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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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*