Characterization In The Buffyverse — ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Season 5, Episode 13

This is part of a bi-weekly series concerning the characterization of Buffyverse characters. Arguably the best place to begin reading this series is at the beginning, but that is up to each reader. As a reminder this column will cover major and some minor characters from the shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and Angel (1999-2004). Other Buffyverse media, such as the graphic novel Spike: Into The Light (2014) are not pertinent to this series. Also there will be no referencing real world events that have direct relation to either show in this bi-weekly series. Though this series does reference things that have no direct relation to the show in order to examine things such as metaphors and literary analogues.

This week: Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the Scoobies fight off Glory (Clare Kramer) to save Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg). Also: the connection between Glory and Ben Wilkinson (Charlie Weber) comes out for the first time.

(Warning of spoilers from this point on!)

(Trigger warning for mentions of self-harm and ephebophilia)

Buffy acts as the leader of the Scoobies at the opening meeting, but allows them to guilt her into revealing the Key. The fact that the meeting seems to end with this revelation does not speak well of her leadership. They stop strategizing ways to fight Glory and instead look for ways to alert themselves to her presence. When it comes to handling Dawn learning the truth, she also could do better with how this occurs. Nevertheless, she is doing her best to protect Dawn while treating her like both a person and a sibling. As for her treatment of Spike: it is a case of “shooting the messenger” since he helps Dawn find the information. Fortunately for fans of the Buffy and Spike romance, she does open up to him while searching for Dawn.

Joyce Summers (Kristine Sutherland) comes across like a parent in need of caregiving from their child. Buffy must guide her on how they should try to handle Dawn’s true origins, and whether to reveal them to her.

Spike (James Marsters) sees an apparent de-powering since he cannot hold up against Glory for the same amount of time as Buffy (Season 5, Episode 5, “No Place Like Home”). Also he has trouble lifting Olaf’s god hammer. Thus, while he is still strong, he no longer seems to be as strong as Buffy, at least in this episode. When it comes to his treating Dawn like a kid sister, it truly starts here as he helps her discover the truth and holds back Glory. At the same time, he is dismissive regarding the truth about her origins in the moment. This may simply be because he does not care about her mystic background, though.

Dawn acts like a standard teen at the beginning of this episode. She also displays very good deductive reasoning when locating the book. She continues to exhibit this trait while Spike reads it. After learning she is the Key, she self-harms in a way that should result in death — or at least a distressing stay at the hospital. Speaking of the hospital, Dawn’s visit to the psych ward gives her more information despite it being unreliable because of the mental health issue. And though she knows all the information is not a first-hand account, she reacts to all of it with tremendous teenage angst. Thus, Dawn is, overall, an extremely literal metaphor for feeling like an outsider while going through puberty.

Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) serves as both a second-in- command and mentor by asking Buffy if she is “sure” about revealing Dawn to the Scoobies. Unfortunately, Giles fails to act like a surrogate father, or even a mentor, to Buffy by just readily accepting her dismissal for his offer to help Dawn.

Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) is judgmental about Buffy keeping the knowledge about Dawn a secret. He is correct with his minor point: how it does not keep anyone safe from Glory. But he is wrong to act judgmental when Buffy is the leader and trying to use a good strategy. There are odd moments of characterization, like when he tries to tickle Dawn and brags about her crush on him. Both are weird since he is an adult who is between nineteen and twenty-one while she is fourteen. So Xander is showing signs of ephebophilia.

Anya (Emma Caulfield Ford) points out that she has more knowledge about certain subjects than Giles. Yet, she apparently feels like she might be in the wrong for pointing this out, and so she does not provide more information that could help. She also gets some more regression of her social skills by openly coveting Buffy’s birthday gifts. Also, after she learns about Dawn’s origin, Anya reacts like a standard human might. This, along with the coveting, are at odds with how mature her personality should be after existing for centuries.

Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan), like Xander, acts judgmental towards Buffy when it comes to Buffy’s initial strategy of keeping a secret. There is also a deus ex machina  moment where she temporarily solves the problem of Glory, but gets hurt … which foreshadows a future conflict (Season 5, Episode 19, “Tough Love”).

Tara MaClay (Amber Benson) is, understandably, displaying a level of discomfort with the Key revelation. Her reaction probably stems from her relative newness to both the situation and the majority of supernatural happenings that occur in Sunnydale.

Orlando (Justin Gorence) is an overconfident religious zealot on a crusade against Glory and the Key. His babbling while out of his mind serves to further scare Dawn.

Jinx (Troy T. Blendell) is both a minion and messenger for Glory. Otherwise, there is no real purpose to him being in the episode.

Ben Wilkinson transforms into Glory on-screen for viewers to witness for the first time. Before this occurs, Ben refers to Glory as if she is his sibling. Thus, one could say that he is trying to mentally distance himself from her. Glory also makes the implication that Ben has the same unhealthy interest in Dawn that — unknown to Glory — Xander is displaying. Since Glory and Ben do not currently share thoughts in this episode, one can argue against the theory that the two are an analogue for transgender individuals, at least in this instance.

Young Dawn (Elyssa D. Vito) and Young Buffy (Candice Nicole) are, naturally, younger versions of the two characters. Since they are so young, there are only extremely minimal stock elements of who they will each become to each other.

The janitor (Joe Ochman), the burly guard (Michael Emanuel), unidentified mental patient #1 (Paul Bates), and unidentified mental patient #2 (Carl J. Johnson) help fill out the episode’s populace. Yet, they add little-to-nothing else to the narrative since they all have no defining traits that are not in relation to work or mental health

While this episode moves things along by a large degree, it arguably goes both too far and not far enough. Dawn forgetting she tells Ben she is the Key, and he understands this matter, should be something she remembers. However, the heroes knowing this information would alter the need for some of the remaining episodes. Therefore, on top of forgetting the transformation, she must magically lose these details as well. While, in the case of the latter, there is the reminder of Riley Finn (Marc Blucas) — as if he is still relevant to the show. Lastly, while there are great interactions and moments, this episode is seemingly rather sparse on long time characters developing.