"Empty Spaces"

[white avenger]

Every time that I see this episode, when Buffy leaves home to go back to the school, I always think the same thing: "Why in the heck did she go alone, knowing how dangerous Caleb was?
granted, Spike couldn't go out in the daylight, but she had Faith sitting right there. The two of them together would have stood a much better chance of at least getting away from him than Buffy had alone (For that matter, why didn;t caleb kill buffy when he had the chance? It would have weakened the defenders by at least a third, and cost them their leader.)

 

[sosa lola]

It seems that Buffy's flaw is that she always does things alone, plan things alone, see herself alone. She lost the team spirit thing she used to have with her friends in the early seasons, which is why she gets her ass kicked more often. After Empty Places, she'll learn that being/doing things alone isn't the right answer.

 

[LadyLavinia]

It seems that Buffy's flaw is that she always does things alone, plan things alone, see herself alone. She lost the team spirit thing she used to have with her friends in the early seasons, which is why she gets her ass kicked more often. After Empty Places, she'll learn that being/doing things alone isn't the right answer.

Buffy cannot always depend upon her friends. Neither can anyone else. There is a time for "team spirit" and there is a time to do things alone.

A good example was her battle against Adam in late Season 4. The Scoobies used a spell in which each of them embodied the different traits of the First Slayer, with Buffy being the Hands. If the First Slayer was able to utilize all of her traits - Hands, Mind, Spirit and Heart - then Buffy or any other Slayer should have been able to do the same. The problem is that Buffy and the other Slayers had been taught to utilize the Hand only, thanks to their Watchers.

Being taught to be nothing more than a killing machine boomeranged on Buffy in S7, when she found herself leading the Potentials. Why? Because Giles never taught her how to be a leader or utilize all aspects of the Slayer. And because of this, Buffy never learned to maintain a balance of using help or doing things alone.

 

[sk]

Regarding Buffy going back to school alone. It seems to me that she really wasn't worried that Caleb would show up when she was just doing a simple errand.
And no one else seemed to be worried either...
Guess you can't be thinking the worse all the time. Obviously a misstake this time...

Also think that Caleb's goal that time was to give her fake clues that the important thing was the highschool and the seal.
Just to keep her and the gang away from the vineyard.
I guess killing her would had been smarter though... especially since she didn't fall for it at all.

/SK

 

[T.I.P]

I thought Caleb not killing her was just arrogance, like he was just playing cat and mouse with her coz he in no way could envision her ever beating him. The first made him think he was invincible.

 

[Atren]

I think that the first wanted potentials dead before Buffy at that time.

 

[disturbedvanity]

From what I have gathered over the years, Buff is majorly fierce in an independent way. She doesn't want to depend on anyone but herself, or ask for help. I love Faith....but this was definitely a solo Buffster thing

 

[Fusions2]

I always thought the reason why Buffy went to the school by herself knowing Caleb was around because she didn't want to see anyone else get hurt after what happened to Xander. When she gave Faith and the girls the info on him and Dawn started asking about Xander you could see how uncomfortable Buffy was talking about him and then Kennedy made a silly and unthoughtful remark. Buffy totally shut herself off and tried to ignore her guilt and the only one who could see what she was really feeling was Faith. It made her just want to get out and do things on her own and when she was confronted by Caleb I think it pushed her with him being arrogant to fight. All of the gang were also still in retreat mode from their encounter from Caleb.

As far as they knew he was alot stronger than they realised and needed time to know more about him before making their next move. Caleb wanted to kill Buffy dead but I don't think he was ready, I always got the feeling he got a kick of taunting Buffy about being "a whore" and wanting see how far she would go before he would do the deed himself. Then again I always got the impression The First didn't want Buffy dead... yet it always said to just kill the Potentials and Watchers and I think that was Caleb's order as well.

 

[caitaintdead]

I always saw this as Buffy wanting to get away from everyone and have some time to think about what had just happened to Xander, and grieve alone. Without all the potentials. Without the gang giving her those looks all the time. Buffy has shown that when things go wrong, she often likes to just be alone. (Like at the end of Season 2).

With everything that had happened Buffy had to think about, Faith would have been the last person Buffy would have wanted tagging along.

I don't think she was even thinking about Caleb when she went to the school. She was thinking about Xander and his lost eye. She was thinking about what else could happen to her friends. What she was up against. Buffy needed and craved time alone and unfortunately it ended in this situation.