BtVS Quote: The parts you can’t see (eyeballs to entrails)
(x)
I bet every Buffy fan can recite this piece of dialogue verbatim from "Halloween" (2x06). It’s often quoted as a testimony of Spike’s devotion to Drusilla. She's wasting away at this point, we're told, a mere shadow of her former glorious self, while Spike gets no nearer to restoring her on the Hellmouth.
But do you recall the scene leading to this avowed devotion? What may have prompted Drusilla's insecurity? Just Dru being her crazy self? Let's consult the script [x]:
INT. THE FACTORY - NIGHT
Moving through the dark hallway, we hear voices.
SPIKE (O.C.): Here it comes-
INT. FACTORY - NIGHT
The room is awash in BLUE LIGHT that emits from a bank of televisions lining one wall. SPIKE and the VAMP VIDEOGRAPHER are watching as an image flickers to life on the screens. It's BUFFY'S FIGHT IN THE PUMPKIN PATCH.
Spike watches the tape with single minded concentration.
ON THE TELEVISION
Buffy falls on the pumpkin. Then gets up and BEANS her attacker with a baby pumpkin.
ON SPIKE
SPIKE: Rewind that. I want to see it again.
Spike paces, wired.
SPIKE: She's tricky. Baby likes to play.The video plays again. This time Spike points to the part where she BREAKS THE SIGN AND STAKES THE VAMP WITH IT.
SPIKE(intense): See that? Where she stakes him with that thing? That's what you call resourceful. (then)Rewind again.
DRUSILLA (O.C.): Miss Edith needs her tea.
Spike turns to see Drusilla, who has wandered in with one of her dolls. She is pouty, dreamy as usual. Spike welcomes her - but his attention stays on the video of Buffy.
SPIKE: Come here, poodle. She wafts to him. He puts his arms around her.
DRUSILLA: Do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?
SPIKE: Eyeballs to entrails, my sweet. That's why I have to study this slayer. Once I know her, I can kill her. And once I kill her, you can have your run of Sunnyhell and get strong again.
DRUSILLA: Don't worry. Everything's switching.Outside to inside. It makes her weak.
This gets his attention.
SPIKE: Really. Did my pet have a vision?
Did you catch that? Spike is absolutely obsessed. He pores over Buffy's fight with a vamp at the pumpkin patch, gushing over her physical abilities on not just one screen, but "a bank of televisions lining one wall", bathing the entire room in "blue light". It's not enough that he fights Buffy on the streets of Sunnydale; he's brought her into the home he shares with Dru and their minions. Buffy's light has literally invaded their safe space in the darkness, coloring everything they see, enthralling Spike completely.
He watches "with single minded concentration", rewinding to study the footage over and over again. In fact, that's how the scene is introduced: we hear Spike's voice before we even see him with the other vampire, calling him to pay special attention to the footage with, "Here it comes".
Spike has already seen this, and is so excited by the video he's sharing it with the videographer, making the poor vamp watch his own recording over and over again. Mere seconds later, Spike says, "Rewind that. I want to see it again." He simply can't get enough of the Slayer, so "wired" from this repeated viewing that he can't even stand still, but "paces" while the tape is being rewound, and "points" once the tape resumes playing.
His play-by-play commentary on Buffy's moves sings her praises ("tricky" and "resourceful"), calling her "baby" and labeling her lethal dusting of a vamp as "play", almost like he's rooting for her, almost like he's turned on by his home-made vamp snuff film starring the Slayer. It's twisted. It's unsettling.
James Marsters's superb acting really brought it home. There's admiration in Spike's "intense" voice, a warped pride for the worthiness of his adversary. After the video reaches the end, is he done? No. He orders, "Rewind again". Which is when Drusilla intervenes with a "pout", calling for a break ("Miss Edith needs her tea"). Seriously Spike, enough is enough!
So what happens when his one-and-only tries to get his attention from her supposedly devoted lover? According to the script: "Spike welcomes her - but his attention stays on the video of Buffy."
This-with his sweet words calling to her (his physically weak lover), while remaining engrossed in the video of Buffy (whose ass-kicking is in peak form, something Spike clearly loves watching)-this is the moment that Drusilla chooses to voice her doubt:
Do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?
And my heart breaks a little for Dru. Spike replies, half-heartedly, a sweet line ready on his lips, but he's only paying lip service to Dru, who's utterly helpless without him, without his love. She can't possibly compete with the Slayer. She can't even fend for herself.
Look at Drusilla’s expression as she glances up at the screens flashing Buffy’s triumph at the pumpkin patch, the way she steps into Buffy’s light as realization dawns on her:
And how her face falls afterwards:
Drusilla knows. (Kudos to Juliet Landau for her amazing acting.)
Do you spot the falseness of Spike’s claim? Declaring love to Dru's eyeballs, while his own are glued to the mere images of another? His line of undying love sounds remarkably like a feeble excuse. Because his next words takes away all the sweetness and returns his focus to Buffy, "That's why I have to study this slayer." Spike's essentially saying: Hey, baby, it's because I love you to super exaggerated lengths that I'm spending a ton of time on/with her, all for YOU. My obvious emotional response to her proves my devotion to you, and strategically my obsession serves a practical purpose. Again, for you. Uh-huh, sure.
I think Spike may even believe his own words, that he's obsessing over Buffy as a way to kill her and cure Dru. There's no intention to deceive Dru in the readiness with which he placates her need for reassurance. The sentiment is automatic, unthinking, because he has loved her unconditionally for over a century. To Spike there's no question that he loves her and will always love her. It's never even occurred to him that he'd fall for anyone else. But we know better (having seen the rest of the show), don't we? And so does Dru, with her terrible gift of prescience. It would perhaps explain her sadness, her aloofness in this scene.
What does it take for Dru to recapture Spike's attention from the wall of TV screens, with so many images of Buffy lined up perfectly for his consumption and diversion? Only Dru's vision concerning Buffy is able to do that, an allusion to something that "makes her weak". In other words, new information about Buffy, something Spike didn't have before. It's only at this news that we see the script concede, "This gets his attention."
He simply can't get enough of Buffy.
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