The end justifies the means?

[buffymods]

Continuing with another Giles' poll.
We all know what he did in Helpless. Question is: do you justify his actions?

Your Mods,

Tabi and Pam

Comments

[juliet316]

I kind of disagree with that. Just because a threat to of the Council's intervention wasn't implicitly stated onscreen, you can see Giles' reluctance to go through with the ritual in how ASH showed the character's body language and tone. It's completely possible to me and there was a conversation early on where Giles asked if this was absolutely necessary. In my head it's completely possible that there was a conversation pre - episode where Travers did indeed issue such a threat of reassigning Buffy a Watcher who would be more than willing to go through with the Cruciamentum and would have more than likely watched coldly while Buffy died in the attempt and perhaps equally coldly while Faith inevitably had to go through with it. The fact that Giles does intervene and save Buffy and Joyce at the end speaks to me far more volumes than the inital betrayal itself.

Was his betrayal of Buffy by participating in the ritual justified? No, of course not. It was a huge breach of Buffy's trust and it probably took a little while to for him to regain it off - camera. But we see that it wasn't truly as a willing participant and he paid for it anyway by having the very action he probably feared all along being taken: Being fired by the Council and removed as Buffy's watcher. He paid the price both ways.

[leni_ba]

Yes, saving Buffy does redeem him. But he gets fired for it, just as he would have gotten fired if he hadn't injected her in the first place or, even better, if he'd have told her about the ritual.

He will not risk his career for Buffy's sake, but he will do it when he sees the consequences. (I'd even say he steps in out of guilt, but he did feel guilty through the whole episode). Seeing Buffy scared and confused is not enough to come out with the truth; it takes Buffy and Joyce getting almost killed for him to do it.

Well, redemtion is the theme of the Buffyverse, I guess.

As for off-screen meetings... okay. It could be that there was one. But, as a rule, if a scene wasn't important enough to shoot it, or at least make reference to it, then it couldn't have too important for characterisation.

[hunenka]

I agree. I can totally see a scene where Giles tries to persuade the Council not to do this, and when he sees that they'd do it anyway, he decides it's the best for Buffy if he was there.

I'm sure it must have been a terrible decision for Giles, because he knew how Buffy would react if she found out, and he surely knew that her shock and disappointment was justified. But if he refused to do what he had to, the Council would probably send him away and give Buffy a new Watcher who wouldn't care about her as much as Giles did (as he proved when he went against the Councils' rules in the end).

Of course I absolutely feel with Buffy when she finds out Giles had betrayed her. It's a very powerful and moving episode, both from Buffy's and Giles' point of view. Also it's not only black-and-white, and that's what I like about it.

Furthermore, we have to remember that obviously every Slayer in the past had to go through the Cruciamentum, so this really wasn't just a stupid "evil Giles trying to hurt Buffy" scenario...