Season 5

Episode 17

FOREVER: Let it be

by Spring Summers – 02 Jan-05

- What life’s about – Legacies – Opening up the box – Facing adulthood – What’s under the ground – Fate – Spicy extras for James Marsters fans -

What’s it all about, Buffy? Is it just for the moment we live? What’s it all about, when you sort it out, Buffy?

This episode is about “what it’s all about”: Life, Death, The Circle of Life, The Natural Order of Things. In Forever, as Buffy and the others try to come to terms with Joyce’s death, they also try to come to terms with life. Over and over, people refer to the true meaning behind what they see and experience. Some examples are below:

• BUFFY: “You really should eat something.” DAWN: “Why should I? You’re not.” BUFFY: “This isn’t about –,” (The phone rings, interrupting her.)
• XANDER: “You actually think you’re gonna score points with Buffy this way?” SPIKE: “This isn’t about Buffy.”
• ANGEL: “You just need some time. I’m sure everybody understands that.” BUFFY: “Time’s not the issue.”
• WILLOW: “I’m not even sure it’s possible, Dawn. I mean, I’ve seen things on resurrection, but -there’s books and stuff. But I guess the spells - backfire?” TARA: “That’s not the point.”

So what IS it about? What’s the point? What’s the issue? As it was in The Body, when it comes to the getting right to heart of the matter, it’s the forthright Anya who takes center stage, who provides clear expression of the central topic, who tells us what it’s all about. Anya & Xander have just finished having sex:

ANYA: “Mmmmm. That was different.”

XANDER: “Yeah. It was more - intense.”

ANYA: “It’s because of Joyce.”

XANDER: “Right - huh?”

ANYA: “Well, she got me thinking about how people die all the time, and how they get born too, and how you kind of need one so you can have the other. When I think about it that way, it makes death a little less sad, and sex a little more exciting.”

XANDER: “Again I say, huh?”

ANYA: “Well, I just think I understand sex more now. It’s not just about two bodies smooshing together. It’s about life. It’s about making life.”

XANDER: “Right, when two people are much older, and way richer, and far less stupid.”

ANYA: “Breathe. You’re turning colors. I’m not ready to make life with you, but I could. We could. Life could come out of our love and our smooshing, and that’s beautiful. It all makes me feel like I’m part of something bigger. Like I’m more awake somehow. You know?”

More awake. Continuing and concretizing the “death begets birth” images from The Body, Anya makes a direct reference to the metaphor: Joyce’s death has given her a feeling of rebirth. But she also talks about the literal, physical connection between life and death. It’s the natural order of things: People are born – they live their lives driven to establish and leave behind connections to others and to their world - and then they die. And as a result of the connections they establish, more people are born. And so it goes.

The powerful nature of those connections, the enduring significance of our lives through the legacies we leave behind, is beautifully represented through the use of trees. Watch the episode carefully and notice the trees – the various shots of tree branches and trunks, and several mentions of trees (SPIKE: “Buffy never hears about this. Found out what I was doing, she’d drive a redwood through my chest.”) Trees represent the peace and strength that comes from knowing and accepting our roles, from just letting it be. They take nourishment from what’s beneath the ground, but they lift their countenance, they spread their branches, ever heavenward. While taking nourishment from below, they also need, and live in, the light.

Listen to the words used at Joyce’s gravesite service, from The Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer:

We commend to Almighty God our sister Joyce, and we commit her body to the ground. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless her and keep her. The Lord make his face to shine upon her and be gracious unto her. The Lord lift up his countenance upon her and give her peace.

In doing what comes naturally, trees help provide us with oxygen to breathe, fruit to eat, and shade to protect us from the harsh, hot sun. The tree images are juxtaposed with images, and constant mention, of family ties (our sister Joyce, Willow’s mom, DNA, bitty-Buffy, etc.). Note how, though Dawn and Buffy sit lonely and isolated in their separate rooms - out on their own limbs, so to speak - they are nevertheless connected by a line of family photos. The branches lead to a trunk which leads to the roots under the ground.

ANYA: “It’s not just about two bodies smooshing together. It’s about life. It’s about making life.”

Also emphasizing the life cycle is the continual reference to birth and eggs: There are the Gora eggs, and Willow talks about eating eggs, and Doc mentions making an omelet. Anya refers to getting pregnant, and Dawn reads about a “controversy born.” So it seems life is really more about . . . surrection (I know, it’s not a word, but it should be), than resurrection.

The dead are committed to the ground, but using the love and wisdom, and the blood and genetic codes, our late ancestors have provided us, we, the living must do what the living do. We must continue the circle of life, choosing our roads until our journeys end (lots of references to choices in this episode.)

At the beginning of Forever, Dawn worries that Joyce might not like the coffin Buffy has picked out, saying, “She’s the one who has to be in it forever.” Ah, how nice it would be, if we always could choose those things we have to live with forever. But part of understanding “what it’s all about” is understanding the world and your place in it. You must understand what you can choose for yourself, and what boxes you have to be in forever, whether you like it or not. The deader (the blinder, the less engaged, the less perceptive, the less courageous) you are, the less power you have, the more you’re confined to boxes that are not of your own choosing. We get an almost suffocating view of Buffy & Angel’s boxed-in state:

ANGEL (to Buffy): “I can stay in town as long as you want me.”

Ouch! The wording here: “as long as you want me.” Exactly false. As long as she wants him, he can’t stay in town.

BUFFY: “I’m seriously needy right now.”
ANGEL: “Let me worry about the neediness. I can handle it.”

But he can’t. They’re boxed in – by fear, by fear of what might slip out, what they might awaken. They have to stay apart:

BUFFY (to Angel, after a kiss): “I told you. You’d better go.”

If they dare go any farther, disaster might result. They must resist the temptation.

DAWN: “They wouldn’t have taken an oath, if they didn’t know they could do it.”

Witches can do resurrection spells, but disaster might result. They must resist the temptation.

DAWN (looking at the sleeping Gora): “Doesn’t look so bad.”

SPIKE: “Wait till it wakes up. That’s usually when the bad starts.”

Anya mentions feeling more awake, in a positive way. That’s the thing about being awake, and about awakening others: It can be good – oh so very, very good. Or it can be when the bad starts:

• Angel leaves Buffy, so that Angelus won’t wake up, and the bad won’t start.
• Ben slips up talking to Jinx, giving away the fact that The Key is in human form. He tries to back pedal, but it’s too late. The bad is going to start.
• Willow makes a mistake by directing Dawn to The History of Witchcraft book, and she tries to cover up and justify it. But it’s too late. Dawn has already started on her dangerous quest.
• The Gora wakes up and the bad starts, for Spike and Dawn.
• Dawn wakes up Joyce, but she reverses the spell when she realizes that the bad will start.

It’s a risk you take, when you trying living outside the lines, instead of staying nice and dead inside the box someone else (like say, gypsies who cursed you, or unknown powers that “chose” you) picked out for you. What will you hatch? The good, or the bad?

There’s something else beginning to reluctantly awaken here – and that’s the adult in Buffy. As she stands by the grave of her mother, day turns into night, and she seems to age before our eyes. The episode is full of mention of child and adult roles, and the need for transition:

• The episode begins with Buffy among coffins. As The Slayer, this is a familiar place, and one in which she feels competent. But she’s not there as The Slayer, she’s there as the new head-of-household, and her uncertainty shows and is emphasized by her placement in a familiar setting, for a completely unfamiliar reason.
• Xander doesn’t feel grown up enough to be a dad.
• BUFFY (to Angel): “I can stick wood in vampires, but Mom was the strong one in real life. She always knew how to make things better. Just what to say . . . I didn’t even start CPR until they told me. I fell apart. That’s how good I am at being grown up.”
• Giles - in an extremely brief scene that manages somehow, to be the episode’s most poignant scene for me - only indulges his own grief after he’s taken care of “the kids.” He listens to the song that he and Joyce listened to during their brief affair in Band Candy - that episode where adults became children, forcing the children to become the adults.
• ANYA (to Dawn): “Don’t you watch television? I thought all children despise effort and watch cartoons.”
• GILES (to Dawn): “Do you want to come watch this transaction that Anya’s doing? Then I’ll let you try.”
• BUFFY (to Dawn): “I don’t even know what I’m doing. Mom always knew.” DAWN: “Nobody’s asking you to be Mom.” BUFFY: “Well, who’s gonna be, if I’m not? Have you even thought of that? Who’s gonna make things better? Who’s gonna take care of us?”

Though she’s feeing uncertain, Buffy has watched and learned from her mother. Now she must step up to the plate. But in Buffy’s episode-ending “Mommy!” and her run for the door, we see that underneath the façade of adult competence (that Buffy has been putting on for Dawn’s sake), she does not feel ready to live in a fully adult world. (And this episode foreshadows Buffy’s own, Season-ending choice to end her stay in this world, and her Season 6 “did she come back wrong?” resurrection.)

As a result of Joyce’s death, everyone is forced to re-evaluate their roles – things are shifting, where does Buffy belong? Many references to proper places emphasize this – here are some examples:

• DAWN: “What are we gonna do? After, I mean, are we just gonna come back here?” BUFFY: “I don’t know. I guess so . . .” DAWN (to herself): “I don’t wanna be here.”
• XANDER (to Spike, about Joyce): “Like you care about her.” WILLOW: “Guys – not here!”
• TARA: “Hey, Dawn’s kind of ready to go. Can we take her with us? BUFFY: “Yeah. She should probably get out of here.”

So be a tree, Buffy. Take nourishment from the true love that’s underneath Giles’ stoic strength, and Xander’s bumbling way of coaxing Dawn to eat or trying to keep Spike at bay, and even Willow’s and Spike’s unwise attempts to set things right again – by indulging Dawn, or bringing flowers, or helping Little Bit grab a Gora egg. Contrast those selfless (even if, in some cases, totally misguided) expressions of caring, with Glory’s completely selfish reason for helping the injured Jinx: “Get him fixed, would you? I want to hear the whole story again without all that annoying moaning.”

It’s important, to see what’s under the ground, to tell your friends from your enemies, to know, who, like Jinx, will be loyal, and there for you, until the end:

DAWN: “Good, good,”

She says this as she accepts helps from Doc, before being suddenly frightened by a glimpse of the demon underneath. Dawn sees Doc’s tail, and she notices his eyes go black, but Spike doesn’t notice a thing. Dawn is alarmed by a sense of underlying Evil; Spike, who, like Willow (though for different reasons), lacks Tara’s strong moral compass, is oblivious.

Note that earlier, we’ve heard the exact same words from Buffy:

BUFFY: “Good, good”

She says this as sinks into Angel’s arms, oblivious to anything but the goodness in Angel. There is a distinct contrast between the Angel we’re looking at in AtS at this same time, and the Angel that Buffy sees. Over at AtS, he’s going through a struggle where his “goodness” is anything but an absolute, and he isn’t following his own sound advice to Buffy, about letting others help her, and “not doing it alone.” This emphasizes two things: 1) Like everyone who loves Buffy in this episode, Angel’s trying to help - imperfectly, but unselfishly. He’s there to help Buffy, not to burden her with his troubles, or to try to get back into her life, or to get any credit – or anything at all - for himself. 2) Buffy is still very much living in, and wanting to continue to live in, the black-and-white world of her childhood. It’s a world where Angel is simply “good, good,” and she never notices his tail. (His butt, yes. His tail, no.)

But Buffy sends Angel home, nevertheless. There are some boxes you don’t open; some monsters that are better left sleeping. There are some Fates you just don’t tempt. And that’s a central theme in this episode:

TARA: “Magic can’t be used to alter the natural order of things . . . we don’t mess with life and death.”

There’s a power, greater than us in this world. And whether we call it Nature or Destiny or Providence or God, and whether we believe it to be conscious and caring or insensate and impersonal – we know it exists. As S’cubie-Laura once mentioned to me, this episode is strongly and deliberately reminiscent of WW Jacobs The Monkey’s Paw, which most of us, I think, had to read at some point in our academic careers - though if you’ve never read it, you can find it here:

http://www.americanliterature.com/SS/SS19.HTML

There are two uses of the word monkey in the episode, which I believe are a deliberate nod to Mr Jacobs, meant to graciously acknowledge the debt owed:

SPIKE: “I liked the lady. Understand, monkey boy?”
XANDER (later, to Willow): “The guy thinks he can put on a big show, and con Buffy into being his sex monkey.”

If you read The Monkey’s Paw, you’ll note the strongly derivative nature of the ending of Forever. Buffy, like the young man’s mother in the story, opens the door hoping to see her loved one. But she sees only an empty pathway. Some things, some things – you just have to let them be.

Buffy will pull through, eventually. She’s been loved by Mom. She’s watched Mom be strong. The night will get very cloudy for Buffy, but there is still a light that shines on her. Ultimately, she’ll learn to handle adult transactions. She’ll learn, eventually, to live in a grown-up’s world. She’ll learn to see, and to accept, even the most unpleasant truths, clearly and unflinchingly. She’ll learn when to take control, and when to cede it. Because there are some Fates that you grab by the horns, and wrestle to the ground. There are some Fates that you overcome. But there are other Fates that you just don’t tempt. There are some Fates that you just let be. Forever.

Spicy extras for James Marsters fans:

• Love Nick and James in the “flowers for Joyce” confrontation. Nick does the disdainful just right, and James – he blows me away with his acting here. There’s so much controlled emotion in his voice. I know exactly how Spike is feeling, and even before Willow offers up her “he didn’t even leave a card” evidence of his sincerity, I’ve already become convinced of it.
• James sure looks good in the soft light of Doc’s apartment. I paused my DVD player several times during that scene, just to spend a few extra moments looking at him. Yes, I am a fan-girl geek.
• Dawn & Spike – all their scenes in Season 5 are just priceless. These two actors do a wonderful job together. “You breathe a word of this to Buffy, I’ll see to it that you end up in the ground. Got it?” “Yeah. Got it.” I got it, too. I just felt it all, right through the screen.
• Spike is again providing safe escort through the darkness to Dawn. It’s really not that wise of him to indulge her, but he loves her, and he doesn’t have the ability here, to see the wrongness that Tara so easily sees. He can’t stand to see Dawn hurting, and he wants to keep her safe. So he’s there, and he’s willing to put himself in danger, and he’s willing, even, to let the Gora hurt him physically (it bites him) in order to help Dawn get to the life-giving Gora eggs. Very foreshadowy for Spike’s role with Buffy, in Season 6.
• After Buffy has her nighttime graveside encounter with Angel, Dawn has her own graveside encounter with a handsome devil in the dark: Spike. Both Spike and Angel are trying to provide comfort to the hurting Summers sisters, and both of them do provide that comfort, at some cost to themselves. Dawn tells Spike that she’s sorry he was hurt by the Gora; Spike tells her don’t be sorry, she got the egg she needed. Earlier, Angel tells Buffy that he’s sorry he can’t stay; Buffy tells him don’t be sorry, she got the comfort she needed (and wasn’t going to be getting from her AWOL dad.) Some things are worth the pain. There’s foreshadowing here also – Angel has to leave and can be of no more help to Buffy, but Spike shows up for Dawn the next night.
• I couldn’t help but notice Doc mentioning that Spike reminded him of a guy with darker hair, who isn’t a vampire, but is “into dominos.” The episode is full of references to roles and duality – Buffy can’t be Mom, Angel and Doc are more than what they seem on the surface, we get another glimpse of Ben and Glory, Giles (and to a certain extent, Angel) have to be Dad because Hank won’t be - so this seems to fit into that. It fits into that idea that we seem to be different people, according to who is looking at us, and what their experiences and expectations are. But that reference to dominos . . . Spike certainly is into dominos, isn’t he? He’s always there to shove the first one over. And he’s beginning to eye those little stacked up beauties again, here in Season 5. Dominos. They are just made to tumble down; it’s irresistible.
• Peter and The Wolf: Doc is whistling a tune from Peter and The Wolf. If you don’t know that story, you can find it here: http://dorianschalet.net/wolf.html . I suppose this is meant to suggest the “wolf hiding in the forest” aspect of Doc’s underlying evil . . . though I’m also struck by Dawn’s Peter-like plan for distracting the Gora, which follows her Peter-like mention of “Grandpa.” Like the bird, Spike serves as a distraction, while Dawn grabs what she wants. I’m not exactly sure what to make of that – except again, to think of it as foreshadowing for the way Buffy will use Spike as a distraction, all the while trying to get back to living, in Season 6. That wolf though – Peter captures the wolf, takes him to the zoo. Hmmmm.

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