wonder what Xander spent his evenings doing...

Even though he's definitely not interested in Willow romantically, Xander's speed at discounting Malcolm leads Buffy to conclude he's jealous, or at least missing his status as "belle of the ball." That's an interesting phrase; as the male of the triad, he's less masculine than the jocks and typical boys; he apparently has no male friends at this point--except possibly Giles. As we find out later, Xander's home life sucks and he's terrified of turning into his father, an overbearing boor, possibly abusive, possibly alcoholic. Just as Giles becomes Buffy's father figure, he may be Xander's model of manhood--and at this point, Giles is slight effete, bookish, and, well....old-maidish. That evolves, too. Calling Xander the "belle of the ball" because he's the male of the trio underlines his less-than-studly position in the group.

Giles gets a few moments to shine, finally having an adult to verbally spar with. Jenny Calendar is apparently his intellectual equal, but with a different enough viewpoint that sparks fly. He's incredulous about neo-paganism, she believes he's stuck in the Middle Ages.

And Willow, well, I'd like to say that she's at risk to turn into the female stereotype that Whedon wanted to overthrow by having Buffy fight back--Willow's needed rescuing a couple times now. However, this time she grabs the fire extinguisher and whales on Malcolm/Moloch as she banters--"I think we need to break up, but I hope we can still be friends..."

Thus far, her low self-esteem and puppy dog gratefullness at being chosen as Buffy's BBF have been defining characteristics (Hyena-Xander even commented on this: "You're doing what you're told," not thinking for yourself, he tells her). I suspect the writers struggled more with finding Willow's voice; she's the girl they had as a friend as they looked longingly at the Buffy-type girls in the school. I need to check, but I think the writers for the first season are almost entirely male. They understand Xander--maybe, like Whedon, some of them were Xander; Buffy is their linchpin, and they know what she wants and how she thinks. Joyce is still a fairly typical, clueless mom, and Giles has barely grown past the stereotype of stuffy British teacher--the evolution of Willow is perhaps one of the most compelling parts of the series. They don't know her yet...but they will!

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!"