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Beneath You (Ep. 7.2)"Upper Class" What lies beneath? Under the high school, there is some kind of lurking presence. Under the streets of Sunnydale, a Tremors-like monster. Under the characters' relationships... something else. "Beneath You" takes the BtVS world we thought we knew and turns it over to show what's lying underneath... and brings some long overdue issues into the light at last. At this point in the BtVS series, every major character has been involved in a transgressive relationship of some type (let's pause here a moment to mourn for poor Tara). Some seriously messed-up situations have been the result, suggesting either a simple reading of "love is hell for everyone, irregardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, etc." or... something a little less flattering. In this episode, we get the first suggestions that there will indeed by a payoff to the power issues raised by S6. Thank god. Oh, and Spike finally tells Buffy about his soul. It's pretty wrenching. Hold on. . . . Germany. We see a pink-haired girl being chased by robed monks, much like last week's Instanbul scenario. (Run, Lola, run!) The end result is much the same - she can't escape, and dies under a knife. But this time, Buffy sees the event - and how long has it been since Buffy has had a prophetic Slayer dream? She wakes, startled, to see Dawn hovering over her, having been drawn to her sister's bedside by her screaming. "From beneath you it devours," Buffy repeats the girl's last, cryptic words from the dream. "There's more like her... and they're going to die," she tells Dawn thoughtfully. (Slayer candidates, maybe? Hm.) Cut to the happy, shiny morning outside. Xander is driving Dawn to school, with Buffy riding shotgun. (Guess Buffy still doesn't drive.) A general moratorium on Buffy speaking to Dawn's friends is discussed, along with Buffy's new "fuzzy job description" dealing with troubled kids. Xander offers the observation that "those kids are damned lucky having a Slayer and a friend on campus for them. I hope they appreciate it. I know I did," he smiles. The conversation then turns to dating, which apparently is not part of Xander's new Anya-free life. "She bounced back to being a vengeance demon and I bounced back to being a dateless nerd," he shrugs, sounding resigned. His contact with Anya seems to have been restricted to occasional spottings at the Bronze with vengeance-seeking customers. "You guys really need to ease up on the whole 'dating demons,' thing," Dawn quips, no doubt feeling pretty clever for that little double-meaning phrase. Yuh-huh. No wonder Buffy reminds her of her I-kissed-a-vampire Halloween date. Kettle. Black. At school, Buffy is shown around the office where she'll be working. Principal Wood (still looking good), explains that when students come in, she just needs to listen. "These students need someone around here who understands them," he says - twice - and again asks Buffy if there's "something about you I don't know that maybe I should?" "Nothing I can think of," she fakes, then takes her opportunity to "look around," making a beeline for the basement. Well, she did tell Spike she'd get back to him. He's not there. England. Giles appears to usher Willow to a waiting taxi - return to the Hellmouth awaits. However, Willow is nervous. "I don't want to go back home just so I can screw up again," she says. "What if I give up all this control stuff and go all veiny and homicidal again?" Giles listens and realizes the real issue: she's worried that her friends won't take her back. Unfortunately, he has no comforting words to offer her. "You may not be wanted," he tells her. "But you'll still be needed... trust yourself, and the others might follow." I'd note the operative word here is "might." With a deep breath, Willow picks up her bags and trudges toward the waiting cab. It is with great relief that I can announce the return of the socially awkward Xander of yore in this scene - he trips over his own tongue trying to make conversation, combining the fun fragments "it's your lucky night," "your dog just got eaten," and "can I freshen your tea?" in one sentence. (So much for the conversational skills of Mr. About-To-Get-Married. And he used to give Anya a hard time for verbal gaffes. Hrm.) "Should we round up the gang?" he asks, only to have Buffy remind him that "this is the gang." Her, Dawn, and Xander. Guess I was right about Anya being persona non grata. "What you need is help," a voice cuts in from the sidelines. "Fortunately, you've got me." And surprise, it's Spike - washed, brushed, freshly bleached, and looking very much like his old self. There's an uncomfortable pause while everyone takes in his presence. The tension is immediate. Cool and businesslike, Buffy agrees to step aside to talk to Spike privately. They retreat to the entryway, which now seems to be the favored spot for such conversations. "Do not start this by saying you're sorry," she begins. "I didn't come here to atone," he answers evenly, and makes his pitch. Something's coming that even he, "just a guy with his ear to the ground," can detect, but since Buffy is the Slayer, she must be picking up on it even more. "Since when did you become a champion of the people?" she asks sharply. "I didn't," he replies, saying he's "just a guy who can lend a hand, if you'll let me," and leaves the decision up to her. Buffy weighs the situation and decides to let him onboard. Stepping back out into the main room, Buffy begins issuing marching orders, earning the comment from Nancy, "is your girlfriend always this commanding?" to Xander, who grins sheepishly and stumbles through an explanation that "she's a girl, and my friend, but..." Dawn drily notes his barely contained excitement at this idea. "Little drool," she gestures. The group prepares to split up. Xander firmly objects to Buffy's plan to go off alone with Spike to investigate the underground creature. Buffy reminds him that the rape attempt failed, that she can take down Spike, if it comes to that. End of discussion. Dawn regards the vampire with a chilly expression. "You sleep, right... you vampires?" she asks. At his affirmative, she follows up with a matter-of-fact threat that "if you hurt my sister at all... touch her... you're going to wake up on fire." Her voice is icy, and an unsettled Spike nods in acknowledgment. Walking along the street in search of the ground zero spot, Buffy regards Spike with suspicion. Unlike "Lessons," in which she showed no fear of the cowering madman she found, Buffy's reaction to the lucid vampire is deep unease. As he peers into the gaping hole where the dog disappeared, she hangs back, barely managing one-line responses to his questions, flinching away when he extends a hand to pass her a flashlight. "This... us working together, it's not a way to get back together, if that's what you want," Buffy tells him, "You tried to rape me. I don't have the words." "Neither do I," is his stoic response: "I can't say 'sorry.' I can't use 'forgive me'." Instead, he asks her to believe that he's changed, and tells her that he can help because he has "nothing better to do." "Make use of me if you want," he says. Buffy is wary; she knows he's not telling her everything. Spike readily admits she's right, but since they're "not best friends anymore," he has no intention of sharing. ... and round up the gang to go to the Bronze and confront Anya, who has set up base camp for her own "counseling" role. A scorned woman holds forth as Anya nods, wide-eyed with fake interest, though clearly barely hearing her. "You guys, I am working here," she sighs in exasperation when the Scoobies show up, distractedly brushing off her current client. "We noticed," Buffy says, laying a sword on the table in front of her, a not-so-subtle threat from a former bridesmaid. Quick conversation establishes that yes, the worm-monster is Nancy's ex. "I had a quota, the guy had it coming, what's the big?" Anya frowns, but her face crumples with sympathy to hear it ate Nancy's dog. Xander snorts in disbelief, and Anya gets up to leave with a "you never understood me" comment, only to have Spike grab her arm. Nancy's role as bystander is interesting here: as in the earlier scene, where she questioned the weird tension at Spike's appearance, she asks about Anya and gets the same answer: yet another ex of her odd protectors. "Hey, nobody's bragging here!" Anya says defensively. Likewise, Nancy uncomfortably observes Anya's hands-off reaction to Spike, and their unpleasant exchange about their one-night stand. "Is there anyone here who hasn't slept together?" she aks, incredulous. Xander and Spike make brief eye contact. Yeah, I guess that about covers it. Enraged now, Spike moves in, grabbing the dazed Anya and slugging her in the face, hard. Anya throws him off, and gets off the floor with a snarl, her demon-face coming to the fore. Both move into position, fully intending to continue the fight, but Buffy steps in front of Spike, finding him in full vamp-face as well. "You haven't changed," Buffy grates, then punches him. Without hesitation, he returns the blow. Shocked, Buffy reels, then launches a flurry of kicks and punches. Spike laughs, all his calm restraint gone."Working out some personal issues, are we?" he taunts as she attacks, then reminds her with a savage smile that this would be "first contact since you know when" and wonders if she's "up for another round in the balcony." "I haven't changed," he gloats, "and watching your face trying to figure me out was absolutely delicious." Abruptly, Xander calls Buffy's attention away from this ugly scene, and back to Nancy who, somewhere in the middle of all this, panicked and ran, unable to handle the sick passion play unfolding in front of her any longer. With a last, disgusted look at Spike, Buffy retreats, telling Xander to stay and talk to Anya, get her to reverse the spell. Anya stares at Xander sullenly, grumbling that reversing the spell will get her in trouble. "Nice friends you got," Xander notes. "Nice friends I had," she says, and reminds him that "none of this happened until you dumped me at the altar." "And sooner or later, that excuse just stops working," he replies with a tired sigh. ...and with this, Xander finally says something that to my mind is absolutely fair. Yes, he did do her serious wrong. Yes, she wouldn't be in the situation she is currently in if he hadn't - she'd be working on their joint tax return and trying to conceive babies. But she can't lay all of her misfortunes at his door forever - ultimately, Anya is responsible for her own choices. By drifing back into her old life, despite no longer having the taste for it, Anya has failed to make a clear choice between either humanity or demonhood. Instead, she is trying to exist on an uneasy borderline between the two and blaming Xander for putting her there. Which makes for an interesting comment on human-demon relations in the Buffyverse - as a vengeance demon, Anya "passes" for human to do her job, but in the demon community she can no longer "pass." Her attempt to walk a middle road had led to her rejection by both sides as impure, a traitor, like in the Cher song "Half Breed." There is no place where she fits in now. Impaled, the man stares back at Spike, who freezes in horror and draws the pole back with a whispered "Sorry." The injured man collapses and Buffy rushes to help while Spike backs away, the cocky bravado of mere moments before gone and his self-control with it. "Right. Wrong. Wrong maneuver. Not nearly helpful... help me!" he rants. "You're not the one who needs help!" Buffy yells, dialing 911 on her new phone, out of patience. He doesn't seem to hear her, turning away to address the invisible people. "What the HELL are you screaming about? I can hear you! There's no need to SHOUT!" he screams, a complete wreck. Buffy stares at him, startled despite herself. Spike laughs madly, then jumps to Buffy's side and looks her straight in the eye, speaking as if reciting a part in a play. "This... just the beginning," he tells her. "The real headliner's coming, and when that band hits the stage, all of this will come tumbling in death, and screaming, horror, and bloodshed." He extends a trembling arm, and points dramatically with one finger, toward the ground, intoning the words from Buffy's dream: "From beneath you, it devours... from beneath..." He trails to a stop with an odd sympathetic noise about Nancy's dog, then runs. Buffy leaves Xander and Anya to wait for the ambulance and follows. Spike's full-body flinch here double underlines the massive significance of touch in this episode. In every case, there is shying away where there was once free access: Buffy's "skittish" response to him when passing the flashlight; Anya's irritiable flinching from Xander and Spike both. The same existensial cry rings through every one of these occurences: Who do you think you are, touching me? Who do you think I am? The point is driven home further. "Am I flesh to you? Feed on flesh... my flesh. Nothing else. Not a spark," he asks her, sounding heartbroken. At her lack of reaction, he slips into a toneless recitation: "Fine, flesh then... get it hard, service the girl." He fumbles with his pants as if meaning to do just that, and Buffy shoves him away in horror. He continues talking as if barely noticing. "Right then, girl doesn't want to be serviced, because there is no spark." Unsettled and growing afraid ("I dreamed of killing you," his voice tells her from the shadows), Buffy bends to scoop up a broken piece of wood as a makeshift stake, and listens as he goes on. Awful realization dawns on her face as he tells her that "Angel should have warned me... I wanted to give you what you deserve. And I got it. They put the spark in me, and now all it does is burn." "Your soul," Buffy says, voice drained of emotion. "Bit worse for a lack of use," he answers, then looks at her in despair. "That's what you wanted, isn't it?" He then looks up, at the ceiling. "That's what YOU wanted, isn't it?" and goes on to describe what he's feeling; everyone in his head, talking, all the time, "and it... the other. The thing beneath... beneath you. It's here too. Everyone. They all just tell me to go... Go to hell." "Why would you do that?" Buffy finally asks. He answers, "Buffy, shame on you. Why does a man do what he musn't? For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would never... To be a kind of man." She watches in stunned silence as he turns away from her, walking toward the front of the church, regarding the cross standing there. As if quoting from text, he speaks: "And she will forgive, and everyone will forgive and love.. and he will be loved." He reaches out to embrace the cross, hugging it tight to his body even as his skin begins to smoke. "So everything's okay, right?" he says, brokenly, as he stands there, smoking. "Can we rest now, Buffy? Can we rest?" Buffy can only watch, tears running down her face. For one, Buffy is finally being asked to really confront her S6 relationship with Spike from his point of view, and deal with what it means. There were, after all, really only two interpretations for Buffy's behaviour in S6, and at this point, Spike has done the math. If one is not true, then the other must be. His miserable speech about being "flesh" to her is the lesson she beat into him in "Dead Things" internalized: without a soul he is nothing to her, not even a person, just a thing to be used. The point of his soul quest now seems obvious. "Bitch thinks she's better than me," he'd ranted in "Villains," swearing that Buffy would "see a change." In gaining a soul, Spike was trying to fix this inequality, to lift himself up to Buffy's level by finding "the spark that would make all the pieces fit." It's clear now that to be treated "like a man" was what he wanted most, a desire so off the menu in his sexual relationship with Buffy that he didn't even dare articulate it. ("What I want..." he trailed off in "Gone.") In her post-resurrection misery, Buffy did not seek out an anonymous lover to help her feel alive again. ("Tell me you love me," she demanded in "As You Were," a scene the opening teaser pointedly reminds us of.) She specifically reached out to someone who had made it clear that he loved her, who had told her that he could be hurt by her... but felt justified in doing so because of of something that's always been a factor in the BtVS universe: demons are second-class citizens, considered less able to feel "real" emotions than humans, despite the fact that every single demon or vampire to appear in the show has been proven to be an individual with as many feelings, likes, and dislikes as the human characters. Even utterly evil demons are frequently far from inhuman, and many are completely benign - in Clem's case, so much so he can be passed off as a person with a "skin condition." Irregardless of having this fact paraded before their faces, year after year, the Scoobies still feel free to barge in on Anya and threaten her despite their previous connection, simply because she is a demon. As the Slayer, Buffy can do as she likes with any demon - they exist strictly on her tolerance. It's a power structure that smacks of, well, something very like racism. Making the metaphor even clearer, Buffy and her "Slayerettes" are shown to be colored by their forays into the demon world as well. They are in "costume" every bit as much as Spike or Anya. Normal-girl Nancy's close encounter with the Scoobies is just as harrowing an experience as her ex-boyfriend-cum-demon - she runs from the ugly scene in the Bronze, just as any reasonable person would. "Freaks! Why do I always surround myself with freaks!" she cries out to herself as she runs. She isn't just talking about the demons. The BtVS characters aren't normal. Their incestuous little Peyton Place relationships are sick and twisted. They are all, frankly, freaks in "normal" drag, and finally, the masks are slipping enough for both them and us to see it. So next episode, Willow returns, the last entry in a trifecta of people so adrift in a hazy gray zone that light and dark are barely visible points on the horizon. How will this affect the remaining human characters in the Buffyverse? Will they be asked to re-examine their own policies of casual exclusion and come to new realizations that it's actions, not class, or background, or race, or whatever, that decides? Wouldn't that be nice? And if you go back to the "beginning," what do you wanna bet that "it's all connected"?
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