Season 8: The Status of Being Beneath Her and Not Being Invited In
Two of the iconic ways Buffy asserted her position in the relationship at Spike's expense was when she said he was beneath her and when she revoked his invitation. Both of those moments have been invoked in the comics. Below an argument about why this isn't a callous repeat of some hurtful moments, but rather an upending of then.
1. When Buffy told Spike he was beneath her, she meant it. She was also right. He was still evil at the time. And with the chip in his head he was also pretty much a loser. Don't get me wrong. I hurt for Spike when she said it. I assume she did NOT know how that phrase resonated with him. And it was clearly meant to install Buffy as the new Cecily in Spike's life. But Buffy is worth a million Cecilies, and she had far more right to the phrase than Cecily did.
But a lot has happened since Fool For Love, and it would be amazingly crappy if Buffy still thought Spike was beneath her. So in #36 we have Buffy telling Angel that it's beneath him to be jealous of Spike. In that panel, Angel and Buffy float above Spike's ship, which is rising up towards them, with all the rescued Scoobies on board, with Spike as the one who did the rescuing.
As I said in some of my posts when #36 came out, I think that whole episode, which was written by Joss was a big diss on *Buffy*. She and Angel have just started an apocalypse. People have died. We get that underscored in a chilling way when Buffy first asks Angel if he'd have rather Spike arrived sooner and prevented the sexathon. The implied answer is that Angel (and Buffy) are glad Spike didn't arrive. They immediately, in the very next panel, separate to beat up a huge number of demons who have arrived BECAUSE of that sexathon. That's making clear, for those who missed the point, that Angel and Buffy are incredibly messed up here. They are the lowlifes who are so obsessed with each other and their orgasms (glow-induced or not) that they can't see that what just happened is horrible.
It is, therefore, intensely ironic that the term 'beneath you' comes up. Buffy and Angel may think they're above everyone else (and most especially Spike). But they are actually the creeps in the text -- the ones who deserve to be knocked down onto the floor in contempt. We are as far from Fool for Love as you can get. The line here is a commentary on Buffy, not on Spike. And it's worth remembering that Buffy almost certainly doesn't know the resonance that line has for Spike and she's not saying it to him in any case. Nor is she saying anything about Spike being beneath her. She's telling Angel that his jealousy is beneath him. So the Fool for Love resonance, and it's inversion, is entirely for our benefit. It's there to tell us that there's been a sea change in the relative status of Spike and Buffy (and Angel).
#40 tells us straight out, for those of us who might have thought otherwise, that Buffy's low point in the season was exactly that sexathon. That's when she super-literally f**cked up. That just underscores the inversion intended by the invocation of the loaded phrase Beneath You. Joss is a good writer. That's all totally intentional.
2. At the end of Crush, Spike bangs into the barrier and is crushed to realize his invitation to Buffy's house has been revoked. It means a huge amount to him when the invitiation is reinstated in The Gift. So isn't it terrible that he's once again disinvited?
It doesn't play that way. Not at all. First, the scene in #40 opens with Buffy mentioning that Spike is parked on the roof -- i.e. above her. So forget the beneath you imagery. Like I said, it's been upended in #36. And in #40 it's still upended.
Second, we don't get anything like a wounded puppy dog look from Spike. He gripes about it -- it's a pain cause it means he has to crawl around. And it seems to be part of the reason he thinks Buffy is being weird. But there's not a hint that he's hurt by it, or even reads it as a rejection. Could be he's hiding his hurt -- but we've had Spike around a Buffy whose heart and body belongs to Angel for five issues now, and there's not been a solitary drop or hint of hurt. If it's there it's a hurt that is 100% hidden. Given that Spike's a heart on his sleeve guy, I'd say that if there is a hidden hurt, it's not an overpowering hidden hurt. In other words, Spike has moved on -- at least some. He's got some distance.
And that, in turn, could well be one of the main reasons that Buffy keeps making a point of the lack of invitation. Because she does keep making a point of it. I disagree with people who say its not her invitation to make. She wouldn't repeat the point if it were a situation she was powerless to change. She's asserting something by doing it. But it's NOT an assertion meant to wound Spike. Or at least not directly. She never says it in a negative tone. Think back to how she looked when she slammed the door in his face in Crush. That's not what she's doing here. She goes out to talk to Spike, for one thing. For another, when she's diving back into the apartment, and re-mentioning the lack of invitation, she's also asking him to come back and visit her. As vamp_mogs points out, the most likely reading of her state of emotion at that point is that Spike has gotten to her, invoking tears, and she doesn't want him to see he has gotten to her and so goes awkwardly diving back into her apartment (and falling on her ass while doing so). The subject is brought up as part of the banter between them. And I think that's really interesting.
First, it no longer has anything like it's previous emotional flavor. It is NOT Buffy rejecting a guy who is head over heels in love with her, for whom she has no feelings (that she's willing to admit to him or to herself at any rate). This is NOT a callous repeat of Crush. On the contrary. It's a huge flashing sign that says Things Have Changed (a lot). Buffy isn't above Spike, she's the klutz who falls into her apartment in a rush to keep Spike from seeing that she's crying. Second, it pretty much takes one of their previous emotional moments (both her initial disinvite and subsequent reinvite) and puts it back into play. Buffy is the one who makes much of it. I'm going to say that it's her way of saying she wishes that he'd react to it the way he did before. Not because she wants to hurt him. But because she wants him to still love her that way. Or at a minimum, she's saying it bugs her that he doesn't.
#40 reminded us of the nightmare of Spike and Angel getting it on. It was a nightmare because the two vamps were supposed to be into her and not into each other. Buffy then found out that one of the vampires really still loved her. Alas, jumping on him turned out to be pretty much the worst thing ever and brought destruction down on everyone. She can't even look at that guy. That guy is now far more beyond the pale than Spike ever was. What Buffy still doesn't know (and frankly what we don't even know) is whether the other vampire still loves her. He's disinvited. I think she's asking him to say it bothers him. He's not. He's not telling her he still wants in. He just says it's inconvenient that she won't let him in. She's asserting the power, but as she stumbles into her apartment overcome with emotion, and as she gives voice to thoughts of being alone every night over a panel of him flying away, I tend to think that the tables have turned on the disinvite. Before it was Buffy keeping out a lovelorn Spike. Now it's an at-least love-tempted Buffy trying to provoke Spike into showing any sign that he returns the feeling.
She's not in a space to make a real campaign. I'm not even sure if any of it is conscious. But season 8 has established quite clearly that Buffy stll has feelings for Spikes. To those who want to say that the fantasy in #36 was not at all romantic, I say keep an eye peeled for all the icons that come from that fantasy that just scream "romance". The question is not whether she loves him. The question is now whether he loves her. We dont have a shred of evidence that he does. And neither does Buffy. And that bugs her.
1. When Buffy told Spike he was beneath her, she meant it. She was also right. He was still evil at the time. And with the chip in his head he was also pretty much a loser. Don't get me wrong. I hurt for Spike when she said it. I assume she did NOT know how that phrase resonated with him. And it was clearly meant to install Buffy as the new Cecily in Spike's life. But Buffy is worth a million Cecilies, and she had far more right to the phrase than Cecily did.
But a lot has happened since Fool For Love, and it would be amazingly crappy if Buffy still thought Spike was beneath her. So in #36 we have Buffy telling Angel that it's beneath him to be jealous of Spike. In that panel, Angel and Buffy float above Spike's ship, which is rising up towards them, with all the rescued Scoobies on board, with Spike as the one who did the rescuing.
As I said in some of my posts when #36 came out, I think that whole episode, which was written by Joss was a big diss on *Buffy*. She and Angel have just started an apocalypse. People have died. We get that underscored in a chilling way when Buffy first asks Angel if he'd have rather Spike arrived sooner and prevented the sexathon. The implied answer is that Angel (and Buffy) are glad Spike didn't arrive. They immediately, in the very next panel, separate to beat up a huge number of demons who have arrived BECAUSE of that sexathon. That's making clear, for those who missed the point, that Angel and Buffy are incredibly messed up here. They are the lowlifes who are so obsessed with each other and their orgasms (glow-induced or not) that they can't see that what just happened is horrible.
It is, therefore, intensely ironic that the term 'beneath you' comes up. Buffy and Angel may think they're above everyone else (and most especially Spike). But they are actually the creeps in the text -- the ones who deserve to be knocked down onto the floor in contempt. We are as far from Fool for Love as you can get. The line here is a commentary on Buffy, not on Spike. And it's worth remembering that Buffy almost certainly doesn't know the resonance that line has for Spike and she's not saying it to him in any case. Nor is she saying anything about Spike being beneath her. She's telling Angel that his jealousy is beneath him. So the Fool for Love resonance, and it's inversion, is entirely for our benefit. It's there to tell us that there's been a sea change in the relative status of Spike and Buffy (and Angel).
#40 tells us straight out, for those of us who might have thought otherwise, that Buffy's low point in the season was exactly that sexathon. That's when she super-literally f**cked up. That just underscores the inversion intended by the invocation of the loaded phrase Beneath You. Joss is a good writer. That's all totally intentional.
2. At the end of Crush, Spike bangs into the barrier and is crushed to realize his invitation to Buffy's house has been revoked. It means a huge amount to him when the invitiation is reinstated in The Gift. So isn't it terrible that he's once again disinvited?
It doesn't play that way. Not at all. First, the scene in #40 opens with Buffy mentioning that Spike is parked on the roof -- i.e. above her. So forget the beneath you imagery. Like I said, it's been upended in #36. And in #40 it's still upended.
Second, we don't get anything like a wounded puppy dog look from Spike. He gripes about it -- it's a pain cause it means he has to crawl around. And it seems to be part of the reason he thinks Buffy is being weird. But there's not a hint that he's hurt by it, or even reads it as a rejection. Could be he's hiding his hurt -- but we've had Spike around a Buffy whose heart and body belongs to Angel for five issues now, and there's not been a solitary drop or hint of hurt. If it's there it's a hurt that is 100% hidden. Given that Spike's a heart on his sleeve guy, I'd say that if there is a hidden hurt, it's not an overpowering hidden hurt. In other words, Spike has moved on -- at least some. He's got some distance.
And that, in turn, could well be one of the main reasons that Buffy keeps making a point of the lack of invitation. Because she does keep making a point of it. I disagree with people who say its not her invitation to make. She wouldn't repeat the point if it were a situation she was powerless to change. She's asserting something by doing it. But it's NOT an assertion meant to wound Spike. Or at least not directly. She never says it in a negative tone. Think back to how she looked when she slammed the door in his face in Crush. That's not what she's doing here. She goes out to talk to Spike, for one thing. For another, when she's diving back into the apartment, and re-mentioning the lack of invitation, she's also asking him to come back and visit her. As vamp_mogs points out, the most likely reading of her state of emotion at that point is that Spike has gotten to her, invoking tears, and she doesn't want him to see he has gotten to her and so goes awkwardly diving back into her apartment (and falling on her ass while doing so). The subject is brought up as part of the banter between them. And I think that's really interesting.
First, it no longer has anything like it's previous emotional flavor. It is NOT Buffy rejecting a guy who is head over heels in love with her, for whom she has no feelings (that she's willing to admit to him or to herself at any rate). This is NOT a callous repeat of Crush. On the contrary. It's a huge flashing sign that says Things Have Changed (a lot). Buffy isn't above Spike, she's the klutz who falls into her apartment in a rush to keep Spike from seeing that she's crying. Second, it pretty much takes one of their previous emotional moments (both her initial disinvite and subsequent reinvite) and puts it back into play. Buffy is the one who makes much of it. I'm going to say that it's her way of saying she wishes that he'd react to it the way he did before. Not because she wants to hurt him. But because she wants him to still love her that way. Or at a minimum, she's saying it bugs her that he doesn't.
#40 reminded us of the nightmare of Spike and Angel getting it on. It was a nightmare because the two vamps were supposed to be into her and not into each other. Buffy then found out that one of the vampires really still loved her. Alas, jumping on him turned out to be pretty much the worst thing ever and brought destruction down on everyone. She can't even look at that guy. That guy is now far more beyond the pale than Spike ever was. What Buffy still doesn't know (and frankly what we don't even know) is whether the other vampire still loves her. He's disinvited. I think she's asking him to say it bothers him. He's not. He's not telling her he still wants in. He just says it's inconvenient that she won't let him in. She's asserting the power, but as she stumbles into her apartment overcome with emotion, and as she gives voice to thoughts of being alone every night over a panel of him flying away, I tend to think that the tables have turned on the disinvite. Before it was Buffy keeping out a lovelorn Spike. Now it's an at-least love-tempted Buffy trying to provoke Spike into showing any sign that he returns the feeling.
She's not in a space to make a real campaign. I'm not even sure if any of it is conscious. But season 8 has established quite clearly that Buffy stll has feelings for Spikes. To those who want to say that the fantasy in #36 was not at all romantic, I say keep an eye peeled for all the icons that come from that fantasy that just scream "romance". The question is not whether she loves him. The question is now whether he loves her. We dont have a shred of evidence that he does. And neither does Buffy. And that bugs her.