Where Do We Go From Here: Btvs001

The insane speculation of someone who watches too much ‘Buffy’
by Greg
So we’ve reached the midpoint of season seven, and what a season it’s been. The brooding and the penis monsters have been replaced by one kick ass epoisode after another (with the exception of ‘Him,’ of course!). We’ve had dead people talking and crazy Spike, Giles (or not?) and that skin-eating guy. What’s best of all, however, is that this season we have a Big Bad that lives up to being both big and bad. I’m talking, of course, about the First Evil.

Now way back in Season Three (get your fresh hot DVDs!), there was a little episode called ‘Amends.’ In said episode, Angel is tortured by visions of people he’s killed in the past: Jenny Calendar, as well as a bunch of extras with Eve-like awful accents. These visions attempt to talk the newly-back-to-earth-from-a-hell-dimension Angel into killing Buffy. We find out that these visions are the manifestation of the First Evil. The evil force that predates pretty much everything and is the root of all evil. Apparently, this force cannot touch or kill others itself, so it tries to get Angel to do it’s bidding by driving him nuts. Of course, Buffy stops the First and keeps Angel from seeing the sunrise, and the episode ends.

For 3 or so seasons we hear and see nothing of the First as the gang beats up on Adam, Glory and eachother, but then a funny thing happens when Spike returns to the hellmouth with his spanking new soul. The First is back, and it’s not happy!

Through the first eleven episodes of Season Seven, we’ve witnessed the First send his minions to kill all of the potential slayers, use Spike as a killer (is there a Spike/Angel souled vampire connection with the first?), and try to turn the scoobies against each other. We’ve seen the (less than) uber-vamp kick some major tail in his swaddling garb. We’ve seen Giles almost get beheaded by one of the Harbingers of the First (or did we?). We’ve met many of the Slayers in Training (SITs) and have thus been subjected to countless minutes of wretched acting. What does it all mean? Where is it all going?

Let’s look at what we know about the First. The First predates everything and even the scoobies don’t know much. Everything anyone knew about it was destroyed when the Watchers’ Council was blown to bits, except for what Giles allegedly stole and brought with him to Sunnydale. But we do know some things:

• The First can manifest itself in the form of someone who has died. We’ve seen the first as Spike, Buffy, Dru, and just about anyone else who’s died at least once!
  
• The First cannot touch things, and thus must have his minions carry out his orders. The First has NEVER touched anyone, and has always used others (Angel, Spike, Uber-Vamp, dudes with no eyes, etc.)
  
• The First can only be seen by whom it wants to see it. Buffy couldn’t see the First during ‘Sleeper,’ but everyone could see it in the last episode when the First was Eve.
  
• Until the last episode, it was believed that the First could not be in more than one place at the same time, however, that’s now in question. Was the First torturing Spike at the same time it was fooling the gang as Eve? It seems likely.
  
• The First cannot be destroyed. We learn this from the Eye of Thundera (or whatever that thing was!), but it was safe to assume this all along. If you kill the cause of evil, it would be silly. We’re not going to end this series with no evil in the world!
  
• We also learn from the Eye that the First has made its move because of a shift in the balance, which was caused by the slayer.

So that’s pretty much what we know. There is much more that we do not know, and this is where wild speculation comes into play. Spoilers, my friends, are evil and they ruin the show and make it less fun. Don’t read spoilers; use your imagination! There are so many questions to be answered, so many possibilities; I’m giddy.

Everyone’s favorite topic is Giles. Is Giles dead? Is Giles alive? Is Giles (gasp!) the First? Well, when we saw Giles a few episodes ago, he was about to be decapitated by a dude with no eyes and a big ax. Fast forward a few episodes and the G-man is back in Sunnydale, and with SITs in tow. How did Giles escape? Did Giles escape? Giles is probably fine, although we don’t know how he got out alive. Perhaps there is something from his Ripper past that helped him out? Maybe it was a Giles-bot that got decapitated? If Giles is dead, why is he back? Maybe he and Joyce are part of some First Good (there’s got to be some good force, right!?!). If Giles is the First, which is possible now that we pretty much know the First can be in more than one place at the same time, it makes a hell of a lot of sense for him to bring all the SITs to one place for easy killing.

What did the slayer do to allow the First to make a move. Anya seems to think that the scoobies are responsible for this, due to bringing Buffy back from the dead. Maybe it has to something Buffy did? Maybe it has to do with something the real slayer, Faith, did?

My theory is this: there was a balance of sorts between good and evil. The Slayer (one!) fought back the evil and kept things in check. People could live out their lives, a few deaths here and there. The system worked well. But then there were two slayers. The balance was broken. The First was mighty pissed and while it had previously held to that accord with good, it now had a chance to show its might.

You can’t kill the First Evil. We’ve been told that. What you can do is regain the balance that previously existed. You can do this by getting rid of one of the slayers. By killing Faith, you get a new slayer. The line runs through Faith. By killing Buffy, you’re back to one slayer. No new slayer is called if the Buffster dies. Since I’m not aware of a slayer retirement ceremony, complete with gold watch, I’m guessing on a final Buffy death tossing things back into balance. Remember, the First wanted the Uber-vamp to follow the SITs and not Buffy. For some reason, the First wants Buffy alive. Why?

So halfway through season seven, we’ve gotten all we could have hoped for. Of course, there are plenty more questions to be answered:

• What’s the deal with the principal?
  
• Are they really going to hook Willow up with Kennedy?
  
• Was Joyce real or was she the First?
  
• Will they ever write Xander a good line again?

But we’ll explore those another time. As for right now, I’ll keep thinking up new directions for where the show can go, and hope that the First Evil can live up to the reputation that its been able to give itself over half a splendid season.