Notes on Buffy 3.15: Consequences

[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

Re: The consequences of existentialism

[sophist]

The way I see it, killing Finch needs to be seen in the sequence Buffy saw it, because it's Buffy's reaction which affects Faith the most and also sets the tone for the reaction of the others.

First came Faith's reckless behavior, accompanied by her "want, take, have" philosophy. Afterwards came (in chron order) her flight and demand that Buffy flee; her attempt to secrete the body; her Lady MacBeth scene; her denial that there was anything to talk about (after which Buffy uses the term "killer"); her demand that Buffy not "rat her out"; her uncaring reaction in Finch's office to Buffy's sympathy; her denial that she cared; and her attempt to justify the killing as minor compared to the good they'd done. Only at this point does Buffy say "we can't do what we want", and then Faith justifies even that as a philosophy.

So yes, things could have ended differently, but Buffy and others had very good reasons for reacting as they did -- Faith both appeared reckless and justified reckless behavior. That certainly colored Buffy's own reaction (and I may be wrong but I interpret the notes as agreeing with this), which is what makes it tragic, to me at least.

Re: The consequences of existentialism

[ceciliaj]

Fair enough. I should have rephrased it as "what most intrigues me about the notes is" the road not taken :).

Re: The consequences of existentialism

[strudel2]

I think that's exactly the direction we're going. It was not foreordained that Faith should spiral down so far, so fast. It was a particular combination of perspectives that kept interacting, each time in a negative way, that pushes her down.

And that is part of what is going on with what Mephistopheles observes in the dynamic: Buffy's reaction to the "we can do what we want philosophy" is to heighten the language she uses in response, hence, killer. She is reacting to something real, and does need to be pushed back against, but perhaps Ted, perhaps Buffy's bundled unease with the brief "see, want, take" phase, something, makes her take the wrong rhetorical path to reach Faith.

Re: The consequences of existentialism

[2maggie2]

I very much agree that they are all reacting to Faith's reactions, just as she is reacting to hers. It's a tragedy all around, IMO. Joss is fascinated with the way people miscommunicate and misunderstand one another. For me, this episode is a brilliant instantiation of what a failure on all sides to understand can result in.

Re: The consequences of existentialism

[strudel2]

That's what I would have said if I had a word like "instantiation" in my vocabulary.