The character of Tara is introduced in Season Four during the Oscar winning episode ‘Hush’. Willow meets her at college during a Wicca group, and their relationship evolves slowly into a love interest. The couple continued to progress, and the audience were seeing a lesbian relationship on network television that lasted longer than a few episodes. Their relationship had very deep emotion and was an excellent portrayal of true love. This relationship is probably one of the most believable representations of lesbianism on television. Stereotypically and historically, all lesbian relationships in Hollywood end up doomed. During the episode ‘Who Am I?’ Willow and Tara perform a spell together. It is a spell that will reveal the truth, and is referred to by many as the ‘sex spell’. The spell is “really intense” says Tara, and she will need to serve as Willow's "anchor" to the material realm. We see the two practising their craft, and the ecstatic looks on their faces pushes the magical/sexual metaphor to its limit. This spell is used as a metaphor for the physical relationship between Willow and Tara. A big question is why it was necessary for them to use a metaphor at the time. The program skilfully avoids using the word lesbian, and simply presents it as what Buffy calls "an unconventional relationship." During this period, lesbian relationships were fairly taboo to TV, and this episode was fairly revolutionary. It is even quite a few episodes before we see them kiss on screen. It could also be because using magic as a metaphor for sex makes the relationship all the more mysterious and almost special.
One of the most obvious metaphors used in BtVS is the similarity between Willows addiction to magic, and an addiction to drugs. Season 6 is one of the darkest there has been, which seems focused on the suffering and anguish of the characters. They cope with unhealthy sexual relationships, destroyed weddings, death of loved ones, addictions and much more. Whilst Buffy is trying to cope with her return to earth from heaven, a (secret) sexual relationship develops between her and the vampire Spike. He is in love with her, however she (apparently) feels nothing towards him. This unhealthy relationship is very much an addiction; just like the one Willow must come to deal with. Tara broke up with Willow because she was worried about how she was relying on magic too much. Of course, she is left heart-broken by this, and from this point on her life begins to spiral downward. It is during the episode ‘Wrecked’, that her addiction reaches its worst point. She has just been re-united with her Wicca friend, Amy. Amy takes her to a warlock named Rack, through what could be described as peer pressure.
Willow: “Is it dangerous?”
Amy: “Would that stop you?”
Rack is a black-magic dealing warlock. Willow becomes addicted to the magic highs that he is able to give her. The irresponsibility that this causes in her is shown when she takes Dawn along whilst she gets her dose of magic, and then crashes a car with Dawn inside. It is at this point that she realises her magic problem is serious, and she decides to quit magic altogether. The problem that Willow has to deal with is in a way similar to the sexual relationship that Buffy has with Spike. This is shown as we see Buffy standing up for Willow: “We all do stupid stuff. Then we learn.”
Willow spends half of the season struggling to stay clean in an attempt to win back Tara. They reunite again, before their happiness is destroyed when a stray bullet intended for the Slayer kills Tara. The shot goes through the back of Tara, splattering Willows shirt with her blood. The last scene of the episode is Willow in tears, cradling the lifeless body of Tara. Overcome by her grief and rage, Willow infuses herself with every bit of black magic she can find. Over the three last episodes of the Season, Willows rage grows, and grows. She begins by trying to find the ‘Geek Trio’ in order to murder them for Tara’s death. Buffy and Xander naturally try to stop her, and the more they do this, the greater her rage becomes. She eventually hunts down Warren and tortures him to death. Much to everyone’s joy, Giles returns from England. He has come with what he thinks will be enough power to stop Willow. And he is right. She takes the power from him and can now feel the emotion of everyone on earth. She can feel everyone’s pain and emotion; it is too much for her to take, so she decides to destroy the world to stop the pain. We learn that the one thing more powerful than all that hate, is what Xander uses as his weapon - just three little words – I love you. Xander saves the world with his boring old love for Willow. For six years, it hasn’t been about magic or supernatural forces. It’s been about joy and sorrow, love and hate, and fear and lust.
Irony is used fairly often in BtVS, sometimes for a use of comedy, and sometimes as a way of provoking more emotional reactions in the audience to make them think about the episode afterwards. ‘The Wish’ is an episode which uses irony extremely well. Cordelia makes a wish to Anya (who she doesn’t realise is a ‘vengeance demon’) that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. She gets taken to a world where Sunnydale is overrun with vampires. It is the complete opposite of the world she knew; her favourite hangout is a vampire club; there is a curfew in place to protect them; and no one wears bright clothes out of fear of attracting a vampire. Some of the main characters like Willow and Xander are vampires. The irony starts when Cordelia, who we assume is the main character of the episode, gets killed by Willow. ‘The Master’ (main ‘big-bad’ from Season One) is still in control, and is setting up a human-harvesting factory. Buffy turns up in Sunnydale after being called by Giles and her character is the complete opposite of the happy Buffy that we knew. The ending of the episode reaches the height of irony, and creates a very emotional response in the audience. Vampire Willow gets killed by Oz, who was/is her first boyfriend. Buffy watches Angel get carelessly staked, as she walks through the dust with not a care, and finally The Master kills Buffy a second before the world returns to normal. With a half-hearted twist of his hand, her neck is snapped, and our main character is dead. The irony of this could be suggesting that if nobody fights their 'demons', then they will consume us. The demons of the characters consumed them so much that they were not free to experience the love and happyness that they were meant to. This is shown by each of the characters ruthlessly killing the ones they were destined to love.
BtVS does use a lot of foreshadowing. It is mainly used with the character of Willow. Previous episodes and events foreshadow her turn to evil, provoked by the death of Tara. The fact that Willow so easily becomes addicted to magic shows us instability in her Wiccan (witch) side. She later on summons forces so powerful that they can bring Buffy back from the dead. This shows us what enormous amounts of power Willow is capable of. Buffy & Willow have a conversation, which seems to foreshadow Willow's lesbian relationship with Tara. This is because the conversation is about Willow's magic, and magic is often used as a metaphor for sex between Willow and Tara. Buffy says "well you shouldn't go too far too fast or let people pressure you" which later applies directly to Tara's apparent feelings during the "sex spell" scene together. Willow then replies with the often said opinion that college is meant to be "a time for experimentation", which can mean both magic use and her upcoming sexual orientation shift. Willow hasn’t yet met Tara, and this bit of foreshadowing is very subtly used. It is almost to subconsciously prepare the audience for what is to come, or as some sort of defence-mechanism for all those who are disapproving, in that Willow says that college is a time for experimentation. Another example of foreshadowing is in the episode ‘Fear, Itself’ (The title begin a reference to a speech given by President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II "We have nothing to fear but fear, itself."). The fear demon tells Buffy "They are all gonna abandon you, you know." I think that this is foreshadowing the episode 'Empty Places' in Season 7, where Buffy is voted out by all her friends/family/potentials as their leader.
Possibly one of the most comical and metaphorical moments in BtVS is where the ‘chip’ in Spikes head prevents him from biting Willow. This is easily compared to a man who is having difficulty performing sexually. The secret government organisation, ‘The Initiative’ captured Spike and placed a device in his head which causes him intense pain whenever he tries to hurt any living thing. He manages to escape, however he is unaware of the chip. The first thing he does is try and find the Slayer, however he comes across Willow instead. She is currently very depressed as Oz just left. He then tried to bite her and their conversation continues as follows:
Spike: I don't understand. This sort of thing's never happened to me before.
Willow: Maybe you were nervous.
Spike: I felt all right when I started
This is obviously a metaphor being used for comical effect, but it also begins to show further a close, yet subtle relationship between Willow and Spike.
As Willow is currently very upset, she starts to think that its because of her that Spike is unable to bite her:
Willow: It's me, isn't it?
Spike: What are you talking about?
Willow: I know I'm not the kind of girl vamps like to sink their teeth into. It's always like, "Ooh, you're like a sister to me," or, "Oh, you're such a good friend."
Spike: Don't be ridiculous. I'd bite you in a heartbeat.
It is at this point, that the audience is shown the softer, less evil side to Spike. From this point onwards, we no longer see Spike as a threat to Buffy, but playing more of a humorous, down to earth character. Spike compares his situation to being neutered, describing it as "Spike had a little trip to the vet and now he doesn't chase the other puppies anymore." Willow and Spike share a bonding moment where he is reassuring her, and in return she reassures him. He then becomes slightly timid and shy, Willow then realises she has a chance to escape and hits him over the head with a table lamp.
Now we come to the issue of the infamous ‘Geek Trio’. 3 high school ‘geeks’ out to cause mischief in Sunnydale and irritate the ‘Scooby-gang’ (Buffy and her friends.) In films and TV series’ there has always been some question about the role of a ‘geek’ or a ‘nerd’. In teenage films, they are often just kids in high school who don’ fit in, and are there to be picked on. In other films, such as Galaxy Quest it is the cult-obsessed intelligent kids who end up saving the world. Even if they are not recognised for it, it is still a huge achievement and tells any child watching, that is it not un-cool to take an interest in something different. Now, BtVS takes this to a whole new level. Firstly, Buffy and her friends could be compared to Brendon and his friends in Galaxy Quest. They are saving the world on an almost daily basis. Is this sending out a very subtle message to the audience watching that even if they are just teenagers bored with their lives, they are still capable of great and wonderful things? However there is another side to this, in the form of the Geek Trio - Andrew, Jonathon and Warren (the ringleader). In certain episodes, there is a frequent reference to Star Wars. They have a lot of memorabilia and are clearly fanatics of sci-fi. These are 3 boys who were never popular or liked at school, an example being Andrew who was the one wanting to kill himself in the Watch Tower. It could be suggested that these three have been influenced by their role models and heroes in comic books and films. They are all intelligent people, and decide to put this to use by imitating their comic book heroes/villains. They have always felt like social outcasts and want to get revenge on those who have excluded them. As I mentioned previously, Warren was the ringleader and bully of the group. I think that Jonathon and Andrew always saw their mischief as light-hearted, however for Warren it was much more then that. This is proven when he murders his ex-girlfriend, Katrina and tries to frame Buffy for it, hoping she’ll be locked away. He later attempts to cold-heartedly murder Buffy, killing Tara in the process. This is where Willow skins him alive in her rage. At this point, Buffy is trying to protect Jonathon and Andrew from Willows wrath and they are portrayed as even more weak and fragile as they were before. This is interesting to see, as the audience knows they are both quite innocent in the situation. They have always been considered weak and immature, whereas Warren was always the man of the group. This is disproved in the situation where it is blatant that Warren is unable to accept responsibility or admit defeat, and that he is the immature one of them all. I think that this is meant to be noticed by the audience, and teaches a valuable lesson.
Buffy has always come across as a simple series about a group of friends who fight Vampires, but as I have investigated deeper into it, I have found it to be about much more. Aswell as including a lot of hidden metaphors, irony, and foreshadowing, it is all about psychology and philosophy. It could be said that Buffy had to become more like a soap opera in order to become what people wanted, however I think that it became a truly unique TV show, in the original and imaginative story-lines and the depth of character. It became such a success and inspiration that there was a spin-off, Angel, which managed to gain a status of being a ‘stand alone’ series. A shows success should not just be based on who watches it when it is on TV, but how long it lives for once it has finished. BtVS’s finale season finished a year ago, and is still a widely acclaimed show, with a huge fan base.
"Buffy is made by writers who think very hard about what they are doing in terms of psychology. When somebody says there is a philosophy behind "Buffy" that is the truth. When they say there is symbolism and meaning that's true too." – Joss Whedon
Bibliography
Websites:
Books:
Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy
