ScoopMe! has another review of the episode. It is an interesting analysis of the theme of abuse.Dead Things: Needful Things
by Jen Sonstein 2/5/2002
Addiction. Abuse. Control. Power. These characteristics feed into the cycle of violence.
The need for power leads to addiction. The addiction leads to the need for control. The need for control leads to abuse. Round and round the circle goes.
"Dead Things" was one of the most realistically disturbing episodes of BtVS, probably since "The Body."
BtVS, a show steeped in blood and gore, is naturally disturbing. However, after watching a few episodes, viewers tend to become numb to the superficial violence–the vampire slayings and the demon butt whippings. After all, how often do these things happen in real life?
It’s the human side of the show that tends to touch a nerve. Love. Sex. Drugs. Death. These are matters we understand and know all too well.
An extraordinarily unhealthy relationship is a twenty-something staple. If you are fortunate enough not to have experienced this personally or seen it happen to a friend, you have probably seen the abusive boyfriend portrayed on YA shows like 90210 (Donna’s college boyfriend, Ray) or on Oprah.
The guy’s usually a dirtbag like Warren. He feels rejected. He is in desperate need of love, but also willing to do whatever it takes to acquire it. When love is not given, the abusive boyfriend will take it. When met with resistance, he will fight back even harder.
Like many women who end romantic relationships with scum, Katrina thought Warren was eliminated from her life. Sadly for her, Warren jumps at the opportunity to regain her "affection" once he has the power to do so. It doesn’t matter to Warren that she rejects his come on. He has power and knows how to use it. Since she won’t agree to love him, he’ll make her.
Just like a frat boy with a roofie, Warren uses his version of a "cerebral dampener" to rape Katrina. He plays with her mind and gets her to do things she’d be loathe to do if she was thinking clearly.
Spike’s camp isn’t too far away from Warren’s.
In addition to really horrid love poems, Spike wrote the book on manipulation. His most polished tactic when it comes to wooing Buffy over to the Dark Side is to remind her of how different she is from her friends. (Remember when Faith used the same maneuver in season three?)
"You see. You try to be with them, but you always end up in the dark with me," Spike says to Buffy as he balls her from behind in the Bronze.
Sidetracking for just a second: Is anyone else really sick of Buffy’s and Spike’s sex faces? The way she looks like she’s in excruciating pain and the way he purses up his lips as if to say "yeah baby, take that?" Spikey takes her from behind a lot; reminding viewers of how animalistic this relationship is. There’s nothing gentle or affectionate about the way the two interact.
Still, as much as it absolutely sickens her, Buffy only feels good about herself when she’s with Spike. Why?
Buffy returns to Spike for the same reason many people stay in abusive relationships. He fulfills a need. Maybe she needs to feel loved. ("Nothing seems to penetrate my heart...") Maybe she believes one monster deserves another. ("She came from the grave much graver.") Maybe it just feels good. ("I want the fire back.")
Whatever her reason, it’s reason enough for her to stay.
Tara asks Buffy if she’s in love with Spike or just using him. Buffy doesn’t answer. Can Buffy possibly be in love with a monster? She’s asking herself the same question and driving herself batty in the process.
Spike claims he’s in love with Buffy. He tells her, "you always hurt the ones you love."
Healthy lovers often cause each other emotional pain. So this statement is true; to a point. But when the hurt starts showing up as black and blue marks on your body, it’s no longer love, or anything close to love. It’s sick.
It’s textbook health class. There is nothing romantic about violence. There is nothing sweet about possessiveness. There is nothing healthy about this coupling. Sorry B/S ‘shippers. This has got to end.
Buffy and Spike’s is an abusive relationship where both are abusers and each is abused. This vampire and this slayer need each other, but in the worst way. They each want to feel good, but both feel bad that the other makes them feel this way.
While Spike tends to be emotionally abusive and obsessive, Buffy’s just an all-around shit--continually hurting Spike both emotionally and physically. Vampire or not; when she needs him to be "the man," Buffy enjoys his manly goods. When she’s no longer in need of his services, she remembers he is a monster. And treats him as such. They’ve created a cycle of violence.
Buffy is an abuser. There is no excuse for her actions; not even the fact that she’s a slayer and he’s an "evil, blood-sucking fiend."
Since being called upon to be a slayer, Buffy has desperately yearned for normal life. When she moved to Sunnydale, she made normal friends. When Angel left, she tried to find a normal boyfriend. She’s trying her darndest to make due with her normal day job.
"To be like other girls, To fit in in this glittering world."
When Tara tells Buffy she is normal, Buffy flips. She begs Tara to try again, to find something wrong with her; something else to blame. She needs Tara to tell her she’s wrong; she’s different; she’s bad.
Buffy has no one else to blame for her actions, but herself. Her big time problems have nothing to do with the way she came back form Hell. She’s an after, after, after school special. She’s ripe for Oprah. She’s an abuser. She has problems.
"Dead Things" was filled with crossed parallels. Buffy = Willow. Warren = Spike, but Buffy = Warren. Katrina = Spike, but Spike = evil.
Good and bad are no longer black and white. Everything has turned very gray in Sunnydale.
