Buffy Bucks

My respect for Jane Espenson as a writer has increased with each viewing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but I still think her work on season six is a low point in the series. I watched "Flooded" last night, the fourth episode of the season, in which Jane Espenson and Douglas Petrie's teleplay unwisely delves into Buffy's financial situation.

Apparently, though, all the writers were involved with this idea. This quote from Marti Noxon is from the Buffyverse wiki:

So I guess we started toying with adult responsibilities and then decided we'd have to go the way of nasty sex instead. We had been asking in script meetings, 'What are adult responsibilities?'

One is left with the peculiar feeling the writers didn't know the answer to that question, despite presumably being adults themselves. It's hard to decide where to begin criticising the web of problems underlying this aspect of Buffy's story. They're all interconnected and work together to make the whole thing insubstantial.

So Buffy's been resurrected by Willow, or Willow leading a group composed of herself, Tara, Xander, and Anya. Spike and Dawn are left out of the loop and Giles has gone off to England. While Buffy's been gone, Willow and Tara have moved into the Summers household and become surrogate guardians for Dawn. The reason Dawn doesn't go to live with her father isn't clearly explained and is hand-waved away. I don't remember if we ever actually get a scene between Dawn and her father. I assume they couldn't get the same actor from season two or three or whenever it was he appeared and they didn't consider the plot thread important enough to recast. Willow's parents haven't appeared since season three and Tara appeared to be dramatically disowned by her family.

These things become important when they're giving Buffy the hard talk about how the inheritance from Buffy and Dawn's deceased mother is running out. Willow and Tara, despite living in the house and presumably using the utilities, never mention if they've been contributing financially or how they would be able to. Buffy will eventually be forced to drop out of college so she can work to support Dawn and herself. Why wouldn't Willow and Tara do the same? Where does their money come from? Willow's parents? How do they feel about the fact that Willow has become head of a household with her girlfriend and is presumably using her parents' money to do it?

There's lots of comedy about Anya being obsessed with money but how much money can she make from that magic shop? How much does it cost for her to pay merchandise suppliers--who are those suppliers? How much money could Giles possibly have at this point? With him it becomes a particularly important question when he starts to shame Buffy for not tackling financial responsibilities herself. Even if he's not her Watcher officially anymore, he's still her friend and father figure and she's still often enough the only person standing in the way of the apocalypse, a full time, frequently overnight job with no pay. If he can help her and Dawn financially, surely he's morally obligated to. And if he can't, why is it even a discussion?

These characters and their situations have gone on too long without considering financial realities for the show to start leaning on them for dramatic purposes now. It's like putting a hippopotamus in a shopping cart. The episode ends with Buffy rushing off to a rendezvous with Angel who, of course, owns a hotel . . .

Twitter Sonnet #1595

A query drifted north to meet the snow.
For ev'ry egg we never hatched a plan.
Remembered briefings help the yoghurt grow.
The noble pudding's sweeter now than flan.
If true or false the scene was very weird.
The eye was never right when brown or blue.
A million little snakes create a beard.
A station girl could stop a murder crew.
Where singing gulls were caught to nab a crab.
The puzzle gathered strength on castle walls.
The dark's as good a place as Hell to stab.
We figured odds the Lotto's got the balls.
The broken pot was something all forgot.
We packed the mind behind the vacant lot.