"Seduction" and Fire--SPOILERS for "Gone" (long)

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

First I want to thank Jenn and Cas for the kind words. Normally, I'd
react to such praise by being quite modest, and then adding on some fake
modesty to cover my swelling ego, but I had a different reaction this
time.  

It's because of Cas saying my commentaries are the one thing that keeps
her 'shipper heart from breaking. Anyone who remembers how depressed I
was at the start of the season would just have to laugh at that. I
mean, thanks for the props, Cas, but I'm an unreliable beacon of hope,
I'm afraid.

And I mention this because I'm blue again. Not because I think things
are going badly--but I read something and started to think "what if our
'ship does come in, and we still don't like it?"

So I'm skipping "'Shippiness in 'Gone' " and "General B/W Portents" to
post this essay, although I hope to do those, too. Again, this one is
going to places outside B/W fandom, so it's general at points, but I
deal with our dream as well.

Please tell me what you think. And since I'm discussing "Gone" and it
hasn't been a week, I still need the

S

P

O

I

L

E

R



S

P

A

C

E


Now, while I liked "Gone", one thing I could have done with less of is
Buffy's reaction to Spike. Not InvisiBuffy feeling liberated and
running over for a cheap fling--that was wrong but it was at least
motivated by the storyline. What repels me is the continuation of the
"Spike won't leave and Buffy can't get rid of him" interaction that we
got earlier in the ep.  
I'm going to back up a bit and quote Ace's review of "Wrecked" on
MightyBigTV. First a slight side trip to Spike's "the only thing better
than killing a Slayer would be f--" line:

"Buffy's all outraged to think Spike might be sleeping with her just to
rack up the street cred of having done a Slayer, but I think she's
missing the salient point, which is just how repellent she should find
pillow talk about how much fun it was for him to KILL women like her."

Amen, there. This is the girl who was properly grossed out when he
wanted to kill Dru for her; now it's okay that he talks about how he
enjoyed killing SLAYERS, as long as his feelings for her are pure?

But when he controls the situation by grabbing her and mauling her
privates, here's Ace's well-written objection:

"Buffy is disgusted. Spike is cocky. Nice to see that Buffy now has no
more dignity than Spike's last lay, Harmony, the wench that was played
for comedic effect. Actually, in "Pangs", Harmony was a bit more
successful at making her point than Buffy is here. She tries to leave
and her restrains her by throwing his arms around her neck. Obviously,
Buffy can defend herself and doesn't HAVE to stand there when he stops
her, but I still can't help but be disturbed by the way this plays out.
I personally don't find the annoying, physically forceful cretin of the
bodice-ripper romances to be a romantic ideal, and I can't believe that
what used to be my favorite show is forcing me to sit through a scene
implying that our heroine is a little lady who just needs to be held
down and FORCED into 'letting down her barriers.' I have nothing
against powerful, passionate sex, but I'm only comfortable with it if
there's an element of play, or a mutual agreement as to the terms."

Total agreement, except that this is still my favorite show, no matter
how badly Marti Noxon tries to kill it.

And then came "Gone". In the kitchen, Buffy tells Spike to leave; he
gets in her face instead. He rubs her thigh, she's aroused but tells
him to stop, he doesn't. Xander enters, and unknowingly compares Buffy
to Harmony. Of course, Buffy doesn't have the excuse of being a vampire
and needing Spike to protect her from the Slayer. When Doris the social
worker is there, Buffy asks Spike to leave, and he pretends to, but
doesn't. Beaten, whipped, defeated, she whimpers "Why won't you go?".
He doesn't. She screams at him to leave, and he traps her against the
wall and sticks his hand in her pants, because just telling her to toss
him the lighter would be unmanly.

Now I know there's something to be said for not letting someone push you
out of the relationship, but that doesn't mean that you push THEM
around, that you refuse to respect their private space, refuse to listen
to anything they say, refuse to grant them even the appearance of a
shred of dignity. Riley was right in "Doomed" to say that Buffy was too
negative and he wasn't going to give up, but he was wrong to call her
stupid, to tell her she had to snap out of it right now, to deny her the
right to wallow in her misery and take her own time to make her own
decisions, even if she ended up making the wrong ones.

And of course, Riley only used words, Spike gets physical. Physical in
ways that would get you or I arrested for attempted rape. I can't
believe that some B/S 'shippers look at that scene in the kitchen and
praise him for being, get this--

--wait for it, it's that bizarre--

"Tender".

Ladies, would you honestly want this guy, no matter how hard he pushes
your sex buttons, always telling you what's going to be and that you
have no choice in it? Would you want him to touch you when you say you
don't want to be touched, to ignore everything you say and focus solely
on his ability to tweak your clit? Would you want him to never give you
privacy, or the illusion of independence or an opinion of your own?

Guys, I don't care how hot the chick is, wouldn't her always grabbing
your dick make it shrivel? Your "little friend" is a sensitive feller,
don't you want to have some say in who touches him and when?

And I can't believe it's just that I'm opposed to the 'ship: I tried
picturing my favorite couple acting this way. I tried seeing Buffy
shove Willow against walls and not hear her pleas for space, for peace,
for her to "let me come to you when I'm ready". Then I had to vomit and
go lie down for a while.

Now, I understand that the Spuffy 'shippers are missing the point. I
know it's supposed to be abusive and repellent--Fury even said so, and
I assume he's talking about this, not the InvisiSex. (And did you
notice that Spike gets upset when SHE's the one who's in charge, when
SHE won't respect his feelings. Wonder where she got that behavior
from?) I know that Spike has emotionally abused her, trying to isolate
her from her friends ("they wouldn't understand"), claiming he's the
only one she can relate to ("you're a creature of darkness, just like
me"), that she has nowhere else to go. I understand that Drew Greenberg
showed she did have somewhere else to go in the "Smashed" teaser, where
he answered Spike's "I'm the only one that's there for you, pet! You've
got no one else!" by cutting to Willow, aka "someone else". Hell, I'm
thrilled that the end point of all this is probably going to be stronger
B/W friendship and maybe even romance (David Fury, the man who first had
the girls say "I love you" to each other, takes the opportunity in
"Gone" to raise the issue of B/W as a couple on air for the first time).

And I know that Buffy's cutting her hair is one of the classic reactions
of a sex-abuse victim--Daddy likes the dress, so I burn it; he likes
my hair, so I cut it; if I'm ugly maybe he won't touch me anymore.

But there's the rub. BUFFY FRICKIN' SUMMERS is ACTING LIKE A VICTIM!!

Did you read that line above? "Beaten, whipped, defeated, she whimpers,
'Why won't you go?'" Now I know she's had trauma, but Buffy feeds on
trauma, she's a survivor--except for this year. Now she's utterly
defeated.

She's been this way before--it's the crux of a lot of episodes. The
nightmare world has come to life, she's been turned into an 18th century
twit, Angel has turned evil and mocks her, Faith's betrayed her, she
can't stop the voices in her head, Sunday insulted her fashion sense,
whatever. Buffy feels alone and vulnerable and useless and "Helpless"
for 40 minutes of the ep--

--and then Buffy Looks Up.  

We know what happens when Buffy Looks Up; we see it in every episode,
in the credits. She's given up Slaying, but there she is, having killed
Luke, and staring down the vamps at the Bronze. She's lost everything
and wound up in Hell, but she fights back. She's been targeted by a god
and now she mocks Glory. It's the last shot, the "Power" shot, where we
realize that no matter how far down you take her, she can bounce back.

She says "there are a lot of things in the world that are scarier than
you, and right now, I'm one of them" or "Hi, honey, I'm home" or "He's
making it easier" or "If I was at full strength, I'd be punning now" or
"I am" or "You're an idiot" or "You know, I think you're gonna find, in
the three seconds it'll take you to turn to dust, that the one mistake
you made was touching my stuff" or "I think the 'thrall' has gone out of
our relationship" or "You're not the BRIGHTEST god in the heavens, are
you?".

Or this, from "Anne"--"Who are you?" "I'm Buffy, the Vampire Slayer."

She gets the fire back.

And that's her challenge for the year, to get the fire back, right? She
sang about it. So basically, Marti has taken the structure of what
would normally be an episode, and is stretching it over the whole damn
year. I mean, she won't be herself until at least the end of February
sweeps, or possibly the finale. Geez, no wonder the eps this year feel
sloooooooow, if they're basically just doing one really long ep,
structure-wise.

(Did you noticed that a lot of the eps I quoted were season premieres?
We expected Buffy to be 'back' then--instead we're halfway through the
year and the closest thing to Buffy we've seen on UPN is the Buffybot.)

(For the record, the longest Buffy has ever been totally whipped by life
before was three eps, from the end of "Spiral" to the middle of "The
Gift". She carries the pain of Angel's reversion, of her killing him,
of her mom's death with her to this day, but by the end of "Innocence",
"Anne" and "Forever", respectively, she had adjusted to the changes in
her life, found her balance in the new emotional paradigm, and was
resolved to go on, somehow. Again, to quote the song, she had the fire
back. Here, it's been eleven eps, with no end in sight.) 

So there had better be a really big payoff, since the set up is a mere
TWENTY or so times as long as it normally has been. But what can it be?

Solution 1--Buffy snaps back to normal. Just as before, it's a big red
reset button--and we all feel used. What would the purpose of all
these eps be, other than to show us that Buffy can be a victim and that
when Buffy isn't Buffy, the show will suck? (Aside from giving us lots
of Naked Spike, of course--which may actually be Marti's motive for the
whole season, and all that will happen is the big reset, after all.)

Solution 2--Buffy snaps back to normal, but realizes she does love
Spike, body, soul and mind. So in additon to all the other objections
to B/S, they would set it up so she began the affair when she was
"wrong"? They'd have him taking advantage of her when she was too
messed up to stop him, and that would be the building block of True
Love?

Yeccch beyond Yeccch. (Even from B/Sers, I should hope)

Solution 3--Buffy snaps back to normal, and her degrading Spike
experience opens her eyes to finding True Love in a different sort of
relationship, presumably with Willow (since that's the one that's been
mentioned and since the other alternatives--Xander, Giles--have
virtually vanished from the show).

Now, I love B/W and I think they'd make each other happy, but I really
wish they wouldn't have Buffy "go gay because she had an abusive
relationship with a man." I'd like B/W to be about the love the two
have shared since Day One becoming fully realized, not about two lost
souls turning to each other in desperation. I'd like to think these
girls are not so repulsive to the nation that they have to give Willow a
badly-written drug addiction story and practically rape Buffy (heck,
they may actually HAVE Spike rape her before Noxon the Unsubtle is done)
in order for people to accept the pairing.  

It diminishes the truth and beauty of their love for each other if they
can only come together because their lives suck.

(Not to mention the grotesque cheapening of Spike's multifaceted
character if in the end he's just a rapist)

Because I don't think it's necessary; Buffy is the lead character and
up until this season she's been very appealing (in part because of the
heroic strength and resolve that Noxon has stripped from her). For the
most part, any romance of hers is generally accepted. Even Spike, the
least-likely man, has drawn general support. And I honestly think that
disgruntled B/A fans would take Willow or Xander or Giles a lot better
than they have Riley or Spike, because B/R and B/S have seemed like
cheap attempts to have B/A without Angel (look, Riley's tall and older
and muscular and superstrong and quiet--he's just like Angel!! Look,
Spike's a vampire and he wears leather and now he's good, too! Plus
he's funny and, unlike Angel, they can have sex!!), which insults
B/Aers' memory of the affair. It's one thing if Angel is Buffy's tragic
first love and she has to move on to someone who can give her what he
can't, someone different; it's another if she moves on to someone with
his most salient characteristics.

(In season 4, Joss would have been much better served to get Buffy with
Forrest or--if he was actually a decent guy--Parker. Plus this would
have let them put Riley with Willow, which was who he had the chemistry
with, anyway.)

So we have the Episode that Ate the Season, as Marti confuses the
concept of a through-line with the idea of telling a normal story. And
all I can see is either Buffy going back to normal after a big waste
and much pain, or Buffy finding happiness from what has started out as a
very degrading affair--and, no matter how good you think he could be
for her, let's not kid ourselves about what it is right now--when she
was "not in her right mind", or Buffy making a life choice not out of
positive emotions but to wash that Peroxided Man right out of her hair.
If there's a happy ending here, I can't see it.

And in the meantime, the eps continue to suffer, because the show is
called "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" and I haven't seen that girl since
she dove off the tower. 

Peace,

Dan