#btvs never keeps poc characters around!

[buffster]

Pangs (BTVS 4.08)

This is part of my ongoing Buffyverse Project, where I write notes/meta for every episode in an attempt to better understand the characters and themes of the shows. You can find the BTVS list here and the ATS list here. Gifs are not mine.

I ended up watching Pangs twice because there was a lot to digest. It was a good episode for many reasons--Angel lurking, Spike joining the gang for the first time, Thanksgiving--but also an uncomfortable one because of the racial issues. Let’s just say this straight off: if you don’t have any POC in your main cast, you probably shouldn’t make the villains POC or attempt to have conversations about race. As far as some of the more intricate issues within the episode, I don’t claim to be an expert. So if you have some thoughts on the issue feel free to reblog and add them. 

Giles: It's not fair. You know that's what she'd say. You can see her and she can't see you.

Angel: Believe me, I'm not getting the good half of the deal. To be outside, looking in at what I can't... I'd forgotten how bad it feels.

Buffy has a couple of relationships throughout BTVS, but Angel and Spike are the only ones we see her be physically aware of and really have a connection to. There are multiple scenes in Pangs where she’s off her game because she feels something...and that something is Angel, lurking in the shadows watching her. I know the plot required he not reunite with Buffy in order to entice viewers to Angel, but it’s in character. This guy loves to lurk and avoid difficult emotional conversations. He does have a point about their interactions, though...both of them are an emotional mess in I Will Remember You. 

Xander finally gets a dignified job as a construction worker and Anya is loving it. My policy is to live and let live when it comes to headcanons, but personally I think Anya is about as straight as they come. She’s all about the rippling man bod (and, as some have pointed out, she’d probably mostly date women if she was attracted to them at all). 

Xander’s first project is a new cultural center for UC Sunnydale, which is where we get our plot. He falls into a pit and awakens the spirit of a Chumash warrior. The warrior then infects him with multiple diseases because that’s what happened to his people. One of the diseases is syphilis, which is where we get the “his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe” line in OMWF. 

Willow: Thanksgiving isn't about blending cultures, it's about one culture wiping out another. Then they make animated specials about the parts with the maize and the big big belt buckles. They don't show you the next scene where all the bison die and Squanto takes a musket ball in the stomach.

The most emotionally affected is Willow, who has inherited her concern for indigenous peoples from her mother. Ironic that Shiela refuses to participate in certain holidays for concern of others but can’t pay attention to her own daughter. She’s bad at personal relationships but very firm in her beliefs and ideas. Willow is fighting to make some kind of peace with Hus throughout the episode while Giles is firmly for taking him down (as the one with diseases, Xander is on Giles’ side). This is one of the first times we see Giles and Willow start to clash and her begin to question his authority and wisdom. 

Buffy: The thing is, I like my evil like my men: evil. You know, straight up, black hat, tie you to the railroad tracks, soon my electro ray will destroy metropolis BAD. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an indigenous culture.

I can’t really explain why, but I love when characters/the narrative acknowledges something the audience has noticed (i.e. Buffy’s interest in evil guys). Although it is a little out of place here because she hasn’t had anything with Spike yet. I don’t think we can say she’s into the dark side until it becomes a pattern, and at this point it had not. Anyway, they all go back and forth throughout the episode about what to do with Hus. Giles thinks it’s too late to do anything. I like the “Vengeance is never sated, Buffy. Hatred is a cycle...all he will do is kill” line. I also believe, as the famous quote says, ‘Hate does not drive out hate. Only love can do that.’ No matter how many times Hus takes revenge he will probably remain angry. (( Since this is Tumblr, I’ll over explain so as not to be willfully misinterpreted: I’m not saying fighting back is never the answer. Just that getting revenge is never going to make your bad feelings go away. It might make other changes, but I think hatred and anger just grow. ))

We start to see some clash between Xander and Anya because he blurts out “you don’t talk to vengeance demons. You kill them.” He prefers to ignore Anya’s past misdeeds and I don’t think he ever really reconciles them. As long as Xander didn’t see you commit evil he’s content to ignore it.

Giles: Tell me again why we're not doing this at your house.

Buffy: Giles, if you want to get by in American society you have to learn our traditions. You're the patriarch. You have to host the festivities or it's all meaningless.

Giles: And this is in no way an elaborate scheme to stick me with the clean up.

Buffy is feeling lonely and particularly protective of Thanksgiving. She’s upset her mother won’t be doing it as usual and says “everything is changing”. But she “smells a turkey and (I’m) eight years old” so she’s hoping she can keep the spirit alive herself. Buffy really is about growing up and we see Buffy move farther and farther away from childhood comforts as time goes on. Her obsession with Thanksgiving this year is her attempt to cling to the past. While Giles and Willow worry about Hus, Buffy mixes ingredients and worries about all the little cooking details. 

Buffy invites Riley but he has his own plans in Iowa.

Riley: My folks are there. We always do Thanksgiving at my grandparents farm. Little place just outside Huxley. Corn and pigs.

Buffy: That sounds wonderful.

Riley: It is. After dinner, we all go for a walk down by the river with the dogs. And there's... trees, and I know what you're thinking, it's like I grew up in a Grant Wood painting.

I know Riley doesn’t exactly fit with our band of outcasts, but that’s not necessarily a bad point for his and Buffy’s relationship. Since Buffy doesn’t have that he could have been an avenue for her to gain it. 

Riley: What's the line --"Home's the place that, when you have to go there -"

Buffy: "-- they have to take you in." That's what they say.

Spike attempts to go home to Harmony, but she’s “in control of (my) own power now” and threatens to stake him. He finally turns to Buffy. 

Spike: I'm saying Spike had a little trip to the vet and now he doesn't chase the other puppies anymore. I can't bite anything. I can't even hit people.

Sensibly, the gang is still planning to turn him away until he says he has the inside scoop on the soldier boys. He’s tied to a chair and sits through all the chaos. 

Spike: You won! All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do! That's what Caesar did, he's not going around saying "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it"! The history of the world is not people making friends. You had better weapons, you massacred them, end of story!

Spike: You exterminated his race. What could you possibly say that would make him feel better? It's kill or be killed here. Take your bloody pick.

Xander: Maybe it's the syphilis talking, but some of that made sense.

Giles: I made several of those points earlier, but that's fine, no one listens...

Spike’s pretty cold about what happened to the tribe, but he’s evil so it’s expected I suppose. The gang thinks he has a point about there not being anything they can do at this point and decide to fight. It was kind of a strange conclusion to the story. “Thanksgiving is a sham! So many atrocities! What can we do? Nothing. Ah well.” The message was just a little unclear and I think the story was more about plot than a political message.

The gang battle the spirits and finally triumph, but not before Buffy turns the main warrior into a bear. It was fun to watch Spike reacting to everything during the episode (and I love his smirk when Xander spills the beans Angel was there).

During the fight, Angel leaps up and breaks one of the warrior’s necks and he, according to the script, “drops like Jenny Calendar”. Anya then wonders what he’s like when he’s evil and we get one of our rare Angel-and-Angelus-are-in-fact-not-totally-seperate moments. Willow tears into the warriors as much as anyone else and feels guilty later.

Xander: I don't know. It kinda seemed right to me. A bunch of anticipation, a big fight and now we're all sleepy.

Character Notes:

Buffy Summers: Her mom is visiting Aunt Pauline for Thanksgiving this year. Buffy mentions she stole and lost Willow’s hairbrush, proving she’s still an annoying roommate--Willow is just more accommodating than Buffy/Kathy. 

Willow Rosenberg: She mentions there are some great spells that work better with an ear. Giles and Willow talk about Angel losing his edge because everyone but Buffy saw him.

Riley Finn: Forrest calls him “mama’s boy” in reference to Maggie and we see he is already attached to her.

Xander Harris: He accidentally says Anya is a strange girlfriend and she lights up at the word. But he claims to be delirious. 

Angel: He leads Buffy to Father Gabriel, apparently an old contact. When he first shows himself to everyone they all assume he's evil.

Spike: He explains that vampires that don’t feed become living skeletons.

#pangs #Jane Espenson #Buffy summers #willow rosenberg #xander harris #anya jenkins #spike #Rupert giles #angel #buffy/angel #xander/anya #Harmony Kendall #Spike/Harmony #Riley finn #Buffy/Riley