BtVS S8.28 Retreat #3
When the preview covers for part three of the Retreat arc came out I thought the Jeanty one looked especially interesting.
Jeanty’s covers always work best when they’re referencing something and the image of fresh-faced Slayers tilling alpine fields had a definite Socialist Realist air to it. The actual cover included an added caption “Strength without powers” echoing Nazi slogans like “Strength through Joy” and making the associations even more sinister.*
Joy, as it happens, has always been a suspect emotion in Joss Whedon’s creations. At the level of the individual, bliss invariably leads to disaster, Angel losing his soul, Tara being shot, Fred being consumed by Illyria. Institutional joy, heaven if you like, is even more problematic. Most crudely in the Jasmine arc of Angel S4, but even when heaven itself may not be the problem (or may be a lunatic asylum) the idea of it, the loss of it plunges Buffy into the depression of S6. Serenity is the name of a battle and the Alliance’s attempt to make angels of us destroys the will to live or creates the Reavers. More recently Dollhouse provides the kind of heaven that Marx might have had in mind when he called religion the opium of the people.
With that background I went into the issue prepared for the worst. It looked bad initially, paranoid midnight meetings, fingers being pointed in all directions and the return of Andrew the master storyteller.**
Storyteller, the episode, was about the perils of its own narrative device, this time the device seemed to be just a device. An expositional device in the first instance as Bay again explained how the de-magicking works and pointed out that magic is not the only defence they have. Next up Buffy and Faith bonding like old soldiers over a pit that looked like a grave while the younger slayers with less blood on their hands called bullshit. Their point, however, was dropped in favour of more Kinder, Kirche, Kueche and whatever the German is for landscape gardening. It was heart warming, love not war, bonds re-affirming, confidences being shared. But Scooby heaven on earth came crashing down as Buffy caught Xander and Dawn embracing because one constant in the verse is that ‘normal’ life hurts harder than demons.
In other news the literal demons are also back, although the dénouement didn’t entirely make sense. If the cat (and maybe also the bird and the yak) were Amy’s agents, what information were they trying to get if they already had location, location, location? Were they hoping for a witch hunt against Willow to do their work for them and left because that hope had failed? Next issue will hopefully reveal more of the enemy POV.
* During the Third Reich 'Kraft durch Freude' was the name of the state-controlled leisure industry and one of the largest tourism operators of the 1930s. Which is neat given that Buffy and Co are currently on Holiday in Tibet (cue music).
** A second shout-out to Espensen’s own S7 episode might be gratuitous but given this season’s focus on reputation, spin and the power of words,*** the referencing could be seen as thematic.
*** The first thing we learn in issue #1 is that Buffy has gone from being the one no-one saw coming to cult celebrity. It’s not over yet but so far you could easily subtitle her arc The difficult second album. Her new life distances her from her source material, soon she’ll only be able to write songs about how hard it is to be famous. Everyone’s watching her now. As her decoy finds out in The Chain the very name Buffy confers power. Whatever she does, the good, the bad and the larcenous gets imitated by wannabes. The Gigi’s and Simone’s want to be her, the Voll’s want to end her, the Twilight’s to see her comeuppance. Whether she’s an inspiration to young women or a dangerous terrorist, the truth is less important than the legend. Which brings us to the spin and according to Harmony comes to the Nation the spin has moved on. ‘Vampires don’t inhale’ was always a front for ‘Slayers are just as bad’ but now the media focus seems to have shifted to the final anti-Tinkerbell solution. Twilight, as Andrew points out, is good at being bad.
Jeanty’s covers always work best when they’re referencing something and the image of fresh-faced Slayers tilling alpine fields had a definite Socialist Realist air to it. The actual cover included an added caption “Strength without powers” echoing Nazi slogans like “Strength through Joy” and making the associations even more sinister.*
Joy, as it happens, has always been a suspect emotion in Joss Whedon’s creations. At the level of the individual, bliss invariably leads to disaster, Angel losing his soul, Tara being shot, Fred being consumed by Illyria. Institutional joy, heaven if you like, is even more problematic. Most crudely in the Jasmine arc of Angel S4, but even when heaven itself may not be the problem (or may be a lunatic asylum) the idea of it, the loss of it plunges Buffy into the depression of S6. Serenity is the name of a battle and the Alliance’s attempt to make angels of us destroys the will to live or creates the Reavers. More recently Dollhouse provides the kind of heaven that Marx might have had in mind when he called religion the opium of the people.
With that background I went into the issue prepared for the worst. It looked bad initially, paranoid midnight meetings, fingers being pointed in all directions and the return of Andrew the master storyteller.**
Storyteller, the episode, was about the perils of its own narrative device, this time the device seemed to be just a device. An expositional device in the first instance as Bay again explained how the de-magicking works and pointed out that magic is not the only defence they have. Next up Buffy and Faith bonding like old soldiers over a pit that looked like a grave while the younger slayers with less blood on their hands called bullshit. Their point, however, was dropped in favour of more Kinder, Kirche, Kueche and whatever the German is for landscape gardening. It was heart warming, love not war, bonds re-affirming, confidences being shared. But Scooby heaven on earth came crashing down as Buffy caught Xander and Dawn embracing because one constant in the verse is that ‘normal’ life hurts harder than demons.
In other news the literal demons are also back, although the dénouement didn’t entirely make sense. If the cat (and maybe also the bird and the yak) were Amy’s agents, what information were they trying to get if they already had location, location, location? Were they hoping for a witch hunt against Willow to do their work for them and left because that hope had failed? Next issue will hopefully reveal more of the enemy POV.
* During the Third Reich 'Kraft durch Freude' was the name of the state-controlled leisure industry and one of the largest tourism operators of the 1930s. Which is neat given that Buffy and Co are currently on Holiday in Tibet (cue music).
** A second shout-out to Espensen’s own S7 episode might be gratuitous but given this season’s focus on reputation, spin and the power of words,*** the referencing could be seen as thematic.
*** The first thing we learn in issue #1 is that Buffy has gone from being the one no-one saw coming to cult celebrity. It’s not over yet but so far you could easily subtitle her arc The difficult second album. Her new life distances her from her source material, soon she’ll only be able to write songs about how hard it is to be famous. Everyone’s watching her now. As her decoy finds out in The Chain the very name Buffy confers power. Whatever she does, the good, the bad and the larcenous gets imitated by wannabes. The Gigi’s and Simone’s want to be her, the Voll’s want to end her, the Twilight’s to see her comeuppance. Whether she’s an inspiration to young women or a dangerous terrorist, the truth is less important than the legend. Which brings us to the spin and according to Harmony comes to the Nation the spin has moved on. ‘Vampires don’t inhale’ was always a front for ‘Slayers are just as bad’ but now the media focus seems to have shifted to the final anti-Tinkerbell solution. Twilight, as Andrew points out, is good at being bad.