Re: When Buffy went Crazy

["debvii" <debvii@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In buffywantswillow@y..., jeepy91@a... wrote:

> Oh yeah, the B/S ship was hit pretty hard by the episode. Not to
> mention Spike's 'love' for Buffy itself. I mean there the girl is,
> pretty much freaking out, not knowing what's really going on. And
> there he is handing her ultimatums about revealing their boinkfest.
> When she didn't drink the antidote I'm sure that was part of the
> reason.

Oh, without a doubt! Spike is basically Buffy's emotional antagonist 
throughout the story, and he is the embodiment of all her fears of 
never being normal again. Are you much into scene analysis? The 
bedroom scene starts out with a positive value -- tentative hopefulness 
-- and ends on a negative one -- despair. My sketch of the beats is:

1. (Buffy is) Waking up/ (Willow is) Helping her
2. Admiring & thanking her/Quietly accepting
3. (Spike is) checking in/(W is) managing the situation
4. Rejecting him/Threatening her
5. "Checking out"

The scene changes value when Spike enters.

btw, funny as it may sound, I don't believe that it was coincidental 
that the coffee mug containing the antidote was red. That mug 
essentially holds Willow's place in the scene after she exits. It 
contains Willow's promise that "everything will go back to normal."

Willow and Spike are contrasted throughout the ep, in small ways and 
large. If Willow is Buffy's strongest tie, Spike is the "anti-tie". :) 
Interestingly, however, while Spike is bald and frank (even if 
ultimately yucky), Willow -- for all her loyalty and sympathy -- seems 
to shy away from getting too intimate with Buffy. Re-watch the couch 
scene and see if you can spot what I'm talking about. Basically, both 
Spike and Willow fulfill a need, but they are also both lacking 
something. (Obviously I think Spike's lack is greater.) Yes, Willow 
keeps coming through for Buffy, but Buffy's not sure she WANTS that or 
that what Willow is able to give is enough.

Okay, I really should stop now, but I just have to say one more thing. 
Why was Tara in the last scene? She wasn't essential to the action of 
the scene, and having her there diluted the resonance between that 
scene and the "family" couch scene. It's annoying when one spots 
glitches like this in an otherwise tightly-structured script. The W/T 
plot should have been left hanging after the dining room scene. Really.

DEM