Buffy Season 8 Review - Issue 11 to 20

So, where to start? The second part of this Season really ramped up the excitement. Further returning characters, two major character deaths and an end to set our sights on.





The Deaths.
While I think Renee’s death was mostly there for Whedon to prove a point, it does have further repurcussions for Xander and others for the remainder of the season. There were a lot of fans that were doubtful that the comic season could be half as great as the television series, using actors makes it a lot easier to empathise with characters and engage the audience with the emotional scenes just as much as the ‘fun’ scenes. We spent the first part of the Season reconnecting with a new Buffy, reintroducing the characters and their new roles so Renee’s death came very suddenly, we were still in the “honeymoon” phase of introducing ourselves to this new medium and then Whedon does something to make the audience, the fans, and the doubters realise that even in this new medium he can still give a shocking emotional stake to the heart. Renee’s death also reminds the fans and Xander of how much the people around Buffy have suffered, they are not the chosen ones and can opt out at anytime. Is Renee’s death the first domino that will lead to the betrayal Buffy is destined to experience, is the betrayer Xander?
The next incredibly important death is Willow. Willow is destined to die hundreds of years from the present meaning she is effectively safe from harm during the rest of the Season. While Willow’s intentions appear to be revealed by the end of “Time of your life”, we cannot trust her just as much as the other characters cannot. It seems that the whole reason Buffy is transported into the future by Willow is to kill Willow. Willow emphasises the point that it’s important who kills her, it has to be Buffy, this is presumably more than just a desire that it is her best friend that has to be the killer. We have already seen Buffy and Willow’s magical connection this season in the opening arc “The Long Way Home”, to defeat Amy, Buffy channels Willow and her power even though they are not in the same room together, “Even when Buffy is not near, a part of her is with me, and a part of me with her” Willow tells us. Willow is also heavily linked to the Scythe as it was her power that was able to create the “every potential Slayer IS a Slayer” spell, either of those facts or both combined could be the reason Willow cannot die any other way than Buffy stabbing her with the Scythe. Even though Willow is seen with the black eyes and the black hair from Season Six, this Willow does not seem ‘evil’ or full of rage, the dark magic that is keeping her alive may have not been intentional, it may be inflicted on her by someone else or it may even be a spell gone awry. The dark magic that Willow possesses in this arc brings up the mystery of how she ended up this way, and again, is Willow’s dark power a consequence of an extreme betrayal, is Willow the prophesized betrayer?

Is this future preventable? We have already seen alternate worlds in the television series (Willow as a vampire, Anya’s constant reminder of the world full of shrimp) so this future, and Willow’s death may still be avoidable. Fray even says to Buffy that if she returns to the present she can avoid this future because she has seen it and this future will cease to exist, while the arc very importantly ended in Fray’s world showing us that Buffy’s return has not erased Fray’s world its important to realise that it could just be an alternate version. This concept would be a lot more fascinating if the series hadn’t already established that this is a series that considers alternate worlds part of its mythology. Regardless of that fact, I have faith in Whedon and for the time being will assume that this is really where Buffy’s army, Season Eight and Willow’s fate is leading. For the fans who have read the Fray series before Season Eight, the questions still remain; does Buffy’s Slayer army cause this future? Will Buffy’s Slayer army be able to stop this future?

Buffy’s Downfall.
Having read a comment or two about how I am portraying Buffy in this ongoing recap I will now use a section to explain her portrayal and how integral it is the story. Having read the entirety of Season 8 before writing this I have the retrospective to comment and emphasise on sometimes subtle plot points that on first reading did not seem too important, while at times it seems I am being harsh on Buffy’s character it is how she is genuinely being portrayed with perhaps a further emphasis by me. Buffy’s emotions, bad decisions and the way she reacts to these bad decisions are crucial to the ongoing story. Buffy keeps feeling sorry for herself which she even comments on and hates herself even more so feeling sorry for herself to begin with, this was even highlighted in the television series when Buffy is told that she has a superiority complex and an inferior complex because of it, she feels like she is "better" than her friends but feels "less than" because she feels superior. This feeling of self loathing has been evident since the first issue when she tells us how she misses everything from her past life, including the somewhat ‘inconvenience’ of Dawn’s giant problem, Buffy is still living in the past which she needs to let go of to defeat Twilight. We saw in the first part of the season that Satsu has feelings for Buffy, feelings that will never come to fruition because Buffy is not a lesbian, then in the next arc (around two months for the readers) Buffy is found having had intercourse with Satsu. From everything Buffy had complained about before this event and Willow’s comments afterwards it becomes clear that Buffy used Satsu, to both rid herself of the loneliness she has been feeling since the start of the season and to satisfy her sexual cravings that have gone unfulfilled since being surrounded by mostly other women. By the end of that arc Buffy realises her mistake and suggests that Satsu remains in Tokyo, mainly for her own protection. Buffy is making morally questionable decisions; this is often commented on by other characters (Willow, Fray, Buffy herself) and is part of Twilight’s plan, over the next few arcs this collection of errors begins to materialise the consequences that will mostly come to its climax during the ‘Twilight’ arc.

In the next arc, Buffy is clearly still looking for that emotional attachment as it is revealed that in New York she has a secret rendezvous and gets dressed up as if it is a date. By the end of the arc we discover that the man she was secretly meeting with was Riley, and more importantly, he is working with Twilight. Twilight had previously mentioned his ‘man on the inside’ and now we get confirmation on who this is. Twilight is really putting his (or her) effort into making Buffy suffer emotionally, Twilight has already mentioned that he wants Buffy to doubt herself and I’m sure the point of using Riley is just as much to make an emotional blow as it is to have a mole within Buffy’s team. While none of us can blame Buffy for trusting Riley, it's just another brick in the wall of "Buffy's bad decisions" that will come crashing down sooner rather than later.

While Twilight cannot manipulate all of these events, most of them are just pure luck, Buffy is falling prey to Twilight’s plan. He wants Buffy to doubt her decisions, her morality, while he doesn’t fully explain why, its safe to assume that if Buffy doubts herself she will be easier to defeat. Buffy fully accepts that she used Satsu and apologises but Satsu is an adult and fully accepts that she allowed Buffy to ‘use’ her because she enjoyed Buffy’s company just as much as Buffy enjoyed hers. However, Buffy’s visit to the future may be part of Twilight’s overall plan, it is here that Buffy is forced to face the mistakes she hasn’t even made yet, she reads the Slayer history books to find out that her Slayer army barely made a difference and that they may even cause this world to be. Buffy travels back to the present with the knowledge that the decisions she make will make no difference, that Willow becomes consumed with dark Magic again, and that Buffy will be the one who eventually kills Willow. This will be the biggest blow to Buffy’s self confidence so far.

The Big Picture.
The first quarter of the season had hinted to the reader that Buffy is perhaps not making the right decisions and perhaps striving for the greater good through actions that she would once have opposed. In the second quarter of the Season Buffy is transported into the future she faces a direct point of view that tells her and the reader that Buffy has ‘lost’ her way in terms of being a Slayer. Fray has spent the last few years as a lone Slayer, fighting for the greater good by saving “the little people”, then Buffy comes along and claims that they need to focus more on the “big picture” even if that means allowing the little people to be harmed in the process. As Buffy drives off to get a better look at the “bigger picture” she leaves Fray to deal with the smaller evils of the world, Buffy should rightly be criticized at this point for leaving a Slayer alone (especially after her constant persistence of unity this season which will be brought up again in the next arc under much scrutiny) and leaving helpless civilians under threat to instead follow the big bad. The third quarter of the Season focuses on the mistakes Buffy has made and problems that will arise for the Slayer army by focusing too much on the bigger picture and not fixing the smaller issues, and the final quarter of the Season will address what Buffy does to correct the mistakes and the consequences she has created. The topic of the bigger picture is also foreshadowing the fact that Buffy herself is missing out on an even bigger picture to do with herself, Twilight and her impending fate.