Buffy rewatch: 2.21. Becoming, part 1

[boot_the_grime]

So there it is, finally, the season 2 two-part finale. This season has been really amazing, especially its second part, or more precisely the arc about Angel losing his soul and going bad; and Becoming is a near-perfect finale.

There is a big theme of Destiny vs Free will running through this two-parter. As the title says, it is all about

Comments

[eilowyn]

Maybe it's because I saw season 5 first (after seeing the movie as a child) and instantaneously became a diehard Spike fan, maybe because I'm so against the "Buffy and Angel 4-Eva" mythology that certain fans ascribe to season 2, maybe it's because I don't buy the PTB's brilliant scheme to get a guy with a lolita complex to help a girl with daddy issues, but the fact is that this episode isn't as effective for me. Season 5 was all I saw for several years (we only got the WB for season 5, and never did get UPN, so I only saw season 5 and seasons 3-5 of Angel, though that never compelled me as much) until I saw season 6 on re-runs, so in my mind Angel was this other guy who didn't matter to Buffy. When I finally bought the DVD set and saw the series all the way through, these episodes weren't as powerful for me as they seem to be for other fans. The run through the hallways is memorable, but the flashbacks are just painful due to DB's terrible acting (though Julie Benz tries to add gravity - she plays the seductress perfectly.) I don't trust Whistler (again, Lolita complex and daddy issues do not soulmates make - and it's his fault), and Angel doesn't gain any points by being a rat-eating scumbag when we meet him in 1996 with no prerogative to do good on his own. They say Spike only did good to get in Buffy's pants; Angel was the first one to do that.

I just really don't like Angel or the Buffy/Angel romance, so seeing a season that pivots on those leaves me cold.

[boot_the_grime]

I don't think the enjoyment of season 2 has anything to do with subscribing to "Buffy and Angel 4-Eva" mythology. For starters, season 2 never introduced the mythology in the first place. Their relationship was portrayed as a tragic romance, but not as an ideal romance (at best, it was barely functional, even before he lost his soul). The whole "Angel turns evil" arc was meant to echo the "guy turns into a jerk after you sleep with him" real life situation. The idea that it's all about the cruel forces of fate separating Buffy and her One True Love is Bangel fanon.

When I first watched the show, I shipped Buffy/Angel (and Willow/Oz and Giles/Jenny), but even then I never really felt that they were 'perfect' for each other, I always thought something didn't quite fit. (I always thought she had more chemistry with Spike, even though I never expected expected anything to come out of it. It didn't even occur to me at the time.)

Now I watch season 2 Bangel as a tragic love story, but I don't think "OMG Buffy can't be with her true love - they are so perfect for each other - squee!", I think "How incredibly painful this was for Buffy - it was her first love and since it was so traumatic, it scarred her for life". I watch and I remember that, when you're 16, 17, and you fall in love, you believe that what you feel is going to be forever, that it's One True Love and that you'll never love anyone else (as I said in my review of I Only Have Eyes For You). Of course, later you grow up, but when your first love is very traumatic, it can leave a big mark, because it's a formative experience. I couldn't get over such trauma of my own for several years.

For Buffy, it's the second big formative trauma we see on the show, after dying in Prophecy Girl. (Since the other two, being called and her parents' divorce happened before the show.) Becoming II isn't tragic to me because Buffy lost her one true love or anything like that (and even if I were still a Bangel shipper, he comes back anyway), but because it all took such an emotional cost on Buffy. She learned the hard way how dangerous it is to allow herself to fall in love (especially with a vampire!) and she doesn't have the luxury of risk and giving in to passion. It was the most disastrous scenario imaginable: she got hurt, she was too emotionally affected to do her duty (Innocence) and people died as a result, her friends got hurt, and in the end when she found strength, she had to kill her lover.

Season 2 Bangel is still a great storyline, no matter how awful the attempts to revive Bangel were (from End of Days/Chosen to season 8 *ugh*).

For me, being a Spike fan certainly isn't a reason not to enjoy season 2; I don't know why it would, Spike is great in season 2. It also has nothing to do with enjoying Bangel as a story, since Spike was in love with Drusilla at the time, and it it was years before Spike and Buffy got interested in each other that way. (I think that there was always a mutual attraction that they weren't aware of, but I can't buy the "Spike was in love with Buffy in season 2" wank. He sure wasn't showing it, doing everything for Drusilla, and walking away at the crucial moment in Becoming II as soon as he got Dru, whether Angel kills Buffy or not.)

[boot_the_grime]

I guess if you have such a distaste for Angel it might be hard to watch something where he has a big role. He was always one of my favorite characters in the verse, but while at the beginning I just liked him (I happened to see some episodes of AtS season 1 before I saw BtVS, which helped, since that was when he was at his most likeable), later on it became more of an enjoyment of a character because he is such an incredibly messed up guy, someone who appears to be a hero but is really a very dark anti-hero. One difference in watching season 2 now is that I'm able to analyze the motivations of soulless Angel aka "Angelus" - the first time I just felt visceral hatred for him (no, I never thought he was another guy, that's another piece of Bangel fanon that I was really surprised to learn, it never even occurred to me while watching the show. Season 2 never portrayed Angel's souled and soulless selves as different people, and used the name "Angel" for both.)

it's because I don't buy the PTB's brilliant scheme to get a guy with a lolita complex to help a girl with daddy issues,

Isn't that the point? The PTB messed up big time. Whistler said that he thought Angel would help Buffy stop Acathla. I like the idea that these 'higher powers' can make stupid mistakes and do thing based on misinterpreted prophecies. Shows you that their influence is never a good thing. Nothing good came from Whistler's matchmaking scheme (though he said he didn't expect Buffy and Angel to fall in love... whatever, I mean at least the possibility must have occurred to him?).

The theme of season 2 finale:
Becoming I - fate will screw you up
Becoming II - it's what you choose to do afterwards that matters