Buffy rewatch: 3.10. Amends

[boot_the_grime]

Amends is an episode that was really necessary in season 3. Since Angel's mysterious return from hell, Buffy and Angel have both been avoiding the elephant in the room - Angel’s crimes in season 2, and the question what could have brought him back. This is a very dark, intense and emotional episode about guilt, forgiveness and redemption,

Comments

[local_max]

Generally agreed about the pros and cons of the episode. Like Ever-Neutral, I do love the "You did it to me" line, in the sense that I think that line makes total sense for Buffy to say and think -- but it also reflects badly on her, because of course it's true that she is not really in a position to forgive Angel for his crimes to other people. In fact, I think it basically lays out another of the big problems with B/A: Buffy can't entirely process (IMO) the extent of the damage Angel has done to other people, probably because being able to process so much at once would be emotionally crippling. I agree with you that Buffy doesn't really think of Angel as this great guy, but at the same time viewing herself as the person Angel had hurt the most, even in a momentary spasm of emotion, is a big distortion of what actually happened. And really, as long as he's around Buffy, it's only on Buffy that Angel is likely to focus his atoning, and so it's good for him to go somewhere else to try to make it up to "the world" more broadly (

[angearia]

Like Ever-Neutral, I do love the "You did it to me" line, in the sense that I think that line makes total sense for Buffy to say and think -- but it also reflects badly on her, because of course it's true that she is not really in a position to forgive Angel for his crimes to other people.

Just had a thought, though. If Drusilla is supposed to be an analogue for Buffy, and Dru is supposed to be one of the worst things Angel ever did -- it's like approaching the worst, in a way. Though yeah, it really didn't take it that far. In retrospect, one of the Scoobies dying would've been way more powerful. Or even Giles -- though that would've messed with the Season 3 conflict. And now I'm imagining Buffy and Faith bonding over both losing their watchers (Buffy for her second time). Oooh, it could've gone so dark.

[local_max]

Definitely re: Dru. And :( re Giles. There is something sick and sad in the fact that Buffy, by *surviving*, doesn't "get" to claim Angel hurt her the way he hurt others; but still, she's not the one who ends up dead, or even in a coma (e.g. Willow :( ). It's a complicated situation -- because Angel probably did hurt Buffy more than anyone else alive, but that doesn't negate the fact that Giles is still alone while Buffy and Angel are on the hilltop.

[red_satin_doll]

It's a complicated situation -- because Angel probably did hurt Buffy more than anyone else alive, but that doesn't negate the fact that Giles is still alone while Buffy and Angel are on the hilltop.Ouch

[boot_the_grime]

I was always surprised that S3 (and after) didn't make more of that; Jenny's death was one of the most important and traumatic events of the series (made more horrible by the way Angel arranged her body in Giles' apartment); and I expected more fallout from that, but Giles seems to forgive Buffy fairly quickly. It's Xander who brings up Jenny's murder, not Giles as I recall, when Angel returns in S3, which is problematic because Xander's POV can be easily dismissed as jealousy.I thought it was because Jenny's death was too painful for Giles to bring up, especially when it's to score points in a debate, which is why he doesn't do that in Becoming I, either. Somehow it makes me feel worse for him, and I'd probably find his pain less poignant if he was complaining about it. Giles also has a different personality than Xander and tends - and tries - to be a rational man most of the time, which is why his impulsive emotional moments as when he goes to fight Angel in Passion are all the more poignant, as are the times when he does show how

[red_satin_doll]

His attitude to Buffy and Spike in S7 while Spike was triggered and a risk to everyone's safety (despite him not being freaked out or morally outraged by their relationship the way Xander was in S6) shows that Giles always continued to doubt Buffy's ability to make the right decisions when it comes to her feelings and to vampire boyfriends in particular. Good point, and I was aware of that while watching First Date (S7) in particular; at the time of watching S3 it surprised me that there wasn't more about Giles mourning Jenny and the fallout from that; but then again characters don't spend much time mourning on this show unless it's Buffy (esp with her mother's death) because it is her show, after all. That was just my impression of what I expected, rather than what I got (is it that whole "the audience knows what it wants but not what it neeeds" thing?) I may have to rewatch to revise my understanding of it. I guess Giles' approach in S7 is along the lines of "forgiven but not forgotten

[boot_the_grime]

I'm more comfortable with Buffy's decision on the Spike front at least, if only because I have the luxury of seeing the process she's gone through since S6 and processing the AR, and the information regarding Spike's soul, though I see Giles' point; I think I have less patience with him emotionally because he left her after OMWF when she expressed the need for his presence. He didn't stick around, so he has a right to express his concerns but not, as you note, circumvent her decisions.
To clarify, I support Buffy's decisions to trust Spike as a person and her belief he can be a good man, but when Spike is triggered, he has no control over his actions, so the belief in him as a person is almost irrelevant. Much as I love the season 7 Spuffy, I have to agree with people who think that it was irresponsible to unchain Spike in LMPTM instead of continuing with the procedures to try to remove his trigger. Buffy had no way of knowing if Spike would be able to fight the trigger on his own (and, ironically, he might have only done that thanks

[red_satin_doll]

*nods*

Excellent points; I think I let my view of the situation "Well it all turned out all right in the end" color things now. (If I recall I was a bit more skeptical of her decision when I first saw it. I did wonder "well wouldn't it be safer to fix the chip?")

I just rewatched that ep (the Giles/Buffy parts anyway, including the scene in Wood's office, which I find wonderfully funny - there's a lot of humor in this ep that is forgotten I think) and I can see what you're saying on all counts. I also noticed that line of Buffy's you quoted in particular:

BUFFY: Spike is here because I want him here. It's obvious that she's giving Giles and Woods "acceptable" answers that she thinks will make her sound rational ("he's the best fighter we have") but her delivery of the dialogue makes the "I want him here" feelings very clear. She's still in that place of having to balance Slayer/Woman and has to continue to justify herself on both fronts - with Xander she had to justify herself as a Slayer in Selfless in regards to Anya

[local_max]

Yeah, I feel similarly about s3. I think some of it is that Giles tends to repress emotions, and he was mostly with Buffy and not resentful until he actually found out about Angel's return, and then his anger was quickly undercut by his being tricked and humiliated by Gwen Post. A friend of mine suggested, and I think she makes a good case, that part of Giles' willingness to go through with the Cruciamentum is sublimated anger about Jenny's death -- not that he wouldn't have done it (he is a Watcher, after all), but the two betrayals come so soon after each other. I do think that positioning Xander as the anti-Angel guy was a clever writing decision for the reason you mention -- he makes good points about Angel but has an agenda and so is not trustable as an oracle

[red_satin_doll]

And I find myself nodding yes to pretty much everything you've just said. I have read that point about Giles and the Cruciamentum (I can never remember that word, much less how to spell it); and I agreed with it then as well. It isn't "spelled out" but the show wouldn't be interesting if there wasn't some room for us to read between the lines; it certainly could not have happened early S2. Each season we see characters going deeper and darker into their own psyches, or aspects of themselves are revealed to us in a different light. (the invention of Giles' Ripper past is part of this, which I doubt was thought up in S1; we see Ripper let out to a a degree in Band Candy, although they do not really explore this as well as they could - I wish we had seen more of that. The ep "A New Man" could have played it straighter and darker and have Ripper come out fully a la Angel/Angelus, rather than played for laughs as it was