Fool For Love

[Updated May 1, 2013]

Episode 7. We expect something dramatic and important from Episode 7 and we certainly get it from Fool For Love. It’s a fan favorite and in my personal top 20. The whole episode is beautifully constructed, but I have to give special praise to the way Spike’s fight with the NY Slayer intercuts with his present dialogue/fight with Buffy. At the end, the past Spike talks directly to Buffy in the present. Brilliant.

The most important feature of the episode is that it employs the literary device of the unreliable narrator (Spike). Watch the first two transitions between his present dialogue with Buffy and the scenes we see from his past. In each case, Spike’s claim about his past is directly refuted by what we see after the cut. I’ll give you the first example; the second is the same:

“BUFFY

Were you born this big a pain in the ass?

SPIKE

What can I tell you, baby? I've always been bad.

CUT TO:

INT.   LONDON (1880)- VICTORIAN PARLOR- NIGHT

Spike, then the human William, is sitting and composing poetry off in the corner of a dinner party. The spirited laughter of the party-goers can be heard in the background. William's hair is long and unruly and he's dressed as a proper gentleman, complete with tie and reading spectacles. He's awkward and bookish- none of the confident swagger we're used to.”

The only thing bad about William was his poetry. Spike was in no way “always” bad. He created his persona after Drusilla sired him. “Was he always tough, was he always bad? It was much more interesting to make him a foppish dandy in the beginning and have him turn into Spike. What you'll notice too, if you're watching carefully is that you'll see James [Marsters] transform from this guy here, having his feelings hurt, being this dandy poet. Piece by piece he will turn into Spike throughout this episode. Here he's got different hair, different clothes, glasses, a different accent even and no scar over his eyebrow. And you will see one by one him acquire all these things. So he literally builds Spike piece by piece.” (Writer Doug Petrie, DVD commentary.)

One way to interpret this process is that we, the viewers, are seeing Spike’s actual memories of what happened. What he told Buffy was likely something quite different, though we have no way to know with certainty. We definitely should doubt that he told her some of the more embarrassing points, such as Cecily’s “You’re beneath me.” That would undercut his carefully cultivated self-image in front of someone he’s trying to impress.

Now, if it’s true that these flash cuts completely undermine what Spike has just said to Buffy (and it is), consider (1) whether he told her the truth or told her lies about his past, that is, whether he told her what we saw or something else; and (2) assuming, as seems likely, that he told her at least some lies, whether we should trust anything else he tells her in the present dialogue. On the latter point rests a crucial interpretation of the season finale.

For all Spike’s braggadocio in this episode, the message he delivers to Buffy takes no credit for himself in his most (in)famous feats, namely killing the two Slayers. “That final gasp. That look of peace. Part of you is desperate to know: What's it like? Where does it lead you? And now you see, that's the secret. Not the punch you didn't throw or the kicks you didn't land. Every Slayer... has a death wish.” Spike didn’t kill the Slayers; they wanted to die. Note that we have no idea if this is true – the Slayers themselves don’t get to speak. All we know is that Spike makes this claim and that it’s against his interest to claim it.

As I see it, there are 2 reasons to believe Spike and 3 to disbelieve him.

He's credible because what he says underplays his own abilities and attributes his success to the Slayers wanting to die. In addition, there's the fact that he does hit a nerve with Buffy. We’ve seen since Faith’s arrival in S3 the sex and death and love and pain issues of Slayers and vampires.

The reasons we shouldn't believe him are (a) that he doesn't know those Slayers well enough to judge their mental state and, in one case, never even spoke to her; (b) that we don't actually see them "want" to die in either case; and, (c) that as I emphasized, the episode itself undercuts Spike's narrative.

There's a point of logic here as well, since Spike reasons from the particular to the general: even if we assume that the two Slayers he killed did have a death wish, that wouldn't necessarily mean all others did or that Buffy herself does.

I do think it can be read either way, and I'll have more to say later on.

Let’s talk about the implications of his claim. In my Introduction, I said that if I were asked to identify the single most important message communicated by BtVS, my response would be this: accept responsibility. I’ll continue by quoting myself:

“This theme appears early in the very first episode, Welcome to the Hellmouth:

“Buffy:  Oh, why can't you people just leave me alone?

Giles:  Because you are the Slayer. (comes down the stairs) Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires...”

If Buffy didn’t accept her responsibility as The Slayer, there’d be no story to tell. That’s why the Prologue to every episode in Season 1 recites that “In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.” (My emphasis.)

Note that word, “alone” and its complements, “One” and “the”. That’s responsibility, all right. There’s nobody who can take her place, no higher power to aid her:

“Buffy:  (exhales) You don't have anything useful to tell me, do you? What are you, just some immortal demon sent down to even the score between good and evil?

Whistler:  (impressed) Wow. Good guess. (grins)

Buffy:  (steps up to him) Well, why don't you try getting off your immortal ass and fighting evil once in a while? 'Cause I'm sick and tired of doing it myself.” Becoming 2.

One consequence of death is that it removes the responsibility we all accept as authentic existentialists acting in the world. The Slayer bears the ultimate in that responsibility: she alone can save the world from the demons, the vampires, and the forces of darkness. And it’s only by her death that she can pass that responsibility to another. The Slayers he killed, Spike says, wanted to let go of that responsibility; it had become too much for them to bear. Keeping in mind the good reasons to be skeptical of Spike’s claims, the message to Buffy that only death allows the Slayer to pass on her responsibility strikes me as correct and consistent with what we’ll see later in the season.

What makes the whole sequence particularly brilliant is that every bit of Spike’s description of his encounters with the previous Slayers is rife with sexual innuendo. We know he’s now in love with Buffy. At the end of the scene in the alley he insists that she wants to “dance”:

“His passion aroused, Spike leans in to kiss her. She backs away in horror.

BUFFY

What the hell are you doing? 

He grabs Buffy by the arms, his words coming in a breathless pant.

SPIKE

Come on. I can feel it, Slayer. You know you want to dance.”

Everything Spike says or does regarding the two Slayers has a sexual implication. He’d previously said he could have “danced” all night with the NY Slayer. He got off on the death of the Chinese Slayer in a blatantly erotic scene with Dru, and insists that Buffy does when she slays: “I suppose you're telling me you don't?” He uses terms with double meaning throughout the night (“How many of my kind reckon you've done?”). Even his description of the Slayers’ deaths reads that way: “That final gasp. That look of peace. Part of you is desperate to know: What's it like?” And how will that happen? When he “slips in” and has himself “a real good day”.

Spike’s whole discussion of the Slayers “wanting” death nearly screams out that he’s talking about the Little Death – orgasm – as well. The erotic metaphor of the vampire here overlaps completely with the death of the two Slayers, with Spike’s feelings for Buffy, and with the essential point of the episode as it affects the finale. It’s beautifully done.

So given the double meaning, what did Buffy mean when she said, “Say it's true. Say I do want to [“dance”]. It wouldn't be you, Spike. It would never be you. You’re beneath me.” I think the whole point of the dialogue is that you can read it either way. She rejected his sexual advance, of course, but she’s also telling him that she’d never let him be the one to kill her even if she got to the point where she “wanted” to die.

In fact, we could interpret the whole episode as one of projection on Spike’s part. Whereas Angelus always remained in control and wanted his victims helpless, Spike was in for the thrill. He needed to be close to the edge: “Come on. When was the last time you unleashed it? All out fight against a mob, back against the wall, nothing but fists and fangs? Don't you ever get tired of fights you know you're going to win?”

He sought out the Slayers because they alone could give him the rush he craved. He dances right to the edge of death. And, of course, he has experienced it – it made him feel alive for the very first time.

Because the interpretation of FFL so strongly affects the interpretation of the season’s conclusion, I’ll have more to say about it when I discuss the last two episodes.

Some additional points:

The physical injury Buffy suffers at the beginning of the episode – a stab in the gut – serves as a metaphor for the emotional one at the end (Joyce’s need for a CAT scan to evaluate a condition much more serious than anyone thought).

Riley’s behavior towards the vamp who staked Buffy veers wildly from protective to reckless. He may have seen Buffy’s vulnerability as his opportunity to prove that he’s her equal. All he really proves is that he’s rash.

We could have a big debate even now about the meaning of Spike’s behavior in the last scene. Why didn’t he kill Buffy? I’m holding off on that for a while because it’s nearly impossible to say anything meaningful without spoilers. I will say that I think it’s a key moment in the progression of his feelings about Buffy.

Trivia notes: (1) Remember that word “effulgent”. It means “glowing”. (2) The taunts William suffers at the party – “They call him William the Bloody because of his bloody awful poetry!”; “I'd rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff!” – use the words which described Spike when we first saw him in School Hard: “He's known as 'William the Bloody'. Earned his nickname by torturing his victims with railroad spikes.” Puts a whole new light on Spike, doesn’t it? (3) The reference to Spike as a “bloody awful poet” gave rise to a Spike-centric fan club called the Bloody Awful Poet Society (spoilers at link). (4) When William collided with someone on the street after leaving the party in tears, if you look closely it was Angelus walking with Darla and Dru. (5) In FFL we see that Drusilla sired Spike. In School Hard, Spike referred to Angel as “my sire”. We can fanwank this – Angel as his “grandsire” – but it’s contradictory. (6) Spike taking the coat was inspired by the Frank Miller comics series Sin City. (7) This is the second episode to use the phrase “here endeth the lesson.” The Master used it in Never Kill A Boy On The First Date, as Spike does here. It will be used once more in S7. It’s the standard closing after a Bible reading in traditional services. (8) Fool For Love was shot at the same time as the AtS episode Darla and many of the flashbacks were used in both episodes, albeit from a different perspective. The different perspectives give a Rashomon quality to the scenes and create still more uncertainty about the “truth” of what we’re shown. (9) The scene with Dru and the chaos demon refers to Lover’s Walk: “I caught her on a park bench, making out with a *chaos* demon! Have you ever seen a chaos demon? They're all slime and antlers.” (10) Note that Spike got a memento from each Slayer he killed: the scar over his left eye courtesy of the first, the duster he wears from the second.