12 Jan 2014 06:13 pm
TV Meme: Day 9
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frayadjacentDay 09 - Best scene ever:
My non-definitive answer is the scene between Buffy and Giles in the training room in The Gift. A scene whichnext_to_normal iconned for me!! :D
The shot of her punching the bag until she knocks it off the hangar is one of my favorites in the series. Not because she knocks it off the hangar. I love how the camera slowly pulls up and out as Buffy punches, and lets Giles walk into the frame -- an intruder in her anger and anguish. They talk and come to an awkward, uneasy understanding. The camera work -- which highlights Buffy's refusal to make eye contact -- and Sarah Michelle Gellar's sadface are all just gorgeously done. Plus it's an awesome set.
(In this last picture I'm always a bit distracted by Buffy's totally ridiculous shoes, though not so much as when she's jumping from buildings to buses in flats in "Chosen").
GILES: You sure you're not going to tire yourself out?
BUFFY: I'm sure.
GILES: We're still working on ideas. Time's short, but best leave it till the last moment. If we go in too early and she takes us out, no chance of getting her to miss her window.
BUFFY: Then we wait.
GILES: I imagine you hate me right now. (no answer) I love Dawn...
BUFFY: I know.
GILES: But I have sworn to protect this sorry world, and sometimes that means saying and doing... what other people can't. What they shouldn't have to.
This is the moment when Buffy finally turns and faces Giles.
BUFFY: You try to hurt her and you know I'll stop you.
GILES: I know.
Neither of them has changed their mind, but they've cooled down about it. They each know there's no convincing the other. They also know that, all else being equal, might makes right in this situation. Buffy's the slayer. Unless she dies fighting Glory, it won't be up to Giles what to do with Dawn. It'll be up to Buffy. This comes up again in that glorious (no pun intended) scene in "Selfless", when Buffy tells Willow and Xander that she is "the law". Not because she wants to be, but because some dumb decision a long time ago made her that way.
Anyway, I digress.
Giles' comment on the "shouldn't have to" is related to Buffy's unwanted burden as well, and it also foreshadows his later decision to kill Ben.
Then they move to the couch and continue their conversation. The camera is positioned up high, and the way they move across the empty space, to one small little corner of the frame, in this place where they've spent so much time together, working together, this past year. Season 5 is my favorite season for Buffy and Giles' relationship, and the training room represents so much of what they share.
Still refusing eye contact, they go in a little deeper. Now that Buffy knows that Giles has, in some way, accepted her decision, she can share how she feels a little more. But first, just a bit of trademark BtVS humor:
BUFFY: This is how many apocalypses for us now?
GILES: Oh well, six, at least. Feels like a hundred.
BUFFY: I've always stopped them. Always won.
GILES: Yes.
BUFFY: I sacrificed Angel to save the world. I loved him so much... but I knew. What was right. I don't have that any more. I *don't* understand. I don't know how to live in this world, if these are the choices, if everything just gets stripped away. I don't see the point. I just wish... I just wish my mom was here.
(starts to walk out)
BUFFY: The spirit guide told me that Death is my gift. I guess that means a Slayer really is just a killer after all.
GILES: I think you're wrong about that.
BUFFY: Doesn't matter. If Dawn dies, I'm done with it. I'm quitting.
Buffy expresses the toll of being the slayer, of all that she has lost and had to sacrifice. As well as the toll of regular life: Joyce didn't die because Buffy is the Slayer, but losing that support -- and taking on support for Dawn -- has worn her out and broken her heart just the same.
What makes this moment even more poignant for me is the way the Buffy comes full circle. After her death and resurrection, she eventually becomes much more like Giles. Much more willing to make sacrifices for the cause. And much more emotionally distant because of it. Because that's what being the Slayer demands of her.
Until, of course, she changes all that in "Chosen", but it is here, in "The Gift", where the shittiness of Buffy's gig is pretty much at its nadir.
I dunno, I love the solitude of this scene. I love how grave and sad and lonely and quiet it is, and how much emotion and depth of character and relationship that Buffy and Giles convey just with a few words and facial expressions.
Also: the music. Until Buffy's "I don't see the point" speech, there's no music, which accentuates the tired distance between the two. Her speech is where Christophe Beck introduces "Sacrifice", which he reprises more dramatically in the final moments when Buffy jumps to her death. It's one of my favorite pieces on this show (along with pretty much everything from "Hush" and "Restless", as well as Beck's contributions to the music in "Once More, With Feeling").
Day 01 - A show that never should have been cancelled:
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching:
Day 03 - Your favourite new show (aired this TV season):
Day 04 - Your favourite show ever:
Day 05 - A show you hate:
Day 06 - Favourite episode of your favourite TV show:
Day 07 - Least favourite episode of your favourite TV show:
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch:
Day 09 - Best scene ever:
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving:
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you:
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times:
Day 13 - Favourite childhood show:
Day 14 - Favouritemale character:
Day 15 - Second favouritefemale character:
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show:
Day 17 - Favourite mini series:
Day 18 - Favourite title sequence:
Day 19 - Favourite TV show cast:
Day 20 - Favourite kiss:
Day 21 - Favourite ship:
Day 22 - Favourite series finale:
Day 23 - Most annoying character:
Day 24 - Favourite quote:
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new):
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale:
Day 27 - Best pilot episode:
Day 28 - First TV show obsession:
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession:
Day 30 - Saddest character death:
My non-definitive answer is the scene between Buffy and Giles in the training room in The Gift. A scene which
next_to_normal iconned for me!! :DThe shot of her punching the bag until she knocks it off the hangar is one of my favorites in the series. Not because she knocks it off the hangar. I love how the camera slowly pulls up and out as Buffy punches, and lets Giles walk into the frame -- an intruder in her anger and anguish. They talk and come to an awkward, uneasy understanding. The camera work -- which highlights Buffy's refusal to make eye contact -- and Sarah Michelle Gellar's sadface are all just gorgeously done. Plus it's an awesome set.
(In this last picture I'm always a bit distracted by Buffy's totally ridiculous shoes, though not so much as when she's jumping from buildings to buses in flats in "Chosen").
GILES: You sure you're not going to tire yourself out?
BUFFY: I'm sure.
GILES: We're still working on ideas. Time's short, but best leave it till the last moment. If we go in too early and she takes us out, no chance of getting her to miss her window.
BUFFY: Then we wait.
GILES: I imagine you hate me right now. (no answer) I love Dawn...
BUFFY: I know.
GILES: But I have sworn to protect this sorry world, and sometimes that means saying and doing... what other people can't. What they shouldn't have to.
This is the moment when Buffy finally turns and faces Giles.
BUFFY: You try to hurt her and you know I'll stop you.
GILES: I know.
Neither of them has changed their mind, but they've cooled down about it. They each know there's no convincing the other. They also know that, all else being equal, might makes right in this situation. Buffy's the slayer. Unless she dies fighting Glory, it won't be up to Giles what to do with Dawn. It'll be up to Buffy. This comes up again in that glorious (no pun intended) scene in "Selfless", when Buffy tells Willow and Xander that she is "the law". Not because she wants to be, but because some dumb decision a long time ago made her that way.
Anyway, I digress.
Giles' comment on the "shouldn't have to" is related to Buffy's unwanted burden as well, and it also foreshadows his later decision to kill Ben.
Then they move to the couch and continue their conversation. The camera is positioned up high, and the way they move across the empty space, to one small little corner of the frame, in this place where they've spent so much time together, working together, this past year. Season 5 is my favorite season for Buffy and Giles' relationship, and the training room represents so much of what they share.
Still refusing eye contact, they go in a little deeper. Now that Buffy knows that Giles has, in some way, accepted her decision, she can share how she feels a little more. But first, just a bit of trademark BtVS humor:
BUFFY: This is how many apocalypses for us now?
GILES: Oh well, six, at least. Feels like a hundred.
BUFFY: I've always stopped them. Always won.
GILES: Yes.
BUFFY: I sacrificed Angel to save the world. I loved him so much... but I knew. What was right. I don't have that any more. I *don't* understand. I don't know how to live in this world, if these are the choices, if everything just gets stripped away. I don't see the point. I just wish... I just wish my mom was here.
(starts to walk out)
BUFFY: The spirit guide told me that Death is my gift. I guess that means a Slayer really is just a killer after all.
GILES: I think you're wrong about that.
BUFFY: Doesn't matter. If Dawn dies, I'm done with it. I'm quitting.
Buffy expresses the toll of being the slayer, of all that she has lost and had to sacrifice. As well as the toll of regular life: Joyce didn't die because Buffy is the Slayer, but losing that support -- and taking on support for Dawn -- has worn her out and broken her heart just the same.
What makes this moment even more poignant for me is the way the Buffy comes full circle. After her death and resurrection, she eventually becomes much more like Giles. Much more willing to make sacrifices for the cause. And much more emotionally distant because of it. Because that's what being the Slayer demands of her.
Until, of course, she changes all that in "Chosen", but it is here, in "The Gift", where the shittiness of Buffy's gig is pretty much at its nadir.
I dunno, I love the solitude of this scene. I love how grave and sad and lonely and quiet it is, and how much emotion and depth of character and relationship that Buffy and Giles convey just with a few words and facial expressions.
Also: the music. Until Buffy's "I don't see the point" speech, there's no music, which accentuates the tired distance between the two. Her speech is where Christophe Beck introduces "Sacrifice", which he reprises more dramatically in the final moments when Buffy jumps to her death. It's one of my favorite pieces on this show (along with pretty much everything from "Hush" and "Restless", as well as Beck's contributions to the music in "Once More, With Feeling").
Day 01 - A show that never should have been cancelled:
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching:
Day 03 - Your favourite new show (aired this TV season):
Day 04 - Your favourite show ever:
Day 05 - A show you hate:
Day 06 - Favourite episode of your favourite TV show:
Day 07 - Least favourite episode of your favourite TV show:
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch:
Day 09 - Best scene ever:
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving:
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you:
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times:
Day 13 - Favourite childhood show:
Day 14 - Favourite
Day 15 - Second favourite
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show:
Day 17 - Favourite mini series:
Day 18 - Favourite title sequence:
Day 19 - Favourite TV show cast:
Day 20 - Favourite kiss:
Day 21 - Favourite ship:
Day 22 - Favourite series finale:
Day 23 - Most annoying character:
Day 24 - Favourite quote:
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new):
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale:
Day 27 - Best pilot episode:
Day 28 - First TV show obsession:
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession:
Day 30 - Saddest character death:
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Sooo, Buffy S5, she said belatedly...
My problem is I think the whole season could have been that good had the creative team committed to what they were doing, but instead it's a big mess -- especially the latter half of the season. A lot of my frustration is with the overall sense of wasted potential.
This is a season with a theme: madness and fracturing/loss of self. Glory's power is to suck out your mind and make you a vegetable. Then she turns into Ben, who is completely ignorant of the fact that he has another self living inside him. Dawn is a not-self, a magical entity who becomes a self, a whole-self, though a painful journey into madness when she learns the truth about herself. Meanwhile, the process of inserting Dawn into people's lives has fucked with their memories, making made-up selves. Joyce has brain surgery, and an aneurysm, and dies, leaving Buffy first depressed, then shattered, then catatonic. In the end, Buffy loses herself wholly to save the made-up self of Dawn.
Here's the thing: I think Joyce dies BECAUSE of Dawn. I think Joyce's brain fractures under the impact of all those false memories. She drops the plate and she's the one who breaks. And I think the show was too cowardly to go there.
I think Glory is meant to personify insanity, and the actor was sadly not up to the task.
I think Buffy committed suicide not because it was the only way out, but because it was a giant relief. She sought death, she wanted to not-self, she wanted to not-exist. And the show was too cowardly to go there, too. So all of this is my Problem #1.
Problem #2 is the thing that makes me ragey-est, and it's covered in the scene you excerpted above. Buffy has done this before. She killed Angel to save the world, and it makes no sense to me, at all, that she wouldn't kill Dawn to save the world as well -- even if you take away all the not-really-your-sister jazz. I think the writing team thought we'd never forgive her if she sacrificed her sister, and arguably it goes against the show's entire mission statement for the slayer to kill her "sister" -- with all that word means. But IMO it's the writing team's own fault for putting themselves and her in that stupid position to begin with! From a logical POV it makes no sense that it wasn't where the Scoobies ended up, and it makes me completely ragey that when they do finally mention it she screams them down. It's not even the WORLD they are saving, it's ALL WORLDS.
IDK, maybe I'm too much of a Star Trek fan, but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one! It's logical!
I actually like Dawn. It's not about that. It's the fact that we know Buffy is strong enough to do it, and the show acts like it's a non-issue for pretty much the whole season, and, well, WHY AREN'T WE TALKING ABOUT THE GREATER MORALITY, HERE? No, it all comes down to Buffy's PERSONAL morality -- the antithesis of the show's communitarian message! -- and it makes me absolutely crazy. Heh. Crazy. See what I did there?
So when I rewatch I handwave a lot of stuff in the season and I try to imagine the way it should have been. And I know in my heart that Buffy's leap from that tower is a failure. It's a failure of the writing room, and it's a failure of Buffy herself: the one time she is truly selfish, the one time she is a coward. But I can forgive her, because she was insane at the time.