"you refer to the prophesy? The one who will bring balance to the Force?"

wait...wrong mythology...

Blood and symbols, that's what Buffy always comes down to, in the end. And, due to feeling all my fun speculation about the identity of the Big Bad has been curtailed, I decided to look at the symbolism in the last scenes of Never Leave Me.

As you can see, I got a bit carried away sketching it. The symbols are:

• top left: an elaborate A which seems to gain an extra vertical line during the bleeding.


• top right: a curving H on its side.


• lower middle: an inverted triangle with small circles cut on each point (and ouch! that's going to scar).

Someone suggested the inverted triangle was the Hewbrew symbol for Yod (meaning 'hand' or 'manus') but it definitely isn't Hebrew. The nearest similar symbol I could find - identical except it was not inverted - was in the Celestial Writing outlined in an alchemical text. The symbol did indeed mean 'Jod' and thus 'hand' (or more probably, given the symbolism of the hand in Buffy, 'force').

The alchemical roots are worth following. The elaborate A in the top right resembles the symbol for abstrahere (meaning draw down, summon) whilst the H is used in alchemy to symbolise any number of things, including Pisces, Libra, Faet. (ah, Libra, you're thinking, having spotted that symbol on the Seal but I'll come back to that in a minute). Sticking with alchemy for the moment the faet fiada was a spell to make visible the invisible, or vice versa. Or to transform men into animals (and hopefully vice versa). Transformation is the key though. (It's also Anglo-Saxon for vessel but I don't think alchemists are noted for their use of Anglo-Saxon).

So carved on our lad's chest are symbols suggesting ' summon transforming force'. Oddly enough, that fits with what his blood is doing as it is drawn out of him, giving the First Evil visible form, presence.

So let's get back to that Libra symbol on the Seal. And the Taurus one. Balance and Earth, you're thinking, right? Except the Libra symbol is also the alchemist symbol for 'sublimate' (to refine, or solidify) whilst Taurus also means 'congelation'. And really, if you were buring the Ur-vampire under a great huge Seal, would you be busy re-inforcing it with a symbol for balance or symbols meaning to solidify, to hold in amber, as it were?

I have way too much time on my hands. And so did alchemists.

I rather suspect Libra means balance and I've just constructed meaning out of Spike's chest when all the symbols are there for is so we can have some more Spike/Buffy Hurt/Comfort scenes. Still, it passes the time until the next episode.

The Tao of Angel (& the Te of Spike)

Wesley: It doesn’t call you by name - but it tells of a vampire with a soul.
(Blind Date)

Wesley: Ah, the vampire with a soul, once he fulfills his destiny, will Shanshu. Become human.
[...]
Cordy: Wait. What’s that thing about him having to fulfill his destiny first?
Wesley: Well, it’s saying that it won’t happen tomorrow or the next day. He has to survive the coming darkness, the apocalyptic battles, a few plagues, and some - uh, several, - not that many - fiends that will be unleashed.
(To Shanshu in L.A.)

Nathan: Because Angel—is a major player.
Lilah: In business?
Nathan: In the apocalypse.
Lilah: Oh. That.
Nathan: The prophecies all agree that when the final battle is waged, he plays a key role.
Lindsey: Good for him.
Nathan: Which side he’s on is the gray area, and we’re gonna continue making it as gray as possible.
(Blood Money)

What recently struck me (well, late last night) is that we're all busy thinking "ooh, Spike screws up the prophesy" because we're thinking that if the Evil is busy stopping Angel from fulfilling the prophesy, they won't notice our bleached wonder. Except...the prophesies are distinctly fuzzy about whose side "the vampire with a soul" is on. So perhaps Angel and Spike end up batting for either side? No wonder the prophesies turn out a bit gray on the details.

Angel and Spike are like yin and yang; light and dark; the monster inside the man and the man inside the monster. The principle of yin & yang is that both parts contain a seed of the other. They are a reflection of one another, neither pure good nor pure evil but in a cycle of checks and balances. Angel's century of atonement for his past runs parallel to Spike's century of murderous mayhem. So, from a symbolic point of view, they cancel one another out. Spike is on "Evil's" side, in the sense that Spike's blood is the trigger for the Seal of Copyright-Avoidance. The prophesies are coming true...

Angel: A prophecy? Great. Because those always go well.
(Through the Looking Glass)

BTW, all that yin/yang talk of balances made me think of Willow, Gaia and Evil-Cassie's little speech ("fact is, the whole good-versus-evil, balancing the scales thing? I'm over it"). I tangent.

Another quick post about little stuff...

The Ubervampire (hey, I can read the screen credits) is, we're told, "a real vampire" and the whole grand dramatic entrance with the music crescendo business is telling us that though he might look like a bad accident between the Master and Nosferatu, this is a vampire more dread than any we have seen to date. And one who really won't look good with his shirt off (hmmm...note the vampire is male - more of that genderfication I mentioned, with the Big Bad raising a male evil out of the female earth).

Ignoring questions like "how come no one ever tried to raise this fella out of the Seal before?" and "I thought Xander said there were absolutely no pentagrams on site - is he some kind of more subtle sleeper-agent?", what about this Ubervampire? Well, I'm going to call him the Ur-vampire, for starters, to go with the Ur-Slayer (er, Ur? ). If he's the first "real vampire" we've seen then my money is on him being the literal father (or Father) figure for all the vampires in the world. Here's Giles with some exposition (from The Harvest, as usual):

The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon’s soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth, feeding. . .Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return.

So the Ur-vampire should be this first vampire, if not the demon who bit him, untainted by the millenia of dilution which has resulted in such human-seeming vampires as Angel and Spike (all of Darla's children seem tainted with humanity - the Judge wants to kill Spike and Dru because they "stink of humanity"). As a havoc-wrecking device, he'll be great since we can assume he won't conform to Buffy's expectations of how vampires think/act.

Well, I hope.

...tangenting slightly...just how many vampires can Sunnydale sustain?

"It's an ancient sacred text, not a magic 8 ball."
(Wes, To Shanshu in L.A.)

I'm going to write a long thing about symbolism in the Spike Cruxified scene but that is actually taking time. I'm researching an' everything. In the meantime, worried about what the future holds for our beloved series, I visited the public 8-ball.

I asked "will buffy season 7 get any better?"
the 8-ball replied "yes"
(see a screen grab)

"will Spike be the vampire to Shanshu?"
"better not tell you now"
(see a screen grab)

"is the First Evil really the Big Bad?"
"it is certain"
(see a screen grab)

"will Spike die?"
"outlook not so good"
(see a screen grab)
but then again, if he does Shanshu, then he dies and then lives as a human...

"You were always a slave, Justine. You just couldn't see the chains."

Wes says Justine was always a slave: well, of course she was - she's named after one of de Sade's most famous characters, the heroine of The Misfortune of Virtue. In that, Justine is the virtuous sister of the debauched Juliette. For her virtue, Justine is punished, abused, made into a slave.

'Our' Justine, believed herself to be pursuing a virtuous course, avenging her sister Julia, but in the process she falls in love with the pain, with being subservient. Her relationship with Holtz is most definitely sado-masochistic: he beats her, she stays; he puts a knife through her hand, she stays; he betrays her, she stays so loyal she will kill him. With her master gone, she - somehow - becomes slave to another (Wes - who mentions knowing whose door to kick down to get answers which implies she stayed put, waiting to be found). She talks rebellion, goes so far as to pick up a wrench, yet he can control her with a few words, a promise of degredation ("do you want me to take your bucket away?"). Why doesn't she escape Wes? I mean, yeah, he's a hard bastard these days but she's a vicious little thug herself - she slit his throat last year, after all. So it has to be that she has become conditioned to being a slave, to maltreatment. Having Wes as your dominator is better than having no-one.

Wes: You were always a slave, Justine. You just couldn't see the chains.
Justine: Thanks, Swami, I'll meditate on that.
Wes: You think she would be disappointed?
Justine: Who?
Wes: Your sister. (Justine turns away) That's where it all began, isn't it? Sister murdered by a vampire, consumed by a need of revenge...
Justine, spinning to face him: For justice!

At the end of The Misfortune of Virtue, Justine has been reduced to a prisoner, condemned to die. Her sister, Juliette, who had followed a life of vice and eventually married a wealthy man, visits the prison and initially doesn't recognise Justine. Justine's virtue has led her to this, just as Angel's Justine has been led to her prison by her wish for justice.

How could you use a poor maid so?

"Oh, as usual, dear."
I knew I'd sung the praises of season 7 too soon. Or I should have known it. I'd posted to a discussion list about how the series seemed to have regained the sense of dynamism and structure which made seasons 2 and 3 such a joy. The twists and turns that constantly outwitted my expectations. The biggest problem I had with seasons 5 and 6 was that the Big Bad was revealed early on, and then they spun their wheels until the finale. Glory is revealed to be the villain and then the details are shaded in but it still means that in the majority of episodes, she runs on the spot like Wile E Coyote without the blinka-blinka-blinka noises, whilst Buffy ran away or blew the odd raspberry. Likewise, Willow is clearly set up as the Big Bad, but then diffused and attention given to the Trio until bang! she’s back on again.

Contrast that with season 2 where episode 3 introduces the new Big Bads as Spike and Dru set up in town. Right up until What’s My Line, it seems we know who the villains are. Until Buffy drops an organ on them. Even so, Dru rises from the wreckage with her broken toyboy in her arms. Then we get the Surprise as the whole setup is inverted and we realise Angel is the real villain. So Big and so Bad that Spike – the usurped Big Bad - does a deal with the Slayer.

So season 7 seemed to be telling us ‘the Big Bad is going to be the First Evil’. ME aren’t stupid, they know the hardcore audience will have spotted the clues and rushed to our video/DVD collections to rewatch Amends. I, however, assumed that they had rediscovered the concept of bluffing us, putting in twists that overturn our – and Buffy’s - world. There’s been all this talk of ‘back to the beginning’, all these echoes of the first three seasons when there was always a twist to the tale (the love-interest is a vampire, the love-interest is the Big Bad, a Slayer has gone rogue etc). I didn’t expect my speculation to be right – it’s off the scale in terms of OTT – but I also didn’t expect the obvious answer to be, well, the answer. I feel used: led to expect something far greater, far more impressive, only to find that ME’s promises aren’t being kept.

I’m holding onto a hope that there’s going to be a big twist, sometime around episode 14 (i.e. the equivalent of Surprise/Innocence, Bad Girls/Consequences or even Goodbye Iowa). We are, obviously, only at the point of What’s My Line or Amends.

But if they are really are going to have the First Evil running on the spot making blinka-blinka-blinka noises until the finale then we have to admit that ME have well and truly lost the plot.