Buffy 7x02 (Extended) - Beneath You
Added 2023-10-06 18:00:03 +0000 UTCreaction link: click here.
much like buffy, i think i'm also gonna need a while to process this ep because damn!!
Comments
The Spike situation is so complicated, because in the context of the metaphor, we're seeing a man who did unforgivable, like truly unimaginable, things try to be better. What are we willing to forgive? BUT in the context of Buffy's fantasy world and the logic its set up, Spike never had a soul while doing awful shit. The Buffyverse has sort of set up this system where not having a soul makes you evil and absolves you of all responsibility of those actions once you have a soul. So, how are we meant to view Spike? I think with he and Angel you have to take some middle ground of "Yes, now they are not the same people they were when they were evil.....but they still did those things, and accountability matters." So when you apply that to Spike, I like to re-examine his "love" for Buffy pre-soul. I do believe he genuinely believed he loved her, but it was a purely selfish love. He loved how she made him feel and loved her like a prized trophy he won. It's not true love, it's one-sided and self-serving. I think after he sexually assaulted her he realized he could never get what he wants or attain her without "being what she deserved" by getting a soul, but I still think at this point it was a self-serving desire to go for the soul. I don't think he ever understood what love was or had Buffy's best intentions at heart until after the soul. And for me, this last scene was pretty goddamn well done. Sarah Michelle Gellar wordlessly conveys all this inner conflict Buffy feels over knowing he has soul now and is thus not the same person who attacked her, but like also, it's still him. That shot of her figuring out what's happening right when Spike mentions Angel is just so fucking top tier acting on her part.
Connor Blake
2024-02-24 05:44:24 +0000 UTCThe juxtaposition of Dawn being giddy for Buffy being at her school while also saying Buffy can't be around her or talk to her friends........ I think this is the exact relationship she wants with Buffy, after last season. Some would say "But this is what you want, why would you complain about it". She wants to be able to complain about Buffy being a helicopter parent, which is part of the joy of having what she wants. She wants it, but you got to be able to pretend you hate it. She wants the normal sister/mother/daughter relationship and part of that normal is complaining.
Loves Bitca
2023-10-30 23:01:50 +0000 UTC
