Season
Seven is an interesting choice to cap off a discussion about Giles. While it is
the end of the televised series, it doesn’t have much to do with Giles. In both
a narrative and physical sense. Actor Anthony Head, who plays Giles in the
series, spends most of the Season Seven off-camera. Giles is either in England
rehabilitating Willow or taking a back seat to the Season’s focus on Buffy,
Spike, and Willow. Unlike the first season, where Giles figures centrally in
every episode, the last season renders Giles a minor character. This relative
absence has an inverse effect on Giles’ character growth. Like negative space
in a painting, Season Seven uses the absence of Giles to complete his arch.
(Giles on horseback) |
The
first shot of our favourite librarian that our mortal eyes are treated to is of
Giles, sporting a duster, riding horseback around the English countryside. This
evokes both the wandering, American cowboy and the questing knight of Arthurian
legend: both figures of men made wise through experience. Giles has come a long
way in the course of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He has been a stammering
librarian, a punk-rocking teen, an independent businessman, a Watcher, a
warlock, and a demon, and Season Seven rounds this journey out with Giles as an
ally.
Before
discussing how Season Seven achieves this with Giles’ character, I wanted to
take a moment to unravel what I mean when I say ally. More than just a
comrade-in-arms, though that is apt, I specifically mean ‘ally’ in the modern,
political sense—i.e. ‘feminist ally.’ In her article ‘“Check My What?” On
Privilege and What We Can do About It,’ Andrea Rubenstein gives a thorough
introduction to being an ally of any marginalized group. Rubenstein lists
several key aspects of being an ally: ‘respect that it is not about you,’ ‘it’s
OK to make mistakes,’ and ‘call others of your group on their crap’ among them.
Given the nature of Buffy, I’ll be specifically looking at Giles as a
feminist ally—though there are certainly other allies within the show’s text.
(Giles mentoring Willow in Sunny England) |
Giles
spends the early parts of this season rehabilitating Willow after her
transformation into the murderous Dark Willow; reprising a part of his role as
a mentor. I say ‘part of his role’ because we are left unsure what Giles
actually does for Willow’s Wiccan rehab. Willow comments that the coven is ‘Afraid…
They all are’ (‘Lessons’) and in the context of the conversation with Giles
this suggests that his role is less the mentor figure helping Willow to heal,
and more the social bridge, managing the contact between Willow and the coven.
It’s worth noting the subtle irony of an episode entitled ‘Lessons,’ featuring
the show’s educator-figure not giving a ‘lesson.’ This critical minimization of
‘Giles as mentor’ establishes the events of this season not being ‘about’
Giles.
As
part of an intentional gag, or subplot, on the part of the show’s creators,
after Giles’ return to the United States he spends five episodes not physically
interacting with anything. After a few episodes, and some misinformation
suggesting Giles had died, the Scooby Gang comes to suspect that Giles is
actually the shape-shifting big bad of this season, the First. Giles’ inability
to physically interact with the world underlines his distance from the action
in this season and stresses how this conflict is no longer ‘about’ him. Giles
even takes a back seat in the mentoring of the Potentials—the young women who
could become Slayers—leaving most of the training to Buffy and Spike. While
Giles takes to the intentional role of ally like tweed to an occult, British
librarian, episode 17 of Season Seven provides space for Giles to ‘make
mistakes.’
(Evil Giles?) |
The
17th episode, ‘Lies My Parents Told Me,’ deals mostly with Robin and Spike’s
conflict. The name of the episode is a nod to Spike, Robin, and their conflicts
with their respective mothers. However, the episode name also speaks to Giles’
relationship with Buffy. For the entire show, Giles has functioned as a
pseudo-parent for Buffy. Similar to the events of ‘Helpless,’ Giles mistakes
his privilege for authority and attempts to circumvent Buffy’s decision making.
Giles and Robin concoct a plan to assassinate Spike and to do that they must
distract Buffy. Robin suggests Giles can distract her saying Buffy would listen
to her Watcher, wouldn’t she? Buffy does, at first, but once she realizes that
Giles is deceiving her, she heads off to save Spike. After one of the show’s
best handled scenes with Spike, Giles and Buffy share a quick conversation.
The
final scene of 'Lies My Parents Told Me' fully encapsulates Giles making a
mistake as an ally to the Slayer and handling it appropriately. Giles attempts
to talk with Buffy after going behind her back. Buffy has none of this and says
‘I think you've taught me everything I need to know.’ Rubenstein, writing on making
mistakes as an ally says ‘if you’re confronted about your behaviour, use what
your confronter says to change your mind, don’t try to change theirs.’ Rather
than rebutting Buffy or attempting to seize the conversation, Giles accepts the
denouncement and remains silent; his pained expression signalling
understanding. The final scene of this episode is a door closing on Giles.
Giles is physically blocked from continuing the conversation and left behind
with the conversation, to contemplate, while Buffy quickly continues on. While
a great deal of reflection and understanding is foundational to being an ally,
and Giles’ strength, action is required.
'Lies My Parents Told Me' |
In the
final episode of the show, ‘Chosen,’ the ultimate Big Bad battle against the
First has the extended Scooby-family mobilized and unlike the other dozen-or-so
apocalypses in seasons past, this one is for keeps. Also, this isn’t Giles’
fight. He is a valuable warrior in the end, but so is Xander. While the Zeppo
never had a grand role to play, Giles comes to the realization that his was
somewhat artificial. The Watchers and his position therein is one built upon an
arbitrary mediation of the Slayer’s powers. As Buffy says ‘In every generation,
one Slayer is born, because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made
up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman is more powerful than all of
them combined’ (‘Chosen’). The apparently timeless order of one Slayer and a
council of Watchers is the original mediation of female autonomy for the
creation of male privilege. It’s not until halfway through the final season that
Giles fully understand this. As
mentioned earlier, the subdued use of Giles in the final season has the odd
effect of rounding out his character better than any amount of screen time ever
could. In her article, Rubenstein writes that ‘Privilege is perpetuated in part
by the silence of people when one of their own group does something
questionable.’ While Giles does not vocally oppose the Watchers, his actions help
bring about an end to their ‘thousands of years’ of rule.
In ‘Chosen’
Buffy and Willow realize the only way to defeat the First is a dangerous spell
that will remove the Watcher’s ban on multiple Slayers and awaken each
Potential as a Slayer in her own right. Giles accepts this and ‘calls out’ the
Watchers ‘on their crap’ by backing up Buffy’s plan. Rather than ‘speaking out’
against the Watchers verbally, he accepts Buffy’s orders—a telling reversal of
roles—and fights off the First’s minions while Willow works her spell. This is
the most Ripper thing Giles ever does. Open insurrection to aid the dismantling
of systemic oppression via propagande par le fait is the pure synthesis
of Giles and Ripper. Giles takes a more direct approach to ‘calling out others
of his group.’
(Giles and the Scooby Gang at the end of 'Chosen') |
In the end, Giles’ relative
absence from the final season and his minor role in the final battle are the
matured response of Ripper made manifest. That frustration and
Sid-Vicious-energy distilled through decades of friendship with Buffy and the
must of old books builds up to Giles as ally rather than mentor. The final act
of our ‘sexy fuddy-duddy’ is to have Buffy’s back as she faced her final battle.
Rubenstein stresses that ‘all relationships… are partnerships.’ By the end of Buffy
the Vampire Slayer Giles has come to learn this is true: both in his
relationship with Buffy and his relationship with his own past, Ripper.
Ash Darrow is a recent graduate from National University where he received his Master’s in Gothic Studies. His current research explores Gothic and Games Studies, and he hopes to reverse Giles’ journey by travelling across the pond to the UK in order to continue his Gothic studies (a journey which is in no way related Ash's own summoning of Eyghon, which definitely did not happen, and has nothing to do with the Mark of Eyghon either, which Ash definitely does not have a tattoo of). You can find more of Ash's work on his blog: cinereusdarrow.com.
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