Season 2

Episode 7 - Lie To Me

By Spring Summers – 02-Feb-03

Ford – The Electronic Pacifier - Secrets & Lies – Spike!! – Conclusion – Spicy extras for James Marsters’ fans

This episode begins with a small boy waiting for a mother who is "always late." He’s in a deserted park and it’s already dark. Mother has shirked her responsibility, and as a result the boy is alone and vulnerable. Evil finds him in the form of Dru. She approaches him, and eventually scares and confuses him with the words: "What will your mummy sing when they find your body?" Angel intervenes just in time to save him.

The next boy in trouble is somewhat older. He’s a senior in High School, and a former friend and schoolmate of Buffy’s. His name is Billy Fordham (Ford). Ford also has been betrayed. He’s young, but he’s dying of brain cancer. He’s been double-crossed by a world that allowed him to be born whole and healthy, to flourish, to see the possibilities and want the future – only to take it all away. He is angry, desperate, and vulnerable. Evil finds him in the form of a media-inspired fantasy life that kills everything in him but the demon, even before that first bite. Tumors and pop culture have liquefied his brain.

Ford is the only one with tumors, but he is not alone in being seduced by the media. The words and images in this episode suggest Buffy’s generation has been betrayed by its parents; they’ve been abandoned to be raised and lied to by TV and movies. They turn to fantasy and empty ritual because - as Ford says about his vampire-worshipping followers - they are "lonely, miserable or bored." They want a chance to do what Ford tells them "every American teen should have a chance to do": die young and stay pretty.

Even Buffy and her friends, though they aren’t completely lost in fantasy, show signs of an unhealthy level of media contamination. The importance of appearances, of form over substance, is referred to many times:

• Cordelia, about Marie Antoinette: "She worked really hard to look that good, and people just don’t appreciate that kind of effort."
• Xander to Willow, about Buffy’s interest in Ford: "Jeez, doesn’t she know any fat guys?"
• Willow to Buffy: "Ford was just telling us about the ninth grade beauty contest and the swimsuit competition.’

There’s more – listen for the subtle but constant references to looks, dress, and image, by the older set as well as the teens. We’re being told – in an episode of a TV show, no less - that the media is seducing us all, and that it is our children who suffer the worst consequences. Dru’s mummy used to sing her to sleep at night, but over a hundred years later, 10 year old Buffy sat alone in her room listening to "I Touch Myself."

Betrayal. Secrets. Lies. Who can you trust? It isn’t only parents and the media taking the rap in this episode. Couples and friends don’t fare much better. Angel lies to Buffy at The Bronze, when she asks where he was the night before. Instead of telling Buffy about his encounter with Dru, he says he was at home all night. Buffy lies to Angel when she pretends to believe him. Jenny deliberately keeps their date destination a secret from Giles, asking him to trust her. But we know what’s coming there, don’t we? She’s got a bigger secret.

Willow lies to Buffy about Angel’s visit to her room. Ford, of course, is lying to Buffy from the get-go. Buffy feels betrayed by both Xander and Willow when she learns they’ve been secretly working with Angel to investigate Ford. There are many more lies told, big and small, throughout the episode, and many references to secrets.

There are deceptions motivated by the desire to be polite – e.g., the teacher telling Cordelia her Marie Antoinette analysis is "interesting." And there are deceptions that result from the liar’s guilt, shame, fear, or any combination thereof. Angel’s guilt over Dru leads to his lie. Willow hides her bra as if it were a shameful secret, because that’s how it feels to her. Ford lies in an attempt to manipulate Buffy because he’s afraid to die. And in fear for her unlife, the bleached blonde female vampire betrays Spike by telling Ford -though she sees he is working with The Slayer! - Spike’s location. No one is to be trusted.

Except Spike. Guilt-free, shameless, unconcerned with being polite, and with nothing to fear (except one girl), Spike is honest because he has no reason not to be. When it comes to lying, he lacks the motivation of the ensouled, so why make the effort, why subject himself to the tangled webs?

Note that both Buffy and Spike are jealous and suspicious about Angel and Dru’s encounter, but unlike Buffy, Spike comes right out with it when he confronts Dru. When Xander and Angel meet Ford, they don’t like him but they maintain a social politeness. Spike simply tells him: "I can’t stand you."

Ford finds Spike right after he scares the information out of Blondie Vamp. He strolls into Spike’s lair unhindered, causing Spike to shout: "Do I have anyone on watch here? It’s called security, people. Are you all asleep?" He asks Ford, "How did you find me?" - just after the traitorous Blondie has appeared on the scene to hand him a book. She smiles at Spike and makes a funny, faintly puckery movement with her open mouth, almost like an unfinished bite. When I saw it, I wondered how an actress in a very minor role got away with such a distracting bit of over-acting. But then, a minute later, an annoyed Spike grabs Ford by the ear.

And suddenly, I go slack-jawed with astonishment. Because all at once, while watching an episode featuring betrayal upon betrayal, I am reminded of the most famous betrayal of them all – that of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, when he tells the High Priests where to find Jesus, then betrays his identity with a kiss:

• From Matthew 26:42 (Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane asking God to "take this cup away from me", before resolving to sacrifice his life. He has asked his apostles to keep vigil nearby. Judas’ arrival with the soldiers is imminent when Jesus approaches the apostles and is disappointed to find them sleeping): "Then he came to his disciples and said to them, ‘Still sleeping? Still taking your ease?’ . . ."
• From Luke 22:50 (after the soldiers have arrived, and Judas has kissed Jesus): "One of them struck at the High Priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, ‘Let them have their way.’ Then he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

When did Spike’s redemption arc start? Hasn’t Joss said in interviews that he decided to make Spike a regular character in Season 4? Joss, are you lying to me? Through my TV? I am feeling almost too discombobulated to continue watching. But I do.

For one thing, there’s more Spike to come. The straightforward Spike is Harsh Reality come-to-call when he enters the basement where the vampire-cult is foolishly waiting for his "blessing" to give them eternal life – well, make that eternal unlife. Close enough.

But is The Savior supposed to smirk like that? At the sight of Spike in game-face, even the most starry-eyed cult member, Chanterelle, is wrenched abruptly out of her fantasy. Spike is Ugly Truth amidst all the pretty lies, a role we will see him in again and again.

Buffy is waiting for Spike in this scene, having been lured into the bomb shelter basement by Ford. In another of the endless parallels that have been and will be drawn between them, it is not only Spike who has been betrayed by a supposed friend. And despite the Jesus imagery, it is Buffy, not Spike, who presently has been offered up as a sacrifice.

Buffy saves the day by threatening Dru with a stake, forcing Spike to call off the "pig-out at the all-you-can-eat moron bar." Buffy forces Spike down, down, down, farther into the basement - beneath her, of course. She pushes Dru toward Spike and runs out the door. Spike runs up the stairs to follow her, but runs smack into a steel door. And damnation! There’s no doorknob! Spike tells Ford, "We’re stuck in the basement . . . she’s NOT stuck in the basement."

So true, Spike. But you’ll get out eventually; it’s just not your time yet. Buffy says so too - to Angel, Willow & Xander: "They’ll get out eventually, though. We should probably go. We can come back when they’re gone . . .for the body." We are reminded of Dru’s words to the boy at the beginning of the episode, about his mummy finding his body. We’ve come full circle.

Almost. There’s one more scene. In a final depiction of his betrayal by the mass media, Ford doesn’t achieve his dream of living the life of Dracula, not even for an instant – Buffy stakes him as soon as he crawls out of his grave.

But notice that Spike has not betrayed Ford. He has kept his promise to sire him. Why? Perhaps it is because it serves Spike well to be seen as a man of his word amongst his followers. Or maybe there is some other practical reason. Truth can serve Evil as well as Good, and Spike, we will learn as time goes by, is expert at using truth for his purposes.

It all leaves Buffy very confused. She’s learned of Angel’s torture of Dru and she feels very sorry for Ford despite his horrible plans. Buffy tells Giles, "Nothing’s ever simple anymore. I’m constantly trying to work it out. Who to love or hate. Who to trust. It’s just, like, the more I know, the more confused I get."

Giles replies: "I believe that’s called growing up." And up and up Buffy will go, two steps forward, one step back, climbing the ladder toward adulthood – where Harsh Reality is waiting impatiently (‘cause that’s just the way he is).

Spicy extras for James Marsters’ fans:

• James does a wonderful job in the "dead bird" scene with Dru, subtly conveying a combination of restrained jealousy and real concern for Dru’s health – and managing to be very sexy, all at the same time. I like the way he starts to put Dru’s finger in his mouth.
• He looks good as always, though we don’t see enough of him in this episode.
• Purely wild speculation: I really do wonder if Joss didn’t start plotting right away, in Season 2, to use James permanently on the show. I wonder if it wasn’t part of the reason David Boreanaz got his own show.