Last year around this time I looked into my crystal ball and predicted that Buffy and Spike
(of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer of course) would end in a lip lock at the very least. At the time, David Fury, a writer for the show, and many fans felt the world would explode if that happened. At alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer, fans were evenly divided last year about the romance issue. Well, the world did explode, Buffy died in last year’s season finale, and was resurrected by the now-magically-compulsive Willow. And I got my predicted lip lock. Katrina, another fan of the Buffy/ Spike romance, wrote the following at alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer: “I’ve seen it suggested that teen girls are fueling the whole B/S thing. As a 30 year-old mother of one, B/S is what got me watching the show again after 3 years away."

So when I got a desperate e-mail from a friend who worried that Willow and Tara may be history, I decided to look into my crystal ball again. Mind you, I don’t usually do spoilers or dig for insider information. It’s far more fun to read human nature and make guesses about the mind of His Evilness, Joss Whedon, and Her Evilness, Marti Noxon, now the lead writer on the show this season.

So for my predictions... I don't believe Willow and Tara are finished. I think this season’s theme is about how people can be each other's redemption. Spike’s love for Buffy was his key to redemption. He's the first who's been dramatically redeemed among the Scooby gang, but still has some redemption to go of course. Spike gets fangy some of the time and we love him for it. And Buffy desperately needs Spike to help her find inside herself what she feels she lost. It will be a dirty, deep work, requiring ugly pain (not unfamiliar to us Buffy fans), a perfect battle for Spike and something that will enhance his continuing growth. Giles was wise in realizing he wasn't the man for the job. He was the nurturing daddy who couldn’t help Buffy through this dark place.

As for Willow, she's the classic codependent who feels she buys her love and worthiness by
fixing everything. She didn't get much love as a child and believes she can only get love now by being a magic meddler. I think many fans will remember episodes with Willow’s family where she was treated as little more than the furniture. Willow misses the fact that she's enough, and their imperfect life and struggle is just fine with Tara. It is Tara who is Willow's ultimate redemption. Joss and gang have invested way too much in developing these threads to toss them away so cavalierly. Willow needs Tara. Period.

But right now, Willow needs a Magic 12 Step Group. They are playing with the thread of compulsive behavior in young adulthood. Willow can't control her compulsion to use magic, thinks it doesn't control her, yet she wreaks havoc for everyone around her. She sees it, but can't stop it, thus her pain deepens, and she uses yet more magic to make herself feel better.

Tara is right in separating from her now, because Willow's behavior is way out of control. Tara has healthy boundaries. But if this story is to have a happy ending, the understanding “wife" comes back, the alcoholic pulls themselves up by their boot straps after bottoming out, and can finally be present for their wife in a whole new and glorious way. Happy little tweety birds sing, and Bambi frolics in the flowers. I predict we’ve only seen shades of the havoc Willow will create this season, but I predict happy meadows and frolicking deer babies for the very last episode. Or Willow will fail and die, the downside of compulsive behavior.

Right now, Dawn and Xander are in clear denial about Willow's problem (Xander's "Buffy's alive... this is good" and Dawn's refusal to hug Tara goodbye). But finally, Willow will do something that will disgust them. And then further in the season, she will do something that totally disgusts herself, and she will see her problem in a whole new way.