Reading the Tea Leaves of Season 7

 

by Plin

Just for fun, with so little time left to play with future speculation on Buffy*, I thought it would be fun to "go back to the beginning," and take a close look at Lessons. How many lessons have we learned so far? Does the episode give us any clues about what's to come? It's a bit like reading tea leaves (and I don't drink tea), but I'm curious to see where this can take us.

*Most of this not-an-essay was written after 7. 19 Empty Places, but I did add/adjust a few things after seeing 7.20 Touched, which as of the time of posting was the most recently aired episode. There are therefore spoilers through that point below, as well as a few comments about the final episodes of AtS Season 4, up to and including 4.22 Home. Forewarned is unspoiled.

 

In the very first scene of the season, we see the first potential killed by knife-wielding Bringers. The first words Buffy speaks are:

BUFFY

It's about power: who's got it, who knows how to use it.

 

The conversation continues, bringing up the growing into womanhood theme:

BUFFY

So… who's got the power, Dawn?

DAWN

Well, I've got the stake.

BUFFY

The stake is not the power.

DAWN

But he's new. He doesn't know his strength. He might not know all those fancy martial arts skills they inevitably seem to pick up.

BUFFY

Who's got the power?

DAWN (sighs)

He does.

Buffy gets to her feet and approaches her sister.

BUFFY

Never forget it. It doesn't matter how well-prepped you are or well-armed you are. You're a little girl.

Buffy is explaining to Dawn that the vampire has the power and isn't afraid to use it, while Dawn shows how she is able to use the vampire's own power against it. Buffy is impressed; Dawn says it's something she's learned from watching her sister. To me, this exchange sets the stage for the main lesson that Buffy herself is going to learn this season: "he" doesn't have the power, she does. She's not a little girl anymore (Spike is the first to call her a woman, in Touched). She has the power, as long as she's willing to use it on her own terms, make the fight her own. It's also the first hint that there will be a transfer of power, that she needs to recognize that a new generation will be taking her place.

The pre-credits scene ends with another pronouncement by Buffy:

BUFFY (to Dawn)

It's real. It's the only lesson, Dawn. It's always real.

Honestly? This rings as very important, and profound, but I cannot make head nor tail of it in the overall context. I mean, I see where Dawn uses it later to convince her friends that the weird manifest spirits attacking them are not figments of their imagination, but on a larger scale? I'm stumped. It's got to mean something, no? I'd love to hear others' ideas about this.

There's more about the nature of power, and connection, in the scene with Giles and Willow:

WILLOW

It's all connected. The root system, the molecules, the energy. Everything's connected.

(later) WILLOW

I don't have that much power, I don't think.

GILES

Everything is connected. You're connected to a great power, whether you feel it or not.

WILLOW

Well, you should just take it from me.

Willow stands up and walks away. The flower withdraws back into the earth.

GILES

You know we can't. This isn't a hobby or an addiction. It's inside you now, this magic. You're responsible for it.

The themes of identity and redemption also appear here for the first time:

GILES

Do you want to be punished?

WILLOW (beat)

I want to be Willow.

GILES

You are. In the end, we all are who we are, no matter how much we may appear to have changed.

 

Interestingly, this is where the scene cuts to Xander, looking all mature and businessman-like.

One thing I would like to note about Giles' final statement is that it implies that, although he seems to be so radically changed from how we knew him in the past-as Buffy's supportive teacher and father figure, who might complain about his slayer's unorthodox style and methods but was always firmly on her side-he is, in fact, not fundamentally altered. I think this bit may be interpreted to imply that we are seeing Giles as he really is, but perhaps through the eyes of an adult rather than that of an adolescent who needs an authority figure who has all the answers. Or, I could be right in my suspicion that we are merely seeing his worst side, because his nerves are frayed and he is running on pure fear, manipulated by visits from the First. Either answer works for me.

The next theme introduced is about the high school, and the role it plays in what's to come:

BUFFY

My sister's about to go to the same high school that tried to kill me for three years. I can't change districts, I can't afford private school, and I can't begin to prepare for what could possibly come out of there. So… peachy with a side of keen, that would be me.

I would guess that means we haven't finished with the high school as a battleground with Evil. There is also some foreshadowing of the creepy role to be played by Wood:

XANDER

Right. So I lined up the plans, new and old, and right exactly where the library was… we now have…

BUFFY

Principal's office.

DAWN

So the principal's evil?

BUFFY

Or in a boatload of danger.

XANDER

Well, the last two principals were eaten. Who'd even apply for that job?

The answer, apparently, is a rather devious son-of-a-Slayer consumed by vengeance issues and ready to align himself with anyone (or anything) he believes can help him with his single-minded purpose.

The communication issue is also addressed, and interestingly, the idea of communicating-and being connected-is specifically portrayed as being a weapon. A double-edged sword, perhaps?

DAWN

What is it?

BUFFY

Back-to-school gift.

DAWN (smiles)

It's a weapon, isn't it?

BUFFY

Yes, it is.
Dawn warily opens the box.

The box, we discover later, contains a cell phone, the first we see during the season. Dawn and Buffy-and later Xander-communicate effectively to save Dawn and her friends in the school basement, but as the season progresses the cell is used to show Buffy increasingly cut off from her circle (see CWDP, Potential, First Date).

Here's a snippet I've briefly remarked on before, eerily prophetic of the end of Empty Places:

DAWN

I know! You never know what's coming, the stake is not the power, To Serve Man is a cookbook. I love you. Go away!

The themes of growing up, and of the impossibility of protecting the "younger generation" surface again in a scene with Buffy in the bathroom (worriedly checking out her "mom hair"). Here Buffy gets her first glimpse of the manifest spirits summoned by the mysterious talisman (who put it there? Well, my money's on Wood, but that's never been resolved so far):

GIRL

You can't protect her.
Buffy looks up at the mirror and sees a the rotting corpse of a teenage GIRL standing behind her.

GIRL

You couldn't protect me.

Anya is depicted as being on the outside of the "vengeance fold," and having no demon friends (even before D'Hoffryn gets angry with her in Selfless), but even more important is a bit of foreshadowing about what's looming on the horizon:

HALFREK

D'Hoffryn, the Lower Beings… they're all feeling the heat. Something's rising-something older than the Old Ones-and everybody's tail is twitching. This is a bad time to be a good guy.

ANYA

What is this, an intervention? Shouldn't all my demon friends be here?

HALFREK

Sweetie… they are.

More foreshadowing of the rebellion at Casa Summers comes about when Buffy recounts her bathroom encounter to Xander:

BUFFY

I'm not sure. They were in the mirror but they disappeared. But they touched me… I think. Let's just start with dead and pissed.

XANDER

They're after you personally?

BUFFY

They talked about protecting people. Told me to leave.

Buffy talks to Xander about the school being rebuilt, and says she doesn't believe it's a coincidence; Xander asks "as in what?" The very next scene is the one where the "zombie" jabs a pencil into Dawn's eye. I'd say that's not a coincidence, either. (Remember the connection between Dawn and Xander underscored in Potential?) More about Wood, implying what we later discover, that he knows all about Buffy and is maneuvering her into position without revealing his true agenda:

WOOD

You know, I have to be honest. I actually know a little bit more about you than I let on before.

BUFFY

Isn't that interesting…

WOOD

Oh, it really is.

I know the writers have said they didn't know exactly what they were going to do with Wood in the beginning, that the whole Nikki plotline was decided later. Still, I find it unlikely that they didn't have him pegged at a certain point on the Good-Evil continuum from the start, since he was clearly slotted to be around for the entire season. My vote, of course, is that he falls more on the Evil side: not because he is inherently "bad," but because he is willing to overlook ethics and morals and manipulate others to his own ends. Starting right here, with Buffy.

More thoughts on the badness to come, the role of connectedness:

WILLOW

I felt the earth. It's all connected, it is. But it's not all good and pure and rootsy. There's deep…deep black. I saw… I saw the earth, Giles. I saw its teeth.

GILES

The Hellmouth.

WILLOW

It's going to open. It's going to swallow us all.

In Buffy's encounter with the zombies in the school basement, they remind her once again that she can't save everyone. This scene reinforces my thoughts on a few things that have happened in the last couple of episodes:

JANITOR

All we want is for you to leave so we can rest again.
The three have lined themselves up before her, blocking her way.

BUFFY

Actually, I'm thinking all you want is to get between me and that door. Who's for finding out why?
The undead charge Buffy. She fights them, throws them off and makes a break for the door only to find them lined up before her again, blocking her way.

BUFFY

If at first you don't succeed…
She rushes the undead, flips over them and rolls toward the door.

BUFFY

…cheat.

After Empty Places, some people protested that Buffy didn't appear to understand the concept of misdirection, that she charges in blindly and recklessly endangers others. I think however that this scene was a clear indicator that she does have good instincts. The manifest spirits and Caleb are trying to get between her and that door. She knows how to look outside the box-cheat-to get the job done. It's what she's always done, she's always found another way. This scene foreshadows her encounter with Caleb in Touched, in that she uses her agility to circumvent the obstacle rather than keep fighting head on.

An interesting aspect of this scene is that what's behind the guarded door in Lessons is not her sister, as she originally suspects, but Spike. Insane, almost unrecognizable, but still he gives her the information she needs to save Dawn and the others. He is the key to her success here, and in Touched he helps her access her inner power so that she can find yet another guarded door, behind which is hidden yet another instrument that will (presumably) allow her to defeat the bad guys.

As far as the nature of the baddies in this first episode are concerned, Spike describes them as "Manifest spirits controlled by a talisman, raised to seek vengeance." I'd say this is another signpost pointing towards Wood as the perpetrator, since he's the character most motivated by vengeance.

Dawn is also shown being very resourceful, finding items to use as makeshift weapons against the spirits. We've seen this borne out repeatedly throughout the season, most notably in Potential, Get It Done and Touched (where we learn she's even been studying Sumerian and Turkish). It is Buffy who has trouble accepting that her sister (and, by extension, all those who are to come after her) is growing up.

Finally, let's take a really close look at the First's final speech to Spike, appearing as the parade of Big Bads of Seasons Past, to see what themes it brings up:

 

Suddenly WARREN MEARS is there, standing behind him.

WARREN

Of course she won't understand, Sparky. I'm beyond her understanding. She's a girl. Sugar and spice and everything… useless. Unless you're baking. I'm more than that. More than flesh.

Okay, right here we've got the misogyny aspect, as well as the interesting "more than flesh" comment. Perfect counterpoint to what we saw on AtS, where flesh was vital. Interesting how being incorporeal is proclaimed not to be less, but rather more. Caleb said much the same in Touched, in his "sermon" praising the First, who had instead expressed a desire for tactile feeling. I get the feeling this is key: despite its posturing, the First would rather be flesh.

Warren's body suddenly shifts and he morphs into the hell-god GLORY.

GLORY

More than blood. I'm… you know, I honestly don't think there's a human word fabulous enough for me. Oh, my name will be on everyone's lips… assuming their lips haven't been torn off. But not just yet. That's all right, though.

More than blood, eh? Interesting, since blood has repeatedly been emphasized as important (especially on AtS). Beyond words, which is even better, coming from a Big Bad who is, as I've said before, all talk. (What goes beyond words? Touch. Something the First has admitted to craving.) And how's that bit about the name, and the lips? There's no way this is just coincidental with relation to Angel. Here, though, the name is going to be on everyone's lips, as opposed to being kept secret.

Another shift and Glory becomes the demon-cyborg ADAM.

ADAM

I can be patient. Everything is well within parameters. She's exactly where I want her to be. And so are you, Number 17. You're right where you belong.

This year's Big Bad Evil is patient and manipulative. Also adaptable and opportunistic, as we've seen repeatedly.

Now Adam becomes Mayor RICHARD WILKINS as he crouches down beside Spike.

MAYOR WILKINS

So what'd you think? You'd get your soul back and everything would be Jim Dandy? A soul's slipperier than a greased weasel. Why do you think I sold mine? (laughs) Well, you probably thought that you'd be your own man and I respect that. But you never will.

So far, at least, the First has been proved soundly wrong in this. Spike truly is his own man now. I certainly hope it's not foreshadowing… although, come to think of it, there is the little matter of what happened on that other show…

 

Now the Mayor fades and is replaced by Spike's vampire lover DRUSILLA. She caresses Spike's cheek affectionately.

DRUSILLA

You'll always be mine. You'll always be in the dark with me, singing our little songs. You like our little songs, don't you? You've always liked them, right from the beginning. And that's where we're going.

Here we have a clear reference to Spike's trigger, and the whole mommy issue thing.

Drusilla stands up and becomes the MASTER.

MASTER

Right back to the beginning. Not the Bang, not the Word. The true beginning. The next few months are going to be quite a ride and I think we're all going to learn something about ourselves in the process. You'll learn you're a pathetic schmuck… if it hasn't sunk in already. Look at you. Tried to do what's right. Just like her. You still don't get it. It's not about right. Not about wrong.
Spike looks up as the Master disappears. In his place stands Buffy, a hard, cold look in her eye.

BUFFY

It's about power.

 

Of these, we have yet to see the Master, Glory, and Adam appear since that first episode. The latter I could do without, frankly, but regardless it should be interesting to see how they are worked into the remaining action. Will the Master appear to Buffy, since he was responsible for her first death? (And if that's the case, is that really the event that disrupted the slayer line, and not Buffy's second resurrection?) Will Glory appear to Dawn? Adam… you know, I really hope Adam doesn't bother to show up at all. Maybe his robot portions can't be made incorporeal, or something.

Summing up

This season is about power, and about learning lessons-about life and about yourself. Right from the first episode, it is stressed that you can't protect everyone. In her dream in Get It Done, the First Slayer tells Buffy, "It's not enough." Trying to protect the girls by teaching them male models of soldiering and war is not enough to save them, individually or a group, as evidenced by Chloe's death resulting from the First's insidious words.

Communication is both a tool and a weapon, words can be used to manipulate (the First, Wood) or connect (Buffy and Dawn). Early in the season Buffy manages to make a connection on a couple of occasions-with Willow in Same Time, Same Place and with Dawn here in Lessons-but as she has become worn down by stress, lack of rest, and fear, this ability has slipped away. Trying to do everything alone only makes her increasingly ineffectual, until her situation reaches its nadir in Empty Places. Once she recharges her batteries through rest and true sharing in Touched, she's back to the Buffy we all fell in love with (arguably for the first time since… well, maybe since her mother died). That's the only way she can manage to access her true power. Now, Buffy needs to learn to empower others by connecting and sharing, rather than insist on carrying the burden of protection by herself. Her power as an individual also depends on her ability to relate to others.

Growing up and owning one's identity are themes sown in this first episode and cultivated throughout the season. We see Willow coming to terms with her power, Spike integrating his vampire self and soul, finally becoming his own man. Buffy learning to accept herself as both woman and slayer. Dawn growing up and realizing that she can be special and contribute even without superpowers. As negative examples of this, we see Anya-who is Selfless, and unable to adapt to life as a human, or truly be a productive part of the group. Wood, too, doesn't seem to have learned his lesson, and has "bigger issues than what's wrong with B," as Faith tells him in Empty Places.

Redemption is a major theme this season, since "a lot of [Buffy's] people are murderers" and striving to redeem themselves. There are redemption arcs laid out for Willow, Spike, Anya, Andrew, Faith. Redemption is shown to be hard work, but I think it's important to distinguish between redemption and atonement. Atonement means trying to do good works to compensate for past misdeeds, in the spirit of paying off a debt. Redemption, on the other hand, requires accepting that one cannot escape one's own past, but can only try to shape the future in a more positive direction.
The clearest case of redemption is of course Spike, who tells Buffy up front in Beneath You that his goal is not to atone. He realizes that nothing can undo his past misdeeds. The path one takes is shown to be a choice, requiring both free will and the strength of character to exercise it correctly. Andrew says in Potential, "I hate my free will": he has allowed himself to be manipulated by the First into doing its evil deeds. Spike is deprived of his free will, both through the trigger and, to a lesser extent, the chip, but once he regains it he proves in Lies that he is capable of using it to further his own growth. Perhaps another spin we can put on the First's words to Spike at the end of Lessons is: It's not about right. Not about wrong. It's about choice. Our freedom and our power lie in our ability to choose.

There is a whole theme of womanhood, tied into maternity and authority, which is repeated throughout this episode with references to Buffy's "mom hair," Wood pretending to think she's Dawn's mother, Carlos calling her the "coolest mom ever" toward the end. The obvious foil to this theme is Caleb, who is the Uber-Misogynist who sees women as "gaping maws" who steal men's power. This womanhood theme is related to the "back to the beginning" motif at various points in the season, most notably in Get It Done through the exploration of the origins of the Slayer, but also in Andrew's speech in Potential:

ANDREW

It's like… well, it's almost like this metaphor for womanhood, isn't it? The sort of flowering that happens when a girl realizes that she's part of a fertile heritage stretching back to Eve and-

Girl power, that's what the authors have said this season is about. What they mean by that exactly is anybody's guess. Mine is that they mean all of the above.

 

So, what does all of this tell us in terms of what's to come? Er. Um. I'm not exactly a fortune teller, and even if I had a crystal ball sitting around it'd probably be too dusty to show me any unclouded truths. But, just as a fun exercise and yet another excuse to leave myself open to ridicule, here are a couple of predictions:

- Well, okay, the first one's pretty easy, although it means Faith somehow has to dodge that nasty little bomb. Faith definitely has her faults, being human and deeply flawed, but she has shown herself to be better at rallying the troops. It was a waste for Buffy to keep her around purely as added muscle, yet another weapon. Faith is probably going to have a pretty severe crisis of confidence about her leadership abilities after the inevitable losses she'll be facing, but I expect Buffy to give her the boost she needs. Now that B has learned to connect, and understood the importance of it, who better to start with than the person with whom she shares a destiny and a calling?
Buffy will have learned to trust her instincts, and refuse to be swayed by the classic models proposed by Giles and Wood. At the same time, she'll be more willing to listen to input from Faith, first and foremost, and the others as well. By pooling their strengths, the two will be able to create a formidable force. Or, uh, so I think.

- I have no idea what form the final battle will take, but I think it's a given that there are going to be some not-so-casual casualties. This is kind of like an Oscar pool, morbid style, but for what it's worth here are my deathwatch predictions (I'm not above a little wishful thinking, of course):

Giles. I'm really on the fence about this one, but the incident with the Bringer swayed me to believe that Giles is being manipulated by the First (not consciously, perhaps-I balk at seeing Giles as a deliberate agent of Evil-but because the First preys on his fears). If he doesn't catch a ride on the clue bus very soon, I fear he's doomed.

Anya. I'm almost positive she's going to bite the dust. She's still without a purpose, the voice of negativity, and sees her womanhood as a purely sexual matter. Huh, not unlike Caleb, come to think of it. She hasn't exercised her power of choice to work for redemption from her past as a vengeance demon, preferring instead to complain about perceived favoritism and insist that there is no hope for survival. Yeah, she's gone. Sorry, Anya, I really liked you.

Andrew. I don't think he's taken his post-Storyteller reform all that seriously. I doubt he'll live to tell the tale of Buffy, Slayer of VamPYRES to future generations.

Wood. His whole presence at the high school is the result of manipulation, and his relationship with Buffy built on a lie. He's doomed. Please, please, let him be doomed.

Rona. For that "Ding, dong, the witch is dead" comment, she is definitely going to die. Please?

Kennedy. I'm iffy about this one, for various reasons. She's a power-grabbing little snot, and I believe that we're going to see a new slayer called, it won't be her, and she'll take it poorly. But I'm not sure whether this will actually lead to her own death, or whether she will cause the death of others through her own selfish carelessness. Something bad will happen to her, though, if for no other reason than to give Willow a chance to prove to herself, once and for all, that she can suffer serious pain without going off the deep end. I won't shed any tears for Kennedy if she bites it, though.
Of course, my prediction about Kennedy implies another death.

Faith. With all the talk of the origin of the slayer line, and the presence of the potentials, I think it's almost inevitable that we'll see another slayer called before the line (presumably) ends forever. If that's going to happen, Faith has to die. For what it's worth, I think it will be a redemptive death, showing her firmly on the side of the good guys, and it won't be a self-sacrifice (since she was shown in Orpheus that letting herself die would be the easy way out).
(Alternate possibility: Faith and Buffy somehow find a way to share their slayer powers with all of the girls, so there's no need for one to die in order for another to be called. This would break the cycle, and might even be enough on its own to seal the Hellmouth. Sadly, it means Rona and Kennedy are more likely to survive.)

If I get 2 out of those six right, and am relatively close on the shared power/communication stuff, I'll be happy. I suck at this kind of thing.

But it sure is fun.

 

Now: Let the arguing and ridicule begin! Tell me your own predictions, explain why mine are dead wrong. I'm not married to most of what I've written above, so I can be persuaded to change my mind. I do it all the time.