Do you think it's all subconscious on her part? When she stops him from going she can't bring herself to say she needs him or wants him, just that she's 'not ready for you not to be here'.
Yeah...either she knows and won't admit it or she doesn't quite know but something (her unconscious) is telling her she wants him to stay.* They've deliberately phrased it as a double negative and I think, with double negatives*, each of the "nots" cancels each other out: "I'm
Some fans don't like it and those that don't are vocal! Beyond that idk what's true it's not as popular as seasons two, three or five probably but we can't be the only people about from Lani who appreciate it.
You know, and I totally get that people strongly disagree with this, but to me it works very well given that the show is Buffy's Bildungsroman. By S7 she's reached complete adulthood, so it makes sense that we focus on Buffy, the character that's been her "id" from pretty much the beginning (Spike), and the characters that have become her responsibility beyond blood ties. The latter's execution is mostly not great, but thematically I think the season works.
I liked this moment in "Touched"
It's funny I'm actually doing an art history module with Open University at the mo and I'll be getting around to doing the Pre Raphaelites in three weeks to a month's time so I might be able to say more then. I always felt with the Whirlwind it's a shame that they never found recognition as mortals and I think Spike would have made a great Ruskinesque sponsor of the people like the Pre Raphaelites.I love this scene. I was trying (and failing) to write a paper on Touched and I had this shot (below) on my computer in my office when a workmate walked in. I was writing something about the composition of the shots on the bed. This fascinates me - surely they were directed to hold each other like this?
I'd written a pile of shite about how Buffy's past was evoked by certain things that happen in the scene. That, despite seeming to be alone with Spike, her friends and family were, in one way or another, in the room with them (for instance, Spike's speech draws on speeches by Riley and Angel). It's why I roll my eyes when fans claim the core four are abandoned in S7.
IMO, this whole scene is under-rated. This is what I wrote about Spuffy in this shot. "Here, the arms don’t encircle. They form a loop if a line is drawn from the edge of Spike’s shirt (top right of the screen) along his arm to his hand, which folds around the pulse point in her wrist (confirmation that one of them is living). The line continues along his fingers, looping behind her wrist, over her hand, across her fingers and behind her neck to join his upper arm. It then traverses his arm and goes across an imaginary line to re-join. The moment he leans forward to plant the kiss, he crosses the imaginary line and the circuit is complete. Negative and positive come together. if we follow the line they are both outside it while constituting the very thing they are outside of. It’s the logic of intimate/extimate. At some time – in the space between shots - two have become one. “The chiasm, the cross-over, is the point of both convergence and divergence; it is not a loss of distinction, but a coming together in difference. The subject accordingly is in a mutually constitutive relationship with its objects, intertwined one with the other through touch".
The workmate's a writer and an expert in Victorian women's writing. She's never seen BtVS. She looked at the screen and said "The Sleepers and the one that watcheth." Turns out it's a painting by one of the Pre-Raphaelite school. (Below) This was good because, IMO, other scenes in S7 evoke paintings and the overhead camera used in the scene suggests someone's watching.
I could see the similarity between the hands but wasn't entirely convinced. I asked "Who's the one watching the sleepers? The one intruding into the embrace, into their dreams?" "An Angel" she replied. Yay workmate! Love S7! 😄
Oh I don't underrate this at all. I build my whole Buffy loved Spike in S6 theory upon it 🙂 It's a stunning statement of fact, just as Willow is folding pairs of socks (something TriBel pointed out) Buffy loved Spike in the previous season but couldn't allow herself to love a soulless demon. She feels freer to admit it now that Spike has a soul and they are slowly rebuilding their relationship.
I love that he calls it the best night of his life. It used to be the night he killed the slayer in China and made love to Drusilla atop her remains.
I'd say Buffy has three id reps - Spike, Faith and Glory. Faith and Cordelia are shadow selves and Rhonda Wilcox speculates Spike might be too - in a sense that makes sense Cordy is the human shadow, Faith the slayer one and and maybe Spike the demon one. It makes sense that we see the two more ambivalent become more accepted by her in season seven.
