Blood Ties

[Updated May 1, 2013]

Blood Ties sets up crucial plot and thematic points for the finale. Like the show generally, it uses the real life experiences of teenagers via metaphor. Thus Dawn, like many 14 year olds, perhaps particularly those who are adopted, feels alienated from her family and “not real”. She cuts herself because she’s come to doubt her own reality: “Am I real?”. In this case, the “real” experiences become a metaphor for the “reality” of the plot line – Dawn’s sense of alienation upon learning that she’s the Key. In my view, Dawn’s role as metaphor as well as character means that her sense that she’s “not real” is telling us something important about Buffy. I’ll leave that cryptic for now, but this dialogue seems relevant to me:

BUFFY: It's not that simple! We're not gonna be able to fix this with a hug and a kiss and a bowl of soup! Dawn needs to know where she came from, she needs real answers.
JOYCE: (sits) What she needs is her sister, Buffy, not the Slayer.

In the end, Buffy assures Dawn that she is indeed real, and again it’s metaphorical: “It’s Summers’ blood.”

The Knights were chanting “The Key is the link. The link must be severed.” Well, we know that Dawn is the Key, so she’s the reference here, although the Knights don’t seem to know she is. Since she’s the Key, she must therefore be the link. The question is, what two things does she link? And why, from the perspective of the Knights, must that link be severed? The answers to these questions are related to Dawn’s reality and metaphorical role.

The obvious question to ask is whether the Knights of Byzantium themselves serve a metaphorical purpose. I’m not entirely certain, but my best guess is that they’re simply a fairly obvious reference to the militant Christian orders of the Middle Ages like the Knights Templar. Their determination to “sever” the Key is, in this reading, a reference to the way religion demands sacrifices of those things which are most precious, as well as a reminder of the paternalism of that worldview.

In my post on The Replacement, I said that the themes of the season had been established. Blood Ties is the first episode to reveal a part of one theme. Prior to this episode we knew there was some connection between Ben and Glory. We now learn that they morph into each other. This explains Ben’s confidence in Listening to Fear, that Glory can’t harm him. But it also brings us back to The Replacement, which, it now becomes clear, was telling us something important about the season arc. In that episode, Xander learned that he needed all aspects of his personality in order to “be” Xander. We now see that Buffy’s foe for the season is someone who seems to have separate and distinct personalities also – one’s a normal human being, the other’s super powerful and not entirely sane. I’ll have more to say on this topic when we get to Intervention and The Gift.

Trivia notes: (1) There’s a very subtle moment in the teaser which sets up what will happen in the episode Tough Love. (2) Spike’s candy box was wrecked because he used it to hit the Buffy mannequin in Triangle. (3) Spike suggested that Dawn watch Teletubbies, which was a children’s TV show. (4) Spike compared Dawn to Little Red Riding Hood because a big bad wolf might get her on her way to the Magic Shop. (5) Dawn’s flashbacks in the Magic Shop are, in order, to Listening to Fear, Real Me, and Shadow. (6) Xander described Glory has having a “jones” for the Key. “Jones” is a slang term meaning strong desire or craving. (7) Glory described Ben as “gentle Ben” which was the title of a TV show and movie about a bear. There was a previous reference to the show in Pangs. (8) Buffy suggested looking at the carousel because that’s where Riley and Dawn went in Shadow. Also, Buffy presumably has the false memories of Dawn’s birthday party there which Dawn described to Riley. (9) Glory wanted Dawn to “start singin”, which is American slang for “start talking”. (10) Glory used the expression “fox in my henhouse”, a slang expression which means that the wrong person has been allowed into something (foxes obviously being bad news for chickens). (11) The Latin word Willow used for her spell, “discede”, means “disperse” or “separate”. (12) Buffy’s mention of Dawn having a get-out-of-jail-free card comes from the game Monopoly.