The Gift: Sacrifice or Suicide?

[Marisa]

First of all, I just want to say to get it out of the way that I love The Gift. It's a spectacular episode, visually stunning, incredibly touching, with some really surprising moments. It's one of my favorite season finales.

However, I've never been one to feel that BTS should've ended with The Gift. I enjoy seasons 6 & 7 and feel that Chosen is a better series finale. But in this current re-watch, I've found another reason why I'm glad things didn't end with The Gift.

We all know that in FFL, Spike tells Buffy:

And in FFL, Buffy never denies it. Although she does spend time in season 5 fighting against it. She realizes that she was never there for Riley, she's afraid that she's losing her ability to love. In spite of the First Slayer refuting that, the biggest thing taken away from her quest is that "Death is [her] gift".

The thing that makes Buffy different from the other Slayers is, as Spike says, her ties to her friends and her family, her refusal to separate herself from her personal life and her humanity. I thought that we really saw the progression of that in this season, especially with her realization of her part in the dissolution of Briley, and her relationship with her mother & sister. I thought that maybe Spike was wrong, that Buffy was the first and only Slayer that didn't have a death wish. Buffy has proved others wrong before in their conventional thinking. She breaks the Slayer mold so to speak.

However, now I think that I was proven wrong. I now see that Buffy did indeed have a death wish. As evidence:


I know that the 1st quote is in reference to Dawn dying, but we all know that if Dawn dies, if Glory is successful, then they all die. So I think it's that that Buffy is talking about, the relief of "it" being all over, "it" being life. Buffy didn't have to die in The Gift, Dawn was willing & able to stop the destruction with her own life. Buffy didn't let her. I believe that Buffy wanted to die. She told Dawn to tell Giles that she was at peace. Yes, she did it because she had to, she did it to save the world, but she also did it because she wanted it. I think the events of Season 5 wore her down so much, she didn't see or pursue another option. Contrast this to season 1 Buffy in Prophecy Girl: "I'm only 16, I don't want to die". And people think that season 6 is depressing!

That's why I'm glad it didn't end in The Gift. I think that Buffy did indeed find a reason and desire to live in subsequent seasons (although yeah, it took all of season 6 LOL!).

So what do you think about Buffy's death in The Gift: a selfless sacrifice to save the world? A selfish act of despair? An unavoidable solution? Or a combination of the above?

I can definitely see this this point. Deep down Buffy did have a death wish. She probably thought like she said I can't live in a world with these choices. It weighed her down. Her mom died, her sister was about to. She was kind of losing it all in just a short amount of time. You see just how fragile Buffy was in the weight of the world. She broke down, she had been upset in earlier seasons but we never saw her breakdown to this extent.
I think it was a beautiful episode she saved her sister the world, but when you look at it the way you just did there are some points that lead to maybe she was just ready to give up. I am going with a combination of above overall. Like you said she wasn't the way she was in prophecy girl she had seen so much since then and had so much pain.
I understand season 6 and see why Buffy was so depressed. I am thankful for the season and season 7. I am so glad they did those seasons. You see that Buffy has got it back that will to fight, good to see that again. I also prefer chosen as a series finale. The gift was so sad, where as chosen was sad but it seemed right for the most part.

 

[Ethereal Warrior]

I think it was always about putting others ahead of herself. That's why Buffy sacrificed herself for Dawn's sake. She couldn't bear the thought of losing Dawn, all those memories she had with her even if none of that was real. I don't doubt that there are days when Buffy knows that the fight is just too much to bear, and she probably wishes on those days that it would all end. Having a normal life is probably what she'd always want.

I don't think that meant that she wanted to die in the suicide since in The Gift, though. She put others ahead of herself. Her mission would have been complete if she did, and her death would have meant something and would have been worthwhile. She wasn't willing to keep the burden of letting Dawn die for her own sake--for Buffy's duty as the Slayer. She knew what she had to do, and saving other lives were sometimes more important than her own. I think that's just how she was. Having her wanting to kill herself would seem much less heroic.

 

[fly on the wall]

Can it be both?

I think it's an uncomfortable thought, to think that Buffy's death was in any way selfish. Because it's a beautiful scene and a beautiful act when viewed as a sacrifice, and Buffy is such a selfless character that entertaining the thought that maybe she just wanted it to be over is..well, it could take away from that moment when she jumps, and it could take away from who we know Buffy to be. Buffy proved that she would risk her death even if she didn't want it. She went to face the Master even though it was prophesied that he would kill her, and she certainly didn't want to die then. She would have sacrificed herself regardless, if that was the only way to save the world.

I also agree with white avenger, I've always been of the belief that Buffy's death at the end of S5 was destiny. I think the monks, when creating Dawn, knew that Glory would find the key and knew there was nothing they could do to stop it. And so they had to be sure that when she did, Buffy could (and would) end her life to save the world's. Which is why they made the key into human form, into Buffy's sister, using the same blood. Her death was unavoidable...but it's not clear if Buffy knew that, and really, it's her mindset which decides whether it was suicide or sacrifice.

Her mindset was: Save the world. Save Dawn. Keep them all from dying terrible deaths. And if part of her was happy that it was over (which I definitely think she was)..well, I don't think it discredits her sacrifice. It doesn't make her death about her, it's just an added bonus.

 

[FetalPig]

i think Buffy resolved that riddle the First Slayer/Guide set her: she understood what "death is your gift" meant and then she knew what to do. At the beginning all Buffy can think is that she has to protect Dawn and kill if she has to. She's out of balance and willing to trade one person's (or many people's) death(s) to protect one.
But the other thing the First Slayer/Guide said was:

FIRST SLAYER: You are full of love. You love with all of your soul. It's brighter than the fire ... blinding. That's why you pull away from it.
BUFFY: (surprised) I'm full of love? I'm not losing it?
FIRST SLAYER: Only if you reject it. Love is pain, and the Slayer forges strength from pain. Love ... give ... forgive. Risk the pain. It is your nature. Love will bring you to your gift.

I've stated elsewhere that I think the whole Death-wish thing was Spike's interpretation from his own perspective on life. He fought for the thrill of it. That was never Buffy's way. It messed with her thinking though, when he said that. The words were used to describe a moment of doubt he recognised in the Slayer's he had fought. okay I like this theory so I'll say it again 😛 The doubt was not about wishing for death, but about being able to embrace their full strength. There is something about themselves that the Slayers pulled away from (and didn't love, as the Guide puts it). This compromises their abilities in a way that Spike doesn't understand.
season 7 spoiler:

Spoiler

and in season 7 we discover that the first slayer was forced to encompass demon spirit to make her stronger

being able to embrace that and use it made buffy stronger, both physically and in her heart.

So. It was a sacrifice. She saw a way to save Dawn's life (and everyone else's) and saw that as her job ("it's what i do" at the beginning of the Ep and something similar on the tower). She saw the way and knew what to do again. Found that certainty. She came back to her strength and fought Glory and won and when she was faced with the open portal did the only thing she could and saved everyone. Again.

The other thing I think about this (well one of the other things) kind of agrees with white avenger and fly on the wall about the Destiny aspect. When i watched weight of the world yesterday i linked what the Guide said (Death is your Gift) with where Buffy is at the beginning of season 6. That when she dies she goes to a good place. Not so much that her death is fated to happen in a particular way but she gets a good afterlife for her years of service. the Guide is telling her that there is no need to be afraid of death. I think that when she resolved this she was able to then do what needed to be done.

 

[Gotham]

So, nobody agrees with me, eh? LOL

Maybe I should've asked this question: Was Spike correct: does Buffy have a deathwish?

I think every slayer has a death wish really, it comes with the territory of being slayer where you're constantly putting yourself into perilous situations.

As for the suicide -v- sacrifice debate, for me it's sacfrice. I think the only thing Buffy had on her mind in that moment was Dawn, and giving her the opportunity at living a real life. Sure, she probably made peace with the idea of death but that doesn't necessarily mean that this equates to suicide. I imagine dying in order to save not just Dawn but the entire world made things a whole lot more easier. How many slayers get the opportunity to do that? If we take the two Spike killed, they died in normal battle.

 

[Hale Caesar]

I agree with the first post. I think The Gift should have been the series finale for many reasons

- Season 5 was the full evolution of Buffy Summers from an inexperienced, immature teen in season 1, into a strong, confident and intelligent woman by the end of season 5

- I haven't seen season 6 or 7 yet. But, cheating death is something I never like because I won't take death as seriously in the future because I know there is a chance the character can be brought back to life

- It takes away from the epicness of "The Gift"

- Killing Buffy would have allowed for perhaps a mini series or movie that follows up on everyone's situations

All that being said, this is my initial reaction. I haven't seen season 6 or 7 yet, but I doubt they can come up with a good reason for bringing Buffy back

 

[VisionGirl]

I agree with the first post. I think The Gift should have been the series finale for many reasons

Hi, I just wanted to clarify: if you're referring to my original post, please read again, because I stated that I did NOT think The Gift should have been the series finale, and then I gave my reasons. I won't reiterate those since I don't want to give away spoilers to you! 🙂

Your perspective is so interesting since you haven't watched the rest of the series yet. I hope you're enjoying your watch and not getting spoiled! When you're finished watching, please come back to this thread & let us know if you still feel the same way or not. 🙂

 

[fly on the wall]

I know I've already posted here, and I'm risking sounding incredibly morbid.....but doesn't every PERSON have a death wish? I mean, most of us want to die old and loved and warm in our beds, right? Slayers don't usually have this option, and they are faced directly with death every day, so their death wishes might be a little more...prominent. Or detailed. Or on their minds. But I'm pretty sure "having a death wish" in general is a pretty human attribute.

 

[Hale Caesar]

Hi, I just wanted to clarify: if you're referring to my original post, please read again, because I stated that I did NOT think The Gift should have been the series finale, and then I gave my reasons. I won't reiterate those since I don't want to give away spoilers to you! 🙂

Your perspective is so interesting since you haven't watched the rest of the series yet. I hope you're enjoying your watch and not getting spoiled! When you're finished watching, please come back to this thread & let us know if you still feel the same way or not. 🙂

My bad, I didn't really read the first post lol, i'll definatly come back to this thread though once I see season 6

 

[HappyMealOnLegs]

There's another thread about this but I just want to bring it up here because I think it helps us see whether it was sacrifice or suicide - what does "death is you gift" mean? Does it mean that by being a "killer" and gifting death to the nasties out there she helps the world? Yea. Does it mean that by allowing herself to die, becoming a martyr, she is gifting her death to the world? Yea. Does it also mean that death is the gift that the Universe is giving her after all her years of active service? I think so.

To explain that I wanna quote Giles from "Once More With Feeling" when he says that he wishes "I could lay your arms down and let you rest at last" in regards to Buffy. He sees that she is tried, that she has spent herself in saving the world again and again and now she needs to be saved. But you can't take a holiday from being the Slayer, no flying off to a Spa for a couple of weeks for the Chosen one. You're a Lifer. So the only way she can rest is the RIP kinda rest, which is what the Universe was giving her.

This is why I think we have the beautiful image of the sun rising above the portal as Buffy realises that her blood will close it. She literally sees dawn! And she knows, this is it for her, this is her reward. She isn't getting some sudden "a vampire bit me" or "a demon cut me" kinda brutal death, she is getting a "The End" and she wants to take it, she smiles as she takes it. I think in season 7 she says something to Giles like "If I had to go back and sacrifice Dawn to save the world, I would" because by then she has regained her zest for life, whereas everything in season 5 had been designed to strip her of her strength and she's looking for a way out. I'm not saying she wanted to go and play in traffic or take a long walk in a bad neighbourhood or anything, but she saw a chance to end it all and she took it, arms wide open, literally. Yes she also did it to save Dawn and the world, but as she saw it "she was done". I think she had a deathwise but I think suicide is too selfish a term for what she did. A death was needed, and she was lucky enough to want to die at that moment in time! Win/Win situation! For her at least.

 

[arabella]

I always saw it as a suicide. She took her own life, which is suicide. It was a sacrifice as well since she took her life so that Dawn could live. I don't necessarily think that her being at peace meant that, at that point, she had a death wish. I think she had a peace wish. I disagree that "all people have a death wish," as I enjoy living and do not wish to die. I do long for peace in times of stress and have a wish for lasting peace. Buffy took her own life (suicide) and gained peace, but did so as a sacrifice to save her sister and not as a means to gain the peace.
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[Chosen Enemy]

I've always loved this question, which was always hanging there.

Buffy did this with such peace on her face. And that's what this scene looked like, peace. It was right, it was what she wanted for so long. As Spike said, "every Slayer has a death wish". Buffy wouldn't admit it at first, especially not to Spike.

However, in season 1, "Prophecy Girl", she doesn't wanna die. And she doesn't wanna be a Slayer. She wants to live, live a normal life of a normal 16 year old. I don't know when was the point where she started wishing for her death. Maybe from the minute she realized this is her fate. This is who and what she is, and that's a sacrifice by itself. She started accepting death from the minute she started accepting her fate, her destiny, her slayerness. She realized she can't not be a Slayer, which means it's a certain death for her. There is no back door she could run through, she is the Slayer. And that's a sucky life. Why not wanting death when your fate is sealed and that's such cruel fate?

In The Gift she has the chance to stop being a Slayer. Stop her horrible destiny (the Slayerness), she could stop worrying about things that are already sealed for her.
She's been wanting to die a long time ago. But thought the world needs her more than she'd like. With the weight of the world on her shoulder, that's heavy. And if she could do both, release AND save the world, why not (from her POV)?

 

[Abbeycat]

I can see it as both sacrifice & suicide for some of the reasons people said before me.

She did it for sacrifice because of Dawn. Because she couldn't let Dawn do that and WOULDN'T let her. Knowing it would very well KILL Dawn. Not that Dawn would jump. But also knowing that Buffy had to make it stop somehow before It got much worse so she sacrificed herself.

 

[PassionBecoming]

To explain that I wanna quote Giles from "Once More With Feeling" when he says that he wishes "I could lay your arms down and let you rest at last" in regards to Buffy. He sees that she is tried, that she has spent herself in saving the world again and again and now she needs to be saved. But you can't take a holiday from being the Slayer, no flying off to a Spa for a couple of weeks for the Chosen one. You're a Lifer. So the only way she can rest is the RIP kinda rest, which is what the Universe was giving her.

This is why I think we have the beautiful image of the sun rising above the portal as Buffy realises that her blood will close it. She literally sees dawn! And she knows, this is it for her, this is her reward. She isn't getting some sudden "a vampire bit me" or "a demon cut me" kinda brutal death, she is getting a "The End" and she wants to take it, she smiles as she takes it. I think in season 7 she says something to Giles like "If I had to go back and sacrifice Dawn to save the world, I would" because by then she has regained her zest for life, whereas everything in season 5 had been designed to strip her of her strength and she's looking for a way out. I'm not saying she wanted to go and play in traffic or take a long walk in a bad neighbourhood or anything, but she saw a chance to end it all and she took it, arms wide open, literally. Yes she also did it to save Dawn and the world, but as she saw it "she was done". I think she had a deathwise but I think suicide is too selfish a term for what she did. A death was needed, and she was lucky enough to want to die at that moment in time! Win/Win situation! For her at least.

This is exactly what I always think about "The Gift"!

Also why I am annoyed with Willow after Season 5: Buffy finally gets some peace. She did her "job", she lived her life, then selfish little Willow had to go and rip her out of her happy place for really no good reason other than she can't deal with loss. Not that I'm unhappy with having more seasons. 🙂

 

[ticonderouga]

Buffy absolutely has a death wish, and its there from the very beginning of the series, but like Spike says, she has many things that are tying her to the world. Even in Prophecy Girl, once she comes to terms with her impending death she tells the master she just wants it over with. Also the death wish never goes away completely, it simply becomes muted in most of season 7. However, you can catch glimpses of it during various episodes, in Potential, for example her speech to the wannabes definitely echos Spike's statement to Buffy in FFL. It surfaces again in Empty Places when Buffy basically loses everything. I would even go so far as to say that one the major subtexts of the series is about the need to control and fight of that death wish.

As far as the first question goes, her death is both sacrifice and suicide. The gift is both from her, her death saved Dawn and the rest of her friends, and to her. She was able to find true peace for the first time in her entire life. Season 6 is all about her struggle to come to terms with losing that peace, and trying to find something to hold onto.

Well, that's my two cents anyway.

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

I still remember seeing The Gift during it's premiere on TV. I was like... Whoa. 😱

I think Buffy did it as a sacrifice, but I think Buffy was also glad to be at piece. She thought that death was her gift after all, hence the title "The Gift".

 

[PrettyLilGirl]

I think it was abit of both. I think all that stuff like Riley and her Mum had to stripped away so she could do it. I honestly believe she would have let Dawn die if she had other things she cared about as much, but she only had Dawn left so what would she have done without her?

Its the same with any kind of death really..i mean natural really, you except death, almost welcome it as it all falls in to place. I love the line of 'Tell Giles i worked it out and I'm ok' its just how she felt in a nutshell she realised what everything had been leadin to.

This is why I really hated Willow at the start of s6..they were incredibly selfish and like Buffy said she was finished, it all made sense, then she was dragged back. And i always felt that as much as it was for friendship part of it was because they needed 'The Slayer' they didnt question that she could be happy they brought her back to protect them and do the job she'd got so tired of doing. It really annoyed me!

 

[ticonderouga]

Also one of Willows more dominant character traits is the inability to just let things (especially people she cares about) go. Also as her power grew as a witch, she started to look for ways to test her own abilities. I think a lot of the reason that Willow performed that spell was simply to see if she could pull it off. After all I don't think that it would have been too terribly difficult for either Willow or Tara to find out where Buffy's soul had gone. This was also, as has been stated before, Willow's point of no return this was the spell that truly got her hooked on the magic and she started to use magic for even the simplest task.

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

I think it was both.

 

[Whirlwind]

I've always thought about it as a sacrifice. She loved Dawn, and since sacrificing her life would save Dawn, her friends and the world, she didn't think twice about it.