[Review] Apart (of me) [Part. 3]
I liked this issue.
Andrew added nice humoristic moments (the thing about ‘writing Scream 5’ really made me laugh), but besides humor, I hope he will grow from his mistakes this time, and fully realize how much wrong was his decision to do what he did. Buffy also needs to be more vocal when people play with her life/body like that. I haven’t been satisfied with what we got in the previous issues… Whereas Spike has been more vocal about his anger towards Andrew (and I think the way the fake pregnancy affected him played a role in that).
Simone kind of annoyed me. I don’t feel any sympathy for her… (which, in comparison, wasn’t the case with Faith in season 3). And Buffy being 'verbally destroyed' alternatively by the Buffy!body and Simone left me... meh. At least, Buffy kept her calm and retort, which was nice to read.
The Buffy!mind vs Buffy!body stuff was good, especially towards the end. I enjoyed their last scene. Buffy still naively wants to reach a life which is a real cliché (there is an interesting moment at the beggining of 9#09, where Spike says : "California Merlot. How cliché", and Andrew replies that it was "Sort of the point"), but Buffy doesn’t seem to fully realize it. And it’s okay. She has every right to want to experience it herself, but it probably wouldn’t fit with who she is. If the last issues proved something, it’s that she idealized and made a focus on that kind of things, and she probably won’t succeed to turn away from those desires, as long as she won’t try and taste those by herself.
Concerning Dawn and Xander, I found that frustrating that we didn’t get more information in that issue. The previous one was really interesting on this point, Xander seems to be in a really bad emotional place right now (side note : so glad that he mentionned Jesse ! I always felt that the show failed concerning this topic), and, like a lot of us I guess, I’m frustrated to not know *why* he feels this way. Especially since Dawn seems not to be in the knowledge of the reasons of his attitude…
Concerning Dowling, the last two issues of this arc handled well his situation with his partner. I think they did a good job in dealing with this.
I also liked the last Spuffy scene. Spike acted the right way. Buffy and Spike both need to take time for themselves, in order to focus on which perspective of future they have, as individuals. That's the only way they can make things right. The rest may only come after reaching that point. I think Buffy's feelings for Spike have been demonstrated in a lot of different ways since the beggining of the season, but considering what she has been through in a short period of time, she didn't get the chance to focus on her relationship with him from the moment she learned that he was still in love with her. Spike is in a better place than she is, and his decision to leave proves it. He sees things more clearly than she does, and this final Spuffy scene of 9#10 shows how much he grew. She has his love and his trust, but now, he's not willing to stick around while she determines what she really wants and what she really needs. He has to focus on his own person too (and I'm maybe wrong, but I still think that we'll discover some consequences of what Severin did to him, that's maybe something that will emerge in his miniseries).
I think Buffy clearly has romantic feelings for Spike (side note : I love that they didn't dwarfed the fact that she asked him to run away with her, because it was pretty telling, and clearly, Spike felt it this way too, "How do you imagine I felt when you said you were thinking of us two running off together ?"), and I think Spike feels that there is something (he wouldn’t have speak to her about giving her a normal life at the end of 9#07 if he was *sure* that she didn’t felt something romantic for him). And, you know, when I see so much debates concerning her feelings, I tend to keep in mind that Joss, and apparently now, Scott, do think that they love each other, and if Spuffy is supposed to be explored, it probably will stay true to this interpretation, anyway. Of course, besides that, everyone has it’s own way of reading the story and everyone is allowed to ignore what they think, but it may provide some clues of where they’re leading them emotionaly.
Back to the topic. In my way of seeing it, letting someone see you like you are, especially in your weaknesses, appears like a huge deal, especially for someone like Buffy. Buffy relies a lot on Spike, he's often the one who sees her fragilities and the one she feels is able to bring her the strenght she needs (like when she asks him to come with her for the abortion, which is, emotionaly, something very hard to do ; you go for it with someone you’re sure you will feel reassured to be with), but she's not *able* to give him more right now because she's not in an emotional position to do so. At the same time, he doesn't fit with the life she tries to pursue, and her idea of what normality is supposed to be about. But I don't think she realizes how much it can affect Spike (as much as she doesn't seem to realize how much he was invested in the fake pregnancy, his reaction in 9#09, when she says "I'm not pregnant, remember ?", is telling...), that's why his decision and his speech before leaving came at the right moment. Here, she tends to forget that he has his own needs too, because she's too much drown in her own mess, and that was the right moment to show her that he needed to protect himself too and make her realize he wasn’t going to play this role indefinately. Anyway, like he said, he doesn't have to be on the way while she does what she needs to do (side note 2 : "Don’t tell me what I need" => loved it). Until now, her mind has been focused on different things (the pregnancy scare, the robot thing, Andrew, Simone...), and now, the fact that she's in her mid-twenties and still doesn't know what to do with her life will occupy a fair amount of her thoughts. Once she’ll be more sure of her needs and be in a better emotional place, I expect to see her focusing more on her feelings and on people around her.
On the other side, I'm looking forward how the Spike miniseries will develop his character (he needed it). Even if I liked what we got so far, I have to admit that I’m disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to interact with the other Scoobies (especially Dawn !!). I also expected something different on the Spuffy front, but I like where they have lead them so far, because they have set up where the issues were in their relationship, where they stand, and I expect to see more by the end of the season (the fact that they focused on them during this first act of the season is reassuring, because it shows that it was just that : the first act, and they're dealing seriously with what their relationship would have to confront at one point). I’m interested in which circumstances he will come back, and how they will handle their relationship.
Buffy's sadness during this last scene with Spike broke my heart, everything was contained, I found that particularly in character. I would have prefered to see Jeanty’s drawings for this scene, because he depicts emotions more clearly (moreover, Buffy in the last seasons was a person who expressed a lot her emotions by those looks, expressions and attitudes, we really lost something with the comics format ; anyway, it's not like if we had a choice), but we got some beautiful panels, and Buffy clearly was about to cry on some of them (side note : I'm still not sure on how I interpret the panel where we see her touching her stomach, while she turns her back to him). But she’s Buffy. She clearly wished Spike remained still near to her, in despite of the fact that she's not ready to express her feelings and what she's at, at the moment, but it would have been too easy and bad for Spike’s well being, and unfortunately, right now, he's the only one who was able to make that observation. He takes in count his own needs, his own person, and that was really good to read that change of dynamic. Like some of you said before, she's looking for a life which wouldn't fit with her feelings for a vampire, and I think it contributes a lot to her indecision. That’s a kind of life she needs to explore on her own. See if it really fits with her needs. The ball is in her court, we'll see how she will handle it. Focusing on her life and her future is the first step.
The pregnancy scare has been, I think, one of the most important point of her journey in season 9 (so far), because that's the thing that made her realize how much she needs to evolve if she wants to get the things she thinks she wants. What everyone is 'supposed' to want (she was fascinated by the perfect life Andrew built for her, but ahem… what a cliché ; I loved the scene where Buffy was discovering the house and the closet, she was like a little girl discovering what the World had to offer, things that she didn't realized were there).
The end of 9#10 was particularly exciting. The last events (the pregnancy scare more notably), her discussion with her "suburban other self", Spike's speech... all of these lead her to this moment. She takes in charge her life, and it sounds really promising, simply because we see her having something that we didn't see for quite some time : she looks at the future with hope. The last time we saw this, it was at the end of Chosen. It was really nice to see that again, and to see her more confident, determinated and sure of herself. Let's see where it will lead her.
And I’m SO glad to know that we’ll see Kennedy again ! I really like her character, can’t wait to see her interacting with Buffy, I think she adds an interesting dynamic. I also want to know more about her, but considering her lack of popularity, I guess my wish won’t be satisfied...
Oh, and my favorite drawing of the issue :
Even if I'm not a huge fan of his way of depicting the emotions, this drawing was particularly beautiful.
And, okay, it was in 9#09, but :
The kind of detail that I just find perfect ! :)