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Five great Buffy moments, five great Spuffy moments.
I’m a hundred years behind everyone else on this, but I’ve really enjoyed reading people’s contributions and pondering which moments I’ve found most memorable in Buffy (not Angel, because I only joined Angel for S5).
At the risk of sounding like a squeeing hormone-driven fangrrrl, I have to admit that, for me, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is really Spike the Vampire. Right from the start, I found the character utterly compelling, and whilst I greatly enjoy the other characters and situations that crop up alongside his storyline, or intersect with it, I lose interest in them very rapidly if there is no Spike in the episode at all (with one noteworthy exception, that I will get onto in a minute). But in the course trying to choose five great Buffy (erm, Spike) moments I discovered that there are five episodes that are so consistently wonderful that it’s impossible to identify any one segment that stands out as better than the rest. There have been bucketfuls of notable moments throughout the series, but a handful of episodes consist almost entirely of great moments, interwoven so skilfully that they’re impossible to separate. And funnily enough, there are five of them and this was pure coincidence – it’s also a coincidence that th there’s one from each season, from S3 on). So instead of a list of Five Moments to be Thankful For, I’ve ended up with a list of Five Episodes To Be Utterly Thankful For:
Band Candy
This not only contains one of the all-time great lines (“I’m your watcher so you do what I say. Now sod off!”) it is also riveting viewing from beginning to end, thanks to the magnificent performances by the regressed adults . Giles, Joyce, Principal Snyder (Oh, god! Principal Snyder! “There are some foxy ladies here tonight!” “Summers, you drive like a spaz!”), in fact all the wrinklies without exception turn in performances that are knicker-wetting in their accuracy (and leave the juvenile leads looking insipid in comparison), and yet the hilarity has an undertone of sadness in the regret for lost youth. the absurdity of the staid old folks behaving like bright young things, all energy and egotism, not bowed down by cares and responsibilities but free to pursue sex and drugs and rock and roll. The scene with Giles and Joyce, back behind the wall of their adult identies, terrified that the subject of their illicit intimacy will come up, points up the tragedy of the aging process, not just the physical decay of the body but the subordination of the self to the demands of others and of society. Oh, and Ethan Rayne is in top form as well.
Pangs
Thanksgiving isn’t a festival I have any first-hand experience of, but I still find this deconstruction of it both terribly funny and surprisingly profound. The question of the guilt and responsibility that subsequent generations must bear has particular relevnace for me, since I’m married to an Austrian – one of my grandfathers-in-law was in the SS, the other was a member of the Nazi party right at the beginning when it was still an illegal organistion. In Pangs – as later in my beloved LMPTM – neither side in the argument is presented as right. Willow and Buffy in the role of bleeding heart liberals are prepared to justify Xander’s funny syphillis and don’t fight back until it’s almost too late. Giles’s rational observations are shown up in all their heartlessness by having them supported by Evil Spike. From Giles’s intellectual position alone, it’s possible to predict the man who would later kill Ben. In the end, faced with the choice between principles and survival, even Willow joins the Seventh Cavalry, but what else could they do? And of course it’s a very cunning way of finessing Spike into the Scooby gang without back-pedalling on his evilness, as Buffy and co grudgingly accept his presence in the spirit of Thanksgiving.
Intervention
Oh Intervention, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love the Buffybot – a concept which in the abstract is, frankly, rather icky is here made not only humorous but charming. The Buffybot herself is a delight, and she is set against my absolute favourite incarnation of the real Buffy, strong, determined, capable, serious when necessary but witty with it (“The ancient shamans were called upon to do the hokey-pokey and tunr themselves around”), dressed not like a fashion model but in sensible yet flattering blacks and browns. I could believe this Buffy saves the world on a regular basis (plus her face when she finds out about the Bot is absolutely priceless). Glory is also at her very best in this episode, terrifyingly unpredictable and magnificently self-absorbed. Her scene with Spike is hugely entertaining and yet the violence just manages to be convincing, and the expression “Good plan, Spike!” has become part of my family’s vocabulary. And he did deserve the kiss at the end.
OMWF
I won’t bore everyone with more laudatii (laudaitiae? whatever)
Sleeper
Perhaps you have to have a Spikecentric view of the Buffyverse to enjoy Sleeper as much as I do, but the fact remains that I really, really love it. That close-up focus on Spike’s journey into himself, the fact that he’s killing again even though he doesn’t want to. It’s like his chipless days all over again in microcosm, a way of making all that guilt not just historical but present, evil he’s committed in the here and now. The scene where he’s wandering through the Bronze with Aimee Mann’s song in the bacground gets me every time. This is also the start of the Spike/Buffy S7 closeness, where he turns to her for help and she’s finally able to offer it, to move on from ‘Ask me again why I can never love you’ to something new and different. And of course there’s Anya, relived as all hell that she’s managed to deflect Spike’s suspicions, but genuinely hurt when he rejects her pretend advances – “You think I’m fat, don’t you?” For that scene alone I would worship at Emma Caulfield’s feet. We also get an Intervention-like Buffy, serious, determined and competent, once again taking the weight of decisions on her shoulders and, like Spike, foiling the First’s plans by not behaving as expected.
As for the Spuffy moments (parsing “Spuffy” in the broadest possible sense):
Spike practising giving chocolates to the dummy, working himself up into a rage and beating it over the head. It’s so damn funny they way he’s his own worst enemy.
Spike racing up the tower in The Gift (it counts as a Spuffy moment because he does it for Buffy). I adore the entire sequence, from the moment he obeys Willow’s order although it seems impossible, through that wild race up the stairs, the attack on Doc, even though he hasn’t got a soul, and then the catastrophic ending. He wants so much to be a hero, and yet he fails, and the consequences of that failure are so terrible.
The sex scene in Smashed. Can’t be left out. I know I’ve led a sheltered life, TV wise (what with not having one and all) but it’s the single emost erotic sexual encounter I’ve ever seen on film.
The vignette in Selfless, where Spike thinks he’s talking to Buffy, and then the real, not-so-pleasant Buffy shows up. I think this is possibly my favourite sequence in the whole of the series. I love the economy with which it’s told (Spike’s inability to ask for help, Buffy’s apparent sympathy, his laconic description of his own madness, at first narrated obliquely via the story about Dru). I infinitely prefer it to the church scene in Beneath You, which I found embarrassingly overblown (I’m British; we’re inhibited) and also when Spike drapes himself over the cross I’m always distracted by the very obvious smoke machine puffing away behind it. But Selfless covers the same ground with grace and subtlety. I’m always riveted by the expression on Spike’s face when the real Buffy suddenly marches in and interrupts what he thought was reality – you can still see his hand gently resting on the back of his neck, where First!Buffy was stroking his hair. It’s such a perfect insight into what it’s like for him, trying and failing to keep track of what is real and what isn’t.
The basement scene in NLM, which is the basis for my S7 icon. I love this encounter. It’s lit so beautifully, both of them in darkness, but with Buffy illuminated by a pool of golden light from the bulb above the sink, and Spike in silver moonlight. He’s trying to convince her he’s a monster, getting more and more dramatic about it; she clings stubbornly to her conviction that he can be a good man, meeting his histrionics with (mostly) quiet faith. I love how matter-of-factly she comes in and starts cleaning the blood off his face after kicking him in the head, and how gentle she is. It’s a wonderful piece of dialogue and beautifully filmed.
I’m a hundred years behind everyone else on this, but I’ve really enjoyed reading people’s contributions and pondering which moments I’ve found most memorable in Buffy (not Angel, because I only joined Angel for S5).
At the risk of sounding like a squeeing hormone-driven fangrrrl, I have to admit that, for me, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is really Spike the Vampire. Right from the start, I found the character utterly compelling, and whilst I greatly enjoy the other characters and situations that crop up alongside his storyline, or intersect with it, I lose interest in them very rapidly if there is no Spike in the episode at all (with one noteworthy exception, that I will get onto in a minute). But in the course trying to choose five great Buffy (erm, Spike) moments I discovered that there are five episodes that are so consistently wonderful that it’s impossible to identify any one segment that stands out as better than the rest. There have been bucketfuls of notable moments throughout the series, but a handful of episodes consist almost entirely of great moments, interwoven so skilfully that they’re impossible to separate. And funnily enough, there are five of them and this was pure coincidence – it’s also a coincidence that th there’s one from each season, from S3 on). So instead of a list of Five Moments to be Thankful For, I’ve ended up with a list of Five Episodes To Be Utterly Thankful For:
Band Candy
This not only contains one of the all-time great lines (“I’m your watcher so you do what I say. Now sod off!”) it is also riveting viewing from beginning to end, thanks to the magnificent performances by the regressed adults . Giles, Joyce, Principal Snyder (Oh, god! Principal Snyder! “There are some foxy ladies here tonight!” “Summers, you drive like a spaz!”), in fact all the wrinklies without exception turn in performances that are knicker-wetting in their accuracy (and leave the juvenile leads looking insipid in comparison), and yet the hilarity has an undertone of sadness in the regret for lost youth. the absurdity of the staid old folks behaving like bright young things, all energy and egotism, not bowed down by cares and responsibilities but free to pursue sex and drugs and rock and roll. The scene with Giles and Joyce, back behind the wall of their adult identies, terrified that the subject of their illicit intimacy will come up, points up the tragedy of the aging process, not just the physical decay of the body but the subordination of the self to the demands of others and of society. Oh, and Ethan Rayne is in top form as well.
Pangs
Thanksgiving isn’t a festival I have any first-hand experience of, but I still find this deconstruction of it both terribly funny and surprisingly profound. The question of the guilt and responsibility that subsequent generations must bear has particular relevnace for me, since I’m married to an Austrian – one of my grandfathers-in-law was in the SS, the other was a member of the Nazi party right at the beginning when it was still an illegal organistion. In Pangs – as later in my beloved LMPTM – neither side in the argument is presented as right. Willow and Buffy in the role of bleeding heart liberals are prepared to justify Xander’s funny syphillis and don’t fight back until it’s almost too late. Giles’s rational observations are shown up in all their heartlessness by having them supported by Evil Spike. From Giles’s intellectual position alone, it’s possible to predict the man who would later kill Ben. In the end, faced with the choice between principles and survival, even Willow joins the Seventh Cavalry, but what else could they do? And of course it’s a very cunning way of finessing Spike into the Scooby gang without back-pedalling on his evilness, as Buffy and co grudgingly accept his presence in the spirit of Thanksgiving.
Intervention
Oh Intervention, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love the Buffybot – a concept which in the abstract is, frankly, rather icky is here made not only humorous but charming. The Buffybot herself is a delight, and she is set against my absolute favourite incarnation of the real Buffy, strong, determined, capable, serious when necessary but witty with it (“The ancient shamans were called upon to do the hokey-pokey and tunr themselves around”), dressed not like a fashion model but in sensible yet flattering blacks and browns. I could believe this Buffy saves the world on a regular basis (plus her face when she finds out about the Bot is absolutely priceless). Glory is also at her very best in this episode, terrifyingly unpredictable and magnificently self-absorbed. Her scene with Spike is hugely entertaining and yet the violence just manages to be convincing, and the expression “Good plan, Spike!” has become part of my family’s vocabulary. And he did deserve the kiss at the end.
OMWF
I won’t bore everyone with more laudatii (laudaitiae? whatever)
Sleeper
Perhaps you have to have a Spikecentric view of the Buffyverse to enjoy Sleeper as much as I do, but the fact remains that I really, really love it. That close-up focus on Spike’s journey into himself, the fact that he’s killing again even though he doesn’t want to. It’s like his chipless days all over again in microcosm, a way of making all that guilt not just historical but present, evil he’s committed in the here and now. The scene where he’s wandering through the Bronze with Aimee Mann’s song in the bacground gets me every time. This is also the start of the Spike/Buffy S7 closeness, where he turns to her for help and she’s finally able to offer it, to move on from ‘Ask me again why I can never love you’ to something new and different. And of course there’s Anya, relived as all hell that she’s managed to deflect Spike’s suspicions, but genuinely hurt when he rejects her pretend advances – “You think I’m fat, don’t you?” For that scene alone I would worship at Emma Caulfield’s feet. We also get an Intervention-like Buffy, serious, determined and competent, once again taking the weight of decisions on her shoulders and, like Spike, foiling the First’s plans by not behaving as expected.
As for the Spuffy moments (parsing “Spuffy” in the broadest possible sense):
Spike practising giving chocolates to the dummy, working himself up into a rage and beating it over the head. It’s so damn funny they way he’s his own worst enemy.
Spike racing up the tower in The Gift (it counts as a Spuffy moment because he does it for Buffy). I adore the entire sequence, from the moment he obeys Willow’s order although it seems impossible, through that wild race up the stairs, the attack on Doc, even though he hasn’t got a soul, and then the catastrophic ending. He wants so much to be a hero, and yet he fails, and the consequences of that failure are so terrible.
The sex scene in Smashed. Can’t be left out. I know I’ve led a sheltered life, TV wise (what with not having one and all) but it’s the single emost erotic sexual encounter I’ve ever seen on film.
The vignette in Selfless, where Spike thinks he’s talking to Buffy, and then the real, not-so-pleasant Buffy shows up. I think this is possibly my favourite sequence in the whole of the series. I love the economy with which it’s told (Spike’s inability to ask for help, Buffy’s apparent sympathy, his laconic description of his own madness, at first narrated obliquely via the story about Dru). I infinitely prefer it to the church scene in Beneath You, which I found embarrassingly overblown (I’m British; we’re inhibited) and also when Spike drapes himself over the cross I’m always distracted by the very obvious smoke machine puffing away behind it. But Selfless covers the same ground with grace and subtlety. I’m always riveted by the expression on Spike’s face when the real Buffy suddenly marches in and interrupts what he thought was reality – you can still see his hand gently resting on the back of his neck, where First!Buffy was stroking his hair. It’s such a perfect insight into what it’s like for him, trying and failing to keep track of what is real and what isn’t.
The basement scene in NLM, which is the basis for my S7 icon. I love this encounter. It’s lit so beautifully, both of them in darkness, but with Buffy illuminated by a pool of golden light from the bulb above the sink, and Spike in silver moonlight. He’s trying to convince her he’s a monster, getting more and more dramatic about it; she clings stubbornly to her conviction that he can be a good man, meeting his histrionics with (mostly) quiet faith. I love how matter-of-factly she comes in and starts cleaning the blood off his face after kicking him in the head, and how gentle she is. It’s a wonderful piece of dialogue and beautifully filmed.