Week 9 - Identity
"I Suck At The Whole Gray Area Thing"
Background
These episodes jump to the middle of season 4. Much has changed.
There is a new demon-hunting group in Sunnydale, a top-secret military commando
unit known as "The Initiative." They capture vampires and demons, and do
experiments on them. The Initiative is led by Maggie Walsh, who is also a
psychology professor at UC Sunnydale. Riley Finn is Maggie Walsh's TA at UC
Sunnydale, and is also a member of the Initiative. After Buffy and Riley run
into each other while fighting demons, Buffy is introduced to the Initiative.
Buffy and Riley are dating each other.
Buffy and Willow are attending the University of California at Sunnydale.
Xander is a townie who is having trouble finding a long-term job; he now lives
in his parents' basement. Giles is unemployed. Willow and Oz have split, and Oz
has left Sunmydale to deal with his werewolf issues. Xander has a girlfriend,
Anya, the ex-vengeance demon from "Doppelgängland." Angel, Cordelia, and Wesley
have all gone to Los Angeles. Harmony, one of Cordelia's groupies, is now a
vampire. Faith is still in a coma.
Perhaps the biggest change, though, is Spike. Early in season four, the
Initiative captured Spike, and planted a chip in his brain that prevents him
from attacking people. Spike escaped, and has remained in Sunnydale. Spike will
spend the rest of the series coming to terms with this change.
If all this sounds like soap opera, well, it is high soap opera.
Opening
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings
total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over and
through me. And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear is gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
-Frank Herbert
A well-grounded sense of self and identity is the foundation for all other
spiritual search. Without that sense of self, we can only be lost. As human
beings, we are particularly vulnerable, not only because of our tendency to
self-doubt, but also because we are social creatures with a strong need to
establish connections with groups, from family and friends, to social and
religious groups, to town, city, state, and country.
One of the journeys that characters undertake in Buffy is this search for their
selves. Some fare better than others; Buffy finds her identity as the Slayer in
season two, but is not ready for the losses she suffers in seasons five and
six. Willow only begins to find her true self in the final episode of the
series. Faith will hit bottom in the worst way before she begins to connect
with herself. Xander always seems to shy away from these issues. And so it
goes.
The title of the first episode in this session is based on the old adage that
"there is no 'I' in 'team.'" Buffy's new boyfriend, Riley Finn, has completely
merged his identity into that of his military unit, the Initiative.
Episode 4.13: The "I" In Team
What to watch for:
-
Riley's foundation of identity
-
Riley's relationship with Maggie Walsh
Transcript is available at
http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season4/transcripts/69_tran.shtml
Episode 4.14: Goodbye, Iowa
What to watch for:
-
Riley's loss of all the things on which he bases his identity
Transcript is available at
http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season4/transcripts/70_tran.shtml
Questions
What are all the ways in which Riley's world is torn apart?
What do you think is the single biggest loss that hits Riley in these episodes?
Why?
What's left for Riley at this point? What is he likely to believe that he has
left?
How can a "sense of self" ground you when dealing with other difficult issues,
such as anger, forgiveness, or change?
Do you have to like yourself in order to have a strong and healthy sense of
self-identity?
Is it possible to be effective in a team without also holding on to your core
identity and values as an individual?
How do you balance between personal and group identity?
When life falls apart for us, what are the things we can hold onto, in
ourselves, or in our community?
How do we bring ourselves back from the edge when our world falls apart?
How is Riley likely to change because of what has happened to him? How will
these changes show up over time?
Closing
Everything good is costly, and the development of the personality is one of the
most costly of all things. It will cost you your innocence, your illusions,
your certainty.
-Sheldon Kopp
Additional Reading
Brock, Rita Nakashima, and Rebecca Ann Parker, Proverbs of
Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us.
Boston: Beacon Press, 2001.
Daspit, Tony, Buffy Goes to College, Adam Murders to
Dissect: Education and Knowledge in Postmodernity. South, James B,
ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale.
Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.
Kopp, Sheldon B., If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill
Him! Toronto: Bantam Books, 1972.
Miller, Jessica Prata, "The I in Team": Buffy and Feminist
Ethics. South, James B, ed., Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy:
Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2003.
Rose, Anita, Of Creatures and Creators: Buffy Does
Frankenstein. Wilcox, Rhonda V., and David Lavery, Fighting the
Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. New York: Rowman
and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.
Stevenson, Gregory, Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dallas: Hamilton Books, 2003.