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Revisiting Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Meta on Characters and Themes in 4th Season
Is there room to tell a story in more than one way - a more internal way?
Martin Scorsese from the documentary Scorsese on Scorsese.
I've always written structured stories, plot focused tales. In the seasons before this one,
we had a clear plot arc. But here, this season was more chaotic. More anarchic. We were telling a lot of standalone tales that focused on our characters. The main plot arc - the Initiative and Adam was really in the background, not the true focus. That's why we chose not to end the season with the battle at the Initiative, which many fans expected and wanted. Instead we chose to do something I never done before nor have really done since - which is write an sort of coda that focused purely on the characters and addressed their arcs over the course of the season. In some respects, our best episodes were done this season - because we chose to move away from the tight plotting and focus more on the characters.
[paraphrased and by memory] quote from Joss Whedon's interview in his commentary on The Overview of Season 4 and commentary from Restless.
Of all the seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 4 may be the most experimental. In some respects it was also the season that television critics took notice. Prior to this season, many felt that Buffy was really just a show for teen girls. It was not until Season 4 that Buffy got nominated for an emmy - with HUSH, or that the HUGO's took notice. The story for the first time veered away from the high school metaphors and the angsty gothic romance trope which is currently being replayed almost to death by Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga,
Tru Blood, Moonlight (okay not current), Laurell K. Hamilton's novels, and countless others - it was by no means new when Whedon did it with Angel/Buffy, and it's not new now. Although Whedon did put a horrific twist on it that has yet to be copied, and he did in some respects put an end to it in Season 4, moving on with his tale. I mention the Buffy/Angel relationship because it is the reason a lot of fans disliked Season 4. It's not the only reason. Season 4 is not formulaic tv. It did not follow the pattern fans had become accostumed to. The big bad sat mostly in the background, seldom used. The gang did not solve a mystery each week and fight bad guys. Buffy had a romance, but it wasn't quite as hot or angsty as with Angel nor was it front and center. And the plot unlike most tv series of this type was not the main point.
The tale in some respects was a more internal as opposed to external one - another thing that fans of action adventure/science fiction tales may not be used to. Plus the characters were less comfortably together. At times, in fact they seemed to be on the point of breaking apart.
Evil and good became blurry. The metaphors mixed. And if you shipped a specific character or relationship in later seasons, especially Spike and/or Spike/Buffy, or hated Riley - this season may have bugged you. At least these are the critiques I've read over the years since the season aired way back in 1999-2000. And I admit when I first watched the season, I remember being a bit frustrated with it and confused. Now, years later, rewatching it, I find myself fascinated and impressed by what the writers/actors/directors and producers managed to accomplish in a difficult and fast medium. It may in fact be one of the most brilliant seasons to ever air on tv, it is certainly amongst the riskiest and experimental. It also, I believe influenced others.
I mention Martin Scorsese above - because a)I was watching a doc on him tonight and b) his quote fit I thought what Whedon was trying to do.
The seasons 1-4 do fit together thematically. Season 4 is not a full departure in any way, outside of what I stated above. Everyone is in character and their actions do make sense. In commentaries, Jane Espenson states that fans had been upset that Buffy would sleep with Parker so soon after Angel - but her sleeping with Parker was meant as a commentary on Angel. It was, as Buffy originally stated in the episode - but was cut due to the episode being fifteen minutes too long - all about Angel. Parker was about her trying to forget Angel. The other point to Parker - was this was a guy who wasn't evil and wasn't a hero, he's just a guy you slept with and doesn't call you back. I only mention this because it is an example of the continuation of a thematic arc that stretchs from season 1 all the way to the end of season 7, and beyond to season 8 in the comics. The arc is sexism - or the many ways in which sexism enters our society and affects us. Including but not limited to sexual violence, objectification, and demeaning or belittling someone. The Initiative as run by Professor Walsh - a woman who self-describes herself as an evil bitch monster - serves as the male power unit, which up until this point had been symbolized in the series by either the Watcher Council or the Principal/Mayor. Riley much like Angel before him is older than Buffy, often patronizes her, and treats her as the "sweet girl" or child that he must protect. He is in some respects a human version of Angel, with not necessarily similar so much as parralel authority issues. Like Angel he is the leader, the guy in charge. Like Angel he sees himself as the demon hunter. And Like Angel - he is being controlled by an external force, in this case a scientific one as opposed to a magical one, which causes conflict with Buffy. He is also in some respects a human version of Spike - like Spike, Riley has mother issues, like Spike, he needs the approval of the mother figure - and has a close relationship with his mothers, and like Spike he is controlled by a scientific device, except his causes him to become immobile. But Riley, ultimately is a metaphor for two things: 1) the sexism that exists in our institutions and how men relate to women within them, 2) the inability to take your own initiative, the desire to adhere to traditional values, rules, order without question, to tow the line, and what happens when you do question those traditonal values, do question what you were taught, how you were raised, everything you know? Do you breakdown? Do you lose yourself completely? Are you but a puppet - as Riley at one point becomes, or do you evolve?
Spike is the other male metaphor symbolizing sexism and taking the intitiative.
In Scorsese on Scorsese - Martin Scorsese discusses The Last Temptation of Christ (my favorite film depicting that story) and states that many people were upset with him about it.
Scorsese who is Catholic, said, there's two types of Faith, the type of faith that is evolving or an evolving spirituality and the type of faith that ends up killing people.
Here, in this story, Spike, like Riley, is undergoing in an odd way a crisis of faith. All the characters are. I'm starting with Spike and Riley, because they are supporting characters and I can sum them up far quicker. Spike up until this point has been a bad-ass vampire, who has in his lifetime had numerous flunkies. In Harsh Light of Day - he has about twenty vampires working for him. And in Angel, he's hired a torturer. When he comes back to Sunnydale, swearing off flunkies, enraged, he is captured by the Initiative who in the words of the writers Clockwork Orange's Spike or in other words plants a behavior modification device in Spike's head which makes it impossible for him to hurt any human being without excrutiating pain. It's tantamount to defanging him. Except in some respects worse, because it is in his head. This causes Spike to have what amounts to a crisis of faith, everything he knows to be true, isn't. He can't be a monster any more. To give him credit - he tries. He spends most of the season trying to figure out how to handle the chip and get back to his old ways. Desperate he goes to Buffy's group for aid, his reasons are simple and in character. Spike from S2, is an opportuninistic and pragmatic character. He went to Buffy for aid in Becoming to take down Angel. Here, he more or less does the same thing - he figures out in The Intitiative episode that Buffy did not arrange his capture and if anything they share a common enemy - after all it is Buffy who indirectly saves his and Willow's hides from Riley's unit in that episode. Riley may not know it is Buffy, but Spike figures it out. That's why he shows up at her door - he knows she'll help him in exchange for information - she did it before.Heck she's done it more than once. They have a history. And he also knows that she's not going to stake him, she didn't in Lover's Walk - when she certainly had a lot more reason to and/well even if she does, it's better than starving.
When Spike figures out that he can hurt demons - he kills them, not to be good, but because it is a way to unleash the rage, the power within him. He loves a good fight. As he states in Lover's Walk - come on, that was fun. That's what I needed a good fight! And in Lover's Walk - he's not killing humans, he's killing vampires. Spike really doesn't care who he kills as long as it is someone. Which backfires on him. Spike is not stupid, but by the same token much like the rest of us, he doesn't always think things through. As is exhibited in Lover's Walk (where it doesn't occur to him that Willow may have set him up by sending him to Buffy's house for the spell book) or in Harsh Light of Day (where he trusts blabbermouth Harmony),
or in In the Dark (where he trusts Malcolm). He has great ideas, brilliant ones, actually, but he's not the best strategist in the world because he can't quite see the big picture, he's too micro, not macro. Buffy is more macro - she sees the big picture. He's not alone in that, many of the male characters in Buffy screw up royally in the strategy department, Riley certainly does, as does Giles and Xander. At any rate, Spike fails to realize that killing demons is going to make him an outcast amongst demons, a villian. Someone demons hate. To give him credit, over time, he finds a way to take advantage of this and just makes them fear him. But it is a switch. And through the season it's a switch he is struggling with, he struggles with his desire to help Buffy's group - because Spike is a social animal. He likes being around others. He can't be alone. So if he can't hang out in a bar and snipe with demons anymore - he gets kicked out, who can he hang with?
Going back to Riley, who in the same episode gets kicked regarding the Initiative - he too struggles with a crisis of faith. As Riley tells Buffy - the Iniative and the military is everything he knows, joinging it - was his dream. They invested a lot into him and he invested a lot into it. It's a part of him. Giving it up is not easy for him. Also he believes in it and what it stands for. Buffy's worldview is counter to what he knows. He believes that all demons are bad. That there is no in between. He is trying to see it differently, but it goes against everything Riley knows and everything he is. When he leaves the Initiative, he leaves his friends and family, everyone, for Buffy. He has no one. He is alone. Granted the Initiative is a boy's club. When Buffy attempts to join it - that's made apparent. Questions are not asked. You follow orders. I remember years ago talking to a couple of soliders about military service and they explained to me that when you are a solider you do not question anything, you do whatever you are told. Imagine, they said, if people fighting in the field suddenly decided to ask questions to stop following orders, to you know run or play football or sleep or leave, can you imagine the chaos? If you can't do that you can't be in the military. You are trained to follow without thinking, it becomes second nature to you. Riley is about order.
Spike is about chaos. But Spike's chaos like Riley's order, has a rhyme and reason to it.
Until now. Now - in Season 4 - much like Riley, Spike's world makes no sense. He finds himself socializing with humans not demons. He's drinking beer at the Bronze, socializing with Anya, socializing at a frat party, considers - actually considers helping Buffy's group without pay at one point to save her and Riley, then talks himself out of it. Has a blast helping Giles, but insists on payment, only to be forced to return it to get their help again.
Then Faith switchs places with Buffy and plays Spike, she turns him on sexually, makes him aware possibly for the first time that he is sexually attracted to Buffy. An attraction that up until this point he associated with killing her. But the combo of Willow's spell in Something Blue and the body switch, not to mention the inability to hurt Buffy without feeling incredible pain - may have flipped how he views it in his own head. He's confused.
He hates her, wants her miserable - but, each time he does anything to make it happen - he pays the price and brutally. A vampire who has killed two slayers, is now at the mercy of one he can't seem to kill.
Enter Adam - who tells Spike exactly what Spike wants to hear. Spike, no dummy, says - ah, I can see why demons love you - you're like Tony Roberts, a self-help guru. He tells Spike that he can get rid of Spike's chip, free the caged beast within. He also tells Spike that he wants to destroy Buffy. But, Spike states - that's hard to do. She has a tendency to be on the winning side. Why not join her then? Spike appears to consider it. Adam also asks why he hasn't killed her yet. Spike says rotten luck. But he is defensive about it. He tells Adam there's a way to do it - in Yoko Factor - to get her to fail. Separate her from her friends.
Remember Spike is a social animal. He has been separated from his family - Drusilla. His friends. the Fanged Four. He's a lone wolf and miserable. He rightly has figured out that Buffy has succeeded where other slayers have failed due to her family and friends - as he notes in School Hard to Dru - a slayer with family and friends was not in the brochure.
So it is a brilliant plan in theory. But neither Spike nor Adam really think it out. Spike forgets that Willow is the one decrypting the discs that would enable Buffy to get into the Initiative to fight the demons and Adam. Adam needs her there to kill the demons - so he has dead demons and dead humans to build his army. So Spike splits the friends apart by just suggesting stuff - it's relatively easy, he's been around them long enough to pick up on their conflict. The fact that he is able to do it so well - says a lot about his own mixed feelings regarding them. He reminds me a little of Angelus - who equally says nasty things to Cordy and Wes in Eternity and to Buffy. He can't hurt them any other way...so he uses this - the verbal sword. Just as he does in Doomed. Then he has to remedy it - so he finds Buffy and lets her find out that he stirred up the trouble with Willow. This unfortunately leads to Buffy entering the Initiative with her friends and Spike on the outs with Adam. He's stuck again. And so, Spike does what Spike has done from the beginning, he switches sides and helps Buffy. And by doing so, once again - he's safe and sound. He's not hurt. He's not staked.
And he gets to have a great fight, and be a winner. Much more fun than getting hit with a pipe organ, getting burned, or hit with an ax. But once again...he's perplexed. IT goes against what he is.
Riley has the same problem - he joins Buffy, becomes the hero, but to do so, he has to go against who he is, he has to leave it. He stops being a hero. He stops having a role.
The other characters are similarily explored, everyone from OZ to Jonathan to Tara to Anya, to Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles. In this season all the male characters seem to be adrift or cut adrift - lost in the wood. OZ at the beginning of the season has Willow and has the wolf under control. But, just as he fears in Fear, Itself - he loses control of the Wolf and loses Willow and leaves. He has to go find himself. When he does, find himself. When he actually gets the wolf under control. Comes back. He finds Willow has moved on to Tara. Which turns his world completely upside down, to such an extent that he realizes that he does not have the wolf under control and almost loses his freedom and life to the Initiative. Xander has no idea who or what he should be. Out of high school - he faces his worst fear - becomeing his father. And being stuck forever in his parents basement. He jumps from job to job, while having mindless sex with Anya. They are together, but one wonders if it is just about sex. Xander isn't entirely certain. And Anya appears to have no identity or self outside of Xander, she is Xander's girlfriend. If she stops being his girlfriend, she's a vengeance demon. Giles, equally, is adrift. Jobless. He has deliberately cast himself off from Buffy - something I found sort of amusing. After watching S1-4, I realized how inept Giles truly is. He spends most of the time unconcious. Seldom aids Buffy. And if he has magical abilities or is a Wizard, he seems to veer away from using them, often resisting it.
It may be a commentary on the male overseeing the female? I'm not sure. But Giles in the series never really seemed to do much of anything except spout exposition. He would explain what they were fighting and then Buffy would solve the problem. Here, he often doesn't know what they are fighting or why, and Buffy has to figure it out on her own. He appears to realize this in Restless - that he really is not required, that the slayer never really required a Watcher, at least not in the way he'd been taught - a concept that bugs him.
The women fair better in the season than the men do, which is interesting. Buffy never really loses who she is. Even with Angel leaving, and Faith pulling the body switch on her - Buffy gets who she is. She has a firm sense of self. It is Buffy who figures out that there is something wrong with the Jonathan illusionary world in Superstar. And it is Buffy who realizes that she must move on from Angel - that no good can ever come from a relationship that is not built on trust. It is trust she seeks and does not completely find with Riley - she can't since who she is and what she is goes against everything he has been taught.
As expressed in her Restless dream - Riley is from the world that she has always to a degree fought - the world of the Watcher, the Mayor, Principal Snyder, and to a degree The Master.
He is from Professor Walsh's world. And she is not. He can't trust her, any more than she can trust him - they come from two different worlds. Her's is one of magic. His is one of science.
It is Buffy who tells her friends that the conflict between them has been stirred by Spike.
And it is Buffy who tells the first slayer that she is not alone.
She is thrown for a loop by Faith, but she bounces back. It is her life that fiddles with Faith not the other way around. Faith is changed by becoming Buffy. By experiencing the love that surrounds Buffy.
Faith equally fairs better, through her switch with Buffy, Faith finds herself. Oddly her sleeping with Riley throws her into the right direction, even if it throws Riley in the opposite one. That interaction is the beginning of the rift between Buffy and Riley, which only partially gets healed. In the overview of Season 4 commentary, Whedon mentions that people have questioned the morality of Riley sleeping with Faith as Buffy. Whedon states two things in response:1) Riley is a guy, of course he'd go there...she's throwing herself at him and he may see something is up, but again he's just a guy, 2) Faith wants to hurt Buffy but by doing this she hurts herself, its a violation for her, a type of sex she isn't prepared for - it is love and it messes with what she is. She begins to want to be Buffy and begins to truly hate who and what she, Faith, is. Whedon states that he felt the key was to use three words repeated three times - where Faith is trying to figure out how she feels about what is happening, and who she is. Faith who was not raised with love, who has had no love. Who doesn't know love. And envies this friend who has had love and was raised in it. What would happen to Faith if she were to experience it? The words are "because it's wrong" - the first time in the mirror after a bath when she's first become Buffy, the second when she plays with Spike and tells him why she won't have sex with him and the third when she tells the vampires why killing humans is wrong. The third time is the charm - that's when she believes the words, understands the meaning and wants to be the hero. A role she's never really had and feels robbed of. She is in a way Buffy's little sister. Much as Spike is Angel's little brother. And for much the same reason that Spike must be helped by Buffy, Faith goes to Angel for aid. And it is Faith's return to Angel that is the final stake in the Buffy/Angel relationship. By Yoko Factor - Buffy more or less tells Angel that he is right, they aren't in each other's lives any more and really have no place there. When they show up, all they do is interfer. It's telling that the last time Buffy shows up in Angel's world, in LA, on screen, is when Faith is there - it is also when he tells her, somewhat brutally to leave.
Ironic, considering how many times he returns to lurk and spy on her - she, in a way, treats him with more respect than he does her. She moves on. While Angel never quite can.
Willow likewise is able to move on, while OZ remains stuck on her. She moves on to Tara. A lot has been written about this relationship and how Willow became gay. I have a different interpretation. I think Willow loved OZ and was attracted to men. I do not think it is necessarily as simple as we like to make it out. A lot of people are bisexual. They fall in love with individuals, and their sexual orientation to a degree may be based on who they fall in love with. That said, I think with Tara, Willow discovered a love more complete and rounded than it had been with OZ. OZ she couldn't trust completely. Willow had the same problems with OZ that Buffy has with Riley and Angel. She can't trust him. An on-going theme regarding men in the series. In both Willow's Restless Dream and The Initiative - we hear the line - men leave, men treat women horribly. It's always the same. And in both cases it is directed at Riley. Willow tells Riley in The Initiative to not seduce Buffy, have her fall in love with him, only to break her heart by leaving her in the lurch like OZ had with her. (Riley does exactly that, by the way. Although he promises not to.) Later in her dream, Buffy yells at Riley for breaking Harmony's heart. Whedon in his commentary states that the dream sequence with Harmony, Buffy and Riley in Death of a Salesman - depicts the traditional male/female stereotypical/sexist roles. That aren't true. Riley - Cowboy Guy. Harmony - the fair maid who is taken advantage of, and Buffy - the femme fatal, who hates men. Buffy screams at Riley - you seduce her, you grope her, you men, and your sales! It states quite clearly Willow's views on men. Somewhat justified by seeing OZ tear apart Veruca, after he slept with Veruca, and almost tearing her apart. Or how Xander cheated on Cordy with her, and Xander's relationship with Anya. Tara is different. Tara is gentle. With Tara, Willow feels powerful.
Willow and Tara - Whedon depicts in three ways, as male fantasy in Xander's dream and in Willow's (which he states takes us away from Willow), as a tender romance, and in freakish/homophobic view. The second and third - are pure metaphor. Their romance is depicted by magic, the homophobia is often the reaction to magic, Riley's reaction to her relationship with OZ is ironically how most people may react to her relationship with Tara, in fact it was how many fans at the time did react to her relationship with Tara. Both are indirect. The only direct one is the male fantasy - albeit brief. Again - the theme of sexism, male entitlement, and gender roles is brought up. For Willow, Tara is a safe haven. Tara is to Willow in a way what Willow has been for Buffy, sans sex. OR maybe Xander has been. Tara is supportive, she allows Willow to be the hero, the protector, Willow isn't the damsel. Willow has the power here. While with OZ - OZ always had the power. OZ was the cool kid. OZ was the powerful and fearsome wolf. With Tara, Willow is the cool kid, Willow is the powerful and fearsome witch. Since Willow's greatest fear is being uncool, the nerd - Tara unlike Oz or Xander is the perfect antidote. Tara makes Willow feel cool. Going all the way back to Doomed, when Percy calls Willow a nerd - it's clear this is something that bothers Willow.
Willow wants to be Buffy or Cordy, Xander's betrayal was dating and being with Cordy - the popular girl. Never looking at Willow. OZ's betrayal was sleeping with and going towards Veruca - the cool songtress. That's what hurt Willow the most. Tara...seeks Willow out, for Willow's help. Willow and Tara save each other. Both are outsiders. They are equals. Willow is not attracted to Tara because she is a woman, but because of who Tara is, how Tara treats her, and how she fits. Willow's future romance with Kennedy is similar - Kennedy at this point is also Willow's equal, someone who is powerful, who sees Willow as the cool girl.
Something Willow clearly did not get from OZ or Xander, as depicted in Wild at Heart, Doomed, and much of S3.
The exploration of self, who we are, and why is a common theme in literature. Here, they also explore how outside forces attempt to shape and form us - whether they be peers, teachers, or authority figures. And how our responses to those external forces, how we internalize those responses shape us. Season 4 is an internal journey, as Whedon states in his commentary, which is why the season ends inside the minds of the four principle characters, with the supporting characters as echoes of their psyches, much as our subconscious minds may borrow friends and family to explore our own issues inside our own dreams.
Ugh, up too late again, to bed. And hopefully to sleep.
Martin Scorsese from the documentary Scorsese on Scorsese.
I've always written structured stories, plot focused tales. In the seasons before this one,
we had a clear plot arc. But here, this season was more chaotic. More anarchic. We were telling a lot of standalone tales that focused on our characters. The main plot arc - the Initiative and Adam was really in the background, not the true focus. That's why we chose not to end the season with the battle at the Initiative, which many fans expected and wanted. Instead we chose to do something I never done before nor have really done since - which is write an sort of coda that focused purely on the characters and addressed their arcs over the course of the season. In some respects, our best episodes were done this season - because we chose to move away from the tight plotting and focus more on the characters.
[paraphrased and by memory] quote from Joss Whedon's interview in his commentary on The Overview of Season 4 and commentary from Restless.
Of all the seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 4 may be the most experimental. In some respects it was also the season that television critics took notice. Prior to this season, many felt that Buffy was really just a show for teen girls. It was not until Season 4 that Buffy got nominated for an emmy - with HUSH, or that the HUGO's took notice. The story for the first time veered away from the high school metaphors and the angsty gothic romance trope which is currently being replayed almost to death by Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga,
Tru Blood, Moonlight (okay not current), Laurell K. Hamilton's novels, and countless others - it was by no means new when Whedon did it with Angel/Buffy, and it's not new now. Although Whedon did put a horrific twist on it that has yet to be copied, and he did in some respects put an end to it in Season 4, moving on with his tale. I mention the Buffy/Angel relationship because it is the reason a lot of fans disliked Season 4. It's not the only reason. Season 4 is not formulaic tv. It did not follow the pattern fans had become accostumed to. The big bad sat mostly in the background, seldom used. The gang did not solve a mystery each week and fight bad guys. Buffy had a romance, but it wasn't quite as hot or angsty as with Angel nor was it front and center. And the plot unlike most tv series of this type was not the main point.
The tale in some respects was a more internal as opposed to external one - another thing that fans of action adventure/science fiction tales may not be used to. Plus the characters were less comfortably together. At times, in fact they seemed to be on the point of breaking apart.
Evil and good became blurry. The metaphors mixed. And if you shipped a specific character or relationship in later seasons, especially Spike and/or Spike/Buffy, or hated Riley - this season may have bugged you. At least these are the critiques I've read over the years since the season aired way back in 1999-2000. And I admit when I first watched the season, I remember being a bit frustrated with it and confused. Now, years later, rewatching it, I find myself fascinated and impressed by what the writers/actors/directors and producers managed to accomplish in a difficult and fast medium. It may in fact be one of the most brilliant seasons to ever air on tv, it is certainly amongst the riskiest and experimental. It also, I believe influenced others.
I mention Martin Scorsese above - because a)I was watching a doc on him tonight and b) his quote fit I thought what Whedon was trying to do.
The seasons 1-4 do fit together thematically. Season 4 is not a full departure in any way, outside of what I stated above. Everyone is in character and their actions do make sense. In commentaries, Jane Espenson states that fans had been upset that Buffy would sleep with Parker so soon after Angel - but her sleeping with Parker was meant as a commentary on Angel. It was, as Buffy originally stated in the episode - but was cut due to the episode being fifteen minutes too long - all about Angel. Parker was about her trying to forget Angel. The other point to Parker - was this was a guy who wasn't evil and wasn't a hero, he's just a guy you slept with and doesn't call you back. I only mention this because it is an example of the continuation of a thematic arc that stretchs from season 1 all the way to the end of season 7, and beyond to season 8 in the comics. The arc is sexism - or the many ways in which sexism enters our society and affects us. Including but not limited to sexual violence, objectification, and demeaning or belittling someone. The Initiative as run by Professor Walsh - a woman who self-describes herself as an evil bitch monster - serves as the male power unit, which up until this point had been symbolized in the series by either the Watcher Council or the Principal/Mayor. Riley much like Angel before him is older than Buffy, often patronizes her, and treats her as the "sweet girl" or child that he must protect. He is in some respects a human version of Angel, with not necessarily similar so much as parralel authority issues. Like Angel he is the leader, the guy in charge. Like Angel he sees himself as the demon hunter. And Like Angel - he is being controlled by an external force, in this case a scientific one as opposed to a magical one, which causes conflict with Buffy. He is also in some respects a human version of Spike - like Spike, Riley has mother issues, like Spike, he needs the approval of the mother figure - and has a close relationship with his mothers, and like Spike he is controlled by a scientific device, except his causes him to become immobile. But Riley, ultimately is a metaphor for two things: 1) the sexism that exists in our institutions and how men relate to women within them, 2) the inability to take your own initiative, the desire to adhere to traditional values, rules, order without question, to tow the line, and what happens when you do question those traditonal values, do question what you were taught, how you were raised, everything you know? Do you breakdown? Do you lose yourself completely? Are you but a puppet - as Riley at one point becomes, or do you evolve?
Spike is the other male metaphor symbolizing sexism and taking the intitiative.
In Scorsese on Scorsese - Martin Scorsese discusses The Last Temptation of Christ (my favorite film depicting that story) and states that many people were upset with him about it.
Scorsese who is Catholic, said, there's two types of Faith, the type of faith that is evolving or an evolving spirituality and the type of faith that ends up killing people.
Here, in this story, Spike, like Riley, is undergoing in an odd way a crisis of faith. All the characters are. I'm starting with Spike and Riley, because they are supporting characters and I can sum them up far quicker. Spike up until this point has been a bad-ass vampire, who has in his lifetime had numerous flunkies. In Harsh Light of Day - he has about twenty vampires working for him. And in Angel, he's hired a torturer. When he comes back to Sunnydale, swearing off flunkies, enraged, he is captured by the Initiative who in the words of the writers Clockwork Orange's Spike or in other words plants a behavior modification device in Spike's head which makes it impossible for him to hurt any human being without excrutiating pain. It's tantamount to defanging him. Except in some respects worse, because it is in his head. This causes Spike to have what amounts to a crisis of faith, everything he knows to be true, isn't. He can't be a monster any more. To give him credit - he tries. He spends most of the season trying to figure out how to handle the chip and get back to his old ways. Desperate he goes to Buffy's group for aid, his reasons are simple and in character. Spike from S2, is an opportuninistic and pragmatic character. He went to Buffy for aid in Becoming to take down Angel. Here, he more or less does the same thing - he figures out in The Intitiative episode that Buffy did not arrange his capture and if anything they share a common enemy - after all it is Buffy who indirectly saves his and Willow's hides from Riley's unit in that episode. Riley may not know it is Buffy, but Spike figures it out. That's why he shows up at her door - he knows she'll help him in exchange for information - she did it before.Heck she's done it more than once. They have a history. And he also knows that she's not going to stake him, she didn't in Lover's Walk - when she certainly had a lot more reason to and/well even if she does, it's better than starving.
When Spike figures out that he can hurt demons - he kills them, not to be good, but because it is a way to unleash the rage, the power within him. He loves a good fight. As he states in Lover's Walk - come on, that was fun. That's what I needed a good fight! And in Lover's Walk - he's not killing humans, he's killing vampires. Spike really doesn't care who he kills as long as it is someone. Which backfires on him. Spike is not stupid, but by the same token much like the rest of us, he doesn't always think things through. As is exhibited in Lover's Walk (where it doesn't occur to him that Willow may have set him up by sending him to Buffy's house for the spell book) or in Harsh Light of Day (where he trusts blabbermouth Harmony),
or in In the Dark (where he trusts Malcolm). He has great ideas, brilliant ones, actually, but he's not the best strategist in the world because he can't quite see the big picture, he's too micro, not macro. Buffy is more macro - she sees the big picture. He's not alone in that, many of the male characters in Buffy screw up royally in the strategy department, Riley certainly does, as does Giles and Xander. At any rate, Spike fails to realize that killing demons is going to make him an outcast amongst demons, a villian. Someone demons hate. To give him credit, over time, he finds a way to take advantage of this and just makes them fear him. But it is a switch. And through the season it's a switch he is struggling with, he struggles with his desire to help Buffy's group - because Spike is a social animal. He likes being around others. He can't be alone. So if he can't hang out in a bar and snipe with demons anymore - he gets kicked out, who can he hang with?
Going back to Riley, who in the same episode gets kicked regarding the Initiative - he too struggles with a crisis of faith. As Riley tells Buffy - the Iniative and the military is everything he knows, joinging it - was his dream. They invested a lot into him and he invested a lot into it. It's a part of him. Giving it up is not easy for him. Also he believes in it and what it stands for. Buffy's worldview is counter to what he knows. He believes that all demons are bad. That there is no in between. He is trying to see it differently, but it goes against everything Riley knows and everything he is. When he leaves the Initiative, he leaves his friends and family, everyone, for Buffy. He has no one. He is alone. Granted the Initiative is a boy's club. When Buffy attempts to join it - that's made apparent. Questions are not asked. You follow orders. I remember years ago talking to a couple of soliders about military service and they explained to me that when you are a solider you do not question anything, you do whatever you are told. Imagine, they said, if people fighting in the field suddenly decided to ask questions to stop following orders, to you know run or play football or sleep or leave, can you imagine the chaos? If you can't do that you can't be in the military. You are trained to follow without thinking, it becomes second nature to you. Riley is about order.
Spike is about chaos. But Spike's chaos like Riley's order, has a rhyme and reason to it.
Until now. Now - in Season 4 - much like Riley, Spike's world makes no sense. He finds himself socializing with humans not demons. He's drinking beer at the Bronze, socializing with Anya, socializing at a frat party, considers - actually considers helping Buffy's group without pay at one point to save her and Riley, then talks himself out of it. Has a blast helping Giles, but insists on payment, only to be forced to return it to get their help again.
Then Faith switchs places with Buffy and plays Spike, she turns him on sexually, makes him aware possibly for the first time that he is sexually attracted to Buffy. An attraction that up until this point he associated with killing her. But the combo of Willow's spell in Something Blue and the body switch, not to mention the inability to hurt Buffy without feeling incredible pain - may have flipped how he views it in his own head. He's confused.
He hates her, wants her miserable - but, each time he does anything to make it happen - he pays the price and brutally. A vampire who has killed two slayers, is now at the mercy of one he can't seem to kill.
Enter Adam - who tells Spike exactly what Spike wants to hear. Spike, no dummy, says - ah, I can see why demons love you - you're like Tony Roberts, a self-help guru. He tells Spike that he can get rid of Spike's chip, free the caged beast within. He also tells Spike that he wants to destroy Buffy. But, Spike states - that's hard to do. She has a tendency to be on the winning side. Why not join her then? Spike appears to consider it. Adam also asks why he hasn't killed her yet. Spike says rotten luck. But he is defensive about it. He tells Adam there's a way to do it - in Yoko Factor - to get her to fail. Separate her from her friends.
Remember Spike is a social animal. He has been separated from his family - Drusilla. His friends. the Fanged Four. He's a lone wolf and miserable. He rightly has figured out that Buffy has succeeded where other slayers have failed due to her family and friends - as he notes in School Hard to Dru - a slayer with family and friends was not in the brochure.
So it is a brilliant plan in theory. But neither Spike nor Adam really think it out. Spike forgets that Willow is the one decrypting the discs that would enable Buffy to get into the Initiative to fight the demons and Adam. Adam needs her there to kill the demons - so he has dead demons and dead humans to build his army. So Spike splits the friends apart by just suggesting stuff - it's relatively easy, he's been around them long enough to pick up on their conflict. The fact that he is able to do it so well - says a lot about his own mixed feelings regarding them. He reminds me a little of Angelus - who equally says nasty things to Cordy and Wes in Eternity and to Buffy. He can't hurt them any other way...so he uses this - the verbal sword. Just as he does in Doomed. Then he has to remedy it - so he finds Buffy and lets her find out that he stirred up the trouble with Willow. This unfortunately leads to Buffy entering the Initiative with her friends and Spike on the outs with Adam. He's stuck again. And so, Spike does what Spike has done from the beginning, he switches sides and helps Buffy. And by doing so, once again - he's safe and sound. He's not hurt. He's not staked.
And he gets to have a great fight, and be a winner. Much more fun than getting hit with a pipe organ, getting burned, or hit with an ax. But once again...he's perplexed. IT goes against what he is.
Riley has the same problem - he joins Buffy, becomes the hero, but to do so, he has to go against who he is, he has to leave it. He stops being a hero. He stops having a role.
The other characters are similarily explored, everyone from OZ to Jonathan to Tara to Anya, to Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles. In this season all the male characters seem to be adrift or cut adrift - lost in the wood. OZ at the beginning of the season has Willow and has the wolf under control. But, just as he fears in Fear, Itself - he loses control of the Wolf and loses Willow and leaves. He has to go find himself. When he does, find himself. When he actually gets the wolf under control. Comes back. He finds Willow has moved on to Tara. Which turns his world completely upside down, to such an extent that he realizes that he does not have the wolf under control and almost loses his freedom and life to the Initiative. Xander has no idea who or what he should be. Out of high school - he faces his worst fear - becomeing his father. And being stuck forever in his parents basement. He jumps from job to job, while having mindless sex with Anya. They are together, but one wonders if it is just about sex. Xander isn't entirely certain. And Anya appears to have no identity or self outside of Xander, she is Xander's girlfriend. If she stops being his girlfriend, she's a vengeance demon. Giles, equally, is adrift. Jobless. He has deliberately cast himself off from Buffy - something I found sort of amusing. After watching S1-4, I realized how inept Giles truly is. He spends most of the time unconcious. Seldom aids Buffy. And if he has magical abilities or is a Wizard, he seems to veer away from using them, often resisting it.
It may be a commentary on the male overseeing the female? I'm not sure. But Giles in the series never really seemed to do much of anything except spout exposition. He would explain what they were fighting and then Buffy would solve the problem. Here, he often doesn't know what they are fighting or why, and Buffy has to figure it out on her own. He appears to realize this in Restless - that he really is not required, that the slayer never really required a Watcher, at least not in the way he'd been taught - a concept that bugs him.
The women fair better in the season than the men do, which is interesting. Buffy never really loses who she is. Even with Angel leaving, and Faith pulling the body switch on her - Buffy gets who she is. She has a firm sense of self. It is Buffy who figures out that there is something wrong with the Jonathan illusionary world in Superstar. And it is Buffy who realizes that she must move on from Angel - that no good can ever come from a relationship that is not built on trust. It is trust she seeks and does not completely find with Riley - she can't since who she is and what she is goes against everything he has been taught.
As expressed in her Restless dream - Riley is from the world that she has always to a degree fought - the world of the Watcher, the Mayor, Principal Snyder, and to a degree The Master.
He is from Professor Walsh's world. And she is not. He can't trust her, any more than she can trust him - they come from two different worlds. Her's is one of magic. His is one of science.
It is Buffy who tells her friends that the conflict between them has been stirred by Spike.
And it is Buffy who tells the first slayer that she is not alone.
She is thrown for a loop by Faith, but she bounces back. It is her life that fiddles with Faith not the other way around. Faith is changed by becoming Buffy. By experiencing the love that surrounds Buffy.
Faith equally fairs better, through her switch with Buffy, Faith finds herself. Oddly her sleeping with Riley throws her into the right direction, even if it throws Riley in the opposite one. That interaction is the beginning of the rift between Buffy and Riley, which only partially gets healed. In the overview of Season 4 commentary, Whedon mentions that people have questioned the morality of Riley sleeping with Faith as Buffy. Whedon states two things in response:1) Riley is a guy, of course he'd go there...she's throwing herself at him and he may see something is up, but again he's just a guy, 2) Faith wants to hurt Buffy but by doing this she hurts herself, its a violation for her, a type of sex she isn't prepared for - it is love and it messes with what she is. She begins to want to be Buffy and begins to truly hate who and what she, Faith, is. Whedon states that he felt the key was to use three words repeated three times - where Faith is trying to figure out how she feels about what is happening, and who she is. Faith who was not raised with love, who has had no love. Who doesn't know love. And envies this friend who has had love and was raised in it. What would happen to Faith if she were to experience it? The words are "because it's wrong" - the first time in the mirror after a bath when she's first become Buffy, the second when she plays with Spike and tells him why she won't have sex with him and the third when she tells the vampires why killing humans is wrong. The third time is the charm - that's when she believes the words, understands the meaning and wants to be the hero. A role she's never really had and feels robbed of. She is in a way Buffy's little sister. Much as Spike is Angel's little brother. And for much the same reason that Spike must be helped by Buffy, Faith goes to Angel for aid. And it is Faith's return to Angel that is the final stake in the Buffy/Angel relationship. By Yoko Factor - Buffy more or less tells Angel that he is right, they aren't in each other's lives any more and really have no place there. When they show up, all they do is interfer. It's telling that the last time Buffy shows up in Angel's world, in LA, on screen, is when Faith is there - it is also when he tells her, somewhat brutally to leave.
Ironic, considering how many times he returns to lurk and spy on her - she, in a way, treats him with more respect than he does her. She moves on. While Angel never quite can.
Willow likewise is able to move on, while OZ remains stuck on her. She moves on to Tara. A lot has been written about this relationship and how Willow became gay. I have a different interpretation. I think Willow loved OZ and was attracted to men. I do not think it is necessarily as simple as we like to make it out. A lot of people are bisexual. They fall in love with individuals, and their sexual orientation to a degree may be based on who they fall in love with. That said, I think with Tara, Willow discovered a love more complete and rounded than it had been with OZ. OZ she couldn't trust completely. Willow had the same problems with OZ that Buffy has with Riley and Angel. She can't trust him. An on-going theme regarding men in the series. In both Willow's Restless Dream and The Initiative - we hear the line - men leave, men treat women horribly. It's always the same. And in both cases it is directed at Riley. Willow tells Riley in The Initiative to not seduce Buffy, have her fall in love with him, only to break her heart by leaving her in the lurch like OZ had with her. (Riley does exactly that, by the way. Although he promises not to.) Later in her dream, Buffy yells at Riley for breaking Harmony's heart. Whedon in his commentary states that the dream sequence with Harmony, Buffy and Riley in Death of a Salesman - depicts the traditional male/female stereotypical/sexist roles. That aren't true. Riley - Cowboy Guy. Harmony - the fair maid who is taken advantage of, and Buffy - the femme fatal, who hates men. Buffy screams at Riley - you seduce her, you grope her, you men, and your sales! It states quite clearly Willow's views on men. Somewhat justified by seeing OZ tear apart Veruca, after he slept with Veruca, and almost tearing her apart. Or how Xander cheated on Cordy with her, and Xander's relationship with Anya. Tara is different. Tara is gentle. With Tara, Willow feels powerful.
Willow and Tara - Whedon depicts in three ways, as male fantasy in Xander's dream and in Willow's (which he states takes us away from Willow), as a tender romance, and in freakish/homophobic view. The second and third - are pure metaphor. Their romance is depicted by magic, the homophobia is often the reaction to magic, Riley's reaction to her relationship with OZ is ironically how most people may react to her relationship with Tara, in fact it was how many fans at the time did react to her relationship with Tara. Both are indirect. The only direct one is the male fantasy - albeit brief. Again - the theme of sexism, male entitlement, and gender roles is brought up. For Willow, Tara is a safe haven. Tara is to Willow in a way what Willow has been for Buffy, sans sex. OR maybe Xander has been. Tara is supportive, she allows Willow to be the hero, the protector, Willow isn't the damsel. Willow has the power here. While with OZ - OZ always had the power. OZ was the cool kid. OZ was the powerful and fearsome wolf. With Tara, Willow is the cool kid, Willow is the powerful and fearsome witch. Since Willow's greatest fear is being uncool, the nerd - Tara unlike Oz or Xander is the perfect antidote. Tara makes Willow feel cool. Going all the way back to Doomed, when Percy calls Willow a nerd - it's clear this is something that bothers Willow.
Willow wants to be Buffy or Cordy, Xander's betrayal was dating and being with Cordy - the popular girl. Never looking at Willow. OZ's betrayal was sleeping with and going towards Veruca - the cool songtress. That's what hurt Willow the most. Tara...seeks Willow out, for Willow's help. Willow and Tara save each other. Both are outsiders. They are equals. Willow is not attracted to Tara because she is a woman, but because of who Tara is, how Tara treats her, and how she fits. Willow's future romance with Kennedy is similar - Kennedy at this point is also Willow's equal, someone who is powerful, who sees Willow as the cool girl.
Something Willow clearly did not get from OZ or Xander, as depicted in Wild at Heart, Doomed, and much of S3.
The exploration of self, who we are, and why is a common theme in literature. Here, they also explore how outside forces attempt to shape and form us - whether they be peers, teachers, or authority figures. And how our responses to those external forces, how we internalize those responses shape us. Season 4 is an internal journey, as Whedon states in his commentary, which is why the season ends inside the minds of the four principle characters, with the supporting characters as echoes of their psyches, much as our subconscious minds may borrow friends and family to explore our own issues inside our own dreams.
Ugh, up too late again, to bed. And hopefully to sleep.