Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Wrecked" Review (6x10)

Brief Synopsis: “When they finally return home from their nights out, Buffy is ashamed of having slept with Spike and Willow is exhausted from casting spells all night. Amy takes Willow to a sorcerer named ‘Rack’, whose particular brand of magic quickly has Willow hooked. Later, Willow and Dawn decide to go out for a movie, but will Willow be able to keep Dawn safe, or has her addiction gone too far?”


"Smashed" (6x09) quick link here                                                                                                                                   "Gone" (6x11) quick link here

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1) This review will almost definitely contain spoilers for episodes after this one.

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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?



“Wrecked” continues the stories from “Smashed”, but doesn’t quite live up to the heights that “Smashed” set for it to follow. The primary focus of this episode is the continuation of the parallels between Buffy’s struggles and Willow’s struggles for dealing with their pain and insecurities. While Willow is turning to magical addiction and manipulating the people around her, Buffy is turning to boning Spike, which I’m sure is also magical. Like its predecessor, “Smashed”, “Wrecked” is awkward, uncomfortable, and suffocatingly miserable. These aren’t criticisms of the episode! In fact, I love that “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” takes its characters down such dark paths as it allows a deeper exploration of the characters and their motivations.

It’s the morning after the night before at the start of this episode and the uncomfortableness is there from the opening shot. Buffy wakes up amongst the debris of a destroyed house and tries to figure out just what she’s done. I can do that for her, it was Spike. Meanwhile, Willow has been out all night partying and getting magical with Amy. They both return home to find that Dawn would have been alone all night if it wasn’t for the always amazing Tara, who is a surrogate mother to Dawn throughout this season. Seriously, how terrific is she? Tara is the only person who’s there for Dawn when she’s feeling lonely and needs someone. Let’s not forget, her mother only died six months before this! The relationship that these two characters have developed is beautiful. As I’ve said before, Tara is the only character to come out of this season looking better than when she came into it...well, when I say ‘come out of this season’, I mean until she gets shot. Sad times. Buffy and Willow both instantly start lying about where they’ve been all night, which has become something of a pattern with both of them this season. Buffy has been lying about her depression and isolation ever since she came back from the grave, while Willow has been lying about how reliant she is on magic to do the most simple, mundane tasks, such as closing the curtains and decorating a room. While Buffy’s lies successfully deceive her friends, Willow’s don’t, thanks to Amy. Amy enters the kitchen and will not shut up about how much magic her and Willow were doing the night before. Read the room, Amy, read the room. Tara is visibly upset and disappointed at this revelation, especially after Dawn’s reassurances that Willow was doing better. Importantly, Buffy is still so wrapped up in her own problems that she doesn’t realise how much Willow is struggling and becoming addicted to the power magic gives her. Notice how neither Buffy nor Willow are opening up to anyone about the struggles they’re facing. This is key to the episode.

First, let’s look at Willow. Willow has been spiralling slowly for a couple of years now, but this season has really expedited the process, as we’ve witnessed her grow disturbingly more reliant on magic since resurrecting Buffy. When people refer to Willow as someone addicted to magic, I partially disagree. It’s not really the magic that Willow’s addicted to, it’s the power that comes with it. She’s addicted to changing herself and her life in any way that she can. Of course, these changes often come from her fear of still being the bullied, insecure person she was in high school, but this isn’t always the case. For example, Willow mind-raping Tara into forgetting their argument had nothing to do with insecurities and everything to do with her changing anything in her life that she wants because she can. In this episode, it isn’t the magic that Willow is addicted to when she visits Rack, it’s the power that accompanies it. To a very limited extent, I can understand Willow’s quest for power. She’s lived in the shadow of a superhero best friend, a werewolf ex-boyfriend, and a man who’s even smarter than she is. When you couple this inferiority complex with her being bullied at school her whole life, you can understand why Willow has little self-esteem. After starting college, Willow was finally able to reinvent herself and create a new persona for herself, which greatly revolved around magic. Without magic, who is Willow? In her own mind, without the magic, she’s the same person she was before it...bullied, looked down on, shy, and too scared to stand up for herself. Compare the Willow of season one to the Willow of season five, who floated into Glory’s house and fired knives at her with her mind. You can definitely see where Willow is coming from. However, I cannot condone pretty much everything she’s done this season and manipulating everyone around her is simply inexcusable. Now, Willow’s one remaining anchor to some sense of normalcy is gone.
 
Without Tara in her life to call her out on her actions, Willow just keeps expanding her magical power. Xander and Anya mentioned in “Smashed” that Willow is hanging out with Amy because Amy enables Willow’s addiction to power. The frustrating thing is that nobody is trying to stop it! Buffy is too distracted by her own problems, Xander and Anya are caught up in their wedding fears, and Tara is out of the picture. I can’t help but think that things would have turned out much differently if Giles was still around. I miss Giles. The only two characters that see what’s going on are Xander and Anya, which makes me wonder why they don’t try to do anything to stop Willow. There’s no intervention, no heart-to-heart between Xander and Willow (until it’s way too late in “Grave”)...why aren’t they more concerned? They can’t be that distracted by their wedding fears, surely?! After hitting a glass ceiling with magical experimentations, Willow agrees to go and visit a warlock called ‘Rack’ with Amy. It’s around this point that everything remaining in Willow’s world turns to shit. I will admit, the magic-drug metaphor comes across as very, very heavy-handed at times during this episode, especially in Rack’s waiting room. Everyone is twitchy, strung-out, and waiting for their next fix. Plus, let’s not forget Willow’s withdrawals at the end of the episode, or the fact that Willow allows Rack to take a ‘tour’ of her body. To be honest, I could do without the drug-magic connection, as Willow isn’t addicted to magic in that sense, she’s addicted to power. Perhaps a better way to handle the episode would have been for Rack to mess with Willow mentally and start to refuse to give her more power.

Willow finally hits rock-bottom when she takes Dawn with her to Rack’s transportable junkie office. How far has Willow fallen? Is this even the same shy, adorable person we knew and loved for the first five years? Willow is so reliant on magic at this point that she’s putting the people she loves in severe danger without even realising it. The alarming thing is that Willow can’t even see that she’s hurting the people around her. It’s not until she crashes a car while high on magic - resulting in a broken arm for Dawnie – that she realises the error of her ways. I felt such a rush of affection towards Dawn when she slapped Willow. Willow is one of my favourite characters on the show, but she’s had that coming for a long time. It’s about time somebody slapped her back to reality. This is the last straw for Willow and her reliance on magic. She intends to quit cold turkey. I was really pleased to see Willow arrive at this revelation, but I was sceptical about how long it would last. Willow has been over-reliant on magic for years. It’s not going to be as simple as just quitting instantly, especially in the magical land of television. Her entire identity revolves around magic! At the end of the episode, Willow confides in Buffy (they’re finally talking! It’s a shame that Buffy doesn’t reciprocate) that without magic she feels mundane and unimportant. Magic gives her purpose, gives her meaning, makes her strong, makes her special, makes her something other than the terrific person she was in high school. You only have to look at “Restless” to see why Willow feels this way. Now, Willow is giving up her identity because it’s hurting the people around her. It’s not going to be straightforward or simple.

Speaking of Rack, the observant amongst you will recognise the actor playing Rack, Jeff Kober, as he also played the amusingly insane vampire Zachary Kralik in season three’s “Helpless”. I love Jeff. He has a terrific voice for television...and he’s fucking creepy while playing both Rack and Kralik...or should I say, 'Rackary Kralik'? As I touched upon before, I’m not a fan of the drug dealer portrayal of Rack, as I feel it steers away from Willow’s reasons for being so reliant on magic. Boiling Willow’s problems down to substance abuse partially negates the complexities and developments that we’ve seen over the past couple of seasons. This isn’t substance abuse, this is identity crisis and a growing need for power, which are vastly more interesting and realistic based on Willow’s journey over the past six years. Furthermore, Willow isn’t the only character being portrayed as a junkie, Amy is too. Amy is scurrying around Buffy’s house, like a rat, looking for magical weed. It’s far too heavy-handed for my liking.

Buffy didn’t notice the building fell down until the next morning. I guess enhanced perception isn’t one of her superpowers. Buffy wakes up from her rough-and-tumble sex coma and is instantly disgusted with herself and her actions. This is the start of a season long struggle for Buffy between doing what she thinks is right and doing Spike. Buffy quickly wants to leave the debris behind and uses Dawn as an excuse to do so, but as soon as Spike starts, erm, ‘playing with her’ again, she allows him to until he stupidly mentions that the only thing better than killing a Slayer is doing a Slayer. Buffy is giving into her sexual desires as it allows her to escape from reality for a little while. She doesn’t have to think about being in Heaven or the empty place in her chest where her heart used to be. Spike chalks this up to the fact that vampires get Buffy hot, but I don’t believe this is the case...

Spike: “I’m just saying, vampires get you hot.”
Buffy: “A vampire got me hot. One. But he’s gone. You’re just...you’re just convenient.”

Aaaaaaaaand that’s the problem with their ‘relationship’ this season. Also, ouch. Big ouch. Poor Spike. The interesting and kind of sad thing about this scene is that everything both characters say is true. Buffy doesn’t have feelings for Spike here other than lust, she just wants something to make her feel human again. Spike is nothing more than a convenience at this point. On the other side of this, Spike tells Buffy that he may be dirt, but she’s the one that likes to roll in it. Buffy is acting self-destructive because she’s depressed and miserable. She’s using Spike, Spike’s manipulating her, she’s turning to sexual addiction to escape her problems...it’s a mess...but great television!

Spike: “You felt something last night.”
Buffy: “Not love.”
Spike: “Not yet. But I’m in your system now. You’re gonna crave me like I crave blood. And the next time you come crawling, if you don’t stop being such a bitch, maybe I will bite you.”

Spike’s correct. Buffy does go on to crave sexual release from him whenever she’s feeling down or numb. What we’ve all got to remember here is that Spike is still a soulless demon at this point. Sure, he’s been neutered by his chip, but he’s still evil. The fact that Buffy is having sex with him at all is cause for concern. The fact that she’s doing it repeatedly to escape her problems is even more worrying. “I’ve been going through the motions, walking through the part. Nothing seems to penetrate my heart”. Buffy has finally found something that penetrates her...heart. Since returning from the dead, Buffy hasn’t been able to feel anything positive. It’s been nothing but depression, sadness, isolation, drama, and problems. It’s easy to see why Buffy starts to crave release from Spike because it’s the only time she can feel anything. Climbing out of this pit of misery is something that takes Buffy the entire season, which it should. You don’t just get over severe trauma like that in a matter of weeks, and I’m proud of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” for not wrapping this storyline up quickly like most other shows would have. It took me four and a half years to overcome my severe depression. Changing your mental state is a long, challenging process. What I also appreciate about Buffy and Spike’s relationship this season is that it’s realistic. The show emphasises why Buffy is sleeping with Spike, it emphasises why Spike feels used. The context of this relationship is what makes it juicy...which is probably the wrong word to use after the end of “Smashed”.

Buffy: “You know, she’s going through something, but we’re not her. I mean, maybe she has reasons for acting this way, and so what if she crosses a line? You know, we all do stuff. Stupid stuff. But then we learn. And we learn, and we don’t do it again. Okay, so, you know, who are we to get all judgey?”

Can you say ‘over-identifying’?

Like Willow, Buffy is escaping her problems instead of trying to tackle and eliminate them. Instead of facing them, she buries them deep down and hopes they’ll go away. Spoiler: they won’t. That’s not how life works. However, Buffy turning to Spike for release brings another plethora of problems because now she feels even more disgusted with herself. She treats Spike like a yo-yo, wanting him around when she needs release, but pushing him away and insulting him when she’s feeling particularly self-loathing. On top of that, she’s also conflicted. She hates herself for sleeping with Spike, but a part of her gets off on it. At the moment, she makes allowances for this because she believes Spike when he says that she came back wrong. She feels different. She feels numb and dirty, and inhuman. Finally, you have the fear of judgment. She can’t confide in Xander or Anya because of the way they’re reacting to Willow’s similar problems, she can’t confide in Dawn because Dawn will be disappointed, and she can’t turn to Giles, which is what she’d ordinarily do, because he’s gone. Eventually, she turns to Tara because she feels that Tara will judge her the least. This is a smart move as Tara is very much the mother of the group and easily the most understanding character in this season. Buffy has already slept with a vampire and she still remembers her friends’ reaction to that, particularly Xander, who made her feel bad about it. This situation is much, much worse because Spike IS SOULLESS. Buffy’s description of him being like a serial killer in prison because of his chip is completely true. Nothing makes this more apparent than Spike’s behaviour in “Smashed” and “Wrecked”. It really enforces the point that he’s soulless.

Spike, frankly, is despicable in this episode and its predecessor. Don’t get me wrong, Buffy treating him like a yo-yo certainly doesn’t help, but that’s no excuse. Everything he does and says is an attempt to break Buffy down, tear her away from her friends, or make her feel worse because he knows that she’ll only want him around if she continues to be miserable. He knows she’ll never love him (which she doesn’t until he gets a soul), he knows that a healthy, happy Buffy would never sleep with him, so he’s keeping her in the darkness with him. Does this sound like the behaviour of someone in love? I strongly believe that Spike never loved Buffy until he got his soul back. He’s obsessed with Buffy, intrigued by Buffy, captivated by her, but he doesn’t love her. It’s obsession. With Buffy depressed and Spike soulless, there is no happy ending for this relationship. To be honest, we should have seen the attempted rape scene (or something similar) coming. While I dislike their relationship this season because I care about both characters a great deal and it’s highly destructive for both of them, I also adore it because it’s so interesting!

Willow: “If you could be, you know, plain old Willow or super-Willow, who would you be? I guess you don’t actually have an option on the whole super thing.”
Buffy: “Will, there’s nothing wrong with you. You don’t need magic to be special.”
Willow: “Don’t I? I mean, Buffy, who was I? Just...some girl. Tara didn’t even know that girl.”
Buffy: “You are more than some girl. And Tara wants you to stop. She loves you.”
Willow: “We don’t know that.”
Buffy: “I know that. I promise you.”
Willow: “I just...it took me away from myself. I was...free.”
Buffy: “I get that. More than you...but it’s wrong. People get hurt.”

It’s great to see Willow finally taking some responsibility for her actions. This is the first time she’s openly referenced that Tara left her because of her magical abuse. Furthermore, Willow is finally opening up about why she’s addicted to magic and the power that comes with it. Magic allows Willow to be free of insecurity and fear, which is exactly how Buffy feels when she’s sleeping with Spike. Their parallels have come full-circle, as they’ve both realised that they need to stop. The difference is that Willow’s problems and desire to stop are in the open, Buffy’s are still secret. She almost told Willow here, but then decided not to due to fear of being judged. Buffy does attempt to stay away from Spike, but becoming invisible in the next episode gives her the power to literally escape from her problems, which means she can be totally free for a while. Buffy is aware that she has a problem, she’s aware that she needs to stop, but unlike Willow she’s not ready to yet. Willow had to hit rock-bottom to start to heal. As bad as things are for Buffy, she’s not at rock-bottom yet. She needs everything to be made public before she can finally start to move on and get over everything from this season.

The episode comes to a close on Buffy and Willow trying to battle again their coping methods. Willow is in bed, writhing in the agony of withdrawal, which is still too heavy-handed and off base for me to get behind. Meanwhile, Buffy is wide awake, staring at the garlic cloves that are hung around her windows...which is odd as we’ve never seen garlic work against vampires in the Buffyverse. Perhaps she just likes the smell. The closing images allow us to glimpse where the show is going for our two main female characters. They’re both going to try to change, but will both face challenges and setbacks along the way.


Quote Of The Episode

Willow: “So, uh, the burger was good? You liked it?”

Dawn: “Are you kidding? It was like a meat party in my mouth!...Okay, now I’m just a kid and even I know that came out wrong.”



FINAL SCORE: 7/10

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

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