Sexuality – what part does it play in our lives? The instinct to procreate is basic, and the pleasure sex provides is not incidental, but pivotal. The image of Buffy and Riley’s sexfest, as it fuels the wild growth of jungle vines and rampant sexual energy in Lowell House, symbolizes (in part) the fact that sex is the force that drives our species forward. It is, as Xander says of the B/R sex, the battery in our collective boo house.

For adult human beings, sex is a natural part of the everyday. For all of us, it is so close to the surface that the merest mention of certain words gets us thinking about sex:

• BUFFY (to Riley, about fighting a vampire and a demon): "Okay, you get Fang, I’ll get Horny." -Riley looks at her, obviously getting the wrong idea- "I mean . . . "
• SPIKE (with his arm on the couch behind Anya, leaning in toward her, to suggest a mode of revenge on Xander and Dru): "You and I should just go do the vengeance. Both of us." –And so, dear viewer, what were you thinking Spike meant by this? I mean, before he goes on to say – "You eviscerate Xander, and I’ll stake Dru, like a project."
• MALE PARTYGOER (talking to a girl at the Lowell House party): "See, the thing they’re afraid to teach us about is the inherent sensuality of language . . . the way language tastes, you know, the way it feels, rolling over your tongue . . ." –This partygoer is revealing that even the sound and feel of a word can make him think of sex.
• TARA (to Willow, discussing horseback riding): "You should ride with me sometime. I guarantee safety and fun."

• GILES (about Buffy & Riley continuing to have sex): "In the midst of all that, do you really think they were keeping it up? –The looks on everyone else’s faces tells us where their minds have gone – Oh, for a different phrasing."

So, language and images or – for the characters in this episode – even a trip to an ice-cream truck, or placing your hand on a wall - can end up being a sexually-oriented experience. Sex is everywhere, all the time.

But who is responsible for your thoughts and reactions to everyday stimulation? Mrs. Holt, the puritanical former house director of the Lowell Home for Children, says to Giles and The Scoobies: "I refuse to listen to this when I can smell the sin on each and every one of you!" Xander replies: "Yeah? You smell sin? Well, let me tell you something lady, she who smelt it, dealt it!"

So . . . is a certain phrase or song or movie - or perhaps Joss Whedon’s series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer - dirty? Or is it your mind that likes to play in the muck? Notice that the boo-house battery is located upstairs, while everyday activity, and the consequences of the upstairs activity, are experienced on the ground floor. And what is in the basement? As we are reminded several times, there are demons locked in the basement!

When Forrest and Graham go to the basement laboratory, they learn that the upstairs activity has caused communication difficulties – messages to the ground floor from the basement are being scrambled. The scientists are also worried that the cell-door locking mechanisms will malfunction. The darkly intense Forrest, and the more positive, good-natured Graham ("I’m good"), both rush to lock down the demons in their cells. But wait – there’s already an escaped demon on the ground floor! But Spike is suddenly strapped to his chair by leather bands that appear from nowhere.

Sex is an all-encompassing experience – it involves the mind (upstairs) and the body (ground floor) and our basest instincts (basement). Even as its transcendent nature provides us with the highest of spiritual experiences, its physicality provides us with the most basic of bodily satisfactions. If we allow our minds to become obsessed with sex however, our healthy basic instincts can become scrambled – twisted – and our demons can be let loose.

It isn’t sex itself, but sexual obsession, that is portrayed as harmful in this episode:

• Buffy & Riley, under the influence of other worldly forces, have become obsessed with sex. Their obsession threatens their very lives, and it causes chaos and suffering for others: Mason, an unfortunate Lowell House resident, nearly catches fire while stoking the fire in the fireplace. A girl named Julie cuts off her hair after being overcome by her sexual urges and attacking Xander. Tara hurts Willow by telling her that her touch is disgusting. The party-goers eventually flee in fear as the house begins to shake. Xander and Anya are attacked and physically hurt by the vines that have grown outside Buffy & Riley’s sex-nest.
• Anya, at first obsessed with the idea that sex is of number one importance in her relationship with Xander, nearly ruins her relationship with him.
• Mrs. Holt is also, in her way, obsessed with sex. And because she sees sexual depravity in everyday activity, she has tortured her charges by hacking off their hair and holding them underwater in the bathtub when she believed them to be "unclean." As Giles tells her, her obsession has caused her to traumatize and abuse these children, "children who have no doubt become extremely disturbed adults! You have ruined lives, Mrs. Holt!"

There are many images in this episode of people passing judgment and placing blame on others when "the problem" is actually being fueled by the crazy ideas in their own heads. If you listen carefully to the dialogue in the episode, you’ll note the repeated use of the word "crazy." The use of this word emphasizes the role that distorted thinking plays in people’s perceptions of various situations or phrases as "dirty" or otherwise problematic. Here are some examples of people blaming others for their own issues:

• Anya is angry with Xander for not having sex with her. She blames him for her unhappiness: "Is there something wrong with your body? . . . There must be. I saw that wrinkled man on TV talking about erectile dysfunction." But the idea that one night without sex is a serious problem reflects "craziness" in Anya’s own head, in her own view of sex - not a problem with Xander’s body.
• Anya is on a tear though, pointing out the "erectile dysfunction" of men, as she tells Spike that he isn’t even "bumpy anymore" when he tries to scare her. But Spike puts the responsibility for the unbumpy state of his own head onto Anya, saying: "Oh, I was just a minute ago. Hang on. (He steps back, readying himself) Get me mad again."
• Mrs. Holt blames the children for the fact that she interprets innocent activities such as hair-combing as "dirty." But in reality, her own crazy ideas about sex are the true fuel for her abusive behavior. Note that her sexual obsession "upstairs," in her head, has caused a certain frigidity "downstairs, on the ground floor" in her body. That repression is relieved by her sporadic and inappropriate behavior with the children – mirroring what happens in the house. (While Buffy and Riley are fanatically having sex upstairs, the ground floor is "freezing," until the fireplace suddenly flares and sets Mason ablaze. Later, during the party, the repressed sexual energy creates what seems to be a G-spot on a wall, and generally causes what Willow describes as "weird" sexual behavior).

Images and dialogue about placing blame and passing judgment on others are continual. Mentioning a few among many:

• Giles frowns and wants to know who planned a party at Lowell House while Adam is still on the loose.
• Willow tries to make sure Buffy won’t blame her for spilling something "purply" on Buffy’s peasant blouse.
• Spike and Anya blame Dru and Xander for their unhappiness.
• Giles sings The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes, and ends on these words: "No one knows what it's like - To feel these feelings – Like I do – And I blame you."

We also have many references to money and paying, and what others "deserve." But whether they deserve it or not, someone always pays when natural instincts become twisted into something "crazy." Here is one of several references made to money and payment and what others deserve:

ANYA (to Spike, who has attempted to rob her by jumping her while in vamp face): "Spike! What are you doing? You made me yell really high!"

SPIKE: "Hey! Yeah, I did. (He walks up to her until his face is almost touching hers). Gimme money."

ANYA: "I’m not paying you for scaring me."

SPIKE: "You’re not paying me. I’m robbing you."

ANYA (later in the conversation): "Does this really work? Scaring people into giving you their money?"

SPIKE: "Yeah, it works. Keeps me in blood and beers. Plus, you know, funny. Watching those little humans quail."

Interesting, isn’t it, that last line of Spike’s? Because of the chip in Spike’s head, he must take care of his needs –for blood and beers, and for fun – in an unnatural way. And because of the disturbance in her head, Mrs. Holt also got her rocks off, and fulfilled her needs, by "watching little humans quail."

Mrs. Holt robbed the children of their well-being and happiness by scaring them. She made them pay. Unlike Spike, who bemoans his loss of real power – i.e., of the ability to actually hurt people – Mrs. Holt could hurt others, and a very real power-imbalance existed between her and the children. When one person is dependent on another, when a power imbalance exists, it can lead to abuse (Anya to Xander: "I’m young, I’m pretty . . . why didn’t you take advantage of me?"). Dependents are at the mercy of those who provide support, and whatever crazy ideas they may have.

Notice also how Spike talks himself in and out of helping Xander with rescuing Buffy & Riley. He surprises everyone by volunteering to help Xander, apparently reacting to a sudden urge to help. He says:

• "I know I’m not the first choice for heroics." Others judge him to be of no value in this area.
• "And Buffy’s tried to kill me more than once." Buffy doesn’t deserve his help.
• "And, I don’t fancy a single one of you." He’ll get no personal satisfaction from it.

"Actually, all that sounds pretty convincing," says Spike, as he allows his thought processes to override his initial instinct to help. Somehow, from some deeply buried underground spot in Spike’s personal basement, a stray signal (to do good !?!) manages to get through the interference, and reach him for the briefest instant, before his brain rejects it, and his body walks away.

References to what "works" and to mechanical energy of various sorts, underscore the theme here: Human beings are complex, organic structures, and disorders can be traced to malfunctions in one or more systems. I can’t help but believe that underneath it all, Joss is shouting: "You think BtVS is dirty and gratuitously violent and/or sexual, do you? Check your own filthy, sadistic mind instead!" ‘Cause that’s how people work. Here are a few examples, among many, of references to how something "works," and to mechanics:

• XANDER (to Anya): "A relationship is something you work at. Work through. Together."
• XANDER (to Anya’s suggestion that he is impotent): "Whoa! Hey. All systems go, here. No function problems, OK?"
• RILEY (about having a party): "Boys are pretty ragged. Need to let off steam."
• GRAHAM (joking about Buffy and Riley): "We got a couple of heat generators pumping away upstairs."
• XANDER (to Willow about her comment that Giles is sexy): "I’m fighting total mental breakdown here. No more fueling the fire, please."

It isn’t just the fact that people inappropriately blame others for their own non-working systems that causes problems, however. In this episode, we also see images of people inappropriately blaming themselves – feeling shame – which also causes strange and/or harmful behavior:

• Mason, because he believes the girls will be put off by it, is embarrassed by his burnt off eyebrows, and uncharacteristically requests to go on patrol.
• Julie, under the influence of Lowell House’s unsavory forces, sexually attacks Xander, a young man she barely knows. She is driven by those same forces to feel intense shame. She hides in a closet, hacking off her hair and saying, "I’m bad, I’m bad."
• Giles, correctly believing that the younger set would not understand, is embarrassed by the artistic, 70s style nature of his singing hobby. So – atypically but deliberately – he misleads The Scoobies about what he’ll be doing at The Espresso Pump.
• The children, made ashamed of their natural sexual urges by Mrs. Holt, repressed their sex drives. And now, as Giles says, that repressed energy has manifested itself "as a malevolent presence which threatens still more lives!"
• Buffy, embarrassed as any proper young lady would be, to be caught naked in bed with Riley, inappropriately snaps at the very exhausted and very heroic Xander & Anya, saying "Xander! Don’t you knock?!"

Feeling responsible and ashamed, i.e., believing a message from others that you are dirty when in fact you are not, can cause odd or harmful behavior and consequences. Conversely, note that Mrs. Holt was proud of her time at Lowell House, and believed the engraving on her medal saying how good she was with the children – when in fact, she was not – and this encouraged harmful behavior and consequences as well.

Get it? It’s not just blaming Joss for YOUR dirty mind that is the wrong thing to do. Joss blaming himself would be wrong too. Is he gonna do it? At this point, I’m thinking NO. I’m thinking Joss is proud of his series despite its lack of formal awards and recognition, and he is unashamed of it, despite the formal public condemnation to which it has been subjected.

Further hammering the "you’re responsible for your own responses" theme are Willow’s admonition to the children that they "get over it," and Anya’s reference to them as "repressed crybabies." There are also the many images of people mentioning their past experiences. Some examples of people mentioning past experiences that affect their current feelings and beliefs:

• ANYA: "I’ve seen it happen to thousands of women over the centuries, I just never thought it would happen to me."
• GILES: "Willow, I did attend university in the Mesozoic era, I do remember what it’s like."
• SPIKE: "You know, you take the killing for granted. And then it’s gone. And you’re like, ‘I wish I’d appreciated it more.’ Stopped and smelled the corpses, you know?"
• WILLOW: "I had a bad birthday party thing when I was four."

Human beings’ reactions to particular circumstances or stimuli result from their individual experiences –what has happened to them - and their own inherent characteristics. Different people react differently to the same thing (XANDER, to Anya: "You brought him here?" SPIKE: "That’s what I said! Only I hit the here part."). Just because something seems "dirty" to you, doesn’t mean it will seem "dirty" to everyone, or is, in some factual, objective way, "dirty."

References to "what’s dead and what’s not" further emphasize the idea that – though we are ultimately responsible for how they manifest themselves in our perceptions and behavior – we carry our natures and our past with us always. The effects are undying:

• At first, everyone believes the children are ghosts – i.e., the children have died - but they haven’t.
• Anya suggests that Buffy & Riley are probably dead already, but they are not.
• Giles asks when Mrs. Holt died, but she is not dead. She is very much alive.
• What’s with Spike, being motivated, even for second, to help Xander rescue Buffy & Riley? Is a bit of William alive in there after all?

On the character development front, we see some major progress in Xander & Anya’s relationship in this episode. Xander & Anya – our two humans who are completely devoid of superpowers of any kind - are our heroes in this piece. Xander stays strong and clearheaded, refusing to let either Anya or Mrs. Holt blame him for their problems. Anya, deaf at first to Xander’s comments that "there is a lot more to you and me than sex," does get this message by the end of the episode.

Mrs. Holt (like Willow and her inappropriate mention of Martin Luther King) misuses and distorts Christ’s message in her attempts to save her charges, to keep them from being "shut out of the kingdom. Lost to lust." But Xander and Anya get it right. They ACTUALLY save the day; they truly provide salvation to Buffy & Riley and to each other. And how do they do it? With love.

Despite the bickering and confusion, despite Xander’s flirtation with Julie and Anya’s tough-talk about doing vengeance or not caring what happens to Buffy & Riley, it is their love for each other, and for their friends, that sees them through. It is Xander & Anya, not Mrs. Holt, who follow the way of The Lord: They love others as they love themselves; they do unto others as they would have them do unto them.

Xander helps Julie when no one else will. Xander & Anya brave the jungle vines to save Buffy & Riley. Anya doesn’t let a small thing like a nail – uh, I mean, a vine – through the middle of her palm stop her from rescuing Xander when he’s in terrible trouble.

Anya saves Xander from drowning. The images here are very interesting in terms of Xander’s past and character, and Anya’s positive role in his life. We see Xander in the exact same position as the apparition of an abused child we saw earlier. He is struggling underwater, almost drowning – though it seems that nothing is actually holding him down. The image suggests that Xander still struggles against childhood abuse, even though now, as an adult, no one is actively abusing him. The abuse is in the past, but it isn’t really dead. Anya’s love and strength give him the boost he needs to survive another day, to continue "getting over it," (Interesting note: Xander nearly puts an eye out when he and Anya are struggling with the vines).

As we have been all Season, we continue to get messages in this episode about the power of love, cooperation and sharing - and the folly of isolation and withholding help or information. To remind us of the dividing lines between various groups of people, there is mention of both Rodney King (BUFFY: "Whoo! A Vampire-Demon tag team. Who says we can’t all get along?") and Martin Luther King. In particular, we see many images of the gulf between generations – between parents and children (did you get a load of the look on Willow’s face when she sees Giles singing?!). We also get images of friends ignoring friends in need (Buffy ignores Willow’s scream; Julie’s friends show no interest in her predicament). We even watch the Initiative soldiers ignore Spike’s presence at the party.

But we also hear many references to communication and information sharing (many uses of the words "know" and "tell" for example). What we learn is that it’s when people cooperate and work together, when they share information, and when they pay attention to each other and each other’s needs, that issues are resolved, that comfort is provided, and that salvation’s light shines:

• It takes input from three generations: Mrs. Holt, Giles, and The Scoobies, to develop a successful plan for beating back the poltergeists.
• Anya & Spike find comfort in commiseration (some major foreshadowing here, no?).
• With Willow, Giles and Tara providing them a window of opportunity, Xander & Anya save the day.

Buffy & Riley are also an image of the power of joining together, as they fuel the chaos and Buffy comments several times that they have to keep touching. But they are very isolated from others, their motivations are entirely selfish, and their union has negative results. The on-screen images here suggest Buffy & Riley have literally left the rest of the world behind:

• We get a bird’s-eye view of Buffy and Riley in bed – the bed is a small rectangle surrounded by darkness.
• At first they can hear the others shouting for them, but then the outside voices fade away.
• When Xander & Anya manage to open the door, the fast-action camera work suggests Buffy & Riley have come rushing back to the Buffyverse (from where?).

Look at this picture: Buffy is lost somewhere. Xander, Willow and Tara are trying to call her back. Riley asks Buffy: "Do you want to go back?" Buffy says: "Never." But later, Xander & Anya, with the help of Willow’s witchcraft, do bring her back to "the living."

Giles tells Xander that if Buffy and Riley continue having sex, they will die when the "battery" is "drained." But this sex is not only leading to death, it is death. The image of sex as death is classic literary tradition – sex can be seen as a "little death," as a way in which one loses the self and utterly abandons individual identity - i.e., temporarily but completely ceases to exist.

In Season 6, The Scoobies will bring a reluctant Buffy back from the dead, literally – and she will not be grateful, though she will pretend to be, at first. But for now, she is only joking when, at the end of this episode, she lies and pretends to The Scoobies her time away from them was "horrible."

There is more Season 6 foreshadowing in the idea that sexual obsession will lead to pain and suffering. In Where the Wild Things Are, we watch Buffy get so involved in sexual gratification that she neglects her friends – she hears a scream, but when Riley wonders if it is Willow, Buffy says it doesn’t matter. We also get the message that if you stay obsessed with sex for too long, it might kill you. We’re going to see this again. Yes indeed. When it comes to obsessive, the Buffy & Spike sex will completely outstrip this episode’s comparatively tame Buffy & Riley sex. You wanna see a couple of heat generators pumping away? Watch two people trying - frantically and non-stop - to run down a seemingly inexhaustible source of energy? Just wait. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Spicy extras for James Marsters fans:

• OK. So what’s happening with Spike? I think his momentary consideration of good-guy heroics is an indication that the chip, and the as yet unrealized Buffy-love (ignited by the recent Faith-in Buffy encounter) are beginning to work their magic.
• Note another indication of the changes beginning to take place in Spike: Like Anya, he talks tough, but he really can’t work up the desire to go "do the vengeance," any more than the now-human Anya can.
• Oh, Spike is sooooo cute and sexy in his scenes with Anya. I love the way he walks up to her and says: "Gimme money." I’m sure, if I were Anya, I would have emptied my wallet and asked if he’d like my underwear with that.
• I like the sprawled out way Spike is sitting with Anya on that couch at The Bronze, and I like the amused and affectionate way he looks at her as she talks about love and sex. This scene really shows off James’ acting ability, and his ability to listen and closely interact with his partner in a scene.
• All the lyrics to the song Giles sings are below. Notice the very, very Spikey imagery:

Behind Blue Eyes (The Who)

No one knows what it's like

To be the bad man

To be the sad man

Behind blue eyes

No one knows what it's like

To be hated

To be fated

To telling only lies

But my dreams

They aren't as empty

As my conscience seems to be

I have hours, only lonely

My love is vengeance

That's never free

No one knows what it's like

To feel these feelings

Like I do

And I blame you

No one bites back as hard

On their anger

None of my pain and woe

Can show through

But my dreams

They aren't as empty

As my conscience seems to be

I have hours, only lonely

My love is vengeance

That's never free

When my fist clenches, crack it open

Before I use it and lose my cool

When I smile, tell me some bad news

Before I laugh and act like a fool

If I swallow anything evil

Put your finger down my throat

If I shiver, please give me a blanket

Keep me warm, let me wear your coat

No one knows what it's like

To be the bad man

To be the sad man

Behind blue eyes