I wrote about a couple interpretations of the dream sequence in my last Buffy Came Back Wrong post. Of course, I think this sequence can mean just about anything (Except maybe that Buffy's secretly in love with Warren. I'd argue with you about that one.). My BCBW post covered the interpretation that highlights Buffy's depression, but there's another, more Buffy/Spike-focused interpretation that seems apparent to me, as well.
It hinges on the Spike-Katrina parallel that's made fairly explicit in the episode (and even continues on to As You Were).
Sidebar: Not sure what I mean about AYW? Let me throw a couple scenes at you.
From Dead Things.
WARREN: Tell me you love me.
KATRINA: I love you, Master.
More kissing. Katrina keeps her eyes open and her same blank expression while kissing.
WARREN: Again.
KATRINA: I love you, Master. (more kissing)
WARREN: I love you too, baby. (shrugs) Get on your knees.
KATRINA: I love you, Master.
More kissing. Katrina keeps her eyes open and her same blank expression while kissing.
WARREN: Again.
KATRINA: I love you, Master. (more kissing)
WARREN: I love you too, baby. (shrugs) Get on your knees.
And from As You Were.
BUFFY: (quietly) Tell me you love me.
SPIKE: (surprised) I love you. You know I do.
She takes a couple of steps closer.
BUFFY: Tell me you want me.
SPIKE: (whispers) I always want you. In point of fact-
BUFFY: Shut up.
SPIKE: (surprised) I love you. You know I do.
She takes a couple of steps closer.
BUFFY: Tell me you want me.
SPIKE: (whispers) I always want you. In point of fact-
BUFFY: Shut up.
The similarity of the scenes is striking and only reinforces the Spike-Katrina parallels that had been established in DT.
End sidebar.
That said, this part of the original shooting script for the dream sequence of DT caught my interest:
EXT. CLEARING - NIGHT
Just a quick flash. Buffy violently strikes a shadowy attacker in the woods. We can't make out who it is.
EXT. WOODS - BOTTOM OF EMBANKMENT - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT
Now Buffy is straddling Katrina, who is in the same position as Spike was on his bed. She roughly handcuffs Katrina's hands above her head. Katrina's expression betrays both pleasure and pain...
BUFFY
Do you trust me?
INT. SPIKE'S CRYPT - DOWNSTAIRS - CONTINUOUS
Quick flash. Spike and Buffy are on the floor amid the wreckage of their love-making They're going at it again, rough and hot.
EXT. CLEARING - NIGHT
Quick flash. Buffy lashes out again. Hits someone. This time we see that it's KATRINA - who goes flying from the brutal blow.
Just a quick flash. Buffy violently strikes a shadowy attacker in the woods. We can't make out who it is.
EXT. WOODS - BOTTOM OF EMBANKMENT - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT
Now Buffy is straddling Katrina, who is in the same position as Spike was on his bed. She roughly handcuffs Katrina's hands above her head. Katrina's expression betrays both pleasure and pain...
BUFFY
Do you trust me?
INT. SPIKE'S CRYPT - DOWNSTAIRS - CONTINUOUS
Quick flash. Spike and Buffy are on the floor amid the wreckage of their love-making They're going at it again, rough and hot.
EXT. CLEARING - NIGHT
Quick flash. Buffy lashes out again. Hits someone. This time we see that it's KATRINA - who goes flying from the brutal blow.
I think it's the phrasing, "lashes out", that kinda clicks for me and crystallizes this particular interpretation. Buffy is lashing out in her depression, and Katrina/Spike get caught in it. Add in the very literal lashing out during the time wonkiness scene where Buffy accidentally punches both Spike and (who she thinks is) Katrina.
This is, of course, the more Buffy/Spike-relevant read of the scene (and episode) that I alluded to in my BCBW post. Where DT centers on her realization that she's using (and abusing) Spike much like Warren used and abused Katrina.
One other thing from the shooting script caught my eye, and it's during the alley scene where Spike is trying to prevent her from turning herself in.
SPIKE
You're not doing this.
BUFFY
Let me go, Spike. Please. Just let me go...
SPIKE
I can't. I love you.
That only adds to her guilt.
BUFFY
No, you don't.
You're not doing this.
BUFFY
Let me go, Spike. Please. Just let me go...
SPIKE
I can't. I love you.
That only adds to her guilt.
BUFFY
No, you don't.
It's the "That only adds to her guilt" that I'm focusing on. For a while, I hadn't been sure how to read Buffy's reaction in this scene. I eventually concluded, in my BCBW post, that the reminder that Spike loved her added to Buffy's guilt pile because it highlights the very Wrongness of what she's doing with him.
So I was kinda happy to have this line in the shooting script, because it works to settle my mind that I was on the right track (as far as authorial intention goes). The alley scene, again, has Buffy lashing out. Not in anger, but in guilt and self-loathing. This places the final "Tell me that I'm wrong" scene between Buffy and Tara firmly in the "Buffy can't believe she's doing this shit to Spike, who loves her" place.
It still makes me unhappy with the follow-up to DT (OAFA is not at all sufficient to address what had happened in this episode). But I'm happy to see this particular read backed by the shooting script.
And that's all. As I said, nothing really new. Just some tiny tidbits.
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Comments
I mean, the crypt door scene? PWNS. Every time I listen to "Out of This World", that feeling I got when I first watched it comes rushing back. And it's a good feeling. <3
Edited at 2010-06-12 07:13 pm (UTC)
YES! I have nothing but love for that scene. So intense, so much yearning and conflict, so freaking HOT. The song is spot on PERFECT. I just have to flail. It's one of my favorite Spuffy moments. I saw someone once describe it as like animals sensing their mate. How each of them just knows the other is there and is drawn to each other. Love it. ♥
YES. I normally shy from "animal-like" and "mate" but there is literally no other way to describe those two on oppposite sides of that door, hands up to the wood, just feeling the other. GUH!
The beauty of it is, it took four years to get them to that point. It wouldn't have worked any earlier than that. They needed all that past hate and combat and anguish and guilt and longing and pure animal need to make it the single most scorching scene on BtVS. And the song had to have been made for them, it was so perfect to where they were at the time. GAH!
it gives me tingles.
That is in the shooting script!
EXT. SPIKE'S CRYPT - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT
Buffy is at Spike's door, her own face filled with the same anticipation. She can feel Spike on the other side, like an animal sensing its mate.
THANK YOU STEPHEN D.
Yes.
What you said.
*nods*
The Spike=Katrina parallel, to me, doesn't really hold up when you compare the dynamics of the episode in which Spike holds the power. In the first scene, in the Bronze, in the crypt door scene. For the most part, I'd say Buffy is all three in her dream.
The Spike=Katrina parallel, to me, doesn't really hold up when you compare the dynamics of the episode in which Spike holds the power. In the first scene, in the Bronze, in the crypt door scene. For the most part, I'd say Buffy is all three in her dream.
Neither does this, actually. The parallel is pretty explicit at multiple points. The parallel dream scenes of Buffy bringing the stake down on Spike (which later turns into Katrina). Katrina opening her eyes and they're blue, like Spike's. Then there's also the echoed, "You always hurt the one you love."
I think there's a lot of other, secondary parallels going on (at points, Buffy is likened to Katrina). However, DT isn't about Spike holding the power. It's about the shifting of power back and forth. Yes, the scene in the Bronze is obviously Spike in control, however the first scene and the crypt door scene? Not so much. The first scene has Spike making an emotional appeal to Buffy, reminding her that he's a person (or a being that is pretty much identical to a person). This later plays into her guilt over what she's doing to him. The crypt door scene is there to highlight their connection.
Why would Buffy feel guilt when Spike proclaims he loves her if the episode is about Spike holding the power? No, the episode is about Buffy realizing her own power in the relationship. The fact that she's leverage his feelings for his gain (Making him, in essence, an object to be taken advantage of and used, much like Katrina was to Warren).
I'm not sure if you read the BCBW post I made about the episode, but it goes in-depth about my primary interpretation (which is focused on Buffy's depression).
Obviously, alternate interpretations are valid (It's DT. There's oodles of different ways it can be read), but I don't believe anything I've put forth is an inconsistent reading.
The parallel dream scenes of Buffy bringing the stake down on Spike (which later turns into Katrina).
On Spike, who was in the cuffs (as Katrina was) as Buffy was in the reality of the scene, no? The later handcuff reference is put in there for a reason, IMO. That along with the S/M implications suggests that in the role of Buffy's dream, she at the very least plays the Spike character. Katrina's eyes smash open, at the same moment Buffy herself snaps awake from her dream. Both Spike/Katrina play the pleasure/pain role in the dream, but in reality, it's heavily implied that it was Buffy who played that part, with the cuffs, with Spike's suggestion at the beginning and at the end with Buffy asking Tara why she lets him.
The first scene shows Buffy in emotional control, but Spike in physical control (not dissimilar to Warren/Katrina). I think this view is further strengthened by crypt door scene where Buffy is there, but Spike smiles when he senses her, knows that she's drawn to him as he is to her (and as he says later, he knows she wants him).
It's not some big revelation to Buffy that he loves her, I don't think that ep is about Buffy coming to terms with what she holds in the relationship (after all, things continue in OaFA and As You Were, so it would be a short-lived revelation). Buffy's guilt in that scene is focused on Kat and Dawn, Spike's admission just adds on to that; she's leaving him as she's leaving Dawn. The overall implications don't set in until she talks to Tara at the end. The point of the episode, in my view, is about Buffy coming to terms with her feelings which she denies at the start, refuses to look at and is in denial about. She no longer has the "came back wrong" crutch and has to look at it.
That's why in the very next ep, her actively considering "coming out" about it flows right (at least to me). It's suggestive that she *had* come to terms with the fact that she had feelings for him as she later admits.
ETA: Kat's eyes aren't blue, they're clouded and dead. Also, curiously if you look at the hand position Katrina is in when 'Buffy' stakes her in the dream and Buffy's hand position when she wakes up, they're nearly identical.
But we appear to have completely different interpretations of the episode (and probably S6 as a whole). Easy enough to do with this part of the series. As I mentioned in the post, there's probably oodles of different ways to read the dream sequence, and I'm reluctant to call any of them invalid. It all depends on what lens you're viewing the episode (and the season) through.
Just to address a few points, though:
The first scene shows Buffy in emotional control, but Spike in physical control (not dissimilar to Warren/Katrina)
How is Spike in physical control?
It's not some big revelation to Buffy that he loves her, I don't think that ep is about Buffy coming to terms with what she holds in the relationship (after all, things continue in OaFA and As You Were, so it would be a short-lived revelation).
Well, but she does end the relationship at the end of AYW, partly because of this revelation (She does tell him that she's using him and that it's killing her, two points that are made in DT). And in OaFA, Spike came uninvited, so she'd been trying to distance herself from him (which makes sense given the revelation of DT).
I don't think the effect of Buffy's depression can be overlooked. In this episode, she realizes that the "came back wrong" excuse she'd been using to justify her actions doesn't hold up. It's all her that's been doing these things. And, no, it's no surprise that Spike loves her, but having him declare it to her at that point is just pouring salt into the wound as to what she's been doing. After she realizes she doesn't have that "came back wrong" crutch, she flails. She doesn't know what to do. She's still stuck in the fog of depression and by using Spike as her coping mechanism, she's doing grievous harm to him. However, she doesn't know what else to do, so she drifts for a while. It isn't until Riley's appearance in AYW that she gets prodded to take the final step in calling things off.
Buffy's guilt in that scene is focused on Kat and Dawn, Spike's admission just adds on to that; she's leaving him as she's leaving Dawn. The overall implications don't set in until she talks to Tara at the end. The point of the episode, in my view, is about Buffy coming to terms with her feel
I don't think that follows. If Buffy's reaction of guilt is linked to her attempting to leave Spike, then I'm not sure how that carries over to the end scene with Tara, after she'd decided not to leave. In the scene with Tara, her reaction to Tara pointing out that Spike loves her is, again, guilt. She's asking why it's okay to use him for his love. This is a power Buffy has over Spike, and it's something she'd avoided thinking about until this point.
I think we're in agreement, at least, about how the "coming back wrong" crutch disappears in this episode. But we're seeing the subtleties from very different angles.
How is Spike in physical control?
He's still able to sway her. We see it time and time again in the series, in the episode and after (which is why that interpretation doesn't work for me). She's leaving, and yet we know how the scene ended up--Buffy in the handcuffs.
And in OaFA, Spike came uninvited, so she'd been trying to distance herself from him (which makes sense given the revelation of DT).
In OaFA, she doesn't invite him because he doesn't play well with her friends, but also because she's not ready to come out. The phrasing suggestive that at that point, she'd given it thought--something she never did before. Something happened. It's a sort of tacit admission that she acknowledges she's in a relationship. She's even presented with an alternative that she ignores and is mildly flirty-teasy with Spike.
In AYW, she ends it after Riley is presented, not because of the past, but because she didn't see the relationship as having a future. She'd never be able to trust him for the relationship to continue (which she says later); she'd never be able to give him everything--the ending tying into ItW in that regard--so she lets him go. So, yeah, she is "using" him, but not quite in the simplistic way of how Parker used her or he used Harmony. She sees it as a doomed relationship--which her feelings on are elaborated in CWDP.
then I'm not sure how that carries over to the end scene with Tara, after she'd decided not to leave.
The full ramification doesn't set in until the crutch is taken away is what I meant. The problem I have with the interpretation that Buffy is simply using him (I find the word very loaded, as I said) is that it kind of ignores that fact that she *did* have deep feelings for him. She was at one point considering "coming out" directly after DT. I don't think the crutch was preventing her from seeing what she was doing, it was allowing her hide from what she was feeling, both in her feelings for Spike himself and even her own sexuality. It's in DT when the damn breaks. DT posed the questions--literally Buffy is forced to ask herself the questions--but it doesn't give the answers. When Tara asked Buffy if she loved him, she didn't say no, in fact, the script says "Buffy looks at her like she can't even comprehend the question" and that goes along with Buffy freaking out when Spike called her his girl. The possibilities/ramifications were too much for her to even think about, not if she's normal. After finding out she was normal, she had to find the answers to the questions Tara asks and what she asks of herself.
Ah, that's why I love the season. So many possible readings. *huggles*
The sequence, from Buffy going to but departing the crypt, to the attack in the woods, to her dream, to the brutal beating of Spike, all show Buffy's deep ambivalence about her own position in this -- she started by telling herself that "this isn't real" but it's obviously gone far beyond that; she's experiencing real physical pleasure & the pleasure of complete abandonment of any sense of restriction, only to be lacerating herself both in retrospect once she's taken her pleasure -- and because it's not unreal, but has the eerie hyperreal feeling & logic of a dream, it undermines her equilibrium, so that she can both ask why she "lets" him do these things and also "how is that OK? to be using him" -- seemingly contrary things but things that she can't resolve since she will not put herself in actual communicative relation to Spike -- instead, her one abortive conversation turns to a more difficult sexual escapade -- and we suppose that the one that would have occurred in the crypt had she remained there would have been even more excessive & decisive.
Really can't agree with that. While Buffy doesn't stop and even enjoys it, she doesn't ask for the added level of guilt that his words offer. His words make it wicked--similar to Wrecked--because she does get off on it and he knows it.
OH yeah. Tara tells her that it's ok to have sex with someone you don't love, (which I appreciate since lots of people do) but it goes beyond that, since she only likes him sometimes, and sincerely hates him sometimes, and can't stand herself when she's with him.
But Good Lord is that girl some kind of needy.
BUT THEN she redeams herself for breaking up with him BECAUSE "I'm using you and it's killing me."
Now, I myself am not a Spuffy arguer (although lord knows I'll read ANYTHING that starts with S) because their relationship was obviously so unhealthy in that season (though I was hoping it would get healthyer!! Yay naked Spike!) but I am happy to admit that, given time, (if Spike hadn't died) they could have been very good together.
Buffy is repelled, expelled, rejected so often: first, of course, from her Normal Life; with her mom from their life in L.A.; from Angel's love as a consequence of his love; from school, home, friends, and love again in a single day; experiences a couple of major fallings-out, or nearly, with the Scoobies in S3 & S4; from her unrecoverable life as an only child; from life, twice; from Heaven, once. Buffy, by this time, expects rejection in its extremist forms -- and has a difficult time dealing with Spike since he accepts her on terms that she harshly judges herself for accepting.
I'm not sure I can follow that one. If it's a guilt that is relief, it wouldn't get her riled in the way it does in the scene. That scene is less about Katrina and more about Buffy and Spike and the dynamic they're in the middle of. It culminates with Spikes, "That's my girl". Him laying claim over her is what sets her off with the beating.
Buffy doesn't treat Spike like crap because of hatred of *him*. (That interpretation really doesn't work for me. At all.) It's self-hate. That's how it works. I think Buffy harbours the fear that she always destroys the people who love her. (She literally sent Angel to hell; she blames herself for driving Riley away; she blames herself for her father not being around; she blames herself for not being able to save her mother; she's terrified the Scoobies will eventually figure it out and abandon her like she deserves.) Buffy has done Spike wrong in ways nobody else knows; yet, she also believes he's the only person who will have her as she currently is (and she hates who she is). The idea that Buffy hates herself because she's with him is too overly simple for me - being with him is just an external expression of her self-hate, which was there a good while before she ever turned to Spike.
Er, sorry for the wank. In other news, the "I love you"/"No, you don't" scene in the alley has got to be the best angsty scene in the Buffyverse. Top five, at least.
I really like the way you take the argument that Buffy felt like all the men in her life always left and put it on her shoulders. I think that is really true about how she sees it.
I also think the beating is significant because I think she did think she hated him and herself because of him, even if that wasn't what was really going on. The Faith-parallel and the way she treated him there made her realize for the first time that maybe she hated herself because of herself, and that he was just a *loving* bystander in some respect. The added fact that there is nothing wrong with her and the way he just let himself take it caused her to realize what she was actually doing and face the guilt for the first time. I think she's dying inside, but this is when she realizes that the way she treats Spike is merely a symptom, not the disease.
I never thought that she felt she could treat him horribly because he was a soulless monster. I think she doesn't realize how she's treating him (or allow herself to realize) until this moment, and it's a turning point for her. As Gabs pointed out, the only way for her to go from here is breakup, even if it takes an episode or so.
If anything, Buffy sometimes *forgets* what he is, because the two of them start to bleed into one another. It's most certainly projection of her self-loathing.
I don't think it's just the men in her life. She does have significant 'men' issues, but tragically this fear of abandonment extends to her friends too. It's completely logical that (apart from Tabula Rasa) she never decides to confront the people who brought her back about doing so.
In terms of tone and dynamic I see more resemblance between the Warren/Katrina scene and the Spike/Buffy balcony scene where Spike is giving the orders. “Don’t close your eyes…Look at your friends and tell me…” Buffy seems at once almost hypnotised into following them and unaware that Spike is giving them and not her bad self. Spike seems as bent on causing her pain as much as pleasure, he can hardly be unaware of how conflicted her response is. There’s an element of revenge there, Warren-like, he’ll kill her but then he’ll save her, always with him that dichotomy, that love-hate, pain-pleasure vampire thing.
I'd agree there. I think the structure highlights the parallels while the tone contrasts the differences. Which is very S6 clever.
The parallels that are constructed in DT aren't simplistic in any way. They're complex and multi-layered. They allude to one aspect while contrasting another. The fact that there's a Katrina/Spike parallel doesn't mean that they're completely the same as the show also flips and shows us a Buffy/Katrina parallel at various points.
The Katrina/Spike parallel highlights what Buffy's doing in her relationship with Spike. The fact that there's still differences between the two situations points out the fact that Spike isn't a complete victim like Katrina was. That while Buffy is using Spike for sex, the relationship is more complicated than just that.