Buffy the Vampire Slayer Talk || s6e14 "Older and Far Away"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
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Hallie is the woman who was formerly Cecily seen in Fool for Love.
Hence she called him William and not Spike :)
In Buffy, we absolutely see the difference between someone being your best friend and someone being your BEST friend. While WIllow absolutely has that best-friend status, they've known eachother the longest etc… Tara is absolutely the best friend anyone has in this entire show. She's the best. At being a friend. Loved her this episode.
"A cramp? In your pants?" This episode is peak Tara! I love her being confident done with peoples shit. Plus I love Tara and Buffy's friendship, we did not get enough of it!
TARA: "Buffy, I promise there's nothing wrong with you."
BUFFY: "There has to be. This can't be me. It isn't me."
--------------------------------------------------------------
TARA: "It's not that simple."
BUFFY: "It is. It's wrong. I'm wrong. Tell me that I'm wrong, please."
Buffy and Tara have a short but very significant dynamic. I've talked about it before when writing about Tara's use and representation in each individual dream in 'Restless'. That for Buffy Tara is a means of identifying and communicating with the deepest parts of herself. A narrative and thematic vehicle for understanding her identity and nature. The parts of herself that she doesn't love and doesn't have any appreciation for. The parts of herself that make her feel wrong and ashamed of herself. The parts of herself that she wants to escape from and hide away. 'BtVS' effectively uses the metaphor or allegory of being a supernatural being like a witch or a slayer or a werewolf or a vampire for being queer. For being an outsider. Cut off from others. Cut off from humanity. And they do it in such a way where you're not meant to believe it as such but to just acknowledge it and entertain the thought that the characters themselves think and feel this way about themselves because they're not really shown or told the contrary until they interact with each other and learn and grow together in solidarity in their experiences of being different from the norm. The writers are basically showing through characters like Buffy, Willow, Tara, Oz and Spike that the supernatural equates to queerness either in identity, sexuality, gender or just in general beingness. Just in being the person that you are. In being yourself.
There's added layers on to it when it comes to the dynamics between Buffy and Spike and Tara and Willow specifically in that it could also mean that they are actually evil in nature as well as queer but going down that route leads to controversial misinterpretations and I don't want to fall into that considering sometimes my words can get me into trouble and I end up insulting or offending a lot of people when I don't mean to. I personally think it's a compelling topical area to explore but I'm not writing this piece of writing today to explore it. Only in what it means regarding being and feeling queer in oneself and, for me, the dynamic Buffy and Tara have best represents that. I suppose for some people who haven't identified and accepted that they're queer, it can come across as feeling evil depending on their cultural background. Their family and home life in particular. And I think the episode 'Family' does a great deal for and in addressing this. Tara has, up to this point, spent her whole life being told by her biological relatives that she's evil or would turn evil. She's been gaslighted and psychologically conditioned to think, feel and believe that her identity and nature as who she is as a person naturally is wrong and is something that she should be ashamed about all because she can do magic. All because she can do things that normal people cannot do - and thus - she's not normal - she's not natural - she's not human. In some ways the demonization of being or feeling queer has a lot of significance and therefore merit in providing overwhelming narrative and thematic substance and depth for 'BtVS's clever take on characterization in a supernatural Universe.
When it comes to the episode 'Dead Things' Buffy is undergoing severe depression and is doing incredibly self-destructive things to feel something again. Something other than her deep despair at being pulled out of heaven by her friends - Tara included. She obviously doesn't like feeling the way she does when she does it but her justification for doing those self-destructive things is because she's come back to life wrong. When she goes to Tara to ask her to check out the spell that resurrected her and Tara comes back to her to tell her that she hasn't come back wrong - that she isn't wrong - she completely breaks down because now that means that she has no justification for doing what she's doing. For using Spike for sexual and emotional gratification, for neglecting her sister and letting her get injured by another one of her friends that's also fell off the wagon - so to speak - and is also involving herself in self-destructive relationships and behaviours with being addicted to magic and numbing herself to her experience, for not making an effort. All of this now is something that she has to question herself on. That if there's not something wrong with her mentally - why is she like this? Why is she doing this? She's just at a complete loss for logic, for reason, for understanding. It's a very effective and meaningful allegory for being queer and not understanding why. Especially because it's Tara she's crying into the lap of in that moment who is queer and can completely empathise with Buffy's experience of being attracted to somebody who she shouldn't be attracted to. And there is a line of dialogue that was removed from the final cut of the scene that explicitly compares Tara being a lesbian and having romantic/sexual feelings for girls to Buffy having feelings for Spike. She gets it because she's been there. She's felt that way too. May even still does even if she's fully out and fully accepted her sexuality. But she knows all too well what it's like to feel wrong for being queer.
Therefore there's a lot to glean about Buffy and Tara's dynamic and what it represents, what its significance is, despite being so short and non-detailed. You could even go as far as saying the metaphor or allegory isn't really one at all because Buffy is actually queer in both identity and sexuality. I mean the narrative hints at this being truth enough times in the show that you could definitely see it happening or becoming a possibility at some point in her character arc. And you know, with the whole Faith thing, it's not exactly well hidden either. Even though I don't ship them at all, Buffy and Faith definitely have something romantic/sexual there that all but makes the metaphor or allegory negated as far as sexuality goes. Identity is another story. And one of Buffy's core themes for her characterization is identity - which is why the Tara = witch/Buffy = slayer parallels work so well and why they so brilliantly convey the notion of queer/gay solidarity.
As for whether that makes them evil or means that they can be evil... that's a topic better left alone but I think it does present a compelling case study for a queer person's experience when they do not understand nor accept themselves for being as they naturally are, which I think is something that makes a lot of sense for the character arcs of Willow, Spike and Oz too in that they have trouble reconciling with their dark sides and that there's much of themselves that they suppress or repress so they don't have to feel like who they are is wrong or evil or a burden to the ones they love and that love them. And that they can be involved and fully connect with others healthily as opposed to destroying themselves and each other in the process like Buffy and Spike do so frequently in their S6 enemies-to-lovers dance of death, abuse and pain sorely mistaken for life, love and pleasure.
There's definitely a compelling case study for all of that to be unpacked and I probably will unpack it at some point once I can figure out how to articulate it so that it doesn't come off as offensive to the people who identify themselves to any of these characters because my intention is never to offend. Only to teach and enlighten. Okay, maybe I don't have the right or authority to do that but I write my meta for me just as much as I do for other people and so I certainly have the right and authority to teach and enlighten myself. And if I feel that I want to write about that topic at some point, I will. And I will do so through the fiction of art/entertainment and my favourite characters because that's the best way that I know how. If it comes across as offensive, all I can do is apologize for it but all I'm intentionally trying to do with doing it is expand my consciousness. I'm an INTP, a Virgo and Claircognizant - this is just how things work with me. I need to write to get a better understanding of who I am. My wording isn't the greatest, I know that. But I'm trying my best. So please - if you read what I write and you feel offended by it, reach out to me and I WILL explain to you that my heart is in the right place. That I just want to learn and understand and evolve. That's all it is.
Yes, Buffy and Tara make a great pairing in any scene. Its honestly Buffys most healthy friendship
The female vengeance demon who knows Spike was Cecily who told human Spike that he is beneath her in Fool for Love.
it took me watching buffy like 4 times to see this
OH. I knew they had history but I didn't realize she was THAT girl, omg.
@@JordiVanderwaalomg the girl who REJECTED him
I thought she’s party at fault for Spike being turned
The demon added urgency.. Without someone being seriously injured and needing medical attention, there would have been no urgency to get out of the house.
I like the parallel to ‘Family’ when Buffy and the Gang stand up for Tara.
Here Tara stands to up for Willow and makes it clear to Anya that if this is not something Willow wants to do, then she shouldn’t be pressured into doing it.
It’s not so much about her using magic that’s the reason why. Tara is standing up for Willow’s not giving of consent. A very ironic turnabout but very necessary and certainly in character.
5x6
Buffy: “You got to come through me.”
6x14
Tara: “You have to go through me.”
Tara was the MVP of the ep. I wish the writers could have given her more great lines like these
This is my favorite Tara moment of the entire series. Where she stands up for Willow.
27:29 For me, I read Dawn’s stealing as a desperate attempt to regain some control in her life since she has no little/has lost so much in the last year so fast.
Edit: I should probably mention that I don’t have a psych background. I’m a pre-service teacher so I’ve seen kids act out for attention the way Alley is describing, but a completely different age group and background/family unit than Dawn, so it’s harder for me to compare🤷🏼♀️
22:00 "I'm a sucker for those scenarios where all the characters are stuck in one place and they have to *talk* to each other!"
Tell me you got a psych degree without telling me you got a psych degree 🙂
Halfrek is Cecily, the woman Spike was in love with in the season five episode Fool for Love. It is never really explored. The timeline would be that she would have already have been a vengence demon and that Cecily was an alias.
its implied that Cecily was human at the time and the guy she was dating is the one who broke her heart and caused her to become a vengeance demon
@@tonbeor08 am I getting the dates wrong? I thought she and Anya had their own little rampage before Spike was turned
There is a comic about that party Spike was when he was human. Halfrek was there on a vengeance job to doom everyone of the party and felt for Spike, so she was so mean to him to get him away from the party, not knowing he would me turned in a vampire.
IIRC the slaughter you are referring to was in Russia (Wiki says 1905), with the implication the vengeance demons kicked off the little mini-revolution that hit before the big one everyone remembers in 1917.
But it has already been pointed out the comics covered what the timeline was.
Wait, I thought the timeline was that she became vengeance demon after Fool For Love. Wasn't FFL in 1880? And the earliest Hallie flashback is like 1900 or something, isn't it? In Russia?
I always assumed William the Bloody torturing high society people she knew with railroad spikes for calling him a bloody awful poet ended up leading to Cecily craving vengeance.
I feel so bad for Dawn. I feel like people think because Buffy went through so much to be alive of course she can't focus on Dawn's needs. She's focusing on Dawn's needs by being alive. But Dawn has been through a lot and Tara's the only one this season really trying to be there for her. Spike used to be friendly with her but now he's only thinking about Buffy really and Willow's dealing with addiction.
Also honestly the concept of a vengeance demon social worker was kinda genius.
I find important the Demon, to be very honest. He creates the pressure that Anya needs to break. Anya has an issue with death that we saw this season, and now, she has the fear of losing Xander, which, she felt like it was so so close in a moment there, and that is what finishes pushing her on the edge to be that same Anya that we saw the first time when she tried to use Willow to get her pendant back. And to even go after Hallie's pendant instead of talking to her friend.
"she's too good for this world" que its always sunny music
The call back to the episode Family when Tara says "you'll have to go through me first" always gives me chills.
The demon or at least some kind of external threat was necessary for the interpersonal drama, Anya wouldn't have been as genuinely angry at Willow if she didn't think that Willow's refusal to use magic was putting them in real danger
Not a huge fan of bottle episodes myself, but all that Tara makes it worth it for me.
Confident and sassy Tara is awesome.
I love this moment with Spike. And the one where they’re sat at the table and she asks him how his cramp is and she’s like you should put some ice on it.
Freaking hilarious!
Spike’s like “What the fuck was that about? I’ve never seen her talk like that.
*thinks about it for a moment*
Red brought her out of her shell. I like it.”
If everyone had therapy this season would not exist
I'm pretty sure the premise of Older and Far Away was taken from the surreal Spanish movie The Exterminating Angel. Where a bunch of people go to a fancy dinner and than can't leave. I haven't seen it myself, but I did see some of director Luis Bunuel's later work. Including The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Which is basically that premise in reverse. There they keep coming going back to the dinner party, but can't finish because something weird keeps interrupting.
Imagine if there was a bunny in there with them! Anya would have freaked out
I laughed when you said I'd fight the old you over Dawn! Great ending.
It's been confirmed that Helfrek and Cecily are not only the same actress, but the same character, as well.
Halfrek is of course Anya's friend and Vengeance Demon, this is of course the same actress who played Cecily in S5 who rejected Spike so cruelly. An interesting concept here of being trapped in the house, and of course the Richard character is thrown into the mix as well as Sophie, but make things worse. Dawn's Kleptomania now reaching extreme levels. It was just as well it was Tara that caught Spike and Buffy, and great little comedy with the groin cramp/erection, with Spike and Tara when playing cards. Dawn again being the total stroppy teenager causing all this trouble again, we know she is going through deep psychological trauma, but it is interesting to see how this affects others, which I think is what the writers were trying to show. The fact that Richard gets sliced by The Demon is also interesting as he is totally innocent but collateral damage because of Dawn's Wish. The Anya/Willow/Tara confrontation was great drama, it is so awkward too when Anya confronts Dawn in front of everyone about the stealing. A bittersweet ending with Willow and Tara reconciling, and great little comedy moment at the end when Richard says you have some strange friends. All in all a good episode mirroring The Wish from S3.
The actress who plays Hallie is the Mom from Liv and Maddie😂
I think the demon's presence is less about the demon itself and more about just how it adds another layer of tension for the characters, pushing their psyches just a little bit further under the presence of a threat.
33:36 Yah he got stabbed but still got a date with Buffy so still a win.
The 3 Bozos are the best description for those dorks, lol 😂
In dawns defense Dawn's only a klepto because of buffy and i do mean literally she is made out of buffy and buffy was a klepto in L.A season2
I can't remember Buffy being a kept in L.A? 😶
@@SashaRicky When her first Watcher tries to introduce himself (in the flashback sequence, in the finale), Buffy asks, "Is this about the toothbrush? Because I meant to pay for that."
Shoplifting once (or even a couple of times) is not the same as kleptomania, though, so I'm not sure it's fair to use that term in reference to Buffy. It is possible that some or other aspects of Buffy's personality got magnified in the making of her sister, so @meggo329 still makes a fair point.
Something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue. The King commands and we obey, over the hills and far away.
I think as hard as it might he for fans to admit Willow and Buffy have grown apart a bit which can easily happen when you've known someone as long as they have. I mean if you think about them growing apart in season during college, than Buffy having so much family drama and loosing her mom the next season, something Willow struggled to understand, to Willow also being mostly responsible for bring Buffy back when she arguably wasnt meant to or didnt want to. Buffy is constantly forced into maturing and Willow in many ways because of her addiction has regressed. Whereas, I think Tara's friendship gives her what she needs right now.
As for Anya, i think fears death more than any of scoobies. Kind of like that adam and that church vampire said in season 4 - they dear death more than most because they are constantly confronted with their immortality, anya lived that way for many years and then she was "suddenly human" like hurting her arm in season 5 and Xander having to comfort her, she only has "few as fifty years" - its a big change for her. I like how the show is consistent with this part of her character.
2 entire seasons of Angel revolve around pregnancy plots...
Halifrek was Cecily. The woman William wrote poems for who said he was beneath her was a vengeance demon the whole time. She was undercover as Cecily. Confirmed offscreen.
Oh man, you jinxed the rest of S6 *so* hard, in so many different ways... I blame you for everything. XD
19:50 She's the girl that Spike was writing poems about when he was human, The one that said "You're nothing to me will, You're beneath me."
Why is the quote of the day from season 3?
Edit: Oh, nevermind.
I wondered that myself until she mentioned it.
When Halfrek stopped and called Spike by his human name, I didn't realized it was because she was the infamous Cecily that turned him down right before he got turned by Dru in Fool for Love (understandable, though, at it has been a full year between me seeing 5x07 and this episode). I thought it was the writers inducing (for upcoming episodes) that Spike, or rather William, has been mistreated as a child and already crossed the path of Halfrek the vengeance demon. And to be honest, in spite of multiple rewatches of the whole show, it stayed that way until it was mentioned in commentaries under an other reactor video to this episode. As it wasn't uncommon to have the same actor coming back in the same show to play different characters. I never even thought that Cecily and Halfrek could have been the same.
I ❤ the writer Marti Knox ... No one ever mentions her but much ❤ for her input 👏👏👏👏
Greenberg wrote this episode but yeah, being the day to day showrunner that season, Marti's hands were everywhere, from story breaking, notes, rewrites, prep, filming to editing as Joss (who actually did some of it in many episodes aside from reading everything) was busy with Firefly.
Let's all re-watch BTVS 5x07, Fool for Love.
Clem!
This is Tara's episode. Boss Bitch forever. The metaphor is strong in the poker scene. Tara knows she's holding all the cards ;) It's interesting to hear you talk about therapy for Dawn, because it wasn't normalised yet when this came out. Therapy was around, but it was expensive as hell and mental health was still much more stigmatized than it is today (look at Dawn's re-telling of just being sent to the guidance counsellor's office and multiply that 50X).
This episode is where Tara became my favourite character.
I am finally caught up and so excited
Funny, regarding Tara stepping in on Willows behalf, I have posted this on Buffy forums before and it wasn't well received, but, that scene really bothers me, Tara stepping in like that. I understand, she was motivated by love and only wanted to protect Willow, but for me, I always want the person who is being bullied or threatened or whatever, to have a chance to stand up for themselves. To step in without seeing if the person could handle it, for me, sends a message of, you don't think I can take care of myself. Once again, just my opinion, I understand, we are all different and can only react based on our perspectives.
I just realize, that Halfrek is Cecily from Spike's past, when he was William, the woman he had a crush on. But was Cecily already a vengace demon, or was she human then? Who knows, but I missed that so many times.
Anya is pretty smart. I think she intended to trap Halfrek in the effects of her own spell to get her to release it. And while suggesting Willow's help is thoughtless and insensitive, it's not illogical.
Spoilers:
31:36-56 "She's too good for this world." Every time you've gushed about terror this episode I was aching for you. Even though you've finished this series now, at the time you didn't know what's coming. Yet that line pretty much sums about my feelings about her role this season. As the only one in the main crew who didn't do something stupid or regrettable, she just couldn't stay with them.
“terror”
I just had to laugh. 😂
@@Girl4Music Whoops 😬
I think its safe to say there won't be a second date between Buffy and Richard
You must have really really really liked "Once More With Feeling" since you quote it practically every episode.
Maybe it doesn’t call for it to happen but I would think with Willow’s serious emotional addiction she wouldn’t be able to go to classes. I mean if we’re treating it as a proper alcohol/drug addiction, something like school would be too much stress for her while dealing with emotional addiction. Not to mention it would be a health and safety hazard.
Are you telling me that even during the ‘Smashed/Wrecked’ arc she still went to college? She almost killed her best friend’s sister for christ sake… the last place she’s gonna be able to go is a school.
It’s probably because they keep it all hush hush because it does involve the supernatural and all but it’s like I said - if it’s supposed to be a proper parallel to alcohol/drug addiction, then she shouldn’t be allowed to step in a school. Even for her own sake.
Saying that, she really should have been immediately ejected from the Summers household too after the events of ‘Wrecked’ and that didn’t happen. The responsible adult left instead.
And how’s about the other elephant in the room regarding this subject? Again - if it’s a proper parallel - what would “alcohol/drugs” be able to do to get them out of the predicament they were in?
The writing is a little off if you ask me. I’m just noticing some of the discrepancies with it watching this reaction. While it’s true that Willow’s use of magic wouldn’t have helped them out - the parallels to it being a proper alcohol/drug addiction - don’t really work for an episode like this. In other words - Anya shouldn’t have cared about Willow’s magic.
I think these are the times where people complain that the magic=drugs metaphor is too heavy-handed. And honestly - I don’t blame them. The writing here in using the metaphor is off quite a bit.
yes, the problem is less the metaphor and more that they cling to it even when it doesn't work. there have been other metaphors in the show of limited applicability, and they're tossed aside when they no longer work. season six is ambitious and does a lot of it well, but they definitely have a problem with metaphor.
@@sirmoonslosthismind Five By Five Takes has just dropped a video addressing what works well about the magic addiction arc and what doesn’t. In a lot of ways, magic addiction makes complete sense. In other ways, it doesn’t. And it is the metaphor and direct parallel to drugs/alcohol substance abuse that’s clunky about it because Willow’s not necessarily addicted to magic. Just to power and control. It’s just magic is the tool that allows her to accumulate and eventually abuse these things.
Like it’s not a substance abuse thing.
It’s more a behavioural pattern thing.
Addiction certainly works for this. But not if it’s just blatant alcohol/drug addiction.
I mean you can be addicted to anything. Even something that is very good for you. It’s all about taking these things in balance and moderation. As soon as the pendulum swings heavily from one side over the other … that’s when things become unhealthy and destructive. That’s when it turns into addiction. And like I said - this is absolutely in character for Willow. It’s just some of the ideas they use to represent it aren’t.
Anyway Five By Five Takes explains it much better than I ever could. I recommend it.
A blink-and-you-miss-it interaction that’s important.
I honestly thought they just reused the actress. I had no idea that I was meant to recognize Halfrek as Cecily. Another thing they do not make clear in S6.
I blinked and I missed it. Why do the writers insist on making important interactions a comedic moment?
I do wonder if they retconned it in.
@@peterd9698 quite possibly
If it were a retcon, how would have Halfrek recognized him and then called him William? I think a retcon would be explaining this away as mistaken identity of someone who both looks like Spike AND has the same name
@@colleenmarin8907 they mean an out-of-show written retcon.
Meaning the writers didn’t initially intend for Cecily to be the same person as Halfrek.
It just sort of happened because it’s the same actress who plays both characters and they figured they’d just go with it.
@@Girl4Music That's how I've always thought it happened. Having used the same actress, I suspect that Joss or whoever decided to throw in that 'recognition' moment as an inside joke for any fans who noticed it. Of course, being BtVS fans, EVERYBODY noticed it (and the ones who didn't immediately had it pointed out to them). So afterwards they had to retcon in an explanation (I haven't read the comics or heard the DVD commentaries, but I've been told they do the retconning there).
Posting my BUFFY REWATCH recap for ‘Older And Far Away’. May contain spoilers.
‘Older And Far Away’ sees our Scoobies (and a bunch of other random people we don’t really care about) in a predicament brought on by a vengeance spell. Dawn unknowingly confesses her feelings with being alone to Halfrek, Anya’s vengeance demon friend, masquerading as her school councillor. Halfrek manipulates Dawn to wish for people to stop going away. This culminates in a Summers household lockdown. Nobody, whoever is in the house at the time, can leave Buffy’s house. It also happens to be Buffy’s birthday so, as you can imagine, quite a few people come to the house and stay long passed her birthday. When the Gang figure out that no one can walk out the door, they realize magic is behind it and therefore magic will be only what can get them out of it. Willow’s sworn off magic so she’s useless to the cause. But luckily for them there’s one other witch in the house. It’s Tara’s time to shine. Except… it doesn’t do jack shit. She’s not powerful enough… apparently. And it’s this that really bothers me about this episode. The fact Tara needs Willow’s help to be of any use at all to the Gang. Specifically the fact that she’s seen as the “the lesser” of the Wiccan duo because of it. That really infuriates me. Please allow me to go off on a tangent for now. Rest assured - I will bring the point I really want to make with this home where it belongs.
I would say that Willow became co-dependent to Tara when you consider the reason why she put a spell on her to begin with. It’s because she didn’t want to lose her. It’s very much akin to a child wanting to hold a flower in their hand because they think it’s beautiful and not realizing they’re crushing it. Willow doesn’t realize what she’s doing by putting a spell on Tara. What it means. What the implications of it are. Much like the dimension-shifting spell she attempts to put on everybody at The Bronze in ‘All The Way’ before Tara stops her, she doesn’t understand why it’s so wrong to do it. She thinks - believes - that she’s helping. And when she puts that Lethe’s Bramble spell on Tara to make her forget about their fight, she believes that she’s helping them. Helping fix their relationship rapidly breaking down due to all the fights they’re having about her abusing magic - but all it’s doing is destroying it even more. She’s so corrupted by her own magical power that she doesn’t understand that her using it in the ways she does is both a violation of the human mind and body. She doesn’t realize she’s taking someone’s autonomy or agency away by putting a spell on them. And in regards to Tara - that’s partially because she prefers Tara to be compliant to her worldview and lifestyle and submissive to her wants and needs. Wanting to continue to have that attention and validation Tara wilfully bestows upon her. But putting that Lethe’s Bramble spell on her to make sure that that doesn’t change means it’s no longer wilful. Means it’s no longer being given. It’s being taken. Which further means that’s it’s no longer love. It’s abuse. But it still stems from love. From being in love. Specifically from desperately not wanting to lose that love. Because she believes that without Tara’s love - she’s nothing. That she’s neither powerful or loveable without Tara.
There’s no doubt about it:
Willow abuses Tara because she loves her.
She loves her because Tara is the one person in the whole show that actually gives Willow the attention and validation she actually wants and needs. That makes her feel powerful and loveable. And so the moment Tara’s like “No, you can’t do this”, Willow’s essentially mentally whiplashed because up until Season 6 Tara hasn’t objected to her constant use of magic at all - from what we see as the viewer anyway. And perhaps that’s a fault on the writers part. Perhaps they should have shown that Tara was uncomfortable with it from the beginning of their relationship or midway through Season 5 at least. For me they leave it a little too late to show the character clearly objecting against it. So Tara leaves it a little too late to actually say anything to Willow so that Willow is aware of her concerns from the get go. Thus, the sudden objecting and reprimanding from Tara in Season 6 comes across to Willow as jealousy or hypocrisy. It doesn’t come across as concern or as love. It’s only now that Willow has chosen to go cold turkey with the magic use that she realizes Tara was only looking out for both her and for everyone else’s health and well-being in telling her that she couldn’t use magic in the careless and reckless ways she was or that she couldn’t abuse it for personal gain. And that’s why the moment when Anya attacks Willow for not even trying to use magic to get them out of the difficult situation they’re in, Tara steps in to defend her and tells her to back off. It’s because she realizes that part of the reason why Willow got to the corrupted place she did was because her friends just let her. Some of them even encouraged her. So Willow was receiving mixed signals all the time. She didn’t know what the right (or wrong, for that matter) thing to do was because there was no clear instruction on how to do it from her friends and there was no consistency on whether she should or shouldn’t do it. Tara realized that. In fact she realized that before anyone else did. That’s why she left her. Because she knew she was part of the problem. Willow needed to work that out for herself and to learn the hard way. Otherwise she never would have learned at all. So in a longwinded way, they told the story of a character who had to hit the lowest of the low to see through her own corruption to come out the other side and then to finally get back on top where she was most powerful. She had already learned the lesson by the point that Tara comes back to her. She learns it so well that she absolutely refuses to let herself be swayed by Anya’s attacking her for not using any magic to help them. It’s absolutely justified for Willow to use her magic in this situation because it is actually helping instead of just satisfying her own desires and she’s aware of that, but she’s still steadfast in her resolve regardless. So Tara knows she had to step in at that point to take Anya down a notch because she was out of line. And I know it was just because she was afraid and was going through a panic attack but somebody needed to tell her off. I could see that Spike was ready to go to town on her but I’m glad it was Tara. The voice of reason. The one that truly understands Willow’s side of the argument. And so the one who would step in front of her to defend her from verbal harassment and judgement from Anya. And, as I noticed immediately, defend her non-consent. Defend Willow’s not giving her consent. The very thing Willow has ignored and disregarded of Tara. This was an ironic turnabout but it makes total sense.
Tara has always been somebody that respects choice. And I would say part of the reason why it was so horrific for me to see what Willow does to Tara is because of this. Tara would never do anything near to it to Willow or anyone else - even if she was that powerful. And going back to what it is about this episode that really bothers me - I think she is as powerful as Willow by this point. She just chooses not to show it because she understands that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And while some people might see that as a weakness on her part… I see it as a strength. The fact she does not act in violence of any kind unless absolutely necessary. The fact she performs no offensive action whatsoever unless it’s in defence of either herself or someone else. The fact she is a pacifist until the very last moment when she cannot be or there will be lives lost. The fact she is purity personified. The fact that she represents the theme purity and that that is so underappreciated about her or that it’s viewed as weakness or uselessness. It angers me that she’s seen as powerless and that her spells need the aid of Willow.
The spell Tara attempts to do in this episode didn’t work not because she wasn’t powerful enough. It didn’t work because nobody other than the spell caster can override the spell that was cast,… as proven in the end. Which means that if Willow did intervene and did use her magic - it also wouldn’t have done jack shit! So the point I’m making here is that Tara being passive or not taking any control in any given situation isn’t because she’s not powerful enough to, or that she’s somehow “the lesser” of her and Willow for not using her “significantly weaker” magical power. It’s her choice. It’s her choice to not show herself as a powerful Wiccan. As powerful as Willow or Amy or even Jonathan. It’s her choice because she understands that actions have consequences. And she is very proud of Willow in this episode for putting her foot down on using magic, but at the same time, also has to be the person to tell her that releasing the brake every once in awhile, depending on the situation, is perfectly okay. To carry on with the metaphor - you’re just as in danger of a car crash by being in park as you are in exceeding the speed limit if every other vehicle around you is driving passed you and you’re not moving too. If you’re in stasis and everyone else is accelerating, you’re not helping either yourself or anyone else by not acting, all you’re doing is delaying the traffic. And so the mixed signals Willow’s receiving end in this episode. She now knows when to make a move and when not to. And once again - Tara shows her the way. And sadly, as wonderful as this development is for her, it only makes her double down on the belief that if Tara was not part of her life in any way - she’d be lost. She might know what to do but she won’t know how far she can go with doing it. The reason why is because her friends never make it clear. Thus, as much as I love her arc, the writing of it also never makes it clear. Instead the writers do a roundabout turn and drive off somewhere else. Somewhere out of focus from the departure point of power corruption. So I completely understand the frustration fans feel over Willow’s magic addiction storyline. They don’t make it clear what it’s meant to represent other than the character’s gone a bit loony and I understand that. I guess I’m just a fan that doesn’t mind it so much because I can piece the puzzle together for myself and that’s enough for me.
Remember this line: "Your shirt..."
Sassy Tara is Best Tara.
Why is the quote of the day from S3?
I am sure you are holding these videos back longer and longer just to make us suffer! Anyways good video as always and really looking forward to the rest of the season.
PS - what's happened to Dollhouse?
Tara was great in this episode.
*The only reason I'm here:* 13:05 - 13:16 (I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU CUT THAT!!!>O