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It must’ve been that new crystal ball I bought, but the Buffy predictions from my last
column have come to pass witin only two weeks. Didn’t have to wait a year like I did for
the Buffy & Spike connection. Willow’s a mess, having gone off the magical deep end,
casting spells she can’t control, hanging with magical “pushers," having sick magical
detox reactions.
And superheroes Buffy and Spike smashed up a house and each other in a cataclysmic errr…
“union." As for the Buffy episode being called "Wrecked": I think it should be renamed
to "Is Spike the Only One Here Who's Sane?" This episode was the darkest Buffy ever.
Never thought it could get any darker, except when Buffy discovered her mother’s dead body
from natural causes in "the Body."
“Wrecked" or Buffy and Spike’s “morning after," written by Marti Noxon, was an incredible
combination of love, lust and self-loathing. It’s wonderful to see a scene this masterful
which combines all these conflicting feelings and emotions. James Marsters (Spike) and
Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) delivered Emmy-worthy performances in a set up that mirrors
the complexity and irony of the most gut-wrenching “West Wing" scenes.
Is Spike good for Buffy and Buffy good for Spike? I think the answer is “yes" and “yes,"
although Spike may be the only one who consciously realizes this at this point. It’s a
classic story: Bad boy falls for good girl, finds his heart. Good girl has her self-image
challenged by falling for bad body and fights her feelings at every turn.
At the alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer newsgroup, Swan and Rat sums it up best: “I see it as rather
like Rhett and Scarlett in “Gone With The Wind." Spike may not be what Buffy thinks she
wants, but he is what she really wants, what she should want, and the partner who is
right for her. My fear/hope/expectation is that, as with Scarlett, when Buffy finally
realizes she is in love with Spike and wants to stay with him, Spike will have gotten
(quite reasonably) disgusted with her and walk away into the fog saying, "Frankly,
Pet...."
Buffy is the queen of denial and spent the “night after" with hundreds of cloves of garlic
and a cross to keep Spike away. I guess she couldn’t ask her magically-moderate friend
Tara to cast a “keep away" spell, a far more effective solution if she really wanted to
prevent Spike’s nighttime visitations. Nor does Buffy think it’s incredibly strange that
she would choose to go fight vampires wearing a wrap around leather skirt and thong
underwear, knowing full well she would run into Spike on her nightly vampire patrol. At
least bad girl slayer Faith wore leather pants and heavy work boots.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Buffy episode if the melodrama didn’t have it’s share of
clever one-liners: Buffy: “You’re bent!" Spike: “But it made you scream (last night)!"
Despite the denial and one-liners there are plenty of people who think Buffy and Spike are
meant for each other. Lis8865049 wrote at the newsgroup: “I saw a guy who stayed the next
morning, while not tactful) was the same guy he'd always been, who still loved her, and
who wanted to stay with her. And thank God for Spike, I *finally* saw a Buffy partner who
thought … she was exciting, satisfying, good… a bloody "revelation." Spike wasn't
tearing her sexuality down like every other guy she's been with-- which I love."
Yes, Angel, because of his curse, couldn’t really be with Buffy, Parker used her, and
Riley couldn’t keep up with her.
As for Willow’s trip on the magical bandwagon, that’s another column…
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"Buffy & Spike: Are they Scarlett and Rhett?"
