... with a vengeance

7.5: Selfless
7.6: Him
7.11: Showtime

I know this is a bit out of order, but I wrote about the wrong episodes in my previous blog . . . Oops, my apologies again.

It was really interesting how all the different usages of the word "selfless" from the title of the episode came across in the show. It signified a complete change of heart for Anya herself: the "first" time we see her in old Norway, or wherever she's supposed to be living with Olaf, she takes her revenge on him by turning him into a troll. The act of vengeance in and of itself is notorious for its general self-centered-ness. "Vengeance" is viewed as something undesirable, an actually bad thing, in most circles, really unless you're a Vengeance Demon. Buffy and her circle of friends basically agree on that point. Dictionary.net defines "vengeance" as "Punishment inflicted in return for an injury or an offense; retribution; often, in a bad sense, passionate or unrestrained revenge," as I've pointed out. Anyanka, Halfrick, and D'Hoffryn's forms of vengeance are always of the second type: revenge without consideration for other simultaneous consequences, it's always vengeance WITH a vengeance, if you will.

Since Anya became human again, she had the chance to learn something of many human attributes, such as compassion (or at least to take the edge off of her literal-ness) and the ability to recognize some sort of delineation between right and wrong. Finally, being human changed her most importantly into someone who can give of herself; in spite of all her protestations and even her rehearsed awkward, amusing semi-feminist wedding vows in "Hell's Bells," she has fallen in love, with all its emotional and spiritual intricacies. She is now able to look beyond the absolute present and her own wishes and desires and consider those of other people. Most pointedly, those of her victims. She "turned her back to please the crowd." It is, I think, yet another credit to Xander, in a lot of ways: Anya is over a thousand years old. She has come across many people and tortured and killed many men, but it's chiefly because of Xander and their love (only briefly happy, but ever honest) that this absolute change came about. Now, she is so much less self-centered she is a different person, even if she fears that she is "self-less" in the sense of not having a "self."

I enjoyed the episode "Him" in a lot of ways; like "Restless," it's a sort of outside force that happens to several of the main characters. Each one is affected in different ways, and reacts to the problem with their own specific style. In Dawn's case, she is the classic besotted teenager: "It's NOT . . . a crush. This is true love!!" When she realizes that she will never get him, she lies down on the railroad track. There's a very angsty teen reaction for you: "If I DIE then everyone will be sorry. That'll teach them." Buffy takes charge of the situation by obviously steering their "relationship," then planning to kill the principal to show RJ how much she "loves" him. Willow almost turns him into a girl; Anya reverts to breaking the law to impress him. These are all pretty selfish motivations, I must say; typical of any infatuation that isn't real and solid, unlike Anya and Xander's relationship, which I discussed earlier.

"Showtime" is distinctly awesome. Buffy, Willow, and Xander's plan to lure the uber-vamp to a better battleground was classic, and the fight was terrific. It certainly does seem that we're coming full circle in so many ways, especially in this episode. I know we discussed the repetition of the phrase, "Here endeth the first lesson," and "Welcome to the Hellmouth," but there are other parallels between the first season and seventh here as well.

Although the potentials are not yet Slayers and Buffy WAS the Slayer, she was neither comfortable in nor knowledgeable of her role, which can certainly be said for each of the girls currently lodging at the Summers home (a sort of replacement for the old Sunnydale High Library of yester-season). She had a guide: Giles, her Watcher. For several seasons now, however, Giles has been out of the picture, or at least he has stepped out of his particular previous role in the life of the Slayer and the Scooby Gang. Instead of Giles, the new potentials have Buffy. Her friends, too, but mostly Buffy. She is guiding them, training them, teaching them the history as well as the generic and even harsh facts about BEING the Slayer. She is probably going to be, in many ways, a much better teacher than Giles was, simply because she HAS "been there, done that." Adding this to her new job as the guidance counselor, it's very clear that we see Buffy's clear coming UP the outside of the cycle, emerging as a true crone in all the positive ways; aka, she's still "quite youthful, AND peppy."