Dreaming of me again, aren’t you? Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 7.11“Showtime”
Freeze frame on December 18th.
I want to freeze frame a moment in time. This past December with your hand in mine. You came up to me after your show. You called me by my fathers last name and I said “I know.” So many times I’ve wanted to call you mine. This past December makes me want to slide back into time. I’ve tattooed your album into my thigh, waiting for you to squeeze her, if the timings right? Can’t we just freeze frame to us smiling at one another from across a room? My favorite song of yours is called “Bloom.” Isn’t it strange how musicians write? Finding the right chords for the right time? Can’t we find it to be alone, like sharing a secret in your ear? I’ll try and freeze a moment again of you and I being in a room alone. Smiling and hugging like we have known each other for all of our childhoods. I’m working on telling you how I love your voice, singing the truth that you can’t avoid. Well the next time I see you, I’ll make sure to cheer the loudest of all, because when you freeze frame December 18th, you see us in your success, and I’m hoping to love all of it once again….
“One of the hardest lessons in life is letting go. Whether it’s guilt, love, anger, loss or betrayal, change is never easy. We fight to hold on and we fight to let go.”
i’ve seen a lot of takes along the lines of “spuffy only works when buffy is miserable. even in season seven they only connect when she’s at her lowest.”
i’d say this is poor media literacy from people unable to grasp some of the deeper themes of the story, but it’s really a misread of the plot on a very surface level.
it’s true that in season six buffy is in a dark place, and that’s when she goes to spike. there’s way, way more to it, but breaking down season six isn’t really the point when people are saying there’s no change from that in season seven.
in seven, we see buffy and spike together all season, and for much of it she’s scared of the coming apocalypse but she doesn’t go to him out of depression or self hatred. she doesn’t keep him secret; she moves him into her house, in full view of her friends. she tells him to stay when he offers to leave.
empty places is obviously buffy’s lowest point. it’s in this sad space that she and spike connect in a way they haven’t ever before, and it’s beautiful. it gives her strength and pulls her back out, and the next day she wins her weapon.
after she tells spike that it was him who gave her the strength she needed, she easily kills caleb.
they quickly have it out about angel, moving on because it isn’t important, and buffy once again chooses spike, who accepts. she spends another night with him, and it’s this one where she has her “we’re going to win” revelation.
she forms her plan, tells her friends, and they are all ready to go to war with her because she’s right. they are going to win.
her confidence is well deserved, she’s back in the leadership role she earned by being good at it, and she delivers her incredible “are you ready to be strong?” speech to the potentials, who all decide follow her.
she says, “tomorrow morning, i’m opening the seal. i’m going down into the hellmouth and i’m finishing this once and for all.” with such strong conviction on her face, to the entire group captivated by her.
and that night— in her big house full of everyone she loves, strong heart jittery but sure, empowered by her choice, knowing they’re going to win, at her highest moment all year— she quietly makes her way downstairs, and sleeps in spike’s arms one more time.
spike and buffy only work when buffy is in a bad place? what a disrespectful way to look at our confident hero on the eve of her saving the world.
