Strong is Fighting: BTVS's "Amends"

“Strong is fighting! It’s hard, and it’s painful, and it’s everyday.”

Very few television series have conferred as many solid philosophies or offered as many subtle life lessons as the dearly departed Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Joss Whedon’s genius show, which - to the devastation of millions of fans - left the air in 2003, was a welcome break from the cheesy ‘90s sitcoms that dominated the primetime slot in the wake of Friends and its ilk that offered “very special episodes” featuring morality tales. As has been often noted, Buffy didn’t need “very special episodes” because clumsy didacticism was rejected by the show’s creators in favour of subtle metaphors.

It is a true testament to the quality of the show that I enjoy it as much now, at the age of twenty-one, as I did when it first premiered over a decade ago. As I grow older (and, it may be argued, wiser) I recognize more of the pure TV brilliance that Buffy embodied, and continues to embody today. The lines of dialogue, which seemed merely wise when I watched as a teen, have now been fully absorbed into my identity and have come to account for a fair amount of my personal life philosophies. This singular influence that Buffy has had on my personal development is not unique. Around us walks an entire generation of television viewers who were all but raised by Rupert Giles, and the show continues to have cultural resonance as new viewers discover the series, and its spin-off Angel, on DVD. Joss Whedon and Dark Horse Comics’s recent startlingly successful efforts to tell season eight of Buffy in comic book format have, likewise, continued to offer new pleasures to old fans, while introducing near new readers to the Buffyverse.

As the holiday season nears, I found my thoughts turning to one of Buffy’s greatest (and often overlooked) episodes. The Christmas/Hanukah themed narrative, Amends, which was both written and directed by Whedon, deals with many of the fundamental issues that the series constantly grappled with, and also provides a complex philosophic message. While the episode’s main conflict emphasizes the eternal struggle between white and black magicks, the underlinying thematic exploration reveals the possibility of redemption that starting over can provide for us all.

In Amends, Willow and Oz’s struggle to regain their relationship after their devastating break-up earlier in the season, following the discovery of Willow and Xander’s infidelities in Lovers Walk. Their reunion on Christmas Eve is depicted by Whedon with a perfect mixture of sweetness combined with incredible awkwardness - a mixture to which we can all relate. As the silent member of the Scooby gang, Oz’s dialogue, when delivered, often has heavy implications; never more so than in this episode. Oz’s willingness to exonerate Willow, to wipe the slate clean and begin anew, speaks to the difficulty of forgiveness, but also to the possibility of redemption for those who have transgressed.

And who has transgressed more than Buffy’s boyfriend, Angel? As a vampire, he left of trail of carnage in his wake for over a century until his soul was finally returned to him, and there is, perhaps, no one who longs more for tabula rasa than him. Amends thus focuses largely on Angel, and features the premier appearance by The First, who would go on to be the final season’s Big Bad. Acts of infamy that Angel committed in the past, revealed in flashbacks throughout Amends, come back to haunt him in the present, as The First resurrects the ghosts of Angelus’ victims, most notably Jenny Calendar. Through Jenny and others, The First goads Angel, masterfully manipulating the dark hero and psychologically tormenting his fragile psyche. Angel becomes so overwhelmed by guilt and by fear of what his relationship with Buffy might mean for her, that he decides suicide is his best course of action.

In one of the series’ most memorable moments, Angel climbs a hill and looks out over Sunnydale while standing under the pre-dawn sky, waiting for the sun to rise and end his existence. Joss Whedon counts the scene that follows between Angel and Buffy as some of his best writing, and he’s right. The three seasons of heartbreaking passion, that epitomized these characters’ relationship, is masterfully boiled down into a handful of unforgettable lines of dialogue that are performed to perfection by Gellar and Boreanaz.

When Angel tells Buffy that he must kill himself because he is weak, Buffy replies, “You're weak. Everybody is. Everybody fails . . . Angel, you have the power to do real good, to make amends. But if you die now, then all that you ever were was a monster. Angel, please, the sun is coming up”.

Like Willow and Oz, Buffy realizes that redemption is always an option for though those who are willing to carry on. Life is not easy. It is hard, and we all make mistakes. In carrying on and fighting through the pain, we offer ourselves a chance to make amends. This is one of those “life lessons” that I mentioned earlier, and it is delivered by Whedon in such a masterful way that it doesn’t have the sickeningly sweet tones of many of the ‘90s sitcoms. If we all have a bit of strength, we can have a blank slate in front of us to begin anew and make up for past mistakes because, as Buffy says, “everybody fails.”

Great filmmakers know that you can’t just tell an audience something, you need to show it to them, and Buffy, with an entire premise based on metaphorical extrapolations, constantly serves as an amazing example of this storytelling approach. When Buffy is unable to convince Angel that life is worth living and the sun begins to peak up from beyond the horizon and it seems that all is lost, a miraculous event occurs. Buffy says, “If I can't convince you that you belong in this world, then I don't know what can. But do not expect me to watch. And don't expect me to mourn for you, because . . . ,” but she does not finish because it has begun to snow. Sunnydale is located in Southern California and has been experiencing a heat wave, yet there it is: a thick white carpet of metaphor. The snow completely blocks out the morning sun and, in doing so, saves Angel. He has been given his blank slate, his opportunity to begin anew and to make amends.

Buffy and Angel descend from the hill and walk the streets of Sunnydale hand in hand. The town has been transformed by the miraculous blizzard. Snow has never looked more redeeming, and a winter walk never so romantic.

Life is full of little miracles, and opportunities for redemption are always just around the corner. The hard fight that Buffy embodied is the struggle to carry on beyond our difficulties until we reach those wonderful, magical, white moments when everything begins anew. It is a message as relevant this holiday season, as it was when it aired in December of 1998.

Related Articles:

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