On Seeing Red
(Or "Why
attempted rape was inevitable if Spike is the long-haul guy")
by Rabid/Raeann
Rape is a terrible crime. Demonic. It is an attempt to steal the soul of the victim, reducing him, or her, from a fellow human being to a venting object for the attacker's rage. Rapists are people so filled with anger, hatred and despair that they cannot relate to another person as a person. There is a rapist in Seeing Red. But it isn't Spike. It's Warren!
Warren is the foil for Spike. He carries the rage that might otherwise fall in line with Spike's behavior. Warren is the one who is going to break Buffy, make her pay, for all of his perceived suffering and pain. He glories in his newly gained power over the Slayer, beating on her for the sheer joy of it. Why did he kill Katrina? He tells us in VILLIANS, "Because you deserved it, Bitch!" She deserved to suffer, in his mind, because he suffered when she left him.
Spike doesn't believe Buffy deserves to suffer. He wants her to be happy. He understands her leaving him, as much as he can understand it given his demonic perspective. In the bathroom, he says what he wants her to feel is love. What motivates him to attack is his heartbreaking realization that what he desires is just out of his reach. It is not that Buffy DOESN'T love him…it's that she CAN'T. She won't let herself give in to her feelings because she knows they are wrong. Humans can't love demons.
And this distinction, while it doesn't lessen the crime, does put it into perspective. Spike acts like a demon in Seeing Red, because he IS a demon. He was expressing his true nature. And, as soon as he saw that nature, it horrified him, as much as it horrified us. Warren felt no such horror. Warren felt justified in his actions. Spike experiences self-loathing and repentance, the man in him, asking, "What have I done?" Even as he acknowledges the demon he once was, by adding, "Why didn't I do it?"
Why, indeed? Taking your mate by force, if necessary, must be as natural as not breathing to a vampire. But this confrontation wasn't about sex or violence or rage. It was about love. How to express it. What it means. Buffy talks about how Spike can prove his love…"You might try not sleeping with my friends." She talks to Spike like he's a man, her man even. He responds like a monster. And still she doesn't react to him as the Slayer. She tries only to escape, she crawls, she pleads…she hopes to reach him…to reach his humanity. And in the end, when only force will stop him, she cries.
She cries, not because she's injured but because she is hurt…more than a little…more than fists or fangs could hurt her. This is the hurt she and Spike speak of in SMASHED…the deep betrayal of a lover. It hurts, much! Because Buffy believed in Spike. She believed he would never hurt her. Even as she denied him, she believed he loved her as a man, truly and deeply. And he has proven himself a monster. No wonder she "has no words", in S7's BENEATH YOU.
The act of attempted rape separated demonic Spike from human Spike. And the distinction is vitally important for the future of the couple. Buffy is our hero, you see. She cannot go to the dark side. She cannot be bitten, beaten and turned. Neither can she condone the demonic, no matter how good it feels. She must rise into the light as she does in As You Were. But even after the rise, she is still clinging to Spike, still turning to him. She must be made to confront his MONSTER. As we must be made to confront it…and for, I believe, the same reason. We all love Spike too much for his own good. We would rather see him DAMNED than see him SUFFER.
The attempted rape was necessary because the fandom loves SPIKE…even when he's bad. In fact, many of us revel in the badness. We find ready excuses for his behavior. The one most often given is the one we can't use here: It's ALL Buffy's fault. That excuse, always close at hand in S6, overlooks the obvious…Buffyverse vampires aren't overgrown kittens. They are merciless predators. And as much as we might have wanted it NOT to be true in Spike's case, Joss and Company decided to honor their show's history. Once that decision was made, then Spike, the man, was set on a collision course with Spike, the monster.
The only question being, "How would the monster manifest itself?"
It could try to kill or turn Buffy. It could kill someone else. It could threaten the world at large. Or it could betray Buffy in some painful, but ultimately forgivable, way. The last possibility is the only one where the relationship has a chance to survive. All other roads lead to staking. In Seeing Red, JW and Company, took the step that gave B/S a chance. But first, they danced around their other options. Spike goes for a kill in SMASHED and he attacks Buffy physically, beating on her but good. He tries to tempt her to abandon her friends and join him in the dark, in DEAD THINGS. He threatens the world in AS YOU WERE. And he betrays and wounds Xander and Buffy emotionally via the infidelity in ENTROPY. But he never quite enters the staking zone.
Because Buffy loves him, she is willing to cut him a tremendous amount of slack. We feel the same. So, then we have another question to answer, "What kind of betrayal will rock Spike's emotional world; what act is horrible enough to reach him, and her and us, and yet NOT horrible enough to motivate Buffy into killing him?" To work, it must be a threat, not against the world she is sworn to protect, but a threat against Buffy herself. And yet, it can't be the physical confrontation of Vampire/Slayer. For one thing, such fighting is too common in their interaction. So common, in fact, that it carries no emotional baggage. Many fans might rejoice if Spike returned to his evil ways, biting or beating the Slayer.
But then Buffy and Spike would be finished as a couple, because the character would de-evolve. So, the act has to be something that crosses the line of love and betrayal and yet will lead Spike to a higher path. Something that ultimately will encourage him to expand his character. Something that wounds both of the players at the heart. It must be an act that will bring the man to the surface and make him face down his monster…make him know Buffy deserves something more…something better than him.
It has to be rape. And…since the relationship is going to continue…and Joss, thank the maker, isn't writing daytime drama…it has to be ATTEMPTED but not COMMITTED. JW said once, re: Angel in PASSIONS, "We had him in vamp-face because we couldn't have him kissing Buffy later on, wearing the same face that he wore while killing Jenny." And the same dynamic applies here, in a skewed fashion. Spike wears his human face throughout, because this is about THE MAN…not THE MONSTER. Spike, must be seen as the aggressor, despite his efforts to play the man, he is not one yet. But because he is wearing the man's face, he must NOT cross the final line of committed rape. This is not about vampires and slayers liking it rough. Here the roles are not Vampire and Slayer, at all…but man and woman, lovers finding their way toward higher ground. Buffy's our hero…she can't be reduced to an object. Spike is our dark knight, he must overcome his evil not surrender to it. There is no excuse for this act…no mask to hide behind. Afterward, we can't say "look it was the demon." It was Spike…it was wrong…it left no option open but life-altering change.
Attempted rape, then, in my opinion, and apparently ME's, is the only confrontation that works on all levels. It fits into the historic storyline. It pushes forward our characters' development. It offers huge emotional impact…being harshly, viscerally wrong. And, at the same time, it holds out a slim hope for redemption, because it stops short of the unforgivable. It walks Spike right up to the line of death by the Slayer's hand…but it doesn't crossover, making that death inevitable. If offers the opportunity, even the obligation, for Spike to make himself worthy of Buffy…if indeed, he is a man not a monster…if he is the "long-haul guy." I believe, by taking the road they took, JW and Company offered us a chance at a Buffy/Spike future, one where the relationship is between a man and a woman, not a dark-minded Slayer and a convenient vampire.