Anya2012
Floppy, hoppy, bunnies!
If Buffy knew Spike was insane in the basement in the first episode of season 7 why didn't she help him? Why didn't she pull him out after a couple of episodes when she KNEW the basement was making him crazy?
Question about Spike being insane in the basement
- Thread starter Anya2012
- Start date
But did she really know that it was the basement was making him crazy from the start? Didn't she just think that he was bananas? No matter of the place?
Also I'd say she had some lingering issues with him after Seeing Red that might have prevented her from stepping up and reaching out a hand.
Also I'd say she had some lingering issues with him after Seeing Red that might have prevented her from stepping up and reaching out a hand.
Goldilocks
Hostile17 stole my ♥ !
white avenger
white avenger
I think that the surprise of seeing Spike again sort of threw her off balance from the very beginning, and kept her that way for the whole season. She should have hated him for what he tried to do to her, and would have been perfectly justified in dusting him on the spot. The fact that that she didn't, combined with what she told Dawn in "Him" pretty well sums up that up. "I don't love him, but...I feel for him." She goes on like that all season, which has little or nothing o do with this thread, other that to point out her, at best, ambiguous feelings toward Spike. But I think that it was that very ambiguity that contributed the most to why Buffy didn't drag Spike out of that basement the moment that she saw him there, or soon thereafter. She just plain didn't know what she felt for him. Anger? Hatred? Compassion? Fear? She didn't know what she felt, and she didn't know what had happened to him to make him the broken, babbling creature that he now was. In the meantime, the high school basement might have seemed like the ideal place for him. She could keep an eye on him during the day, and be sure that he didn't get into any real trouble. Most likely, she had no idea about what the First Evil was doing to him down there. She was almost certainly still trying to come to grips with that uncertainty when she found out what he had actually done, and why.
BuffyElevated
Scooby
This, exactly how I feel. Buffy was very conflicted in how she felt for Spike, and for a lot of good reasons. Try putting yourself in her shoes and think of how you'd feel after all theyd been through and how you'd feel if you came upon him acting that way. Certainly you'd feel torn about whether or not to leave him alone or help him, too.
kittenpoker
Raising penguins in Guam
I think this (as always with buffy and her feelings for spike) is complicated and multi layered...
When she sees spike for the first time in the basement her unguarded, initial response is happiness. She is happy to see him. She says, "are you real" and it's not, as she pretends it is later, that she's wishing he's a mirage. She's just drawn towards him... and she doesn't tell anyone about him....
again it's the darkness/light thing, only in the sense that he's her secret...she's most real and open when she's with him but she's not confident enough in him or their relationship to be honest with her friends (or really herself) about her feelings.
When they find out about spike, her friends (and especially xander) respond very negatively.... for all her - in the end a slayer must stand alone- talk, I believe buffy is very influenced by her friends. Once he becomes a part of her real world her attitude towards him changes. She closes off and becomes more wary. I really think it's about her getting ready to admit to herself and to her friends (who will not want to hear it) that she truly cares about him.
It takes awhile for her to do that and she does it in stages. The first being getting him out of the basement.
When she sees spike for the first time in the basement her unguarded, initial response is happiness. She is happy to see him. She says, "are you real" and it's not, as she pretends it is later, that she's wishing he's a mirage. She's just drawn towards him... and she doesn't tell anyone about him....
again it's the darkness/light thing, only in the sense that he's her secret...she's most real and open when she's with him but she's not confident enough in him or their relationship to be honest with her friends (or really herself) about her feelings.
When they find out about spike, her friends (and especially xander) respond very negatively.... for all her - in the end a slayer must stand alone- talk, I believe buffy is very influenced by her friends. Once he becomes a part of her real world her attitude towards him changes. She closes off and becomes more wary. I really think it's about her getting ready to admit to herself and to her friends (who will not want to hear it) that she truly cares about him.
It takes awhile for her to do that and she does it in stages. The first being getting him out of the basement.
white avenger
white avenger
On the subject of helping Spike, do you think that she made any effort to bring him food? And if not, why not? She admitted quite early that she "felt" for him. Would those feelings not include seeing that he didn't starve? Obviously, he wasn't in any shape to get blood for himself, and we see him stalking a rat at one point. Was that because he was starving, or just some instinctive predatory urge?
kittenpoker
Raising penguins in Guam
That's a good question! I'd like to think she brought him blood at Lear some of the times she went to see him...but we didn't see it so I don't know. Perhaps we're meant to believe he lived on rat blood - like angel did when he was living in the alley before meeting whistler - when he was in the basement.
Skytteflickan88
Proud Spikette
I doubt she brought him blood. She might not have been very scared or angry at him around him (from what we saw in the basement) but he did try to rape her. I kind of doubt she'd bother to give him blood. Or even think about it. I think she tried to put his existence out of her mind until Beneath You, when she couldn't ignore him any longer.