"Lies My Parents Told Me"

Something that has always bothered me about this episode, though. Wood sets up this trap for Spike. Puts him in a room lined with crosses, then releases Spike's "monster." Why in the name of everything holy would Robin Wood ever think that, even with a set of glorified brass knuckles, ever think that he could take Spike in a stand up fight? Dramatic effect for the episode, certainly, but they could have at least had him start out with a sword, an axe, or even a real stake, instead of improvising one later.

I can understand the feeling that Wood must have had, no doubt, of wanting to beat down and defeat Spike, but, really, the man was raised and trained by a Watcher, the same Watcher who hadn't been able to train Nikki, a super powered Slayer, well enough to defeat Spike. We're supposed to believe that someone portrayed the way that he was would do what he did, actually believing that he had a snowball's chance in hell of success. That's stretching the imagination past the breaking point.
 
Wood sets up this trap for Spike. Puts him in a room lined with crosses, then releases Spike's "monster.".

Maybe he did that because he didn't want to fight Spike-with-a-soul. He wanted to fight the dangerous monster who killed his mom.
 
This episode really makes me feel for Spike though... just everything he went through with his mother... it's really sad.
 
Same here, Robin says "I don't want to kill you Spike, I want the monster who took my mother from me *plays music* .... there he is".

I love this episode, one of the best of Season 7. I agree with Giles, but disagree with Robin. It was the whole Holtz thing again which I disagreed with back then. In fact it may be worse since Angel was just a PI but Spike was in the middle of a frigging Apocalypse. But I could see where Giles was coming from, I thought he was right with the whole chip thing in the first place.
 
Maybe he did that because he didn't want to fight Spike-with-a-soul. He wanted to fight the dangerous monster who killed his mom.

Yes, that was exactly why, but that isn't what white avenger was asking...He was asking why Wood didn't come with better weapons. And I think it's probably because Spike didn't have any weapons when he killed Nikki. Wood wanted to avenge her completely, and by beating Spike down with his bare hands, he was doing that.

I also think people are too hard on Giles. But I bet if they were living in a house with a rogue serial killer on their hands, they'd probably change their mind about what he tried to do.
 
Giles was scared because the First had said that it has plans for Spike in the future. Giles was actually the only one who thought and worked seriously on getting rid of Spike's trigger, and all he asked Buffy was keeping him chained until they'd find a cure, so when the First decided to use him, they'll be aware of that. Buffy, however, refused, obviously clouded by her feelings for Spike, and Giles must have feared that when the First controlled Spike again, they'll lose so many lives because of Buffy's recklessness. So, he's reluctantly agreed to kill him.

I don't think he wanted Spike dead because of Spuffy/Spike himself. He was just scared about the trigger.

I think we're used to have a character that dislikes Spike. It used to be Xander, but he changed in S7 and came to accept Spike as one of them. So, when Giles showed objection about having Spike walking freely with that trigger, everybody assumed it relates to him not liking Spuffy... when a year ago he'd laughed at the news of Buffy sleeping with Spike. So, it doesn't make sense.

I just don't see Giles being so petty like that. He'd always been the guy who looked at the big picture... not at the children's weird romances.

+1. I agree with everything you said; an extremely well thought out post.

I loved this episode. In my opinion, it was the highlight of season seven. An unintentional aspect of it, though, was that it reminded me how blind Buffy could be when it came to the men in her life. As someone who really likes both Spike and Angel, there can be no question that the two of them were very real threats to humanity at certain points in the series; and both times, when Spike is under the control of the First and Angel lost his soul, Buffy intentionally allowed them free reign to cause havoc.

Obviously I'm glad both Spike and Angel survived more or less in tact, because in both cases they were relegated to mere puppets of a greater influence (the First for Spike and the demon for Angel). But the truth is that Giles was completely justified in his actions: he didn't want to kill Spike simply because it was Spike; he recognizes Spike's prowess on the battle field and, if properly controlled, understands that he would be an enormous asset.

The problem was that he was becoming a very grave threat, a potential danger to Buffy's fledgling army, not to mention the people they swore to protect. Buffy's reaction was not unlike her initial reaction with Angelus: basically letting him do whatever the hell he wants because she's too emotionally unstable to do anything about it.

At the very least, she could have kept Spike chained to a wall or unconscious until they figured it out (note that Giles made a deliberate attempt to locate the trigger, he didn't just resort to killing).

So to me, Giles was completely justified with his actions. If Buffy wants to be the leader and not have to defer to Giles, then she should learn to make responsible decisions: like preventing killers, however much she cares for them, from being in a position to kill again.

Of all four major players in this episode: Giles, Wood, Spike, and Buffy, I only lack sympathy and understanding for one: Buffy herself.
 
I don't think he wanted Spike dead because of Spuffy/Spike himself. He was just scared about the trigger.

That's exactly how I took it. I find it VERY hard to believe Giles was jealous of Buffy and Spike being together (even though I have made posts before speculating on the what ifs of Biles), so I think it was more he was worried that The First would use the trigger to make Spike turn on them. And let's face it, if that had ever happened, the events would have been catastrophic.
 
I think from Giles perspective, he thought he was doing the right thing, and Wood was very convincing when he talked Giles into doing it. So i cant totally blame him at all for his actions, and im sure he tried to talk to Buffy about it, to no avail. Buffy was a bit stupid for not keeping Spike chained up when she knew about the trigger.

---------- Post added at 12:07 AM ---------- Previous post was Yesterday at 11:57 PM ----------

@WA: Its not stretching the imagination that Wood thought he could take Spike.
Wood simply underestimated Spike, thought he could win.
Up till then, Wood hadn't saw Spike proper fighting yet. And as we saw, Wood was more than capable of kicking vamp ass(a few vamps at that) in hand to hand combat. I'm sure if Wood knew just how good Spike was at fighting, he would have come more prepared.
 
Buffy was totally blinded when it came to Spike. Her emotions completely biased a lot of her decisions regarding Spike. Looks like it all worked out ok, but still... When I first watched S7 I was a little shocked at how easily she could overlook certain things. 🙁
 
I like this episode but watching it really made me just completely hate Robin Wood, I mean i was never much of a fan of him to begin with but after i saw this episode i really hated him. Spike was always one of the best and i do like any episode that shows us spikes past so this was a brilliant episode for me 🙂
 
Buffy was totally blinded when it came to Spike. Her emotions completely biased a lot of her decisions regarding Spike. Looks like it all worked out ok, but still... When I first watched S7 I was a little shocked at how easily she could overlook certain things. 🙁
I'm totally with you there. Everything may have worked out okay with Spike and all, but I was also shocked (and maybe a little dissapointed) that Buffy put so much faith in him so quickly in season 7.

I realise that he came back with a soul, and after Buffy's experience with Angel I can understand how her character would want to help him and put aside some of what he did in the past (obviously that was the case in season 3 with Angel/Angelus). But Buffy got to know Angel with a soul before she ever had to face Angelus, she knew the kind of person he was when he returned from hell. With his soul, Angel would never intentionally harm her and she knew that. She knew what she was getting herself into.

With Spike however, she had only ever known him when he was without a soul. She had no idea how different his ensouled self was from the vampire she knew-- or how dangerous he could be. There are plenty of humans wandering around with souls that rape, murder and harm others and few of them would have the memories of violence that Spike did. Despite how guilty he seemed to feel, she had no idea what kind of a person this "new" Spike was (for all she knew, he would turn on them and revert back to the killer he used to be). And I think especially given what happened in Seeing Red I would have hoped that she be more careful when she was dealing with him.

Giles was right at the beginning of the episode that Spike was a danger to them. And Spike wasn't even willing at that point to explore the trigger enough to disarm it and keep everyone out of harm's way, which is definitely a cause for concern. Buffy put all of her loved ones at risk because of this blind trust that she had in Spike, and a trust that she seemed to develop all too quickly.

Again, it worked out all and well in the end, but I can understand why Giles felt the need to step in and I think that he was justified in doing so. That's my two cents, anyway!
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
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Kean
Kean
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I don't know... even though I understand Giles in many, well most ways I guess, it's still some part of me that always has been a bit dissapointed that he didn't trust Buffy enough to accept her decision.

Guess I just prefer to watch them work together rather than having these disagreements...
The end of this episode always makes me sad.

/SK
 
I know what you mean; honestly, after he tried to rape her I found it really odd that she ever let him back into her life. Granted he was soulless then, and by season 7 he had a soul but still, that has to be hard to look past. I figure there's a lot of good explanations for why she did overlook Spike's actions (past seasons and season 7)--and in the end it did pay off--but I'm not coming up with many on my own.

That's not necessarily to say that I hated Spike or anything, just that from Buffy's perspective, I don't quite understand why she was so willing to look the other way.
 
U
ubi4soft
Same reason she looked the other way after Angelus killed Jenny! ..and Willow's fish...because he was different, he had a soul
Angelic Slayer
Angelic Slayer
Well said, I feel the same way about Spike: don't dislike his character but don't understand Buffy's actions towards him
E
Eleftheria
Buffy met Angel with a soul and loved him. Buffy only knew Spike without a soul. She knew what he was capable of. How can she trust ensouled Spike so easily even if he means no harm to anyone?
The only rationalization I can give is that sometimes you can't control how you feel about someone. Maybe Buffy really did love Spike and that was the reason she couldn't turn her back on him, even if meant putting others at risk.
 
This is one of the episodes that I call "not black or white but kind of grey".

Although it's extremely sad to watch a Slayer die and her little boy surviving knowing that the vampire who killed him is still out there I am not gonna blame Spike-with-a-soul. Like I can't blame Angel for the things Angelus has done...Angelus and Spike-without-a-soul are demons...no conscience, just killing.
It kind of reminds me of Angel-Holtz case.You know for example that Holtz and Robin Wood have every right to be angry but since Angel and Spike are now good and they have souls they are not to blame.

BUT STILL: Although I was supportive of Spike, I never understood why he chose to hurt Robin by saying that his mother,Nikki, didn't love him. That is not true. A slayer is a calling, a destiny, you can't quit, you can't stop. Like BUffy said in Helpless, she knows too much.
So, according to Spike, Nikki would prove that she loves her son if she quit and let people die at the hands of vampires??? I didn't like that statement at all.

Giles is not excused for lying to Buffy but he did what he thought it was right. Like Wes did with Angel's son.He thought he was protecting Connor but he was terribly deceived.(Wes needed a good ass-kicking after that IMO,anyway)

And now I come to Buffy...after season 5 I don't really understand Buffy anymore. She is admirable that she forgave Spike for the AR, because that was the demon not the ensouled Spike. But how can she excuse him for everything he did? She calls Andrew a murderer for killing Johnathan and she doesn't do the same about Spike when he killed those girls. They were both deceived by the First.

What does "I'll let him hill you" mean??? She seems to be way too harsh now. I understand that she has to be strong cause she faces a primal evil and an army of Turok-Han vampires, but she NEVER wanted to sacrifice anyone before. In "The Gift" she said that if someone hurt Dawn, she would kill that someone. Now she is willing to sacrifice a friend or family.

Angel also had a soul and it took some time for her to trust him completely. She was in love with a vampire and despite the fact he had a soul,he was still a vampire. Even if she has feelings about Spike and cares about him(I don't buy the whle feelings part however) why Spike is never to blame?
 
BUT STILL: Although I was supportive of Spike, I never understood why he chose to hurt Robin by saying that his mother,Nikki, didn't love him. That is not true. A slayer is a calling, a destiny, you can't quit, you can't stop. Like BUffy said in Helpless, she knows too much.
So, according to Spike, Nikki would prove that she loves her son if she quit and let people die at the hands of vampires??? I didn't like that statement at all.

I think that Spike was trying to say that she loved her calling more than her son, but I agree, it seemed like Spike was stretching the truth. 🙂
And now I come to Buffy...after season 5 I don't really understand Buffy anymore. She is admirable that she forgave Spike for the AR, because that was the demon not the ensouled Spike. But how can she excuse him for everything he did? She calls Andrew a murderer for killing Johnathan and she doesn't do the same about Spike when he killed those girls. They were both deceived by the First.

One, Andrew had a soul. 🙂 Two, as Anya said, Spike had a free pass. He could whatever because he was Buffy's guy and she'd forgive him. Also, he wasn't deceived by the first, he was controlled. He didn't have a say in it, whereas Andrew knew what he was doing and knew that it wasn't really Warren.

What does "I'll let him hill you" mean??? She seems to be way too harsh now. I understand that she has to be strong cause she faces a primal evil and an army of Turok-Han vampires, but she NEVER wanted to sacrifice anyone before. In "The Gift" she said that if someone hurt Dawn, she would kill that someone. Now she is willing to sacrifice a friend or family.

She said that "if you try anything again, he'll kill you". And then she said that she'd LET Spike kill him. 😀 After all, Buffy's not gonna let ANYONE hurt her man. 😉

Buffy is no longer selfish. She's grown up, and she now understands that sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the greater good. It's like that "would you rather" question: Would you rather save one family member or five strangers? Obviously, it's better to save the five strangers instead of only thinking of yourself. 🙂

Also, it's interesting. I've always hated and misunderstood Buffy season 1-4, but I love her seasons 5-7. 😀

Angel also had a soul and it took some time for her to trust him completely. She was in love with a vampire and despite the fact he had a soul,he was still a vampire. Even if she has feelings about Spike and cares about him(I don't buy the whole feelings part however) why Spike is never to blame?

I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, but I'll take a gander. 😀 Well, when Angel had a soul she didn't know him and didn't know anything about him. She was taught that vamp= bad, that they're was no gray area. She was just a little girl, really. But then she met Spike, and he was always there. She got to know him, and eventually they became good friends. She understood him and vice- versa. She understood that although he did some not so good things before, she did too, and they were BOTH sorry. It was time for a clean slate between them. 😀

And she OBVIOUSLY has feelings for Spike. First off, she said so in Seeing Red. 😀 Buffy's word is final. Second, she's said in S7 that the only person she can trust who's watching her back is Spike. They're quite plainly best friends and were there for each other well no one else was. She defended him and helped him even after he'd been killing again, and took ridiculous risks to help save him. She trusted him indefinitely, and told him she loved him. So I think it's pretty safe to say she had MORE than just feelings for him. 🙂
 
That's not necessarily to say that I hated Spike or anything, just that from Buffy's perspective, I don't quite understand why she was so willing to look the other way.

Things don't always have a simple answer. It was obvious she had feelings for him. Her feelings were contradictory. She was disgusted with him, yet at the same time, she felt the desire to keep him around. She was willing to forgive Spike for what he did because she knew how absolutely awful he felt about it. She knew he was trying to change, and she wanted to support him in that.

And she OBVIOUSLY has feelings for Spike. First off, she said so in Seeing Red. Buffy's word is final. Second, she's said in S7 that the only person she can trust who's watching her back is Spike. They're quite plainly best friends and were there for each other well no one else was. She defended him and helped him even after he'd been killing again, and took ridiculous risks to help save him. She trusted him indefinitely, and told him she loved him. So I think it's pretty safe to say she had MORE than just feelings for him.
Agreed. There isn't always a "logical" reason for why someone has feelings for someone. Buffy "felt" for Spike, as she told Angel. She believed in him. In his capacity to change. She believed in his humanity.

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BUT STILL: Although I was supportive of Spike, I never understood why he chose to hurt Robin by saying that his mother,Nikki, didn't love him. That is not true. A slayer is a calling, a destiny, you can't quit, you can't stop. Like BUffy said in Helpless, she knows too much.
So, according to Spike, Nikki would prove that she loves her son if she quit and let people die at the hands of vampires??? I didn't like that statement at all.
Yeah, I always had a problem with the whole interaction between Wood and Spike, too. Spike was wrong. There was no way he could have known if Nikki had loved her son. Spike was egging Wood on, psychologically messing with his head, in order to get him angry. On the other hand, Spike owed Wood nothing in my opinion. He was right when he said that's how the game was played. I agree with Buffy that Wood was seeking revenge on a person that didn't exist anymore. Spike had a soul and was no longer evil. He was being controlled by The First, just like Angel had been in S3, and it wasn't his fault. Spike asked Buffy to kill him for what he'd done, and she refused.

Anyway, I don't think Slayers should have kids. Perhaps this is the "moral" of this whole story. It just doesn't work.

Giles is not excused for lying to Buffy but he did what he thought it was right. Like Wes did with Angel's son.He thought he was protecting Connor but he was terribly deceived.(Wes needed a good ass-kicking after that IMO,anyway)
I'm going to have to disagree here. Maybe this is what I call my Wes-Bias coming out, but I don't think he deserved Angel attempting to strangle him in his hospital bed for what he did. He stole Conner because he was trying to protect Angel from doing something he'd regret. And he more then made up for it when he brought Angel back from the ocean floor and kept him alive by feeding him his own blood, if you ask me.

And I don't think you can compare what Giles did in LMPTM to what Wes did with Baby Conner. With Giles, he not only lied to Buffy but he tricked her into his fake "patrolling" scheme in order to give Wood time to kill Spike without her interfering. He knew how much Spike meant to Buffy, and he blatantly betrayed her trust. Giles intentions were not for Buffy's benefit, as Wes' were for Angel's. Wes took Conner because he honestly thought that Angel was going to kill him. And Wes knew that Angel wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did that.

And now I come to Buffy...after season 5 I don't really understand Buffy anymore. She is admirable that she forgave Spike for the AR, because that was the demon not the ensouled Spike. But how can she excuse him for everything he did? She calls Andrew a murderer for killing Johnathan and she doesn't do the same about Spike when he killed those girls. They were both deceived by the First.
Remember what Anya said? About Spike's Get of of jail free card? Spike get's a pass. It doesn't make sense, but it just is. Spike's actions get excused because Buffy had feelings for him. Love is not logical, my friend.

What does "I'll let him hill you" mean??? She seems to be way too harsh now. I understand that she has to be strong cause she faces a primal evil and an army of Turok-Han vampires, but she NEVER wanted to sacrifice anyone before. In "The Gift" she said that if someone hurt Dawn, she would kill that someone. Now she is willing to sacrifice a friend or family.
What she means is that if Wood tries to kill Spike again, she won't interfere and she'll allow Spike to kill him. It's out of her hands, in other words, it's their fight not hers. She wasn't being too harsh. Wood, a person she had trusted, had deceived her and failed to tell her about his past with Spike and what he had done to his mother. Yes, her unwillingness to allow Dawn to die in 'The Gift' is a similar situation as to this. Buffy NEEDED Spike, just like she needed Dawn.

Angel also had a soul and it took some time for her to trust him completely. She was in love with a vampire and despite the fact he had a soul,he was still a vampire. Even if she has feelings about Spike and cares about him(I don't buy the whle feelings part however) why Spike is never to blame?

Again, Spike is "never to blame" because Buffy loved him. Plain and simple. We make allowances for those we love.
 
I
InsaneMystic
absolutely agreed with the Wes & baby Connor thing
This is one of my favorite Buffy episodes. I love to compare how Angel responded to his family as a new vampire, compared to how Spike did. I think it's a very clear illustration of Spike's lingering humanity. It makes you wonder how it is that some seem more taken over by the demon than others.

I thought Spike was harsh with Wood, but the dude had just tried to kill him so I don't much hold it against him. I agree that slayers shouldn't have children. Bad plan.
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
Aww but wouldn't you want to see a little mini-Buffy? :D
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