“Wrecked"

 

Episode 10 of Season 6

 

“It took me away from myself. I was free.”

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Original US airdate: November 27th, 2001

Rewatched: June 2nd, 2023

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• Writer: Marti Noxon

• Director: David Solomon

• Guests: Elizabeth Anne Allen, Jeff Kober, Amber Benson

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Buffy and Willow continue to spiral, and Dawn is feeling left behind.

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With Buffy and Willow both not coming home the night before (Buffy because she was with Spike, Willow because she was with Amy), Dawn is feeling abandoned. Although Tara, who had gone out with Dawn the previous afternoon, spent the night with Dawn, it still clearly stings that Buffy and Willow are so wrapped up in themselves, they can’t see her. Willow and Buffy’s self-centeredness is one sign of their denial of adult responsibilities. It is only Tara who seems to be fully embracing adulthood, for example by being the only one there for Dawn at the beginning of this episode.

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Buffy has slept with Spike and is regretting it. They wake up together in the rubble of the building. However, Buffy makes it clear she doesn’t want to continue her relationship with Spike and leaves him in the rubble, after swearing him to secrecy and calling their relationship a freakshow. All is not well for Buffy and this doesn’t help her realize how much is wrong with Willow.

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After the scene where she wakes up with Spike, Buffy defends Willow’s choices to Anya and Xander, saying that Willow’s a grown up. Buffy mentions that everyone does stupid stuff, and they need to let Willow handle herself. Anya and Xander can clearly see that Willow is not okay. Buffy, projecting her own issues, can’t see it yet. In fact, it’s not until Willow puts Dawn in danger, by taking her to visit a warlock named Rack, accidently summoning a demon who tires to kill Dawn, and then fleeing in a car that crashes with Dawn in it that Buffy realizes she and Willow are in very different places. Buffy is not okay and her relationship with Spike is not healthy, and she did forget Dawn one night, but Buffy has not fully forgotten who she is. She is the Slayer, responsible for keeping Sunnydale safe. Willow, on the other hand, is no longer using her magic for good. She has gone off the deep end.

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In this episode, Willow’s lust for power, as her use of magic can be viewed as, has taken a turn to addiction. This is not my favorite metaphor, as it does seem to be coming from nowhere. Until now, Willow has been unable to stop using magic because she can't give up the power and control it gives her. Now, she needs magic to avoid withdrawal symptoms. After her magic-fueled night with Amy, Willow is all tapped out. So, Amy takes her to Rack’s, who has spells that last for days. While Amy was deeper into magic than Willow while in high school and definitely had some misuse of magic going for her (like turning in phantom homework), it seems specious that Amy was addicted to magic and would have even known who Rack was (or that he would have survived two years in Sunnydale). But Amy knows him. They go. Willow is drugged full of bad magic. And the next night, she needs to go back for more, with Dawn tagging along. As she says to Buffy at the end of the episode, tying more into the magic as power metaphor, she doesn’t want to be plain old Willow, but super Willow. But Willow hasn’t learned how to balance her power with responsibility.

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In some ways, Willow’s not unlike Faith, who used her Slayer powers for her own gain. Buffy realized in season 3 that wasn’t the type of power she wanted to yield. Willow still needs to learn. So the episode ends with Willow going through magic withdrawal in her room, and Buffy hiding from Spike (with lots of garlic) in her room. But it doesn't seem like either is really one the right track yet.

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“Gone"

 

Episode 11  of Season 6

 

“The whole taking-a-vacation-from-me thing didn't work too well.”

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Original US airdate: January 8th, 2002

Rewatched: June 8th, 2023

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• Writer: David Fury

• Director: David Fury

• Guests: Danny Strong, Adam Busch, Tom Lenk, Daniel Hagen, Susan Ruttan

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Buffy and Willow continue their struggles in this episode, Anya and Xander continue wedding planning while avoiding any real discussions of their future, and Dawn is upset that Buffy let her get hurt in the last episode. This episode continues to highlight this season’s theme of the difficulty of adulthood.

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Willow is struggling with not using magic and Buffy is helping by clearing the house of all magic-related things. This upsets Dawn when candles and Joyce’s fertility statue get boxed up. Although it is a struggle for Willow and she is clearly going through some withdrawal symptoms, she manages to help solve the week’s mystery without resorting to magic. Ultimately, Willow going cold turkey is probably not the right step. There is a place for her magic in the fight against evil, as Willow has shown again and again. She just let the power get to her head and started using it to shape the world to her benefit. She’s not addicted to magic, really, but misusing her power, and going cold turkey will not help her learn to deal with her power at all. As it said in Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. That is what Willow needs to learn.

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Buffy is also trying to stay away from Spike. But she is less successful, and of course she can’t put Spike in a box. She finds his lighter and keeps it in her pocket. She doesn’t turn him away when he shows up at the house in the morning. And when the major mystery of the episode happens – namely when she’s accidently turned invisible by the Trio right after her haircut appointment – she uses the opportunity to sleep with Spike. If she’s invisible, it’s not really happening. In general, being invisible lets Buffy ignore her life for a day. Instead of solving the mystery (she leaves that to Xander, Anya and Willow), she enjoys an invisible walk through town, where she can play silly pranks on people. Besides sleeping with Spike, the only other serious thing she does is get Dawn’s social worker discredited. The social worker had made a visit that morning, but Willow’s magic weed, Spike’s presence and Buffy’s flustered state (as Buffy forgot the meeting) did not leave a good impression. Buffy’s invisibility will allow for a re-do of the visit.

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Finally, thanks to the Trio accidently turning Buffy invisible, Willow is able to track down their lair, and Buffy and Willow discover they are up against Jonathan, Warren and Tucker’s brother. The Trio is, as mentioned before, working out of Warren’s basement, an interesting parallel to Xander in season 4, but unlike Xander, they haven’t realized they need to grow up yet. They are happy living their comic-book inspired existence. On a side note, while Jonathan is the same age as the Scoobies and, like them, has been out of high school for over two years, Andrew is the younger brother of Tucker, and most likely not in the same grade. He may have just graduated. It’s unclear how old Warren is, although he may be a year or two older than the Scoobies. Ultimately, while growing up is hard, staying a child forever is not a solution either, although perhaps Andrew can be forgiven for not being on track yet. Further, while the antics have been fairly benign so far, this episode shows that at least Warren is able to cross lines he shouldn’t, and like Willow, he may need to learn responsibility for his power.

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The invisibility Buffy is experiencing will kill her. The Trio decide to reverse the invisibility to save her after some debate. Jonathan, perhaps thinking of all the times Buffy saved him, is adamant that they shouldn’t kill her and Andrew is clearly not comfortable either, but Warren is. He’s ready to be a true villain. And even though he pretends to be persuaded to reverse the invisibility, he sets the ray gun to make it kill Buffy faster. In the end, Willow and Buffy are triumphant and they now know who they’re up against, and it may seem funny now, but there are hints of darkness.

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In the end, everything is okay. The Scoobies know who the big bad is. Willow didn’t use magic. Anya and Xander have made no progress, except in seating charts, and Dawn is still angry. Buffy wasn’t able to stay away from Spike, but she did learn something. When she was told the invisibility could kill her, she didn’t want to die. For the first time since she came back, she felt she had more reason to live than to die.

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“Doublemeat Palace"

 

Episode 12  of Season 6

 

“I mean, I could still grow up to be anytrhing, but for her, this is it.”

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Original US airdate: January 29th, 2002

Rewatched: June 15th, 2023

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• Writer: Jane Epsenson

• Director: Nick Marck

• Guests: Elizabeth Anne Allen, Pat Crawford Brown, Brent Hinkley, Kirsten Nelson, Kali Rocha

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In this episode, Buffy finally gets a job so she can start covering her costs (the second one we’ve seen her get, but in this episode, it becomes clear she never told the gang about her job waitressing in LA). She gets a minimum wage fast food job, so it’s questionable how much she can actually earn, but she needs money fast. It turns out, everyone at her job is strange. They stare into space. Disappear unexpectedly. Her manager is strange. Buffy is convinced something is wrong there, even though Xander, who lived through bad jobs in season 4, tells her it’s normal. When Buffy finds a finger near the meat grinder, she’s convinced Manny is killing the staff as a source of cheap meat. Later, it turns out the beef isn’t beef, but vegetables flavored with beef fat, and when Buffy finds Manny dead, she knows he was just strange, not evil. It turns out a regular customer who came for coffee and cherry pie is a demon who likes to snack on fast food workers. The demon paralyzes Buffy, but Willow is able to help her fight her off without resorting to magic. The world is saved. Buffy has a new manager who isn’t as strange, but she’s trapped in fast food.

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Dawn reflects on Buffy’s life as a Slayer with Xander, saying that Buffy’s never going to be lawyer or doctor, or anything big. Xander counters that she’s the Slayer, who saves the world, and that’s big. But Dawn knows that means she’ll be stuck in minimum wage jobs her whole life. Dawn has every possible future open to her. Buffy doesn’t. And while I feel this episode is maybe a bit unfair to fast food workers, it does raise some valid points about how such jobs are viewed in the US, where debates about raising the minimum wage are often countered with the notion of people needing to get better jobs if they want better pay. While both Manny and the new manager of her restaurant are sure Buffy has what it takes to do well and move up, viewers know she doesn’t. Her slaying will get in the way. While it’s unfortunate that the series kind of laughs at fast food workers, it is sad to recognize that Buffy’s other job will probably prevent her from ever moving up. Most likely, she’ll end up bouncing from place to place as she gets let go due to slaying getting in the way of work.

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The second theme of this episode is relationships. Spike and Buffy are kind of still together. Or not. Spike comes into Buffy’s restaurant to bother her on her first shift. He is still convinced she’s a demon for his own selfish reasons- if Buffy’s not right, she can be with him. But he also offers to get her money so she doesn’t have to work. It’s a little sweet. While Buffy sends Spike away the first night, she doesn’t the second and has sex with him behind the restaurant. Buffy’s hit rock bottom in many ways, and sleeping with Spike isn’t a sign that things are good. Then there’s Xander and Anya, who are still not talking about their issues. Anya’s vengeance demon friend Halfrek appears and Xander is upset by her presence. He doesn’t like reminders about Anya’s past. Halfrek also manages to get Anya questioning her relationship with Xander. While both profess to love each other, there are a lot of issues they haven't dealt with. Love may not be enough. 

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Finally, Amy shows up again to tempt Willow, giving her a gift of power that makes Willow’s recovery all the harder. When Amy shows up a second time, Willow tells her never to come again. They can’t be friends if Amy won’t respect her. Willow is also a bit tempted at the beginning of the episode when she and Buffy clean out the Trio’s lair. The Trio has moved elsewhere, but in what was left behind, they find lots of powerful magical stuff that Willow swoons over. This shows that Willow’s recovery is a work in progress.

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Season 6 shows us again and again how hard it is to grow up, making this episode one in a long chain with the same theme.

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“Dead Things"

 

Episode 13  of Season 6

 

“You bunch of little boys playing at being men. Well, this is not some fantasy. It's not a game, you freaks, it's rape!”

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Original US airdate: February 5th, 2002

Rewatched: June 22nd, 2023

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• Writer: Steven S. DeKnight

• Director: James A. Contner

• Guests: Danny Stong, Adam Busch, Tom Lenk, Amelinda Embry, Amber Benson

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This episode, like so many Buffy episodes, explores relationships. First, let’s talk about the Trio. They are now living in a different basement, on the run from the Slayer. They are also making a new toy, a mind control thingy that can make any woman their slave. Warren decides to use it on Katrina, his ex-girlfriend. While it does work at least for a bit, by the time Warren is ready to take it too far and have sex with Katrina (rape, since she can’t consent), it wears off. Katrina is rightly angry, and in the scuffle with the Trio, she is killed. Andrew and Jonathan are both very distraught that their “fun and games” have led to death, but Warren, scarily, takes it in stride, making a plan to make Buffy think she killed Katrina. By the end of the episode, Andrew is feeling comfortable with getting away with murder, but Jonathan is clearly still uncomfortable. Warren is the truly evil member of the Trio, and Andrew is willing to go along with Warren as long as nothing really bad happens to him. Jonathan is clearly not cut out for a life of crime, but unfortunately isn’t willing to do what needs to be done (such as going to Buffy). None of them are ready to face up to the consequences their actions have.

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Buffy and Dawn’s relationship is also rocky. With work, slaying and secret Spike time, Buffy has not been home much. When she returns home from work ready to spend the evening at home with Dawn, it turns out Dawn is spending the night at Janice’s (this time, Willow called to talk to Janice’s mom, who will pick up Dawn). Buffy is bummed. However, later, it's Buffy who decides to leave Dawn. When she is convinced she killed Katrina, Buffy knows she needs to take responsibility for her actions. Although when Faith did kill someone, Buffy wanted her to avoid conventional law enforcement, perhaps due to Giles’s absence and her rocky relationship with the Council, Buffy decides this time to turn herself in to the police. At the police station, however, Buffy hears the name of the victim and is able to connect her to Warren. This leads her to investigate more and find out the Trio was behind the death. Before it gets that far, she says goodbye to Dawn. Although Buffy underlines that she loves Dawn and tried to be there for her, although she knows she wasn’t as good as being as mother as Joyce was, Dawn is angry Buffy wants to leave her. Dawn tells her “You don’t want to be here with me. You didn’t want to come back, I know that. You were happier where you were. You want to go away again.” I really can’t blame Dawn either. Buffy doesn’t want to be in her life, mothering her sister at such a young age and responsible for everything else. But, they love each other, and need to find a way to connect again. Only this can get them past their issues.

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Finally, Buffy and Spike’s relationship is central. Their relationship continues to be dysfunctional, but it’s an interesting contrast to the Trio’s attempt at making sex slaves, which is also dysfunctional, but even more so, since it takes away consent. At this point, Buffy and Spike both know what they’re doing. Spike is using Buffy’s disenfranchisement from her friends, hoping to make her fall in love with him, and Buffy is using Spike’s feelings for her to make her feel something. Anything. In this episode, four key events in their relationship happen. First, Spike invites Buffy to handcuff him. Viewers are first led to believe that Spike wanted to handcuff Buffy, but in fact, he wanted her to do it. This underlines Spike’s masochistic tendencies. Then, Buffy asks Tara to look into the spell that brought her back. Tara, being a friend but, after her break up with Will, no longer in the middle of everything, is able to be Buffy’s confidant. Tara, however, tells Buffy she came back normal. Or rather, almost. It changed her just a bit, just enough to trick Spike’s chip, but not much more than a really deep sunburn. Buffy breaks down and tells Tara that if she didn’t come back wrong, she doesn’t know why she lets Spike sleep with her. Spike and Buffy also have an interesting scene on the balcony at the Bronze, in a scene that is reminiscent of the first balcony scene with Giles. However, in this one, Spike tells Buffy how different she is from her friends, once again trying to convince her to fully accept their relationship (they also have sex on the balcony, which was a bit too much, to be honest, especially considering Buffy’s desire to hide her relationship). Finally, Spike tries to help her with Katrina. First, by dumping the body (but much like Faith, it came back up to the surface quite quickly), and then by trying to convince Buffy that she shouldn’t give herself up, that she’s saved so many one accident “doesn’t tip the scale”, which is similar to how Faith justified not turning herself in. Instead of being convinced by Spike, Buffy takes out her frustration on him, beating him up quite badly and telling him “You don’t have a soul. There is nothing good or clean in you. You’re dead inside. You can’t feel anything real.” Much like when Faith in Buffy’s body beat Buffy in Faith’s body, Buffy is expressing her own feelings about herself. She’s still not quite back from the dead yet.

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So, where does that leave us? One of the Scoobies finally knows Buffy’s secret and doesn’t hate her, although Buffy is feeling a lot of self-loathing. Her relationship with Spike continues to be unhealthy for both. Finally, Buffy is having a hard time stepping up for Dawn. But even though we again see how hard growing up is, the juxtaposition with the Trio shows once again that the Scoobies muddling through the best they can is a form of growing up that others, like the Trio, are too afraid to even face.

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