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The Killer in Me (Ep. 7.13)

"Behind Blue Eyes"

This one's a little tricky for me to sum up because... well, it's not so much that I didn't like the episode, which dealt with the one-two punch of Spike's failing chip, plus Willow's burgeoning romance with Slayer candidate Kennedy (as well as resolving the ongoing is-it-Giles? mystery), it's that I just... didn't like Kennedy. I still don't. God help me, I think I'm supposed to like her, but I really don't. Sorry.

But I'll do my best to keep an open mind. From a story standpoint. And stuff. Ahem. Here goes.

. . .

The episode opens with Giles preparing to take the Slayers-in-training on a vision quest of the sort Buffy went on in "Intervention," a sort of camp-out field trip to impress upon them the importance of their calling. As is usual these days, he manages to get others to do all the plebian tasks involving use of his hands so he can stand around with his paws in his pockets: "Oh, Dawn, Vi's left her notebook on the mantelpiece. Would you mind running it out to the car?" He also suggests Dawn "smack her in the head with it" for leaving it lying around. Okay, either Giles is just getting tetchy because he never was all that good at handling kids, or (dum dum dum) it's something else...

At any rate, he sits on the couch next to Buffy and confesses that he's feeling bad about leaving her alone at the ranch. (If only he'd worried about that sort of thing last year, hm?) Buffy reassures him they'll be fine on their own, and off he goes.

 
A Pain In The Membrane, A Pain In The Brain
The premises now being teenager-free (except for Dawn, of course), Buffy decides to fill her free time by talking to Spike, who we now see (after a week of wondering) has been set up with a little camp cot in the basement. He's also chained to the wall, apparently his own idea; he doesn't trust himself unless Buffy's there to make sure he can't hurt anyone. "That's the way it's gonna be until we're sure The First is done making me its bitch," he says. "Either we're together, or I'm on the leash."

Buffy is a little less clear on her own place in the order of things: "I enjoy my responsibility as mentor, role model, life guide..." she begins to claim, then breaks off with a relieved sigh about how glad she is to have the bathroom to herself again. Like Giles, Buffy seems pretty ambivalent about bringing up the next generation because frankly, it's not something she has any inherent talent at either.

She's also pretty ambivalent about Spike, still. We've already established that she worries about his welfare (last episode), now she's beginning to put out tentative signals that maybe she does trust him after all, with a question about whether he even needs the chains, then suggesting that deactivating the First's trigger is the only real obstacle in the way of his being off the leash. It's as if she really wants to trust him, more than he does himself, and their conversation might have gone in some interesting directions had not Spike's chip picked that exact moment to fire off. By itself. For no reason.

The possibility of the chip failing is something that's been bandied about ever since it was first installed - what would happen if it ever stopped working? Last season we saw a trial run of such a situation in "Smashed," where Spike promptly did exactly what everyone always figured he would do - rushed to get his fangs into some blood of the living. Except even then he was oddly hesitant about it, and now, with the soul added on top of his already established psuedo-conscience, there's a question of whether the chip is really necessary anymore. The chip didn't stop him from killing under The First's control, meaning it can be overridden, meaning it's pretty useless to protect anyone - this was Spike's own reason for putting himself "on the leash." So if the chip fails now, what's the big?

Well, the big is, it's killing him. Painfully. Eyes rolling back screaming kind of pain. Okay, not so good.

 
Getting To Know You
Upstairs, Buffy tries to get advice from Willow, and is disappointed to discover she doesn't really know anything about how the chip works. "When a secret government agency studies vampires and puts chips in their brains that keep them from hurting people, they don't really build websites," Willow shrugs. Buffy absorbs this, then keeps the tone light by teasing Willow about making tea for the "other patient" - Kennedy, who skipped on the desert trip because she has a cold. "It's just tea," Willow grumbles Uh-huh. And denial is a river in Egypt. We all know how that one goes.

IT'S ALL IN HIS HEAD For three years now, Spike's V-chip has been the ultimate scientific achievement of the BtVS universe (other than robots that are indistinguishable from humans). But how did it work? Perhaps, like the mystery of The Key, we'll never know for sure, but here are our theories: SENSORROUND Since the chip can detect the difference between humans and demons and administer punishment appropriately before Spike even reaches his target, it must operate rather like a proximity alarm, or a motion-detector sensor. This means that not only would this tiny microchip have to monitor Spike's own activity (aggressive action) but also it would have to be constantly reading energy emanations from everyone he encounters (incoming data). (This would fit with Warren's description of it sending out a "steady pulse.") BAD... WRONG The chip relies on psychological triggers, not scientific sensors. (After all, the chip's creator, Maggie Walsh, was primarily a psych professor.) In this scenario, the chip would work pretty much like The First's "trigger," only it would be Spike himself who sets it off, through whatever psychological lever the Initiative subliminally installed to govern the chip. This is about the only reason we can think of why it wouldn't fire off if he acts aggressive, yet doesn't intend to harm anyone (e.g., "Fool For Love"). But it would also mean it's relying on his own judgment as to the difference between humans and demons... so y'know that time when he used the chip as a lie-detector test on Tara to see if she was a demon? Well, maybe Spike figured she wasn't....

And yep, Kennedy was just faking being sick so she could talk Willow into taking a field trip of their own to the Bronze to get to know her better, thinly disguised as a "mission." Willow takes a frustratingly long time to catch on to this ploy, and when she does, she starts to stomp out. "Just hang out with me a little... you're sexy when you pout," Kennedy coaxes. Willow wavers, then caves, allowing "one drink, then I'm going home." They settle in to enjoy their girly cocktails and chat.

Here comes the hard part of the episode to talk about. This discussion did nothing for me, and it's not because I object to seeing two gay women on a date, or even to the idea of Willow thinking about getting together with someone who's not Tara. It's simply that I'm not impressed at all by the actress who plays Kennedy. She's good looking in a bland way, but has no charisma that I could detect, nor any chemistry with Alyson Hannigan. If someone with a little more raw sex appeal were pulling this seduction trip, I'd have been a lot more convinced. And interested. As is, I was just uncomfortably expecting Willow to get around to asking her age at some point, which she didn't (Kennedy is supposed to be older than the other Potentials - 19, I believe, yet it's never come up in dialogue), leaving my mind screaming "Jailbait! Jailbait!" at every opportunity. I so didn't need that on top of Willow's appreciation of sexy Dawn in "Him." Seriously Willow, get someone your own age!

I also found Kennedy's super-pushy personality to be a turnoff. She describes the how-to-spot-another-lesbian process as: "...like flirting in code. It's using body language and laughing at the right jokes and looking into her eyes and knowing she's still whispering to you, even when she's not saying a word. And that sense that if you can just touch her just once everything will be okay for both of you. That's how you can tell.... Or if she's really hot, you just get her drunk and see if she comes on to you." Does this sound like a manipulative guy who's just out to get a girl in the sack? Does to me.

 
The Secretary Will Disavow All Knowledge
While this is going on, Buffy tends to a worsening Spike. He's now getting nosebleeds from the pressure; not a great sign. She wonders aloud if the malfunction is "related to the trigger or maybe it has something to do with the new soul." Spike weakly replies with the more logical theory, "maybe I wasn't meant to last this long... one more thing you and I have in common, eh, pet?"

To Buffy's credit, once she realizes the seriousness of the problem, she acts without hesitation. Realizing that book research isn't going to be the answer to this one ("try 'Behavioural Modification Software Throughout the Ages,'" he replies sarcastically when she suggests it), she ashcans her diginity and calls former boyfriend and Initiative Soldier Riley, last seen in fairly humiliating circumstances in "As You Were," for help.

This phone call is sorta funny, in a way. The number she has seems to be a flower shop, or at least fronting as one, and Buffy showcases her working knowledge of spy films in trying to get her message through: "is this actually a flower shop, or is this one of those things where I'm supposed to play along to show that I know it's really Secret Ops? Oh, maybe I shouldn't have said that.... Well, if some guy named Finn shows up to buy flowers..." It's hard, however, to get a lot of chuckles out of this because while Buffy paces with the phone in the foreground, we see Spike contorting in pain in the background from his government-sponsored killer migraines.

We are, in fact, treated to several scenes of this type throughout the episode, and I get the distinct impression that they're played for laughs, which is pretty darned jarring directly following a run of episodes where we were obviously not meant to be getting giggles out of the idea of Spike writhing in agony. As a sight gag it reminds one of nothing so much as Anya and Halfrek calmly chatting as a burning figure races to and fro in "Selfless." That's cold....

 
Magick Makeover
Meanwhile, Willow and Kennedy's date is progressing. They're a little tipsy, and comparing notes on what they have in common - nothing much, as it turns out, "except the fighting evil part," Willow notes, "even then I like a nice foot massage." All things being equal, Willow would prefer to be normal; she just wants to be Willow. But still, there's enough sparkage (in theory) for them to come home feeling good, and kiss goodnight. Only when Kennedy pulls back from the kiss, the face she sees isn't Willow's. It's Warren's.... the man Willow messily killed back in "Villains."Willow is suddenly wearing his face.

Kennedy panics. Then Willow gets a look at herself in the mirror and she panics. Both rush downstairs where everything turns into chaos - everyone shouting and accusing Willow of being The First, Andrew freaking, Buffy going for the fisticuff approach as always, Spike spasming in the background. Again, I'm not seeing the laughs here. It's all too painful and serious to be funny.

Andrew's tirade at the Warren-image is one of the bright lights in this scene: "I know who you are now. I know what you made me do. Your promises of happy fields and dancing schnauzers and being demigods won't work on me anymore. You made me do things. Things I can never take back." This is about the first time we've seen Andrew played as being sincere about not wanting to do evil anymore instead of conveniently going with the flow. Good to know.

By threatening to reveal hidden secrets of Xander's past, Willow establishes her identity, and some quick talk establishes that it's probably a glamour of some sort, something she brought on herself. "I have a history with my witchy subconscious making things go kerfloopey. Remember the wacky 'I can't see you, you can't see me' spell?" She guesses that her subconscious picked Warren's image "because I feel guilty about killing him" and insists that she'll find a way to fix the problem herself because she doesn't want her friends seeing her "this way." Buffy protests, then drops the objection when Willow draws her attention to a collapsed Spike, unnoticed in the background. Realizing she can't help them both at once, Buffy lets Willow go with her assurance "I'm not posing any big threat to the world."

 
Rendezvous With The Rat
Kennedy follows Willow (still looking like Warren) outside. Not thrilled with the company, Willow tries to brush her off, but can't. That pushy personality really is a factor here. I guess in a good way. So Kennedy tags along as Willow seeks help from... Amy the Former Rat, last seen pushing magic on her addictively inclined friend in "DoubleMeat Palace." Amy is now hanging out with a Wiccan circle in a classroom at Sunnydale U. who are much more magic-oriented than they were back in Season 4, when bake sales were all the rage. "We still do that too," the New Age-y group leader confirms.

Amy, looking healthy and glossy, indulges in a little recovery speak about "hitting rock bottom" and apologizes for hurting Willow in the past, but sounds less than enthusiastic about trying to help her with a spell. "We're more about healing spirits and nurturing our life force here," she claims, but agrees to try.

Holding Willow's hands, Amy attempts the spell, but it backfires, causing Willow/Warren to react with extreme hostility, calling Amy a "dumb bitch," and slapping her hard across the face. Willow is horrified to realize that the reaction was Warren's, not hers. She's actually turning into him.

Willow takes off, too freaked to cope any more, and Kennedy once again tries to follow, but this time, Willow is too angry (or channeling Warren too much) to allow it. She blocks Kennedy's path magically and stalks off on her own.

 
Best Served Cold
Turning back to the almost empty classroom, Kennedy realizes something is up when Amy lets slip that she knows Kennedy is a Potential, and everything becomes clear. Amy is the one who cursed Willow. "Just your standard penance malediction," she snipes, boasting that it "lets the victim's subconscious pick the form of their punishment. It's always better than anything I can come up with." Then she gives her reason for doing it. Suprise: It's All About Power. "Willow always had all the power, long before she even knew what to do with it. Just came so easy for her. The rest of us, we had to work twice as hard to be half as good. But no one cares about how hard you work. They just care about cute, sweet Willow. They don't know how weak she is. She gave in to evil - stuff worse than I can even imagine. She almost destroyed the world! And yet everyone keeps on loving her? So what's wrong with having a little fun, huh? Taking her down a peg or two?" She then snaps her fingers and sends Kennedy to where Willow/Warren is now - in the Summers backyard, gun in hand, out of her mind, apparently ready to reinact the crimes of last spring.

Amy has a point. It is odd that Willow has been forgiven so easily, without so much as a ripple in her college transcript to show for her slide into darkness. It's one of the weird double-standards that exists in the show, that the Scoobies themselves can get up to all sorts of nasty hijinks and never have to face the music for any of it, simply because of who they are: the Good Guys. The Chosen Ones. The Inner Circle. Amy's argument is the cry of every outsider, everyone who has to do things the hard way instead of having the path cleared for them by the equivalent of Beltway insiders or old-boy networking. It's hard not to feel that she's right to be pissed.

But, as we've discovered over time in this show, vengeance is not the way. It just leads to worse things - in this case, Willow's mental breakdown, not something you want to inflict on someone powerful enough to destroy the world. Kennedy tries to talk her down, and in the course of this conversation we get the reason for the Warren transformation. It isn't that Willow feels guilty for killing him. It's that she feels guilty for betraying Tara. "I killed her!" Willow/Warren sobs. "I'm being punished. I kissed you, just for a second, but it was enough. I let her go. I didn't mean to... We should have been forever, and I - I let her be dead. She's really dead. And I killed her." She breaks down, crying miserably.

Alyson Hannigan is wonderful with her grief here, and it was a long overdue relief to see her dealing with Tara's death... and yet, I note that Willow doesn't blame herself for the actual shooting, whereas I would have thought she'd have been beating herself up about that a bit too, given that the only reason that Tara was even in the house on that fateful day was that she had come back to Willow, had forgiven her. Not to mention the whole bringing Buffy back from the dead issue - Willow doesn't actually seem to carry a lot of guilt around with her, except about her own feelings, which is kind of a spooky thing to realize.

And she's brought back from this crisis by a gesture that might have seemed sexy or romantic under other circumstances, but for reasons that I've detailed above, made me wince a bit: Kennedy kisses her again, like a fairytale prince. It works - Willow returns to normal. I guess I have to accept that Kennedy is an authentic love interest now. Sigh. I'll try.

 
Reeling In The Herring
While all this is going on, we have two more plotlines rushing toward resolution. While Buffy and Spike try to find the old Initiative base in hopes of laying their hands on some real good drugs to dull the pain of the chip attacks, the rest of the gang left at the house belatedly realize that there's been something funny about Giles lately. This is triggered by a phone call from the Watcher who we saw sliced up and presumably dying in "Sleeper." He's recovered in the hospital since, but his last memory was "Giles's head about to get really familiar with a Bringer's very sharp axe." Now the gang is worried if Giles is a manifestation of The First (about time), and if he is, they've just let it take all the Potential Slayers off into the desert where no one can hear them scream. That does seem a tactical error.

Duly alarmed, they pile into a car to rush to the rescue, even though they have no idea what to do when they get there. But guts count for something - they arrive in the desert, and dogpile on Giles as he sits by a crackling campfire, establishing that he is indeed corporeal. "You think I'm evil if I bring a group of girls on a camping trip and don't touch them?" Giles questions, annoyed. Cue rimshot.

That Giles's possible incorporeality turned out to be a massive red herring was semi-expected by our couch analysts. But as jokes go, I'd say this one was dragged out too long. If it had been wrapped up in the same episode, like Dawn's possible Potential status, then it would have been funny. As a multi-episode shaggy dog story, it leaves you not so much chuckling as thinking the entire cast are airheads. He hasn't touched anything in view of someone else? Like food? Bedding? Where did he sleep? He didn't use a single teacup? Polish his glasses? And no one noticed? Again, done in one episode, plausible. Several days, hard to swallow. Since this season's storyline relies heavily on mystery elements, predisposing the audience to look for clues in everything, it's hard to extend the usual fuzz factor on points such as this. But I'll try.

 
You're All Going To Die Down Here
Finally, there's still Buffy and Spike, cracking the Initiative's old base, the one that was sealed in concrete at the end of S4. It's dark and creepy inside, and the dead demons and soldiers from the battle of "Primeval" are still there, rotting on the floor... except for one demon that's still running around loose in the pitch-darkness, stalking them as they move through the halls. These scenes are perhaps the episode's most effective, filmed in a sort of grainy, night-vision film stock to give a serious Resident Evil-style horror atmosphere. As if those decomposing bodies weren't atmospheric enough. Ew.

The demon attacks them in a blur - remember what I said about Resident Evil? - and thanks to another ill-timed chip malfunction, it gets its hooks into a semi-conscious Spike and begins to drag him away. Buffy chases after it, kills it with an abandoned shovel, and is bending over Spike to see if he's okay when the lights come on. The Initiative isn't as dead as it seems. A large group of soldiers are looking down at them, guns aimed.

But, surprisingly enough, they're there to help. Buffy's phone call got through after all, and Riley has instructed these men, in his exact words: "to provide you anything you need to help assface here." All things considered, this is a pretty generous show of support on Riley's part, but he has always been, to be fair, an okay guy. In fact, he's left all decisions on what to do in Buffy's hands, a very large gesture of trust, especially since she's informed that she can choose to have the faulty chip repaired, or removed entirely - it's up to her. The episode ends here, without giving us her decision.

And here comes my largest objection to the entire episode. Putting off revealing Buffy's decision until next week is, in my mind, unnecessarily melodramatic. Let's go over her choices: (a) let Spike die a slow, agonizing death (b) repair a device that doesn't actually prevent Spike from killing people if under mind control, inconveniently incapacitates him in combat situations, and comes with a limited lifespan, again followed by the promise of a lingering, painful death or (c) following through on the kind of faith she says she has in him, and trusting that his soul will be a better leash than the chip could ever be.

Seems kind of a foregone conclusion to me.

 
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