I hate that episode. I really really hate it.
At the time I first saw it I was very first anti-Spuffy, kind of still pro-Bangel and pro-Briley, so that played it's part.
I think I might also have been anti-Spike. I can't recall, I think I started to stop rolling my eyes every time he was on screen after Intervention.
And now, even after seeing the entire show and really appreciating where the characters ended up after season 6, even wanting Buffy and Spike to start dating in season 9(this is what makes me feel like enoug of a Spuffy to reply to this thread), it still hurts so much to even think about that episode. I connect deeply with Buffy's disgust at wanting Spike, which is shown so many times on the show (specifically when she cries in Tara's lap). The sweeter parts of the relationship is overshadowed by the aweful parts.
Buffy lust for a rapist and a murderer, and every time I think about that ep I think about my friends who have been raped and the bullying I went through as a child and all sorts of bad things in the world that Spike represents. I cry for that suicidal depressed girl who slept with a creature she hated just so she could feel something other than emptyness. I know Buffy might not have been suicidal anymore, and it's not like Spike used a weak girl, but he did take advantage.
I also feel sad for Spike, for that shadow of a being that has lived in a relationship with a insane disloyal creature for over a century and has no idea how a healthy relationship is suppose to work and is actually thinking that having sex with Buffy was a step forward in their relationship (which it seems like he did). Sleeping with Buffy was one step forward and two steps back for Spike.
What they had before that, was a budding friendship. After they started to have sex, Buffy's disgust with Spike, which seemed to have been fading, came back. It seems to have faded again later in the season, but I don't think the sex helped their relationship. But it had to lead to violence and sex, because they were both fighters, Buffy had issues and Spike was in love. It was their nature. And actually, since I recall hearing that women have these chemicals in their brain that makes them like people after sex, them having sex might have helped Spike's chances in a way. I do wonder if their relationship wouldn't have moved forward faster though, without sex. Of course, no sex, might not have lead to the almost rape scene, which in turn lead to Spike getting a soul, which actually gave them real chances at a relationship. Sex or no sex, souless Spike and Buffy would never have been able to lead a real relationship, so maybe if they had actually never has sex, Spike would never have gotten a soul, and their relationship would have gotten nowhere. Besides, Spike's evil, their relationship would turned ugly one way or another.
I do think that season 6 is a masterpiece, like all the other seasons. It's painful, it's raw, it's heartbreaking. It's real. It's so real it hurts just to think about.
Now, I don't expect all people to react this way to the episode or relationship at large. I don't feel people are insensitive for being happy that Spike and Buffy slept together and I hope that no one reads that between the lines. As I've mentioned, I have my issues which probably made the Spuffy relationship's flaws seem much greater for me than for the average viewer. And I know that Spike was there for Buffy after all, in his own way, and he really did try to be what he thought she wanted him to be and if he hadn't been there, making her feel lust, excitement, anger, disgust, all of those things, she might have been worse off for it. Might even have let herself be killed by a demon in a random fight, because she simply couldn't feel anything. Instead, she resists temptation, she stops hiding in Spike's arms and steps into the light and comes out of that "relationship" a better person than before. And Spike does too, in the end.
But when I think of Smashed, I see a girl who has no where else to turn to than a murderer, and a creature that is so close to human it hurts when it's shown just how inhuman and ignorant he can be. I see two people, with potential of greatness, attack each other like animals and giving into darkness.
I have mixed emotions about "Smashed." First off, the first time, in the middle of what turned out to be their last fight scene of the entire series,
How about Beneath You?
He was the one who she went to when the weight of being both "Mama Buffy" and the, as far as we ever saw, sole bread earner in a house occupied by 3 other perfectly healthy women, all of whom were perfectly aware of her financial difficulties, and any or all of whom were perfectly capable of finding some sort of wage earning occupation in order to share the household expenses.
I know this is the wrong thread, we could jump to the appropiate one if necassary, don't want to take over the thread, but;
Buffy couldn't possible have supported all of them on her salary(and possibly Hank's child support for Dawn). Willow & Tara, and later just Willow, must have helped. It would have been very OOC for them not to, so I find no reason to assume otherwise. Willow & Tara must have had some money, to be able to go to school and pay rent pre-season 6, maybe from their parents or grants, and whatever they paid for rent and food and bills pre-season 6, probably went to the house, food and bills.
---------- Post added at 02:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:22 AM ----------
The worst part about "Smashed," to me, is knowing that, whatever MIGHT have started with this episode, the next morning, in "Wrecked," Spike was going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with those fateful words, "I always knew that the only thing better than killing a Slayer would be f..." Talk about open mouth, insert foot!
I know! How could he be that dumb!? I think Buffy would have given him a speech about how gross he was or whatever eventually, but he really ruined his chances.
I know Spike doesn't usually take part of the human society and might not know the things one should avoid saying to women you've just slept with, but come on, letting that slip out?
I was disgusted a moment ago, but re-read your post, it made me laugh. Not a very funny scene, and that line usually makes me mad at Spike, but it is funny how Spike can be so ignorant.
