2013 CZ Advent Calendar: December 5th
Dec 5, 2013 20:18:17 GMT -6
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Post by The Human Being on Dec 5, 2013 20:18:17 GMT -6
2013 CZ Advent Calendar - December 5th
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Amends"
by Davethedouchebag
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Amends"
by Davethedouchebag
Buffy’s “Amends” is hardly the best holiday themed episode the show ever produced, but it is part of a proud tradition. The show’s first two Halloween episodes and the Thanksgiving themed “Pangs” are so well beloved among fans that I need not recount their virtues here. “Amends” is a rather different beast than these episodes, even as it demonstrates the same impeccable use of the holiday theme. While those episodes were largely examples of Buffy having rather madcap, conceptual fun, “Amends” is a very somber, character centric piece. The fact that it focuses upon Angel, a character who on Buffy (though not on his own series, and not as Angelus) I generally found rather dull, should sour me on the episode, but it only endears me further, since I find this to be perhaps the show’s best use of him in his “normal” persona. For once on Buffy, the character is rendered with a good deal of complexity and depth.
As he waits for the sunrise to quickly kill him, Angel cries out to Buffy that it’s not the demon that needs killing in him, but the man. This is a rather stunning statement, both in the level of self-loathing it conveys, and in the way it shatters of the strict dualism between Angelus and Angel. Angel portrays himself as being a very weak man in this episode, which is quite different from how we typically would perceive him. Yet we should remember that Angel only very recently dedicated himself to fighting the good fight upon seeing Buffy for the first time. He’s as new at this as she is, only he has to bear the burden of centuries of experience with either passivity or evil. It seems quite believable, then, for Angel to associate the weakness that makes him vulnerable to the First (and therefore to killing Buffy) with his humanity, and loathe it even more than the active hatefulness of his inner demon.
The First is a rather unusual monster of the week. As the source of all evil in the universe, one would expect it to play a larger or more threatening role. While the writers later seemed to realize this, the First does give “Amends” a higher sense of stakes than many other monster of the week episodes. Taking on the form of Ms. Calendar lends it a rather uncanny sense of wrongness. The First is exactly the sort of being to drive Angel to the precipice, and it functions extremely well in that role.
The episode is not exclusively about Angel, of course. Faith’s fairly obvious lie about having a big Christmas party to go to, and later appearance at Buffy’s home are rather poignant bits of character development. Willow and Oz are also rather notable in this episode; with Willow implicitly offering sex to Oz as a kind of compensation for her all too recent betrayal of him, and his refusal of her offer. Willow’s rather grumpy affirmations of Jewish identity are quite endearing and funny in their own right. Giles, who laughs with incalculable bitterness at Angel’s absurd attempts at politeness, nonetheless proves invaluable in helping Buffy locate the source of Angel’s malady.
I think the key to what makes this, in addition to being a very strong episode of Buffy in general, a strong Christmas episode, is the way in which it presents the gamut of emotions that people may experience during the holiday season. All too many people become afflicted with a very real despair around Christmastime, not entirely unlike what Angel experiences here. Angel conveys something of this seasonal sadness when, anticipating his own voluntary death, he imagines children waking up early to claim their long awaited presents. The enormous gulf between these two forms of anticipation is the root of the episode’s sad poignancy, but the miraculous snowstorm, which blots the sun from the sky, counters this gap with an image of hope. The episode seems to suggest some sort of benevolent counter force to the First Evil (perhaps the Powers That Be on Angel’s own series), but all that is necessary to appreciate the moment is its unpredictability. The fundamental basis of despair is a lack of faith in the potential of the future; it could not be contradicted more than it is in the form of that snowstorm. The episode as a whole remains a rather dark look at the Christmas season, but the miraculous snow reminds the viewers of the holiday’s capacity to inspire hope as well as despair.
