Dead Things

[Updated May 2, 2013]

Dead Things epitomizes S6 for me. If a darker, more disturbing episode has ever been shown on American network TV, I’m certainly unaware of it. From the infamous “Bronze beta” scene (see trivia note 8) to Katrina bringing the nerds up short with her rape accusation to her murder to the haunting chords and matching lyrics of Bush while Buffy and Spike sense each other’s presence to the nightmare time distortions to Buffy beating Spike to her breakdown with Tara, the episode is one *intense* emotional ride.

I think it’s bloody brilliant. For me, this episode is one of the highlights of S6 – indeed, one of the 10 or so best episodes in the show’s history – and it highlights for me why S6, though it may deserve criticism at times, was one of the most daring and innovative seasons of television ever produced. Some of those highlights:

First, there’s an important continuity note, namely that time distortion was Warren’s “test” of Buffy in Life Serial, and here Warren’s the one who thinks up the plan for taking advantage of the time-distorting demons. For me, the spell is an allegory for Buffy’s sense of disorientation in her life, the “wrongness” that she confesses to Tara.

I’ve previously noted that Spike’s “you belong in the dark with me” attitude likewise mirrors his behavior in Life Serial. In Dead Things he actually repeats those words as a prelude to sex with Buffy in the Bronze: “SPIKE: (O.S.) You see ... you try to be with them... but you always end up in the dark ... (whispering in her ear) ...with me. … That's not your world. You belong in the shadows... with me.”

The basic ambiguity about Spike’s nature remains, though – he also fought by her side and helped her kill 3 demons. More important, he took the beating in the alley for her sake.

Second, we now see that the Trio’s immaturity isn’t very funny after all. It may have all seemed like a juvenile game, even the attempt to see naked women in Gone, but Katrina’s blunt accusation of rape puts a new light on all that they’ve done to date. For most viewers, including me, her accusation came as a shock because we’d allowed ourselves to get sucked in by the childish nature of the Trio until now. In particular, we see Warren revealed not as a geek, but as a psychopath. I think the writers did a terrific job on this. Yes, he was creepy in IWMTLY, and yes, we had doubts about him in Flooded and outright suspicions in Gone. Now he’s crossed a line, and in his own words (Smashed) he’s not coming back from that. They built this slowly enough to make his descent not just believable, but almost inevitable.

Third, I thought Steven DeKnight was very subtle in the way Tara and Willow seem to talk about Buffy when we know they’re really talking about each other. Similarly subtle, note that Spike is warm and comfortable in his crypt, while Buffy seems cold and isolated outside. I see this as a metaphor for their relationship, even their current view of their respective lives. Speaking of metaphors, being under the rug in the teaser seems like a pretty obvious one too.

There was a lot of debate at the time about Buffy’s decision to turn herself in. Karen argued in comments that Spike was right and that Buffy should not go to the police: “She is wrong to do so, and Dawn is right to see it as an escape. Faith and Spike are both wrong in trying to articulate an "eye for an eye" balance as the REASON, but they are NOT wrong in recognizing that conventional justice will not serve. Buffy does need to submit to authority, maybe the Watcher's Council, or maybe her own judgment, adult judgment, with this as a burden on her. It's exactly like Angel's burden. He can't erase his past, but must recognize consequences and atone for it with his future actions. Acting the martyr does not really represent acceptance of consequences, and the police are not at all able to 'judge' Buffy in any way. I'd even argue that part of the emotional challenge of growing up is recognizing that sometimes one must bear the burden of one's guilt and act as one's own judge, and move forward.”

Whatever side you take, it’s consistent with her behavior in Ted. In my view, Buffy’s instinctive reaction was correct, though an argument could be made that the Watcher’s Council, rather than the police, would have been appropriate. She seems never to have considered calling Giles; at the very least he could have reminded her of what he told her in Consequences:

“Giles: The Slayer is on the front line of a nightly war. Now, it's, it's tragic, but accidents have happened.
Buffy: W-what do you do?

Giles: Well, the Council investigates, um, metes out punishment if punishment is due. But I... I have no plans to involve them.”

 

Even if she had called Giles, her decision probably wouldn’t have changed. Whether the WC is right in this is a separate issue, but compare their view to Faith’s (below) and you can see that if Buffy rejected the one she pretty much has to reject the other.

Buffy believes she’s being responsible by turning herself in, and so she is in a way. That said, while Dawn’s reaction seems consistent to me as that of someone who’s immature and thinking more of herself, there’s an element of truth in what she tells Buffy:

DAWN: (almost crying) You don't want to be here with me. You didn't want to come back. I know that. You were happier where you were. (crying) You want to go away again.
BUFFY: Dawn...
DAWN: Then go! You're not really here anyway.

Certainly Buffy is quick to blame herself, in part no doubt because she feels so wrong and even corrupt at the core at this point in her life, and this is another way for her to give up. As AtPO poster Alcibiades put it, “She was beating Spike up because he stood between herself and her greatest desire -- to lose herself back into powerlessness, lack of responsibility and spiritual and emotional exhaustion.”

Dead Things emphasizes the similarity to Bad Girls in the way Spike disposes of the body and his arguments to Buffy. Both parallel the actions and arguments of Faith in Bad Girls and Consequences:

“BUFFY: I'll show them.
SPIKE: (coolly) Show them what?

BUFFY: (very angry) What ... did you do?!
SPIKE: (firmly) What I had to. I went back and I took care of it. It doesn't matter now. No one will ever find her.”

***

“Faith:  (faces Buffy) Okay, this is the last time we're gonna have this conversation, and we're not even having it now, you understand me? There *is* no body. I took it, weighted it, and dumped it. The body doesn't exist.” 

“BUFFY: (tearful) A girl is dead because of me.
SPIKE: And how many people are alive because of you? How many have you saved? One dead girl doesn't tip the scale.”

***

“Faith:  (steps closer) Buffy, I'm not gonna *see* anything. I missed the mark last night and I'm sorry about the guy. I really am! But it happens! Anyway, how many people do you think we've saved by now, thousands? And didn't you stop the world from ending? Because in my book, that puts you and me in the plus column.”

 

I doubt we’re supposed to think that Faith was right all along. By repeating Faith’s arguments after he asked her to trust him to “sort this out”, Spike’s amorality stands revealed in a way that Buffy can’t deny. Her reaction – beating him to a pulp – reflects not just her distaste at Spike’s ethical blindness, but her own self-loathing for associating with someone who thinks that way. Buffy is really beating herself, even as Spike bears the brunt. Again the parallel is to Faith, this time to the beating scene in Who Are You:

BUFFY: You don't ... have a soul! There is nothing good or clean in you. You are dead inside! You can't feel anything real! I could never ... be your girl!

***

Faith (in Buffy’s body): You're nothing. [Punch. Punch.] Disgusting. [Punch. Punch.]

[“Buffy” grabs “Faith's” hair with both hands and bangs her head.] Murderous bitch. [Bang. Bang...] You're nothing. [Bang. Bang...] [Switches back to punches] You're [“Buffy” is now crying.] disgusting.

 

The fact that Buffy could abuse Spike like that is strong evidence to me that she doesn’t love him. Their relationship has always incorporated an element of violence, but never has it reached a point like this. The fact that he does love her, so much that he willingly lies back and takes the beating for her sake, means that she’s wrong either way: she shouldn’t love him because he’s evil, as confirmed by his amoral arguments in the alley; if she doesn’t love him, then she’s abusing him (not that he’s an innocent on that score either), as I think she realized after the beating. The beating itself is the outward manifestation of her emotional abuse of him previously (“you’re …convenient”). 

It wasn’t just the look of horror on her face as she left him bloody, her dream foretold it. In her dream, Spike and Katrina trade places; Buffy handcuffs Spike and stakes him/Katrina, drawing a clear parallel of guilt. It’s her subconscious understanding that she’s responsible for the way she’s treating Spike. She wants to be punished – that’s part of her motivation for going to the police – but Tara offers her only compassion and the hard truth that Spike truly does love her. I think she never really admitted that to herself before. Buffy’s breakdown in the face of Tara’s compassion demonstrates that punishment would have been easier for her to accept than despair. That’s what makes her tears and her plea not to be forgiven so heartbreaking.

Trivia note: (1) Remember Joyce pulling out the handcuffs in Band Candy? Like mother, like daughter, I guess. (2) Buffy mentioned New Kids on the Block, a boy band from the 80s and early 90s. (3) The record album Jonathan pulled out was “Frampton Comes Alive”. (4) Jonathan used the idiom “on the lam”, which means hiding from the police. (5) Andrew’s “bazoombas” is a slang term for breasts. (6) Anya and Xander describe Buffy as looking “pounded”, which is a pun. It means “tired or worn out”, but it’s also a slang term for sex. (7) Warren’s suggestion that they solve their problem with “one big stone” refers to the idiom “killing two birds with one stone”. (7) Buffy mentioned Soul Train, which was a musical variety show which ran from 1971-2006. (8) I need to explain the internet description of the balcony sex scene as the “Bronze Beta” scene. When the series moved off the WB network, they had to change the website because The Bronze was owned by the WB. The new site got the name “Bronze Beta”. The “joke” in the expression comes from the fact that the angle of intercourse in the sex scene suggests anal sex. (9) Willow mentioned The Brekenkrieg Grimoire. That means “Broken War Magic Book”. (10) Buffy’s conversation with Dawn describes in metaphor the critical issue of the season. Keep it in mind when we get to the finale. (11) When Buffy said that “time went all David Lynch” she was referring to the American movie director who is famous for surrealist movies.