I Only Have Eyes For You Discussion

[William the Bloody]

Let the discussion begin!

[Spaced Out Looney]

So it follows that it becomes James, not Grace, with whom Buffy identifies the most. And she refuses to acknowledge that James (and symbolically, she herself) may deserve any forgiveness, saying: "No. James destroyed the one person he loved the most in a moment of blind passion. And that’s not something you forgive . . . it was wrong and selfish and stupid."

I think this first episode with imagery of Buffy separating herself from the rest of the gang. At the end of this conversation, rather than concede to Giles and Xander’s comments about forgiveness or argue anymore, she walks away from the argument. Buffy: never one to share her feelings. She then immediately gets possessed by James and enters the school alone. The Scoobies are prevented from entering the school by the wasps and they stand outside pondering how they are going to get her back. I thought that was sort of interesting. It also makes me think about how, despite the importance of her friends, much of Buffy’s journey takes place with her SOs and apart from the Scoobies. Striking a balance is a constant struggle.

And it breaks my heart that in this episode, she starts to deal with her guilt over Angel losing his soul, only to be burdened later with the guilt of sending him to hell.

SPIKE & DRU & ANGEL: Oh, what an icky Oedipal mess we have here. Spike is the "child" in this threesome; Dru & Angel can be seen as his parents. There is the siring relationship, and there is also Spike’s helpless wheelchair-bound state. In Passion, we learned that Dru must bathe him and change him. But Dru & Angel are not going to win any parenting awards for bringing up Baby. Spike, sounding very much like a child who has been forced to move, correctly blames Angel for the need to leave the factory: "Well, our old place was just fine till you went and had it burned down."

There are two little things I’ve always found interesting in this scene. One is Angel’s line about "jasmine, night blooming like us;" Angel mentions it again on season 4 of Angel and Jasmine takes that as her name.
In that same scene, Dru has line, “She's dancing. Dancing with death;” just another mention of Buffy dancing imagery.

At the end of the episode, we rejoin Spike, Angel, and Dru. Unlike Buffy, the soulless Angel has had no revelations from his experience with Grace & James. He is angry about being violated by love, and tellingly, wants to indulge his base desires by killing a toddler (at Dru’s suggestion) to wipe "this crap" out of his system.

This exchange at the end always makes me wonder about soulless vampires and love. (always a hotly debated issue.) Dru seems to commiserate with Angel, but she looks pointedly at Spike while doing so. We know that Spike can love, though he doesn’t always express it well; Dru seems to love Spike to a certain extent, though not as much as he loves her. Other vampires appear throughout the series with at least some ability to love. Angel says later he can’t love without a soul, but you have to wonder if unsouled Angel still had some love for Buffy somewhere inside him, which resulted in behavior erratic even for unsouled Angel. It even seems possible that there was some element of love in his 150 year relationship with Darla. It just sort of makes me wonder exactly what Angel and Dru were getting at.

[SpringSummers]

Spaced said:

I think this first episode with imagery of Buffy separating herself from the rest of the gang. At the end of this conversation, rather than concede to Giles and Xander’s comments about forgiveness or argue anymore, she walks away from the argument. Buffy: never one to share her feelings. She then immediately gets possessed by James and enters the school alone. The Scoobies are prevented from entering the school by the wasps and they stand outside pondering how they are going to get her back. I thought that was sort of interesting. It also makes me think about how, despite the importance of her friends, much of Buffy’s journey takes place with her SOs and apart from the Scoobies. Striking a balance is a constant struggle.

And it breaks my heart that in this episode, she starts to deal with her guilt over Angel losing his soul, only to be burdened later with the guilt of sending him to hell.



There are two little things I’ve always found interesting in this scene. One is Angel’s line about "jasmine, night blooming like us;" Angel mentions it again on season 4 of Angel and Jasmine takes that as her name.
In that same scene, Dru has line, “She's dancing. Dancing with death;” just another mention of Buffy dancing imagery.



This exchange at the end always makes me wonder about soulless vampires and love. (always a hotly debated issue.) Dru seems to commiserate with Angel, but she looks pointedly at Spike while doing so. We know that Spike can love, though he doesn’t always express it well; Dru seems to love Spike to a certain extent, though not as much as he loves her. Other vampires appear throughout the series with at least some ability to love. Angel says later he can’t love without a soul, but you have to wonder if unsouled Angel still had some love for Buffy somewhere inside him, which resulted in behavior erratic even for unsouled Angel. It even seems possible that there was some element of love in his 150 year relationship with Darla. It just sort of makes me wonder exactly what Angel and Dru were getting at.

First, thanks for adding your interesting thoughts here. When this site started, there was no message board, and any discussion about my analyses was on the Spike thread on the old ScoopMe board. When that died, Vlad created this - so some of the earlier eps have no comments, and it is great to see some comments added, especially such interesting ones.

On the LOVE thing: I always saw it this way: Without his soul, Angel had no ability whatsoever to be selfless - he can be possessive and obsessive about women (and he is, about Darla and Buffy - his love for Buffy turns into a murderous obsession.) Spike and Dru retain an ability to care for each other - Spike tries not hurt Dru's feelings, for example. He puts her needs ahead of his own, if need be. We learn that Dru is "bathing him and changing him." As the Judge tells them, they share "affection," they "stink of humanity."

Angel, says the Judge, is pure demon, unencumbered by any remaining humanity. And we see it in his statements about love. I always thought that this aspect of Angel is primarily what Angel is referring to when he calls himself "weak" in Amends - the way the demon just takes him over absolutely.

I always thought Dru loved (in her fashion!) Angel, and though she went along with his "love is crap" statement to please him, she was actually hurt and disappointed by it. That was my read on that moment.

Maybe if Lola reads this discussion she can add her thoughts about Dru?