Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Intervention" Review (5x18)

Brief Synopsis: “Buffy feels that being the Slayer is turning her to stone, so Giles takes her to the desert on a vision quest to meet the First Slayer. While they’re gone, Spike decides to have a little kinky fun with the Buffybot, but the Scoobies see her and mistake her for the real Buffy. Meanwhile, Glory’s minions also mistake the Buffybot for the real Buffy, and after noticing how devoted she is to Spike, they begin to suspect that he is The Key.”


"Forever" (5x17) quick link here                                                                                                                        "Tough Love" (5x19) quick link here

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“Intervention” highlights “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” at its best, outside of the tear-inducing finales and “Big Four” episodes (“Hush”, “Restless”, “The Body”, “Once More With Feeling”). It’s witty, hilarious, quirky, captivating, and yet oddly tender and emotional at the end. It’s classic “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. “Intervention” focuses primarily on Spike and Buffy. Since Joyce’s death and funeral, Buffy is having trouble adjusting to normal life again. Part of the reason is because Buffy feels that being the Slayer is stripping away her ability to love. The Slayer is a warrior with the essence of a demon inside of her, which doesn’t exactly lead to hugs and puppies. Traditionally, to be a good Slayer, one must live alone, fight alone, and die alone. One must dedicate themselves to the cause. Even though Buffy is an anomaly in that respect, she feels numb and emotionless compared to other humans. On the other side of the coin is Spike. Spike’s Buffybot (that he demanded that Warren make for him at the conclusion of “I Was Made To Love You”) is now up and running...so, so creepy. While most of the Buffybot scenes are played for giggles, it does lead to some insight into Spike’s character, what he looks for in a woman, and what turns him on...I’m still creeped out that a robot love slave lead me to these realisations.

The episode opens with Buffy, Dawn, and Giles bonding at the Summers’ house. It’s so lovely to see that since Joyce’s death, Giles has truly become a father to Buffy and Dawn. He’s cooking for them, doing the dishes, cleaning the house and supporting them both through their grief, while still battling his own. It takes a strong, caring man to be capable of such things. Giles is ensuring that both Buffy and Dawn settle back into a routine, as it’s the fastest way for them to start to deal with their mother’s death. Dawn needs school, chores, homework, and stability, while Buffy needs to go back to training and honing her senses. This is where we’re first introduced to Buffy’s new identity crisis about being the Slayer and how she feels it’s eating away at her ability to love like a normal human bring. Honestly, I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. Buffy was fifteen when she was chosen to be the Slayer. She’s stopped how many apocalypses by this point? Four? Five? She sacrificed the love of her life to save the world (“Becoming”), she almost killed the only other person in the world that could truly empathise with her slaying situation (“Graduation Day Part One”), and she’s had to sacrifice quality time and bonding time with her friends and family time and time again to patrol and protect the world from vampires and demons. Her entire life seems to revolve around violence, fighting, and beheading tactics. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for declarations of love. This season is the first that we’ve truly seen Buffy embrace her role as protector of the world and come to terms with the power and strength that she possesses. However, after losing her mother, she’s regressed a little bit and is starting to get frustrated with her Slayer responsibilities again. Why does everyone always expect her to be okay? Why does she always have to be strong and hold the answers to everything? Why is the fate of the world resting on her shoulders alone? Why can’t she escape from this life and be normal? Let’s not forget, in the last episode (“Forever”), Buffy acting like the Slayer and being strong and emotionless forced Dawn into thinking that Buffy didn’t love her or care about how she was feeling. Buffy needs answers and guidance on how to live as the Slayer and Buffy Summers at the same time. Buffy being more “Slayer” than “Buffy Summers” certainly played a part in Riley’s departure, as Buffy never truly let him into her heart. All of this leads us to Giles taking Buffy into the desert to meet her guide, which takes on the form of the First Slayer...in the same place that Buffy first saw the First Slayer in her dream in “Restless”...does anyone else have chills?

Buffy: “So, how’s it start?”
Giles: “I jump out of the circle and I jump back in it, and then I shake my gourd.”
Buffy: “I know this ritual! The ancient shamans were next called upon to do the hokey pokey and turn themselves around!”
Giles: “...Go quest.”

The First Slayer guidey-person tells Buffy that she isn’t losing her ability to love. In fact, love will bring her to her gift. I think Buffy’s reaction of “huh?” explains mine perfectly. The First Slayer further explains to Buffy that Buffy’s gift is death...if that were my gift, I’d exchange it. Of course, having just lost her mother, being told that death is her gift doesn’t go over well with Buffy...

Buffy: “Death is not a gift. My mother just died, I know this. If I have to kill demons because it makes the world a better place, then I kill demons, but it’s not a gift to anybody.”

Once this season is wrapped up, however, we know that death isn’t Buffy’s gift in the sense that she’s taking it in. The First Slayer guide doesn’t mean that Buffy’s slaying powers and ability to kill vampires and demons is her gift, she means that Buffy’s ability to love and her willingness to die for the people she loves is. In the season finale (aptly titled “The Gift”), Buffy’s love for Dawn encourages her to sacrifice herself and die so that her sister can live and so that the world won’t bleed because of the dimensional walls being down while Glory is trying to go home. The choice to have the First Slayer explain this to Buffy is genius as Buffy’s journey into discovering the history of Slayers and what her powers really entail stems back to the season four finale, “Restless”, where she first meets the First Slayer. What words in that episode, and the season five opener (“Buffy vs. Dracula”), prompted Buffy into wanting to know more about her power?...“You think you know, what’s to come, what you are, you haven’t even begun”. This entire season has been about Buffy answering those words. We’ve seen her interrogate Spike about how he killed two previous Slayers, we’ve seen her meditating and focusing her energies, we’ve seen her casting a powerful spell for the first time (“No Place Like Home”), and we’ve seen her grow into a leadership role more than ever. All of this is gently nudging Buffy into a place where she’ll sacrifice herself at the end of the season.

While all of this is going on, Spike’s having some naughty time with the Buffybot. He’s taken her out of her metaphorical (I hope) box and he’s having a play. It’s gross, disturbing, perverse, diabolical, and obscene, but it’s totally in character for Spike, the fool for love, to do this. Before I dive into Spike’s mental state, I need to take a moment to mention how hilarious Sarah Michelle Gellar is as the Buffybot. When you think about the fact that at the same time as this she’s having to do confusing “death is your gift” scenes and has recently had to undertake the most demanding, emotional scenes in her character’s history, it’s all the more impressive. Also, the Buffybot’s little notes and file names that appear down the side of the screen are downright gut-busting. The ‘positions’ files for Spike and the ‘likes money’ note for Anya are a personal highlight.

Buffybot: “You’re evil.”
Spike: “And that excites you?”
Buffybot: “It excites me, it terrifies me...I try so hard to resist you and I can’t.”
Spike: “Yeah?”
Buffybot: “Darn your sinister attraction.”
Spike: “Are you afraid of me?”
Buffybot: “Yes.”

The Buffybot represents everything that Spike looks for in a girlfriend. She should be, he gave Warren the designs for her. Spike wants someone strong, powerful, interesting, and headstrong. He wants someone who’s just a little bit afraid of him, but who gets off on it, because to Spike, sex and violence go hand-in-hand (see “Fool For Love” or “Smashed” for verification). When the Buffybot threatens to stake him, it turns him on! He thrives on the excitement, the fear, and the sexual energy. Notice that Spike has requested that the Buffybot tries to resist him? He likes women that are hard to get and that challenge him. Most of the fun for him is in the chase, not the relationship. That’s why he was never interested in Harmony for anything other than sex. She was a pushover. She was someone that would do anything for him without question. She didn’t challenge him or punish him in the same ways that Buffy does.

Buffybot: “Spike, I can’t help myself. I love you.”
Spike: “You’re mine, Buffy.”
Buffybot: “Should I start this program over?”
Spike: “Shh! No programs. Don’t use that word. Just be Buffy.”

Spike doesn’t just want a sexbot. Like Warren with April, Spike wants a girlfriend. An equal. Of course, much like Warren with April, the Buffybot is already becoming boring and predictable to Spike. He doesn’t want the Buffybot to talk about “programs” and give in to his every desire, he wants the Buffybot to be exactly like Buffy, which is impossible. You can’t program human beings that accurately. After Buffy flat-out rejected him and told him that the only chance he had with her was when she was unconscious, he’s turned to the next best alternative. Of course, this is the Buffyverse. It was only a matter of time before it all turned into one big, giant clusterfuck. Spike’s disturbing, selfish behaviour in creating the Buffybot needed to come with consequences. These consequences come after the Scoobies realise that there are two Buffys. After screwing Spike into a coma, the Buffybot goes patrolling...yet again, Spike wants the Buffybot as close to the real thing as possible, so he’s requested that Warren program her to go patrolling. Rookie move, William. The Buffybot bumps into Xander and Anya...

Buffybot (to Anya): “How is your money?”
Anya: “Fine. Thank you for asking!”

Hi-larious! Shortly after Spike arrives and pretends that the Buffybot is the real Buffy (how dumb are you, Xander and Anya?!), Xander and Anya catch Spike and the Buffybot having sex in a graveyard...way to keep it classy, Spike.

Xander: “Brave yourself. You’re not gonna believe it.”
Tara: “Everyone, before we jump all over her, people do strange things when someone they love dies. When I lost my mother, I did some pretty dumb stuff, like lying to my family and staying out all night.”
Anya: “Buffy’s boinking Spike.”
Willow: “Oh...well, Tara’s right. Grief can be powerful and we shouldn’t judge...”
Tara: “What are you, kidding? She’s nuts!”

While this is going on, Dawn’s first moment of kleptomania appears, as she steals a pair of Anya’s earrings from her apartment. This will be explored in much greater detail in the next season of the show.

In a moment of surprising manliness, Xander goes to confront Spike about using Buffy’s grief to his kinky advantage. He’s still not aware that the Buffybot isn’t actually Buffy...isn’t he supposed to be her best friend? Shouldn’t he be able to tell that it’s not actually Buffy? The Buffybot had none of Buffy’s personality or sarcasm, she was just highly friendly and smiley...does that look like someone who recently buried their mother, Xander? Little did Spike know, Glory sent her minions to keep an eye on Buffy and to look out for anyone who looks precious to her. Remember, the useless Ben let it slip in the last episode (“Forever”) that The Key was a human that was close to the Slayer. Therefore, when the Buffybot (who the minions believe is actually Buffy) shows undying affection towards Spike, they immediately think that Spike is The Key. They break into Spike’s crypt, beat up Xander and Spike, and kidnap Spike to take him before Glory. Does anyone really believe that the minions and lackeys could win a fight with the second most notorious vampire in history...and Xander?

Glory instantly smells that Spike is a vampire, which is far too impure to be The Key. I don’t think I want to know how Glory could smell that Spike was a vampire. Just because Spike isn’t The Key, it doesn’t mean that he’s useless. Glory begins to brutally torture Spike into giving her The Key’s real identity. At first, Spike pretends that The Key is Bob Barker (I knew that international treasure was evil!), but Glory quickly brushes this away by saying that Bob Barker is “as old as grit”. Firstly, ouch! Secondly, this argument makes no sense! If the monks created Dawn’s memories and modified the memories of the people around her, why couldn’t they do the same for Bob Barker? If Glory’s argument was that Buffy didn’t know Bob Barker, that would have been much more convincing. After Glory sees through Spike’s lie, she goes back to the torturing, and this leads to a huge moment for Spike’s character...Spike doesn’t give up the information that Dawn is The Key. The question we must ask ourselves is ‘why’?

When Spike is chained up in Glory’s apartment, getting cut to pieces with a knife, he knows that Buffy will never love him. He knows that Buffy will never, ever have any romantic feelings towards him because Buffy herself told him this in “Crush”. Regardless of what he tries or how much he proves to her that he’s changed, she will never love him. That’s the whole reason why he created the Buffybot in the first place! He knew he had no chance with Buffy so he turned to the next best alternative. So why did he keep Dawn’s identity a secret? Why did he take the pain when there was nothing in it for him, even without a soul? I think his answer stems back to the last episode, “Forever”, where Spike helped Dawn try to resurrect Joyce. Spike told Dawn he was helping her, not for Buffy’s love, but because he couldn’t stand to see a Summers woman in pain. In that case, it was Dawn. In this case, it’s both of them...primarily Buffy, as that’s who he mentions later in the episode. This is the second time in two episodes where Spike has shown entirely selfless behaviour. Yet again, this proves that soulless vampires can be ‘good’, it’s just a lot harder for them to do so. Here, Spike is showing a completely human emotion, yet he doesn’t possess a soul. When “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” first started, it was very much a black and white show. Vampires are evil without exception (barring the re-ensoulled Angel), demons are evil, and the Scoobies are the good guys. Very slowly, the game changed. Faith became evil, the Scoobies did some highly questionable things, and soulless vampires started to commit selfless acts. By this point, the lines are so blurred that it’s not easy to define the differences in personality between humans and vampires, which I love! The intricate question of what it means to be a vampire and what it means to have a soul are suddenly tagged with deep, emotional, moral questions that didn’t exist for supernatural beings in the earlier seasons. Spike is showing behaviour that screams of genuine love, instead of just the lust and obsession he was showing earlier in the season. Until “Forever”, one could argue that everything Spike has done this season was to win Buffy’s love. Even when he was being nice, he was doing it to further his own goals. Now those goals have been snatched away from him and he’s doing it because he doesn’t want Buffy to be more hurt than she’s been already with Joyce’s death, Riley’s departure, discovering her sister isn’t really her sister, and having Glory to worry about. This is fantastic character development for a creature that shouldn’t be capable of such deep character development!...

Glory: “Shut up! I command you, shut up!”
Spike: “Yeah, okay, sorry, but I had no idea that Gods were such prancing lightweights. Mark my words, the Slayer is going to kick your skanky, lopsided ass, back to whatever place will take a cheap, whorish, fashion victim, ex-God like you.”

Meanwhile, the real Buffy has returned back from the desert with Giles, but the Scoobies are still unaware that there are two Buffys. This leads to a very uncomfortable (read: amusing) scene where Xander confronts Buffy about having sex with Spike...

Xander: “No-one is judging you. It’s understandable. Spike is strong and mysterious and sorta compact, but well-muscled.”
Buffy: “I am not having sex with Spike! But I’m starting to think that you might be!”

Watch Xander’s reaction to this. You just know he’s been having kinky thoughts about Spike recently. His eyes doth protest too much. Enter the Buffybot. The Scoobies and Buffy quickly realise that the second Buffy is a robot that Warren must have created, and that Spike must have had the robot programmed for sexual purposes. Buffy is understandably disgusted beyond words.

Buffybot: “Say, look at you. You look just like me! We’re very pretty.”
Willow: “Two of them!”
Xander: “Hey, I know this! They’re both Buffy!”
Buffy: “No, she’s a robot. She acts just like that girlfriend-bot that Warren guy made. You guys couldn’t tell me apart from a robot?!”

I’d be pissed off too if I were Buffy! It’s not like Buffy and the Buffybot are similar in personality whatsoever! However, there is time to be grossed out later. Glory has Spike and Spike knows who The Key is. The only lead that Buffy has on Glory’s whereabouts is the giant cobra she chased across Sunnydale in “Shadow” that was heading back towards Glory to inform her of The Key’s identity. The Scoobies split up to search the area and it becomes apparent that Spike didn’t even have the common courtesy to get Giles’ name correct in the Buffybot’s programming! Poor Guyles.

The Scoobies find the apartment, a fight ensues, they save Spike, escape, and Glory punishes her minions for their insolence. There’s just one story point to wrap up...Buffy needs to know whether or not Spike told Glory The Key’s identity. If he did, she’ll have to run away with Dawn as soon as possible to protect her from Glory. Buffy pretends to be the Buffybot and questions Spike about whether or not he told Glory. This conversation is in the “Quote Of The Episode” section because it’s of high importance for Buffy’s character, Spike’s character, and for the direction that the show is heading in. After Spike confirms to the ‘Buffybot’ that he didn’t tell Glory because he couldn’t stand Buffy being in that much pain, Buffy, the real Buffy, kisses him. I don’t think it’s out of romantic feelings or desire, it’s out of appreciation and thanks, but it’s a big moment for Buffy Summers to not only like Spike for once, but also to appreciate him so much that she kisses him. Spike made a genuine sacrifice in order to protect her and Dawn from Glory. He’s bruised, cut, beaten, and bloody simply because he didn’t want Buffy or Dawn to get hurt. Buffy telling Spike that what he did for her and Dawn was real and that she won’t forget it is huge. It was only four episodes ago that she was locking him out of her house and life forever. It’s also interesting that Spike can immediately tell that it’s the real Buffy and not the Buffybot...perhaps they smell differently.

“Intervention” is a powerful episode of the show. It doesn’t pack the emotional punch of a “Becoming”, it doesn’t have the masterpiece quality of a “Hush”, and it doesn’t contain the laughs like a “Band Candy”, but it does fire on all cylinders. It’s a well told story, it has character development for Buffy and Spike, and it gives up a glimpse into where the show is heading for Buffy this season and the next. What more can you ask for in 42 minutes?


Quote Of The Episode

Buffy (pretending to be the Buffybot): “Why did you let that Glory hurt you?”

Spike: “She wanted to know who The Key was.”

Buffy (pretending to be the Buffybot): “Well, I can tell her and then you...”

Spike: “No! You can’t ever. Glory never finds out.”

Buffy (pretending to be the Buffybot): “Why?”

Spike: “‘Cause Buffy...the other, not so pleasant Buffy...anything happened to Dawn, it’d destroy her. I couldn’t live with her being in that much pain. I’d let Glory kill me first. Nearly bloody did.”

*Buffy kisses Spike and Spike realises that it’s the real Buffy, not the Buffybot*

Spike: “...And my robot?”

Buffy: “The robot is gone. The robot was gross and obscene.”

Spike: “It wasn’t supposed to...”

Buffy: “Don’t. That thing, it wasn’t even real. What you did for me and Dawn...that was real. I won’t forget it.”

FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10

What are your thoughts on "Intervention"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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