"Seeing Red" is the 19th episode of season 6 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on May 7, 2002, on UPN. In North America, this episode was somehow syndicated onto UPN affiliates a week early by accident. Although none of them broadcast the episode by mistake, the episode was leaked onto the internet more than a week before it was slated to air. The episode was also noted for its drastic and controversial content, being the only episode of the series to air at an alternate time on the Canadian family network YTV.
Willow and Tara snuggle in bed together after their reconciliation, discussing the possibility that something is going on between Buffy and Spike. Tara confirms Willow's suspicions, adding that Buffy feels ashamed of her sexual relationship with Spike. Willow is hurt that she was never told, but simply puts it aside when she remembers what Buffy is going through. Willow goes to check on Buffy, but instead encounters Dawn in the hallway. When Tara appears wearing just a sheet, Dawn is thrilled to see they are back together.
Buffy meanwhile has decided to take care of the Trio once and for all and breaks into their lair, but finds the place deserted and dangerous traps waiting for her. She escapes, managing to grab a few items before large saw blades tear apart the house. Buffy, Dawn, Willow and Tara gather to go over those items, realizing sadly that the rest of the group will not be helping since they are all preoccupied. Anya sits with a young scorned woman who wants to wish vengeance on her cheating boyfriend, but Anya is too busy talking about her own relationship problems to notice the young woman's wish. Dawn visits Spike at his crypt, informing him that she knows he had sex with Anya and Buffy. She lectures him about hurting Buffy when he supposedly loves her and leaves him wondering how he could show his love to her.
Meanwhile, in a cave, the Trio kill a large Nezzla demon who is guarding the Orbs of Nezzla'khan. Warren and Andrew make Jonathan wrap himself in the dead Nezzla's skin to cross a barrier that can only be passed by one of the demons, and as he fetches the orbs the other two conspire against him. Warren tests the power of the orbs and is pleased when he can easily kill another demon.
Xander, aghast that Buffy slept with Spike, storms out of an argument with her. He walks the streets alone, pausing briefly to secretly look in on Anya as she works at the Magic Shop. He ends up at The Bronze drinking away his sorrow over Anya and Spike, when the nerds enter. Orb-enhanced Warren hits on a former schoolmate's girlfriend, and when the woman's boyfriend steps in Warren fights off the boyfriend and several others with ease. Xander tries to intervene but is tossed aside.
Later, at home in bed, Willow reviews some files on her laptop, but is quickly distracted by Tara. Buffy, badly injured from patrolling earlier, runs a bath for herself to soothe her aching back. Spike shows up uninvited and tries to convince her that she loves him and just needs to admit it. She protests as he forces himself on her, his attempt to make her feel love for him again. With her back injured, Buffy barely manages to stop his advance on her. Immediately horrified by his behavior, Spike attempts to apologize, but Buffy knows he only stopped because she made him. He flees before Xander finds his coat on the stairs, then finds Buffy on the floor in the bathroom with a large bruise on her leg. Xander is stopped from going after Spike when Willow and Tara arrive to tell Buffy they found plans indicating the Trio are planning to steal a large amount of money. After Xander warns her of Warren's new strength, Buffy rushes off to stop them.
Returning to his crypt, Spike pours himself a drink, but is too traumatized by his rape attempt that he crushes the glass in his hand in anger. Just then Clem visits, and Spike begins to wonder exactly what he is. He becomes distraught both that he attacked Buffy and that he backed off – something the pre-chip Spike would never have done. He questions whether his feelings for Buffy really are love, realizing he is not a monster, yet cannot be a man. After Clem tells him that things change, Spike boards his motorcycle at the city limits and leaves Sunnydale, vowing to return a changed being.
Warren overturns an armored car loaded up with money from a big weekend at an amusement park. Buffy shows up and fights him, but quickly finds herself outmatched against Warren's strength; Warren taunts Buffy with his supposed mastery. Jonathan jumps on Buffy's back and appears to be fighting her, but he quietly coaches her to smash the orbs on Warren's belt in order to defeat him. No longer strong, Warren uses a hidden jet pack to escape freely into the sky. Andrew attempts to follow suit with his own jet pack, only to knock himself out on the overhanging roof above him. As the cops haul Jonathan and Andrew off to jail, the jetpack-less Jonathan realizes that the two were about to betray him.
Willow and Tara get dressed and while hugging, Tara notices Xander and Buffy in the backyard together. Buffy and Xander begin to discuss Buffy's relationship with Spike, and the two make up and reaffirm their friendship. As the two hug, Xander spots Warren entering the backyard with a gun. Warren rants about his recent defeat, pulls out the gun, fires directly at Buffy as revenge, then shoots randomly over his shoulder as he runs away. Buffy and Xander topple to the ground as a bullet fires at the window to Willow's bedroom and strikes Tara in the back as she is facing Willow. The blood from her wound splatters on Willow's shirt. As Tara collapses to her death, Willow cries out holding her as her eyes turn magically dark red with pain and fury, while outside, Xander tries to staunch the bleeding of Buffy's chest wound.
Writing
The episode continues the emphasis on the consequences of actions. Spike takes the time to explain to Dawn that what he and Anya did was wrong.
This is the first and only episode where Amber Benson (Tara) appears in the main title credits, and is also her death episode. Joss Whedon had long wanted to kill off a major character the first time they joined the main credits. Originally he indicated that he wanted Eric Balfour who played Jesse in "Welcome to the Hellmouth", and "The Harvest" to be added to the beginning credits to add the shock that a main cast character could die unexpectedly, but due to budget constraints he could not be added at the time. Whedon also saw Tara's death as necessary to further Willow's character; she had to deal with her dark powers, but nothing short of Tara's death would allow them to come out so forcefully.
Tara had become popular among fans, and Whedon and series writer David Fury decided that her death would elicit a strong response, something that Whedon felt sure was the correct course to take.[1] He was unprepared, however, for how forcefully viewers reacted to Tara's death. Fans were so upset that some stopped watching.[2] Because the death came at the end of an episode where Willow and Tara were portrayed in bed between sexual encounters, critics accused Whedon of implying that lesbian sex should be punishable by death, a familiar trope in film. Producers were inundated with mail from people—women especially—who expressed their anger, sadness, and frustration with the writing team. Series writer and producer Marti Noxon was unable to read some of the mail because it was so distressing, but she counted the response as a natural indication that television simply had few strong female role models, and no lesbian representation.[3]
Benson defended Whedon in 2007, saying he "is 100 percent behind the LGBT community. I know this for a fact."[4] Author Rhonda Wilcox writes that Tara's death is made more poignant by her earthy naturalness representing the "fragility of the physical".[5] Roz Kaveney comments that Tara's murder is "one of the most upsetting moments of the show's seven seasons",[2] and Nikki Stafford states that the episode in which Tara dies is possibly the most controversial of the series, causing divisions about whether it was necessary, or assertions that Tara was created only to be killed. In response to fans and critics who accused the writers of being motivated by homophobia, Stafford comments, "they seem to forget that it was those same writers who created such an amazing, gentle, and realistic portrait in the first place; that Tara is certainly not the first character to be killed off on the show; and Tara was a lot more than just 'the lesbian', and her character deserves better than that."[6] Kaveney concurs with the opinion that the series avoided playing a cliché, "proving that it is possible for a queer character to die in popular culture without that death being the surrogate vengeance of the straight world".[2]
In the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences panel discussion that took place between seasons six and seven, Alyson Hannigan revealed that getting the shot of Tara's blood spraying onto Willow's shirt was incredibly difficult. Because they only had two shirts, the wardrobe department kept washing the shirts but did not have time to dry them, so the shirt was wet in most of the takes. Hannigan joked that when they finally got the take she was not sure what she was doing acting-wise, she was just concerned with the appearance of the blood on the shirt remaining consistent. In a 2002 interview with the BBC, Benson stated that by the end of the filming of Tara's death scene, both she and Sarah Michelle Gellar were crying, as a close friend of theirs who had worked on the show had died just prior to filming.[7]
In the DVD commentary, James Marsters said that filming the scene in which Spike attempts to rape Buffy was one of the hardest he ever had to do. He has since said that he will never do such a scene again. That scene has also generated controversy between fans and the writers,[8] but Marsters and writer Jane Espenson said that the moment was necessary to set up a powerful motivation for Spike's quest to gain a soul.[9][10] Marsters would later say in 2012 that he understood the idea to have come from "a female writer, [who] had a situation in her life where she was and her boyfriend were breaking up and she decided if she just made love to him one more time, that they wouldn't break up. She ended up trying to force herself on him and decided to write about that. The thing is, if you flip it and make it a man forcing himself on a woman, I believe it becomes a whole different thing... I'm not really sure it expressed what the author was intending and on that score it was not successful."[11]
In her essay on sex and violence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gwyn Symonds calls the scene itself "technically and emotionally intricate" in that, unlike most depictions of attempted rape, it "encourages a complex audience engagement with both... the perpetrator and the victim."[12] The action was "very carefully choreographed" according to James Marsters,[10] with the camera alternating between close-ups of Buffy and Spike separately to reinforce the audience's shifting empathy with both Buffy and Spike.[12] Writer Rebecca Rand Kirshner agrees that the viewer "could feel how [Spike's] very innards were twisted into this perversion of what he wanted," and she found that experiencing the scene from his perspective was additionally disturbing.[13]
Willow Rosenberg is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan.
Alexander Lavelle Harris is a fictional character created for the action-horror/fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). He was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the television series by Nicholas Brendon and in two episodes by his twin brother, Kelly Donovan. He was conceived as an everyman and a male character for series heroine Buffy Summers to interact with, and to provide comic relief in the series. Xander is one of several friends of Buffy who assist her in saving the world against numerous supernatural events that plague Sunnydale, California, a town built over a doorway to hell.
Tara Maclay is a fictional character created for the action-horror/fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed by Amber Benson. Tara is a shy young woman with magical talents who falls in love with Willow Rosenberg, one of the core characters. Together, they help Buffy Summers, who has been given superhuman powers to defeat evil forces in the fictional town of Sunnydale.
"Once More, with Feeling" is the seventh episode of the sixth season of the supernatural drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and the only one in the series performed as a musical. It was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon and originally aired on UPN in the United States on November 6, 2001.
"Doppelgangland" is the sixteenth episode of the third season of the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). It was written and directed by the show's creator, Joss Whedon, and originally aired on The WB in the United States on February 23, 1999. The episode's title is derived from the term "Doppelgänger", a German word for a lookalike or double of a living person.
"Hush" is the tenth episode in the fourth season of the supernatural drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). It was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon and originally aired in the United States on December 14, 1999, on The WB. After reading critical response to the series in which the dialogue was praised as the most successful aspect of the show, Whedon set out to write an episode almost completely devoid of speech. Only about 17 minutes of dialogue is presented in the entire 44 minutes of "Hush".
"Restless" is the 22nd episode and season finale of season four of the supernatural drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), and the 78th episode of the series overall. The episode was written and directed by the show's creator Joss Whedon and originally aired on The WB in the United States on May 23, 2000.
"Lessons" is the first episode of the seventh season of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on UPN on September 24, 2002. Dawn finds vengeful spirits in the new Sunnydale High while Giles is rehabilitating Willow in England.
"Chosen" is the series finale of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the 22nd episode of season 7 and the 144th episode of the series. It was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon and originally aired on UPN on May 20, 2003. The Buffy story would not be continued beyond this point until "The Long Way Home", a comic book, in 2007 and the Buffy and Angel saga would end in the Season Twelve series in late 2018.
"The Body" is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of the supernatural drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon and originally aired on The WB in the United States on February 27, 2001. In the series, Buffy Summers is a teenager chosen by mystical forces and endowed with superhuman powers to defeat vampires, demons, and other evils in the fictional town of Sunnydale. She is supported in her struggles by a close circle of friends and family, nicknamed the "Scooby Gang". In "The Body", Buffy is powerless as she comes upon her lifeless mother, who has died of a brain aneurysm.
"Grave" is the sixth-season finale of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on May 21, 2002, on UPN. This episode is the second highest rated Buffy episode ever to air in the United Kingdom. Sky One aired the episode, which reached 1.22 million viewers on its original airing.
"Conversations with Dead People" is the seventh episode of the seventh and final season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on November 12, 2002 on UPN. It is the only episode other than "Once More, with Feeling" where the title appears on screen.
"Two to Go" is the 21st episode of season 6 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on May 21, 2002 on UPN. The name of the episode is a reference to the previous one, which ends with Willow saying "One down" after killing Warren. Despite having died, Tara Maclay remains in brief scenes that are part of the opening credits.
"Real Me" is episode 2 of season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on The WB on October 3, 2000.
"Villains" is the 20th episode of season 6 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on May 14, 2002 on UPN.
"Entropy" is the 18th episode of season 6 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on April 30, 2002 on UPN.
The fifth season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on September 26, 2000, on The WB and concluded its 22-episode season on May 22, 2001. It maintained its previous timeslot, airing Tuesdays at 8:00 pm ET. This was the final season to air on The WB before it moved to UPN; The WB billed the season five finale as "The WB series finale".
The sixth season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on October 2, 2001, with a two-hour premiere on UPN and concluded its 22-episode season with a two-hour finale on May 21, 2002. It maintained its previous timeslot, airing Tuesdays at 8:00 pm ET. This season marked the series' network change from The WB to UPN.
The seventh and final season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on September 24, 2002 on UPN and concluded its 22-episode run on May 20, 2003. It maintained its previous timeslot, airing Tuesdays at 8:00 pm ET.
↑ Rand-Kirshner, Rebecca ( 2003) in Life as the Big Bad: A Season Six Overview in Special Features, Season 6 DVDs Collectors Edition, Disc 6. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
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