Some thoughts on "Harmonic Divergence"

[maggie2]

 

    

A really great and thought-provoking issue. Lots of layers and harmonic convergences. It’s also likely to be one of those episodes that take on a different shape depending on how the story unfolds afterwards. But here are some preliminary thoughts:

     First,  the surface of the story is a brutal critique of modern media. Any story can be spun in any direction. It’s not just “reality” TV that does this, it’s the journalists as well (see Anderson Cooper calling it “keeping them honest” when he brings in the person who’s spinning the story to come in and keep spinning.) 

     But one layer down we have to ask how this story is being spun. Harmony, recall, was a borderline figure in the battle between good and evil. She tried at W&H to be one of the good guys. And while she failed, she could rightly argue that nobody gave her a chance. Is it a coincidence that her first line here is “But I want in”? Or that the bouncer, who is suspiciously drawn to resemble Angel, tells her that he can’t help her and that animals are not allowed in the club? A lot of people have wondered about whether or not there wasn’t a tinge of racism to the idea that vampires are just evil (and slayable) while humans are not slayable no matter how horrible they can be. Surely a Warren is less redeemable than a Harmony. The point is underscored when we observe that in this issue Harmony goes on to embody the kind of “ambiguous evil” that Giles doesn’t think is worth fighting in Into the Woods. She’s sucking on people but not killing them; making them weak but it’s a weakness they choose. Definitely not a good thing. Maybe even an “evil” thing. But does it merit the death penalty? Cause that’s what La Cuchilla tries to impose on her. We are spun through Buffy’s POV, so it is natural for us to be horrified when Harmony kills her would-be assassin. But was it murder? Or was it self-defense? Or a bit of both? 

     We can also look at the scene when La Cuchilla breaks out of the gang. Her heroic escape. But it’s not clear from the picture whether she just knocked the girls in the gang unconscious, or whether she killed them. How many of us even pause to ask what happened to those girls? Or consider, what does Andrew tell La Cuchilla to convince her that vampires should be expunged from the world? They aren’t nice people, he says (no empathy or connection); they prey on the weak.   Plenty of humans meet those descriptions.  Buffy has at times met both those descriptions in the past, with the lack of connection part being a live issue in this series. We don’t think humans should be slain for having hard hearts and a bit of ruthlessness; yet we are to cheer when La Cuchilla leaps from Andrew’s description to the conviction that vampires should be exterminated. If she went after a garden-variety vampire it wouldn’t be so jarring. But she goes after Harmony, who is the very representation of the ambiguity of vampires in the ‘verse. We are meant to wonder about this, I think.

     Don’t get me wrong, though. I don’t think we are meant to seriously think that the slayers are villains. But I do think we are meant to see (a) why it’s plausible for some people to take them as villains and (b) that ambivalence is, perhaps, the appropriate response to those who use lethal force against characters who are “persons” in every meaningful sense of the word. That ambiguity has always been at the heart of the series. Espenson nails it beautifully here.

Comments

[shapinglight]

This is very true - and it's quite deliberate, as this interview with Jane makes clear (link via petzipellepingo. I love Jane. She's so smart.