Season 5
Episode 10
INTO THE WOODS: Goodbye yellow brick road
by Spring Summers – 21-JUN-04
- It’s time – Risks, reasons and
seriously messy things - Spike the catalyst - Riley & Buffy &
Spike – Xander & Buffy & manhood – What Buffy wants – Spicy extras for
James Marsters fans -
This episode opens with a shot of
Dawn’s sensible shoes. These shoes are made for walking, and to
the extent that Dawn represents the innocent child in Buffy, that’s just what
they’ll do. The camera pans up from
Dawn’s feet to her head, and later, we get a similar look at Buffy & Riley,
during their sex scene, as the shot moves upward from their feet. Feet, feet, feet - those things you use to
walk away. We hear references to
chickens’ feet, and Giles and
RILEY
(about Joyce’s illness): “It was a
lot. And you were incredible.”
BUFFY: “Not really, just covering for the weepy
chicken within.”
And later:
ANYA: “Who ordered more chickens’ feet? The ones we have aren’t moving at all.”
XANDER: “That’s generally what happens when you cut
them off the chicken.”
By the time we get
to the end of this episode, though, we see that a weepy chicken’s feet can move
very quickly, once they’re reconnected to the chicken. But Buffy makes the connection too late, and
she doesn’t catch the departing Riley.
So the time has come. The zero
hour has arrived. The time for chasing
childish dreams is over.
XANDER:
“So what do you want to do now, Dawnster?
Keeping in mind that I won’t chase you because I’m old and I’m stuffed
full of moo goo gai starch.”
Xander
is referring to Dawn’s childhood memory of Buffy chasing her, while Dawn
pretended to be a vampire. As Riley’s
helicopter prepares for lift off, we watch Buffy chase a vampire-substitute one
last time. But she’s too old, and
stuffed too full of her own painful history.
Buffy’s ultimate inability to stop Riley can be seen as fate, or as too
little too late - or maybe, to quote Spike in Fool For Love, she “merely wanted
it.” But no matter how you look at it,
the images of clocks and watches and calendars, and the continual reference to
amounts of time, and to stopping and starting, give us a consistent message: The time has come. Today is the day. The woods await:
It’s time, as
Giles said in the last episode (Listening
to Fear), “to explore a bit more, head into the woods a bit” - even
though there may be No Place Like Home,
and it can be mighty comfortable in your own, warm, safe, familiar bed:
Yep – like a Good Neighbor, insurance can
be a very comforting thing.
But sometimes, it’s time to leave home, to gamble on the unknown - you
gotta know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, and
know when to run. Time is limited and
valuable:
You have choices
to make. Are you going to put the whole
night on repeat, or are you going to take a chance on something new, and add a
little risk to Life?
ANYA: “Well, we could play that game again,
Life. That was fun.”
DAWN: “For you.
You always win.”
ANYA: “Well, we can make a wager this time. You can give me real money. That would be different.”
XANDER: “And after we teach her to gamble, maybe we
can all get drunk.”
Gambling is for
grown-ups. Life in adulthood is not
always a safe bet. You don’t always win;
you aren’t playing just for fun. It’s
scary and serious and it can be painful.
One of the challenges of adulthood is weighing the risks and rewards and
making the right choices. The judicious
and responsible use of the freedom of choice signals our entrance into the
adult world. Into The Woods addresses this aspect of
growing up. We watch Spike insist that
Buffy must listen to him, the commandos insist that Riley must listen to them,
Riley insist that Buffy must listen to him, and Xander insist that Buffy must
listen to him. In each case, the
listener lends a reluctant ear, but ends up seriously considering what has been
said. There are constant references to
risk, to reasons, to deals, and to what is serious (as opposed to just for
fun). Some examples among many are
below:
RISK: Risk is a factor in decision
making.
REASONS/CONVINCING: When there’s risk involved, you’ve got to
have a compelling reason to take that leap:
DEALS: You compare and contrast, you figure out how
best to play the hand you’re dealt.
SERIOUSNESS: In Part 1 of this episode, we listen to Dawn
trying to choose between a sad movie, or a movie about a chimp playing ice
hockey. “Choose monkey!” Anya advises - Dawn isn’t in the mood for a
sad movie. There is a time to choose
fun, and a time to get serious:
·
SPIKE: “No, I’m serious - I mean, not about the
naked part - ”
It’s all been simmering for quite a while,
despite Buffy’s willful obliviousness to the troubles (XANDER: “What I can’t figure out is how you never saw
it coming”). Choices must be made: What’s most convincing? Who is offering the more attractive
deal? With Spike involved, it is no
surprise that the fancy facades of the status quo are shattered, reality is
faced, and choices for a new order must be made.
The role of
catalyst is not a new one for Spike. In
Season 2’s Surprise, Spike reassembles
The Judge, a demon that causes others to incinerate. His action leads directly to Buffy &
Angel’s wet and wild escape to Angel’s apartment – where they finally realize
their passion, and all hell (i.e., Angelus) breaks loose. In Season 3’s Lovers Walk, Spike’s return is accompanied by many images of fire
and burnt objects. His presence causes
simmering passions to come to the surface, and nothing is ever the same again
for Buffy & Co. And in Season 4’s The Yoko Factor, which begins with Spike
flicking his lighter to produce a flame, he will cause building Scooby
resentments to percolate rapidly to the surface.
Spike is Truth,
Spike is Trouble, and Spike is a Trigger with a capital T. He will burst your pretty balloon with one
squeeze.
“When they broke up everyone blamed Yoko,
but the fact is, the group split itself apart, she just happened to be there.” -Spike in The
Yoko Factor, by Doug Petrie, 1999
He’s at it again
in Into The
Woods. Notice that we cut straight
from a shot of a fire burning out of control behind a stuffed armchair, to a
shot of Spike, sitting on a stuffed armchair, in his crypt.
Ah, Spike. You’re a hot spot if there ever was one. You’re not running (“Fella’s gotta try . .
.”), and Riley hasn’t got it in him to shut you down. Buffy & Riley will implode, and Spike, as
always, will “just happen” to be there:
SPIKE: “Look, I’m not the one who got you into
this. Don’t kill the messenger!”
RILEY: “Why the hell not?”
Ha! Someone’s got Spike’s number. He isn’t just a messenger; he’s no innocent
bystander to the calamity. When it comes
to Buffy’s tumultuous life, he’s a progressively more interested party. His presence at every crossroad is no
coincidence:
Spike tells Riley
that it is because of Buffy’s latent dark side, her Slayer-side, her need for a
little monster in her man, that Riley isn’t meant to
be the long-haul guy. Spike ought to
know. He’s been there, right in Riley’s
shoes:
“It was that truce with Buffy that did
it. Dru said I'd gone soft. Wasn't demon enough for the likes of
her. And I told her it didn't mean
anything, I was thinking of her the whole time, but she didn't care.” Spike in Lovers Walk, by Dan Vebber, 1998
But with Buffy,
Spike is the very incarnation of her dark side, of her Slayer-side. He is the bit of monster inside her
(figuratively, at this point). So it is
no surprise that we watch him play a key role in Buffy & Riley’s
split. He escorts both Riley and Buffy
through the mess, past the ugly truth, and right up to the Forrest Gates. (Sorry – couldn’t resist.)
Riley’s fake-stake
of Spike, and the candles-and-pretense feel we get from Buffy & Riley’s
romantic scene, aren’t the only images of pretense we see in the episode. Dawn puts on pretend vampire-fangs, Spike
pretends not to “give a bloody damn” about Buffy’s nakedness, and Buffy
suggests that Joyce wear wigs for the fun of pretending.
It can be fun, to
pretend. But we are getting the same
message once again: In adulthood, there
comes a time when you must stop playing.
Grown-up Joyce thinks she’ll just go with a scarf. And despite Buffy’s bad ice-skating movie
obsession, she doesn’t choose monkey in this episode either. She runs after Riley, wondering if she can
make something real – something serious and risky and messy – happen with
him. But it’s not meant to be.
Parallels between Riley and Spike have been drawn ever since The Initiative, and they are reinforced
in this episode, foreshadowing the fact that it is Spike to whom Buffy will
turn - that it is Buffy & Spike who are slated and fated for a high risk,
low pay, seriously messy, and ultimately life-changing encounter:
SPIKE & BUFFY, Fool For Love, ep
5.7:
BUFFY: “Get out
of my sight, Spike. Now.”
SPIKE: “Oh, did
I scare ya? You’re the Slayer. Do something about it. Hit me.
Come on. One good swing. You know you want to. . . you know you want
to dance.”
BUFFY: “Say
it’s true. Say I do want to. It wouldn’t be you Spike. It would never be you.”
(She shoves him forcefully to the ground.)
RILEY
& BUFFY, Into the Woods, ep 5.10
BUFFY: “Let go
of me!”
RILEY: “Or what?
You’ll hit me? Go ahead. Come on, do it.”
BUFFY: “Get out of my way.”
RILEY: “I’m
serious, Buffy, hit me. Hit me. (Buffy
walks around him and picks up her jacket.) I’m leaving Buffy. Unless you give me reason to stay, I’m
leaving tonight.”
(Buffy opens the door, walks out, and closes the
door behind her.)
SPIKE & BUFFY, Smashed, ep 6.9
BUFFY: “Get out
of my way.”
SPIKE: “Or
what?”
(Buffy shrugs, and punches him in the face.) Awww – so sweet. He didn’t even have to ask that time!
What Riley wouldn’t give for a shove or a punch or
any show of true passion from Buffy. The Season 5 comparisons between Spike and
Riley are meant to ready us for next Season’s Spike & Buffy explosion. That the arrow is pointing straight at Spike
can also be noted in the following exchange between Spike & Dru in
DRUSILLA:
“Why can’t you kill her?” (RILEY:
“I wanted to even the score after you let Dracula bite you.”)
SPIKE: “You’re the one who keeps bringing her
up! I haven’t said a word about the
bloody Slayer since we left
DRUSILLA: “But you’re lying! I can still see her floating all around you,
laughing. Why? Why won’t you push her away?” (RILEY: “I wanted to know why Dracula and Angel have
so much power over you.”)
SPIKE: “But I did, pet. I did it for you. You keep punishing me. Carrying on with creatures like this.” (BUFFY: “Fine!
Tell me about your whores! Tell
me what on earth they were giving you that I can’t.”)
DRUSILLA: “I have to find my pleasures, Spike. You taste like ashes.” (RILEY: “They made me feel something, Buffy. Something I didn’t even know I was missing .
. . they needed me.”)
SPIKE: “So this is my fault now?” (BUFFY: “So this is my fault? Hey, gee, Buffy’s so mysterious, I think I’ll
go out and almost die. I think I’ll go
and let some other-“)
Spike earnestly
chased after Dru, at the end of Lovers
Walk. He even caught her, for a
little while. But it was too little, too
late - his destiny lay elsewhere. Spike
wasn’t meant, at that point in his journey, to put his long night with Dru on
repeat, anymore than Buffy is meant to catch up with Riley:
Parallels are also
being drawn between Buffy and Xander, as each of them must face up to
their “convenient” relationships with Riley and Anya, respectively. We see the Buffy-Riley-Spike triangle oddly
reflected in the Xander-Anya-Willow relationship:
ANYA: “I’ve been very good for this store . . . “
ANYA:
“Yes, I forgot about all the vigorous sitting around.”
XANDER: “Anya, you can back off a little. You get paid.
ANYA: “I’m sorry, Willow. Thank you for making time in your busy life
to come in here and get in the way of mine.”
Like Spike to
Riley,
XANDER: “Yeah, I think you mean convenient. I think you took it for granted that he was
gonna show up when you wanted him to, and take off when you didn’t . . . you’ve
been treating Riley like the rebound guy, when he’s the one that comes along
once in a lifetime. He’s never held back
with you. He’s risked everything. And you’re about to let him fly because you
don’t like ultimatums?”
This reminds me of
Giles, and also Buffy, earlier in the episode:
Giles seems to be
talking about others, but as his later mention of “Ripper-days” tells us, he is
really talking about himself. Buffy
seems to be talking about others, but she later realizes that she has described
her own approach to Riley. And so is
Xander, talking about himself. Xander is
sincere in championing Riley. But it is
no mystery, is it, why he’d like to see The Normal Guy, The Guy who has been as
constant, and as steady, and as reliable as State Farm, finally have his time
in the limelight?
Xander is
convenient: At the beginning of the
episode,
XANDER: “You make me feel like I’ve never felt before
in my life. Like a man.”
Unlike Buffy with
Riley, Xander finds Anya waiting for him.
And here, I respect Xander’s courage.
He goes and does it: He takes a
leap of faith. Buffy’s accusation – that
he has been treating Anya as a convenience – has touched a nerve. He’s realized that he’s been holding back,
not letting Anya into his heart, playing it safe, and trying to keep it all
neat and low risk. So he seeks her out,
and he tells her how much she means to him.
He decides to take a chance on the messy.
But despite my
admiration of Xander’s guts, I can’t help but note that Xander is a card-carrying
member of the “I must feel desperately needed to feel like a man” club. We have heard something very similar from
Riley:
Men want to feel
needed and adored, but women eventually grow into independence and past the
ability to idealize another human being.
And like men, women have a drive to fully realize all their strengths
and interests. The timeless struggle
between the sexes, on this particular battlefield, is presented in this episode
for all to gaze upon and judge, each according to their own sensibilities: Is it understandable, for Riley to want so
desperately to be needed? Is it OK, for
Xander to be so attracted to Anya’s neediness?
Why is Buffy’s strength “hard sometimes” for Riley to handle? Why can’t he be unequivocally supportive of
Buffy’s strength, instead of making her feel, at times, like she should hold
back? Why does Xander sound almost like
he is complaining, when he tells Buffy, about her amazing fight against the vampires: “I was gonna lend a hand, but I noticed you
grew a few extra ones.”
If I had the
answers to those questions, I’d deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for resolving the
longest running, bloodiest feud in the history of humanity. And I wouldn’t be looking back on a personal
battlefield strewn with corpses, or sporting a heart full of scars.
So I’m not
claiming to be an objective observer. I
don’t have the answers, and I don’t think Marti Noxon, the writer of this
episode, is trying to tell us she does, either.
She’s simply giving us a realistic presentation of the perennial
struggle of men and women to understand each other, and to meet their
unquenchable desire for one another.
Because oh God – we want each other so badly, don’t we? And that just never stops.
So, as the
references to victims and victimless crimes suggest, there are no easy villains
here, just young, still-learning human beings, doing their imperfect best. Personally, I see Buffy as a lucky woman for
not catching that ‘copter, because I know – I know, I tell you, I know -
that it never would have worked out. And
when Xander tells the starry-eyed Anya that she makes him feel like a man, I
know that both Anya and Xander have a lot of growing to do, and they’ll be
lucky to make it past the changes and realizations ahead.
I don’t see Buffy’s run after the
helicopter as coincidentally unsuccessful; I do see it
as being about what Buffy really wants, underneath it all. Let me explain where I see this:
At the end of her
fight against the vampires, Buffy recognizes Riley’s Vamp-ho. The vamp looks as if she’s been beaten, and
she is a truly pathetic site. Buffy
finds it in her heart to spare her. She
lowers her stake, and the vamp runs. But
then, it seems that Buffy’s compassion was not enough; she wants to spare the
vamp-ho, but not enough to overcome her darker instincts, as a woman, or as The
Slayer. She readies her stake, and she
lets it fly.
XANDER: “And you’re going to let him fly because you
don’t like ultimatums?”
Buffy recognizes
the truth in Xander’s words. And Listening to Fear, she runs after Riley
on her little chicken feet. Because it
is true – she did shut down after Angel, and she hasn’t truly allowed herself
to love Riley. So she runs after Riley
and the promise of his love. But she
doesn’t do it soon enough, and she can’t run fast enough, and she can’t yell
loud enough; she wants to catch him, but not enough to overcome her darker
instincts, as a woman, or as The Slayer.
She lets him fly.
So it seems this
way to me, when it comes to Riley’s departure:
Despite her genuine fear and regret, a very significant part of Buffy
wanted Riley to leave. Underneath it
all, Buffy has a dark side that, if it wasn’t for the girl-side, the Dawn-side,
would have dumped him long ago.
SPIKE
(to Riley): “I had this chip outta my
head, I’d have killed you long ago.”
It was that truce
between Buffy & Spike that did it – and not just for Spike. Back in
RILEY: “You think you’ve actually got a shot with
her?”
SPIKE: “No, I don’t.
Fella’s gotta try though. Gotta
do what he can.”
RILEY: “If you touched her, you know I’d kill you
for real.”
Note that it is Riley who first wonders
if Spike might have “a shot.” Even after
Spike says that he believes his chances are zero, Riley is still so uncertain
that he feels it necessary to threaten Spike with death.
The guy for Buffy,
during the sunless journey through the woods before her, is not Riley. As Spike says right after Buffy momentarily
mistakes him for Riley: “It’s me.”
Spicy extras for James Marsters fans
***
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