Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The First is truly a first

Earlier I wrote that Buffy going up against big strong ugly bad guys is a plot development that has had its day. Of course, I didn’t mean to imply that that’s all she’s ever done before. Among archvillains, only the first and fourth season Big Bads really fit this description. In season 2 Angel was, well, Angel (though when vamped out he certainly was also a big strong ugly bad guy). In season 3, the Mayor was a prissy middle-aged seeming clean freak. Until he was a big strong ugly snake. In season 5, Buffy defeated a small strong pretty woman/god, and in season 6, her archnemesisises were a trio of nerdy boys, but the ultimate threat was Willow.

She hasn’t just been doing battle with big mean monsters, not by a long shot, but nevertheless, this season the evil is truly different in nature, and so far the show has managed to handle this different threat with subtlety and suspense. Because the First Evil is noncorporeal, Buffy can’t fight it directly. Because it is noncorporeal it cannot fight Buffy directly, though it can use agents, of course.

It is an enemy that, like the vamp Buffy encountered in "Conversations With Dead People" preys on its victims’ minds when it can’t find someone to prey on the body. After Buffy discovered that the protoslayer Eve was actually the First, another slayer-to-be cried out frantically that it could be any one of them. Willow announced soothingly that it could only take the form of someone who has died — a nice limitation, yes, but of course anyone could have died unbeknownst to the rest and be replaced by the First.

The First Evil

It is an enemy that preys on its victims’ minds when it can’t find someone to prey on the body.

This atmosphere of swirling worry, where no one can finally be trusted, and the First can go about subtly demoralizing everyone as best it can, makes for a season that is more suspenseful, more downright scary than anything we’ve seen in quite a while. It also makes for a superb final enemy if this is indeed (maybe possibly) the last season.

Finally Buffy must fully realize the lesson she began to learn way back in season 3’s "Helpless," that being a slayer is about more than enhanced strength, speed and endurance. It’s about more than beating up big strong evil. It’s also about leadership, intelligence and knowing your enemy’s weak points. When she truly understands all this, and is able to fully execute it, she will truly be a slayer through and through.

We had an inkling that this lesson might be coming last year, when Buffy spent the last moments of the season finale fighting pointless earth demons created specifically for Buffy’s entertainment by Willow while Xander managed to save the day by understanding Willow’s "weak point" — his own love for her. I think we’ll be seeing Buffy learning this vital lesson herself this time. The First isn’t going to be defeated by a pointy stick or a cleverly applied wire. Or even by a rocket launcher or a magic troll hammer. It’s going to take psychological battle, something Buffy is not yet proficient at, but she’s learning, and she generally learns fast.

The gang grows up

Yes indeed. In some ways, the whole series has really been about this batch of teenagers growing up, but in fact this year they finally seem to have really done it. All of them are changed, and changed for the better.

Anya, who reverted to demonhood last year, finally chose to put aside demonish things and has taken up the mantle of humanity in a way she never did before. Oh, she still says awkwardly frank things sometimes, but she finally "gets it." Never before did she seem to view her previous existence as a demon as anything other than cool, despite the fact that she now was battling demons on a daily basis. Moreover, she has given up her formerly almost creepy dependence on Xander for her identity and is trying to forge a self that is independent and fully human. It is quite a journey she’s embarked on.

Xander hasn’t changed in any such clearly specific way, but he appears far more confident of himself and of his skills. Probably his single-handedly saving the world at the end of last season has contributed to this. He’s at ease being a construction worker, and in fact this mundane skill has come in handy in the demon fighting business more than once.

Willow is still fragile after the debacle of last year, but she’s learning to accept the different parts of herself in a way she never did before. She seems to understand that her magic powers are a part of her and cannot be denied, while at the same time they must be handled with extreme care — a lesson Tara tried to teach her, but she failed to learn until now. This also means, of course, that the show has found a way to give Willow considerable power while managing it to rein it in when necessary, so she can’t just fix everything by blacking out her eyes.

The Adult Gang

All of them are changed, and changed for the better.

Dawn is truly changed. Gone is the whiny brat of the fifth and sixth seasons, replaced by a young warrior, ready to fight at her sister’s side at any moment (as long as she’s not obsessed by a high school jock and his jacket, that is...). Much of this is presumably due to Buffy’s own changed behavior toward her, accepting her as a full-fledged member of the gang, and as a girl growing into womanhood, as opposed to her earlier view of Dawn as a child to be protected. The rest is probably because fans were beginning to utterly despise her, and the writers realized they had to do something. At any rate, it’s a welcome change.

Buffy has embraced life, and slayerhood. After spending last year yearning for her lost heaven, she finally realizes that life is worthwhile too. Her tendency to periodically despair, to resent the fate she’s been dealt — a tendency that has waxed and waned throughout the series’ run — seems to have disappeared, for now at least. She seems calm and in control, unafraid of assuming the leadership role the current crisis requires of her. She’s always good in the real, ultimate crisis, always manages to be the fearless, good humored leader she needs to be. But generally she’s not so good in the run-up to crisis, and now she is. She’s shouldering responsibility while also relying on her team when necessary, a balance she in the past has found difficult, especially this early in a season. Like Dawn, she’s no longer the whiny brat that she had been, in part, throughout the series.

More important than all this evidence of individual growth on the part of all the characters is the way in which the group has coalesced. Everyone relies on one another without being interrupted by petty infighting, or, as has been the case for a long time, overinvolvement with one’s own personal angst. This is refreshing, and in some ways reminiscent of the early days when the gang seemed more tightly knit than it had through the post high school years. As with the very early days of the series, no one currently has an active romance or any other kind of major distraction, everyone is focused on the mission.

And this is important, because focus, coalescence and mature interrelationships will be absolutely required in the battle against the First. It’s going to take a completely united front to beat this one, and I suspect that will be (no pun intended) the key to this upcoming battle. They seem ready now. We’ll have to wait and see how they weather the coming storms.