Notes on Buffy 2.21: Becoming, Part I

[2maggie2]

Standard disclaimer: I'll often speak of foreshadowing, but that doesn't mean I'm at all committing to the idea that there was some fixed design from the word go -- it's a short hand for talking about the resonances that end up in the text as it unspools.

Standard spoiler warning: The notes are written for folks who have seen all of BtVS and AtS.

Comments

[pocochina]

In Which Angel Plots to Destroy the World

Mmmm. Becoming, indeed; this sets the stage exactly for NFA.

Somewhat interesting to compare this vampiric form of birthing -- blood, not milk, flows from her breast

It's exactly the spot where Dru re-vamps her, too. And Dru makes the mommying thing a lot more explicit, telling everyone who will listen about her daughter.

Also funny, how Liam offers Darla protection, thinking of her as a girl and not a woman

Yes! It's almost exactly the same thing as the first Buffy/Angel encounter, even. He follows her into an alley, holds himself out as the big strong man, and then expects her to show him his way.

Drusilla was made by himOH DRU. I actually think she was already a bit off given the emotional abuse she received because of her visions. It's about power. Dru had power her world stepped on until it stunted her; Angel let it loose on the world

[greensword]

In a lot of ways, Dru is at least as much Kendra's opposite number as Buffy's. Kendra had power that meant she was isolated from polite society, and some force beyond her control let it rip. But Kendra's chained to the earth where Dru communes with the stars, and so she's totally unprepared for be in me.

I really like this! The way Kendra's watcher dealt with her, isolating her from friends and family, honing her into a weapon, always struck me as very abusive - and similar, in a way, to how Angel isolated Drusilla and turned her into his vicious child/pet. And both Drusilla and Kendra embrace what's been done to them and live in that role, and continue to see their abusers/controllers as people to be obeyed and looked up to.

The show has a lot of fairly conscious Slayer/vampire parallels - Faith and Angel, Spike and Buffy, why not Kendra and Drusilla?

[local_max]

Very good point about the Watcher's isolation of Kendra. Drusilla strikes me in some ways as a deliberate vampire par excellence as created by Angel, so her mirroring the "perfect" slayer does make sense. Kendra comes to Sunnydale right when Drusilla is about to rise....

[local_max]

Mmmm. Becoming, indeed; this sets the stage exactly for NFA.

I think I agree. There's a real scorch-the-Earth sense from Angel, always.

Yes! It's almost exactly the same thing as the first Buffy/Angel encounter, even. He follows her into an alley, holds himself out as the big strong man, and then expects her to show him his way.

Yes. And yes to the alley imagery. So much of it.

OH DRU. I actually think she was already a bit off given the emotional abuse she received because of her visions. It's about power. Dru had power her world stepped on until it stunted her; Angel let it loose on the world.

In a lot of ways, Dru is at least as much Kendra's opposite number as Buffy's. Kendra had power that meant she was isolated from polite society, and some force beyond her control let it rip. But Kendra's chained to the earth where Dru communes with the stars, and so she's totally unprepared for be in me.

I really like the Kendra/Dru parallel here. It makes more sense of Dru being the one to kill Kendra, doesn't it?

I'm also really

[ever_neutral]

Fantastic notes. (As always!)

He can only be “good” when he idealizes the girl from afar.

Yep. Nicely said.

He may not 100% believe it, but a part of Xander does believe Buffy responds to meanness; and so he puts forth his considerable internal resources of meanness.  (Speaking of The Pack, some of his anger over Buffy’s continued inability to kill Angel may come back to how easily she knocked him out and caged him, when he was a hyena.  And of course Xander’s denial of any difference between Angel and Angelus is probably a reaction of guilt over his drawing an even thicker line of distinction between his higher and lower selves.

Whoa. Nice. And yeah, of course Xander would believe on some level that meanness is the way to go, considering his situation. And his hatred of Angel, the abuser, is in part projected hatred of the person he's afraid of becoming.

[local_max]

Thanks!

I read a post a long time ago where a Xander fan talked about exactly how careful, precise Xander's meanness was, and how this went into fanon that his parents were abusive before it went into canon. It really does explain a lot.

[local_max]

My take: I don't think Angel could have killed Buffy. But I don't think she was ready to kill him, either. I think she thought she was ready at the beginning of the episode, but wasn't; and the soul restoration possibility just made it worse.

And yes, Angel could have done much worse to Buffy! My interpretation is that Angel really did want to take his time and just enjoyed playing cat-and-mouse, and then in IOHEFY the game suddenly became horrifying and unfun and he wanted to go straight to world-endage. It's a bit of a weird arc in that sense, because all of Angel's careful time ends up going somewhat to naught. But yeah, as you say it's not really an adults-only show at this point.

I like that Joss quote! Obviously there will be some discussion of the lie in the next review.

[angearia]

But he didn't want her dead, he wanted her destroyed and at his mercy. Death is too easy. He wants the pain, not the kill.

[aycheb]

This episode focuses on Angel’s becoming. His story isn’t going to advance in the next episode. He’s the puppet man. But the narrator observes that we are not just puppets. The moments happen to us. What matters is what we do with them. In part two, we turn to Buffy and Spike, both of whom are proactive in shaping their own destiny.

It strikes me that, superficially at least, the manner of their sirings suggests that it’s Angel who will be the proactive “seize the night” guy and Spike the one to stand and let the fire come to him. Darla knows better, of course, but from his point of view Liam chooses to follow her into the alley whereas William’s impression is that he was chosen by Dru (in reality she just bumped into him). However, in the words of that great philosopher Britney Spears:

There's only two types of people in the world.
The ones that entertain and the ones that observeSpike’s a put-on-a-show-kinda-girl, he relishes his entrances and (post -Chosen) won’t leave his dressing room until he gets a script that’s up to

[local_max]

Definitely Angel as old Hollywood studio contractor makes perfect sense. Angel = von Stroheim and Spike = Gloria Swanson/Norma Desmond? Who would be William Holden?

[aycheb]

I was going to say Buffy but in light of the S8 ending it can only be Giles. He's the one left face down in the swimming pool. But who dunnit? Clearly more evidence that Buffy, unlike Sunset (what's another word for Twilight?) Boulevard, isn't a Spangel story. It's about the girl.

[norwie2010]

Gangel?

;-)

[anonymous]

It is time for me to come out of the shadows and tell you how much I enjoy your insightful observations about the show

[2maggie2]

Thanks for checking in!

Good point about Liam as an adult. I think of him as a youth, but you are right that there's not really a social category for that at the time. He's certainly presented as a good-for-nothing.

Your English is great and perfectly clear! Where are you from?

[anonymous]

Thanks for the friendly welcome!
I am from Germany and to fulfill the cliché I even live in Bavaria :-)

[norwie2010]

You mean "Barbaria", no? ;-)