Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Crush”

I have been researching a lot of old Buffy episodes in order to prepare for my latest Buffy fanfic story and I'm kinda surprised what thoughts come to mind watching such episodes nowadays that didn't occur to me when I first watched them. For example, there was a scene in this story where the vampire Spike kept professing his love for the title character over and over again, only to have his feelings mocked and rejected. Granted, this was a character who spent his first two seasons on the show trying his damnedest to kill the Slayer so it is kinda hard not to see why Buffy might be shocked by this latest turn of events. Then again one can't help but wonder how this reaction of Buffy's would be received by the TV audience if it were a female vampire -- like, say, Drusilla -- professing her love for Buffy instead of a more conventional choice like Spike.

Okay, it does not necessarily have to be Spike's ex-girlfriend Drusilla in the scenario I mentioned above but it is kinda hard to hear Buffy continually talk about how disgusting the idea of Spike loving her was to her without thinking of an obvious parallel in the real world. You could say that people no longer act like that nowadays but one would wonder how much of the idea that "people no longer act like that" is based on wishful thinking. Prejudices don't always go away easily and given the way many scenes in Buffy have rightly or wrongly been alleged to have a gay subtext, one can't help but wonder whether or not this is one of them.

Of course I might be biased on the whole matter because I've written quite a number of fanfic stories -- both serious and not so serious -- about the odd relationship between Buffy and Drusilla, and it has gotten to the point that even when I try to write a Buffy story that doesn't have Drusilla in it, she nevertheless finds a way to enter the storyline. In many ways, I find her more interesting than other female vampire characters on the show like Darla and Sunday because -- among other things -- she doesn't even try to act normal. She is not always as crazy as she pretends to be and she's certainly not as likable as her fans would hope but she is interesting to write about. I can't help but see her as kind of an anti-Buffy -- a woman who -- like Buffy Summers -- was cursed with an unwanted supernatural power and rejected by a mother who did not understand her gifts. I don't believe that it would be fair to argue that Drusilla is basically what Buffy would be like if she ever became a vampire but she is not as dissimilar from Buffy as I once would have liked to believe.

Anyway, there is another scene in this episode in which Drusilla tries to persuade Buffy that even a vampire has the ability to love. That said love is real and not a thinly disguised parody of the real thing. Again, one can't help but think of real-life parallels. And one doesn't necessarily have to confine such parallels to the gay community either. The deepest heterosexual feelings I ever felt were for a woman who was never my official girlfriend -- yet in my own way, I loved her more seriously than many of my more "official" romantic interests. And in her own way, she showed more affection to me than I ever received from many women whom I actually dated.

Anyway, we all have a tendency to read our own issues into the stories that we see on both the big screen and the little screen. And sometimes these readings are even true.

Edited to Add:

Further Thoughts on This Episode:

Cool! Drusilla traveled to Sunnydale via Amtrak. So odd to see an American TV show episode set in the early 21th century that had people traveling by train.

The opening in which various train passengers were attacked by an unseen assailant was well-done. So was the final fight scene, which involved a tied-up Drusilla getting herself loose so that she could attack a chained-up Buffy. If nothing else, that scene made me realize how rare it was to see a scene on this show where Drusilla and Buffy actually fight each other.

Poor Harmony Kendall attempted to win Spike over by doing the world's worst impression of Buffy Summers ever.

Dawn attempted to bond with Spike and annoyed the heck out of her big sister by doing so. Because apparently certain traits -- like befriending vampires -- run in the family.

Spike was easily one of the most popular characters on this show -- especially with female fans. But many of his actions on this show seemed at best questionable. For example, his attempt to persuade Buffy to give him a chance by offering to stake Drusilla seemed so obviously destined to fail that it was surprising that a smart guy like Spike thought of it. If nothing else, Buffy would have to have been insane to look at the way Spike was treating his once-beloved Drusilla and not see a vision of the type of treatment that she could expect from Spike if she ever chose to let him fall in love with her. And Spike was an idiot for not seeing that.