BtVS-Reviews

The biggest giveaway ever?

7.15. Get It Done, Airdate: 02/18/03 (UPN, 8 pm PT/ET).


That was pretty cool, wasn't it? But hey, wait - shouldn't something have been done? Old BtVS-fans know, call it by any other name, a rose is just a rose. Last week's Get It Done (GID) was either the biggest giveaway in Buffy's on-screen history or just another filler. This season's brim with fillers, it would be easier to refer to any "just another filler" by JAF. And why not add JABS (Just Another Boring Speech) to our list of favorite abbreviations? Yeah, you got it: again Buffy couldn't refrain from impersonating Joyce.

Well, the net's flooded with Buffy reviews, so I'll focus on one particular aspect of this week's BtVS: her call. In GID, the shadowmen tell Buffy: "You're the Hellmouth's last guardian", and Buffy answers: "You mean - latest?", but they say no.

That's a comparatatively short dialogue, but I think, it's as close as we get to the possible end of the last (?) season of Buffy.

Buffy fights a misty demon that was used to create the first slayer. That adds to the whole slayer myth in a bit of a "that blood thing that Jedi have" way, and I could have lived without it quite as well. It means, being a slayer is not much of mystical call, but simple a kinda possession by a demon - which directly leads to two major question:

(A) How does the slayerline work?

(B) Why does Buffy still have her powers after this demon wandered to the next slayer (Kendra, and then Faith)?

I don't have any answers for A. I don't see why there has to be a slayerline, and why TPTB would want to create something like it. It's just another weakness (JAW), the Evil (whoever) can exploit to make the good guy's lifes harder.

I got some neat answers for B, though. Let's suppose, the demon leaves the body of the slayer to look for a new body (or part of that demon, his essence, whatever). Let's say, this is what happened, when Buffy died in 1x12. I like to suggest, TPTB just inhaled a new demon into Buffy in 1x12 - not to make her a second slayer, but to make her the Guardian (of the hellmouth), a guardian with slayer-like strengths. This would explain why Buffy still has her power though she died. TPTB fixed this demon to her body, so it wouldn't go and look for a new one after she died for a second time (or a third one…). No slayer before Buffy has ever been the guardian of the hellmouth - most slayers have lived rather remotely, actually. So TPTB needed a guardian, and starting from 1x12 Buffy was no longer "Buffy - The Vampire Slayer", but "Buffy - The Guardian of the Hellmouth".

TPTB know, that's the best chance they'll ever have to close the Hellmouth, so they knew the First Evil would come to have a look - up to now we believed, re-viving Buffy was a mistake that conjured up the FE, but now (according to my theory) it was something TPTB knew was coming as reaction to their plan to close the hellmouth by institution of a dedicated guardian.

The key to fighting the FE will be to close the hellmouth. It's like Buffy's fight against that misty demon. "I can't fight it, so I will fight the shadowmen" - "I can't fight thousands of ubervamps, I can't fight the FE itself, cause it won't cease to exist, so I close the hellmouth, taking the source and ending my destiny as Guardian."

How will the season end? Buffy will realize, she's the Guardian, not the Slayer. She'll close the hellmouth, the FE will retreat and she will lose her powers (cause she doesn't need it anymore). Faith will be the only slayer. (If Sarah decides to sign a new contract, it would be no problem to state, TPTB say something like: You're so brave, pls keep your powers for all you did for us). I am not so sure about the losing her powers part, but you get the drill.

If being a slayer is kinda possession as I suggest, it should be possible to exorcise this demon. It indeed is, as we have seen in season 3, where Buffy couldn't use her powers for one day in order to be tested by the council. (Yeah, they told something about muscles whatever, but it wouldn't be the first time they trick us).

So, all essentially comes down to saying: TPTB split the slayerline into a slayer and a guardian. If that's the way it is, GID was pretty much of a giveaway, letting us glimpse at the things to come. And how cool would that be? A last season that not only closes the hellmouth, but surprises us also by saying, the stupid title of our most beloved series isn't correct at all.

AND the more: One could say, reviving Buffy wasn't the source of all evil, but something that TPTB had in stock anyway.

If you haven't watched this week's BtVS: go and get it! You definitely would have missed one of this season's most important Buffy shows.

Yours,
Tom Ahrendt
zeitenflug@yahoo.com.

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Thanks to: Brachnu for offering free web space,
BuffyRadio.com for featuring my theory.

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