Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Bargaining Part One" Review (6x01)

Brief Synopsis: “It’s a dark and miserable world without the Slayer. Buffy is dead and the Scooby Gang have survived the summer the best they can without her. Due to Buffy’s mystical death, Willow fears that Buffy is trapped in some Hell dimension and she’s not going to leave her there to suffer eternal torment. Therefore, Willow, Tara, Xander, and Anya decide to perform a resurrection spell to bring Buffy back from the dead.”


"The Gift" (5x22) quick link here                                                                                                              "Bargaining Part Two" (6x02) quick link here

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“Bargaining Part One” is the best of the seven season openers for “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” by some margin and that’s reflected in it getting the highest ‘final score’ I’ve given to an opener thus far. Part of the reason for this is because of how damn dark it is. It’s clear from the opening scene that life without Buffy is bleak and miserable. The Scoobies are all still struggling with moving on from Buffy’s death. Part of the reason for this is that Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara are plotting to bring Buffy back to life. After Buffy’s selfless, noble death in “The Gift”, I knew it was only a matter of time before she was brought back. You can’t have a show called “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” without Buffy. With that being said, I didn’t want Buffy’s death to be negated. Buffy’s journey up until her sacrifice was always leading to that one big moment. If she returned from the grave as peppy and spirited as she was before, it would have been a disservice to her character and to the show as a whole. Therefore, what this season needed was a realistic reaction to Buffy’s death. We needed the Scoobies to be mourning, we needed Buffy to return disoriented and depressed, and we needed things to be different than they were before. The Scoobies have all been forced to mature and look at their lives in a different way since Buffy’s death and because of this all of them have adjusted to life without her in their own unique way. The result creates one of the most dark, depressing, miserable seasons of any show I’ve encountered. It seems to split the fandom right down the middle. Half of the audience adore the realism and appreciate that adult life is a depressing place to be. Young people entering adulthood do fuck up, a lot, so it was nice that this was reflected in the Scoobies. On the other side of the coin, half of the fandom find the season too dark. I can see that side of the argument too. We’ve lived with these characters for five years. We don’t want to see Xander leave Anya at the altar. We don’t want to see Buffy battling severe depression and acting self-destructive. We don’t want to see Willow addicted to using magic and mind-raping the people around her. We don’t want to see Giles leaving Sunnydale or Dawn stealing things. There’s no denying that every single character makes severe errors in judgment this season (with the possible exception of Tara, who looks like a Goddess in this season next to everyone else), but isn’t that a part of growing up?!

Before all of that, we have “Bargaining Part One”, where every Scooby is struggling to find happiness in a world without the Slayer. Watching the Scoobies trying to move on is agonising throughout this episode, but I appreciate that the show didn’t shy away from the more horrific ramifications of death. If after three months everyone was back to hugs and puppies, I would call bullshit. As far as Giles, Spike, and Dawn are concerned, Buffy is never coming back. Watching that reality slap them in the face time after time here is heartbreaking. From Dawn cuddling up to the Buffybot because a plastic, cold machine with her sister’s face is better than the reality that her sister is gone, to Spike slamming his hand down on the table because he’s feeling guilty over his inability to deliver on his promise to Buffy to protect Dawn, to Giles saying goodbye to the Scoobies and Sunnydale...it’s all very upsetting and sombre.

(Trying to cheer myself up...)

I don’t envy the Scoobies’ position either. They need to pretend to the world that Buffy is alive and well. If they didn’t, Dawn would be taken into care or sent to live with her father, and Sunnydale would become a demon and vampire hive, which is exactly what happens after a vampire discovers that the Slayer is now a robot. However, presenting this mirage to the world comes with another very important drawback...the Scoobies can’t move on. How can they let their friend go if her face is constantly in front of them? If she’s constantly talking to them, living with them, and interacting with them? This brings us nicely on to Willow’s resurrection plans. For the past couple of years, Willow has been growing increasingly powerful and confident. We’ve seen her evolve from floating pencils, to Wicca group, to the Enjoining spell, to becoming super-badass in order to fight Glory. As time has gone on, we’ve seen her grow increasingly reliant on magic to deal with everyday activities and problems such as lighting a fire (“Buffy vs. Dracula”). However, it’s not until this episode that we see just how dark Willow has become in the name of magic. To bring Buffy back, Willow murders a baby deer in brutal fashion. Something that the Willow of a couple of years ago would never be able to do. Couple this with her new ability to talk telepathically (which first presented itself in “The Gift”) and the results are far creepier than they should be. Having telepathic abilities comes with advantages, as we see in the graveyard because Willow can give orders and communicate without her enemies hearing it, but it’s also highly intrusive and comes across as a negative just as much as a positive. Notice that Xander and Anya both dislike this new ability. With Buffy gone and Giles disappearing, Willow has emerged as the new leader of the Scoobies...Xander even made her a badge. This seems like a natural progression of sorts because historically Willow has always taken charge if Buffy and Giles were indisposed (such as “The Weight Of The World”). As we see in the graveyard fight scene, Willow loves the power that comes with leadership. She revels in barking orders at Xander and Anya, which will only fuel her reliance on magic and her love of it as the season progresses.

All of this leads us to the resurrection. Is the resurrection morally justified? Does Willow do the right thing? There are arguments on both sides. When the Urn of Osiris arrives and the resurrection plans are a reality and not a pipedream, Xander is the first to voice his concerns. As much as he wants Buffy back, is it the right thing to do? Will Buffy come back the same? I was impressed and a little scared to see that Xander has become the voice of reason within the Scoobies. I was also surprised to see that Tara wasn’t more vocal about the ramifications of the resurrection. Remember when she scolded Dawn for wanting to bring Joyce back from the dead? She stressed just how important it was to respect the laws of magic and that resurrection goes against all of them. On the flipside of this, Willow does justify her reasoning very well...

Willow: “Her body, yeah. But her soul, her essence...I mean, that could be somewhere else. She could be trapped in some sort of Hell dimension like Angel was, suffering eternal torment just because she saved us and I’m not gonna let...I’m not gonna leave her there. It’s Buffy.”

This thought pattern does hold merit. Buffy died under mystical, supernatural circumstances. Not only does this mean that Buffy could come back correctly and not like zombie-Joyce from “Forever”, but it also means that Buffy may very well be in a Hell dimension like Angel was. Angel was in Hell because Acathla was supposed to suck the world into Hell. Well, Glory’s portal was supposed to allow her to go home. Her home dimension is a Hell dimension! Buffy died in the portal! Why wouldn’t Willow think that Buffy’s afterlife would match Angel’s? The circumstances were so similar! Is part of the reason Willow thinks this because she’s desperate to get her friend back and the idea of saving Buffy for Buffy seems nobler than resurrecting Buffy for herself? Of course! Are Willow’s actions selfish? Of course...but only after we know that Buffy was in a Heavenly dimension. I truly believe that Willow’s intentions were good, but she should definitely have consulted Giles before trying this. Giles has spent his entire life researching the supernatural. He may have been able to find out more on where Buffy was before dragging her back...

Anya: “Should we maybe tell Giles? You know, now that we’re really ready? It’s not like he’s going anywhere...ever.”
Willow: “No. No-one else can know. Not Giles, not Spike, not Dawn. They might not understand.”

...They might try and stop you, you mean. As Spike explains in “After Life”, magic always comes with consequences. Not just demons or darkness, but other consequences too. Like Buffy waking up in a coffin, suffocating, and having to punch her way out to freedom. Like Buffy battling severe depression for a year afterwards. I’ve got to give it to Marti Noxon and Joss Whedon here, they never take the easy way out with this episode. I’m really impressed with the lengths they go to in order to ensure the episode feels raw and realistic. One of the best scenes of the episode is the above one where Willow and Xander are debating bringing Buffy back from the dead. Both sides of the argument are explored and justified before anything else happens. They make the audience aware that Willow is justified in what she’s about to do, but we’re also left feeling like it’s partly wrong. This ‘partly wrong’ aspect is never more apparent than when Willow, in a white dress to symbolise innocence, stabs a young deer to death. This scene was shocking. All the more shocking when you think of the sweet, loving, caring, dungaree-wearing Willow of the first two seasons. I’m blown away by how much this character has evolved. Yet her progression never feels forced or out of character. It’s been such a slow, steady transformation that I never really noticed how far she’d come until she stabbed a baby deer to death because she needed its blood for the spell. Joss seems to have planned this addiction to magic and altering her life how she sees fit from at least the middle of season three, which shows what a genius he really is to be able to plan stories out so far in advance and also to follow them through perfectly. Is Willow sacrificing her innocence to bring Buffy back? Notice that Willow starts this episode in white (innocent), but progressively wears darker and darker clothes as the episode rolls on. After slaughtering the deer, she wears red to represent the blood that’s on her hands, and when she performs the resurrection spell, she’s in very dark clothes. Dark clothes, dark magic. Willow has slipped into magic more powerful and vicious than she can have anticipated. Yet, this doesn’t deter her after this episode, it only furthers her thirst for power.

The resurrection spell itself is highly disturbing, but also uses C.G.I. perfectly to enhance the visual of just what Willow is putting herself through to bring Buffy back. From Willow’s dialogue to the Scoobies while the spell is transpiring, it’s clear that Willow knew what she was getting herself in for, but she didn’t convey this to the other Scoobies, as they were startled at how dark and dangerous it was becoming. Tara knew that Willow was going to be ‘tested’, but these tests are beyond what she was expecting. We see Willow’s arms slashed open as if with a knife, and we see a snake writhe out of Willow’s mouth. Make no mistake, this spell almost kills Willow. She’s in and out of consciousness for hours afterwards. Yet again, this only furthers her quest for more power, as she doesn’t want to be left so weak and powerless after performing an advanced magical spell again. While Willow is trying to resurrect Buffy, the Buffybot is injured by some biker demons that have come to Sunnydale to take over it because they know the Slayer is gone. When the Buffybot is injured by the bikers, she runs off to find Willow to be repaired, which, ironically, Willow has programmed her to do. The demon bikers interrupt the resurrection spell right at the end and the Urn of Osiris, the last one in existence, is destroyed in the melee.

Speaking of the demon bikers, the leader of them, Razor, is played by Franc Ross, who also plays Monty in Firefly’s “Trash”, another Joss Whedon show. I’m not the biggest fan of the demon bikers, to be honest. While they’re interesting enough and contribute something new to the Buffyverse, their appearance makes no sense. While the demon bikers are destroying the city, where are the police? Why aren’t they defending the residents of Sunnydale? The demon bikers seem to have free reign of the city without any intervention from police or residents whatsoever.

While this episode primarily revolves around Buffy’s resurrection and Willow, it also holds key moments for every other Scooby and shows us how they’re dealing with Buffy’s death...


Xander & Anya

Anya: “Give it!”
Giles: “No, you give it! Ow! Ow! Ow!”
Xander: “Okay, when I’m marvelling at the immaturity, be scared.”
------------------------------------------
Xander: “Just give it time. This is hard for all of us. Just be patient.”
Anya: “I was being patient, but it took too long. I mean, I miss Buffy, I do, but life shouldn’t just stop because she’s gone. I’m sick of waiting to take over here and I’m sick of waiting to tell everyone about us.”

It’s apparent that Xander has been encouraging Anya to keep their engagement secret. At first, this makes a great deal of sense. While it might bring some much needed happiness to the group, the Scoobies do need time to mourn Buffy first. By this point, however, it’s obvious that Xander is already wrestling with his decision. Did he do the right thing? Had he thought it through? He’s clearly asking himself those same questions as he keeps coming up with excuses to stall making it public. When Xander told Anya in “The Gift” that he was proposing to her because the world wasn’t going to end and because he wanted to, not because of the imminent apocalypse, I’m sure he meant it. However, I think Joyce’s sudden death and Glory’s looming apocalypse did influence his decision. Xander and Anya both mentioned how short life is after Joyce passed away and I think that Xander realised he didn’t want to wait or die alone, but I also think he didn’t thoroughly think through his decision. He’s already displaying signs of inner conflict in the season opener! It should come as no surprise to anyone when he doesn’t follow through on the marriage. Anya is also battling some inner conflict. On the one hand, she wants Giles to leave so she can run The Magic Box, but on the other she doesn’t think it’s right for him to leave just as they’re attempting to secretly bring Buffy back.


Giles

Oh, Ripper...Giles, Spike, and Dawn’s stories in this episode upset me the most because they’re the ones who aren’t in on the plan. They can’t live in hope that the resurrection spell will work because they aren’t aware of it. They’re living in the knowledge that Buffy is gone forever. That’s the part of Willow’s plan that pisses me off the most. They’re leaving Giles, Dawn, and Spike to suffer without including them and giving them something to hold on to.

Giles: “I just can’t help but wonder if she would have been better off without me. Buffy...”
Buffybot: “I don’t think that’s true. You were very helpful to her.”
Giles: “Right. Yes, I was a perfect Watcher. I did what any good Watcher would do. Got my Slayer killed in the line of duty.”
Buffybot: “Oh, that wasn’t your fault.”
Giles: “Of course not. That’s how all Slayer/Watcher relationships end, isn’t it? She’s gone. I did my job.”
Buffybot: “Well, then why are you still here?”

Does anyone else find it ironic that the only person offering Giles advice or comfort is a robot with Buffy’s face? Giles is suffering from a big ol’ dose of survivor’s guilt. If he’d gotten to the tower faster, if he’d suffocated Ben sooner, perhaps his Slayer and daughter-figure would still be with him. With Buffy gone forever, why is Giles still in Sunnydale? The answer to that question is simple and you have to look no further than “Helpless” to find out why. Giles and Buffy’s relationship wasn’t simply one of Slayer and Watcher like the ones that have come before it. Buffy was his daughter. Throughout his dream sequence in “Restless”, he looked at Buffy as his child and his responsibility. It’s not as easy as just disappearing from Sunnydale now that his job as her Watcher is over. He has her little sister to worry about, his other surrogate children that he’s grown to know and care for, such as Willow. Giles hasn’t just settled in Sunnydale for a job, he’s created a life and family for himself. Leaving Sunnydale behind him for good would mean accepting that Buffy is truly gone and I don’t think that Giles was prepared to do that until he actually leaves. It explains why he kept stalling throughout the summer. The conversation with the Buffybot is what finally prompts him to actually go. With Buffy gone and his career over, he owes it to himself to move back to England and try to build a new life for himself with a fresh start.

Giles tries to leave Sunnydale quietly with a goodbye note to the Scoobies, but they find it before his plane leaves and it leads to a very emotional scene at the airport. Oh God, it’s so beautiful. Especially when you first see this episode and think that Giles might actually be leaving forever. I just love everything about this scene. From Anya’s apple pie to Tara’s finger monster (“grr, argh!”), to Anya telling Giles she’ll take care of his money (“yes, I have no doubt”), to Giles and Xander attempting a manly handshake, but ultimately hugging, to Giles and Willow’s farewell, to Giles telling Dawn, his last biological link to Buffy, that he’s only a phone call away...kill me now. I cannot take any more feels. Giles departing Sunnydale just adds to the eerie feeling of season six. The first episode strips away two of the core four characters that have been around since the pilot, that have been the foundation of the show. Buffy is dead and Giles is gone. I hate to see Giles leave Sunnydale, but I can understand his decision. A little trivia fact for you, Anthony Head requested to appear in fewer episodes because he wanted to spend more time at home with his family. That’s the real reason why Giles spends much of the next two seasons in England.


Dawn & Spike

Buffybot: “I think Spike stopped liking me.”
Willow: “That’s not true. He thinks you’re swell.”
Buffybot: “Then how come he never looks at me anymore? Even when he’s talking to me.”

How heartbreaking is that? Spike can’t stand to look at the face of the woman he loved. Remember, Spike is responsible for the Buffybot’s existence. Originally, it was the closest thing he was ever going to get to Buffy, so he treasured it. He spent hours talking to it and bonding with it because it was the next best thing to Buffy herself. Now, with Buffy gone, he can’t stand to so much as look at it. When the Buffybot compliments Spike’s appearance, he becomes agitated and demands that Willow remove all of the original programming that the Buffybot had to love him and idolise him. I feel that part of the reason for this is that Spike doesn’t feel he deserves praise from Buffy, even a robot version of her. In his eyes, he failed. He didn’t deliver on his promise to protect Dawn and because of this, because he was thrown from the tower, Buffy had to sacrifice herself to save the world. This explains why Spike is so adamant to stay and look after Dawn. When Dawn offers Spike the chance to escape from his duty, he aggressively slams his hand down on the table because he’s furious at himself for not being able to save Buffy and Dawn on the tower. Like Giles, Spike is suffering from survivor’s guilt.

Comparingly, Dawn misses Buffy the most, I feel. For me, the most heartbreaking moment of the whole episode is Dawn creeping into her sister’s old room in the middle of the night to cuddle up to the Buffybot. Kudos to Michelle for being able to convey exactly what Dawn is thinking and feeling without saying a word. Dawn can’t cope with life without her sister. Let’s not forget, Dawn had two family members that she was close to and both of them have been stolen away from her within months of each other. I can relate to this too well. When I was 17/18 years old, both of my closest friends died within a five-month period. Trying to adjust to life without them was impossible for years. Dawn has no mother left, no sister left, no family left that she’s close to, and she has to live with the knowledge that Buffy sacrificed herself so that she wouldn’t have to. Dawn could have died instead. She tried to jump first, in fact. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Hank has been in communication with Dawn at some point – “he said he’d call today” – after being such an absent, useless father for the past four years.

The episode closes on one of the most shocking, harrowing, traumatising images that the show has ever produced...Buffy’s decayed, lifeless body under the ground. Ugh, the decaying was the worst part. While the Scoobies have been adjusting to life without her, she’s been wasting away. The scariest part is how realistic this looks! Damn impressive work! The audience are forced to accept that Buffy is gone forever. She no longer even looks like Buffy. As upsetting and traumatising as it is, this image needed to be shown. When Buffy comes back depressed and struggling, remember this image. When Buffy makes questionable decisions throughout this season, remember this image. When Buffy wants to disappear from the world, remember this image. She was gone, she was decayed, and she was in Heaven. She was at peace. She was torn out of there by her friends and had to punch her way out of her own coffin to freedom. Buffy Summers is back from the dead and this season is about to get a whole lot darker. Buckle in, kiddies, we’re in for a depressing time.


Quote Of The Episode

Giles: “You might have let me in on your plan while he throttled me.”

Spike: “Oh, poor Watcher. Did your life pass before your eyes? Cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea?” 

FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10

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

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