BUFFY REWATCH - S06E14 - Older And Far Away
*Cut to the dining room. Tara and Spike standing next to each other*
TARA: “I just think we haven't thought of the right way out yet, that's all.”
*Reveal Xander and Willow standing nearby, and Anya sitting at the dining-room table*
SPIKE: “Well, we can't just stay put like cattle, waiting for that thing to pop out every time it gets peckish.”
TARA: “I'd say we do another spell, but I, I think we've tried everything.”
ANYA: “Well... that's not completely true, is it?
We're sitting here with an incredibly powerful witch... much more powerful than you, Tara, I'm sorry... only no one seems willing to say it.”
ANYA: “No, see, that's not exactly true either.
WILLOW: “You don't know how much I hate this. I don't know if there's even... anything I could do.”
ANYA: “Yes... and a good way to find out is to sit around and try nothing. That was sarcasm, by the way.”
WILLOW: “It's dangerous.”
ANYA: “And so is all of us dying!”
XANDER: “Will... look, I don't wanna gang up on you... but Anya kinda has a point.
We brought you back from it once. We're all here, it's just one little spell,
whatever happens, we can bring you back again.”
If I start, I... I might not be able to stop.”
ANYA: “And whose fault is that?
*Stands up, walks toward Willow*
You know, if you hadn't gotten so much of this in your system in the first place-”
TARA: “Hey! You're gonna back off!
*Tara gets in between Willow and Anya, faces Anya down*
She said no, and that's it. You're not gonna make her do something that she doesn't want to. And if you try...
*Folds arms across her chest*
You're gonna have to go through me first. Understood?”
ANYA: “Fine. If you all aren't willing to get us out of this, then I will do it myself.”
*Anya walks past the witches and goes up the stairs*
‘Older And Far Away’ sees our Scoobies (and a bunch of other random people we don’t really care about) in a predicament brought on by a vengeance spell. Dawn unknowingly confesses her feelings with being alone to Halfrek, Anya’s vengeance demon friend, masquerading as her school councillor. Halfrek manipulates Dawn to wish for people to stop going away. This culminates in a Summers household lockdown. Nobody, whoever is in the house at the time, can leave Buffy’s house. It also happens to be Buffy’s birthday so, as you can imagine, quite a few people come to the house and stay long passed her birthday. When the Gang figure out that no one can walk out the door, they realize magic is behind it and therefore magic will be only what can get them out of it. Willow’s sworn off magic so she’s useless to the cause. But luckily for them there’s one other witch in the house. It’s Tara’s time to shine. Except… it doesn’t do jack shit. She’s not powerful enough… apparently. And it’s this that really bothers me about this episode. The fact Tara needs Willow’s help to be of any use at all to the Gang. Specifically the fact that she’s seen as the “the lesser” of the Wiccan duo because of it. That really infuriates me. Please allow me to go off on a tangent for now. Rest assured - I will bring the point I really want to make with this home where it belongs.
I would say that Willow became co-dependent to Tara when you consider the reason why she put a spell on her to begin with. It’s because she didn’t want to lose her. It’s very much akin to a child wanting to hold a flower in their hand because they think it’s beautiful and not realizing they’re crushing it. Willow doesn’t realize what she’s doing by putting a spell on Tara. What it means. What the implications of it are. Much like the dimension-shifting spell she attempts to put on everybody at The Bronze in ‘All The Way’ before Tara stops her, she doesn’t understand why it’s so wrong to do it. She thinks - believes - that she’s helping. And when she puts that Lethe’s Bramble spell on Tara to make her forget about their fight, she believes that she’s helping them. Helping fix their relationship rapidly breaking down due to all the fights they’re having about her abusing magic - but all it’s doing is destroying it even more. She’s so corrupted by her own magical power that she doesn’t understand that her using it in the ways she does is both a violation of the human mind and body. She doesn’t realize she’s taking someone’s autonomy or agency away by putting a spell on them. And in regards to Tara - that’s partially because she prefers Tara to be compliant to her worldview and lifestyle and submissive to her wants and needs. Wanting to continue to have that attention and validation Tara wilfully bestows upon her. But putting that Lethe’s Bramble spell on her to make sure that that doesn’t change means it’s no longer wilful. Means it’s no longer being given. It’s being taken. Which further means that’s it’s no longer love. It’s abuse. But it still stems from love. From being in love. Specifically from desperately not wanting to lose that love. Because she believes that without Tara’s love - she’s nothing. That she’s neither powerful or loveable without Tara.
There’s no doubt about it:
Willow abuses Tara because she loves her.
She loves her because Tara is the one person in the whole show that actually gives Willow the attention and validation she actually wants and needs. That makes her feel powerful and loveable. And so the moment Tara’s like “No, you can’t do this”, Willow’s essentially mentally whiplashed because up until Season 6 Tara hasn’t objected to her constant use of magic at all - from what we see as the viewer anyway. And perhaps that’s a fault on the writers part. Perhaps they should have shown that Tara was uncomfortable with it from the beginning of their relationship or midway through Season 5 at least. For me they leave it a little too late to show the character clearly objecting against it. So Tara leaves it a little too late to actually say anything to Willow so that Willow is aware of her concerns from the get go. Thus, the sudden objecting and reprimanding from Tara in Season 6 comes across to Willow as jealousy or hypocrisy. It doesn’t come across as concern or as love. It’s only now that Willow has chosen to go cold turkey with the magic use that she realizes Tara was only looking out for both her and for everyone else’s health and well-being in telling her that she couldn’t use magic in the careless and reckless ways she was or that she couldn’t abuse it for personal gain. And that’s why the moment when Anya attacks Willow for not even trying to use magic to get them out of the difficult situation they’re in, Tara steps in to defend her and tells her to back off. It’s because she realizes that part of the reason why Willow got to the corrupted place she did was because her friends just let her. Some of them even encouraged her. So Willow was receiving mixed signals all the time. She didn’t know what the right (or wrong, for that matter) thing to do was because there was no clear instruction on how to do it from her friends and there was no consistency on whether she should or shouldn’t do it. Tara realized that. In fact she realized that before anyone else did. That’s why she left her. Because she knew she was part of the problem. Willow needed to work that out for herself and to learn the hard way. Otherwise she never would have learned at all. So in a longwinded way, they told the story of a character who had to hit the lowest of the low to see through her own corruption to come out the other side and then to finally get back on top where she was most powerful. She had already learned the lesson by the point that Tara comes back to her. She learns it so well that she absolutely refuses to let herself be swayed by Anya’s attacking her for not using any magic to help them. It’s absolutely justified for Willow to use her magic in this situation because it is actually helping instead of just satisfying her own desires and she’s aware of that, but she’s still steadfast in her resolve regardless. So Tara knows she had to step in at that point to take Anya down a notch because she was out of line. And I know it was just because she was afraid and was going through a panic attack but somebody needed to tell her off. I could see that Spike was ready to go to town on her but I’m glad it was Tara. The voice of reason. The one that truly understands Willow’s side of the argument. And so the one who would step in front of her to defend her from verbal harassment and judgement from Anya. And, as I noticed immediately, defend her non-consent. Defend Willow’s not giving her consent. The very thing Willow has ignored and disregarded of Tara. This was an ironic turnabout but it makes total sense.
Tara has always been somebody that respects choice. And I would say part of the reason why it was so horrific for me to see what Willow does to Tara is because of this. Tara would never do anything near to it to Willow or anyone else - even if she was that powerful. And going back to what it is about this episode that really bothers me - I think she is as powerful as Willow by this point. She just chooses not to show it because she understands that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And while some people might see that as a weakness on her part… I see it as a strength. The fact she does not act in violence of any kind unless absolutely necessary. The fact she performs no offensive action whatsoever unless it’s in defence of either herself or someone else. The fact she is a pacifist until the very last moment when she cannot be or there will be lives lost. The fact she is purity personified. The fact that she represents the theme purity and that that is so underappreciated about her or that it’s viewed as weakness or uselessness. It angers me that she’s seen as powerless and that her spells need the aid of Willow.
The spell Tara attempts to do in this episode didn’t work not because she wasn’t powerful enough. It didn’t work because nobody other than the spell caster can override the spell that was cast,… as proven in the end. Which means that if Willow did intervene and did use her magic - it also wouldn’t have done jack shit! So the point I’m making here is that Tara being passive or not taking any control in any given situation isn’t because she’s not powerful enough to, or that she’s somehow “the lesser” of her and Willow for not using her “significantly weaker” magical power. It’s her choice. It’s her choice to not show herself as a powerful Wiccan. As powerful as Willow or Amy or even Jonathan. It’s her choice because she understands that actions have consequences. And she is very proud of Willow in this episode for putting her foot down on using magic, but at the same time, also has to be the person to tell her that releasing the brake every once in awhile, depending on the situation, is perfectly okay. To carry on with the metaphor - you’re just as in danger of a car crash by being in park as you are in exceeding the speed limit if every other vehicle around you is driving passed you and you’re not moving too. If you’re in stasis and everyone else is accelerating, you’re not helping either yourself or anyone else by not acting, all you’re doing is delaying the traffic. And so the mixed signals Willow’s receiving end in this episode. She now knows when to make a move and when not to. And once again - Tara shows her the way. And sadly, as wonderful as this development is for her, it only makes her double down on the belief that if Tara was not part of her life in any way - she’d be lost. She might know what to do but she won’t know how far she can go with doing it. The reason why is because her friends never make it clear. Thus, as much as I love her arc, the writing of it also never makes it clear. Instead the writers do a roundabout turn and drive off somewhere else. Somewhere out of focus from the departure point of power corruption. So I completely understand the frustration fans feel over Willow’s magic addiction storyline. They don’t make it clear what it’s meant to represent other than the character’s gone a bit loony and I understand that. I guess I’m just a fan that doesn’t mind it so much because I can piece the puzzle together for myself and that’s enough for me.
