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A lot of people missed this question on my Friend's Test and I'll tell you why...because Fool For Love is one of the alternative answers...and Something Blue, too. But, after years of thinking of Jane Espenson as the thorn in my Buffy rose (she is an in-and-out runner...now brilliant...now slap-dash and goofy), I have come at last to a place where she and I are as one.
You see...in light of the recent meltdown in my fandom...I have been looking back over the Buffy/Spike history and seeing it with new eyes. Fool for Love is beautiful, tightly written, and says a lot about Spike. Something Blue is clever and fun but is really nothing more than a set up for Willow going evil and Buffy and Riley getting pelvic. While Spike is a vehicle in Something Blue (and I believe the sizzling chemistry on display did influence future storyline) he is NOT the focus. JW and Company were NOT saying "we support this couple" when they set forward Something Blue. It is here, if anywhere, that the fandom really DID completely miss the message of "he's beneath her...she can do better."
INTERVENTION...is my favorite episode, then (For 10 points and the win, Alex)...because...
1. The Scoobies are both concerned and considerate...not quick to judge and condemn but wanting only to help. They are ready to listen and intervene. Never again will we see this balanced camaraderie. These were Buffy's friends. Xander even feels sorry for Spike.
2. How adorable is the Bot? Notice she is not a dominatrix or a dark-hearted bitch but is instead...perky and bubbly and happy to help out in a crisis. She still smiles at her pals. This is SPIKE'S perfect woman...what he wants from Buffy.
3. Spike doesn't use chains, pain or humiliation nor does he actually bite the Bot in their love game. He treats her patiently...gently.
4. Spike caught or captured is his wonderfully cocky, street-smart and yet ultimately bumbling self. He offers up a lovely mix of bravado and genuine balls in this episode.
5. Giles proves useful, again, for almost the last time in the series. He and Buffy have their doting-teacher-and-bright-but-irreverent-student vibe going on...it is mocking and fun and Giles offers steady guidance to his Slayer. "And that's what it's all about!"
6. Glory is both funny and scary...she hits Mayor territory here...with her bimbo godhood and her sycophantic minions.
7. Spike took another GIANT step toward, for lack of a better word, redemption. He learned a lesson about true love and disposable plastic and he never forgot it.
8. Intervention...is FUN! The story bounces along like the Buffybot, pink-skirted, golden-haired perfection, and we smile and cheer and melt when we are supposed to...which means it was well written.
9. Buffy was a human being...she showed forgiveness and promised to remember what was "REAL" (I know...she DIDN'T...but...here...in INTERVENTION...she was, for one brief moment, a woman).
10. Which brings me to the saddest and most telling thing of all...the reason this episode vaulted ahead of such sublime works as THE BODY or HUSH or FOOL FOR LOVE...there is...THE KISS!
Looking back, I can see this kiss alone is unsullied. There was no dark spell behind it. It wasn't about serial killers and sick addiction. It wasn't about Buffy being wrenched out of heaven and developing borderline personality disorder. This was NON-WRONG Buffy...acting of her own volition. And she chose wisely and compassionately. She rewarded Spike for his sacrifice for her and her beloved sister with the one thing she knew he wanted most. A kiss.
Buffy Summers, at the end of INTERVENTION, is everything she should have become...giving, forgiving...and loving. In other words...REAL! And Spike is transformed into a rag-tag hero. We know he will stumble but he will never fall so low again. It is clear that nothing he and the Bot had done...no sex act, no pre-programed words of devotion would ever mean as much to Spike as that chaste press of the REAL Buffy's lips to his own.
This is the moment he (and we) had...the ONLY moment of true B/S love. It sustains me. And for that...I give INTERVENTION top marks.
You see...in light of the recent meltdown in my fandom...I have been looking back over the Buffy/Spike history and seeing it with new eyes. Fool for Love is beautiful, tightly written, and says a lot about Spike. Something Blue is clever and fun but is really nothing more than a set up for Willow going evil and Buffy and Riley getting pelvic. While Spike is a vehicle in Something Blue (and I believe the sizzling chemistry on display did influence future storyline) he is NOT the focus. JW and Company were NOT saying "we support this couple" when they set forward Something Blue. It is here, if anywhere, that the fandom really DID completely miss the message of "he's beneath her...she can do better."
INTERVENTION...is my favorite episode, then (For 10 points and the win, Alex)...because...
1. The Scoobies are both concerned and considerate...not quick to judge and condemn but wanting only to help. They are ready to listen and intervene. Never again will we see this balanced camaraderie. These were Buffy's friends. Xander even feels sorry for Spike.
2. How adorable is the Bot? Notice she is not a dominatrix or a dark-hearted bitch but is instead...perky and bubbly and happy to help out in a crisis. She still smiles at her pals. This is SPIKE'S perfect woman...what he wants from Buffy.
3. Spike doesn't use chains, pain or humiliation nor does he actually bite the Bot in their love game. He treats her patiently...gently.
4. Spike caught or captured is his wonderfully cocky, street-smart and yet ultimately bumbling self. He offers up a lovely mix of bravado and genuine balls in this episode.
5. Giles proves useful, again, for almost the last time in the series. He and Buffy have their doting-teacher-and-bright-but-irreverent-student vibe going on...it is mocking and fun and Giles offers steady guidance to his Slayer. "And that's what it's all about!"
6. Glory is both funny and scary...she hits Mayor territory here...with her bimbo godhood and her sycophantic minions.
7. Spike took another GIANT step toward, for lack of a better word, redemption. He learned a lesson about true love and disposable plastic and he never forgot it.
8. Intervention...is FUN! The story bounces along like the Buffybot, pink-skirted, golden-haired perfection, and we smile and cheer and melt when we are supposed to...which means it was well written.
9. Buffy was a human being...she showed forgiveness and promised to remember what was "REAL" (I know...she DIDN'T...but...here...in INTERVENTION...she was, for one brief moment, a woman).
10. Which brings me to the saddest and most telling thing of all...the reason this episode vaulted ahead of such sublime works as THE BODY or HUSH or FOOL FOR LOVE...there is...THE KISS!
Looking back, I can see this kiss alone is unsullied. There was no dark spell behind it. It wasn't about serial killers and sick addiction. It wasn't about Buffy being wrenched out of heaven and developing borderline personality disorder. This was NON-WRONG Buffy...acting of her own volition. And she chose wisely and compassionately. She rewarded Spike for his sacrifice for her and her beloved sister with the one thing she knew he wanted most. A kiss.
Buffy Summers, at the end of INTERVENTION, is everything she should have become...giving, forgiving...and loving. In other words...REAL! And Spike is transformed into a rag-tag hero. We know he will stumble but he will never fall so low again. It is clear that nothing he and the Bot had done...no sex act, no pre-programed words of devotion would ever mean as much to Spike as that chaste press of the REAL Buffy's lips to his own.
This is the moment he (and we) had...the ONLY moment of true B/S love. It sustains me. And for that...I give INTERVENTION top marks.
