I am going to be BOLD and do an entry on the scene where Spike tries to rape Buffy.
Buffy Season 6 "Seeing Red"
Okay guys. WARNING right here. If you have a big problem reading about rape or abuse you reaaaaalllyy want to stop here...especially because as part of my script i put pictures on here also.
Cut to: exterior shot of the Summers house, night.
Cut to the bathroom. Buffy enters, wearing a grey bathrobe and moving slowly, sighing.
She goes over to the tub
and starts the water running,
leans over to check the temperature, putting one hand on her back as she bends over.
She sighs loudly as she straightens up.
SPIKE: (OS) You hurt? You're not moving so well.
Buffy sighs and walks toward the sink.
Reveal Spike standing in the doorway, wearing black shirt and jeans, no jacket. \
BUFFY: (standing by the sink, not looking at him) Get out.
SPIKE: We have to talk. (closing the door)
BUFFY: (turns to look at him) I really don't.
SPIKE: Well, this isn't just about you... (pushes the door the rest of the way shut) as much you'd like it to be.
Overhead shot of the two of them. Spike stands by the door and Buffy by the sink, with about four feet separating them. Buffy crosses her arms over her chest.
BUFFY: You spoke. I listened. Now leave.
Close on Spike. He sighs a little.
SPIKE: (softly) I'm sorry. Not that it matters any more, but I needed you to know that.
BUFFY: Why?
SPIKE: Because I care about you.
BUFFY: Then you might want to try the not sleeping with my friends.
SPIKE: I didn't go to Anya for that. I was looking for a spell.
BUFFY: (outraged) You were going to use a spell on me?
SPIKE: (sighs, exasperated) It wasn't for you!
I wanted something . (puts hand on his chest)
Anything to make these feelings stop. (angrier)
I just wanted it to stop!
Buffy looks taken aback. Spike sighs, calms down.
SPIKE: (softly) You should have let him kill me.
BUFFY: (softly) I couldn't do that.
SPIKE: Why?
BUFFY: (moving back toward the tub) You know why.
SPIKE: Because you love me.
Buffy bends over the tub, again with one hand on her back.
BUFFY: (annoyed) No. I don't.
SPIKE: Why do you keep lying to yourself?
BUFFY: (whirls around to face him again) How many times-
She pauses, composes herself.
BUFFY: (calmer) I have feelings for you. I do. But it's not love. I could never trust you enough for it to be love.
SPIKE: (laughing) Trust is for old marrieds, Buffy.
(Buffy rolling her eyes) Great love is wild ... and passionate and dangerous. It burns and consumes.
BUFFY: Until there's nothing left. Love like that doesn't last.
SPIKE: (pacing) I know you feel like I do. You don't have to hide it anymore.
BUFFY: (rolling her eyes) Spike, please stop this.
SPIKE: (whispers) Let yourself feel it.
He moves forward, puts his hands on her waist, pulls her toward him. She resists.
BUFFY: No....
SPIKE: You love me.
BUFFY: Ow, no, stop it.
They struggle, Spike trying to kiss and grope Buffy, Buffy trying to push him away. Sound of fabric ripping. Spike's hand is inside Buffy's robe.
BUFFY: Spike, no - ow - what are you do-
She loses her balance and falls backward toward the tub. Her hand grabs the shower curtain for balance, but it rips off the shower rod and Buffy falls down, hitting her back against the side of the tub.
BUFFY: (yelling) Ow!
She falls to the floor beside the tub, groaning in pain. Spike gets on top of her, holding her down. He grabs her face and tries to kiss her as she continues trying to fight him off.
SPIKE: Let it go. Let yourself love me.
He continues saying similar things as Buffy continues saying "no" and "stop" and "ow." Spike pulls at her clothing.
Buffy gets onto her stomach and tries to pull herself toward the door, but Spike is on top of her, holding her down, pulling her arms away from the door as she continues yelling and protesting.
Close on Spike wearing a determined and wild expression.
Blackout.
Act III
Open on the same scene, overhead shot of Spike straddling Buffy on the bathroom floor. Buffy continues struggling.
BUFFY: (yelling) No, stop it!
SPIKE: I know you felt it ... when I was inside you...
Close on his hands trying to open her robe. Sound of fabric ripping.
Buffy breaks partly free and starts crawling toward the door again. Spike grabs her ankle and pulls her back toward him, flips her over, pins her hands to the floor.
BUFFY: No, ow, ow! (sobbing) Please, please, Spike, please...
SPIKE: You'll feel it again, Buffy...
BUFFY: Please don't do this...
SPIKE: I'm gonna make you feel it.
He rips the front of her robe open. Buffy screams and struggles against him as he tries to get her robe off.
BUFFY: Stop!!!
She gives him one last shove with her Slayer-strength and Spike goes flying backward, crashing into the sink and the wall.
Buffy gets to her feet, holding her robe closed with one hand. It's torn so that one of her shoulders is exposed.
Spike gets up, panting and staring at her.
BUFFY Ask me again why I could never love you.
Spike looks like he's just realizing what he was doing.
SPIKE: Buffy, my god, I didn't-
BUFFY: (angrily) Because I stopped you. (quieter) Something I should have done a long time ago.
A tear runs down Buffy's face. Spike stares at her looking horrified.
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That was the most difficult scene for me to watch out of any episode from BTVS. I didn't even know if I wanted to watch the next episode of Buffy. First of all, attempted rape is horrendous indeed, but to see someone that I respected so much as a character...to drop to such an ultimate low was heart-breaking.
To be honest, I didn't know if I liked Spike so much after watching this episode. I will surely understand if you hate him right now too. Just looking at the pictures grosses me out..the real episode is horrifying. I kept thinking to myself...'how can i keep loving this character when he had tried to rape the one person that he loved more than life itself?'
And that was when I began to doubt...doubt Spike's character, doubt his intentions, and ...doubt his love. I was so angry. What was Joss Whedon(creator) thinking!?
Of course denial came. I mean there had to be some sort of justification ...somehow for it to not be his fault. My answer came down to the fact that Buffy had had it coming..she "whacked him back and forth like a rubber ball" (very literally). She told him she hated him and then slept with him.. To him it seemed like she was in denial...she was a tease. Sleeping with him but nothing more. He was in a state where he loved her so much more than just sex but could have no more...and the all the worked up frustration that he couldn't let out...came out at the most wrong time.
Yea...i still believe that it's kind of true..but NO WAY justifies SPike's actions. I was trying to justify his actions for all the wrong reasons...not only for me...but for him.
But that really wasn't what his character needed. But as I thought about it and watched season 7...and the previous seasons a couple more times...I really understood vampires in the BTVS world.
And I drew my conclusions about this attempted rape. (which is NOT meant to be an excuse for Spike)
My analysis on this scene isn't to justify Spike's actions...it's not even for Spike.
it's really for me...to get my feelings about this and my frustration out...to decipher why the hell Joss Whedon would make one of the most beloved characters of BTVS do something so atrocious.
I came up with 6 points of analysis(either reasons that this happened..or messages that the writers were trying to send):
1) As I already mentioned before...Buffy had it coming...if not by attempted rape...some other form of confrontation/argument/quarrel/fight. Somehow he would have eventually blew up. BTW...Spike did try to rape buffy okay...(but look at what buffy did to spike many many many times...even when they were sleeping together. SHe beat him to a bloody pulp..it was so disgusting..until you could hear when she punched him..the blood pouring out of his nose. )
2) Spike is a vampire (NO SOUL). HE is NOT a man, and thus his views on love are skewed. However, although this may be hard to grasp for those who are non-BTVS viewers, Spike is sort of the odd-one out in vampires. Vampires aren't supposed to be able to love and have human emotions. But for some reason, Spike has retained some of his humanity from when he was a human. He had become such a big part of the Scoobies, that people forgot what he really was inside...a monster...a demon. And he cannot change that. Sure he may be able to love, feel grief...but it doesn't make him human. He is not even CLOSE to understanding humanity. He doesn't understand the feelings he has inside of him..which eventually drives him nuts and causes him to try and ...yea.
3) Fans were getting too happy about Buffy and Spike being together. Joss/Marti/David were not sure why they got such a huge response from fans when Buffy and Spike began their relationship...everyone turned it into love... All the fans thought it was something so cute..that they were meant to be. It wasn't supposed to be like that. It was supposed to be hard, raw, passionate sex. It was supposed to be a bad relationship...a relationship that both Spike and Buffy knew was wrong...but they were too addicted to "feeling" some emotion..anything...that they needed it. Joss tried many things to get fans to stop liking the idea of Buffy/Spike. Even after B/S broke up on the show, fans still wanted more of them. Spike needed to do something really bad in order for the fans to just stop thinking that Buffy and Spike were going to be together.
4) Buffy just came back from heaven. After heaven, the real world was hell. Buffy needed something to make her "feel". Her friends were in their own world and she also didn't want to make them feel bad for bringing her back and tearing her away from a place where she was happy. The only solace which she could find was with Spike..which lead to their unnecessary relationship...and then the...yea
5) Season Six is supposed to be a portrayal of real life problems rather than emphasis on the mystical world. I think this season was about addiction to things...Willow to magic, Buffy to her darker side...her addiction to fighting..her addiction to violence..and addiction to Spike. It chooses to reflect on emotions..how people feel when they are going through a hard, tough life...when people feel alone. Some life-changing, or relationship-altering events happen in life are also portrayed...this being one of them.
6) Another one of the themes of Season six: Even the Strongest people are vulnerable. This is supposed to show how Buffy is human also and extremely vulnerable with her emotions and that even she can get hurt physically and let horrific situations get to her mind. The concept that anything can happen to anyone...and that Buffy can't stop everything...and that sometimes she cannot just fight off things easily.
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James Marsters' take on the episode:
"I can't watch it," said Marsters of that scene. "That's the hardest day of work in my life. I went home shattered after that. I don't think I've still picked up the pieces of that one. Sometimes the work gets real tough, I've got to say. When the writing is that good and they're cutting that close to the bone, it can surprise you sometimes how it can rock you."
Another INTERVIEW:
"That was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, that bathroom scene last year," the actor says. "That's probably the worst day that I can remember in my life. I don't think that I ever want to go back to doing a scene anything like that again in my whole life, but at the same time, artistically, I'm very proud of it. I think there had been a bit of frustration from the writers. "
"They kept trying to frame this guy as a bad guy and the relationship as something that was extremely dangerous for Buffy and the people around her, and I'm not sure that the fans really reacted that way. So, they just pushed that envelope until it tore. I know the episode pissed a lot of people off, but this was the danger with Spike. This was the thing that made me very uncomfortable, which was if a man is mean to other people, he's going to be mean to his woman, and that's a fact that most women do not want to look at. Most women who are attracted to those kinds of men do not want to admit it. So in that way, Spike was in danger of becoming a really dangerous lie, a fantasy of the badass killer - who would treat a girl like a queen, and that stuff doesn't happen in the real world. That was something I wasn't comfortable being a part of. So, in that way, I'm really glad that we did that because I think that underneath all of the fangs and the blood and the witches spells, we are speaking about the truth, that the good can win, but it gets bruised, and the good fight is worth fighting. There's a lot of money to be made in Hollywood by telling lies. There are a lot of comforting lies that you can write stories about, but Joss and Marti were never about that. They were really more about making people feel a little uncomfortable than they are about making them feel peaceful. So, it pissed people off, but in the same way that finally admitting that your boyfriend really is a jerk pisses you off. You don't want to be forced to admit that."
-James Marsters
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That's James' take...and you already had my two cents on it.
so
let me know what you think about it...and whether this entry was worth it at all.
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