Season 5

Episode 20

SPIRAL: Sailing to Byzantium

by Spring Summers – 27-Feb-2005

- Buffy’s Head – Light and dark – It’s time – Byzantium – Spicy Extras for James Marsters fans -

Did any of you ever watch that early 90’s Fox sitcom, Herman’s Head? Herman was a regular guy with a mundane job, trying to get through the day-to-day business of living. What made the show unique was the fact that it wasn’t just Herman’s outward reality that was displayed upon the screen; his internal struggles, his daily decision-making processes, were also portrayed in living color by four characters representing his intellect, his anxieties, his libido, and his sensitivity (Genius, Wimp, Animal and Angel, respectively). We would literally peek inside Herman’s Head, and watch as the various facets of his personality struggled for dominance or consensus.

As I watched Spiral, as I watched the absolutely relentless, the completely unstoppable, external assault upon Buffy’s boundaries, I was reminded of Herman. We have constant references to 2-D cartoon characters (Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, the Xandermobile, Captain Rock, Heckle & Jeckle) and many comments about dimensions which “bleed” into each other. And we also have references to, and images of, body parts: Hands, feet (shoes) – blood. And there is all kind of talk of alignments and assemblage:

• GILES: “Perhaps we should reassemble at the magic shop.”
• MINION (to Ben): “I just thought maybe, after her magnificent luminescence was returned to this manly and painfully handsome assemblage, you might have noticed something interesting?”
• GILES (to Xander, about Buffy): “She just needs a chance to catch her breath. Regroup. She’ll be all right.
• MINION: “The signs are in alignment!”

The characters within Herman’s skull usually assembled, if memory serves, in fairly barren surroundings. But Buffy’s incarnations travel in Winnebagos and hole up in abandoned gas stations. And we’ve got a bigger cast of characters. Bear with me as I try to define our characters in terms of Buffy’s Head:

DAWN: She is Buffy’s innocence. She is Buffy’s childlike qualities, her light. The assault (in Season 5, as Buffy grows toward true adulthood) from all outside parties, is specifically aimed at Dawn. Notice that throughout the ep, Dawn continually tries to look on the bright side of things. She tells the story of their escape from Glory as if Buffy had heroically defeated Glory; she mentions that she’ll no longer have to take her geometry test. (DAWN: “But there’s a bright side, right?”)

SPIKE: He is Buffy’s fire. He is her slayer side – her brute power, her baser instincts, her adult drives, her darkness – her id. He screeches off in the Winnebago, throwing everyone else off balance as he does so. In a reference, it seems to me, to the id (Olaf) and its favored instrument, he puts the Winnebago in gear and gleefully announces: “Buckle up, kiddies. Daddy’s putting the hammer down.” Spike is feeling restrained by the need to carry the others around. (“I shoulda nicked that Porsche I had my eye on. There’s just enough room for me, you, and big sis.”) And when the sunlight hits him, “Let it burn,” says Spike, in so many words. Xander asks him to give it a rest. But Spike is all about keeping the pressure on. At the end of the episode, he’s the first one to rush out of the gas station. Beware of the Dog says the sign by his head.

GILES: He is Buffy’s intellect. Not too far into the journey, it seems that Giles has taken over the driving. While Spike snarks and wishes he had a faster and more powerful car, Giles laments his lack of power at the wheel of the Winnebago that Buffy has provided him. (“I’ve driven tricycles with more power.”) Like Buffy, he’s feeling low on power. Nevertheless, he’s at the wheel – until he’s severely wounded, that is. With Giles wounded, the vehicle begins to swerve. Buffy, outside on the roof, starts to lose her balance. She tumbles off as the whole kit and its precious caboodle heads immediately into a ditch, and lands on its side. As Giles sinks into unconsciousness, Buffy becomes more and more unreasoning, and she eventually sinks into catatonia.

ANYA: She is Buffy’s fears. She’s her basic childlike fears, anxieties and defenses. Anya suggests childishly simple solutions to the problems they face, and is completely supportive of Buffy’s plan to run away: “Finally, a sensible plan.” She talks openly about her paralyzing fear, and all her actions are directed toward defense, toward keeping the boogie men at bay. She wants to feed the others, suggesting that she cook some Spam, and later, offering to feed Tara. Listening to her (to fear) isn’t always a good idea, but ignoring her isn’t so smart either. She and her frying pan are not entirely ineffective, are they?

XANDER: He is Buffy’s heart – her sensitivity to others and her surroundings; her positive strength. Buffy is sick at heart, and Xander is queasy as hell. Seems he’s very sensitive and doesn’t travel well. He’d feel better if he could stay in the same spot, I suspect. Notice how Willow mentions how much easier it is to protect a fixed locus. And notice Xander’s intimate relationship with Buffy’s fears. Xander is suspicious of Spike, but as the walls of Buffy’s fortress literally begin to collapse, so do the walls between Spike and Xander. Xander even helps Spike light a flame. Xander is in the foreground or background of nearly every scene. Spike has suggested the interrogation of the Byzantium General and seems to encourage Buffy’s tough and merciless approach. He stands on one side of Buffy, participatory, while Dawn stands quietly on the other side. But as soon as Buffy begins to express her love for Dawn, i.e., the motives of her heart, it is Xander who appears in the background. Later, it’s Xander who accompanies Buffy outdoors to try to reason with the knights, and it’s Xander whose grace-under-fire, people-smarts and sensitivity to the situation, win the day.

WILLOW: She is Buffy’s spirit. Will is her courage, her hope, her never-say-die. She is Buffy’s connection not to physical, but to spiritual, power. Willow begins to truly and effectively access dark powers in Season 5 – specifically in last week’sTough Love. Tough Love immediately follows Intervention – that ep in which Buffy kisses, and begins to truly put trust in Spike. In Tough Love Willow harnesses the powers of darkness while Buffy leaves Dawn “safe with Spike.” In this episode, as Buffy once more insists on turning to Spike to protect Dawn, Willow again demonstrates her coinciding willingness to go dark. Her eyes turn to black as she channels dark forces, as she allows them to provide protection.

Listen to the General talk to Buffy about The Key:

BUFFY: “Why didn’t they just destroy it? If The Key is as dangerous as -,”

GREGOR: “Because they were fools. They thought they could harness its power for the forces of light.”

With Willow as the expression of Buffy’s willingness to explore the darkness, and with Spike as the embodiment of that darkness, we note that the ultimately good-hearted, and full-of-love Buffy is twice the fool it takes to try to harness a dangerous dog for the forces of light. Notice the use of light in this episode – blinds, slats, streaks of light and dark everywhere, and the various references to, and scenes related to, balance.

And so, we see the parallel. In Season 5, reality has made a traumatic assault upon Buffy’s still childlike world view:

BUFFY (to Dawn): “It just keeps coming. Glory. Riley. Tara. Mom.”

Now, right before our eyes, the subtext is becoming text, as the Knights of Byzantium attack Buffy and her crew with merciless determination. The images of incessant and violent penetration abound; they are impossible not to notice. But listen for the more subtle, but just as steady, mention and images of doors, of sharp objects, of touching, of grasping, and of hands (hands, hands, everywhere!). I won’t even try to list all the images and references, but here’s a quote from Spike that mentions hands, knives and doors, all at the same time:

SPIKE (to Willow): “Handier than a Swiss Knife. Look, the door to my crypt’s got a nasty squeak. Maybe you could. . .”

There are other images relating to the impact of the external upon the internal. Notice the sign Giles stands in front of, as they wait for the Winnebago: Serving the Community with pride: Impact Realty. There are constant references to words – their meaning, our individual definitions – the sharing of unique perspectives, the need for communication between all the parts to produce a functioning whole. But be it with words, or knives, or slings and arrows, outrageous fortune is on its way.

It’s time, Buffy. It’s time. It’s time. It’s time. Reality is crashing in. It’s coming – the use of the word “come” is frequent. We are approaching a climax. Dawn is under attack. Notice this reference to Innocence, the episode after Buffy has lost her virginity to Angel. It is an episode where Buffy’s journey toward this day - toward a day when she can no longer keep the forces of reality, responsibility, and adulthood at bay – can be said to have begun:

ANYA (suggesting a weapon to defeat Glory): “Piano!”

XANDER: “Because that’s what we used to kill that big demon that one time. No wait. That was a rocket launcher.”

So Buffy is here now. First, dad left. Then there was Angel; but Angel is gone as well. And it just kept coming: Glory. Riley. Tara. Mom. Buffy wants to continue to believe her Angel is “good, good” and her Angel love is perfect, perfect. She wants to believe that she is an ideal hero: “I’m The Slayer. The Chosen One. All mythic and defendery. Evil nasties are supposed to flee from me, not the other way around.” She wants to cling to a black-and-white worldview, to her childhood. She wants Mom back so she can stay child-Buffy. Reality is too harsh, too painful. But like the Knights of Byzantium, reality just keeps coming. The Knights. The Night. It just keeps coming.

Byzantium – did you know that was the name of Constantinople before it was Constantinople before it was Istanbul? It was a hub of industry and trade; it was the Eastern world’s gateway to the West, the Western world’s gateway to the East, and a crossroads for African trade as well. It was where worlds interacted without colliding – without clashing and chaos. It was The City. The knights want to preserve the orderly coexistence of separate dimensions; that they should come from such an environment seems fitting. But if this name isn’t a deliberate reference to WB Yeats’ poem Sailing to Byzantium, then I’ll eat fried Spam. Yeats also wrote a poem called Slouching Toward Bethlehem, which was the name of an Angel episode. I mention that here only to point out that deliberate and obvious reference to Yeats has been made in the Jossverse. And I think it is being made here:

Sailing to Byzantium

by William Butler Yeats (1927)

That is no country for old men. The young

In one another's arms, birds in the trees

--Those dying generations -- at their song,

The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

For every tatter in its mortal dress,

Nor is there singing school but studying

Monuments of its own magnificence;

And therefore I have sailed the seas and come

To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire

As in the gold mosaic of a wall,

Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,

And be the singing-masters of my soul.

Consume my heart away; sick with desire

And fastened to a dying animal

It knows not what it is; and gather me

Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take

My bodily form from any natural thing,

But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

Of hammered gold and gold enameling

To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;

Or set upon a golden bough to sing

To lords and ladies of Byzantium

Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Our protagonist is trying to reject the physical, the sensual – the messy, the unseemly - in favor of monuments of “unageing intellect.” Consume my heart away, sick with desire and fastened to a dying animal. I know not what it is. And gather me into the artifice of eternity. He is very tired of the world. He feels old. He wants to shake this mortal coil – he is asking to die, to go to what he imagines is a better place. He is expecting to become perfect, golden: Once out of nature I shall never take my bodily form from any natural thing, but such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make of hammered gold and gold enameling.

There are references to birds here, and the protagonist imagines himself golden and “set upon a golden bough to sing.” And – call me crazy – but listen here:

DAWN: “Spike’s hurt.”

BUFFY (taking a look at his bloody hands): “They’ll heal!”

SPIKE (sarcastically): “Florence bloody Nightingale to the rescue!”

So like I said, call me crazy, but I think Spike’s reference to Buffy as “Florence Nightingale” is all about that signing bird, with a of touch deliberate reference to Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale – another poem about the belief that death might bring a necessary escape from often painful, and always imperfect, reality. (Just an excerpt here: Darkling I listen; and, for many a time - I have been half in love with easeful Death -Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme - To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die - To cease upon the midnight with no pain - While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad in such an ecstasy! -  Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain - To thy high requiem become a sod.  Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!)

Several years after he wrote Sailing To Byzantium, Yeats wrote a follow-up called Byzantium, in which he described the reality of Byzantium – of Death - which was not quite as imagined, after all. But that sounds more like a discussion for Season 6.

Spicy Extras for James Marsters fans:

• Spike very pretty in this episode. Love the disheveled hair. I just wanna run my fingers through it.
• I love Spike’s whole smartass in the driver’s seat scene with Giles. Those sunglasses! And wow, that guy can smirk. I don’t doubt that he’s bloodsucking the last nerve out of Xander.
• The show is about Buffy, and though I’ve focused above on the characters in relation to Buffy, they are each showing their own, individual movement and growth as well. Willow is becoming darker e.g., and Spike is becoming lighter. He’s so perfectly sweet to Tara – his slow but very real progress toward change is becoming more and more apparent.
• There’s a moment, when Buffy is on the roof fighting the knights, that Spike looks up and squints, listening to Buffy move on the roof above his head. So there’s Spike – beneath her. It made me think of the “beneath me” references, but also of School Hard: “Here, kitty, kitty.” Only that time, Spike was poking up at her, from beneath, with long pole. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
• Love the Spike & Xander scene – Xander, as Buffy’s heart, is starting to open up - with a preliminary qualifier of course - just an eensy-teensy-weensy-tiny little bit to Spike. In suggesting that cigarettes are bad for Spike, he even forgets, for a second there, that Spike is vampire. It’s also fun apart from the Buffy’s Head roles. Spike and Xander are faced with a crisis, and they don’t have time for games. They are willing to go ahead and let their affinity for one another get some play; they are willing to talk and cooperate.
• Spike and Dawn are pictured together very frequently, and Spike mentions how he could have gotten a car that would fit just the three of them. There are some many mentions and images of triangles in Season 5 – and this ep is no exception, as General Gregor talks about the “triumvirate of suffering and despair” that ruled Glory’s home hell dimension. He says that Glory’s power kept growing, along with her “lust for pain and misery.” And she ended up “cast out.” It all sounds a little familiar – Buffy has something of a lust for pain and misery; she’s part of various triangles – I understand she even plays the triangle. In a rock band. With Spike. And she’s going to end up cast out as well. Not sure where I’m going with that; I can’t quite make it all fall into place for myself.
• Buffy’s continuing change of heart toward Spike, her incipient moves toward trusting and “harnessing” her darkness, can be seen in her inclusion of Spike on this journey, her understanding that he is necessary, and her protection of him throughout. She knocks a knight away from him and saves his life; she includes him without reservation when she declares: “I’m not losing anybody.”
• Love the pouty way Spike is jealous of Ben.

***

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