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

[kikimay]

Buffy's brave because she knows that escaping from life is not a victory, even when it's the most easy or even needed thing to do.
The sex dream is sexy. Maybe, it's the sexiest scene between Angel and Buffy, except for the final bite. Also, Angel's always a missionary-guy, even with Darla. Pretty traditional the Angelcakes.

[boot_the_grime]

Also, Angel's always a missionary-guy, even with Darla. Pretty traditional the Angelcakes.

Heh. At least on the shows (until the comics came and screwed up that theory). I wonder how much of that was due to WB.

[itsnotmymind]

she pleads with him to do it because she loves him (despite wishing she could stop, because it’s too painful and because it gives him the power to hurt her so much)

Someone somewhere once pointed out the parallels between this scene, and the alley scene in "Dead Things".

I think someone ought to tell Buffy and Spike that if you are trying to convince a person not to engage in self-destructive behavior, talking about how much you really wish you didn't love them is probably not the best strategy.

He was her first love, and a source of great trauma, and the pain and guilt for sending him to hell only made it harder to let go; on some level, maybe it’s not just about saving his life; it’s about saving his soul (not literally) - she needs the only love she’s had up to that point to be a source of goodness and hope, not just badness and destruction.

That's a good point.

[boot_the_grime]

I think someone ought to tell Buffy and Spike that if you are trying to convince a person not to engage in self-destructive behavior, talking about how much you really wish you didn't love them is probably not the best strategy.

Ha. Good point. It's a very confusing message: "Don't do that, because I love you so much, but I wish I didn't (so in other words, you're a real burden to me"... ;-)

[norwie2010]

Re: The First's motivation

[boot_the_grime]

Great points!

But, that still doesn't explain, to quote the girl who asked Joss that question at the Humanist awards Q&A, why the First is so incompetent. ;) Or why it gives up so easily. Just one try with Angel, and that's it?

[norwie2010]

In "Amends", i don't think the First is really incompetent:

We have the Doylist reasons for the First giving up as in: There are more stories to tell, and Angel is "safe" for the moment - he won't turn evil on BtVS anymore. So onwards to other stories in BtVS!

Then we have the Watsonian, in-story reason: The First knows it has a formidable opponent (Buffy) who will fight tooth and nail against it and for the souled vampire.

But, of course, the big one: Angel himself rebukes the First's advancements in the end - with a twist: He doesn't believe in himself, he believes in some mystic forces who tell him he's "good" (special snowflake, hehehe!).

So, the First may well think "once you're away from Buffy, i'll get you anyways" (and, in hindsight, it is right! Considering AtS).

[boot_the_grime]

So, the First may well think "once you're away from Buffy, i'll get you anyways" (and, in hindsight, it is right! Considering AtS).

That's a nice theory, but one that requires lots of fanwank thanks to the fact that the First is completely ignored on AtS the way that the Powers That Be are ignored on BtVS, most of the time.

Besides, Wolfram & Hart provided the amulet that defeated the First (the Senior Partners don't like competition on their turf?) and Angel brought it to Buffy - so, the First didn't do a good job.

[ever_neutral]

He didn't actually do all he did to Buffy, he did it to bystanders, and while she may know it intellectually, she didn't feel what it's like. (That’s why I feel more discomfort about Buffy forgiving Angel that I don't feel about Buffy forgiving Spike for the AR, because she had to forgive Angel for the things he did to others, and I'm not sure if anyone has a right to forgive someone for things they did to other people.)

Yep. I do love the "you did it to me" line, I don't think it's at all meant to be objective, it's purely emotional (and I love that Buffy says "YOU did it"). But on hindsight, you can see how many risks Joss in fact DIDN'T take with the Angelus arc.

The dream sex scene itself isn’t kinky, it’s missionary and as vanilla as the one in Innocence

LOL. All of Angel's sex scenes are so missionary, it's hilarious. Granted, this one is still more erotic than most Angel/Buffy scenes.

[local_max]

Well, Drusilla in Destiny was not missionary....

[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