Buffy the People's Hero in 'Anne' 3x01

Mar 18, 2007 20:37

I first saw the episode back in junior high, possibly grade school...so the Marxist symbol of Buffy choosing a sickle as her weapon in the end threw over my head. The message I did get though, was to never give into despair, because even if life is no paradise, even if what you are doing now can't save everyone, you could still make the world a better place.

In "Anne", Buffy Summers has ran away to LA where she supports herself working as a waitress under the alias of 'Anne' (her middle name). Previously, Buffy pretty much had her entire world fall apart around her, Angel lost the soul he was cursed with due to the happiness clause after those two did the vertical tango, and then he really fucked with her head the morning after 'yeah you were like a pro', and then she had to send him to a hell dimension right after Willow cursed him with the soul again because it was the only way to close the portal. Not to mention that when her mother Joyce found out that her daughter was the slayer, she reacted very badly by kicking her out, however unintentionally when she was trying to stop Buffy from heading off into a probable death, 'if you walk out that door'...

So yeah, 'run away', that made sense, what I love about pre-Marti-Norton BtVS is that believable reactions and consequences does follow events. I also loved how realistic Buffy was, and of course, characterization and plotline. I remember a lot of fandom bitching from n00bs about how SMG couldn't act in the latter seasons, but dude, it's called a 'burn out', a switch to 'darker tones' had them working nights, and then it'll be hard enough to keep a straight face through the crap lines and senseless plot. (I swear somebody within must have intentional sabotage in mind, how else to explain the glaring dead/evil gay symbolism with Willow/Tara, it wasn't just that Tara died and Willow went evil, it was how it had happened)

In "Anne", Buffy doesn't want to be a slayer, again. She never asked to be one, she didn't chose she was chosen, she went along with it when push comes to shove. In Season One, Buffy didn't really fall into her role as a slayer until Willow and Xander's lives were endangered, she felt responsible because she was the one who told Willow to be more bold (and approached the cute guy who turned out to be of the bumpy forehead crowd). When Buffy overheard the prophecy that she would died if she goes to face the Master, she was understandably distressed and threw down her cross to quit, she was sixteen. She made the decision to go though after sitting with a very shaken Willow as the sun set; that morning, Willow and Cordelia went to visit Cordelia's jock friends only to find them all dead, a bloody handprint over the cartoon playing on TV. Willow said, 'it's like it's not our world anymore'.

Buffy couldn't run away from the reality of the world she's in though, that it is not 'normal' anymore, when she encounters again, 'Lily' (the vamp-wannabe 'Chantarelle' from S2's 'Lie To Me'), and discover that something demonic was picking off the teens living on the streets. They traces the disappearance to a religious shelter, The Family Home.

Buffy: You know, I just... I woke up, and I looked in the mirror, and I thought, hey, what's with all the sin? I need to change. I'm... I'm dirty. I'm, I'm bad with the... sex and the envy and that, that loud music us kids listen to nowadays. W... Oh, I just suck at undercover. Where's Ken?

...where the demon-in-disguise Ken kidnaps them by sending them through a portal to a dimension that is the worker's 19th century vision of hell; endless harsh physical toil in a noisy and heated factory where they are dehumanized and disconnected. The humans there age naturally, but as a day on earth is 100 years in hell, teens that are snatched in the morning are spat out old and broken by evening.

Ken's demon dimension is a good example of evil-as-order. Humans are forced into the highly disciplined life of factory slaves, stripped of their humanity and individuality. After they are released from hell, the now-elderly victims have no memory of their previous lives on Earth. For example, the homeless man who rudely pushes his way between Lily and Buffy was, in fact, Rickie, Lily's lover, but he shows no recognition of her. Ken's victims are also completely devoid of self-worth (evidenced by their repeated, "I'm no one."). The older Rickie seems instead intent on suicide, first throwing himself in front of a car (Buffy pushes him out of the way), then swallowing a bottle of drain cleaner.

- All Things Philosophical on BtVS and AtS

If there is any episode that got me to cry in good ways and very bad ones, it would be this one, there was such a grim sense of realism to it, and while Buffy was heroic and gains were made, there was still the Undefeated Evil. The portal closed after Buffy, Lily, and the group they were leading left. What about those that are still there? There was also this one line that struck with me, Ken was taunting Lily, about Rickie;

"He forgot you. Well, it took him a long time. He remembered your name years after he'd forgotten his own. But, in the end..."

So it is poetic justice that I took comfort in, that Lily was the one who got back at this particular demon:

...that was not permitted
Ken: Humans don't fight back. (enraged) Humans don't fight back! That's how this works! (to the guards with him) Get down there!

(the guards finally manage to overpower Buffy and bring her to Ken. He's got a big knife.)

Ken: One of you fights... and you all die! That... was not... permitted.

Buffy: Yeah, but it was fun.

Ken: (smiles) You've got guts. I think I'd like to slice you open and play with them. Let everyone know! *This* is the price of rebellio...

(He's about to slice into Buffy, but Lily shoves him off the ledge)

* Another lesson is, one person can make a difference, start something, without Lily's help Buffy could have been killed and without the others they might not have escaped, but each of them did make a difference, and in the end, isn't it better to try and at least 'have fun' in the process than just give in to failure?

I think I've been a cynic since I could read fluently, which was, age 5? Lately though, while I remain a skeptic, I am moving to unlearn that cynicism, to suspect the worse, but, also remain open to the possibility that there is a better world and that we could get there and every little good thing we do does make it at least a little better, and therefore, it is worth it.

...and I wish I could find clips of some of those scenes on Youtube, so far there are trailers, and then there is this, which started with crucial choice Buffy made when the factory demon manager got around to her;

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 3 in a nutshell, also a good music vid set to this song, Garbage - Temptation Waits (from Buffy Soundtrack).

The demon managers goes around asking the human slaves who they are, and if they answer anything other than 'no one', they get punished. Buffy chose to declare herself again, "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer", an identity she had earlier ran from. The transition of SMG's expression from contemplation to decision was very well done. ...and at the end, Buffy shows Lily around the apartment she had used, explaining that rent was paid for a month and that Lily can take up her old job, which Lily does under her new alias, one she kept, 'Anne'. I really loved the way those two played off each other here, Lily, someone from the time when Buffy was very sure of herself, and Buffy explaining to Lily that "These things happen all the time. You can't just... close your eyes and hope that they're gonna go away."

...I heart SMG and Joss and the rest of cast and crew so much! Joss says that the use of the sickle was unintentional, though he was pleased with the symbolism, awww, I think somebody in the cast or crew got it in though.

ETA, OMG:
Okay, so I still have to work up the nerve to see SMG as Karen in The Grudge (there really ought to be something stupid with me, that I have no problems with viewing graphic real life violence but are scared of cheese like The Ring, I was even scared by certain images in Pulse even though that movie totally completely sucked the suckage of which was intensify by the aftermath discovery that the friends who snuck out for popcorns actually went to see "Snakes On A Plane" which I had originally wanted to watch next door)...anyways guichosen made an 'intro' of it set to Nerf Herder's theme for Buffy:
The Grudge Opening Buffy Theme

btvs, buffy, vampire

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