And I'm supposed to help you out of the evilness of my heart?

4.12: "A New Man"
4.14: "Goodbye, Iowa"
4.19: "New Moon Rising"


In episode 12, "A New Man," I found several uses of humor common to the show in general to be particularly prevalent. This seems to be a recurring motif: an antagonist stands in the foreground, and ominous music plays as the camera zooms in on his face as he makes some wrathful proclamation—when, lo and behold, something or someone interrupts their monologue and destroys their "cool." It has tended to happen to Spike from his very first appearance. As his situation is undeniably ironic (the big-talking, streetwise vampire who is invariably beaten by the little blonde Slayer), his constant loss of face really helps to hone the humor and define the duality of his character.


In "A New Man," Spike suffers the same fate yet again: while careening around street corners in Giles's ancient sedan to escape the Initiative agents, Spike grins mockingly at the Humvees in the rearview mirror. Immediately after making a particularly insolent boast, he slams the car into a brick wall. (As Buffy herself notes, "That would probably have sounded more convincing if I wasn't wearing my yummy sushi pajamas.") It's the type of laugh-out-loud "surprise" humor that reminds the viewers that the writers like to keep you guessing; it's a fascinating dichotomy. While on the one hand, the show is very detailed in its exploration of emotions, situations, and relationships between characters, on the other hand it acknowledges its own paradoxes, often poking fun at itself, its people, and its plots and conveniences. In "Something Blue" (which was tragic for the class to have skipped), Spike tells Buffy, even in the midst of their accidental engagement, that "Buffy" is an "awful name." I think this is something important to note, in that the very title of the show has actually—to my own personal knowledge—turned many people away from the show. They think that the name is, and I quote, "dumb" and "sounds stupid." However, the title itself is one manifestation of the series' own unusual mixture of humor and seriousness: that a girl with a preppie name like "Buffy" could possibly be the Slayer, the one fighting terrible forces of evil, is both ridiculous and a nice twist.


Another aspect of the show that is becoming much more well-defined (especially since the introduction of Riley) is the fact that, with the monsters, there are "gray areas." This is a constant theme of the blurring of the lines between good and evil: Angel is a vampire—but good, because he has a soul. Now Spike, also a vampire, remains "bad," but thanks to the Initiative has been rendered unable to harm the "good" and so can no longer act on his evil instincts; does this make him, also, like Angel, "good"? Most people agree that "talk is cheap": it is not our words but our actions that define who and what we are, as well as where our hearts lie—but as Spike says, if he could, he would most certainly kill Buffy and the entire "Scooby gang," and judging by his past actions, that is the case. Of course, even if he could attack humans again, Buffy still might stymie him; that seems to be the story of his life, the poor blighter.


But as Riley comes to realize in "New Moon Rising," the lines are less definite than he had previously understood in his "soldierly" way of not asking questions. Once he has been exposed to more one-on-one interaction with the creatures of darkness to which Buffy and her friends have long been accustomed, he comes to his own conclusions and does exactly what Buffy would have done—and actually, what she did when she saved Angel's life and quit the Watcher's Council. Giles also showed behavioral signs similar to these when Wesley showed up to be Buffy's new Watcher; once Riley is completely free of the totalitarian authority of the Initiative, his and Buffy's understanding of one another's character will deepen, and they will certainly come to trust one another more.