Season 5
Episode 12
CHECKPOINT:
You are leaving the American sector
by Spring Summers –
11-Sep-04
-ID, please – The Power – Spike & Buffy – Counting down
- Watchers – Spicy Extras for James
Marsters fans –
Checkpoint n [check + point] 1: A point at which
vehicular traffic is halted for examination, inspection or clearance 2: a geographical feature used by a flier to
determine his location.
Thank you, Webster’s Third New International
Dictionary, 1971. You’ve made me
think of Checkpoint Charlie – the infamous barrier to entry into the other side
of
Checkpoint is the first episode of the second half of
Season 5, and we are halting the barely-begun journey through the woods for a
moment. It’s time to check for ID,
before we allow passage into the more dangerous and challenging areas
ahead. Some examples of the mention of
identification:
This episode takes
a look at our characters, and tells us where they are – right now. In fact, the words “right now” are repeated
several times, and Anya continually mentions the difference between who she
was, and who she is now. She’s not a current
demon, after all. We get talk of levels:
And percentages:
Everyone’s
temperature is being taken, so to speak.
And so we note that Giles, Willow, Xander & Anya are each firmly
aligned in Buffy’s camp. By the end of
the episode, Buffy has invited even the Council of Watchers to join her ‘round
the fire. And look who else steps up to
circle.
BUFFY: “Spike, I need an answer. Now.
In or out? You’re the only one
strong enough to protect them.”
SPIKE: “All right, then.”
This time, he
isn’t seeking the usual monetary gratification of the mercenary. Nope.
God help him, but this time it’s for love, not for money. “Ich bin ein Berliner,” says Spike. Yep.
He’s in. And life for Spike, and
for all of our Berliners, will never be the same again. It’s all about The Power. It’s about rightful power as opposed to
fraudulent power; it’s about the exercise of legitimate power as opposed to the
flexing of stolen muscle. (Note the
mention in this episode of Rasputin, an example of reflected power if there
ever was one.)
A band of the Knights of Byzantium attacks Buffy near the end of this
episode. When Buffy defeats them, their
leader is prepared to die. But Buffy has
mercy on him, and as a result of that generous gesture she receives a
revelation about the nature of power, and the difference between those who
truly have it, and those who only pretend to have it. (GILES:
“You all stand around and look somber.”) The former proceed from faith,
the latter, from fear.
KILLING THE
MESSENGER is such a sign of fear. It is
the act of one who knows, or fears, that his or her power is a fraud.
From Episode 10, Into The Woods:
SPIKE
(to Riley): “Don’t kill the messenger.”
RILEY
(pointing a stake at Spike’s heart):
“Why the hell not?”
Riley can’t lash out against the true
object of his anger (Buffy) and he can’t change the truth of his vamp-ho
betrayal of Buffy, or of Buffy’s inability to fully love him. So, feeling powerless, he goes after the
person responsible for exposing those disturbing truths.
From Episode 11, Triangle
OLAF: Puny receptacle!
Olaf growls and
hits a mailbox with his hammer. Outside of Troll-land, and making his way along
the unfamiliar streets of Sunnydale, Olaf protects
himself with a show of strength that includes an attack on a box full of
messages.
From this episode:
JINX: “I don’t know sir. She just said to tell you to do it. That was her message.”
BEN: “Well,
I’ve got a message for Glory, too.”
Ben can’t get to
Glory, or get away from his horrifying connection to her. So he beats up Jinx.
Also note that in this episode, Glory brain-sucks a mailman. She literally ends his life as he knows it,
but it’s the figurative act of Killing the Messenger that counts. Like Riley and Olaf, Glory is out of her
element, far away from home and feeling frustrated. Killing the Messenger is the last resort of
the bully who can’t kill the Message.
And it is in direct contrast to Buffy’s choice, when she gets her own chance
to Kill the Messenger:
KNIGHT:
“Now, be done with it. Kill us,
and let legions follow.”
BUFFY: “Go.”
In that moment, in that compassionate use of her
power, the truth gels for Buffy. Why did
her Professor talk to her so scornfully?
Why did Spike make a point of telling her how undesirable she is? Why did Glory try so hard to persuade her
that she is powerless and inconsequential?
Why does Quentin Travers treat her with such haughty condescension?
BUFFY: “Why?
Because she [Glory] needs something from me.
Because I have power over her.”
(Buffy pauses, walking the floor and looking around at the Council
Members.) “You guys didn’t come all the
way from
It’s more than just Killing the Messenger that
gives a fraud away. Those who are
uncertain of their own power, who, underneath it all, feel empty or desperate
or afraid, use the methods we see
employed (primarily) by both Glory and Quentin in Checkpoint: They attempt to humiliate, to undermine and to manipulate. They exhibit all the common traits of the
vainglorious narcissist: They make
threats, among them the threat to remove their own splendid and necessary
presence. They’re arrogant,
disrespectful, and they skew the truth.
Glory is attempting to get to her Key (Dawn) and to
reclaim her power. Buffy is in her
way. Quentin is attempting to get to his
“Key” (Buffy), and to reclaim his power.
Giles is in his way. Contrast
Glory and Quentin’s actions and their treatment of their underlings, with
Buffy’s actions and her treatment of her friends. While Glory and Quentin continually criticize
others and expect royal treatment, Buffy praises each of her friends, and
speaks to how important they are to her and her mission. Her friends are equals who exhibit comfort
in challenging her, and who do so without insulting her. Desperately needed help or information is not
withheld in an attempt to exert control or extort favors – not even by Spike.
Unlike Glory, who gives Jinx grossly insincere
strokes by telling him he’s the “only one who understands,” Buffy means it when
she swallows her pride to tell Spike that he’s “the only one strong enough” to
protect Joyce and Dawn. She even makes
sure that Giles gets his back wages. And
when she is given the opportunity, she doesn’t give in to the temptation to
humiliate Quentin. Instead, she offers
him and The Council a possible role in her demon-fighting future. (“See? No begging.”)
We also get another view, another angle, on how
people who feel fearful and powerless can give themselves away. Notice the behavior of Spike and The Scoobies
as they are interviewed by the Council members.
With their defensiveness, over-explaining, and basic inability to
conceal feelings too strong to keep under cover, our interviewees each expose
exactly what they are trying hardest to hide.
We see it all in their words and behavior: Anya’s fear of the discovery of her
demon-past, Xander’s insecurities about his own worth to the Scooby Gang,
Willow & Tara’s concerns about the acceptance of their lesbian
relationship, and Spike’s love for Buffy.
It’s all about the power – who has it, and who
doesn’t, and how to cut through the smoke and mirrors to tell the
difference. Buffy has it – and when she
realizes the extent of her power, her own defensiveness and expressions of
insecurity cease immediately.
But Buffy’s behavior is not 100% perfect in this
episode. There is one scene in which Buffy exhibits
markedly Glory/Quentin-like disdainful behavior. In the cemetery, Spike has just staked a
vampire that Buffy has been fighting:
SPIKE: “You needed
help.”
BUFFY: “I
didn’t need you. I never need you,
Spike.”
In this conversation, Buffy also tells Spike that he’s “disgusting,”
and that “the more I get to know you, the more I wish I didn’t.” Spike gives it right back, telling Buffy,
among other things, that perhaps her beauty is “fading,” and the “stress of
slaying” is causing her to age “prematurely.”
(“Things not as high, not as firm.”)
So Buffy is surely and correctly referring (in part) to Spike when she
tells Quentin:
BUFFY: “I’ve
had a lot of people talking at me the last few days. Every one just lining up to tell me how
unimportant I am. And I’ve finally
figured out why. Power. I have it.
They don’t. This bothers them.
(Buffy moves toward Quentin.) Glory came to my home today. She told me I’m a bug, I’m a flea, she could
squash me in a second. Only she didn’t .
. . why? Because she needs something
from me. Because I have power over her.”
So why did Spike & Buffy make sure they told each other, in so many
words, “You’re a bug, you’re a flea, you are of absolutely no importance to
me?” What do they need from each
other? What power do they have over each
other?
From Season 2’s What’s My Line II:
SPIKE: “I'd
rather be fighting you anyway.”
BUFFY:
“Mutual.”
Feelings have been from the beginning, and they will be until the end,
mutual between Buffy & Spike. Those
feelings are, at various times and by one party or the other, realized or
unrealized, accepted or denied, expressed or hidden under the deepest, darkest
cover. But they are, and will always be,
reciprocal. Notice that, in this
episode, we see both Spike’s Buffy-substitute (the mannequin in the background
in the crypt) and Buffy’s Spike-substitute (the dummy that she “can hit that
won’t hit back.” In fact, she’s asked to
protect the dummy as if it was “precious,” and she tries to do so. But she’s blindfolded, and the dummy ends up
with a hatchet to the heart. Youch! There is also a mention of Timmy, the doll
boy in Passions. Like the dummy,
Timmy has apparently been fatally wounded, but he’s a doll, so he can just be
sewn “back together.”)
Buffy & Spike are at a checkpoint, and before we check on where
they are right now, we get a reminder of where they’ve been, for
reference. There are echoes of the first
time Buffy & Spike struck an alliance, in Season 2’s Becoming II:
BUFFY: “I don’t think I need to remind you, but-,”
SPIKE:
“Yeah, yeah – anything happens to them, I’ll stake you good and
proper. Sing me a new one sometime,
eh? That bit’s gone stale.”
Spike’s heard this kind of thing from Buffy before,
when she warned him, in Becoming II, that if Giles died, Dru would
die. Only check it out: This time, the threat’s not needed.
·
I could swear that after Buffy leaves Spike’s
crypt, she is wearing the same black wool hat that she wore as she and Spike
walked down the street toward the Summers home, in Becoming
II, right after Spike told her wanted to “save the world.”
So when we check Spike’s ID at this border-crossing, we find his papers
are somehow –miraculously! – in order and authentic. It was that truce with Buffy that did
it. His journey to this place, the
journey that he began in Becoming, has changed him in some fundamental
way. Yes, this foreigner in Buffyland
still has plenty to learn, and eventually he’ll have to leave his contraband
behind at customs. (You know, after
Buffy gives him that strip search and thorough frisking.) But would you look at this? Spike is actually being allowed entry.
And what about
Buffy? Where is she, in her journey? Let’s see.
She’s been counting down from 7-3-oh, right? The many references to the march of time (in
an episode called Checkpoint) are meant o remind us of that countdown,
first mentioned by Faith, in a Buffy-dream at the end of Season 3. The countdown, per Joss, refers to the number
of days until Buffy’s death, and that dark foreshadowing continues under the
surface of this episode:
·
JINX: “We
have found that the signs of the alignment are moving faster than expected . .
. if you are to use the Key, you must act quickly . . . you don’t have much
time.”
·
QUENTIN:
“This is just for the duration of our stay . . . it’s just for the
duration of the Council’s review.”
·
GILES:
“They’re staying a little longer than I anticipated.”
QUENTIN: “It’s been that way from the
beginning.”
XANDER: “The three of us have been
together from the beginning.”
·
FEMALE WATCHER (clicking a stopwatch to time
Buffy): “And, go!”
·
QUENTIN: “We
start at seven, tonight.”
·
QUENTIN:
“Well, your Slayer’s twenty minutes late and counting, Rupert.”
·
QUENTIN (to Buffy):
“You’re late.”
So I clock her at about 1-2-oh right now.
What’s this? Buffy’s gonna die? Hey Mutant Enemy! What do you think you’re doing?? I don’t want
Buffy to die!! But I can’t stop Joss,
can I? I’m only a Viewer. Without Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I’m
pretty much just watching Masterpiece Theatre. So I’m thinking here’s how it’s going to
work: I’m going to watch the show, and
be supportive. And Joss will continue
his work, with a little help from his friends.
Spicy
extras for James Marsters fans
***
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