Season 4

Episode 21

PRIMEVAL: Consider the source

By Spring Summers – 07-DEC-03

- A vampire out of his crypt - Freewill – Power – Destiny – Sources – Conclusion – Spicy extras for James Marsters fans –

It’s the season-ender – well, the big blowout anyhow - and it’s time for everything and everyone to come together. Last week, in The Yoko Factor, Spike had driven a wedge between the various members of The Scooby Gang, and they were no longer speaking to one another. But this week, Spike’s manipulations are brought to light. Like Willow’s temporarily encrypted disk, Spike suddenly gives himself away (to Buffy, of course!):

BUFFY: “Willow has the disks.”

SPIKE: “Well, I’d get on that. Can’t ignore valuable information just ‘cause you two birds fell out now, can you?”

BUFFY (realizing): “Right.”

Spike!! For Satan’s sake, man, what kind of evil genius are you?? All that work, and you self-decrypt in such an obvious way? Cripes and crypts. You are no better than the disk we see in the very next scene. Where is your head? It’s almost as if you were programmed to spill the beans, as if your subconscious had independent plans - as if you are destined to play on Team-Buffy, whether you know it, or like it, or not.

What’s going on in deep inside? This episode takes a look at what’s inside, and at the related concepts of freewill, power, destiny, and sources.

FREEWILL

Continuous images relating to the likes and dislikes of others and ourselves – and people’s abilities or inabilities to meet these preferences – remind us of the concept of freewill:

• Riley wants to fight Adam, but he can’t. He can’t relate freely to his surroundings in any way. Adam shuts down his ability to communicate, and to interact with others – thereby effectively and thoroughly stymieing and controlling him (for awhile).
• Continuous references are made to what people “want” and “like” – some examples among many (many!):
• ADAM (to Riley): “You’ll know power you’ve never dreamed of. You’re going to like it.”
• SPIKE (about Riley): “Slightly stiffer than usual. Subtle, but I like it.”
• SPIKE (to Buffy): “Well, do what you want. No worry of mine now, is it?”
• BUFFY (about Adam)): “He wants me there. Probably figures I’ll even the kill ratio.”
• We see and hear many mentions to people bending (or not) to the will and preferences of others, e.g.: Riley is under Adam’s control; Anya tells Xander it shouldn’t matter what the others think of him; the soldiers take orders from Colonel McNamara; Forrest does Adam’s bidding; The gang takes direction from Buffy. But we also see Riley break the ties that bind when he frees himself of his chip. And listen to Spike, and then Buffy:
• SPIKE (to Adam): “I’m not much the being-sent-for type. I’m much more the I-did-my-part-now-get-this-chip-outta-my-head kinda guy.”
• BUFFY (later, also to Adam): “Sorry. I don’t jump through hoops on command. I’ve never really been one to tow the line.”

Gosh. Those two sound soooo pig-headed! I’d hate to see them in any contest of wills.

But anyhow: Freewill. We’ve all got it, but we have to want to use it, we have to have the pig-headedness to assert ourselves. Sometimes, you’ve even got to reach into your own chest and painfully poke around your heart and surrounding areas, and tear out what others have implanted there. But ultimately, you can take control, if you want it enough.

POWER

Closely related to the concept of freewill is the idea of power. So, not coincidentally, we get many references to power:

• RILEY: “I’m a human being, who’s gonna do everything in his power to–“ ADAM: “Sit. (Riley sits down) You have no power. Not yet.”
• BUFFY (about Adam): “According to Riley, his power source is uranium core embedded somewhere inside his chest. Probably near the spine.”
• WILLOW: “The adjoining spell, is it powerful enough to defeat Adam?” GILES: “It’s very powerful. It’s also extraordinarily dangerous.”
• SOLDIER: “Sir, the power grid’s down. Backup’s not responding.”
• WILLOW (chanting the spell): “The power of the Slayer and all who yield it . . . accept us in the power we possess.”
• XANDER: “You could never hope to grasp the source . . .” BUFFY: “of our power. (She reaches into Adam and pulls out the uranium power source.) But yours is right here.”
• GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: “It was an experiment. The Initiative represented the Government’s interests in not only controlling the otherworldly menace, but harnessing its power for our own military purposes. The considered opinion of this counsel is that this experiment has failed.”

It’s all about the power. All season long, the demons in their cages have mirrored what was going on with the Scoobies. Underground, their numbers build as Scooby resentments grow. In Where the Wild Things Are, they are as restless as the gang. In The Yoko Factor, they are tearing each other apart. Now, in Primeval, they are out. Their power is being felt. The G-man tells us: “The demons cannot be harnessed. Cannot be controlled.” But is that true?

It seems as if Buffy & the gang have managed to get their figurative demons under control. They save the day by overcoming their hositilities, no doubt about it. Listen to Buffy and Willow, as they repel down the elevator shaft:

BUFFY: “You can tell me anything. I love you. You’re my best friend.”

WILLOW: “Me, too. I love you, too. (They hug) Falling now!!”

BUFFY: “Let’s promise to never not talk again.”

WILLOW: “I promise, I promise!”

Well, that’s good stuff. It’s sincere, and it’s heartfelt, as is the subsequent loving reconciliation with Xander. Unlike Adam, Buffy has people who love her and are committed to the cause on her side. Unlike, Adam, Buffy connects to others. Of course she wins! Of course the completely self-contained and self-involved and self-motivated Adam cannot grasp the source of their power.

But . . . well . . . is the G-man wrong then? Have the gang’s internal demons (hostilities, resentments, insecurities) been harnessed and controlled? Well, it is hard to control demons permanently, especially when you’re distracted by a perilous, downward climb (falling now!). So Buffy and Willow make a vow, they’ll always be friends. How could they know that promises end?

DESTINY

ADAM (to Riley): “You have no power. Not yet. Once you forget your old life and embrace your destiny as I have, you will know power you’ve never dreamed of. I think you’re going to like it.”

So, according to Adam, destiny is predetermined. It’s not a matter of choosing your destiny, or of letting it flow from the past. It’s a matter of accepting it. But Riley’s self-propelled escape tells a different story: We have the power to shape our destinies. We have choices.

And, though the past effects the present, Adam is not wrong that the past is no longer under our control. Moving forward does not require one to “forget your old life,” as Adam suggests, but it does require one to let go. There is no changing the past, and you can’t go home again. Notice how Buffy gazes at a picture of the Scoobies in High School, Xander pines for The Mayor, and Spike longs to go back to his “killing ways.” But the past is gone and unchangeable. Buffy and the gang will never be as they were; Xander’s foes will just continue getting tougher; Spike is never going back to his killing ways. It is their futures, not their pasts, that they hold in their hands:

• ANYA (to Xander): “So they all think you’re a lost directionless loser with no plans for his future . . . pfft!”
• FORREST (to Riley): “This is the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m free of all my weaknesses, my doubts. He’s gonna fix you up, too. Soon as we got some choice parts. Then you and me will be back on the same side. Moving toward a new future.”
• GILES (upon realizing how Spike has played them): “Of course. Well, piffle, let’s move on.” XANDER: “I’m moving.”

I feel as if we are back where we were at the beginning of Season 4, when, in The Harsh Light of Day, Parker said the following to Buffy:

“There is something amazing about these huge events that when you dig down into them, they’re just about regular people trying to make choices. When you look back at it, it seems like people were swept up in events they couldn’t control. But I don’t believe that. I believe you have choice in everything you do.”

Our characters are caught up in history, even as they are making it. There is a sense in which they seem nearly as pre-programmed as Willow’s disk:

BUFFY (to Riley): “What is this? Why won’t you talk to me?”

ADAM: “He can’t. He’s not programmed to. He’s part of the final phase now. As you were supposed to be.”

Everyone has roles to play, a fact that is emphasized by references to roles –e.g.: Spike calls Buffy “Alice” and “Sheriff” and “Nancy Drew”; Xander mentions that Spike’s evil role is no surprise (he’s “all dressed up” with “no one to bite”); Spike, watching the monitor, calls Buffy’s entrance into The Initiative’s complex “Must See TV.”

We are all, in a very real sense, caught up helplessly in the flow of history: Notice how the effect of external forces on our characters is not at all necessarily related to what they deserve or have worked toward:

• Buffy gives “the demon his due” when she compliments Adam’s planning, but ultimately, all of Adam’s effort comes to nothing.
• Spike wants his chip out, despite his failure to deliver Buffy sans friends. He suggests to Adam that he was “trying! That’s worth something, isn’t it?” But it’s not worth diddley.
• Professor Walsh worked hard to make her vision of the world a reality. And it’s coming true – but there is a big except here, per Adam: She thought she’d be alive to see it. But she’s not. And Buffy foils her plan, in the end.

Nothing is assured. You can try really hard, and you can want it really badly – and you can still end up with nothing. But Riley’s successful, strong-willed rebellion against the destiny his “Mommy” envisions shows us the other side of this equation: Ultimately, everyone’s actions and choices are all about them – about their own internal desires and tendencies - whether they know it, or not.

So, our characters are totally powerless, completely vulnerable to outside forces and the actions and opinions of others - they have no control. But they also seem to have all the power, and all the control, as they choose whether or not to listen, or to get up in the morning, and generally, how to exert their freewill in reacting to external stimuli.

It’s all just a way of saying they are human, and afflicted quite thoroughly and permanently with the human condition: They live in controllable individual worlds of their choosing, AND they live in this amazing and confounding and absolutely untamable Universe we all share.

BUFFY (to Adam as he watches the chaos): “Fun, isn’t it?”

SOURCES

This episode suggests that understanding what’s at the bottom of things, discovering the source, is important to a successful result. There are many, many references to the importance of location (“That’s how I want her. Where I want her is down in The Inititative”). And there are many images of what’s inside (the chips-all-around, Xander’s internal self-doubt, mention of secrets and The Trojan Horse).

Willow finds the secret lab by noticing that there are power lines and air vents leading to a nowhere that must be somewhere, and there are more images of sources:

· Buffy tells everyone that SPIKE was the source of their discontent. Considering the smarmy source helps everyone forgive one another and move forward. But ultimately, they must confront the fact that trouble was “stirrupable” and there were other deeper bases for their angry words.

· Buffy can make a successful plan to defeat Adam, once she understands that he is the actual source of the information on the disk.

· Riley locates the source of his problem in his chest cavity, and removes it.

· Buffy defeats Adam by locating the source of his power, and destroying it.

· Setting us up for the next episode and the Seasons ahead, everyone taps into the mysterious and seemingly strong and dangerous source of The Slayer’s power.

There is another important source to the Slayer’s power though – the love and support of her friends. That is the crucial difference between Buffy and Adam. Buffy lives in the world. She loves it, and she lets it love her.

Adam talks about “Mommy” and “brothers,” but his team is no family. Buffy’s bunch is an actual family:

· Spike doesn’t care a whit about Adam or Adam’s goals, and vice-versa. Contrast this with Xander, who is helping Buffy and is “full of Kamikaze spirit.”

· Forrest has been forced into servitude, as has Riley, and even “Mommy” is now a slave-worker. Compare this to Willow and Giles, who love Buffy and want to be part of the good fight.

The moral of the story is: Connect, communicate, care, commit – LOVE one another. It can take time, and it can hurt, and it can cost you more than you can possibly imagine. But love will defeat the Adams of this world, every single time. They can never hope to grasp the source of our power.

Spicy extras for James Marsters fans

• Spike manages to redeem himself at the end of this episode, by saving a weakened Scooby gang from certain evisceration by a nasty-looking demon. Of course, his heroics, as Giles says, are somewhat muted by the fact that he was working with Adam to kill them all. But nevertheless, it is not insignificant, in the scheme of things to come, that Spike plays this role for the good-side.
• I listened to David Fury (writer) and Jim Contner (director) do their commentary for this episode on the Season 4 DVD. During Spike’s slow-motion fight scenes in the big battle, they comment that James’ interest in, and ability to do, his own stunts, made some of those great shots possible. And they are nice shots: graceful, athletic, fun to watch.
• Spike & Buffy – the parallels and connections are subtle in this episode, but they remain, and they are certainly deliberate. Spike and Buffy share the same irreverent attitude toward the deadly serious and deadly powerful Adam. They just can’t help it. And they both have a rather absolute inability to follow orders. Spike doesn’t begin to understand what’s inside, when it comes to his feelings and actions toward Buffy. But this Season’s final episodes set up next Season’s “Oh God, I’m in love with Buffy!” surprise.