The artificial mind

5.10: "Into the Woods"
5.12: "Checkpoint"
5.13: "Blood Ties"


Throughout the series the Watcher's Counsel has displayed an unwillingness to actually consider the "big picture" of its own purpose. In some of the in-between episodes that we weren't assigned to watch for class, Faith awakens from her coma and, with one final trinket from the Mayor, switches bodies with Buffy. Of course, "Buffy" creates utter havoc, but when the Watcher's Counsel arrives to take "Faith" away, they do not even listen or entertain the possibility that something extraordinary could have occured. This, the overarching group that is supposed to deal in the supernatural and the paranormal—but time and time again, they show a petty preference for the superficial and the human institution rather than concern for what is meant to be their ultimate goal: the destruction of evil. Like the Initiative, their failure to accept or fully understand the otherwordly nature of what they're dealing with has practically destroyed the organization itself: both Faith and Buffy rejected them, each in her own way.

Unfortunately for the reputation of the Counsel, I actually see a lot of parallels between their behavior and that of Glory's. Since Glory is a "hell god" and is of course immortal, she views the lives of others as having no value and doesn't even blink when the Byzantine knights kill most of her recent minions. Her followers have been as innumerable as the years of her existence, and so are all the same to her. The Counsel also never thinks of itself in terms of the "obsolete" or even "mortal," but as a continuing organization that will continue to exist as long as the world does. They fail to recognize that there cannot truly be the Counsel without the Slayer—that the purpose of one is void without the existence and support of the other—and view her as expendable, as Glory sees the status of her minions.

Never has the intervention of the Watcher's Counsel been less welcome. For one thing, their behavior and expectations are both absolutely ludicrous, as Buffy points out in the episode's final "showdown." One of the Cousel's biggest problems is that they focus so much on evil that they forget to preserve the good: clearly, perhaps because of their counter-productive self-focus, they do not attempt to make any special effort to keep the Slayer alive, whoever she may be.

Moving on the the situation with Dawn, I keep coming back to the movie Blade Runner, in which the Harrison Ford character hunts down rebel replicants. He meets a very convincing female replicant who fully believes herself to be human, as she has been programmed with a collection of memories—and the case of Dawn's creation really reminds me of her. In the robot April, as well, is the same question of whether or not what she does is something that has sprung from her own real purpose or from the overruling purpose of those who made her—aka, the "free will" issue. Clearly this notion of a manmade thing that considers itself "human" and has human actions, interactions, and emotions is an idea that has been repeatedly raised in many facets of popular culture: The Sixth Day, Artificial Intelligence, etc., and is one that apparently fascinates Joss Whedon (also in his new series Dollhouse),