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Episode 4.21: Primeval | Episode 5.01: Buffy vs. Dracula
Characters:
| Willow | Tara | Xander |
| Oz | Buffy | Giles |
| Riley | Anya |
Willow:
"The play's already started. That's not the point."
Willow's dream is first and foremost about identity. Her identity. Who is Willow? Is she the insecure geek we saw in the first three seasons? Or is she the more self-assured, quirky girl we've seen in this last season?
We see this contrast put literally with references to Willow's "costume", her new "cooler" identity that she's contructed for herself. However, she has a deep-rooted fear that people will find out that she's still that geek that we were first introduced to.
The beginning sees her in her safe place, with Tara. Tara's worried about the lack of a name for someone. For the kitten? Or for Willow? Tara is picking up on Willow's nervousness and unsuredness about herself.
Willow is a late-bloomer. She didn't really "blossom" while in high school. It's only in college that she starts to find some confidence. There are many references to Willow being late. In fact, the beginning has this exchange between Willow and Tara:
Tara: Are you gonna finish in time for class?
Willow: I can be late.
Tara: But you've never taken drama before. You might miss something important.
What does she miss? She shows up late, as Riley reminds her when she finally gets to class. He gets to be Cowboy Guy, an obviously confident and self-assured person. Willow, however, couldn't get a better part. She knows that the costume she was forced to go with may fall apart in the future, and, indeed, it does in S6.
Giles also speaks to this deep-rooted fear of hers. He speaks as the director of the play:
Giles: The audience wants to find you, they want to strip you naked and eat you alive so hide.
In this, Willow is getting encouragement from a mentor figure to go back to who she was. To hide and forget about her costume. Indeed, he mentions that Willow needs to stop stepping on everyone's cues.
This is exactly what the younger Willow never did, though. Willow was so unconfident, in the first three seasons, she was always very reluctant to voice her own opinion on anything. She would agree with her friends for the sake of group harmony. And she would bottle up her own feelings. It is with S4, and the new identity that she has, that she's actually starting to "step on everyone's cues" by speaking up with her own opinions.
And Giles, the person who has warned her in the past about her magic use, is telling her not to. Willow sees that Giles can detect the path she's going down, and he's warning her away from it.
Then we get to the scene with Willow wandering between some red curtains in some lovely vaginal imagery. She finds her girlfriend between them. They have this exchange:
Willow: The play's gonna start soon and I don't know my lines!
Tara: The play's already started. That's not the point.
Willow is terrified that her costume won't help her. That the identity that she has now will give way and she'll be revealed for who she truly is. But, just as she was late to class, Willow finds out that the play's already started. It's too late.
Tara warns her that everybody's starting to wonder about Willow. About the real Willow. And that if they find out about her, they'll punish her. Tara then says that she won't be able to help her with that.
In S6, we get this played out. Willow, going through her conflicting identities, unsure of who she is and who she wants to be, gives in to magic's power. When that happens at the end of the season, Tara is dead and unable to bring Willow back from the brink.
Tara disappears, and a phallic object attacks Willow's safe vaginal space. She's rescued, as she so often is, by Buffy.
However, this is a more callous Buffy than we're used to. A Buffy who says that Willow "must have done something" to be attacked. As Tara suggests, Willow's friends are starting to wonder about who Willow is and about the darker parts of her.
And then Buffy is the one who strips away her costume. Willow is left back as she used to be, delivering a book report about a fantasy novel. When she is attacked, Buffy just puts her head down and watches, much like the Buffy of S6 being too distracted by her own depression to be aware of how much Willow is faltering.
Tying things back to the events of Primeval, the first Slayer drains Willow of her energy, her spirit, which is the part she played in the enjoining spell.
At the end, we have to wonder: which one is the real Willow? The geeky bookworm or the geek chic college student? Is this just an adolescent aspect of growing up (As Willow tries to reassure Tara by telling her that "she's not all grown yet")? Or is this a more ominous portent of the identity crisis and self-loathing that will lead to Dark Willow in S6?
Going a bit into the symbolism of the dream, in general, the choice of Death of a Salesman as a play is especially ironic. One of the major themes of the play is a reliance on a fantasy life to cope with reality. It is easy to draw a parallel between Willow's constructed identity to cover for her true identity.
Tara:
Tara is indicative of Willow's new identity. She doesn't know anything about Willow's past beyond whatever Willow's told her (And it seems likely that Willow has skipped over how geeky she was).
However, as this dream shows, Willow is worried that Tara will find out all about it and reject her.
Tara opens the dream by worrying that the kitten (Willow) doesn't have a name yet. She's worried because she can perceive Willow's conflict. She's also worried that Willow doesn't know everything about her, indicating that there's more to Tara than meets the eye. On the surface level, this foreshadows Tara's belief that she's a demon. If we continue with the metaphor that's being worked, we can take it to indicate Tara's own stronger and self-assured nature that comes to the fore in S6 as she's unwilling to let herself be manipulated by Willow.
However, they have this exchange:
Willow: Have you told me your real name?
Tara: Oh, you know that...
While Tara isn't sure as to Willow's identity, Tara is completely upfront with Willow about hers. This signifies to Willow and to us that Tara is who she presents herself to be.
We see, like we did in New Moon Rising, that Willow finds Tara for comfort after the drama class that unnerves her. At the end of their meeting between the curtains, though, Tara warns that Tara won't always be there to help Willow.
At the end of the dream, Willow's nightmare comes about by being revealed as her former identity in the end, and she is laughed at and subtly rejected by her currect girlfriend.
Xander:
As a late-bloomer, Willow has to suddenly deal with the sexualization of herself, especially now that she's come out as being in a lesbian relationship.
Xander is used to show that in the short scene by the lockers. As Willow struggles to figure out how to open her locker (She never does get it open), Xander jokes with Oz about Willow and Tara doing "spells". Willow's worry that growing up and coming out will lead to guys who had previously her as friends sexualizing her is brought to the fore.
She further gets rejection from Xander in the final scene as he yells out, "Oh, who cares?" while she reads her book report. Who cares what Willow's going through? Who cares about how she's feeling? Obviously, not her lifelong best friend.
As Tara was indicative of Willow's new identity, Oz is indicative of her old one.
When Willow sees Oz, she asks if he's taken Drama. His response?
Oz: Oh, I've been here forever.
If Drama is representative of the adult world that Willow's trying to fit in with, this shows her perception of Oz as having always belonged to that world. Indeed, his indentity has always been confident and self-assured.
The end sees his rejection of Willow and his flirting with Tara.
Buffy is also in the play with Willow. However, unlike Willow, she freely recognizes that her costume is just that: a costume. She does the play along with Riley and Harmony.
She somewhat reverts back to form in rescuing Willow, and then promptly ripping Willow's costume off her. It's obvious that Willow sees Buffy has her hero; someone who will rescue her when need be. However, she also sees Buffy as being someone who can reveal who she once was.
Giles is, appropriately, the director of the play that's being performed. He's the father figure to the Scoobies, and a mentor to Willow. He eagerly provides costumes to the children, and encourages them to hide from the audience for their own safety.
There is also the interesting exchange between Giles and Harmony and Riley.
Giles: Costumes. Sets. The things, you know, things, you touch them and hold them -
Harmony: Props?
Giles: No...
Riley: Props.
Giles Yes.
The commentary with Joss Whedon (Which I highly recommend everyone watch) says that the intent behind this was that Giles was taking the man's answer over the woman's. I have an alternate interpretation here, in that it's notable that Harmony is a vampire. Especially in this past season where Giles had reached out a hand to Spike and was rejected, Giles is decidedly biased against vampires. In this case, we see Giles taking a human's answer over the vampire's, which heralds some of what's to come from him in terms of conflicts with Spike.
Riley is another example of someone who has his act together. He got to class on time, so he gets to be Cowboy Guy. He's also the one who points out how undesirable Willow's part is.
It's exactly like a greek tragedy. There should only be greeks.
Anya gets included in the class scene at the end to join in the mocking of Willow. She has the appropriate line comparing Willow to a Greek tragedy.
Greek tragedies were often marked by the hero meeting their downfall through a character flaw or mistake. It is Willow's controlling and manipulative nature and insecurities that will lead to her fall from grace at the end of S6. In this instance, dream!Anya is right on the money. Willow as she was early in the series is the perfect set up for a Greek tragedy.
Episode 4.21: Primeval | Episode 5.01: Buffy vs. Dracula
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