Was watching tonight’s Buffy, and her “everyone sucks but me” speech (as Anya so eloquently put it) got me thinking about the end of this season, and the end of the third season, and the beginning of the series. Speculation below, based on no spoilers whatsoever…
Buffy saw the army of the First, and she knows that she can’t stop it. She knows she’d die trying. Is she willing to? We’ve seen what Buffy is willing to die for – Angel, Dawn, perhaps the Scoobies. When was the last time she was honestly willing to give up her life for the rest of the world in general? Season 4, I’m thinking, if then – by season 5 she was willing to unleash hell on earth to protect her sister.
So, if she doesn’t think the potentials are pulling their weight, what about the mundanes? Buffy has no problem arming civilians if it comes to that; she proved at her graduation that a bunch of untrained teenagers with flaming arrows can do quite a bit of damage to whatever the enemy throws at them. (For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll leave aside the issue of how likely that was.)
She also doesn’t – or didn’t – have much patience with the “chosen one” schtick. Hell, she spent the first season telling Giles where he could cram his stake, and we all know her opinion of the late, unlamented Watcher’s Council. It’s only recently that she’s become fully invested in her role – and still she rejects the source of the Slayer’s power. Does she believe in the one girl fated to save the world? Or, deep down, does she still feel like it’s all a load of crap?
Deep down, doesn’t she feel like it’s time for the rest of the world to pitch in? If she’s tired of “carrying” the potentials, how much more so must she be of carrying the rest of the world? DeadJoyce blamed the Scoobies (“Your friends put too much pressure on you, Buffy; they always have”) but it’s not just them, is it?
So here’s my big speculation for the end of the season: Buffy’s going to out the demons. How dumb is it, really, that one girl is responsible for protecting all the unwary morons who blithely trip down dark alleys over the Hellmouth? I’m guessing that she’s losing patience with this gig. I’m guessing she’s willing to let the rest of the world in on the big secret.
An alternate scenario (and this one does involve spoilers for 7×16, “Storyteller,” beware!) is that it’s not Buffy but Andrew who will (perhaps inadvertently) spill the beans.
