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01.28.02In-between nights as a geisha girl and watching The Lawrence Welk Show,DevilF pops in here occasionally to wax poetically about Buffy:
Halfway through the sixth season of Buffy, one thing is becoming clear: This has the potential to be the best season for the show yet.
There are those out there who will be mystified by that statement, pointing to the slow pacing and lack of concrete villainy this season. My response would be: EXACTLY.
Season 2 may be the highwater mark of the series – the show really hit its stride and managed to create a Big Bad that would go unequaled: Angel, who lost his soul after a night in the sack with Buffy. Working beautifully on a metaphorical level (the guy who becomes a jerk after finally getting in the girl’s pants) as well as a dramatic one, season 2 proved that the creators were willing to totally screw with their universe, including killing a major character (Jenny Calendar).
In my eyes, season 6 could be even better than that. Sure, we may not end up with a powerful Big Bad, but after defeating a GOD, what could really top that anyway?
How about life itself?
We’ve seen the Scooby Gang really struggle this season. Buffy has to deal with the fact that she was pulled out of a blissful afterlife, Willow has had to face up to her problems with magic, and Xander is looking marriage in the face. Each of these characters are facing the final stretch to adulthood, and their journey has been more exciting, more moving and more gripping than any melee with demons.
One of the interesting aspects of the season is the way that each of the main three characters have to transitioned to adulthood while dealing with someone else: Buffy has to take care of Dawn, Xander tries to deal with fiancée Anya, and Willow struggles with her relationship with Tara.
Buffy’s guardianship of Dawn has proved to be an unexpectedly enjoyable story. At the end of season 5, Buffy sacrifices her life to save Dawn, and then at the beginning of this season is rudely yanked from heaven. This is probably the season’s strongest metaphor for growing up: The sacrifice symbolizes Buffy giving up her childhood for the sake of her sister, and the struggle with her new life symbolizes her yearning to return to uncomplicated, comfortable childhood. It isn’t being alive that is like hell to Buffy – it’s being a grown up with responsibilities that go beyond killing monsters.
Part of Buffy’s journey to adulthood is her relationship with Spike. Purely sexual, the relationship is nothing like the true love she shared with Angel or the deep caring she had for Riley. Spike, interestingly, seems to be on his own journey. As he has been developed on the show, it has become more and more evident that he is the anti-Angel.
Where Angel was the sweet, loving yet brooding boyfriend with a dark past, Spike is the exact opposite. A badass on the surface, in reality he is a failed poet who falls in love with women who abuse him (mentally as Drusilla did, and physically, as Buffy does). In fact, the one relationship where he was truly on top (not counting when he was nursing Drusilla – her needs were dominating him even when she wasn’t) was with Harmony, who he seemed to only be with for sex – and her blonde hair. Eventually he tired of her. Angel is the soft exterior hiding a century of evil – Spike is the tough exterior sheltering a sensitive and damaged heart.
Also on a journey is Dawn, although her arc is more subtle. As an ex-Key and a fundamentally unreal person, she has been trying to find her way in life. Stuck in the shadow of her sister, and a constant pawn in the schemes of the Scooby Gang’s enemies, she seems to be searching for a sense of control in her petty thievery. Or else she is looking to get caught - note the only lyrics that she manages to sing in her song in “Once More With Feeling,” the musical episode, sung while looking at her stash of stolen goods: “Does anybody even notice/Does anybody even care?”
What is very interesting to note is that Dawn, while trapped in the shadow of her older sister (who alternates from being overbearing to absent – swinging from trying too hard to be a more attentive mother than Joyce was to being just like Joyce), has actually done something that Buffy was barely able to do. In the Halloween episode, when confronted with the fact that the boy who had given her her first kiss – and who really liked her – is a vampire, Dawn kills him. In contrast to Buffy’s inability to kill Angel when he goes bad, Dawn proves herself where Buffy could not.
Willow, meanwhile, has been unable to really prove herself. Growing ever more ominously powerful as a witch, she finally went over the top in an episode that was unfortunately reminiscent of an After School Special, maybe the only weak episode in the season. Even still, the fact that Joss Whedon and the Buffy creators equate Willow’s magic abuse with drug abuse becomes interesting when you realize what the message really is - moderation in all things, a far cry from the usual TV drug abstinence message. Magic (drugs) is harmful when abused, but fine when used responsibly, as Tara does.
Willow thought that using powerful magic was the same as being an adult, but it wasn’t until her car accident that she realized that the truly adult thing is to be in control – not of the powers of darkness, but of herself. She also comes to grips with the consequences of her actions – not just magical screw-ups, but also the way that she screws up her relationship with Tara.
Tara’s arc, like Dawn’s, is subtle but interesting. It seemed that Tara’s place was to be the submissive character allowing Willow, the traditional group submissive, to finally become a dominant personality. As laconic as Oz was, he was still older, more experienced, and more secure than Willow – he wore the pants in the relationship. Tara was quiet and full of self doubt, but over the course of the season she has found the inner steel to stand up to the woman she truly loves – steel which was ironically forged in part by Willow herself. And steel that we hope will help Willow through her current magical detox.
Many fans wanted Willow’s story arc to end with her becoming the Big Bad, and were disappointed when the story took the turn it did. Of course, this is Buffy, a show that’s all about setting up expectations and then knocking them down, but assuming that Willow IS NOT the Big Bad, her path now is more truthful to the season’s theme of growing up. A crucial step in growing up is accepting responsibility, something Willow has finally started to do.
Xander has always been the least mature character on the show, so it was no surprise that he was unable to announce his enagement to Anya – speaking it out loud to others would be taking responsibility, and would make the engagement a real thing.
As a Scooby, Xander has seemed to be floundering ever since the rest of the gang went to college. While he’s the heart of the group (see season 4’s climax, “Primal”), he hasn’t had a lot to do for the group. In “Gone,” the episode where Buffy becomes invisible, it seems like that might be changing. It is Xander who sits down to get to serious research, now that Giles is gone. He becomes the center of the investigation into the invisibility, and he and Anya discover the potentially tragic side effects. Of course, he’s Xander, so it takes Willow’s smarts to put the whole thing together, but he seems to be stepping up to a place he can offer more than comic relief. And Xander’s journey may just be beginning – all signs point to his upcoming nuptials going less than smoothly.
With the characters all growing up, there is not much room for the surrogate father figure, and Giles’ departure, while feeling a little rushed (actor Anthony Stewart Head wanted to return to England) fits in well with the season theme. He needs to give these kids space as they come into their own.
With the season just halfway over, the characters have started on their journies, but where will they end? The way that the Scoobies deal with growing up, with responsibility, and with their own inner demons and turmoil that is making season 6 shape up as the best yet.
- Devin Faraci