By Spring Summers 26-APR-03

- Patronization – Information – Power and freedom of choice – The nature of evil – Responsibility and connection to our past – Home – Buffy’s duty – Spike & Buffy – Conclusion – Spicy extras for James Marsters fans -

A cultural center is going to be built at UC Sunnydale, and a Professor Gerhardt has been the driving force behind it. At the groundbreaking ceremony, she says: “When I realized we were outgrowing our current cultural center, I was concerned. Then I realized it was like seeing one’s child grow up and move on to better things.” Her words set a tone for the episode.

Season 4 is the Season in which Buffy leaves High School behind, enters college and begins her true climb toward adulthood. In Pangs, we hear comments from Buffy like, “I can cook a meal, just like my mom does,” and “I want it . . . I smell a roasting turkey and I’m eight years old.” In these comments and others, and also in her obsession to make her first Thanksgiving dinner perfect, we see that Buffy is at a crossroads in her life – wanting the independence and responsibility of adulthood, yet still yearning for the simpler joys of childhood.

Images and references to paternalism and patronization also emphasize this theme:

Buffy uses the words “patriarch” (to Giles, about why he has to host: “You’re the patriarch!”) and “king” (about Dean Guerrero: “He’s the king of us”).
Mention of a Mission, Buffy’s half-hearted sympathy for the Chumash tribe, (“You can have casinos now!”), and even Willow’s bleeding-heart attitude (wanting to provide help they are not requesting) smack of patronization of the Chumash.
Giles takes a condescending attitude toward Willow, suggesting she isn’t keeping a “level head.” For the first time ever, Willow defiantly stands up to Giles, not bothering with her usual hems and haws and qualifiers: “I happen to think mine is the level head, and yours is the one things would roll off of!” she says in reply.
Angel takes a very paternal route with Buffy: He watches her from a distance, but won’t tell her directly about his friend’s vision that she is in danger. He won’t let Giles or Willow tell her about it, or about his presence, for fear she won’t be able to handle it, and the distraction will put her in greater danger. In essence, he is treating her like a child, not trusting her to react with maturity and competence. He is making categorical decisions about what is best for her without her input. Even father figure Giles is uncomfortable with Angel’s approach, saying he doesn’t like keeping this secret from Buffy; he knows she would want to know. Upset about Oz’s desertion, Willow also calls Angel on his attitude, saying: “See, I don’t get that, all this ‘leaving her for her own good’ garbage.” It may have been necessary for Angel to take a protective, paternal approach when Buffy was in HS, but is it still appropriate?

Angel is withholding information from Buffy, and thereby dominating and controlling the situation. White settlers cut off the ears – the means of listening - of dead Chumash as a symbol of their final disempowerment. Throughout the episode, information is presented as important and empowering:

· “It’s not fair,” says Giles to Angel. “You can see her, but she can’t see you?”

· Willow wants to help Angel, and the first thing he says is (having seen Buffy talking to Riley): “Well, if you can just tell me . . . who’s that guy?”

· Harmony tells Spike: “I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and I’m in control of my own power now, so we’re through . . . I’m powerful and I’m beautiful and I don’t need you to complete me.” Harmony has read and listened to the words she’s read. She’s wised up and gained control.

· Willow comes in with a stack of books, having done some reading to bolster her arguments and successfully influence Buffy.

· Xander is desperate to understand what is wrong with him – when Buffy & Willow stray off topic, he says: “Can we come rocketing back to the part about me and my new syphilis?”

· How in the world does Spike, Buffy’s mortal enemy, end up wrangling an invitation to her Thanksgiving Day dinner table? With these words: “I’ve got information. About the soldier boys you were fighting. Got the inside scoop!”

· But Spike has no power when no one lends him an ear – he asks for blood, he asks for brandy, but it amounts to nothing, because talk (information sharing) doesn’t amount to anything unless it is heard.

· Buffy threatens to gag Spike, and later tells him to “shut up” as a means of controlling him and letting him know his place.

· Spike does make himself heard with his opinion about dealing with the Chumash vengeance spirit, and Giles laments, “I made these points earlier, but fine, no one listens to me.”

Knowledge is power. Cutting off someone’s ability to give and/or receive knowledge is a means of asserting domination and control. Why? Because it limits their options. Freedom of choice is a concept that was mentioned (most notably by Parker) in The Harsh Light of Day and was a theme in The Initiative as well. Having, and responsibly exercising, options are an intrinsic part of adulthood, and it is looking as if Season 4 will include an ongoing exploration of this concept. We see that trickery and the withholding of knowledge (Parker and Angel, respectively), and physical restraint (The Initiative’s lock-up, Buffy tying Spike up) are not the only means by which options may be restricted and defined. People compete for what is desirable, and the strongest survive – they take the choicest options, and the weak are forced out or left to take less desirable remains:

The white man took the Chumash’s land (Spike: “You came in, you killed them, and you took their land . . . you had better weapons, and you massacred them.”)
Buffy tells Giles she almost used “slayer moves” on a woman who was “completely hoarding the pumpkin pie” filling.
In the opposite direction, Buffy orders Giles to stay away from the food while she’s gone, and he jokes: “I’ll try to restrain myself from eating uncooked potatoes and cranberries.” Eating the items is not an option due simply to their undesirability.
Mention (by Giles) of “bloody colonials” and Buffy’s statement to Giles that, “You’re the reason we had to have pilgrims in the first place,” remind us that the original pilgrims themselves were forced out of England by those with more power.
When Spike sounds as if he intends to feed on Xander, Xander chooses, despite his weakness, to go with Willow and Anya to warn Dean Guerrero about the vengeance spirit.

Choice can be restricted by simple self-interest – our survival instinct takes over when push comes to shove. The Chumash vengeance spirit, Hus, has killed two people, made Xander terminally ill, and seems determined to kill others. As Buffy tells Willow about killing him: “What choice do we have?” And Spike adds, “It’s kill or be killed. Take your bloody pick.” Hus has set up the terms; he takes control by restricting freedom of choice. Willow’s desire to do something to help or appease the spirit isn’t among the options Hus makes available (Spike again: “You exterminated his race. What could you possibly say that would make him feel better?”).

Vengeance is portrayed (as Giles says about sarcasm) as an “end in itself.” The Chumash spirit wants vengeance, Spike realizes Harmony is serious about staking him when she says: “You did it to me, remember?”, and Xander begins throwing things at the Chumash bear with the words, “That’s for giving me syphilis!”

Anya claims that sometimes, “vengeance is justified,” and Buffy, Giles and Xander all refer to “fairness” (Buffy says it’s not fair that everyone gets a Thanksgiving but her, Giles tells Angel he’s not being fair to Buffy, he tells Willow she’s not being fair to him, and Xander claims it’s not fair that he should be suffering from diseases). As we did in The Initiative, we’re looking at ethics – what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s fair, and what’s the nature of evil?

We don’t get any pat answers. We’re in a grown-up world now. As both Buffy and Angel say in this episode: “Everything is different now.” But we can see in their words and actions that neither one has fully accepted the fact that Buffy is leaving childhood behind. Buffy says (and too bad Riley isn’t around to hear it): “I like my evil like I like my men – evil. You know, straight up, black hat, tied to the train tracks, soon my electro-ray will destroy Metropolis, bad. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an indigenous culture.”

But, no matter how much she may long for the past, the black-and-white days of childhood and comic books are over for Buffy. Evil is not so easily recognized or defined. The episode opens with Buffy following an innocent looking young man who turns out to be evil. Everyone thinks that Angel, skulking around with his black coat and glowery looks, is evil, but he’s not. We see Spike in a pathetic light and it mitigates his wickedness; he appears sad and lonely and we actually feel sorry for his cute little evil ass.

And when we try to understand who/what is evil in the fight against the Chumash, Angel and Spike can be seen as symbolizing the ambiguity of evil, both in the white invaders and their descendants, and in Hus:

Listen to Angel’s theory about why the angry spirit is on a rampage: “Maybe it was trapped there, and now it’s released.” Gee, that sounds familiar . . . just what made him come up with that theory?
Buffy says about fighting Hus: “It’s plenty uncommon for me to freeze up during a fight. I mean, I had the guy, I was ready for the take down, and I stopped.” Later, when she associates her hesitation with feeling guilty, Giles reminds Buffy that Hus has “killed innocent people.” Gee, that all sounds familiar too. Buffy, I think this has happened to you before.
Buffy says to Spike: “You haven’t murdered anybody lately? Let’s be best pals!” Buffy is being sarcastic here, but Spike’s expectations aren’t so different from what Willow expects the Chumash to accept – friendship and help, based on the fact that the white man hasn’t murdered anybody lately.
Willow mentions that popular depictions of the pilgrims and natives only show the “maize and big big belt buckles,” but leave out the part where “all the bison die, and Squanto takes a musket ball in the stomach.” When Spike shows up at Giles’ doorstep, he says to Willow, about having threatened to kill her and Buffy: “Yes, bad. But let’s skip that part and get to the part where I couldn’t bite you.”
Angel says to Xander: “I haven’t been evil in a long time.” Angel is suggesting that, indeed, whether or not he “murdered anybody lately” should make a difference.

So . . . are current day white descendants in some way responsible for the actions of their foreparents? Again, no black-and-white answer is provided. It’s very confusing in the grown up world. We can suspect, from his name (which means warrior in Spanish) and his location in California, that Dean Guerrero - a prominent, well-to-do man who sanctioned the building of the cultural center – may be of mixed blood, and have some Native American ancestors. So, how does he fit in? Which side does he represent? Does he get retribution, or blame? Note that when Xander, Willow and Anya go to the Dean’s house, they find the family celebrating Thanksgiving.

It’s all so unclear. Certainly, Buffy is justified in defending herself and killing Hus. And when Willow tells Xander that he is riddled with diseases because Hus was “just doing what was done to him,” Xander is correct in saying: “I didn’t give him syphilis!”

But Buffy’s insistence on following the “just like old times” ways of her family’s usual Thanksgiving celebration, and her single-minded insensitivity in doing so, suggests there is a real connection between current people and their ancestors. Buffy and her friends and family continue to enjoy the spoils of the victors. Riley talks about his family’s “homestead” in Iowa, a state that is “one of the ones in the middle.” A shot of the sun setting in the West, Buffy’s cowboy hat, and Xander, Anya, and Willow’s bicycle ride to the rescue, remind us of their continuing connection to how the West was originally won. And Buffy also very deliberately maintains her connection to her ancestors and their actions through ritual. Willow mentions that she herself is like her own mother, Buffy wants to cook a meal just like her mother did, and Riley is referred to (by Forrest, about his loyalty to Walsh) as a “mamma’s boy.” When instinct takes over, Willow fights for her side. It is not only Hus who feels a strong connection to, reverence for, and obligation to, his ancestors. Is it right? Is it wrong? Again, no answer. We are being told only that, right or wrong, it is human nature to protect and feel for your own; there is an instinct toward clannishness that is symbolized by ritual, and that will not be denied.

Even vampires, it seems, have rituals, and Spike’s alienation from them is emphasized by the fact that he peers in on what seems to be some sort of initiation ritual for a fledgling vampire. A human male – like a Thanksgiving turkey – is the ritual sacrifice, laid out on a table. Anya calls Thanksgiving a “ritual sacrifice with pie.” The term “ritual sacrifice” itself underlines the fact that pursuing and realizing our dreams can involve great cost to others.

When two people are after the last can of pumpkin pie filling, only one can win. And when we are talking not about pumpkin pie filling, but about finding a place to belong, a home, the stakes are much higher. The winnings are great for the victor, and the cost is enormous for the loser. Listen to what our innocent looking vampire says to Buffy in the first scene, right before he loses his unlife: “Slayer! Why don’t you just go back where you came from? Things were great before you came!”

The overriding importance of belonging, and the lengths to which people will go to acquire and defend their homes against invaders is emphasized by many references to “home,” and by Spike’s wandering, outsider status. He gets so desperate that even The Slayer’s table is better than nothing. People will go to great lengths to secure a place they can call home. We also see many images of outsiders viewed as invaders:

Willow (about holiday dinner): “Oooh. We could not invite Anya!”
Buffy: “Giles, if you would like to get along in American society, then you have to follow our traditions.”
Harmony (to Spike): “OUT! I mean it!”
Giles (to Spike about inviting him in): “No. It fairly unlikely.”

As The Slayer, Buffy is herself an outsider and, as Giles mentions in explaining her Thanksgiving dinner obsession to Angel, subject to loneliness. In this episode (and in Season 4 in general), Buffy is not just making a final stab at going back to the security and simplicity of childhood, she is also still unwilling to give up the idea that she might be able to be a normal girl. This is the Season in which she tries to have a normal boyfriend, and join a team rather than slay alone.

Buffy’s willingness to forego or postpone her obligations as The Slayer in pursuit of a simpler, normal life is underlined by her attitude toward Thanksgiving dinner (it is of paramount importance) and by the words that are used in discussing the Mission that was discovered when Xander started digging at the new cultural center site:

Willow: “It’s the old Sunnydale Mission, which everyone thought was lost.”

Buffy: “A lost Mission. I mean, a hairbrush, I can understand . . . but how do you lose a Mission?”

How, indeed, do you lose a mission? In this episode, Buffy seems to be floundering when it comes to her mission. She comes through in the end, but Buffy has many more struggles ahead of her in Season 4, in regard to accepting her mission, and keeping it in sight. In Season 5, she lets her love for Dawn take precedence over her duty, and in Season 6, she’ll let her obsessive love/lust for Spike do the same.

This is the episode where the Spike & Buffy chemistry begins to percolate. They are very funny together as Buffy ties him to a chair (very Cowboys and Indians), and then smacks him on the head as if he were an annoying little brother when he gets smart with her. If you watch the ending fight scene closely, you’ll notice that in the heat of the action, and instinctually, Buffy rushes to save Spike when Hus breaks through the window and heads straight for him. It’s also interesting to note that Spike watches Buffy fight with what looks like admiration and amusement, while Angel watches her with protective concern (and saves her from an attack from behind).

During the fight, Spike is tied up and helpless, and becomes riddled with arrows. As a former Catholic schoolgirl, who spent many long afternoons studying the lives of the saints, I was immediately reminded of the many paintings I had once seen of Saint Sebastian, tied to a tree and riddled with arrows. But the only other thing I could remember about him was that he had been a Christian martyr. I did a web search and refreshed my memory: Saint Sebastian had been a Roman soldier who switched allegiance and ended up a martyr for the other side. After his death and canonization, he became the patron saint of soldiers, athletes, and diseased persons (like Xander). Sebastian didn’t actually die from the arrows, but survived only to be executed later. The first execution attempt, however, became a favorite subject of Religious painters through the ages, and Sebastian became well known for almost always being depicted as a beautiful, fair complexioned young man with a Greek God body, in nothing but a loin cloth, helplessly tied to tree with a multitude of arrows penetrating his flesh. I will let you guess what other sort of Internet sites were also listed in the results of my web search for “Saint Sebastian.” Let’s just say that my mouth dropped open when I opened a link to a harmless sounding site. Saints preserve us! I was stunned. The nuns never told me about this, though I imagine it is only recently that the saintly Sebastian has been adopted as an icon for groups other than devout Catholics. Those BtVS writers – oh, what funny folks. I’m still too speechless from that search to say much more about it.

So . . . Pangs. It’s a word associated with pain and longing – with loneliness, guilt, and hunger. And though our characters have all been looking backward in this episode – Buffy to her childhood, Willow to Oz, Spike to Harmony and his vampire past – the answer to assuaging their pains will be in forward growth. There’s a lot of that ahead.

Spicy extras for James Marsters fans

In the Spike & Harmony scene, when he says he knew she would welcome him back “with open . . . arms,” James runs his hand so far up Mercedes McNab’s leg that if that move wasn’t very explicitly in the script, someone needs to slap that guy - but first, they need to get me a glass of ice water and a fan. Whew. But no doubt it was in the script, as this isn’t a show that shies away from bold moves – at least not where Spike is concerned. Come to think of it, all the truly racy (for prime time TV) moves I’ve ever seen on BtVS involve Spike.
When Buffy is tying Spike up, his pants look so tight, I’m not sure exactly what he’s referring to when he says: “Well, it pinches!” But whatever it is, I’m sure it does. Kerrie checked this episode out on her Season 4 DVD, and aside from the noticeably tight (but non-ebulgent) fit of the pants in this scene, she found nothing to report.
Marsters & Gellar are very funny in that chair scene, setting us up nicely for next week’s Something Blue – “So, tell me everything you know.” “I’m too hungry to remember everything.” Hee. They make me laugh.