A thought on B/A in S3
For most of us, I think, the B/A relationship in S3 is very frustrating. The two of them seem to go backwards and forwards with no real rhyme or reason until Angel finally leaves at the end of the season.
I watched ‘Lover’s Walk’ last night (happy sigh). This brought on some thoughts and I *think* I might have found a reasonable excuse for the behaviour:
In ‘Lover’s Walk’ of course, Buffy gives Angel that wonderful speech that she seemed to completely forget come season’s end:
Buffy: We're not friends. We never were. And I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can't fool myself. (shakes her head) Or Spike, for some reason. What I want from you I can never have. You don't need me to take care of you anymore. So I'm gonna go.
Now of course Spike’s visit and insights helped this along, but something else happens in this episode too: They get their SAT scores. And Buffy’s are very good. It gets mentioned over and over again, although of course Cordelia is the most blunt:
Cordelia: Well, I think this is great! Now you can leave and never come back!
For the first time since she was called, Buffy can actually contemplate a future without Slaying. A future where she might not die young. And all that’s keeping her in Sunnydale really is - Angel. He’s very much part of the Slayer-side of her I think. A Slayer doesn’t think about the future, about children and education. A Slayer can have a boyfriend who doesn’t age, because she probably won’t ever get old. But if she can leave... that changes things. If she can let Faith be Miss Sunnydale in the Slayer Pageant, then where does that leave Angel? If there is the possibility for a normal life, she has to let go of those things that can’t work.
The events of “Amends’ do not help. She’s suddenly desperate not to lose him completely - to be abandoned. So in the next few episodes she appears to have forgotten the lesson she learned in ‘Lover’s Walk’ - she tries to ‘be friends’.
But then of course Faith goes over to the dark side. And I think that with her new shiny future suddenly taken away, Buffy falls back on Angel. She is the Slayer again. She won’t be leaving Sunnydale. The normal life that she might have had has vanished, so why not hook up with him again? Of course it doesn’t work like that...
ETA: Why does Angel stay for so long? I think it's important to remember that he spent the previous 100 years doing nothing much at all - and the last 20 living on the streets. Buffy was his mission, his reason to change his life. Without her what would he do?
I watched ‘Lover’s Walk’ last night (happy sigh). This brought on some thoughts and I *think* I might have found a reasonable excuse for the behaviour:
In ‘Lover’s Walk’ of course, Buffy gives Angel that wonderful speech that she seemed to completely forget come season’s end:
Buffy: We're not friends. We never were. And I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can't fool myself. (shakes her head) Or Spike, for some reason. What I want from you I can never have. You don't need me to take care of you anymore. So I'm gonna go.
Now of course Spike’s visit and insights helped this along, but something else happens in this episode too: They get their SAT scores. And Buffy’s are very good. It gets mentioned over and over again, although of course Cordelia is the most blunt:
Cordelia: Well, I think this is great! Now you can leave and never come back!
For the first time since she was called, Buffy can actually contemplate a future without Slaying. A future where she might not die young. And all that’s keeping her in Sunnydale really is - Angel. He’s very much part of the Slayer-side of her I think. A Slayer doesn’t think about the future, about children and education. A Slayer can have a boyfriend who doesn’t age, because she probably won’t ever get old. But if she can leave... that changes things. If she can let Faith be Miss Sunnydale in the Slayer Pageant, then where does that leave Angel? If there is the possibility for a normal life, she has to let go of those things that can’t work.
The events of “Amends’ do not help. She’s suddenly desperate not to lose him completely - to be abandoned. So in the next few episodes she appears to have forgotten the lesson she learned in ‘Lover’s Walk’ - she tries to ‘be friends’.
But then of course Faith goes over to the dark side. And I think that with her new shiny future suddenly taken away, Buffy falls back on Angel. She is the Slayer again. She won’t be leaving Sunnydale. The normal life that she might have had has vanished, so why not hook up with him again? Of course it doesn’t work like that...
ETA: Why does Angel stay for so long? I think it's important to remember that he spent the previous 100 years doing nothing much at all - and the last 20 living on the streets. Buffy was his mission, his reason to change his life. Without her what would he do?