More thoughts about "Anne": Buffy's depression arc (2/?)

[red_satin_doll]

Note to self: Try rewatch an episode before writing meta about it.  Because I rewatched "Anne" this morning, and it's even better than I remembered.  In fact, I can say that it and "Bargaining" are my favorite season openers (Note to everyone else: I cannot get the lj cut tag to work, in either rich text or html, even after much effort.  So I

Comments

[beer_good_foamy]

We tend to think of S6 (and late S5) as the "depression arc" but the show has been very careful to build that aspect of Buffy's character from the beginning of S2.

Great catch. There's definitely shades of it from the very beginning, but yeah, "Anne" is where it's allowed to come to the fore for the first time. That soup scene is just heartbreaking.

The juxtaposition of "Anne" and "After Life" is interesting. Quick thought - depending on your definition of "hope", the Buffyverse heaven doesn't seem to offer that anymore than hell does. It offers escape, not having to think about things you're no longer a part of, but strictly speaking it doesn't offer hope that things might get better - just acceptance.

Lily (a sort of proto-Potential, if you will)

I will, and I will add that the very last episode of Angel
[Spoiler (click to open)]
lets Lily/Anne reappear to specifically take on the (positive side of the) "Buffy" role; training and inspiring others, continuing the war even in the face of overwhelming odds, snarking at anyone who tells her she should just give up already.

BUFFY: I'm Buffy. The Vampire Slayer. And you are...? (...) Anyone who's not having fun here, follow me.

ANNE: I'd get this truck packed before the new stuff gets here. Wanna give me a hand?

(Of course, Anne also ends up basically dedicating her life to the struggle - all we know about her life is that her office has a mattress.)

[red_satin_doll]

That soup scene is just heartbreaking.

YES. So much so - and part of the impact for me comes from the fact that I KNOW that feeling, of barely being able to care for oneself because you're so depressed you don't care, you don't deserve to take care of yourself, and can't even summon the energy for the simplest tasks. It's one of the best, most realistic portrayals of depression I think I've seen in TV or movies.

It offers escape, not having to think about things you're no longer a part of, but strictly speaking it doesn't offer hope that things might get better - just acceptance.

I'm not sure that "hope" is the function of "heaven", though, at least as we define it culturally (beyond "gee I hope I get to Heaven when I die?") The Judeo-Christian idea is eternal reward for goodness (which seems to center less around good deeds and more worshipping the right god (although the NT version that Jesus - not to get religious on you, I pretty sure I'm an atheist at the moment - complicated that quite a bit, re: Mary and Martha (actions vs intent or "being"); the post-Christian idea seems to center around the ideal of eternal rest. And I think what people who feel suicidal long for is "rest"; I know in my worst times I have simply wanted to go to sleep and haven't cared about anything beyond that. When I'm at that point, hope isn't even on the menu.

Buffy certainly isn't religious and I don't think "hope" is even in her thoughts in the Gift - she thinks she's going to a Hell dimension - her duty (protect Dawn, fulfill the promise to her mother, save the world), and the desire for "rest" are what motivate her. (Wanting to be out of pain is not the same thing as wanting to die.) If she calls it "heaven" - and she says "I think I was in heaven", and says to Spike in AL that she doesn't know theology, all she knows is that she was happy - she's simply labeling her experience as such because it matches the cultural idea that she's been raised with. Just a people who have near-death experiences describe something that matches the general ideas of the culture and religion they've been raised with.

In some ways, Buffy's experience matches descriptions I've read of "near-death experiences" by people in North America, mostly: the almost blinding but comforting white light, and being drawn to it (as Buffy is in the Gift), then being pulled away with the knowledge that "it's not your time".

Re: Lily/Anne, I'd heard that she comes back in AtS; it sounds from your description that a lot of that final season in some ways is "About" Buffy but "not" Buffy - the effects Buffy has had on others and her legacies rather than her actual presence?