Sickness and some Buffy, Angel, and Cordy thoughts

I need an icon for when I feel icky. Like sick-type icky. I mean, it doesn't happen so often, but when it does, it would be nice to have an icon for it. All my 'bad things' icons are just too extreme, yo.

*points at current icon as example*

So, in honor of my feeling bad, I'm going to continue with my rewatch of S2 Buffy.

I'm so much more into the B/A relationship this time around. Because of what I know about Angel now, I realize that it must have been torture for him.

"I can't help thinking I've done something to make you angry. And that bothers me more than I'd like."

Here he was, thought that he'd never care about anything again. And he gets walloped over the top of the head with this tough, gorgeous, vulnerable girl. Damn, it's so easy to see why he fell for her. Now, I think that Buffy is always beautiful, but there are times in Season Two (Reptile Boy comes to mind, and I love that she thoroughly ignores Cordy's 'suggestions' by wearing black, though I'm actually thinking of when Tom decides to hit on her) when she's just too gorgeous for words. She carries sunlight around with her in the early years. Angel never had a chance.

Cordelia's really gunning hard for Angel at this point. Which is fascinating in light of what happens. Because in the glow of Buffy, Cordy didn't stand a chance. The second he sees Buffy in Halloween, Cordy is forgotten. And she really takes advantage of Buffy's lie to Angel in Some Assembly Required. There was no need for her to cling like that. And Angel totally uses her clinging over him to try to make Buffy jealous. It's kinda cute, really.

But I always find Angel's moments of pettiness cute.

Lie to Me

That scene at the beginning is just so haunting. Dru and Angel and the layers of history and pain that were apparent even before we knew what had happened.

Angel giving Dru a chance to leave the town - hunt somewhere else so that Buffy won't end up killing her or she won't end up killing Buffy and dying from it. And then he tries to protect her by not mentioning her to Buffy. He was feeling the guilt strongly.

And we've learned so much since then - so much of what passed between them. And Dru calls him Angel. Spike calls him 'Angelus' in School Hard, but Dru knows better.

I love that the second another competitor comes on the scene, Xander is suddenly on Angel's side. "That's Angel. He's Buffy's beau. Her 'special' friend." in other words - she's taken, asshole. At this point, he's willing to accept Angel and Buffy as being together (I believe we see him acknowedging that acceptance in Halloween, when he's talking to Cordy at the end), but another guy throws him out of wack.

Oh, and I love Xander's word choice. Beau - 'A man who is the lover of a girl or young woman.' or 'A man who is much concerned with his dress and appearance'. Heh. So true.

Big difference between S2 Xander and S5 Xander - "You have too many thoughts." vs "Smart chicks are so hot." Boy was always attracted to strong women, but it took a while for him to find brains attractive too.

Oh, and some insight on Angel that might be interesting in light of seasons four and five - "Some lies are necessary... sometimes the truth is worse. You live long enough, you find that out."

It's interesting to hear Buffy say - "I love you, Angel. I don't know if I trust you." She hurts Angel in Sanctuary by telling him that she trusts Riley.

And from Seeing Red -
Spike: "Trust is for old marrieds, Buffy. Great love is wild and passionate and dangerous. It burns and consumes."
Buffy: "Until there's nothing left. That kind of love doesn't last."

Hmm. There's a lot of interesting talk about trust in the Buffy-verse. I'm thinking of doing the same thing with that that I did with forgiveness.

The ending of this episode still makes me tear up. It starts when Buffy looks at Giles and says, "Lie to me."

"It's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after."

And, of course, S2 is the year where the Big Bad started out as one of the good guys. Jenny gets killed. Spike and Dru get away at the end. And Buffy runs away after killing Angel (her mind, she's always killed Angel there, despite the whole thing where she didn't - she killed him in her heart).

Season One was the easy year. The good guys were loyal and always on the side of right, the bad guy never came out of vamp face, and Buffy comes back from the dead in minutes. And even then, it wasn't as simple as the lie. And it only gets more complicated as time goes on.

The list of beloved casualties is a long one. Sometimes, the bad guy doesn't seem bad. And sometimes, you can't defeat the villain, because everyone has a dark side. Everyone is capable of more than they could imagine.

And there are no happy endings. The best you can hope for is a happy beginning.

The Dark Age

There are several places where Buffy takes a step forward into maturity, where the show evolves. The Pack is the first time that we saw that the show can actually be scary. Prophecy Girl really takes things up a notch with Buffy's speech to Giles and her momentary death. The next turning point is Lie to Me, where we learn that no matter how much we trust someone, you never know what's in their past (Angel re: Dru). That theme continues in The Dark Age.

The overall theme of Season Two is really one of betrayal, culminating in Buffy choosing the world over her love with Angel. She kills him to save the world and hates herself for it, as she hated herself for him turning evil in the first place ("It was me?"). It's about hidden faces and masks.

Becoming has so many betrayals - from Xander's Lie to Spike attacking Angelus to "Close your eyes."

In Lie to Me, the hidden past of a group member is the 'B' plot - in The Dark Age, it's the 'A' plot. Lie to Me is about Ford, whereas The Dark Age is about Giles. Themes that were in the background move to the foreground. The subtext is rapidly becoming text. Every single season two episode features a betrayal of some kind, but they become more important as the season builds.

In retrospect, what Giles does in Season Seven echoes what he's done just prior to Welcome to the Hellmouth - he forces himself to become the duty of the Watcher, not allowing anything else in him. Slowly, Buffy loosens him up, but then she dies a second time and he never recovers from that. Even though she comes back, he never recovers from seeing his Slayer dead. That fear and pain drives him in Seasons Six and Seven, and then the Council blows up and it gets even worse.

I love that after her "I don't know if I can trust you" last episode, Buffy trusts Angel with the human blood this episode. It's sweet.

Ah, this is the first episode where we see Xander actually connect with Cordelia. She says, "This is what happens when you have school on a Saturday," and he gives her this surprised look. They have more in common than he'd thought. And then later, they fight - close. It's intimate. If Willow hadn't interrupted them, that might have been their first kiss.

And here we have a scared Giles barking orders and essentially telling Buffy that her opinion doesn't matter. Once again, I'm reminded of Season Seven Giles.

"Nothing's safe in this world, Rupert. Don't you know that by now?" Sometimes, I feel that that is the lesson that Season Two is teaching - nothing is safe in this world. No one is fully honest (Everyone lies, Ethan tells us) and everyone has something they'd prefer the world not know about them. Or do they? The issue in S2 is you can only ever truly count on yourself, and Buffy learns that lesson far too well. It's much easier to walk alone than it is to integrate independence with interdependence. People can disappoint you terribly, Buffy learns. It's harder for her to learn that it's worth trusting even if that is so. She does manage it, though - that's what the whole Spike&Buffy story of Season Seven is about.

I love that Buffy and Xander just get it -
"No, no one dead."
"But someone unconscious."
They're so often on the same wavelength. Which possibly makes them better as friends than as lovers. Possibly. They really are very alike. They're kindred spirits. They make very good friends.

Oh, and this episode marks the first time that magic (well, 'majiks' as Giles says) is equated with drugs.

"It was an extraordinary high."

And there's this -
"Buffy, I'm sorry."
"I know."

Which is a big ouch, isn't it? Buffy is so sweet to him at the end, though. "Turns out you're also a person."