Seeing Red (Steven S. DeKnight)
The teaser finishes and straight away I’m calling the makers of Buffy bastards as Amber Benson appears in the credits.
Andy and I had a very long discussion about this episode after we watched it.
[Followed by a discussion about the implications of “Normal Again” and sexual violence on TV and particularly in Mad Men.]
We discussed the ambiguity of Spike’s attempted rape of Buffy. If Spike was human and if Buffy was an ordinary woman and if they hadn’t been involved in a violent abusive relationship then there would be no ambiguity. It seems an appropriately sad and tacky culmination to the Buffy and Spike relationship. The fade to black for an advert break was pretty outrageous though. I hadn’t actually given the incident any thought at any time because I was distracted by the other important event so it made a change to consider it.
I asked Andy for his reaction to Tara’s death (I hesitate to call it murder when manslaughter seems more appropriate) bearing in mind that Andy isn’t an obsessive Tara fan and doesn’t read much about the show. He felt her death was undramatic and that the sex and the kissing and the intimacy were in poor taste considering what unfolds.
I can only agree.
I find it really hard to separate my thoughts about Tara’s death based on season 6 alone and those based on subsequent events (or non-events) because they are all tangled up together.
The way season 6 was designed means that Tara’s death is necessary for Willow to go dark. Buffy or Xander wouldn’t have done. It had to be a lover. It could have been Oz. They could have cheated and had Willow think Tara was dead when she wasn’t but that wouldn’t be dramatically satisfactory. If Tara has to die why is it so undramatic?
They have just back to together, they are a hot sexy couple (who knew?), they appear to be happy and in one measly episode it’s over. Tara was interesting. She had a relationship with Buffy, She even had friends (do any of the other Scoobies have friends? Real friends? Janice. Gotcha.) If Tara had been offed in season 5 who exactly would have cared? I may have just understood why Tara is interesting in season 6 – so we can miss her.
And all the winds go sighing, for sweet things dying.
I do know one concrete reason why I dislike her death so much and that is because it is so unbelievable. The scriptwriters (or just Steven S. DeKnight) know they have to kill her but they don’t take any care to make it plausible. She hugs Willow and impossibly sees Xander arrive in the garden. Warren’s final shot must have taken the amazing ricochets to enter her body the way it does (it looks as if it’s horizontal and as if it was directly fired at her) to kill her instantly and to splatter her blood over her lover.
I have read that the ricochets aren’t actually impossible but to a layperson who knows nothing about guns it seems impossible. If they had been in the kitchen then I would be placated but then if they had been in the kitchen then the whole sex and then death thing wouldn’t be there to rankle.
Putting Amber Benson in the credits suggests a lack of respect to the character (and to the actor…). I often wonder about that. I think it speaks volumes of an unknown nature that AB didn’t come back for ‘Conversations With Dead People”. I don’t suppose we shall ever know the complete story but Amber if you are reading this…!
It is so lame in many respects. Warren was a genius because he was the first person to realise the most likely way to kill a Slayer is to shoot her.
The lovey-doveyness in the episode doesn’t assuage my discomfit at Tara returning to her violator. Willow may be off the drugs but she hasn’t muttered a word of apology for what she did. It may have happened off screen but I guess it wasn’t deemed important enough to show us.
I have never seen a single minute of any of the rest of season 6 and all of season 7 since my initial dazed and rushed viewing. It will be interesting to see if I can watch the rest without seething over my other problems with Tara’s death.
Also: poor Jonathan. He was betrayed by Warren and what’s his name who is such a weasel. In spite of myself I do laugh at the antics of the Trio. The jetpacks were stupidly OTT but it was funny to see Andrew hit the roof.
I’m disappointed that I haven’t written a more profound entry on this episode but that’s the way it goes I suppose. Thanks Amber, thanks Tara and thanks to Joss, Marti and co for creating her.
The goddamned opening credits. I know Joss Whedon has said that he has always wanted to kill a character who appears in the opening credits. He wanted to do that with the actor who played Jesse in “Welcome to the Hellmouth” and “The Harvest” but wasn’t able to because of contract negotiations. Doing so at that point would have been fine — the audience hadn’t developed an attachment to the character yet. But putting Amber in the credits after 45 episodes and then killing her? Not cool. Amber herself has said that she thought it was kinda mean. The meanness is only compounded by the fact that Amber never made it into the opening credits until her second-to-last episode as a gimmick, even though Emma Caulfield, who also played a Scooby’s love interest, became a cast member in her first season as a frequent recurring character. (I don’t count season 3 because she’s only in 4 episodes.) Granted, Anya didn’t get that much character development at first either, but she got a job at the Magic Box in season five, which allowed her to form a significant relationship with a character who wasn’t her significant other. The writers never bothered to develop Tara outside of her relationship with Willow until her third season on the show. Anyway, the credits just feel like a slap in the face from Joss.
All of the kissing and sexy-sexy also feels very mean. They kiss 3 times in this episode, which is nearly half the number of times they kiss during the entire series, and they’re actually shown naked in bed together (which I think was a first on network TV). Tara’s death feels like punishment for all of the lesbian sexuality finally on display.
I had never thought about the plausibility of the bullet’s trajectory, but you’re right. Tara would have needed to be standing at a completely different angle to the window to get shot.
And FYI, I don’t know if it was intentional, but you have this post labeled as “Buffy Season 8″ instead of season 6.
Also, I feel a small bit of gratitude that Tara dies wearing something respectable. The blue sweater and jeans is probably one of the best ensembles she wore on the series.
This makes me sad all over again. I loved Tara, too. All those things mentioned – the credits, the momentary bliss, the scene which I still skip upon rewatch – they’re still all too sad, after all these years.
For AB, I truly hated the credits thing. It was blatantly unfair and although we may never know why she didn’t make the credits way back in season 5, what they did here is so cruel that, even if it’s a completely biased sentiment, I didn’t found real enjoyment in BtVS after Seeing Red.
This episode…
On the one hand, it has some of the very few post Tabula Rasa moments that I find really enjoyable. And while Tara is my favorite character and it really hurts to lose her, I can also at least somewhat accept the idea that it tells us something interesting – that it’s the best one of all of them who ends up getting killed rather than the superheroes.
On the other hand, Joss seems almost pathologically committed to making that point. And this episode also marks the point where there is almost literally zero things worth watching afterward (probably the only exception being the Xander/Willow crayon confrontation), so I’m not willing to give them much slack on it as a “plot development.”
I sometimes wonder how Tara ended up being such a wonderful character given the obvious disdain the production team seemed to feel for her. Is it just down to the talent of Amber Benson to sell her? I often wonder if she was so great in a strange way *because* she was allowed to develop slowly and surely without massive interference and pushing.
The blue jumper is nice and she looks heartbreakingly lovely in it.
Charles, I’ve always thought that if Tara hadn’t been played by Amber Benson then she wouldn’t have clicked for me the way she did. As written, Tara is a bit wet but the extra thing that Amber gave her created for me a compelling and beautiful character. I understand that some folks neither like Tara or her portrayal and I can see their point of view but there is something for me that is wonderful and endearing in the Tara/Amber combination.
I’m inadequate at expressing what exactly that something is but I do know (from commenters here and other bloggers) that I am not alone in liking that something and hating what happened on the show even though Joss keeps doing it to us (how many cats can I have?).
I think Anya/Emma Caulfield was treated pretty shabbily at times too.
Do you get a cat per each pacifist slain?
And explain what you mean by “a bit wet.” I think that’s a Britishism that’s not translating for me.
I think for me what I like about Tara is her quiet, gentle strength. In the beginning, every time she spoke seemed like a triumph of will over shyness, a shyness that was forced on her rather than inherent. As the series went on, that strength became more obvious until we get a Tara in “Older and Far Away” who will tell Anya to back off when she pushing Willow to do magic. I also think that Amber makes all of her characters warm on some level and it’s hard for me not to respond to that.
I’ve read a Jane Espenson interview where she said that Tara, if played by any other actress, would probably have alienated a lot of people. I tend to agree. Of course, we’ll never know for sure but it’s telling how many Tara fans equally love AB, and not just by extension. Amber herself said that although it took time for people to warm up to Tara, those who did fell really hard for her. I’ve been to a lot of Buffy forums and blogs and I can say also that this is true.