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Buffy 7.18: Dirty Girls
"There once was a woman, and she was foul, like all women. For Adam's rib was dirty, just like Adam himself; for what was he, but human?" - Caleb
"They're good girls. Just green, is all." - Faith
Are we born in sin? Do we carry the weight of all the evil that has come before us? Or are we born pure and clean, free to set our own courses?
In Christian theology, human beings are born in sin. A bite of the apple damned all of humanity to Hell. But at some point, the story goes, someone came along and took on all of humanity's sins himself. Christians often refer to him as the Redeemer.
The Buffyverse has delved into the issue of redemption this year. Angel, Spike, Anya, Willow, Faith, Andrew -- again and again, we've seen characters confront their own evil pasts and try to atone for them. The theme has been that redemption is achievable. Here's how you achieve it: You confront your past. You look at it with a clear eye. You take note of all the bad things you've done. You take responsibility for them.
And then you forgive yourself.
And you try to be a better person next time.
That's about it. That's about all you can do.
You have to do it yourself, though. Nobody else can do your redeeming for you. Nobody can absolve you but you.
But some people get stuck, or they forget some of the steps.
"There's no blame here. You were born dirty. Born without a soul." - Caleb
Take Angel, for instance. He's fully aware of everything he's done. And he's taken responsibility. And he's trying to be a better person now. (Er, vampire.) But he hasn't forgiven himself. So he's endlessly trying to atone, which for him -- not originally, but by now -- is really self-flagellation in disguise. He can't move on. Other people may have forgiven him or may have told him he has to forgive himself, but until he actually
does it, his redemption won't mean anything.
And, then there's Spike. He's handled things relatively well. He knows he's committed lots of evil in the past. He's even journeyed into his subconscious. He's forgiven himself, and possibly he's trying to be a better person (er, vampire). But at times I think he's avoiding the true horror of what he's done. He's cocky and a bit too self-assured. In "Lies My Parents Told Me," he seemed to take a healthy view -- you have to let go of the past, instead of being obsessed with it like Robin Wood. On the other hand, maybe he's letting it go too quickly. It's not clear. Spike's been a bit of a mystery this season -- we haven't really seen things from his point of view. Then again, as was said last time, he's not particularly self-aware.
"Are you the bad slayer now? Am I the good slayer now?" - Faith
Faith, for all her cockiness, seems to have accepted responsibility for her actions and moved on. She owned up to her deeds three years ago on "Angel," in "Sanctuary"; she willingly went to prison -- and willingly stayed there, even though she could have escaped any time she wanted. Okay, she finally
did escape, and she hasn't completed her prison sentence, but that's a legal issue. Inside, she's reformed. She's looked within. She's on the side of good now. And the good she's currently doing will, one hopes, justify her escape.
By the way, did Faith and Spike have
amazing chemistry, or what? I needed a cold shower after that scene. I wonder if we'll start seeing a horde of Spaith-'shippers out there.
(Get it? Spaceship? Spaithship? ...never mind.)
So. Anyway. Redemption is possible.
"Curiosity. Woman's first sin. I offer her an apple, and what can she do but take it?" - Caleb
But then there's Caleb.
Caleb seems to have his own issues. (Um, ya think?) It's still too early to tell what's going on with him: why does he have super strength? Why did the First choose him? Why does he look like Captain Mal? (The "Firefly" contracts must have contained clauses stating that in the event of cancellation, cast members would come to the Buffyverse and play forces of evil disguised as religious figures. To Nathan Fillion's credit, he's doing a great job.)
Caleb sure is obsessed with the dirtiness of women. Talk about not being self-aware, not taking responsibility. Uncomfortable with the lustful curiosity inside himself, he's placed the blame externally, on the objects of that lust. He's not alone; in fact, he embodies the ancient, simplistic, male-centered view of women as distrustful beings who must be subjugated, who are all either madonnas or whores -- a view in direct opposition to the themes for which "Buffy," the entire series, has always stood: female empowerment and the daunting complexity of living.
"Go for the center. Brain, heart, eyes. Everything's got eyes." - Xander
"You're the one who sees everything, aren't you?" - Caleb, to Xander
Oh my frickin' god. No. I stared at the screen, gaping, horrified. "Buffy" hasn't punched me in the stomach like this since Warren shot Tara. But this was even more painful, more brutal. (And more gross.) When he screamed, I almost cried. Xander's one of us! He's human. He's just an ordinary guy with a big heart. Even with all the portents of doom this season, the possibility of something awful happening to Xander just never crossed my mind.
And yet, he chose to fight this fight, so he chose to face the consequences.
"But this woman, she was filled with darkness, despair -- and why? Because she did not know. She could not see." - Caleb
There's been a whole eye/vision theme this year. Look:
In order to learn the truth about the First, Giles and Anya had to visit Bajoxa's Eye.
In order to learn the truth about himself, Spike had to get a jewel up his eye.
The Bringers have no eyes; they blindly follow.
Until recently, Andrew saw a distorted world through his camcorder lens.
Willow couldn't begin to get over Tara's death until she made everyone, including herself, see her as Warren.
The First, in constantly disguising itself, has made people unable to trust their own eyes.
And Xander, the truth-teller this year, the only person who could see that Dawn was extraordinary even though she wasn't a Potential, has possibly lost an eye.
You need clear vision in order to see the truth.
"I like to keep things simple: good folk, bad folk. Clean folk, dirty folk." - Caleb
The truth isn't simple. People are messy. People screw up. But you forgive yourself and move on. Take lust, for example. It may be uncomfortable, but it's part of who we are. Xander has his own little wet dirty-girl dream, and even though it makes him uneasy, he accepts it as part of the way things are and he gets on with life.
The girls have faced life. They're no longer innocent. They've gone into battle. They've been tested. Some have died; some have been hurt.
Clean versus dirty; curiosity versus knowledge; innocence versus guilt; the untested versus the experienced.
Eve tasted the apple, but it wasn't a sin. It was a part of life.
We're dirty. But we're not born dirty; we become dirty. And not in a moral, good-and-evil sense, but in a life sense. We get dirty because life is messy. Life gets you dirty.
You are born pure and clean. You are free to set your own course. But you will get dirty.
And that's okay. That's life.
You fix it, you get over it, and you move on.
Some random tidbits:
(1) Where the hell was Anya?
(2) I liked that Faith and Dawn had memories of each other -- that was a nice touch.
(3) Spike's "Falcon Crest" reference was cute.
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