When Things Spiral

For the month of October, I’ll once again be paying homage to my favorite television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer by dedicating each post to reflections on specific episodes of the show.

If you’re a fan of the series, I hope you’ll enjoy these looks back, and if you’re not, maybe I’ll incentivize you to give it a shot. If you find yourself someplace in between—e.g., you’re currently watching the show--please note that these posts will include spoilers about the episode(s) they discuss.

And, if you’re just not interested in Buffy, apologies, but these next few weeks aren't for you. I will be back to the routine going into November.

It’s easy enough to forget “Spiral,” the twentieth episode of the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Indeed, I’ll admit to it largely melding together with a long stretch of episodes in season five—a season that I by-and-large like for its continuity and sense of epic scale, but that is difficult to isolate individual episodes from, particularly for rewatching purposes because of how intertwined and cohesive the whole season feels (I’d suggest that “Buffy vs. Dracula,” “The Body,” and “The Gift” are the only clear cut exceptions).

There happened one night last year, however, when I wanted to watch rewatch “The Gift,” and had about enough time available to watch one other episode, too. I recalled that the episode directly before it, “Weight of the World,” largely existed within Buffy’s interiority in a sort of subconscious dream space, and episodes like that in general don’t much vibe with me, if only because the long-term stakes feel relatively low when we’re stuck in one character’s head. So, I backed up to “Spiral,” and wound up glad that I did.

The episode sees Buffy and company on the run. Indeed, the episode literally opens on Buffy and Dawn fleeing from big bad deity Glory, moments after the god has realized Dawn is the key she’s been after all season for her apocalyptic machinations. A little strategy and a lot more luck get Glory hit with a bus, and thus momentarily sidelined while the sisters make an escape. The slayer is all too eager to admit the role of luck in their survival, though, and chooses that their next plan will be to load up in an RV and hit the road to run and hide.

This moment of retreat offers argubly the most profound moment of doubt that the show’s heroes encounter in their seven seasons fighting evil (OK, maybe "Prophecy Girl" matches or exceeds the doubt here, but it's at least a close second), and the stakes only ratchet up further when the Knights of Byzantium show up en masse with intentions of killing Dawn to preclude Glory using her. The resulting RV vs. knights on horse chase/battle is a unique spectacle to say the least, but the stand off afterward really drives home the central moral quandaries of the season.

Dawn isn’t really Buffy’s sister, but she feels like she is.
Killing Dawn would save the world.
If Glory succeeds in using Dawn, then Dawn, Buffy, and the rest of the world will die anyway.
So, is it really right for Buffy to protect dawn at all?

Not everyone loves season five, but I’ll argue that this set of factors and quandary rest at the heart of why the season-long storyline is such an arc and such a triumph. Reduce the situation to logical calculation, and it’s straightforward enough to say that Buffy herself should kill Dawn, or at least let her be killed. And yet, for as much as Dawn might annoy Buffy and viewers alike, we can also feel that that really isn’t the right answer at all.

“Spiral” sees Buffy tested. Facing overwhelming odds isn’t new for our hero, but the odds are arguably higher than ever before. The fact that she could save the world by letting Dawn go—not entirely different from stabbing a sword through love-of-her-life Angel at the end of season two—gives her an out, but our hero is most heroic when she doesn’t simply take the most straightforward path, but looks for a better way. The Buffy who fights and runs when it would be easier to quit, all in the name of saving Dawn, is the same Buffy who talked a gun out of Jonathan’s hands in “Earshot;” these are the choices that separate her from Willow at the end of season six, goes full dark in the name of vengeance over justice.

It’s easy to interpret the very title of “Spiral” as a commentary on the degree to which Buffy and company’s circumstances spiral out of control in this episode, in particular. But I like to think there’s another read that Buffy is spiraling away from what tactics and attitudes she may have known up to that point, in favor of something greater—a destiny she realizes two episodes later as this chapter of the slayer’s story comes to a close.