BtVS S8.31 Turbulence

[hazelk]

In flight Buffy lets down her hair. Maybe that’s the wrong reference. Maybe this is more like when Clark Kent takes off his glasses (and his shirt) to be Superman. But in Buffy’s case the constraints return as soon as she goes public. Secrets are liberating? Xander and Dawn come out and Dawn had already put up her hair. In anticipation of leaving behind childish things? A grown woman now?

Buffy asks if she started the war. Both Riley and Xander respond by saying they’re proud of her. Which is odd phrasing, it implies they created her. Given that they're addressing Buffy the leader, maybe they did. Leaders are public constructs, big giant non-astral heads we all have a say in creating.

Still "I'm proud of you" is something Giles might have said when he was still her Watcher. Now he’s her trust, at least according to Twilight. Who is speechifying when no-one is listening and in normal human font but still talks like a comic book villain. Oh wait, that’s what he is. He has something to show Buffy, a manifest truth soon to be revealed. Like Ethan Rayne in her dreamspace back in #2, although it turned out to be mostly porn.

Buffy and Xander have the talk. It’s a great talk even if Xander joins the the list of (potential) boyfriends who profess to know better than she does how she feels. “No you don’t, but thanks for saying it.” “You say it but I don’t feel it.” “Before you know it, you'll want it all, a normal life.”

Then it’s up, up and away and using the newly confessed superpowers to bury the goddesses her anger raised. I think there’s a metaphor in there somewhere.

Where did all the snow go?