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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."
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."