Lie to Me - Part 4

The truth is rarely pure and never simple – Oscar Wilde

Previously on Lie To Me, Buffy follows Ford to the club. Ford is using her as bait to bring vampires down upon them so they can be turned. Diego locks them in with no way out. They are sitting ducks for the mob about to descend.

Chantarelle and Diego don’t understand why Buffy is so worked up. They will ascend to a new level of awareness as vampires. This is a beautiful day! Can’t you see? They have no clue what’s in store. Buffy begs Ford to let them go. He may have options, but his friends will not pass go, will not collect life everlasting. Besides, becoming a vampire is not what it’s cracked up to be. A demon sets up shop in your old house. It walks and talks and remembers your life but it's not you.

His friends don’t deserve to die. Maybe not. But Ford is dying. He has a cluster of brain tumors so excruciating he vomits from the pain. In six months his mind will be liquefied. He won’t die that way. Buffy sympathizes, but mass murder is not allowed on her watch. He has a choice, a crappy one, but a choice. His friends don’t. They’re fiend fodder. Ford almost capitulates then whacks Buffy over the head with a crowbar. Sunset is upon them.

Spike and his crew burst in. Spike falls upon Chantarelle while his men spread out and feed. Buffy wrenches the crowbar from Ford’s grip and slams him into a pillar, knocking him unconscious. Drusilla floats in behind the rest of the merry band and observes the party from the balcony. Armed with her new knowledge, Buffy leaps up next to Dru. She points a stake at Dru’s heart and shouts at Spike.

Stricken, Spike releases Chantarelle and orders his men to fall back. Buffy demands they let everyone go or Dru fits in an ashtray. Oh, the poetry. All the believers race out the door unchallenged. With Dru as her shield, Buffy edges over until she’s near enough to thrust Dru at Spike, dart through the opening, and slam it shut behind her. Spike glares at the door. Where’s the doorknob?

Outside, Angel, Xander and Willow arrive to tend the wounded. Buffy explains the situation and recommends they wait till later to come back. Come back for what? She looks at the closed door. The body. Inside Ford wakes to find Spike and company locked in. No Buffy. No one to feed on. Except him. Ford insists he lived up to his end of the bargain. Where’s his reward?

Much later, at Ford’s gravesite, Buffy doesn’t know what to say, what to think. So much simpler if she could hate Ford. But he was just a kid afraid to die. The truth is a painful reminder how fragile the line between good and evil can be. At her side, Giles agrees. Buffy fears the more she knows, the more confused she is. How do you know who to love, who to hate…who to trust? It’s called growing up, Giles tell her.

Does it get easier? Ford - now a vampire - erupts from the ground at their feet. Buffy stakes him without so much as a glance. You mean life? Giles asks. What would she have him say? Buffy thinks a moment. Lie to me. As they stroll away, Giles weaves a fairytale where good guys are always good, bad guys are always bad, and no one ever dies. Buffy hesitates. With affection, she mutters, Liar.

Let’s take a look at Ford’s GMCD. His goal: become a vampire (external) and escape the tenuous nature of life (internal). Why? He’s dying from a debilitating disease (external) and he’s terrified to die that way (internal). What’s standing in his way? Buffy. Not just the slayer (external) but an old friend whom he remembers with fondness (internal). How does it end? Disastrously. Buffy always gets her man (external), but she can’t hate him - which would have made Ford’s betrayal easier on both of them (internal).

Two prominent writing elements - theme and foreshadowing – headline a simple premise: a childhood pal re-emerges and gives Buffy the chance to experience friendship unfettered by her superhero status.

The thematic question – Is honesty the best policy? - reverberates through every major character. First, Buffy catches Angel in a lie. Her conjecture he’s seeing Drusilla is refuted, but the truth proves worse: Dru is a vampire of his own making. A gently bred girl he menaced and dehumanized before siring. How do you love a man who’s done such a depraved thing? The reality of Angel’s past begins to seep into their present, suggesting a less than propitious future.

Next, Ford hides his knowledge of her identity. Not a lie precisely. But it demonstrates Ford’s ability to keep things close to the vest when it suits him. And it suits him just fine, thanks. He’s not there to sing “Auld Lang Syne.” He’s chasing a top spot on Buffy’s to-be-killed list. She comes to grips with it because she must, but a straightforward task becomes far harder when he admits the truth - he’s dying in the worst way possible and will do anything to escape the agony. Even become an unrepentant monster.

Finally, Buffy contends with her friends’ subversion. Up until now, Willow and Xander have been an unshakable foundation of faith and fealty. Suddenly they join forces with Angel and snoop on Ford. Does it matter that their intentions are good? It doesn’t diminish the disloyalty she feels. Can she trust them as she once did? Is it wise to trust anyone that much?

Foreshadowing comes in two flavors: episode level and the season long variety. Drusilla implies Angel knows her from the start. This leads to the backstory disclosure that Angel sired Drusilla. When Ford meets Buffy at The Bronze, he jokes, I know all your darkest secrets. He’s already aware Buffy’s the slayer. In the same scene, Angel admits to Buffy there’s a lot you don’t know about me. This observation pulls double-duty. It hints at his bond to Dru and presages how much more we’ve yet to learn, especially one crucial aspect of the curse which reinstated his soul. The whole story arc will turn on this revelation – far too late to avoid disaster.

Several season long denouements are portended in the opening conversation alone. Angel’s warning: If you don’t leave…it’ll go badly. For all of us. Dru’s prediction about Buffy: Poor thing. She has no idea what’s in store. Her promise that this is just the beginning. All hint at future plot developments. Once the tide changes, things go south for any warrior that picks up a stake in the name of justice. Eventually it’s also bad for the villains as Buffy finds a way to extinguish the fuse whizzing towards human annihilation. But the solution proves lethal to someone Buffy loves and her series-long goal of being a normal girl is dealt a devastating blow.

The pressures of adulthood begin an inexorable push into Buffy’s teenaged existence. People aren’t good or bad. They’re a confusing mishmash of both. Ford converts to the dark side b/c of an inescapable death sentence. Steady Willow and steadfast Xander commit a friendship faux pas under the heading of good intentions. Spike - a creature with zero scruples - sacrifices an easy meal and a chance at the slayer to save fickle, fey Drusilla. And Buffy’s spotless champion, Angel, exposes some glaring blemishes on his white charger resume.

What’s her lesson? Take your pick. Friends are imperfect. Villains have layers. Heroes hide their fatal flaws. Weakness burrows beneath the surface of decency, integrity within the most decadent heart. Life isn’t black and white anymore. It’s grayer and grayer. Buffy’s first step into this shadowy realm - in the words of Drusilla - is just the beginning.

Dialogue in italics from “Lie to Me” by Joss Whedon