Fool for Love (Buffy episode)
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| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |
|---|---|
| “Fool for Love” | |
| Image:Buffy507.jpg | |
| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 7 |
| Guest star(s) | David Boreanaz (Angelus) Juliet Landau (Drusilla) Julie Benz (Darla) Mercedes McNab (Harmony) Kristine Sutherland (Joyce) |
| Writer(s) | Douglas Petrie |
| Director | Nick Marck |
| Production no. | 5ABB07 |
| Original airdate | November 14th 2000 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Family" | "Shadow" |
"Fool for Love" is episode 7 of season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
Buffy is deeply wounded while fighting a vampire at the cemetery; she is saved only by the unexpected arrival of Riley. Faced with the reality of her own mortality, she bribes Spike to tell her about the final battles of the Slayers that he has killed. He recounts his experiences in detail, including some painful personal memories. He reveals that he killed both Slayers by exploiting their "death wish", their secret desire to be relieved of their burdens. Buffy perceives Spike's attraction to her and rejects him. Although Spike, who is infuriated, plans to kill Buffy with a shotgun, he ultimately comforts her on her back porch.
[edit] Expanded overview
In a routine patrol at the cemetery, a vampire turns Buffy's stake around on her, and she is stabbed through the stomach. Thanks to Riley's appearance at the cemetery and his medical treatment skills, Buffy is saved. While Dawn helps cover for Buffy at home, Riley goes out the following night with the rest of the gang to sweep the cemetery. Giles and Buffy research to find out how previous slayers died. Unable to find any useful information, they realize that Spike killed two, and Buffy buys Spike food and beer so he will tell her how he did it. The story begins in London (1880) when William is a quiet, shy gentleman who feels disconnected from others in British society. He works on a poem, looking for another word for "gleaming" ("a perfectly perfect word as many words go but the bother is nothing rhymes, you see"), but his unfinished work is snatched from his hands and read out loud, to the rude amusement of the crowd. It is revealed that he had been dubbed "William the Bloody" because of his "bloody awful poetry." One listener declares that he would rather have a railroad spike through his head than hear more of William's poetry. The poem reveals his feelings of love and adoration for a woman. He speaks with the object of his affection, Cecily, whom he has loved from afar. She does not care for him and, when he admits the poem is about her, she rejects him, telling him that he is beneath her. William, devastated, leaves the scene in tears, catching the attentions of Dru. She follows him and "comforts" him by telling him that she sees his greatness and worth. She promises him a better future by her side, siring him after only minimal persuasion.
Back in the present, Riley and the gang locate the vampire that staked Buffy in a crypt with several vampire friends. Riley and the gang decide to return in the morning when all the vampires are asleep, rather than take on the entire nest awake.
Spike plays pool while continuing his tale. In Yorkshire, 1880, the newly-named Spike battles with Angelus after causing trouble for his vampire family. Spike had a strong tendency to incite mob riots simply for the joy of the fight; his most recent adventure resulted in the gang hiding in an abandoned mineshaft. Spike wonders why Angelus only engages in fights that he knows he will win. Angelus prefers the artistry of killing, and dislikes being hunted by angry mobs incited by Spike's wild behavior. Angelus makes various threats against Spike, which hardly disturb Spike, who revels in the chaos he has caused regardless of its consequences.
During the Boxer Rebellion in China, 1900, Spike fights with the Chinese Slayer, and after a long battle, he kills her. While Spike and Drusilla revel in the kill of the Slayer and the taste of her blood (which Spike declares to be a powerful aphrodisiac), Angelus is less than excited. Spike explains to Buffy (Lesson the First) that while a Slayer must reach for her weapon, a vampire is already armed (he changes into his vampire face as he expains this).
That night, Riley returns to the vampire nest alone, despite agreeing to wait for the rest of the gang. After staking the vampire that hurt Buffy, Riley blows up the rest of the nest with a grenade.
Spike tells Buffy how he killed the second Slayer (Nikki Wood) in New York, 1977. Spike and Buffy fight out a play-by-play of the battle, which took place on a subway train. Spike notes that this second Slayer was not all business like the first - she had a style more closely resembling Buffy's. Spike reveals that, after he snapped the Slayer's neck, he took her black leather jacket for himself. Spike then explains that the key to his victories was not in the particular moves or blows; the key was that each slayer has a death wish, a desire to experience death, after causing so much of it. They want to know what comes next; they also seek a final peace, after a lifetime of being solely responsible for protecting the world from demons. Spike explains that the second that that desire takes over, the Slayer will be killed, because there are countless vampires just waiting to grant her wish. Spike and Buffy are standing almost nose to nose by this point, and Spike leans in to kiss her. Shocked and confused, she pushes him away, telling him that he is "beneath her". She then tosses a pile of money at him as he sits on the ground. After she leaves, Spike starts crying, feeling the same sting of rejection that he had received from Cecily. He sobs for a few moments, blindly gathering up the bills that represent all that Buffy thinks he is worth, before his anger takes over. Furious, Spike returns to his crypt and arms himself with a shotgun. Harmony begs him to reconsider his plan, because he has tried and failed so many times before. She tells him that the Slayer will only beat him up again, and that the chip in his head would not let him hurt her. He explains to Harmony that his pain will last for a couple hours, and her death will last quite a bit longer.
The scene switches to another example of Spike's rejection. In South America, 1998, Drusilla turns away from Spike's devoted love because she cannot look at him without seeing and feeling the Slayer after Spike and Buffy's original alliance against Angelus. In the background is a Chaos Demon, with huge slimy antlers, with whom Drusilla had been shamelessly flirting. She recognizes, long before Spike does, his feelings for Buffy, and rejects him because he is no longer the same creature that had satisfied her for so many years. He insists that he did it all for her, to protect her, because he loved her, but she maintains her view of things.
Buffy returns home, still shaken from the combined experiences of the last 24 hours, and finds her mother packing clothes and toiletries into a suitcase. She inquires where Joyce was going, and her mother explains that her health condition has worsened to the point that she is going to stay in the hospital for observation and a CAT Scan. This final revelation is too much for Buffy, who retreats to her back porch in tears. Spike approaches with his shotgun, his face full of rage and determination. However, he slows his pace when he sees that she is crying. His face slowly changes from anger to caring concern, and all his plans to shoot her are abandoned. He asks her what is wrong, and how he can help. She is surprised and confused at his reaction, and has no response, so he sets the gun down and takes a seat next to her on the porch. He puts his arm around her and comforts her, which she allows. Thus endeth the scene.
[edit] Writing and acting
[edit] Production details
[edit] Music
- Avenue A - "Run Cold"
- Johann Sebastian Bach - "Partita 3.III for Violin Solo in E Major"
- Crushing Velvet - "Xxx"
- Felix Mendelssohn - "A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture"
- Holly Golightly - "Run Cold"
- The Killingtons - "Balladovie"
- Virgil (Elephant Ride) - Heal Yourself"
[edit] Quotes and trivia
Buffy tells Spike, "You're beneath me," recalling Cecily's words which drove Spike into Drusilla's grasp in the first place.
The poem snatched from William's hands and read out loud (to public ridicule) is a portion of the same poem that Spike later reads (in its complete form) at the open-mike event in the season finale of Angel "Not Fade Away". His reading of this poem was received with wild, enthusiastic applause from that audience.
According to the comic, Spike: Old Times, Cecily was actually Halfrek, a vengeance demon (and longtime friend of Anya), at the time of her meeting with William, and subsequently massacred the room of people who had laughed at his poetic efforts.
One listener to William's poem in the flashback commented that he would rather have a railroad spike driven through his head than listen to any of William's poetry. As a vampire, William would later change his name to Spike and use railroad spikes to torture people.
- Spike: Come on. I can feel it, Slayer. You know you want to dance.
- Buffy: Say it's true. Say I do want to.
- She shoves him to the ground and looks down at him with disgust.
- Buffy: It wouldn't be you, Spike. It would never be you.
- She tosses the wad of cash at him contemptuously.
- Buffy: You're beneath me.
- Buffy turns and walks off into the night, leaving Spike alone in the dark alley crying.
- Spike throws open an old trunk and starts searching through the contents. Harmony looks at him with concern.
- Harmony: Spike, what are you doing?
- Spike: (to himself) Beneath me... I'll show her.
- He takes out a double-barreled shotgun, cracks the breech and loads two rounds.
- Spike: Put her six bloody feet beneath me. Hasn't got a death wish? Bitch won't need one.
- Angelus: You can't keep this up forever. If I can't teach you, maybe someday an angry crowd will. That... or the Slayer.
- Spike sits up, suddenly interested.
- Spike: What's a Slayer?
- Cecily: Your poetry, it's... they're... not written about me, are they?
- Spike: They're about how I feel.
- Cecily: Yes, but are they about me?
- Spike: Every syllable.
- Cecily: Oh, God!
- Spike: Oh, I know... it's sudden and... please, if they're no good, they're only words but... the feeling behind them... I love you, Cecily.
- Cecily: Please stop!
- Spike: I know I'm a bad poet but I'm a good man and all I ask is that... that you try to see me-
- Cecily: I do see you. That's the problem. You're nothing to me, William. You're beneath me.
- Xander: (to Anya) You know what he's like? He's like a cat. You know, a big jungle cat. How come I'm not like that? It's just so cool.
- Willow: (munching) I think you're cool.
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Arc significance
- Crossover with Angel: This episode consists largely of flashbacks from Spike's viewpoint. Some of the events recounted are seen from Darla's viewpoint in "Darla", first aired earlier the same night.
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) | Buffyverse chronology: Fall 2000 - December 2000 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.01 Buffy vs. Dracula |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.01 Judgment |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: Haunted (by Jane Espenson) |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.02 Real Me |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.02 Are You Now or Have You Ever Been |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel book: Image |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel book: Stranger to the Sun |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.03 The Replacement |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: False Memories |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy Graphic novel story: Willow & Tara: Wannablessedbe |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.03 First Impressions |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel graphic novel: Long Night's Journey |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.04 Out of My Mind |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.04 Untouched |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.05 No Place Like Home |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.05 Dear Boy |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.06 Family |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: Autumnal |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel graphic novel: Autumnal |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.06 Guise Will Be Guise |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.07 Fool for Love |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.07 Darla |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.08 Shadow |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.08 The Shroud of Rahmon |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.09 Listening to Fear |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.09 The Trial |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.10 Into the Woods |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.10 Reunion |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.11 Triangle |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.11 Redefinition |
